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PRTNCETON,  N.  J. 


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BX    953    .B68    1845   v. 2 
Bower,   Archibald,    1686-176i 
The  History  of   the  Popes 


The  John  M.  Krebs  Donation. 


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THE 


HISTOKY  OF  THE  POPES. 


THE 


HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES. 


FROM   THE 


FOUNDATION  OF  THE  SEE  OF  ROME  TO  A.D.  1758; 


ARCHIBALD  BOWER,  ESQ. 

,rOBMEEL7  PUBLIC    PROFESSOR   OF   RHETORIC,  HISTORY,  AND  PHILOSOPHY,  IN   THE   UNIVERSITIES 
OF   ROMEj  FERMO,  AND    MACERATA,  AND    IN    THE    LATTER    PLACE 
COUNSELLOR   OF   THE   INQUISITION. 


AN  INTRODUCTION, 


A  CONTINUATION  TO  THE  PRESENT  TIME; 


REV.  SAMUEL  HANSON  COX,  D.D., 

PBOFESSOR  EXTRAORDINARY   OF   BIBLICAL   AND   CHRISTIAN   HISTORY  IN   THE  UNION 
THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY,   NEW  YORK. 

IN  THREE  VOLUMES. 
VOL.  n. 


PHILADELPHIA: 
GRIFFITH  &  SIMON,  188  NORTH  THIRD  STREET. 

STEREOTYPED  BY  J.  C.  D.  CHRISTMAN  &  CO. 

1845. 


AN 


ALPHABETICAL  CATALOGUE 


THE    POPES 


FROM  A.  D.  702  T  0  A.  D.  1264. 
VOLUME  II. 


Election. 

Anas tasius  III.  A.D.  911 


Agapetus  II. 
Alexander  II.  . 
Anasiasius  IV. 
Alexander  III. 
Alexander  IV. 


946 
1061 
1153 
1159 
1254 


Benedict  III.   ...  855  , 

Boniface  VI.   ...  896 

Benedict  IV.    ...  900 

Benedict  V 964 

Benedict  VI.    ...  972 

Benedict  VII.  ...  975 

Benedict  VIII.    .  .  1012 

Benedict  IX.   .  .  .  1033^ 

Benedict  X 1058 

Constantine  ....  708 
Christopher  ....    903 

Clement  II 1046 

Calixtus  II 1119 

Celestinell 1143 

Clement  111.  ...  1187 
Celestine  III.  ...  1191 
Celestine  IV.  .  .  .  1241 


Death. 

A.D. 913  . 

.  .    956  . 

.  .  1073  . 
.  .  .  1154  . 

.  .  1181  . 

.  .  1261  . 

.  .  858  . 

.  .  896  . 

.  .  .  903  . 

.  .  965  . 

.  .  .  974  . 

.  .  .  984  . 

.  .  .  1024  . 

'U'the     1045 


.  715 
.  903 
.  1047 
.  1124 
.  1144 
.  1191 
.  1198 
.  1241 


DOQUS  II.   .   . 

Damasus  II. 


975  ..  .    975 
1048  .  .  .  1048 


Eugenius  II.    .  .  .    824  ..  .    827  . 
Eugenius  III.  .  ..  1144  ...  1153  . 

Formosus 891  ..  .    896  , 

Gregory  II 715  ..  .    732  , 

Gregory  III.    ...    732  ..  .    741  . 
Gregory  IV.    ...    827  ..  .    844  , 

Gregory  V 996  ..  .    999  , 

Gregory  VI.    .  .  .  1046   Depo««il046 
Gregory  VII.  ...  1073  ...  1085 

CTelasiusII 1118  ...  1119 

Gregory  VIII.     ..  1 187  ...  1187 
Gregory  IX.    ...  1227  .  .  .  1241 

Hadrian  I -.    772  ..  .    795 

Hadrian  II 867  .  .  .    872 

Hadrian  III.    ...    884  ..  .    885 
HonoriusII.    ...  1124  ...  1130 


Page. 
.  307 

.  314 
.  370 

.  485 
.  502 
.  567 

.  227 
.  299 
.  304 
.  320 
.  324 
.  324 
.  335 
.  340 
.  365 

.  14 
.  306 
.  342 
.  456 
.  475 
.  529 
.  531 
.  559 

.  324 
.  343 

.  202 
.  477 

.  297 

.    20 

.    69 

.  209 

.  329 

,  .  341 

.  377 

,  .  453 

.  .  528 

.  .  552 

.  .  126 
.  .  267 
293 


Election.  Death.       Page. 

Hadrian  IV.    A.D.  1154  A.D.  1159  .  .  487 
Honorius  III 1216  .  .  .  1227  .  .  550 


Innocent  II.  . 
Innocent  III. 
Innocent  IV. 


1130  .  .  .  1143  .  .  464 
1198  .  .  .  1216  .  .  535 
1243  .  .  .  1254  .  .  560 


John  VI 

John  VII 

Joan 

John  VIII 

John  IX 

John  X 

John  XI 

John  XII 

John  XIII 

John  XIV 

John  XV.  or  XVI. 

John  XVII 

John  XVIII.  .  .  . 
John  XIX 


Leo  III.  .  . 
Leo  IV.  .  . 
Leo  V.  .  . 
Lando  .  .  . 
Leo  VI.  .  . 
LeoVlL  . 
Leo  VIII.  , 
Leo  IX.  .  , 
Lucius  II.  . 
Lucius  III. 

Marinus  I. 


Marinus  II.,  or 
Martinus  III. 


Nicholas  I. 
Nicholas  IL 


Paul  L  . 
Paschal  I. 
Paschal  II. 


701  . 
705  . 

872  ! 
898  . 
914  . 
931  . 
956  . 
965  . 

984  . 

985  . 
1003  . 
1003  . 
1024  , 

795  . 

847  , 

903  . 

913  . 

928  . 

936  , 

963  , 
1048  , 
1144  , 
1181  , 

882 
942 

858 
1058 

757 
817 
1099 


Romanus 897 

Sisinnius 708 

.  ..,_  Stephen  II 752 

.  461  1  Stephen  III 769 


705  . 
707  . 

882  '. 
900  . 
928  . 
936 
963  , 
972 
985 
996 
1003 
1009 
1033 

816 

855 

903 

914 

929 

939 

965 

1054 

1144 

1184 

884 
946 


8 
12 
221 
283 
302 
308 
311 
315 
321 
325 
326 
333 
334 
337 

173 

217 

306 

308 

311 

312 

,  319 

,  343 

,  476 

,  524 

.  292 
.  314 


867  .  .  229 
1061  .  .  366 

767  .  .  109 
824  .  .  193 
1118  .  .  427 

898  .  .  301 

708  .  .  14 

757  .  .  90 

772  .  .  114 
7 


8 

Stephen  IV.  . 
Sergius  II.    . 
Stephen  V.   . 
Stephen  VI. 
Sergius  III.  . 
Stephen  VII. 
Stephen  VIII. 
Sylvester  II. 
Sergius  IV.  . 
Stephen  IX. 


AN  ALPHABETICAL  CATALOGUE  OF  THE  POPES. 


Election. 

A.D.816 

844  . 

885  . 

896  , 

904  . 

929  . 

939  . 

999  . 
1009  . 
1057  . 


Death. 
A.D.817 

.  .  847 
.  .  891 
..  .  897 
.  .  911 
.  .  931 
.  .  942 
.  .  1003 
.  .  1012 
.  .  1058 


Page. 
.  192 
.215 
.  294 
.  300 
.  306 
.  311 
.  313 
.  331 
.  334 
.  363 


Theodore  II. 


Election. 

A.D.  898 


A.D. 


Deatli. 


Urban  II 1088 

Urban  III 1184 

Urban  IV 1261 

Valentine 827 

Victor  II 1055 

Victor  III 1086 

Zachary 741 


1099 
1187 
1264 

827 
1057 
1087 

752 


Page. 

.  302 

,  413 
.  527 
.  571 

.  208 
.  361 
.  410 

.  76 


THE  > 

HISTORY 


POPES,  OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME 


JOHN  VL,  EIGHTY-FOURTH  BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[Tiberius  Apssimabus. — Cunipkrt,  Abibebt,  kings  of  the  Lombards.'\ 

John  VI.  chosen.  The  emperor  orders  him  to  be  driven  from  his  see  ;  but  the  soldiery  defend  him;— [Year 
of  Christ,  702.]  Ilia  generosity  in  the  redemption  of  captives.  Wilfrid  driven  again  from  his  see  and 
sent  into  exile  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  703.] 


[Year  of  Christ,  701.]  In  the  room  of 
Sergius  was  chosen  and  ordained,  after  a 
vacancy  of  fifty  days,  and  consequently  on 
the  28th  of  October  of  the  present  year, 
John,  a  native  of  Greece,  and  the  sixth  of 
that  name.'  His  ordination  was  scarce 
known  at  Constantinople,  when  Tiberius 
Apsimarus,  at  this  time  emperor,  ordered, 
we  know  not  upon  what  provocation,  the 
patrician  Theophylactus,  his  great  cham- 
berlain, and  exarch  of  Italy,  to  repair  from 
Sicily,  where  he  then  was,  to  Rome,  and 
drive  the  new  pope  from  his  see ;  but  the 
exarch  no  sooner  arrived  at  Rome,  than  the 
soldiery,  whom  the  popes,  on  all  occasions, 
took  care  to  oblige,  suspecting  his  design, 
and  looking,  in  a  manner,  on  the  pope  as 
their  sovereign,  hastened  from  all  parts  to 
defend  him ;  insomuch  that  had  not  the 
pope  interposed,  and,  causing  the  gates  to 
be  shut,  sent  out  some  of  his  clergy,  to 
moderate  their  zeal  for  his  safety,  the  exarch 
would  have  scarce  escaped  with  his  life.^ 

The  same  year  Gisulphus,  duke  of  Bene- 
vento,  having  taken  a  great  number  of  cap- 
tives, in  an  irruption  which  he  made  into 
the  territories  of  the  empire  in  Italy,  the 
pope,  with  great  generosity,  redeemed  them 
all,  and  even  persuaded  Gisulphus  to  with- 
draw his  troops,  and  suffer  the  subjects  of 
the  empire  to  live  unmolested.' 

The  ensuing  year,  703,  a  council  was  as- 
sembled at  Rome  on  the  following  occasion. 
Theodore  of  Canterbury  had,  upon  his  be- 
i2J  reconciled  with  Wilfrid,  warmly  recom- 
mended him  to  Alfrid  King  of  Northumber- 
land ;  and  Alfrid  had,  in  virtue  of  that  re- 
commendation, restored  him  to  the  see  of 

»  Anast.  Platin.  &c.  in  Joan  VI.    >  Anast.  ibid. 
'  Idem  ibid,  et  Paul.  Diac.  1.  6.  c.  27. 

Vol.  II.— 2 


York,  from  which  he  had  been  driven  by 
his  predecessor  king  Ecgfrid  ten  years  be- 
fore, and  banished  the  kingdom  of  Northum- 
berland.' But  Wilfrid  was  a  man  of  a  most 
haughty,  restless,  and  imperious  temper; 
and  he  was  scarce  settled  in  his  see,  when, 
unmindful  of  his  obligations  to  the  king,  he 
began  to  quarrel  with  him,  and  disturb  the 
peace  both  of  the  court  and  kingdom  :  For, 
not  satisfied  with  his  bishoprick,  he  claimed 
the  revenues  of  the  rich  abbey  of  Rippon, 
as  having  been  granted  to  him  by  pope 
Agatho ;  and  besides  would  not  submit  to 
the  regulations  of  Theodore,  though  ap- 
proved and  confirmed  by  all  the  bishops  of 
England  as  well  as  the  kings,  pretending 
those  regulations  to  be  contrary  to  the  de- 
crees of  the  popes,  and  consequently  null. 
As  he  had  the  pope  on  his  side,  his  be- 
havior was,  in  that  dispute,  so  overbearing 
and  arbitrary,  that  he  met  with  opposition 
from  all  quarters,  insomuch  that  the  king 
was,  in  the  end,  obUged,  for  the  sake  of 
peace,  to  drive  him  from  his  see,  and  banish 
him  the  kingdom.^  He  had  now  no  other 
resource,  but  to  recur  to  Rome ;  and  he 
wrote  accordingly  to  Sergius,  who  then 
governed  that  church,  to  acquaint  him  with 
what  had  passed,  and  implore  his  protection. 
The  pope,  prejudiced  in  his  favor  for  the 
eminent  services  he  had,  at  different  times, 
rendered  to  his  see,  had  no  sooner  read  his 
letter,  than  he  declared  him,  upon  his  own 
testimony,  unjustly  deposed ;  and  at  the 
same  time  decreed,' without  waiting  to  hear 
what  the  king  had  to  lay  to  his  charge,  that 
he  should  be  forthwith  restored  to  his  see, 
and  to  all  the  possessions  which   he  had 

'  See  vol.  1.  p.  473. 

»  Bed.  I.  5.  c.  23.  EdUiua  in  vit.  Wilfrid,  c.  42,  43. 
9 


10 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[John  VI. 


No  regard  paid  in  England  to  the  decree  of  the  pope  in  favor  of  Wilfrid.  He  is  tried  by  a  council  in  England 
and  deposed.  He  appeals  to  the  pope  ;  which  serves  only  to  agravate  his  guilt  and  complete  his  ruin.  He 
goes  to  Rome. 


ever  enjoyed.  But  no  greater  regard  was 
paid  by  Alfrid  to  the  decree  of  Sergius,  than 
had  been  paid,  some  years  before,  by  Ecg- 
frid,  to  the  decree  of  Agaiho  and  his  coun- 
cil ;'  and  Wilfrid  was  obliged,  notwithstand- 
ing the  determination  of  Rome  in  his  favor, 
to  take  shelter  in  the  kingdom  of  Mercia. 
As  Theodore  had  recommended  him,  upon 
their  reconciliation,  to  Ethelred  king  of  the 
Mercians,  he  was  not  only  received  by  that 
prince  with  all  possible  marks  of  respect 
and  esteem,  but  preferred,  soon  after  his  ar- 
rival, to  the  see  of  Leicester,  in  the  room 
of  Sexulphus,  who  died  about  this  time.^ 

In  this  station  Wilfrid  continued  from  the 
year  692,  in  which  he  was  driven  from  the 
see  of  York,  to  the  year  702,  when,  I  know 
not  upon  what  new  misdemeanor,  a  council 
was  assembled  to  examine  into  his  life  and 
conduct.  The  council  met  at  Onestrefield,  a 
place  five  miles  north  of  Rippon  ;  and  were 
present  at  it  king  Alfred  in  person,  Berctuald 
archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  almost  all 
the  bishops,  says  Eddius,  of  the  isle  of  Bri- 
tain, meaning,  no  doubt,  the  English  bi- 
shops ;  for  the  Scots,  the  Picts,  and  the  Bri- 
tons, still  declined  all  commiyiion  or  inter- 
course with  the  English,  on  account  of  their 
different  rites  and  ceremonies.  The  council 
being  met,  Wilfrid  was  summoned  to  ap- 
pear before  them;  and, upon  his  appearing, 
several  crimes  were  laid  to  his  charge,  which 
the  author  of  his  life  ha*s  not  thought  fit  to 
specify.  But  the  council,  after  hearing  both 
him  and  his  accusers,  pronounced  him 
guilty  with  one  voice,  and  as  such  divested 
him  of  his  episcopal  dignity,  and,  at  the 
same  time,  of  all  the  possessions  which  he 
held  either  in  the  kingdom  of  Mercia,  or  in 
that  of  Northumberland.  Such  were  the 
determination  and  judgment  of  the  council. 
But  the  bishops,  who  composed  it,  and  the 
king  himself,  touched  with  compassion,  and 
inclined  to  favor  Wilfrid  so  far  as  they 
thought  it  consistent  with  the  peace  of  the 
church  and  the  kingdom,  that  he  might  not 
be  left  quite  destitute  in  his  old  age,  offered 
to  restore  to  him  the  abbey  of  Rippon,  with 
all  its  wealth  and  its  revenues,  but  upon  the 
following  conditions  ;  I.  That  he  should  re- 
nounce all  claim  to  the  see  of  York.  II.  That 
he  should  thenceforth  forbear  all  the  func- 
tions of  the  episcopal  oflice.  III.  That  he 
should  retire  to  his  abbey,  and  never  stir  be- 
yond the  bounds  of  his  monastery  without 
leave  from  the  king.  And  lastly,  that  he 
should  declare,  in  the  presence  of  the  coun- 
cil, both  by  word  of  mouth,  and  in  writing, 
his  consent  and  agreement  to  these  terms, 
without  any  limitation  or  restriction  what- 
ever. Wilfrid  was  not  more  provoked,  says 
the  author  of  his  life,  at  the  sentence  of  the 


'  See  vol.  1.  p.  473. 

■>  Edd.  Vit.  Wilfrid,  c.  41.  et  43.  Bed.  1.  4.  c.  23. 


council,  than  at  what  they  called  a  mitiga- 
tion of  the  sentence.  He  put  them  in  mind 
of  the  great  services  he  had  done  to  the 
English  church,  especially  in  bringing  the 
Northumbrians,  though  converted  by  the 
Scots,  to  conform  to  the  rites  and  usages  of 
Rome ;  urged  the  decrees  of  three  popes, 
namely,  of  Agatho,  Benedict,  and  Sergius, 
declaring  him  innocent,  and  restoring  him 
to  his  see  ;  and  challenging  those,  who  had 
condemned  him,  to  justify  their  conduct  at 
the  tribunal  of  the  pope,  he  appealed  from 
their  judgment  to  his.  But  his  appeal  stood 
him  in  no  stead ;  nay  it  only  served  to  ag- 
gravate his  guilt,  and  complete  his  ruin  :  for 
the  king  and  the  archbishop,  thinking  his 
thus  appealing  from  their  judgment  to  that 
of  the  pope  and  his  council,  as  great  a  crime 
as  any,  that  had  been  yet  laid  to  his  charge, 
declared,  that  were  he  guilty  of  no  other,  he 
well  deserved,  and  ought  to  be  condemned 
for  that  alone.'  The  king  added  with  great 
indignation,  that,  if  the  council  approved  of 
it,  he  would  find  means  to  make  the  refrac- 
tory priest  retract  his  appeal,  and  acquiesce 
in  the  judgment  of  the  council.  But  the 
council  had  promised,  that  no  violence 
should  be  offered  to  his  person  ;  and  there- 
fore would  not  consent  that  any  should  be 
used.  However,  to  assert  their  authority, 
and  give  to  the  world  the  most  remarkable 
instance  they  could  of  their  acknowledging 
no  power  superior  to  their  own,  they  solemn- 
ly, and  with  one  consent,  excommunicated 
Wilfrid,  and  with  him  all  his  friends  and 
adherents;  nay,  and  declared,  that  if  an  ab- 
bot or  priest  of  his  party  should  bless  the 
meat  of  any  Christian  people,  it  should  be 
looked  upon  as  meat  offered  to  idols  ;  and 
that  the  sacred  vessels  themselves,  used  by 
them,  should  be  deemed  defiled,  and  by  no 
others  used  till  they  were  again  blessed  and 
purified.2 

Wilfrid,  thus  deposed  and  excommuni- 
cated by  the  council,  returned,  as  soon  as  it 
broke  up,  to  the  kingdom  of  Mercia,  and 
being  there  received  with  great  kindness  by 
Ethelred,  who  still  continued  his  iViend,  and 
assured,  that  the  sentence  of  the  council 
should  not  take  place  in  his  dominions,  un- 
less the  pope,  to  whom  he  had  appealed, 
confirmed  it,  he  set  out  soon  after,  though 
then  seventy  years  old,  on  his  journey  to 
Rome.  On  his  arrival  in  that  city  he  was 
immediately  introduced  to  the  pope,  and 
prostrating  himself  at  his  feet,  "  being  per- 
secuted at  home,"  said  he,  '•'  1  have  fled  for 
protection  to  the  apostolic  see,  as  to  the 
bosom  of  a  tender  mother.  I  am  not  come 
to  accuse  others,  but  to  defend  myself;  and 


'  "  Hsc  audientes,  Archiepi^copus  et  Rex,  dixerunt, 
Modo  utique  culpabilis  factus  a  nobis  notatiis  damne- 
tur,  quod  magis  illorum  quamnostrume  legit  judicium. 
(Edd.  in  Vit.  Wilfrid,  c.  44.) 

3  Edd.  Vit.  Wilfrid,  c.  44,  45,  46. 


John  VI.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


11 


Wilfrid  is  absolved  at  Rome  by  the  pope  and  his  council.  Returns  to'  England.  Well  received  by  Berotuald 
of  Canterbury  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  705.]  Recommended  by  the  king  of  Mercia  to  the  king  of  Northumberland  ; 
who  Is  reconciled  to  him  when  at  the  point  of  death.     A  great  council  convened. 


therefore  beg  your  holiness  will  take  upon 
yourself  the  examining  of  my  cause  :  for  to 
your  judgment  I  have  appealed,  and  in  your 
judgment  alone  I  am  resolved  to  acquiesce." 
The  pope  received  him,  as  all  were  received, 
who  appealed  to  Rome,  with  the  greatest 
marks  of  friendship  and  kindness.  He  had 
been  but  a  few  days  in  Rome,  when  deputies 
arrived  there,  sent  by  Berctuald  of  Canter- 
bury to  justify,  against  his  misrepresenta- 
tions, the  proceedings  of  the  council  of  One- 
strefiekl,  and  the  judgment  they  had  given. 
Upon  their  arrival  the  pope  assembled  the 
bishops,  who  were  then  in  Rome,  and  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Rome,  to  examine  the 
cause  together  with  him,  and  hear  both 
parties,  what  the  deputies  had  to  lay  to  the 
charge  of  Wilfrid,  what  Wilfrid  had  to  offer 
in  defence  of  his  innocence.  This  examina- 
tion lasted  four  whole  months,  and  the  bishops 
are  said  to  have  met  no  feAver  than  seventy 
times.  In  the  end  W^ilfrid,  tried,  says  the 
author  of  his  life,  as  gold  in  the  furnace  or 
crucible,  was  declared  innocent  of  the 
crimes  laid  to  his  charge,  and  absolved  by 
the  pope  in  the  name  of  St.  Peter,  to  whom 
power  was  granted  of  loosening  and  bind- 
ing.'^ 

Wilfrid  being  thus  absolved,  the  pope 
wrote  to  the  kings  of  Mercia  and  Northum- 
berland to  acquaint  them  therewith  ;  and  at 
the  same  time  to  desire,  that  they  would 
order  Berctuald  to  convene  a  council  of  the 
English  bishops,  at  which  should  be  present 
Wilfrid,  and  the  two  bishops  who  had  been 
appointed  in  his  room,  namely,  Bosa  of 
York,  and  John  of  Hagulstad ;  that  they 
should  endeavor  to  adjust  matters  among 
themselves ;  but  if  they  could  not  agree, 
that  the  parties  concerned  should  repair  to 
Rome,  where  he  would  take  care  to  call 
together  a  greater  number  of  bishops  than 
were  present  at  this  time,  and  with  their  ad- 
vice finally  determine  the  whole  affair. 
AVith  these  letters  Wilfrid  returned,  much 
against  his  will,  to  England,^  and  repairing, 
as  soon  as  he  landed,  to  Canterbury,  ac- 

«  Edd.  Vit.  Wilfrid,  c.  50. 

^  He  renipmliered  the  treatment  which  he  had  for- 
merly met  with  in  England,  notwithstanding  the  judg- 
iiif-nt  given  liy  the  pope  in  his  favor; — (see  vol.  1.  p. 
473.)  and  not  caring,  as  he  was  now  far  advanced  in 
years,  to  e.xpose  himself  to  the  like  treatment,  he 
would  have  willingly  spent  the  short  remains  of  his 
life  in  peace  at  Rome.  But  the  pope  found  him  the 
most  proper  tool  he  could  employ,  to  niaintain  and  pro- 
mote his  authority  in  England  ;  and  tlnTelore,  without 
any  regard  to  his  age,  liis  inclination,  or  the  just  ap- 
prehension he  was  under  of  the  reception  he  might 
meet  with  at  home,  he  ordered  him  to  return  without 
delay,  and  acquaint  the  king  of  Norlliumlierland  and 
the  archbishop,  be  the  consecpience  what  il  would, 
with  the  decree  of  the  apostolic  see  in  his  favor. 
Wilfrid  indeed  was  satisfied,  says  the  author  of  his 
life,  with  the  absolution  of  the  pope  and  his  council  j 
but  having  promised  all  duty  and  obedience  to  the 
■npostnlic  see,  he  readily  obeyed  the  order  he  received, 
how  contrary  soever  to  his  inclination,  and  cheerfully 
set  out,  carrying  a  cargo  of  relics  with  him,  on  his 
return  to  England.— (Eddius  in  Vit.  Wilfrid,  c.  53.) 


quainted  Berctuald  with  the  judgment  given 
by  the  pope  in  his  favor.     Berctuald  was,  it 
seems,  unwilling  to  quarrel  with  the  pope; 
and  therefore,  finding  that  AVilfrid  had  been 
absolved  at  Rome,  he  was  not  only  recon- 
ciled with  him,  but  promised  to  mitigate  the 
severity  of  the  sentence  which  the  English 
council  had  passed  upon  him.     From  Kent 
Wilfrid  hastened  to  the  court  of  the  king  of 
the  Mercians.     But  his  friend  Ethelred  had 
quitted  his  kingdom  the  year  before,  and  led, 
at  this  time,  a  monastic  life  in  the  monaste- 
ry of  Bardeney,  in  Lincolnshire.    However, 
out  of  the  great  friendship  he  had  for  Wil- 
frid, he  warmly  recommended  him  to  Ken- 
rid,  to  whom  he  had  resigned  the  crown. 
Kenrid,  in  virtue  of  his  recommendation, 
dispatched  two  embassadors  to  the  court  of 
Northumberland,  to  let  the  king  know,  that 
Wilfrid  had  brought  a  letter  to  him  from  the 
pope,  and  beg  he  would  grant  him  leave  to 
come  to  his  court,  and  acquaint  him  with 
the  judgment  and  writings  of  the  apostolic 
see  concerning  his  cause.     Alfrid  received 
the  embassadors  with  the  greatest  poHteness, 
and  returned,  after  having  advised  with  his 
council,  the  following^  answer  :  that  he  had 
the  greatest  regard  for  their  persons ;  and 
therefore  w^ould  have  greedily  embraced  the 
opportunity  of  gratify  them,  had  they  asked 
any  thing  for  themselves;  but,  as  for  Wil- 
frid, he    begged   they   would  not   concern 
themselves  Avith  his  affairs,  or  with  him : 
"  for  what  my  royal  predecessors,"  said  he, 
"  and  the  archbishop,  did  formerly  decree, 
what  I  myself  with  an  archbishop  approved 
by  Rome,  and  almost  all  the  bishops  of  Bri- 
tain, have  again  decreed,  I  never  will  alter 
or  repeal  for  what  you  call  the  writings  of 
the  apostolic  see."'    But  he  did  not  continue 
long  in  that  mind  :    for,  being  soon  after 
taken  dangerously   ill,  and   apprehending, 
when  his  understanding  was  impaired,  that 
his  illness  was  a  judgment  from  heaven  for 
not  submitting  to  the  authority  of  the  pope, 
he  solemnly  promised  to  submit  to  it,  if  he 
recovered,  and  restore  W^ilfrid  to  his  see  and 
all  his  possessions.     The  king  did  not  re- 
cover f  but  charged,  when  at  the  point  of 
death,  Berectfrid,  guardian  to  his  infant  son 
Osred,  to  see  that  his  promise  was  punc- 
tually performed,  and  as  soon  as  it  possibly 
could. 

The  king  being  dead,  a  council  was,  by 
means  of  Berectfrid,  convened  as  soon  as  it 
conveniently  could,  the  most  numerous  coun- 


'  E(UI.  Vit.  Wilfrid,  c.  55. 

2  .\lfrid  died  this  year,  a  few  days  before  he  had 
completed  the  20th  year  of  his  reign.  —  (Bed.  in  Epit. 
Wigorn.  ad  ann.  705,  Malmesb.  de  reg.  Angl.  1.  1.  p.  21.) 
He  is  commended  by  William  of  Malmesbury  as  a 
prince,  in  whom  envy  itself  could  discover  nothing 
worthy  of  blame,  besides  his  persecuting  the  great 
Wilfrid;  (Malmesb.  ibid.)  and  Eddius  himself,  iiow- 
ever  partial  to  that  prelate,  .speaks  of  Alfrid  as  a 
prince  of  great  wisdom.     (Edd.  in  Vit.  Wilfrid,  c.  56.) 


12 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[John  VH. 


Wilfrid  appointed  bishop  of  Hagulstad.  The  supremacy  of  the  pope  not  yet  owned  in  England.  The  pope  dies. 
John  VII.  chosen.  The  canons  of  the  Quinisext  counsel  sent  by  the  emperor  to  Rome  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  706.] 


cil,  and  in  every  respect  the  most  consider- 
able, tliat  had  yet  met  in  England:  for  it 
consisted  of  all  the  bishops  of  the  Heptarchy ; 
and  the  young  king  was  present  in  person, 
attended  by  Berectfrid  regent  of  the  kingdom, 
by  iElfrida,the  late  king's  sister,  and  abbess 
01  Streneshall  or  Whitby,  and  by  all  the 
abbots  and  nobility  of  the  kingdom  of  Nor- 
thumberland. They  met  at  a  place  near  the 
river  Nidd;  and  Berctuald,  who  presided, 
after  exhorting  his  brethren  to  peace  and 
concord,  produced  the  letters  from  the  pope 
to  the  kings  of  Mercia  and  Northumber- 
land, acquainted  the  council  with  the  judg- 
ment given  at  Rome  in  favor  of  Wilfrid, 
and  at  the  same  time  declared,  that  as  for 
himself,  he  was  for  complying  with  that 
judgment.  He  was  therein  warmly  op- 
posed by  several  bishops,  especially  by  John 
of  Beverly,  bishop  of  Hagulstad,  urging 
against  the  decrees  of  the  pope  the  decrees 
of  Theodore  confirmed  by  king  Ecgfrid,  and 
those  of  Berctuald  himself  lately  confirmed 
by  king  Alfred,  and  all  the  bishops  of  Eng- 
land :  these  decrees,  they  said,  no  man  had 
a  power  to  revoke  or  annul.  This  gave  oc- 
casion to  long  and  warm  disputes  in  the 
council.  But  the  abbess  ^Ifrida,  who  was, 
on  account  of  her  eminent  sanctity,  held  by 
all  in  the  greatest  veneration,  interposing  in 
favor  of  Wilfrid,  and  Berectfrid  declaring, 
at  the  same  time,  that  the  late  king  had,  on 
his  death-bed,  vowed  tris  restoration,  and 
charged  him  with  the  performance  of  his 
vow,  the  parly  that  had  hitherto  opposed 


after,  that  is,  709,  bishop  of  that  city.  From 
the  foregoing  account  (and  the  account  is 
deUvered  by  an  unexceptionable  writer,  by 
a  writer  who  lived  at  this  very  time,  and 
was  an  eye-witness  of  what  he  relates)  it  is 
evident,  as  every  reader  must  have  observed 
beyond  all  contradiction,  that  the  English 
church  or  bishops  knew  not  yet,  so  late  as 
the  eighth  century,  of  any  power  besides 
that  of  the  king  superior  to  their  own ;  that 
they  looked  upon  the  judgment  given  by 
them,  and  confirmed  by  the  king,  as  deci- 
sive and  final,  and  were  so  far  from  believ- 
ing that  the  pope  could  reverse  or  repeal 
the  sentence  which  they  had  pronounced, 
that  on  the  contrary  they  thought  it  a  crime 
worthy  of  degradation  to  appeal  from  their 
judgment  to  his.  And  it  is  to  be  observed, 
that  those  who  opposed  the  restoration  of 
Wilfrid  the  most,  notwithstanding  the  de- 
crees of  four  popes  in  his  favor,  who  con- 
demned him  as  guilty,  though  declared 
innocent  at  Rome,  and  from  all  guilt,  who 
even  deposed  him  for  appealing  from  their 
judgment  to  that  of  the  pope,  were  all  men 
of  distinguished  characters  :  nay,  and  some 
of  them,  if  the  authority  of  Bede,  who  was 
personally  acquainted  with  them,  may  be 
relied  on,  famous  for  the  sanctity  of  their 
lives,  and  even  for  the  miracles  which  they 
were  said  to  have  wrought.  I  have  dwelt 
on  these  transactions  longer  than  I  should 
have  otherwise  done,  to  show  the  sense  of 
the  English  church  at  this  time  with  respect 
to  the  power  and  authority  of  the  pope,  the 


Wilfrid  began  to  yield,  and  the  matter  was  i  power  especially  of  receiving  appeals,  which 
iji  the  end  thus  compromised;  namely,  that   the  popish  writers  most  impudently  pretend 


John,  bishop  of  Hagulstad,  should  be  trans 
lated  to  the  see  of  York,  vacant  by  the  death 
of  Bosa,  which  happened  very  luckily  at 
this  time;  and  that  Wilfrid  should  be  ap- 
pointed bishop  of  Hagulstad  in  his  room, 
and  enjoy  with  that  bishopric  his  abbey  of 
Rippon'  And  thus  was  the  affair  of  Wil- 
frid determined  at  length,  after  it  had  lasted 
with  some  intermission  near  forty  years. 
He  was   obliged  to   be   satisfied  with  the 


bishopric  of  Hagulstad,  and  died  four  years   the  other  popes,  in  the  church  of  St.  Peter 


to   have   been  ever  acknowledged   in  this 
kingdom. 

The  affair  of  Wilfrid  was  not  yet  quite 
determined  when  the  pope  died.  If  he  held 
the  see,  as  we  read  in  Anastasius,  and  in 
almost  all  the  pontificals,  three  years,  two 
months,  and  twelve  days,  his  death  must 
have  happened  on  the  ninth  of  January  of 
the  present  year;  for  he  was  ordained  on  the 
28th  of  October,  702.     He  was  buried,  with 


JOHN  VII.,  EIGHTY-FIFTH  BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[Tiberius,  Justinian. — Aribert,  king  of  the  Lombards.'] 


[Year  of  Christ,  705.1  John  the  Sixth 
•was  succeeded  by  John  the  Seventh  of  that 
name,  ordained  the  first  of  March  of  the 
present  year,  after  a  vacancy  of  one  month 
and  nineteen  or  twenty  days.  He  too  was 
a  native  of  Greece,   and  the  son  of  one 


'  Edd.  Vit.  Wilfrid,  c.  56,  57.  Bed.  1.  5.  c.  3.  et.  20. 
Malmesb.  de  Pont.  Angl.  1.  3.  p.  269. 


Plato.2  His  promotion  was  no  sooner  known 
at  Constantinople,  than  Justinian,  who  was 
restored  to  the  empire  in  the  latter  end  of 
this  year,^  dispatched  two  metropolitans  to 


*  Anast.  in  Joan.  VI.  ''  Anast.  in  Joan.  VII. 

» Leontius,  who  had  driven  Justinian  from  the 
throne,  and,  having  caused  his  nose  to  be  cut  off,  ban- 
ished him  to  Chersona,  as  has  been  related  above,  (see 
vol.  1.  p.  495,  note  *)  was  himself,  after  a  reign  of  three 


John  VH.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


13 


The  pope  sends  the  canons  back  without  either  approving  or  disapproving  them.    He  dies, 
in  the  Alpes  Cottiae  restored  to  the  Roman  church. 


The  patrimony 


Rome,  with  a  copy  of  the  canons  ol"  the  late 
council  in  Trullo ;  and  a  letter  to  the  new 
pope,  requiring  him  to  examine  those  canons 
with  his  council,  and  point  out,  in  the  copy 
he  had  sent  him,  which  he  rejected,  and 
which  he  received.  The  metropolitans  met 
with  a  reception  at  Rome  suitable  to  their 
rank  and  their  character ;  but  the  pusillani- 
mous pope,  as  Anastasius  styles  him,  un- 
willing, on  the  one  hand,  to  approve  of  all 
the  canons  of  that  council,  as  some  of  them 
condemned  the  received  practices  of  his 
church,  and  apprehending  on  the  other  that 
he  might  disoblige  the  emperor,  and  be 
driven  from  his  see,  if  he  excepted  against 
any,  dextrously  declined  concerning  himself 
with  them  at  all,  and  sent  back  the  copy  by 
the  same  metropolitans  who  brought  it, 
without  declaring  his  approbation  of  any, 
or  his  disapprobation.'  And  this  is  all  we 
read  of  John  VII.  worthy  of  notice,  from 
the  time  of  his  election  to  the  time  of  his 
death.  He  presided  in  the  Roman  church, 
according  to  the  bibliothecarian,  two  years, 
seven  months,  and  seventeen  days;  and  con- 


years  treated  in  the  like  manner  by  Apsimarus,  called 
also  Tiberius,  one  of  his  own  generals,  who,  being  pro- 
claimed emperor  by  the  troops  under  his  command, 
seized  on  Leontius,  caused  his  nose  to  be  cut  off,  and 
confined  him  to  a  monastery  in  Dalmatia.  In  the 
mean  time  Justinian,  having  privately,  by  some  trusty 
friends,  engaged  Trebeles,  king  of  the  Bulgarians,  to 
espouse  his  cause,  fled  undiscovered  from  the  place  of 
Ins  exile  to  the  court  of  that  prince,  who  not  only  re- 
ceived him  with  the  greatest  demonstrations  of  kind- 
ness, but  marched  with  him,  at  the  head  of  a  power- 
ful army,  to  Constantinople,  and  laid  siege  to  that 
metropolis.  The  inhabitants,  dreading  the  cruel  tem- 
per of  Justinian,  seemed  determined  to  hold  out  to  the 
last.  But  the  third  day  of  the  siege  some  Romans, 
who  served  in  the  army  of  Trebeles,  having  got  into 
the  city  through  an  aqueduct,  and  opened  the  gates  to 
the  rest,  their  courage  failed  them  ;  and,  throwing 
down  their  arms,  they  submitted  anew  to  Justinian, 
conducted  him  to  the  imperial  palace,  and  replaced 
him  on  the  throne.— (Theoph.  Cedren.  ad  Ann.  Tib. 
Aps-  7.)  Thus  was  Justinian  restored  to  the  empire, 
nine  years  after  he  had  been  driven  from  it.  Both 
usurpers  fell  into  his  hands,  and  both  were  beheaded. 
As  for  the  patriarch  Callinicus,  he  ordered  his  eyes  to 
be  put  out,  and  then  banished  him  to  Rome. 

»  Anast.  in  Joan.  VII. 

The  pu.sillanimity  and  timorousness  of  this  pope, 
quite  unworthy  of  an  apostolical  man,  gave  occasion, 
says  I'apebroke,  to  the  satirical  Romans  to  call  him, 
by  way  of  derision,  a  woman,  and  branding  him  with 
the  name  of  pope  Joan ;  and  hence  the  famous  fable 
of  a  she  pope  took  its  rise. —  (Papeb.  in  Conatu  Chronic. 
Historic.)  But  that  Chronologer  is  in  this,  as  he  is 
in  most  of  his  other  conjectures,  for  they  deserve  no 
other  name,  grossly  mistaken  ;  the  fable  of  a  she  pope, 
•  if  it  is  a  fable,  being  of  a  later  date,  by  several  centuries, 
than  the  pontificate  of  John  VII.,  as  shall  be  shown  in 
a  more  proper  place. . 

B 


sequently  must  have  died  on  the  17th  of 
October,  707.  He  was  buried  in  the  church 
of  St.  Peter,  before  the  altar  of  an  oratory, 
built  by  himself  in  honor  of  the  Virgia 
Mary.  Of  him  it  is  observed,  that  he 
adorned  several  churches  in  Rome  with  the 
pictures  of  the  fathers,  and  likewise  with 
his  own.'  In  the  time  of  this  pope,  or,  as 
some  will  have  it,  in  the  time  of  his  prede- 
cessor pope  John  VI.,  Aribert,  king  of  the 
Lombards,  is  said  by  Paulus  Diaconus  to 
have  restored  to  the  apostolic  see,  and  yield- 
ed forever,  by  an  instrument  written  with 
letters  of  gold,  which  he  sent  to  pope  John 
and  St.  Peter,  the  patrimony  of  the  Roman 
church  in  the  Alpes  Cottiaj,^  which  had  been 
seized  and  long  possessed  by  the  Lom- 
bards.^ Some  have  understood  Paulus  Dia- 
conus here,  as  if  he  meant,  that  the  king 
of  the  Lombards  restored  to  the  apostolic  see 
the  whole  province  of  the  Alpes  Cottias, 
the  ninth  province  of  Italy,  comprising  a 
large  tract  of  country,  and  several  great 
cities;  namely,  Susa,  Tortona,  Savona,  Ge- 
nua, &c.,  and  thence  conclude  that  whole 
province  to  belong  of  right  to  the  pope. 
But  from  history  it  does  not  appear,  that  the 
popes  were  ever  possessed  of  the  whole 
province;  nor  can  they  tell  us,  setting  aside 
the  famous  donation  of  Constaniine,  when, 
by  whom,  or  on  what  occasion  it  was  yielded 
to  them;  and  what  they  never  possessed, 
can,  in  no  sense,  be  said  to  have  been  re- 
stored to  them.  Paulus  Diaconus,  it  is  true, 
calls  what  they  possessed  in  that  province, 
the  patrimony  of  the  Alpes  Cottiae ;  but  the 
popes  themselves  constantly  style  it  in  their 
letters  the  patrimony  of  St.  Peter,  in  the 
Alpes  Cottiae ;  an  expression  that  plainly 
shows  the  patrimony  did  not  comprehend 
the  whole  province. 


'  Anast.  in  Joan.  VII. 

^  The  Cottian  Alps  were  so  called  from  Cottius, 
king  of  that  country,  who  lived,  not  in  the  time  of 
Nero,  as  Paulus  Diaconus  supposes,  (Paul.  Diac.  1.  2. 
c.  16,)  but  in  the  time  of  Augustus,  as  we  read  in  Am- 
mianus  Marcellinus,  (.\mmian.  1.  15.  c.  20,)  and  de- 
fended his  kingdom  with  great  bravery  against  the 
Romans,  till  Augustus  received  him  into  his  friend- 
ship. He  was  the  first,  says  Ammianus,  who  rendered 
the  Alps  passable  with  saiety  ;  and  the  road  which  he 
made  across  those  mountains,  was  over  afterwards 
used  by  the  Roman  armies,  that  marched  into  Gaul. — 
(Idem  ibid.)  Ilis  kingdom  was,  upon  his  death,  re- 
duced to  a  Roman  province,  and  reckoned  the  ninth 
province  of  Italy. — (Eutrop.  1.  7.  c.  9.) 

»  Paul.  Diac.  1.  6.  c.  2«. 


14 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[  Const  ANTiNE. 


Sisinnius  chosen.  Dies  soon  after.  Constantine  chosen.  Felix  of  Ravenna  asserts  the  independency  of  his 
gee  ; — [Yeas  of  Christ,  709.]  Justinian  causes  him  to  be  sent  prisoner  to  Constantinople,  and  his  eyes  to  be 
put  out.    The  see  of  Harenna  entirely  subjected  to  that  of  Rome. 


SISINNIUS,  EIGHTY-SIXTH  BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[Justinian. — Aribert,  king  of  the  Lombards.'] 


[Year  of  Christ,  708.]  la  the  room  of  John 
VII.  was  ordained,  on  the  18th  of  January, 
when  the  see  had  been  vacant  three  months, 
Sisinnius,  by  birth  a  Syrian,  and  the  son  of 
one  John.  He  was  so  lame  with  the  gout, 
that  he  could  not  even  feed  himself;  and  he 
died  suddenly,  twenty  days  after  his  ordina- 
tion ;'  so  that  his  death  must  have  happened 
on  the  6th  of  February,  708.  As  the  popes, 
trusting  to  the  affection  of  the  people,  and 
the  soldiery,  which  they  made  it  their  study 


to  earn  and  to  cultivate,  looked  now  upon 
Rome,  in  a  manner,  as  their  own ;  Sisin- 
nius undertook  to  rebuild  the  walls  of  that 
city,  at  the  expense  of  his  see ;  and  had 
already  prepared,  though  he  lived  so  short 
a  time,  some  of  the  necessary  materials  for 
so  great  an  undertaking.'  He  is  commend- 
ed by  Anastasius,  the  only  ancient  writer 
who  mentions  him,  as  a  man  of  great  firm- 
ness and  coastancy.2 


CONSTANTINE,  EIGHTY-SEVENTH  BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[Justinian. — Aribert,  Asprand,  Luitprand,  kings  of  the  Lombards.] 


[Year  of  Christ,  708.]  Sisinnius  being 
dead,  Constantine,  another  Syrian,  and  he 
too  the  son  of  one  John,  was  chosen  to  suc- 
ceed him,  and  ordained,  after  a  vacancy  of 
one  month  and  nineteen  days,  and,  by  con- 
sequence, on  the  25th  of  March.^ 

In  the  first  year  of  Constantine,  came  to 
Rome,  Felix,  archbishop  elect  of  Ravenna, 
to  receive  his  ordination  at  the  hands  of  the 
pope ;  and  he  was  accordingly  ordained  by 
Constantine,  having  first  promised,  says 
Anastasius,  as  his  predecessors  had  done,' 
subjection  and  obedience  to  the  apostolic 
see.  But  he  soon  forgot,  adds  the  same 
writer,  the  promise  he  had  made;  or  rather, 
repented  his  having  thus  betrayed  the  liber- 
ties and  just  rights  of  the  church  committed 
to  his  care ;  and  being,  on  his  return  to  Ra- 
venna, encouraged  by  the  people,  who  had 
chosen  him,  to  shake  off  the  yoke,  he  re- 
tracted his  promise,  withdrew  himself  from 
all  subjection  to  Rome,  and  openly  asserted 
the  independency  of  his  see.  Of  this  the 
pope  was  no  sooner  informed,  than,  trans- 
ported with  rage,  he  complained  of  it  to  the 
emperor ;  painting  Fehx  and  his  people  as 
rebels  to  St.  Peter,  and  exhorting  him  to 
espouse  the  cause  of  the  prince  of  the  apos- 

'  Anast.  in  Sisinn.  ^  Anast.  in  Constantin. 

3  "As  some  of  his  predecessors  had  done,"  he  ought 
to  have  said.  The  three  immediate  predecessors  of 
Felix,  Reparatus,  Theodorus,  and  Damianus,  had  in- 
deed acknowledged  the  authority  of  the  pope,  and  for 
the  sake  of  peace,  promised  subjection  and  obedience 
to  the  apostolic  see.  But  Maurus,  the  immediate  pre- 
decessor of  Reparatus,  not  only  maintained  tlie  inde- 
pendency of  his  see,  in  defiance  of  the  pope  and  all 
iiis  anathemas,  so  long  as  he  lived,  but  charged  his 
clergy,  when  at  the  point  of  death,  to  tread  in  his  foot- 
steps, and  withstand  to  the  last,  the  unjust  claims  and 
pretensions  of  Rome.     (See  vol.  1.  p.  460-6.) 


ties,  and  wreak  on  his  enemies  the  ven- 
geance which  their  rebellion  deserved.  As 
Justinian  was  extremely  desirous  of  having 
the  canons  of  his  council  in  truUo  approved 
by  the  pope,  he  laid  hold  of  this  opportunity 
to  oblige  him  ;  and,  hearkening  to  his  com- 
plaints, he  sent  immediately  an  order  to  the 
patrician  Theodorus,  general  of  the  army  in 
the  island  of  Sicily,  requiring  him  to  sail 
forthwith  to  Ravenna,  to  seize  there  the 
archbishop,  with  the  other  rebels  (for  so  he 
styled  them,)  and  send  them  all  in  chains  to 
Constantinople.  The  order  was  executed 
with  the  utmost  rigor;  and  the  unhappy 
prisoners  were,  soon  after  their  arrival  at 
Constantinople,  all  put  to  death,  except  the 
archbishop  ;  and  his  fife  the  emperor  spared 
out  of  his  great  mercy,  but  caused  his  eyes 
to  be  put  out,  and  banished  him  to  Pontus. 
And  thus  by  a  just  judgment  of  God,  and 
by  the  sentence  of  St.  Peter,  all  were  in  the 
end  deservedly  cut  off,  who  refused  to  pay' 
the  obedience  that  was  due  to  the  apostolic 
see.^  With  these  words  the  bibliothecarian 
closes  this  account,  impiously  ascribing  to 
God,  and  St.  Peter,  the  antichristian  cruel- 
ties of  the  pope,  and  the  emperor.  Thus, 
in  the  end,  was  the  see  of  Ravenna  entirely 
subjected  to  the  see  of  Rome ;  and  we  read 
of  no  farther  attempts  made  by  the  bishops 
of  that  city,  towards  the  recovory  of  their 
liberty,  from  this  time  till  the  beginning  of 
the  eleventh  century,  when  we  shall  see 
them  striving  again,  but  striving  m  vain,  to 
shake  off  the  yoke.  As  for  the  unhappy 
Felix,  he  continued  in  Pontus,  the  place  of 


»  Anast.  in  Stsinn. 
3  Anast  in  Constantin. 


>  Idem  ibid. 


CONSTANTINE. 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


15 


The  king  of  the  Mercians,  and  the  son  of  the  king  of  the  East  Saxons,  embrace  a  monaetic  life  at  Rome.  The 
emperor  orders  the  pope  to  repair  to  Constantinople ;— [Year  of  Clirist,  710.]  He  is  every  where  received 
with  the  greatest  marks  of  distinction.    How  received  by  the  emperor. 


his  exile,  so  long  as  Justiniau  lived,  the 
pope,  though  the  chief  author  of  all  his  mis- 
fortunes, never  once  offering  to  interpose  in 
his  favor.  However,  upon  the  death  of 
Justinian,  he  was  recalled  by  Philippicus, 
and  even  restored,  notwithstanding  his  blind- 
ness, to  his  dignity  and  see.'  He  is  said  by 
Anastasius  to  have,  at  last,  submitted  to  the 
pope ;  and  Rubeus  tells  us,  in  his  account 
of  the  bishops  of  Ravenna,  that  after  his 
death  he  was  honored  by  that  church  as  a 
saint.2 

The  same  year  Coenred,  king  of  the  Mer- 
cians, and  Ona,  the  son  of  Segher,  king  of 
the  East-Saxons,  a  youth,  says  Bede,'  of 
great  comeliness  and  extraordinary  endow- 
ments, came  to  Rome,  to  embrace  a  monas- 
tic life  there,  and  receive  the  tonsure  at  the 
hands  of  the  pope.  Offa  is  supposed  by 
William  of  Malmsbury,''  and  after  him  by 
all  our  historians,  to  have  been  king  of  the 
East-Saxons  :  but  Bede,  who  lived  at  this 
time,  only  calls  him  the  son  of  Segher,  king 
of  the  East-Saxons ;  and  commends  him 
for  leaving  his  wife,  his  lands,  his  relations, 
his  country,  without  mentioning,  as  he  does 
in  speaking  of  Coenred,  his  crown,  or  his 
kingdom.  Both  he  and  Coenred  continued 
at  Rome,  and  in  the  profession  they  had 
embraced,  so  long  as  they  lived.^  Egwin, 
the  third  bishop  of  Worcester,  is  said  by 
William  of  Malmsbury,''  and  the  annony- 
mous  writer  of  his  life,'  to  have  attended  the 
two  princes  to  Rome,  and  to  have  obtained, 
on  that  occasion,  of  pope  Constantine,  a 
grant  of  several  privileges,  immunities,  and 
exemptions,  for  the  monastery  of  Evesham, 
which  he  had  founded.  But  that  grant,  or 
charier,  is  now  as  universally  looked  upon 
as  supposititious,  as  it  was  deemed,  in  the 
ignorant  ages,  authentic  and  genuine.*  And 
indeed,  by  no  nation  more  fables,  more  in- 
credible stories,  have  been  invented  con- 
cerning their  rise  and  original,  than  have 
been  invented  by  the  monks,  lying  as  it 
were  in  emulation  of  each  other,  concern- 
ing the  original,  foundation,  and  privileges, 
of  their  respective  monasteries. 

The  following  year  Constantine  received 
a  letter  from  the  emperor,  commanding  him, 
that  is,  says  Baronius,  begging  and  entreat- 
ing him,9  to  repair  to  Constantinople,  as  soon 
as  he  conveniently  could.  What  gave  oc- 
casion to  that  unexpected  command  history 
has  not  informed  us ;  but  as  Justinian  had 
long  desired  to  have  the  canons  of  the  coun- 


'  Anast.  in  Constantin. 

'  His  tomb  was  discovered  by  that  antiquarian  with 
the  following  epitaph,  or  inscription:  "  ilic  tuniulua 
clausum  servat  corpus  Domini  felicis  sanctissimi  ac  ter 
Beatigsimi  Archiepiscopi,"  though  a  rebel  to  St.  Peter. 

'  Bed.  in  F.pit.  et  in  Hist.  I.  5.  c.  10. 

*  Malmbs.  de  reg.  Angl.  1.  2.  c.  6.        »  Bed.  ibid. 

«  Malmbs.  de  Oest.  Pont.' Angel.  1.  2.  p.  ,1'). 

'  Apud  BoUand.  ad  diem  XI.  Jan.  et  Mabi.I.  Secul. 
III.  Benedictin. 

»  Vide  Wharton,  in  prmfat.  ad  Angl.  Sacrara. 

'  Bar.  ad  Ann.  709.  p.  002. 


cil  in   trullo    approved  by  the  pope,    it  is 
commonly  thought,  that  he  called  him  with 
that  view,  to  the  imperial  city,  knowing  that 
his  approbation  might  be  there  more  easily 
obtained  than  at  Rome.     However  that  be, 
Constantine,  in  obedience  to  his  command, 
embarked  as  soon  as  he  received  it,  and 
sailed  from  Porto,  on  the  5th  of  October  of 
the  present  year,  attended  by  two  bishops, 
three  presbyters,  and  a  great  number  of  the 
inferior   clergy.     He  passed  the  winter  at 
Hydruntum, now  Otranto,  in  Calabria;  and, 
during   his   stay  there,   received   an    order 
signed  by  the  emperor,  and  addressed  to  all 
the  governors,  judges,  and  magistrates,  of 
the   cities   and   places    through   which   he 
should  pass,  requiring  them  to  receive,  ho- 
nor, and  entertain  him,  as  they  would  the 
emperor,  were  he  present  in  person.     With 
this  order  Constantine  sailed  early  in  the 
spring  from  Otranto,  and,  pursuing  his  voy- 
age, was  received  in  all  the  places  he  touched 
at,  in  a  kind  of  triumph ;  and  had  the  same 
honors  paid  him,  that  would  have  been  paid 
on  the  like  occasion  to  the  emperor  himself. 
He  landed  before  he  reached  Constantino- 
ple, and,  approaching  that  city,  was  met, 
at  seven  miles'  distance,  by  Tiberius,  the 
emperor's  son,  Justinian  himself  being  then 
at  Nice,  by  the  senate  in  a  body,  by  the  no- 
bility, the  chief  citizens,  and  the  patriarch 
Cyrus  at  the  head  of  his  clergy.     With  this 
grand  attendance  he  entered  the  city,  mount- 
ed, with  the  chief  persons  of  his  retinue,  on 
the  emperor's  own  horses  most  richly  ca- 
parisoned; and,  advancing  through  immense 
crowds  of  people,  all  congratulating   him 
Avith   repeated  acclamations  on  his  happy 
arrival,  he  dismounted  at  the  palace  of  Pla- 
cidia,  which  was  assigned  him  for  his  habi- 
tation ;  and  there,  with   great  expressions 
of  friendship  and  kindness,  took  leave  of 
Tiberius,  and  the  rest,  who  had  attended 
him  thither.     In  the  mean  time,  the  empe- 
ror, informed  of  his  arrival,  dispatched  im- 
mediately a  person  of  distinction,  with  a  let- 
ter to  thank  him  for  his  ready  compliance 
with  the  order  he  had  sent  him,  and  require 
him  to   repair  to  the   city  of  Nicomedia, 
where  he  should  meet  him.     He  met  him 
there  accordingly;  and  if  the  account,  which 
Anastasius  gives  us  of  this  interview,  be 
true,  the  most  Christian  emperor  (for  so  he 
styles,  on  this  occasion,  one  of  the  most 
cruel    and    blood-thirsty  tyrants   that  ever 
swayed  a  sceptre,)  prostrating  himself  at 
their  first  meeting  on  the  ground  with  the 
crown  on  his  head,  kissed  the  pope's  feet ; 
and  then  they  mutually  embraced  each  other, 
all,  who  were  present,  admiring  and  extol- 
ling the  extraordinary  condescension  of  the 
good    prince.     The  following   Sunday   the 
emperor  assisted  at  divine  service,  performed 
by  the  pope ;  received  the  sacrament  at  his 
hands;  and,  begging  his  holiness  to  inter- 


16 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[CONSTANTINE. 


Constantine  probably  confirmed  the  canons  of  the  council  in  trullo.   He  returns  to  Rome.    The  exarch  puts  to 
death  some  of  the  chief  men  of  the  Roman  clergy.    Justinian  murdered  and  Bardanes  raised  to  the  throne. 


cede  for  him,  that  God  might  forgive  him 
his  sins,  he  renewed  and  confirmed  all  the 
privileges,  that  had  ever  been  granted  to  his 
see,  and  then  gave  him  leave  to  return  home.' 

This  is  the  whole  account  which  Anasta- 
sius  gives  us  of  that  interview,  in  the  life  of 
Constantine.  He  adds,  in  the  life  of  Gre- 
gory II.  who  attended  Constantine  into  the 
east,  and  was  afterwards  chosen  in  his  room, 
that  Gregory,  being  asked  by  the  emperor 
several  questions  concerning  certain  chap- 
ters, he  answered  them  all  to  his  entire  satis- 
faction.2  But  what  these  chapters  were, 
what  questions  the  emperor  asked,  what  an- 
swers Gregory  returned,  Anastasius,  the 
only  writer,  who  mentions  these  particulars, 
has  not  thought  fit  to  inform  us.  Baronius, 
Lupus,  and  Pagi,  are  of  opinion,  and  their 
opinion  perhaps  is  not  ill-grounded,  that  the 
chapters  which  the  bibliothecarian  mentions, 
were  the  canons  of  the  council  in  trullo  ; 
and  that  the  questions  of  the  emperor,  and 
the  answers  of  Gregory,  all  turned  upon 
them  :  for  Justinian  had  nothing  so  much  at 
heart,  as  to  get  those  canons  approved  by 
the  pope ;  and  it  was,  in  all  likelihood,  to 
gain  him,  and  extort,  as  it  were,  his  appro- 
bation, that,  forgetful  of  his  own  dignity,  he 
flattered  his  vanity  in  the  manner  we  have 
seen.  And  it  is  not  at  all  to  be  doubted, 
says  Lupus,*  but  that  Constantine,  in  return 
for  the  extraordinary  honors  that  were  paid 
him  by  the  emperor,  gratified  him  so  far,  as 
to  confirm  such  of  thos'e  canons  at  least,  as 
were  not  repugnant  to  the  established  prac- 
tice and  laws  of  his  own  church,  that  is,  all 
but  the  five  mentioned  above  f  though,  for 
the  sake  of  them,  they  had  been  all  indis- 
criminately condemned  and  rejected  by  Ser- 
gius.5 

Anastasius,  having  described  the  recep- 
tion, which  Constantine  met  at  Constanti- 
nople from  Tiberius,  and  from  the  emperor 
at  Nicomedia,  passes  immediately,  without 
letting  us  know  either  what  he  did  in  the 
east,  or  what  he  was  sent  for,  to  his  return 
to  Rome;  and  tells  us,  that  the  emperor 
having  granted  him  leave  to  return  home,  he 
set  out  from  Nicomedia,  and  arrived  safe  in 
the  port  of  Gseta;  that  he  was  there  met  by 
the  Roman  clergy,  and  great  numbers  of 
people ;  and  was  attended  by  them,  with 
loud  shouts  of  joy,  to  the  city,  which  he  en- 
tered on  the  24th  of  October,  of  the  tenth 
indiction,  and  consequently  of  the  present 
year  711.®  On  his  arrival  at  Rome  he  found, 
to  his  great  concern,  that  John,  surnamed 
Rizocopus,  the  new  exarch,  passing  through 
that  city  in  his  way  to  Ravenna,  had  caused 
four  of  the  chief  men  among  the  clergy  to 
be  put  to  death  ;  and  very  undeservedly,  as 
Anastasius  seems  to  insinuate;  for  he 
ascribes  the  shameful  death,  of  which,  he 


says,  the  exarch  soon  after  died  at  Ravenna, 
to  a  just  judgment  of  God  upon  him,  for  the 
many  unjust  actions,  of  which  he  was 
guilty.' 

The  pope  had  been  but  three  months  in 
Rome,  says  Anastasius,^  after  his  return  from 
the  east,  when  he  received  the  melancholy 
news  of  the  death  of  the  most  Christian  and 
orthodox  emperor  Justinian,  and  the  pro- 
motion of  the  heretic  Bardanes  to  the  em- 
pire in  his  room.  Of  this  revolution  the 
Greek  historians  give  us  the  following  ac- 
count. While  Justinian  lived  in  exile  in 
Chersonesus,  the  inhabitants  of  that  country, 
and  their  neighbors  the  Bosporans,  appre- 
hending he  might  one  day  be  restored  to  the 
empire,  and  dreading  his  cruelty,  resolved 
either  to  put  him  to  death,  or  to  send  him  in 
chains  to  Apsimarus,  who  had  usurped, 
after  Leontius,  the  sovereign  power,  as  has 
been  related  above  :'  but  Justinian,  suspect- 
ing their  design,  found  means  to  make  his 
escape  before  it  could  be  put  in  execution, 
and,  getting  safe  to  the  court  of  the  king  of 
the  Bulgarians,  was  by  him  replaced  on  the 
throne,  in  the  manner  we  have  seen.*  As 
this  good  prince,  this  most  Christian  and 
orthodox  emperor,  delighted  in  nothing  so 
much  as  in  acts  of  cruelty  and  revenge,  as 
in  bloodshed  and  slaughter;  he  no  sooner 
got  the  power  again  into  his  hands,  than  he 
resolved  to  employ  it,  not  in  driving  the 
Saracens  from  the  many  fine  provinces, 
which  they  had  lately  seized,  and  quietly 
enjoyed,  or  in  restraining  the  incursions  of 
other  barbarous  nations  breaking  on  all  sides 
into  the  empire,  but  in  wreaking  his  ven- 
geance on  his  own  subjects  the  unhappy  peo- 
ple of  Chersonesus  and  Bosporus.  Against 
them  he  dispatched,  in  the  very  first  year 
after  his  restoration,  a  mighty  fleet,  and  a 
numerous  army  on  board  of  it,  with  express 
orders  to  spare  none,  but  to  put  all  to  the 
sword  they  should  meet  with  in  those  parts, 
without  distinction  of  sex  or  age,  of  guilty  or 
innocent.  These  orders  were  executed  with 
the  utmost  barbarity  ;  multitudes  of  people, 
women  as  well  as  men,  were  inhumanly 
massacred.  Some  were  by  the  cruel  soldiery 
roasted  alive,  others  expired  on  the  rack, 
and  many  were  cast  into  the  sea.  The  chil- 
dren however  were  spared ;  which  the  cruel 
tyrant  no  sooner  understood,  than  transport- 
ed with  rage,  he  ordered  a  new  fleet  to  be 
equipped,  most  of  his  ships  of  war  having 
been  shipwrecked  on  their  return  from 
Chersona,  and  gave  the  command  of  it  to 
Elias,  and  Philippicus  Bardanes,  who  had 
been  both  banished  by  Apsimarus  to  the 
island  of  Cephalonia,  strictly  enjoining  them 
not  to  leave  man,  woman,  or  child  alive  in 
those  countries,  but  to  put  all  indiscriminate- 
ly to  the  sword,  to  lay  their  habitations  and 


'  Anast.  in  Constantin.        *  Idem  in  Greg.  II. 

•  Lupus  in  Scholiis  ad  Canon.  Trull,  p.  1078. 

*  See  vol.  1.  p.  494.    » Ibid.    'Anast.  in  Constantin. 


«  Anast.  in  Constantin. 
'  See  p.  12.  note  '. 


2  Idem  ibid. 
< Ibid. 


CONSTANTINE.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


17 


The  conquests  of  the  Saracena.     To  what  chiefly  owing. 


cities  in  ashes,  and  plough  up  ihe  ground, 
on  which  they  stood.  With  these  orders 
the  fleet  sailed ;  but  both  commanders,  in- 
stead of  executing  them,  openly  revolted, 
and  Bardanes,  taking  upon  him  the  title  of 
emperor  with  the  consent  of  Elias,  was  re- 
ceived with  great  joy  by  the  people  of  Cher- 
sona,  who  had  escaped  the  late  massacre, 
into  their  city.  The  emperor,  upon  the  first 
news  of  this  revolt,  ordered  a  third  fleet  to 
be  equipped ;  and  it  was  equipped  according- 
ly with  incredible  expedition  :  but  those, 
who  commanded  it,  despairing  on  their  ar- 
rival at  Chersona,  of  ever  being  able  to  re- 
duce that  place,  the  inhabitants  being  deter- 
mined, as  Avell  as  Bardanes  and  Elias,  to  de- 
fend it  to  the  last,  choose  rather  to  acknow- 
ledge Bardanes,  and  join  those,  against 
whom  they  had  sent,  than  return,  without 
executing  the  orders  of  the  implacable  tyrant, 
to  Constantinople.  Bardanes,  thus  proclaim- 
ed and  supported  by  two  powerful  armies, 
marched  straight  to  Constantinople, which  he 
entered  without  opposition,  Justinian  being 
then  at  Sinope  in  Paphlagonia,  and  the  peo- 
ple looking  upon  the  new  emperor  rather  as 
their  deliverer,  than  as  an  usurper.  Upon 
his  arrival  Tiberius,  the  emperor's  son, 
took  refuge  in  the  church  dedicated  to  the 
virgin  Mary,  called  "  ad  Blachernas,'"  a 
famous  sanctuary  ;  but  he  was  dragged  from 
thence,  and  from  the  altar,  which  he  grasp- 
ed, by  one  Strutus,  and  slain  in  the  presence 
of  Anastasia  his  grandmother.  As  for  Justi- 
nian, Bardanes  dispatched  against  him 
Elias,  whose  son,  yet  an  infant,  he  had  late- 
ly caused  to  be  murdered  in  the  arms  of  its 
mother,  and  obliged  her  to  marry  a  man  of 
the  meanest  condition.  Elias  came  up  with 
him  in  the  neighborhood  of  Sinope,  and, 
having  gained  over  the  troops  he  had  with 
hiin,  took  him  prisoner  without  the  loss  of  a 
man,  cut  off  his  head  with  his  own  hand, 
and  sent  it  to  Bardanes  by  one  of  his  oflficers, 
whom  Bardanes  immediately  dispatched 
with  it  to  Rome,  that  his  death  might  be 
known  there,  and  in  the  other  cities  and  pro- 
vinces subject  to  the  empire  in  the  west.' 
Justinian  had  reigned  sixteen  years,  ten  be- 
fore he  was  driven  from  the  throne,  and  six 
after  his  restoration.  He  was,  of  all  the  em- 
perors after  Phocas,  the  Christian  emperors 
at  least  the  most  bloody  and  cruel;  and,  what 
is  worthy  of  notice,  of  all,  after  Phocas,  the 
most  favorable  to  the  popes,  and  their  see. 
Phocas  laid  the  foundation  of  the  exorbitant 
power,  that  in  process  of  time  was  usurped 
by  the  popes  ;2  and  Justinian  countenanced 
their  unjust  usurpations  by  punishing,  as  we 
have  seen,^  with  his  usual  cruelty,  those, 
who  offered  to  withstand  or  oppose  them. 
Indeed,  to  establish  or  countenance  such  a 
tyranny  in  the  church,  was   a  work  worthy 


'  Theoph.  ad  Ann.  703.  Mceph.  c.  6.  Cedren.  in  Justin. 
Hist.  MisceU. 
»  fee  vol.  1.  p.  426.  »  See  p  14. 

Vol.  II.— 3 


only  of  those,  who  exercised  the  like  tyranny 
in  the  state. 

Thus  did  the  cruelty  of  Justinian,  which 
had  occasioned  the  destruction  of  thousands, 
give  occasion  at  last  to  his  own,  and  to  that 
of  his  family.  For  in  him,  and  his  son  Ti- 
berius, ended  the  family  of  Heraclius,  after 
they  had  governed  the  empire  a  whole  cen- 
tury, that  is,  from  the  year  610,  when  Pho- 
cas was  murdered,  to  the  present  year,  711, 
when  Justinian  underwent  the  same  fate. 
In  the  time  of  these  princes  the  Saracens 
laid,  almost  undisturbed,  the  foundations  of 
that  mighty  empire,  which  they  afterwards 
raised  on  the  ruins  of  the  Roman.  In  the 
reign  of  Heraclius  they  began  first  to  be 
heard  of,  and  at  the  death  of  Justinian  they 
had  already  made  themselves  masters  of  all 
Syria,  Egypt,  Palestine,  and  Armenia,  of 
Mesopotamia,  of  great  part  of  Africa,  and  of 
the  whole  Persian  empire.  What  the  rapi- 
dity of  their  conquests  was  chiefly  owing  to, 
has  been  already  shown.  The  emperors,  if 
they  deserve  the  name,  from  Heraclius,  the 
first  of  that  race,  to  Justinian  the  last,  suffer- 
ed their  attention  to  be  so  entirely  engrossed 
with  the  affairs  of  the  church,  as  utterly  to 
neglect  those  of  the  state.  In  the  time  of 
Heraclius,  Avhen  the  impostor  Mahomet  first 
made  his  appearance,  was  unluckily  started 
the  famous  question  concerning  the  Avill  and 
operations  of  Christ;  and  that  question,  im- 
pertinent as  it  is,  kept  the  whole  church  di- 
vided, and  the  bishops  at  variance,  for  the 
space  of  almost  a  whole  century.  The  em- 
perors from  the  beginning  took  part  in  the 
dispute;  and  it  must  raise  the  indignation 
of  every  reader,  who  peruses  the  records  of 
those  times,  to  find  the  Saracens  and  other 
barbarians  breaking  on  all  sides  into  the 
empire,  seizing  province  after  province,  and 
laying  them  all  waste  in  their  turns ;  and 
the  emperors,  in  the  mean  time,  instead  of 
assembling  armies  to  oppose  them,  or  con- 
certing with  their  ministers  the  most  effectual 
means  of  checking  the  daily  growth  of  their 
power,  and  saving  the  empire,  only  intent 
on  assembling  bishops,  and  issuing,  as  di- 
rected by  them,  edicts,  decrees,  rescripts, 
ectheses,  types,  &.c.  concerning  a  metaphy- 
sical speculation,  that  had  no  kind  of  con- 
nection with  the  Christian  faith  or  religion. 
Constantine,  the  father  of  Justinian,  was, 
of  all  the  descendants  of  Heraclius,  the  most 
capable  of  retrieving  the  losses,  which  his  pre- 
decessors had  sustained  from  the  barbarians. 
He  had  defeated  them  with  great  slaughter 
in  several  engagements,  had  utterly  ruined 
their  naval  power,  and  would,  in  all  likeli- 
hood, by  pursuing  the  advantages  he  had 
gained,  have  driven  them,  in  a  short  time, 
quite  out  of  the  empire;  but  thinking  it  a 
matter  of  far  greater  importance  and  moment 
to  have  it  determined,  whether  in  Christ 
were  one  will  or  two,  one  operation  or  two 
operations,  that  he  might  be  at  leisure  to 
b2 


18 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[CoNSTANTINE. 


The  new  emperor  a  zealous  Monothelite.  The  doctrine  of  one  will  defined  in  a  council.  The  Monothelite 
doctrine  prevails  again  all  over  the  east;  but  is  universally  condemned  in  the  west.  Great  disturbances 
in  Rome. 


assemble  for  that  purpose  a  general  council, 
he  concluded  a  peace  with  the  Saracens,  in 
the  height  of  his  success,  as  soon  as  they 
proposed  it,  and  almost  on  their  own  terms, 
yielding  to  them  all  the  provinces  they  had 
seized  to  that  time.  But  after  all,  neither 
Constantine  nor  the  other  emperors  are 
more  worthy  of  blame  than  the  ecclesiastics 
of  those  days,  nor  perhaps  so  much  :  for  as 
it  was  by  their  unseasonable  and  imperti- 
nent disputes,  and  the  disturbances  they 
raised  in  the  empire,  that  the  emperors  were 
diverted  from  attending  to  the  affairs  of  the 
state,  the  evils,  which  then  ensued,  ought 
chiefly  to  be  laid  at  their  door. 

But  to  resume  the  thread  of  the  history, 
the  promotion  of  Bardanes,  or,  as  he  thence- 
forth styled  himself,  Philippicus,  was  at- 
tended with  a  great  change  of  affairs  in  the 
church  as  well  as  the  state.  The  new  em- 
peror had  imbibed  from  his  infancy  the 
the  principles  of  the  MonotheUtes,  having 
been  brought  up  under  an  abbot  named 
Stephen,  a  most  zealous  Monothelite,  and 
the  favorite  disciple  of  the  famous  Macarius 
of  Antioch,  whom  the  sixth  general  council 
had  condemned,  and  deposed  as  an  incorri- 
gible heretic. •  He  therefore  no  sooner  found 
himself  vested  with  the  sovereign  power, 
than  he  undertook  to  extirpate  the  damnable 
heresy,  as  he  called  it,  of  two  wills  in  Christ, 
and  two  operations,  and  to  establish,  in  its 
room,  the  catholic  doctrine  of  one  will  only, 
and  one  operation.  In  order  to  that  he  as- 
sembled, in  the  very  first  year  of  his  reign, 
a  council  in  the  imperial  city,  at  which  as- 
sisted, among  the  rest,  John  of  Constanti- 
nople, and  the  two  metropolitans,  Andrew 
and  Germanus,  the  former  of  Crete,  and  the 
latter  of  Cyzicus ;  and  by  all  to  a  man  the 
doctrine  of  one  will,  now  the  faith  of  the 
court,  was  declared  the  true  catholic  faith, 
and  the  sixth  general  council,  which  had 
defined  the  opposite  doctrine,  condemned 
and  anathematized,  with  all  who  received 
it  ■?  and  it  is  observable,  that  many  of  the 
bishops,  who  assisted  at  this  council,  had 
distinguished  themselves  under  the  late  em- 
peror, and  soon  after  distinguished  them- 
selves again,  under  the  catholic  emperor 
Anastasius,  by  their  zeal  for  the  doctrine 
which  they  now  so  readily  condemned. 

'  See  vol.  1.  p.  476. 

We  are  told  by  Theophanes,  that  Philippicus, 
while  yet  a  private  man,  was  assured  by  a  monk  of 
the  monastery  of  Callistratus,  a  most  zealous  Mono- 
thelite, and  well  skilled  in  astrology,  that  he  should 
be  one  day  raised  to  the  imperial  dignity,  and  be 
blessed  when  raised  to  it  with  a  long  and  prosperous 
reign,  provided  he  caused  the  sixth  general  counsel  to 
be  annulled,  and  the  doctrine  proscribed,  which  that 
council  had  impiously  defined.  Theophanes  adds, 
"that  thereupon  Philippicus,  believing  the  monk  di- 
vinely inspired,  not  only  resolved,  but  bound  himself 
by  a  solemn  oath,  if  he  ever  attained  to  the  empire,  to 
exert  his  whole  power  against  that  council,  and  against 
all  who  should  presume  to  maintain  or  defend  it." 
(Theoph.  ad  ann.  2.  Philip.) 

a  Agatho  Diacon.  in  Peroration.  Theoph.  in  Chro- 
nic. Niceph.  in  Ilist.  p.  31. 


The  council  was  no  sooner  dismissed, 
than  the  emperor,  who  was  a  man  of  some 
learning,  as  learned  at  least  as  most  of  the 
ecclesiastics  of  those  days,  drew  up  a  con- 
fession of  faith  agreeable  to  the  definition  of 
that  council,  and  sent  it  to  all  the  metropo- 
litans in  the  empire,  commanding  them  to 
receive  it,  and  cause  it  to  be  received  by  the 
bishops  of  their  respective  provinces,  on 
pain  of  forfeiting  their  sees,  and  being 
driven  as  obstinate  heretics  into  exile.  At 
the  same  time  he  ordered  the  original  copy 
of  the  sixth  general  council,  that  was  lodged 
in  the  imperial  palace,  to  be  publicly  burnt, 
and  the  names  of  Sergius  of  Constantinople, 
and  Honorius  of  Rome,  who  had  been  con- 
demned and  anathematized  by  that  council, 
to  be  placed  with  a  pompous  encomium,  in 
the  diptychs,  nay,  and  their  pictures  to  be 
set  up  with  his  own,  as  the  pictures  of  men, 
who  having  asserted  the  true  catholic  doc- 
trine in  their  lifetime,  had,  on  that  score, 
been  unjustly  persecuted  by  the  enemies  of 
truth  after  their  death.'  His  confession  of 
faith,  anathematizing  the  doctrine  of  two 
wills,  the  council  that  had  defined  it,  and 
all  who  received  that  council,  was  signed 
and  approved  by  almost  all  the  bishops  in 
the  east,  and  even  by  the  apocrisarii  of  the 
apostolic  see  residing  then  at  the  imperial 
court.2  Some  few,  indeed,  remonstrated, 
against  it,  unwilling  to  take  with  the  rest 
of  their  brethren,  the  faith  of  the  court  for 
the  standard  of  theirs ;  but  they  being  driven 
from  their  sees,  pursuant  to  the  peremptory 
order  given  by  the  emporor,  and  others,  less 
scrupulous  and  more  complaisant,  appointed 
in  their  room,  the  Monothelite  doctrine  pre- 
vailed once  more,  and  in  a  few  months^  all 
over  the  east. 

In  the  west  the  zeal  of  Philippicus,  and 
his  attempts  in  favor  of  that  doctrine,  were 
not  attended  with  the  success  he  expected. 
As  the  power  of  the  emperors  was  there  at 
a  very  low  ebb,  and  the  popes,  in  a  manner, 
masters  of  Rome,  Constantine  not  only  re- 
jected his  confession  of  faith  (for  to  him  it 
was  sent  as  well  as  to  the  other  metropoli- 
tans and  patriarchs)  with  the  utmost  indig- 
nation, but  condemned  it  in  a  council  as- 
sembled for  that  purpose,  as  calculated  to 
sap  the  very  foundation  of  the  catholic  faith, 
the  authority  of  the  councils  and  fathers,  as 
suggested  and  dictated  by  the  enemy  of  all 
truth,  and  fraught  with  the  most  execrable 
and  blasphemous  heresies.  And  now  the 
people  of  Rome,  looking  upon  the  new  em- 
peror as  a  heretic,  would  not  suffer  his 
image  to  be  placed  in  the  church  according 
to  custom,  nor  his  name  to  be  mentioned  at 
the  service;  nay,  being  informed  that  he 
employed  none  but  Monothelites,  they  en- 
couraged the  patrician  Christopher,  who  had 
been  lately  appointed  duke  or  governor  of 


••  Agatho  Diac.  ubi  supra.    »  Nicol.  Pap.  Ep.  8. 


CONSTANTINE.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


19 


The  emperor  excomniunicated.  Philippicus  deposed,  and  Philartemius  chosen  in  his  room  ; — [Year  of  Christ, 
713.] — The  new  emperor  a  zealous  assertor  of  the  doctrine  of  two  wills  ;  which  prevails  anew  all  over  the 
east. 


Rome  by  Justinian,  and  pretended  great 
zeal  for  the  two  wills,  to  keep  his  employ- 
ment in  defiance  of  the  emperor;  and  not 
to  admit  into  the  palace  the  new  governor, 
named  Peter,  whom  the  emperor  had  sent 
to  succeed  him.  This  gave  occasion  to  a 
battle  or  a  skirmish  at  the  gates  of  the  palace 
between  the  two  competitors,  in  which 
twenty-five  persons  were  killed  or  wounded, 
and  more  blood  would  have  been  shed,  had 
not  some  of  the  chief  men  among  the  clergy, 
sent  by  the  pope  with  the  book  of  the  gos- 
pels, and  crosses  in  their  hands,  parted  the 
combatants,  by  persuading  the  Christian  par- 
ty (so  they  called  the  parly  of  Christopher) 
to  withdraw,  though  most  likely  to  prevail, 
and  suffer  the  new  governor  to  take,  without 
farther  opposition,  possession  of  the  pa- 
lace.' 

That  the  pope  not  only  condemned  the 
emperor's  confession  of  faith  as  heretical, 
but  thundered  against  him  the  sentence  erf 
excommunication,  and  even  deposed  him  as 
incapable  of  the  empire  on  account  of  his 
heresy,  is  asserted  by  Platina,  and  other 
more  modern  historians.  But  of  that  not 
the  least  notice  is  taken  by  the  contem- 
porary writers ;  and  the  excommunicating 
and  deposing  of  an  emperor  was  not  a  thing 
to  be  passed  over  in  silence,  especially  as  no 
emperor  had,  to  that  time,  been  excommu- 
nicated or  deposed  by  the  pope,  or  by  any 
other  bishop  or  patriarch.  Besides,  the  pope 
would  have  placed  his  image  in  the  church, 
as  has  been  observed  above,  ancf  caused  him 
to  be  prayed  for  at  the  public  service,  which 
was  acknowledging  him  for  emperor  and 
sovereign  of  Rome,  had  not  the  populace 
prevented  him,  provoked  at  the  new  empe- 
ror's attempting  to  introduce  a  new  faith 
and  religion.2 

Philippicus  was  soon  informed  of  the  re- 
ception, which  his  confession  of  faith  had 
met  with  at  Rome,  and  had  resolved  to 
wreak  his  vengeance  both  on  the  pope  and 
the  people.  But  a  conspiracy  being,  in  the 
mean  time,  formed  against  him,  he  was  de- 
posed, and  Philartemius,  his  chief  secretary, 
proclaimed  emperor  in  his  room,  after  he 
had  reigned  one  year  and  six  months.  In 
his  reign,  and  while  he,  like  the  preceding 
emperors,  neglecting  the  affairs  of  the  state, 
was  wholly  employed  in  assembling  coun- 
cils, in  drawing  up  new  confessions  of  faith, 
and  persecuting  those  who  did  not  receive 
them,  the  Saracens,  finding  him  thus  divert- 
ed, broke  unexpectedly  into  the  empire,  took 
the  city  of  Media,  laid  waste  several  pro- 
vinces, and  returned  unmolested,  carrying 
with  them  many  thousands  of  captives.  At 
the  same  time  the  Bulgarians,  entering 
Thrace,  advanced  to  the  very  gates  of  Con- 
stantinople; and  having  ravaged  the  country 

'  Anaot.  in  Constantin.  Paul.  Diac.  1.  6.  c.  33. 
a  Paul.  Diac.  I.  0.  c.  33. 


far  and  wide,  and  put  an  incredible  number 
of  people  to  the  sword,  marched  back,  with- 
out meeting  with  the  least  opposition,  loaded 
with  booty.  These  calamhies  the  people  of 
Constantinople  construed  into  a  judgment 
on  the  empire  for  the  emperor's  striving  to 
establish  a  doctrine,  which  the  church  had 
condemned  in  a  general  council ;  and  some, 
whom  he  had  otherwise  disobliged,  taking 
from  thence  occasion  to  conspire  against 
him,  one  of  them,  by  name  Rufus,  entering 
the  palace  with  a  company  of  Thracians, 
while  the  emperor  was  reposing  after  din- 
ner, put  out  his  eyes,  and  proclaimed  Philar- 
temius, who  was  immediately  acknowledged 
by  all,  and  the  very  next  day  crowned  by 
the  patriarch.' 

Philartemius,  or,  as  he  was  afterwards 
called,  Anastasius,  was  a  no  less  zealous 
assertor  of  the  doctrine  of  two  wills,  than 
his  predecessor  had  been  of  the  doctrine  of 
one  ;  and  therefore  no  sooner  found  himself 
in  the  quiet  possession  of  the  throne,  than  he 
wrote  a  long  letter  to  the  pope,  to  assure 
him,  that  he  received  the  sixth  general  coun- 
cil, that  he  professed  and  unfeignedly  be- 
lieved the  doctrine  defined  by  that  holy  coun- 
cil, and  that  be  would  suffer  none,  within 
the  bounds  of  the  empire,  to  believe  or  pro- 
fess any  other.  At  the  same  time  an  edict 
was  issued,  and  sent  by  the  emperor's  order 
to  the  metropolitans  of  the  different  pro- 
vinces, commanding  them,  on  pain  of  for- 
feiting their  sees,  and  being  driven  into 
exile,  to  receive  the  sixth  general  council,  to 
profess  the  doctrine  of  two  wills,  which  the 
Holy  Ghost  had  revealed  to  his  church  by 
the  fathers  of  that  venerable  assembly,  and 
anathematize  all,  as  enemies  to  God  and  the 
church,  who  should  thenceforth  teach  or  de- 
fend the  opposite  doctrine.  The  edict  met  with 
no  opposition,  but  was  everywhere  as  readi- 
ly complied  with  as  that  which  the  late  em- 
peror had  issued  out  a  few  months  before, 
commanding  all  to  profess  the  doctrine  of 
one  will,  and  anathematize  the  council,  that 
had  defined,  and  those,  who  taught  or  main- 
tained, the  doctrine  of  two.  John  of  Con- 
stantinople received  it  among  the  first;  and, 
on  that  occasion,  wrote  a  long  letter  to  the 
pope,  or  rather  an  apology  for  his  late  con- 
duct, pretending  that  for  the  good  of  the 
church,  and  to  prevent  the  cruel  persecution, 
with  which  it  was  threatened,  both  he  and 
his  colleagues  had  thought  it  expedient  and 
necessary  to  use  some  dissimulation,  but  had 
never  renounced  the  true  catholic  doctrine, 
the  doctrine  of  two  distinct  wills  in  Christ, 
and  two  operations;  He  therefore  entreated 
the  pope  to  receive  him  to  his  communion, 
notwithstanding  the  reports,  that  might  per- 
haps have  been  spread  to  his  prejudice  in 
the  west,  and  to  concur  with  him,  under  so 

>  Theopb.  ad  Ann.  Philip.  2.  Nicepb.  c.  7. 


29 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Gregory  H. 


Constantine  dies; — [Year  of  Christ,  715.]     No  council  held  in  London  in  his  time.    Admits  John  of  Constan- 
tinople to  his  communion.    John  dies,  and  Germanus  is  translated  to  that  see  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  716.] 


religious  an  emperor,  in  restoring,  and  es- 
tablishing, on  a  lasting  foundation,  the  so 
long  wished  for  tranquillity  of  the  church.' 
What  answer  the  pope  returned  to  that  let- 
ter we  know  not,  nor  indeed  whether  he  re- 
turned any.  The  example  of  John  was  fol- 
lowed by  the  other  metropolitans  and  bishops 
in  the  east,  all  professing  and  teaching  the 
doctrine  of  two  wills  with  as  much  zeal 
under  Anastasius,  as  they  had  taught  and 
professed  under  Philippicus,  the  contrary 
doctrine.  And  thus  the  doctrine  of  two  wills 
prevailed  again  all  over  the  east,  and  became 
the  catholic  doctrine. 

In  the  mean  time  Constantine  died,  and 
nis  death  happened  on  the  8lh  of  April, 
715,  after  he  had  held  the  see  seven  years, 
and  fifteen  days.^  He  is  chiefly  commended 
by  Anastasius  for  his  charity  to  the  poor, 
great  numbers  of  whom  he  is  said  to  have 
constantly  maintained  at  a  very  considera- 
ble expense.  Balasus,''  and  after  him  the 
Magdeburgenses,  suppose  a  council  to  have 
been  held  in  London  in  the  time  of  Con- 


stantine, and  the  worshiping  of  images  to 
have  been  first  introduced  by  that  council 
into  England  :  But  of  such  a  council  no 
mention  is  made  by  Bede,  who  lived  at  this 
very  time,  nor  indeed  by  any  other  ancient 
historian.  However,  the  story  of  that  coun- 
cil was  not,  as  P.  Pagi  seems  to  suppose,> 
invented  by  Balaeus,  but  copied  by  him  from 
the  records  of  the  monastery  of  Evesham : 
For  the  setting  up  and  worshiping  of  images 
is  there  said  to  have  been  approved,  in  the 
time  of  pope  Constantine,  by  a  council  held 
in  London,  on  occasion  of  an  image  of  the 
virgin  Mary,  which  Edgwin,  bishop  of 
Worcester,  and  founder  of  that  monastery, 
had,  by  her  order,  set  up,  and  caused  to  be 
publicly  worshiped.  But  that  no  such  coun- 
cil ever  was  held  is  manifest  from  the  silence 
of  all  the  historians  concerning  it ;  and  be- 
sides, it  is  certain,  as  it  will  afterwards  be 
made  to  appear,  that  the  worshiping  of  im- 
ages was  not  introduced  into  England  till 
many  years  after  the  times  in  which  this 
council  is  supposed  to  have  been  held. 


GROGORY  II.,  EIGHTY-EIGHTH  BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[Anastasius,  Theodosius,  Leo  Isauricus. — Luitprand,  king  of  the  Lombards.'] 


[Year  of  Christ,  715.]  In  the  room  of 
Constantine  was  chosen  and  ordained,  after 
a  vacancy  of  forty  days,  and  consequently, 
on  the  19th  of  May,  715,  Gregory,  the 
second  of  that  name,  a  native  of  Rome,  and 
the  son  of  one  Marcellus.''  He  had  been 
brought  up  from  his  childhood  in  the  Lateran 
palace,  under  pope  Sergius ;  was  afterwards 
chosen,  while  yet  a  deacon,  by  his  prede- 
cessor pope  Constantine,  as  the  most  learned 
man  of  that  church,  to  attend  him  into  the 
east;  and  had  distinguished  himself  there, 
as  we  are  told,  by  his  learning  and  parts, 
especially  in  answering  the  several  ques- 
tions, which  Justinian  asked  him,  and  solv- 
ing, as  had  been  observed  above,  all  his 
doubts  and  difficulties  to  his  entire  satisfac- 
tion.s 

The  promotion  of  Gregory  was  no  sooner 
known  in  the  east,  than  John  of  Constanti- 
nople sent,  according  to  custom,  his  confes- 
sion of  faith  to  the  new  pope,  acknowledg- 
ing therein  two  distinct  wills  in  Christ  as 
well  as  two  distinct  natures,  and  anathema- 
tizing all,  who  acknowledged  one  will  only, 
or  only  one  nature.  This  letter  the  pope  im- 
mediately answered,  and  without  reproach- 
ing the  patriarch  with,  or  taking  the  least 


'  Epilog.  Agath.  t.  6.  Concil.  p.  1408. 

9  Anast.  in  Consta<ntin. 

'  Script.  Britan.  Cent.  prim.  p.  88. 

*  Anast.  in  Greg.  II. 

'Idem  ibid.  See  p.  116. 


notice  of,  his  late  conduct,  owned  him  for 
his  colleague,  and  admitted  him  to  his  com- 
munion, and  to  that  of  the  catholic  church.2 
John  died  soon  after,  and  upon  his  death 
Germanus,  of  whom  we  shall  have  frequent 
occasion  to  speak  in  the  sequel,  was  trans- 
lated from  the  see  of  Cyzicus  to  that  of  Con- 
stantinople. Germanus  was  descended  of 
a  patrician  and  illustrious  family ;  but  his 
father,  by  name  Justinian,  having  been  con- 
cerned in  a  conspiracy  against  Constantine 
Pogonatus,  on  the  accession  of  that  prince 
to  the  throne,  he  was  by  his  order  put  to 
death,  and  his  son,  though  yet  a  child,  made 
an  eunuch.^  In  the  reign  of  Philippicus, 
the  Monothelite  emperor,  he  yielded,  as  well 
as  most  other  bishops,  to  the  limes,  acknow- 
ledging, or  pretending  to  acknowledge,  only 
one  will  in  Christ :  but  having  afterwards 
distinguished  himself,  under  the  catholic  em- 
peror Anastasius,  by  his  zeal  for  the  doc- 
trine of  two  wills,  and  besides,  being  reckon- 
ed one  of  the  most  learned  men  of  his  time, 
he  was,  upon  the  death  of  John,  named 
with  one  voice  by  the  people,  the  clergy, 
and  the  senate  of  Constantinople,  to  suc- 
ceed him  in  that  see.'' 

The  new  pope  wrote  to  the  emperor,  as 
soon  as  ordained,  to  acquaint  him  with  his 


>  Pagi  ad  Ann.  714.  n.  11.        »  Anast  in  Greg.  II. 

3  Zonar.  in  Constantin. 

*  Theoph.  ad  Ann.  Incarnat.  secund.  Alesandrin.  707. 


Gregory.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


21 


The  emperor  Anastasius  deposed,  and  Theodosius  chosen  in  his  room.     The  Lombards  surprise  Cums.    The 
pope  persuades  the  governor  of  Naples  to  fall  on  them  and  retake  it. — Two  observations  of  Baronius. 


promotion,  and  give  him,  according  to  cus- 
tom, an  account  of  his  faith.  But  Anasta- 
sius was  in  the  mean  time  deposed,  and 
Theodosius  raised  to  the  empire  in  his  room. 
Of  this  revolution  Theophanes  gives  us  the 
following  account,  and  with  him  Nicepho- 
rus  and  Cedrenus  agree.  Anastasius  being 
informed  that  their  fleet  of  the  Saracens  had 
sailed  to  Phoenicia,  to  cut  wood  there  for  the 
use  of  their  navy,  he  ordered  his  fleet  to  as- 
semble at  Rhodes  from  the  different  ports 
of  the  empire,  and  to  sail  from  thence  in 
quest  of  the  enemy.  The  fleet  assembled 
accordingly,  at  the  appointed  place  ;  but  the 
two  admirals,  John,  deacon  of  the  great 
church  (the  ecclesiastics  did  not  think  it  in- 
consistent with  their  calling,  to  fight  against 
the  Saracens,)  and  the  patrician  Obsicius, 
falling  out  before  they  went  to  sea,  the  sea- 
men took  the  part  of  the  latter,  killed  John, 
whom  they  hated  on  account  of  his  severity, 
and  thinking  they  could  by  no  other  means 
escape  the  punishment  due  to  their  crime 
but  by  choosing  a  new  emperor,  declared 
Anastasius  unworthy  of  the  empire;  and 
obliged  the  first  man  they  met,  one  Theodo- 
sius, a  person  of  a  mean  extraction,  and 
then  receiver  of  the  revenue  at  Adramyt- 
tium,  to  accept  of  the  purple.  Anastasius, 
upon  the  first  notice  of  the  revolt,  fled  to 
Nice  in  Bythynia,  leaving  a  strong  garrison 
in  Constantinople;  which  city  the  rebels, 
sailing  from  Rhodes,  immediately  invested 
by  sea  and  by  land,  and  took,  by  the  trea- 
chery of  some  of  the  inhabitants,  after  they 
had  continued  six  months  before  it,  and  lost 
a  great  number  both  of  their  men  and  their 
ships.  Anastasius,  hearing  the  metropolis 
was  reduced,  and  choosing  rather  to  trust  to 
the  mercy  of  his  rival,  than  to  suffer  more 
blood  to  be  shed,  deUvered  himself  up  to 
him ;  and  was,  upon  his  renouncing  all 
claim  to  the  empire,  and  promising  to  take 
the  habit  of  a  monk,  banished  by  him  to 
Thessalonica,  after  he  had  reigned  two  years, 
and  eight  months.'  Theodosius  was  very 
little  acquainted  with  matters  of  religion ; 
but  being  told  by  those  about  him,  that  the 
doctrine  of  two  wills  was  the  true  catholic 
doctrine,  and  that  it  had  been  taught  by  the 
apostles  and  the  fathers,  he  confirmed  the 
laws,  which  his  predecessor  had  issued 
against  all  who  taught  or  professed  any 
other. 

In  the  mean  time  the  Lombards  in  Italy, 
improving  to  their  advantage  the  distracted 
state  of  the  empire,  took  by  surprize  the 
city  of  Cumae.  As  the  Roman  church  pos- 
sessed there  a  considerable  patrimony,  and 
the  territories  of  Rome  lay  quite  open,  on 
that  side,  to  the  incursions  of  the  Lombards, 
so  long  as  they  continued  masters  of  that 
place ;  the  pope  strove  by  all  means  to  per- 


"  Theoph.  ad  Ann.  Incar.  secund.  Alexandrin.  707 
Njceph.  in  Chron.  Cedren.  ad  Ann.  Anasi.  2. 


suade  them  to  restore  it,  threatening  them 
with  the  indignation  of  the  prince  of  the 
apostles,  and  vengeance  from  heaven,  for  so 
wicked  an  attempt,  and  even  offering  to  pay 
them  a  large  sum,  and  besides  assuring  them 
of  the  protection  of  St.  Peter,  if  they  with- 
drew their  troops,  and  abstaining  from  all 
further  hostilities,  renewed  the  peace,  which 
they  had  concluded  with  the  empire.  But 
the  Lombards  paid  no  kind  of  regard  to  the 
entreaties,  the  threats,  or  the  offers  of  the 
pope,  who  therefore,  thinking  he  might,  oa 
such  an  occasion,  recur  to  arms,  and  em- 
ploy force  against  force,  wrote  to  John,  duke 
or  governor  of  Naples,  exhorting  him  not 
to  suffer  so  important  a  place  to  remain  in 
the  hands  of  the  enemies  of  the  empire,  and 
engaging  to  pay  him  seventy  pounds  weight 
of  gold  if  he  recovered  it.  The  duke  agreed 
to  the  proposal,  and  marching  in  the  night 
with  Theodimus,  subdeacon  of  the  Roman 
church,  at  the  head  of  a  strong  body  of 
troops,  surprised  the  city  in  his  turn,  put 
three  hundred  of  the  Lombards  to  the  sword, 
and  carried  six  hundred  of  them  back  with 
him  prisoners  to  Naples.'  Baronius  ob- 
serves here,  and  his  observation  is  not  quite 
unworthy  of  notice,  that  as  no  man  can  be 
saved,  who  keeps  what  belongs  to  another, 
to  take  from  him,  even  by  force,  what  he 
unjustly  possesses,  is  in  effect  delivering  him 
from  the  danger  of  eternal  damnation;  and 
it  was,  according  to  him,  with  that  alone,  and 
not  with  any  temporal  view,  that  the  pope 
encouraged  the  governor  of  Naples  to  make 
Avar  on  the  Lombards,  and  take  from  them 
what  in  conscience  and  justice  they  were 
bound  to  restore,  and  consequently  could  not 
be  saved  so  long  as  they  kept  it.-  As  the 
pope  acted  on  so  noble  a  principle,  it  is  a 
great  pity  he  should  have  forgot  to  mention 
it  in  the  several  letters,  which  he  wrote  on 
this  occasion  to  the  governor  and  people  of 
Naples.  For  in  them  the  importance  of  the 
place  which  the  Lombards  had  seized,  their 
treachery  in  seizing  it,  and  the  dangers,  to 
which  the  Roman  territories  were  exposed 
while  it  continued  in  their  hands,  are  the  only 
reasons  he  alleges  why  they  should  by  no 
means  be  suffered  to  keep  it.  The  annalist 
farther  observes,  that  Gregory,  a  man  emi- 
nent for  his  learning  and  sanctity,  did  not 
scruple  recurring  to  arms,  and  recovering, 
by  force  of  arms,  the  possessions  of  the 
church  unjustly  taken  away  by  the  rapa- 
cious laity,  when  all  other  means  of  reco- 
vering them  had  proved  ineffectual;  and 
from  thence  he  concludes,  that  the  successors 
of  Gregory  safely  may,  after  the  example 
of  so  great  and  so  holy  a  pope,  raise  or  hire 
troops,  and  wage  war,  to  recover  what  has 
been  unjustly  taken  from  them,  or  to  defend 
what  they  justly  possess.     But  whether  this 

»  Anast.  in  Greg.  II.  &  Paul.  Diac.  I.  6. 
a  Bar.  ad  Ann.  515.  n.  111. 


22 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


Gregory  If. 


The  emperor  Theodosius  resigns,  and  retires  to  a  monastery: — [Year  of  Christ,  717.]  Leo  Isauricus  chosen 
to  succeed  him.  Received  with  loud  acclamations  at  Constantinople,  and  crowned  by  the  patriarch.  Sends 
his  confession  of  faith  to  the  pope.  The  pope  congratulates  him  on  his  promotion.  A  council  held  at  Rome  • 
[Year  of  Christ,  721.] 


doctrine,  and  the  conduct  of  Gregory,  on 
which  it  is  grounded,  be  agreeable  or  not  to 
the  doctrine  of  our  Savior,  "  resist  not  evil ; 
and  if  any  man  will  sue  thee  at  the  law,  and 
take  away  thy  coat,  let  him  have  thy  cloak 
also ;"'  I  leave  the  reader  to  judge.  To  the 
two  foregoing  observations,  Baronius  might 
have  added  a  third ;  namely,  that  though 
the  Lombards  had  seized,  and  refused  to 
restore  the  rich  patrimony  of  St.  Peter  at 
Cumae ;  Gregory,  a  man  eminent  for  his 
learning  and  sanctity,  did  not,  on  that  account, 
excommunicate  and  deliver  up  to  satan 
either  them  or  their  king ;  and  from  thence 
he  might  have  concluded,  that  the  succes- 
sors of  Gregory  ought  to  follow  therein  the 
example  of  so  great  a  pope,  instead  of 
thundering  excommunications,  anathemas, 
curses,  as  they  now  frequently  do,  and  once 
a  year,  with  great  solemnity,  against  all, 
who  encroach,  or  whom  they  apprehend  to 
encroach,  ever  so  little  on  the  lands  and 
goods  of  the  church. 

The  following  year  the  emperor  Theodo- 
sius, by  the  advice  of  the  senate,  as  well  as 
the  chief  officers  of  the  army,  who  found 
him  quite  unequal  to  so  great  a  trust, 
especially  at  a  time  when  the  Saracens, 
growing  daily  more  powerful,  threatened  the 
metropolis  itself  with  a  seige,  resigned  the 
empire,  and  taking  the  monastic  habit,  re- 
tired with  his  son  to  a  monastery,  in  the  city 
of  Ephesus,  and  there  spent,  undisturbed  by 
his  successor,  tlie  remaining  part  of  his  life 
in  the  exercises  of  piety  and  religion.'^  Upon 
his  resignation,  Leo,  surnamed  Isauricus,  or 
the  Isaurian,  because  a  native  of  Isauria, 
was  chosen  with  one  voice  by  the  senate 
and  the  army,  in  his  room,  as  a  man  of 
known  abilities,  of  an  unblemished  charac- 
ter, and  by  all  thought  the  most  capable  of 
defeating  the  designs  of  the  Saracens,  and 
retrieving  the  honor  of  the  empire.  He  was 
of  a  mean  extraction,  but  of  a  most  comely 
countenance,  of  a  majestic  and  graceful 
mien,  tall,  well-shaped,  and  so  engaging  in 
his  behavior,  as  to  gain  the  good-will  and 
affections  of  all,  with  whom  he  conversed. 
He  served  at  first  in  the  quality  of  a  common 
sentinel ;  but  from  that  low  station  he  raised 
himself  by  his  gallant  behavior,  and  in  the 
course  of  a  few  years,  to  the  highest  posts 
in  the  army.  The  two  emperors  Justinian 
and  Anastasius  employed  him,  and  always 
with  success,  in  several  expeditions  against 
the  barbarians  ;  and  he  was,  when  raised  to 

«  Matth.  c.  5  :  V.  39,  40. 

^  He  is  honored  by  the  Greeks,  as  a  saint,  and  even 
said  by  them  to  have  wrought  miracles  after  his  death. 
When  near  his  end,  he  desired  that  the  word  oyi'iia. 
alone,  that  is,  "health,"  might  be  put  on  his  tomb, 
and  serve  for  his  epitaph,  to  signify,  that  death  alone 
can  cure  us  of  the  many  evils  and  complaints  to  which 
we  are  subject. — (Cedren.  ad  Ann.  Leon.  2.)  He  had 
enjoyed  the  title  of  emperor  about  one  year  and  two 
months. 


the  imperial  dignity,  commander  in  chief  of 
all  the  forces  of  the  empire,  and  at  the  head 
of  a  powerful  army  on  the  frontiers  of  Syria, 
whither  he  had  been  sent  to  cover  Asia 
Minor,  threatened  by  the  Saracens.  From 
thence  he  set  out  upon  the  first  intelligence 
of  his  election,  and  arriving  at  Constaotino- 
ple  on  the  25th  of  March,  he  was  received 
there  by  the  senate,  by  the  officers  of  the 
army,  and  the  people,  with  all  possible  de- 
monstrations of  joy,  and  attended  with  re- 
peated acclamations  to  the  imperial  palace. 
The  next  day  he  was  crowned,  with  great 
solemnity,  by  Germanus  the  patriarch;  and 
took  on  that  occasion  the  usual  oath,  to 
maintain  the  catholic  faith,  as  it  had  been 
taught  by  the  fathers,  pure  and  undefiled.' 
The  ceremony  was  no  sooner  over,  than  he 
wrote  a  very  respectful  and  obliging  letter  to 
the  pope,  to  acquaint  him  with  his  accession 
to  the  crown,  and  at  the  same  time  sent  him, 
according  to  custom,  his  confession  of  faith, 
declaring  therein,  that  he  received,  and  ever 
would  hold  and  maintain,  the  true  catholic 
faith,  as  established  and  defined  by  the  six 
general  councils,  and  the  fathers. 

With  the  emperor's  letter,  the  pope  re- 
ceived one  from  the  patriarch,  assuring  him, 
that  the  emperor  was  quite  orthodox  in  his 
belief;  and  that  his  holiness  might  entirely 
depend  on  the  sincerity  of  his  protestations, 
and  the  purity  of  his  faith.  Upon  the  receipt 
of  these  letters  the  pope,  transported  with  joy, 
wrote  immediately  to  the  emperor  to  con- 
gratulate him,  which  he  did  with  the  warm- 
est expressions  of  respect  and  loyalty,  on  his 
promotion  to  the  empire;  and  to  let  him 
know,  that  he  not  only  received  him  to  his 
communion,  and  acknowledged  him  for  his 
sovereign,  but  would  take  care  that  the 
Christian  princes  in  the  west  should  all 
court  his  alliance,  and  live  with  him  in  per- 
fect friendship  and  amity.  His  images 
were  accordingly,  by  means  of  Gregory,  re- 
ceived with  loud  acclamations  in  all  the  pro- 
vinces and  Christian  kingdoms  in  the  west, 
as  well  as  in  Italy,  and  at  Rome ;  and  he 
was  every  where  acknowledged  for  lawful 
emperor. 

From  this  time  to  the  year  721 ,  we  hear 
nothing  of  Gregory,  besides  his  building  or 
repairing  several  churches  and  monasteries, 
his  striving  to  restore  the  decayed  discipline 
among  the  monks,  and  sending  missionaries 
to  preach  the  Gospel  (if  what  they  preached 
at  this  lime  may  be  called  the  Gospel,)  in 
countries  not  converted  to  the  Christian  re- 
ligion.2  In  the  year  721,  the  pope  assem- 
bled a  council  in  Rome,  and  on  the  5th  of 
April,  to  correct  some  abuses  that  had  be- 
gun to  prevail  in  the  west,  especially  in 
Italy.     The  council  consisted  of  twenty-two 

•  Niceph.  in  Breviar.        *  Anast.  in  Greg.  II. 


Gregort  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


23 


Canons  issued  by  the  council  held  at  Rome.  Winfrid,  or  Boniface,  comes  to  Rome.  Sent  by  the  pope  to  preach 
in  Germany.  He  returns  to  Rome,  and  is  ordained  bishop.  The  oath  he  took  on  that  occasion.  He  lays  it 
in  the  tomb  of  St.  Peter. 


bishops,  among  whom  were  one  from  Scot- 
land, and  another  from  Spain,  who  happen- 
ed to  be  then  at  Rome,  of  eleven  presbyters, 
and  five  deacons.  The  pope  presided,  and 
by  him  were  anathematized  with  the  appro- 
bation of  the  rest,  and  delivered  up  to  sa- 
tan,  in  the  first  eleven  canons,  all,  who 
should  thenceforth  marry  their  fathers,  bro- 
thers, or  sons'  wives,  their  nieces,  cousins, 
or  godmothers,  or  the  wives  of  deacons  and 
presbyters:  for  the  deacons  and  presbyters 
were  still  required,  by  the  canons  of  the 
Roman  church,  though  condemned  and 
anathematized  by  the  fathers  of  the  duini- 
sext  council,'  to  quit  their  wives  when  they 
entered  into  orders ;  and  their  wives,  though 
debarred  from  all  commerce  with  their  hus- 
bands, were  not  to  marry  so  long  as  their 
husbands  lived.  By  the  twelfth,  those  are 
excommunicated,  Avho  consult  soothsayers 
and  sorcerers,  or  use  charms;  and  by  the 
thirteenth,  all  who  seize  or  possess  gardens, 
or  other  lands  belonging  to  the  church.  In 
the  fourteenth,  fifteenth,  and  sixteenth  ca- 
nons are  excommunicated  and  accursed  one 
Adrian,  who  had  married  a  deaconess  named 
Epiphania,  the  deaconess  who  had  con- 
sented to  marry  him,  and  all  who  had  been 
anyways  aiding  or  assisting  to  them  in  so 
wicked  an  action.  By  the  seventeenth  and 
last  canon,  the  clergy  are  forbidden,  on  pain 
of  excommunication,  to  wear  long  hair.^ 
These  canons  were  signed  by  all  who  were 
present,  and  in  the  first  place  by  Gregory 
himself  in  the  following  terms:  "I  Gregory, 
bishop  of  the  holy  catholic  and  apostolic 
church  of  Rome,  have  signed  this  constitu- 
tion published  by  us." 

While  the  pope  was  thus  employe.d,  ar- 
rived at  Rome  from  Germany,  where  he  had 
preached  the  Gospel  with  great  success, 
Winfrid,  afterwards  archbishop  of  Menlz, 
and  known  by  the  name  of  Boniface,  a  man 
entirely  devoted  to  the  see  of  Rome,  and 
one,  who  had  no  less  at  heart  the  interests 
of  that  see,  than  those  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion itself.  He  was  a  native  of  England, 
and  having  embraced  the  m.onastic  life  there, 
he  passed  over  into  Friseland  in  716,  to 
preach  the  Gospel  to  the  people  of  that  coun- 
try. But  a  war  breaking  out  between  Charles 
Martel  and  Radbodus,  king  of  Friseland,  he 
returned  to  England,  and  two  years  after  un- 
dertook, according  to  the  prevailing  hutnor 
of  those  times,  a  pilgrimage  to  Rome.  As 
he  was  warmly  recommended  to  the  pope 
by  Daniel,  bishop  of  the  WestSaxons,  Gre- 
gory received  him  with  extraordinary  marks 
of  kindness  and  esteem,  and  finding  him  a 
man  quite  fit  for  his  purpose,  he  empowered 
him,  with  his  blessing,  and  the  blessing  of 
St.  Peter,  to  preach  the  Gospel  not  in  Frise- 
land only,  but  all  over  Germany,  appointing 


'  See  vol.  I.  p.  494. 


a  Concil.  t.  0.  p.  1455. 


him  his  legate  to  all  the  German  nations. 
Winfrid,   thus   vested   with   the  necessary 
powers,  and  well  furnished  with  relics,  a 
commodity' now  in  great  vogue,  returned  to 
Friseland  ;  and  having,  in  the  course  of  a  few 
years,  established  Christianity  there,  as  well 
as  in  Tliuringia,  in  Hess,  and  in  some  parts 
of  Saxony,  he  dispatched  one  of  his  com- 
panions, pursuant  to  the  instructions  he  had 
received  from  the  pope,  to  acquaint  his  holi- 
ness with  the  success  of  his  mission.     Gre- 
gory was  pleased  with  the  account  of  the 
wondrous  things  he  had  done,  gave  glory  to 
God  and  St.  Peter,  and  at  the  same  time 
wrote  to  Winfrid,  to  congratulate  him  on  his 
success,  and  require  him  to  repair  to  Rorne 
as  soon  as  he  conveniently  could.     Winfrid, 
upon  the  receipt  of  the  pope's  letter,  inter- 
rupting for  a  while  his  apostolic  labors,  has- 
tened to  Rome,  where  he  was,  a  few  days 
after  his  arrival,  ordained  bishop,  the  pope 
changing,  on   that  occasion,  the   northern 
and  barbarous  name  of  Winfrid  into  that  of 
Boniface.     As  Gregory  had  appointed  him 
his  legate  to  all  the  inhabitants  of  Germany, 
and  vested  him  with  the  legatine  power,  he 
required  him,  under  that  pretence,  to  take 
the  following  oath,  at  the  tomb  of  St.  Peter, 
as  soon  as  he  was  ordained;  and  he  took  it 
accordingly  :  "  In  the  name  of  our  Lord  and 
Savior  Jesus  Christ,  in  the  seventh  year  of 
our  most  pious  emperor  Leo,  in  the  fourth 
of  his  son  Constantine,  and  in  the  seventh 
indiction,  I,  Boniface,  by  the  grace  of  God, 
bishop,  promise  to  you,  blessed  Peter,  prince 
of  the  apostles,  to  blessed  Gregory  your  vicar, 
and   to   his   successors,   by   the   undivided 
Trinity,  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  and  by 
this  your  most  sacred  body,  to  maintain  to 
the  last,  with  the  help  of  God,  the  purity  and 
unity  of  the  holy  catholic  faith;  to  consent 
to  nothing  contrary  to  either;  to  consult  in 
all  things,  the  interest  of  your  church,  and 
in  all  things  to  concur  with  you,  to  whom 
power  has  been  given  of  binding  and  loosen- 
ing, with  your  above-mentioned  vicar,  and 
Avith  his  successors.     If  I  shall  hear  of  any 
bishops  acting  contrary  to  the  canons,  I  shall 
not  communicate,  nor  entertain   any  com- 
merce with  them,  but  reprove  and  retrieve 
them,  if  I  can;  if  I  cannot,  I  shall  acquaint 
therewith  my  lord  the  pope.     If  I  do  not 
faithfully  perform  what  I  now  promise,  may 
I  be  found  guilty  at  the  tribunal  of  the  eter- 
nal Judge,  and  incur  the  punishment  inflict- 
ed by  you  on  Ananias  and  Sapphira,  who 
presumed  to  deceive  and  defraud  you.'" 

When  Boniface  had  taken  this  oath  (and 
it  is  the  first  instance  that  occurs  in  history, 
of  an  oath  of  obedience,  or,  as  we  may  call 
it,  of  allegiance,  taken  to  the  pope,)  he  laid 
it,  written  with  his  own  hand,  on  the  pretend- 
ed body  of  St.  Peter,  saying,  "  this  is  the 

«  Othlon.  in  vit.  Bonifac.  1.  2.  c.  1.  14.  20.  et  Willi- 
bald.  in  ejusdeiu'  Vit.  c.  5, 


34 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Gregory  II. 


Boniface  sets  out  on  his  return  to  Germany.  Recommended  by  the  pope  to  Charles  Martel.  His  instructions. 
Ina.  king  of  the  West  Sa.\ons,  embraces  a  monastic  life  at  Rome  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  725.]  Monkery  prevails 
chiefly  in  England.    The  evils  thence  arising  to  the  state. 


oath,  which  I  have  taken,  and  which  I 
promise  to  keep."  And  indeed  how  strictly 
he  kept  it,  what  pains  he  took  to  establish, 
not  in  Germany  only,  but  in  France,  the 
sovereign  power  of  his  lord  the  pope,  and 
bring  ail  other  bishops  to  the  abject  state  of 
dependence  and  slavery,  to  which  he  him- 
self had  so  meanly  submitted,  will  appear  in 
the  sequel. 

The  day  after  his  ordination,  the  pope, 
whom  he  was  bound  to  obey,  presented  him 
with  a  book  of  the  laws  or  canons  of  the 
Roman  church,  charging  him  to  take  those 
laws,  and  the  customs  of  that  church,  for  the 
rule  of  his  conduct,  and  the  conduct  of  his 
clergy,  as  well  as  of  the  people,  whom  he 
should  convert.  The  book  of  the  Gospels 
was,  it  seems,  now  become  too  unfashion- 
able to  be  recommended  to  the  Christian 
converts,  for  the  rule  either  of  their  faith,  or 
their  practice.  Boniface  was  ordained  on 
the  last  day  of  November,  and,  on  the  second 
of  December  he  set  out  from  Rome  on  his  re- 
turn to  Germany,  carrying  with  him  com- 
mendatory letters  from  the  pope  to  Charles 
Martel,  who  at  that  time  governed  the  king- 
dom of  France  with  the  title  of  mayor  of 
the  palace :  to  all  bishops,  presbyters,  dea- 
cons, dukes,  counts,  and  all  Christians  fear- 
ing God :  to  the  clergy  and  people,  whom 
Boniface  had  converted :  to  the  Christians 
of  Thuringia,  and  particularly  to  five  of 
them,  whom  he  names,  *and  who  had,  with 
great  firmness  and  constancy,  suffered  per- 
secution for  the  sake  of  their  new  religion  : 
to  the  pagans  of  Thuringia  :  and  lastly,  to 
the  people  of  the  province  of  the  Alt-Saxons, 
that  is,  of  the  ancient  Saxons.  These  let- 
ters are  all  dated  the  first  of  December,  the 
day  after  the  ordination  of  Boniface,  and  be- 
fore his  departure  from  Rome.  In  them  the 
pope  exhorts  those,  to  whom  they  are  ad- 
dressed, to  assist  the  apostle  of  Germany, 
for  so  he  styles  him,  to  the  utmost  of  their 
power,  and  to  hearken  to  his  instructions ; 
promises  eternal  life  to  those,  who  shall 
concur  with  him  in  promoting  the  great 
work  which  he  has  undertaken  ;  and  eternal- 
ly damns  all,  who  shall  presume  to  obstruct 
it.i  In  his  letter  to  the  clergy  and  people, 
whom  Boniface  had  converted,  he  acquaints 
them  with  the  instructions  he  had  given  him : 
and  the  instructions  were,  I.  To  admit  none 
to  holy  orders,  who  had  been  twice  married, 
or  who  had  not  married  a  virgin  ;  and  none, 
who  were  illiterate,  who  were  maimed  in 
any  part  of  their  body,  who  had  performed 
public  penance,  were  entangled  in  secular 
affairs,  or  had  been  branded  with  any  mark 
of  infamy.  II.  To  ordain  no  Africans,  most 
of  them  being  disguised  Manichees  or  Dona- 
tists.  III.  To  confer  holy  orders  on  the 
Saturdays  of  the  ember  weeks  only.     IV.  To 

'  Othlon.l.  1.  c,  20. 


administer  the  sacrament  of  baptism  at 
Easter  and  Whitsuntide,  and  at  no  other 
time,  unless  in  case  of  necessity.  V.  To 
strive  to  increase  the  ornaments  and  estates 
of  the  church,  and  take  care  never  to  lessen 
or  impair  them.  VI.  To  divide  the  eccle- 
siastical revenues,  as  well  as  the  oblations, 
into  four  shares,  one  to  be  given  to  the  bi- 
shop, another  to  the  clergy,  the  third  to  the 
poor,  and  the  pilgrims,  and  the  fourth  to  be 
employed  on  the  fabric'  These  instructions 
Gregory  copied  verbatura,  from  an  epistle 
written  by  pope  Gelasius  in  494,  to  the  bi- 
shops of  Lucania,  of  the  Brutii,  and  of 
Sicily.2 

Of  Gregory  nothing  else  occurs  in  history 
worthy  of  notice,  till  the  year  725,  when  he 
received  at  Rome  Ina,  or,  as  Bede  calls  him, 
Hun,  king  of  the  West  Saxons,  who,  having 
resigned  his  kingdom  after  a  reign  of  thirty- 
seven  years,  and  renounced  the  world  to 
embrace  a  monastic  life,  went  this  year  in 
pilgrimage  to  the  tombs  of  the  apostles.3 
He  was  pursuaded  by  his  queen  Ethelburg, 
a  most  religious  woman,  according  to  the 
religion  of  those  days,  to  undertake  that 
journey,  as  well  as  to  quit  both  his  kingdom 
and  the  world ;  and  she  attended  him  to 
Rome,  retiring  on  her  return  to  England  to 
a  monastery,  where  she  spent  the  remaining 
part  of  her  life.''  To  retire  from  the  world, 
to  bury  one's  talents  in  a  monastery,  and  to 
become  thereby  quite  useless,  or  rather  bur- 
densome, to  the  public,  was  deemed,  at  this 
time,  the  height  of  all  Christian  protection, 
and  a  full  atonement  for  all  kinds  of  sins.5 
This  notion  seems  to  have  prevailed  chiefly 
in  England ;  for  in  the  compass  of  two  hun- 
dred and  twenty  years,  we  read  of  no  fewer 
than  thirty  English  kings  and  queens  laying 
doAvn  their  crowns,  to  bury  themselves  in 
monasteries ;  and,  by  that  means,  robbing 
the  people,  for  whose  sake  they  had,  by  kind 
Providence,  been  placed  in  that  station,  of 
the  blessing  they  enjoyed  under  their  wise 
administration.  Their  example  was  follow- 
ed by  such  multitudes  of  people  of  all  ranks, 
conditions,  and  callings,  that  Bede,  though  a 
monk  himself,  and  a  great  admirer  of  the 
monkish  profession,  seems  to  have  appre- 
hended, that  great  mischiefs  would  thence, 
in  process  of  time,  arise  to  the  state.  For, 
speaking  of  the  crowds,  that  flocked  daily  to 
monasteries,  he  expresses  himself  thus : 
"peace  being  established  in  the  kingdom  of 
Northumberland,  both  the  nobility  and  com- 
mon  people,  laying  aside  the  exercise  of 


'  Othlon.  1.  1.  c.  20. 

2  Gelas.  ep  4.  Vide  Coint.  in  Annal.  Eccl.  Franc,  ad 
Ann.  722.  n.  17.  =  Bed.  1.  5.  c.  7. 

■•  Malms,  de  gest.  Reg.  Ang.  1.  1.  c.  2. 

6  In  the  collections  ascribed  to  Theodore,  archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  the  ceremony  of  putting  on  the  monk- 
ish habit  is  called  a  second  baptism,  and  is  said  to  be 
no  less  effectual  than  the  first  in  cleansing  them,  who 
take  it,  from  all  sin.— (Concil.  t.  6.  Labb.  col.  1875.) 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


35 


Gregory  II.] 

Bede's  opinion  of  the  monasteries  of  his  time.  England  never  tributary  to  Rome.   The  pope's  answer  to  some 
doubts  of  Boniface  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  726.] 


arms, betook  themselves  to  monasteries,  and' 
persuaded  their  children  to  retire  thither  too  : , 
but  what  this  will  end  in,  time  must  show.'" 
The  same  venerable  historian,  in  the  letter' 
he  wrote  in  735,  a  little  before  his  death,  to 
Egbert,  archbishop  of  York,  tells  that  pre- 
late, that  it  is  his  duty  to  make,  together 
with  the  king,  such  regulations  with  respect 
to  monasteries,  as  might  be  most  for  the  ho- 
nor of  God,  and  the  good  of  his  country, 
lest  their  numbers  increasing,  the  kingdom 
should  thereby  lose  its  main  strength,  and 
be  rendered  incapable  of  withstanding  a 
foreign  invasion.^  In  the  same  letter  he 
advises  Egbert  to  lessen,  with  the  approba- 
tion of  the  king  and  his  council,  the  number 
of  monasteries,  rather  than  suffer  them  to 
increase ;  to  erect  in  their  stead  new  episco- 
pal sees,  and  endow  them  with  the  lands 
and  revenues  of  the  suppressed  monasteries, 
that  "  those  houses,  of  which  many,"  he 
says,  "  are,  as  we  all  know,  unworthy  of  the 
name  of  monasteries,  may  be  thus  brought 
from  serving  the  ends  of  pride  and  vanity, 
to  bear  part  of  the  necessary  charges  attend- 
ing the  episcopal  office."^  He  adds,  that  to 
employ  thus  the  wealth  of  such  monasteries, 
Avas  no  crime,  but  rather  a  great  instance  of 
wisdom  and  virtue;  it  being  no  more  a 
crime  in  one  prince,  to  convert  the  mistaken 
charities  of  another  to  better  uses  and  pur- 
poses, than  it  is  a  crime  in  a  just  and  wise 
judge  to  reverse  a  wrong  judgment,  or  in  a 
good  clerk  or  scribe  to  correct  the  mistakes 
of  a  bad  one.  From  these  words,  and  from 
what  he  farther  adds,  namely,  that  notwith- 
standing the  great  number  of  monasteries 
there  was  scarce  a  place  fit  for  the  education 
of  youth,  or  for  men,  who  were  tired  of  the 
Avorld,  to  retire,''  it  is  manifest  that  monaste- 
ries were  far  from  being,  even  at  this  lime, 
those  schools  of  learning  and  virtue,  which 
the  legendary  writers  would  persuade  us 
they  were. 

But  to  return  to  Ina;  he  is  said,  by  Polydore 
Virgil,  to  have  made  his  kingdom  tributary 
to  the  pope  and  St.  Peter,  and  to  have  laid 
on  every  house  or  family,  in  his  dominions, 
the  tax  of  a  silver  penny,  known  by  the 
name  of  Rome-scot,  or  Peter-pence,  to  be 
paid  annually  to  the  pope,  or  St.  Peter,  as  a 
token  of  their  subjection  to  the  apostolic 
see.*  But  the  truth  is,  that  tax  was  imposed 
by  Ina,  with  a  design,  as  Matthew  of  West- 
minster informs  us,  to  build  a  house,  or,  as 
we  may  call  it,  a  college,  in  Rome  for  the 
education  of  the  youth  of  his  kingdom,  as 
well  as  for  the  reception  of  such  of  his  suc- 
cessors or  subjects,  as  should  undertake  pil- 
grimages, now  daily  undertaken  in  England, 
by  persons  of  both  sexes,  and  all  ranks,  to 
the  tombs  of  the  apostles ;  and  to  that  use 


'  Bede  Hist.  Ecrles.  1.  5.  c.  4. 

»  Tdem,  Ep.  ad  Ecbert.  p.  259.     »  Idem  ibid. 

'  Idem  ibid.  p.  260,  261.  »  Polydor    Virg    1.  5. 

Vol.  II.— 4 


it  was  applied.  For  with  the  money  accru- 
ing from  that  tax,  Ina  not  only  built  and  en- 
dowed a  house,  where  the  west-Saxon  youth 
were  educated,  and  the  pilgrims  received 
and  entertained,  but  likewise  a  church  ad- 
joining to  it,  and  dedicated  to  the  virgin 
Mary,  where  the  English  performed  divine 
service,  and  were  buried  if  they  happened 
to  die  at  Rome.  That  college,  or  school,  as 
it  is  called  by  our  historians,  was  afterwards 
enlarged,  and  its  revenues  greatly  increased, 
by  Offa,  king  of  Mercia,  who,  in  791,  im- 
posed the  same  tax  on  his  subjects,  and  for 
the  same  purpose.  But  the  house  being, 
some  time  after,  consumed  by  fire,  Ethel- 
wolph,  not  satisfied  with  rebuilding  it  at  an 
extraordinary  expense,  and  with  great  mag- 
nificence, imposed,  for  its  better  support,  on 
the  whole  kingdom,  the  tax  of  Rome-scot, 
or  Peter-pence,  till  then,  that  is,  till  the  mid- 
dle of  the  ninth  century,  levied  only  in 
Wessex  and  Mercia.  These  charities,  for 
they  were  no  more  than  charities,  have  been, 
by  Polydore  Virgil,  and  after  him,  by  all  the 
popish  writers,  turned  into  tributes ;  as  if 
the  three  above-mentioned  kings  had  made 
their  kingdoms  tributary  to  Rome,  and  had 
thereby  acknowledged  themselves  the  vas- 
sals of  their  liege  lord  the  pope.  But  of  that, 
though  worthy  of  particular  observation,  not 
the  least  notice  is  taken  by  any  of  our  ancient 
historians  ;  nay,  Matthew  of  Westminster, 
and  Matthew  Paris  tell  us  in  express  terms, 
that  the  money  arising  from  the  aforesaid  tax 
was  sent  to  Rome,  for  the  support  of  the 
English  there,  and  that  it  was  raised  for  that 
purpose.'  But  that  charity  the  popes  after- 
wards abused,  converting  it  to  their  own 
use;  and  it  was,  in  all  likelihood,  to  excuse 
that  misapplication  and  abuse,  that  they  pre- 
tended it  was  not  a  charity,  but  a  tribute  to 
St.  Peter,  which  they  might  consequently 
dispose  of  at  their  pleasure.  However  that 
be,  certain  it  is,  that  the  same  tax  was  con- 
tinued all  over  England,  and  levied,  when 
there  was  no  farther  occasion  for  it,  by  col- 
lectors sent  from  Rome,  (one  of  whom  was 
Polydore  Virgil,  who  came  first  into  Eng- 
land with  that  character,)  till  Henry  VIII. 
quarreling  with  the  pope,  eased  his  people 
of  that  burden. 

The  following  year  the  pope  received  a 
letter  from  Boniface,  the  apostle  of  Ger- 
many, containing  several  questions  or  doubts 
to  be  resolved  by  him,  and  among  the  rest 
these  two;  I.  Whether  children,  sons  or 
daughters,  when  offered  up  to  God  by  their 
parents,  and  placed  by  them  in  monasteries, 
may,  when  they  attain  to  the  years  of  dis- 
cretion, quit  their  monasteries,  and  marry. 
II.  Whether  a  man,  whose  wife  is  by  sick- 
ness rendered  incapable  of  complying  with 
the  conjugal  duty,  may  in  that  case  marry 
another.     To  the  first  the  pope  answers. 

'  Mattb.  Paris  in  Vit.  Willegod 

c 


26 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Gregory  H. 


Leo  commands  the  Montanists  and  Jews  to  receive  the  sacrament  of  baptism.  The  Jews  comply,  but  not  the 
Montanists.  The  emperor  shocked  at  the  worship  that  was  given  to  images.  He  resolves  to  abolish  it. 
Not  unapprised  of  the  difficulty  of  such  an  undertaking. 


that  it  is  not  lawful  for  children,  consecrated 
to  God  by  their  parents,  to  change  their  state 
and  marry;  and  consequently  that  they  must 
observe  celibacy,  though  not  their  own 
choice,  and  live  continent,  whether  they 
have  the  gift  of  continency,  or  have  it  not. 
A  most  equitable  decision,  and  entirely 
agreeable  to  the  doctrine  of  St.  Paul!'  In 
answer  to  the  second,  Gregory  would  have 
the  husband  to  contain,  if  he  can ;  but  de- 
clares it  lawful  for  him,  if  he  cannot,  to 
marry  another  wife.'^  If  so,  why  should 
not  those,  who  have  been  offered  up  to  God 
by  their  parents,  be  nevertheless  allowed  to 
marry,  if  they  cannot  contain  ?  Why  should 
not  a  deacon,  a  presbyter,  and  even  a  bishop  7 
Is  any  vow  or  promise  they  can  make  more 
binding  or  sacred  than  the  vow  of  matrimo- 
ny? But  the  doctrine  laid  down  here  by 
the  infallible  pope,  is  now  rank  heresy  in  the 
church  of  Rome ;  and  the  council  of  Trent 
denounces  anathema  against  all,  who  think 
the  bond  of  matrimony  dissoluble  in  any 
case  whatever,  even  in  case  of  adultery  f  it 
being  as  a  sign  or  emblem,  says  Bellarmine,'' 
of  the  indissoluble  conjunction  of  Christ 
with  his  church. 

The  church  had  now  for  the  space  of 
twelve  years,  that  is,  ever  since  the  year  713, 
when  Philippicus,  the  Monothelite  emperor 
was  driven  from  the  throne,  enjoyed  a  pro- 
found peace  and  tranquillity,  none  daring 
under  the  two  succeedin'g  emperors,  Anas- 
tasius  and  Theodosius,  nor  indeed  under  the 
present  emperor  Leo,  to  profess  the  Mono- 
thelite or  any  other  doctrine  condemned  by 
the  church;  nay,  Leo,  though  in  other  re- 
spects a  very  wise  prince,  suffering  him- 
self to  be  carried  by  his  zeal  beyond  all 
bounds,  issued  an  edict  in  the  sixth  year  of 
his  reign,  commanding  the  Montanists,  or 
the  followers  of  the  famous  Montanus,^  and 
even  the  Jews,  to  receive  the  sacrament  of 
baptism,  and  profess  the  Christian  and  ca- 
tholic faith,  on  pain  of  death,  and  the  for- 
feiture of  all  their  effects.  With  that  edict 
the  Jews  pretended  to  comply  ;  but  the  Mon- 
tanists, more  honest  than  they,  chose  rather 
to  die  than  dissemble;  and  shutting  them- 
selves up  in  their  houses  by  common  con- 
sent, or,  as  they  pretended,  by  divine  in- 
spiration, set  fire  to  them,  and  consumed 
themselves  and  all  their  effects  in  the 
flames.® 

But  the  emperor,  however  zealous  in 
maintaining  and  propagating  the  catholic 
faith,  could  not  approve  of  a  custom  or  prac- 
tice, which  had  begun  to  obtain,  and  which 
he  found,  to  his  no  small  surprise,  several 
prelates  of  the  church,  and  among  the  rest 


1  1  Corinth,  c.  7:  v.  9. 

■>  Greg.  Ep.  13.  Concil.  1.  6.  p.  1446. 

=  Concil.  Trident.  Sess.  24.  Can.  7. 

*  Bellar.  de  Matrim.  1.  1.  c.  16. 

»  See  vol.  I.  p.  14.        c  Theoph.  ad  Ann.  Incarn.  714. 


the  patriarch  himself,  more  inclined  to  favor 
and  promote,  than  to  oppose  or  discounte- 
nance ;  I  mean  the  practice  of  worshiping 
images  so  much  abhorred,  and  so  often  con- 
demned, by  the  primitive  church,  and  the 
fathers.  For  the  people,  not  satisfied  with 
using  images  only  for  instruction,  or  as  helps 
to  devotion  and  memory,  the  only  ends  for 
which  they  had  been  first  allowed,  and  very 
unadvisedly,  to  be  set  up  in  churches  and 
places  of  worship,  had  begun  to  use  them  no 
longer  as  helps  to,  but  as  the  objects  of  their 
devotion,  bowing  down  to  them,  prostrating 
themselves  before  them,  kissing  them,  &c. 
But  that  kind  of  worship  Leo  looked  upon, 
and  so  did  the  bishops,  whom  he  consulted 
on  so  important  an  occasion,  not  only  as 
plainly  repugnant  to  the  worship,  "in  spirit 
and  truth,"  recommended  by  our  Savior  in 
the  Gospel,  but  as  rank  idolatry,  and  as  ex- 
pressly forbidden  in  the  decalogue  as  theft, 
murder,  or  adultery.  He  had  therefore  re- 
solved, as  soon  as  he  was  at  leisure  from  his 
wars,  and  the  more  urgent  affairs  of  the  state, 
to  put  a  stop  to  the  growing  superstition,  and 
restore  the  Christian  worship  to  its  primitive 
purity.  Pursuant  to  that  resolution,  having 
at  length  by  his  valor  and  conduct  settled  the 
empire  in  peace,  he  undertook  the  intended 
reformation ;  and  undertook  it  the  more  readi- 
ly, as  he  looked  on  the  surprising  success, 
that  had  attended  his  arms,  as  a  sure  token  of 
the  approbation  of  heaven,  and  a  certain 
pledge  of  a  particular  assistance  and  pro- 
tection in  carrying  the  design  he  had  formed 
into  execution.  The  wise  prince  was  not 
unapprised  of  the  difficulty  of  such  an  un- 
dertaking, and  the  danger,  to  which  it  would 
expose  him,  of  loosing  his  crown,  and  per- 
haps his  life  too  :  for  though  the  worship 
of  images  bad  but  lately  begun  to  obtain, 
though  it  had  not  yet  been  approved  by  any 
council  or  assembly  of  bishops  whatever; 
yet  as  it  was  wonderfully  suited  to  the  in- 
clination and  humor  of  the  people,  it  obtain- 
ed already  among  them  almost  universally, 
especially  in  the  imperial  city,  being  coun- 
tenanced there  by  the  patriarch.  Besides, 
the  monks,  who  had  a  great  ascendant  over 
the  ignorant  multitude,  and  had  begun  to 
feel  the  good  effects  of  the  new  superstition 
in  the  wealth  of  their  churches  and  monas- 
teries, had  all  to  a  man  declared  for  it, 
preached  it  to  the  people,  and  daily  con- 
firmed it  with  the  most  absurd  tales  of  visions 
and  miracles  invented  by  them  for  that  pur- 
pose. The  emperor  therefore  well  knew, 
that  the  monks  would  every  where  oppose, 
to  the  utmost  of  their  power,  the  designed 
reformation,  and  exert  the  same  zeal  in  stii- 
ring  up  the  populace  against  him  as  had 
been  formerly  exerted  by  the  craftsmen  of 
Ephesus,  in  stirring- up  the  populace  against 
the  apostle  of  the  Gentiles  preaching.  "  that 
they  be  no   Gods   which   are  maae  with 


Gregory  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


27 


The  emperor  acquaints  the  senate  and  clergy  with  his  design,  and  isisues  an  edict  against  images.  Leo  did 
not  by  this  edict  cniumand  images  to  be  destroyed,  but  only  forbid  them  to  be  worshiped.  That  edict  not 
issued  at  the  instigation  of  the  Jews. 


hands.'"  However,  thinking  it  incumbent 
upon  him  to  attempt,  at  all  events,  the  cure 
of  so  great  an  evil,  and  being  at  the  same 
time  terrified  with  some  extraordinary  events, 
which  had  lately  happened,  and  which  he 
looked  upon  as  so  many  tokens  of  the  wrath 
of  heaven  against  the  people  for  the  idola- 
trous worship,  which  they  gave  to  images, 
as  well  as  against  himself  for  conniving^  at 
it,  he  resolved  to  endure  it  no  longer.  Having 
therefore  assembled,  in  one  or  two  distinct 
councils,  the  clergy  and  the  senate  (for  he  is 
said  on  this  occasion  to  have  called  a  synod, 
and  convened  the  senate),  he  acquainted 
them  with  his  design;  and  finding  several 
bishops  ready  to  concur  with  him  in  the  ex- 
ecution of  it,  and,  no  doubt,  the  greater  part 
of  the  laity,  who  could  have  no  interest  in 
opposing  such  an  undertaking,^  he  issued  an 
edict  forbidding  any  kind  of  worship  to  be 
thenceforth  given  to  images,  and  caused  it 
to  be  immediately  notified  to  all  the  subjects 
of  the  empire. 

This  famous  edict  the  emperor  published 
in  the  tenth  year  of  his  reign,  the  twelfth  of 
pope  Gregory  the  second  of  that  name,  and 
726th  of  the  Christian  era ;  a  year  ever  me- 
morable in  the  ecclesiastical  annals  for  the 
dispute,  to  which  that  edict  first  gave  occa- 
sion, and  the  unheard  of  disturbances  v/hich 
the  dispute  it  occasioned  raised  both  in  the 
church  and  the  state.  And  truly  this,  it 
must  be  owned,  was  the  most,  I  may  say, 
the  only  important  controversy  that  had  been 
yet  moved  in  the  church  ;  the  parties  dis- 
agreeing, not  about  mere  metaphysical  and 
empty  speculations,  whether  in  Christ  was 
one  person  or  two,  one  nature  or  two,  one 
will  and  one  operation,  or  two  wills  and"  two 
operations  ?  but  concerning  a  most  essential 
and  practical  point  of  the  Christian  religion 
and  worship,  whether,  notwithstanding  the 
divine  prohibition,  "  Thou  shah  not  make 
to  thyself  any  graven  image,  &.C.,  Thou 
shalt  not  bow  down  to  them,  nor  worship 

them,"  it  was  lawful  to  make  graven  images,  death  of  his  father  on  the  Jewish  impostors,  bein? 
to    bow    down    to    them,  to   worship    them  ?i  no   doubt  fuIly  satisfied,  that  it  was  a  judgment  upon 

And  here  it^is  to  be  observed,  that  Leo  did  j  J^;|J;j^^X;;;^Ji-^--^,;-^--^,- 

not  by  his  edict  order  at  once,  as  is  supposed  |  but  the  Jews  by  a  timely  llight  into  Isauria,  escaped 
by  Baronius,^  images  to  be  every  where  'he  punishment' that  was  due  to  their  crime.  \Vhil« 
.      11     1    1  .     u  .         .     r  .1         u         u       'they  were  traveling  in  that  province,  ihev   one  dav 

pulled  down,  to  be  cast  out  of  the  churche.S  ih.„fpened  to  meet  a  young  lad  named  Conon,  driving 
and  broken,  but  only  forbid  them  to  be  wor-    an  ass  loaded  wiih  small  wares  to  sell  about  the  neigh 

shipped;  nay,  he  was  not,  it  seems, at  first, 


averse  to  the  use  of  images  as  ornaments, 
or  even  as  helps  to  devotion  and  memory, 
provided  no  worship  was  given  to  them  : 
for,  at  the  same  time  that  he  forbid  them  to 
be  worshiped,  he  ordered  them  to  be  placed 
higher  in  the  churches,  that,  as  men  were 
divided  in  their  opinions  about  them,  they 
might  neither  be  worshiped  nor  abused ; 
and  it  was  not  till  he  found  by  experience, 
that,  so  long  as  images  were  allowed,  idola- 
try could  not  be  prevented,  for  so  he  called 
it,  that  he  ordered  them  to  be  cast  out  of  the 
churches  and  broken. 

The  later  Greek  historians,  Cedrenus,  Zo- 
naras,  Glycas,  and  Constantine  Manasses, 
to  prejudice  their  credulous  and  ignorant 
readers  against  the  emperor  Leo,  and  his 
present  undertaking,  will  have  the  above- 
mentioned  edict  to  have  been  issued  by  him 
at  the  instigation  of  the  Jews,  the  avowed 
enemies  of  the  Christian  religion  ;  and  the 
story  they  invented  for  that  purpose,  though 
destitute  even  of  the  least  appearance  of 
truth,  and  only  calculated  for  the  dark  and 
ignorant  ages  in  which  they  wrote,  is  still 
gravely  related  by  the  advocates  for  the  wor- 
ship of  images,  in  the  account  they  give  us 
of  the  first  rise  or  origin  of  what  they  call 
the  heresy  of  the  Iconoclasts,  or  breakers 
of  imaijes.'     But  what  the  true  motives  that 


»  Bar.  ad  Ann.  726.  n.  2.  Maimbourg.  Hist,  de  I'He- 
resie  des  Iconoclast. 

They  gravely  tell  us  the  following  tale,  which  I 
should  not  have  thought  worthy  of  a  place  in  this  his- 
tory, were  it  not  delivered  by  Baronius,  by  Maii;i- 
bourg,  by  Natalis  Alexander,  and  many  others,  as  a 
truth  not  to  be  questioned.  While  Izid  or  Jezid,  ca- 
liph of  the  Saracens,  reigned  in  Syria,  two  Jews,  well 
skilled  in  magic  and  astrology,  being  admitted  to  his 
presence,  under  color  of  having  something  of  great 
moment  to  communicate  to  him,  assured  him,  that  he 
would  be  blessed  with  a  long  and  happy  reign,  pro- 
vided he  caused  the  images,  which  the  Christians 
worshiped,  to  be  demolished  throughout  his  domi- 
nions. The  caliph  gave  entire  credit  to  the  two  im- 
postors ;  and  a  most  rigorous  edict  was  immediately 
issued  against  images.  But  Providence  interposed  in 
their  defence,  and  the  unhappy  Jezid  died  before  his 
edict  could  be  put  in  execution.  He  was  succeeded 
by  his  son  Mohavias,  who   resolved   to   revenge  the 


boring  villages  ;  and  having  observed  something  very 
extraordinary  in  his  mien  and  deportment  (for  they 
were,  it  seems,  as  well  skilled  in  physiognomy  as  in 
«  Acts  c.  19:  v.  26.  astrology  and   magic,)  they  invited  fiim  to  sit  down 

"As  all  records  and  writings  against  images  were,  j  and  refresh  himself  with  them.  The  youth  coni- 
by  the  ninth  canon  of  the  second  council  of  Nice,  or-  '  plied  ;  and  the  Jews,  having  learned  of  what  country 
dercd  to  be  destroyed,  we  know  nothing  of  this  but  he  was,  his  name  and  profession,  and  the  names  anil 
what  we  read  in  the  acts  of  that  council  ;  and  there  profession  of  his  parents,  assured  him  thereupon,  that 
it  iR  said,  that  several  bishops,  and  among  the  rest,  notwithstanding  the  meanness  of  his  birth,  and  his  pre- 
'."onstanline.  bishop  of  Nacolia,  in  Phrygia,  approved  sent  condition,  he  would  one  day  attain  to  the  empire, 
of  Leo's  impious  design,  and  concurred  with  him  in  The  Jesuit  Maimbourg.  in  his  history  of  the  Icono- 
tlie  execution  of  it.  It  was  not,  therefore,  without  clasts,  or  image-breakers,  or  rather  in  the  romance 
coniulting  a  single  bishop,  and  only  at  the  instigation  which  he  wrote  on  that  subject,  tells  us  even  at  what 
of  some  of  the  most  wicked  aTiiong  the  laity,  thai  Leo  hour  of  the  day  the  Jews  and  young  Conon  met  on  the 
undertook  to  make  war  upon  images, as  has  been  con-  road;  points  out  the  very  plaie  where  they  sat  down 
lideiitl-  ,-)dvanced  by  Baronius,  and  after  him  by  Maim-  together  ;  relates  several  particulars  of  that  conversa- 
bourg.  i.vl  other  popish  writers.  tion,  which  his  original  authors,  less  accurate  than  he. 

^  "ar.  ad  Ann.  726.  |  had  passed  over  in  silence  ;  nay,  and  even  informs  us, 


28 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Gregory  H. 


What  the  doctrine  and  practice  of  the  primitive  church  were  concerning  images, 
used  during  the  first  three  centuries  of  the  church. 


No  images  worsliiped  or 


induced  Leo  to  put  a  stop  to  the  worship 
of  images,  we  have  seen  already ;  and  be- 


how  Conon  in  tne  mean  time  disposed  of  his  ass  ;  inso- 
much that  from  his  account  one  would  conclude  that  he 
had  been  one  of  the  company, —  (Mainib.  Hist.des  Ico- 
nocl.  1. 1.)  Conon,  less  credulous  than  the  caliph,  gave 
at  first  no  ear  to  the  Jews,  thinking  that  they  only  di- 
verted themselves  at  his  expense,  and  took  delight  like 
common  fortune-tellers,  in  feeding  him  with  vain 
hopes.  But  as  they  positively  affirmed,  that  what  they 
had  foretold  him  would, certainly  come  to  pass,  and  af- 
firmed it  over  and  over  again  with  great  gravity,  he 
began  at  last  to  hearken  to  them,  and  asked  them  what 
reward  they  expected  for  so  flattering  and  pleasing  a 
prediction  :  as  to  reward,  answered  the  Jews,  we 
expect  no  other  for  the  present,  but  that  you  promise, 
upon  oath,  to  grant  us  what  we  shall  ask  when  our 
prediction  is  fulfilled,  and  you  in  a  condition  to  grant 
it.  Conon,  now  no  longer  questioning  their  sincerity, 
repaired  with  them,  as  they  required  him,  to  the 
neighboring  church  of  the  martyr  St.  Theodore  ;  and 
there,  being  assured  anew  by  the  two  fortune-tellers 
of  his  future  promotion,  and  besides  of  an  hundred 
years  of  life,  he  bound  himself  by  a  solemn  oath  to 
grant  them,  when  raised  to  the  empire,  whatever  they 
should  ask.  They  then  took  leave  of  each  other  ;  and 
Conon,  from  a  pedlar,  became  at  once  a  candidate  for  the 
empire,  went  immediately  and  enrolled  himself  in  the 
army,  changing  his  former  name  into  that  of  Leo,  as 
better  suiting  his  new  profession.  And  truly  his  be- 
liavior  was  answerable  to  his  name;  for,  relying  on 
the  promise  of  the  Jews,  and  consequently  regardless 
of  all  danger,  he  distinguished  himself  on  all  occa- 
sions in  a  most  eminent  manner ;  and  thus  rising  by 
degrees,  he  was  at  last,  after  thirty  years  service, 
appointed  commander-in-chief  of  all  the  imperial 
forces,  and  soon  after  raised  to  the  empire.  He  was 
scarce  seated  in  the  throne,  when  the  two  Jews  ap- 
pearing before  him,  and  putting  him  in  mind  of  his 
promise,  challenged  the  performance  of  it,  since  their 
prediction  was  at  last  fully  accomplished.  The  em- 
peror, now  satisfied  that  they  were  not  impostors,  but 
true  prophets,  divinely  inspired,  and  apprehending 
that  as  they  had  raised  him  from  the  lowest  station  in 
life  to  the  highest,  so  they  might  from  the  highest  de- 
grade him  to  the  lowest,  told  them,  that  he  well  re- 
membered his  promise,  that  he  owned  himself  in- 
debted to  them  for  the  empire,  and  was  therefore 
ready  to  comply  with  their  demands,  be  they  what 
they  would.  Hereupon  the  Jews,  as  being  of  all  men 
the  most  void  of  self-interest,  instead  of  laying  liold 
of  so  favorable  an  opportunity  to  enrich  themselves, 
or  to  obtain  some  advantageous  grantor  exemption  in 
behalf  of  themselves  and  their  nation,  at  this  very 
time  most  miserably  oppressed,  contented  themselves 
with  asking  the  same  favor  of  the  emperor,  which 
they  had  asked  thirty  years  before  of  the  caliph  :  that 
he  would  cause  the  second  commandment  to  be  strictly 
observed  by  the  Christians,  and  order  for  that  pur- 
pose the  images,  to  which  they  paid,  in  defiance  of 
that  commandment,  an  idolatrous  worship,  to  be  de- 
stroyed throughout  his  dominions.  The  emperor  was 
greatly  surprised,  and  well  he  might,  at  the  disinter- 
estedness of  the  Jews,  and  their  zeal  for  the  obser- 
vance of  the  law  ;  and  no  less  was  he  pleased  with 
their  asking  what  it  would  cost  him  nothing  to  grant, 
when  they  might  have  asked,  and  he  expected  they 
would,  half  the  wealth  of  the  empire.  He  therefore 
renewed  with  great  joy,  the  promise  which  he  had 
formerly  made  ;  and  in  compliance  with  it,  issued  in 
due  time,  the  above-mentioned  edict.  Thus  the  histo- 
rians, whom  I  have  quoted  above;  and  what  credit 
they  deserve  I  leave  the  reader  to  judge,  only  observ- 
ing here,  that  of  such  an  extraordinary  event  not  the 
least  notice  is  taken  by  any  of  the  contemporary  his- 
torians, nor  indeed  by  any  writer  whatever,  till  near 
four  hundred  years  after  it  is  said  to  have  happened  ; 
that  by  no  emperor  were  the  Jews  more  cruelly  per- 
secuted than  by  Leo,  who  is  supposed  to  have  been 
indebted  to  them  for  the  empire  ;  that  the  fathers  of 
the  second  council  of  Nice,  whose  authority  no  papist 
will  question,  suppose  Izid  to  have  issued  his  edict 
against  images  at  the  instigation  of  the  Jews,  in  the 
seventh  year  of  Leo's  reign  ;  and  consequently,  that 
if  their  authority  may  be  relied  on,  the  whole  account 
of  the  adventure  of  Leo,  of  his  meeting,  while  yet  a 
youth,  the  Jews,  who  had  deceived  Izid,  of  his  being 
foretold  by  them,  that  he  should  one  day  attain  to  the 
empire,  &c.,  must  be  a  mere  fable. 


sides,  what  matters  it  whether  it  was  by  a 
Christian  or  a  Jew,  by  a  bishop  or  a  Rabbi, 
that  he  was  persuaded  to  forbid  that  kind  of 
worship?  If  it  is  a  thing  unlawful  in  itself 
to  worship  images,  it  would  have  been  no 
less  commendable  in  him  to  have  forbidden 
them  to  be  worshiped  at  the  persuasion  of  a 
Jew,  or  a  Mahometan,  than  at  the  persua- 
sion of  a  Christian  ;  as  it  would  be  no  less 
commendable  in  a  prince  to  issue  severe 
laws  against  theft,  murder,  or  adultery,  at 
the  persuasion  of  a  Jew,  than  at  the  persua- 
sion of  a  Christian.  The  Jews  indeed  were, 
it  must  be  owned,  the  first  Iconoclasts,  nay 
and  for  many  ages,  the  only  Iconoclasts  in 
the  world,  as  they  were  for  many  ages  the 
only  true  worshipers  of  the  true  God ;  and 
we  never  find  them  rebuked  by  their  pro- 
phets for  their  aversion  to  images,  but,  on  the 
contrary,  most  severely  punished  and  re- 
proved, when  of  Iconoclasts  they  became 
Iconolaters,  and  worshiped  images  instead 
of  breaking  them. 

The  above-mentioned  edict  was  no  sooner 
published,  than  the  monks  took  the  alarm, 
and  with  them  the  populace.  But  as,  in 
order  to  justify  the  many  enormous  excesses, 
which  they  committed,  and  I  shall  have  oc- 
casion to  relate,  they  pretended  that  the 
practice  of  setting  up  and  worshiping  images, 
condemned  by  Leo,  had  been  ever  approved 
by  the  church  ;  and  therefore  branded  that 
most  religious  and  excellent  emperor  with 
the  reproachful  names  of  innovator,  apos- 
tate, heretic,  nay,  and  heresiarch,  as  if  no 
Christian  before  him  but  Jews  only,  and 
Saracens,  had  thought  such  a  practice  un- 
lawful, or  presumed  to  condemn  it ;  it  may 
not  be  improper  to  inquire,  before  I  proceed, 
what  was  the  practice,  and  what  the  doc- 
trine, of  the  primitive  church,  concerning 
the  subject  of  the  present  dispute,  that  the 
reader  may  judge  who  were  the  innovators, 
the  apostates,  the  heretics,  the  emperor  in 
forbidding  images  to  be  worshiped,  or  they, 
who,  in  opposition  to  him,  maintained  and 
countenanced  that  kind  of  worship. 

And  first,  as  to  the  practice  of  the  primi- 
tive church  ;  that  the  Christians,  for  the  first 
three  centuries  after  Christ,  and  the  greater 
part  of  the  fourth,  neither  worshiped  images, 
nor  used  them  in  their  worship,  has,  by 
several  protestant  divines,  been  so  fully 
proved  from  the  concurring  testimonies  of 
all  the  primitive  fathers,  that  many  eminent 
Roman  cathohc  writers,  ashamed  to  dispute 
so  plain  a  truth,  have  ingenuously  owned 
it.'     But  Baronius,  Bellarmine,  Turrianus, 


'  These  are  the  learned  Petavius  and  Pagi,  the  one 
a  Jesuit,  and  the  other  a  Franciscan;  Nicholas  de 
Clemangis,  Giraldus,  Polydore  Virgil,  Mendoza,  Cas- 
sander,  Erasmus,  &c.  There  was  little  or  no  use  of 
images  during  the  first  four  centuries,  says  Petavius 
and  Pagi, — (Petav.  Theologic.  Dog.  1,  5,  c.  13.  Pagi 
Critic.  Bar.  ad  Ann.  56.)  The  universal  church,  says 
de  Clemangis,  decreed  that  no  images  should  be 
placed  in  the  churches. — (De  Cleraang.  Lib.  de  Nov. 


Gregory  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME, 


29 


Attempts  to  prove  the  antiquity  of  image  worship. 


Binius,  Natalis  Alexander,  and  the  far  j  Savior  made  by  Nicodemus ;'  the  famous 
greater  part  of  the  popish  divines,  choosing  Veronica,  or  holy  handkerchief  j^  a  picture 

rather  to  contradict  all  the  fathers,  than  allow    ' 

the  Protestants  to   have  antiquity  on  ^eirff^^lJ^^-^^^^^^^^y^P;;?^!^^^^]^^^^ 

side  in    so  important  a  dispute,  antiquity,  to  is.)     But  was  Adrian  more   inlalUble  than  Gelasius, 

which   thev    so   often   appeal,  will   have  the  who  condemned  them  as  apocryphal  1 

,       -^      ,  ■        r  •                s     u                  •    „.  '  The  bishops  of  the  second  council  of  Nice,  an  as- 

USe  and  worship  Ol   images  to  be  as  ancient  ggn^^ly  of  the  most  remarkably  credulous  and  igno- 

as   the   Christian   religion    itself.      To   prove  rant  men  that  perhaps  ever  met,  to  prove  the  anli- 

that,  they  gravely  allege  a  decree,  supposed  nui'y  of  the  use  and  worship  ofimages,toidawonder- 

inui,  iiiirj  g,iu»  J  &  >  1  ,  V  1  ' '^"'  Story  of  an  image  of  our  Savior  made  by  Nico- 
to  have  been  made  in  a  council  held  by  tne  demus,  perhaps  wlien  he  came  to  Jesus  by  night, 
apostles  at  Antioch,  commanding  the  faith-  That  image,  said  the  good  fathers,  had  been  long  wor- 
r  1    ^^  .1.    .  .u     . „„.  ..,_ v«.,»  a, k;„^t'  Bhlped  bv  all  true  Christians  in  the  city  of  Berytus  in 

ful,  "  that  they  may  not  err  about  the  object  gyfi^     u^.^  some  sacrilegious   Jews  having  found 

of  their  worship,  to  make  images  of  Christ,  

and  to  worship  them ;"'  nay,  they  are  not 
even  ashamed  to  relate,  and  urge  against  pro- 
testants,  all  the  absurd  and  ridiculous  tales, 
that  are  told  by  Evagrius,  Metaphrastes, 
Damascene,  Nicephorus  Callistus,  Theodo- 
rus  Lector,  and  other  fabulous  writers,  con- 
cerning the  following  images ;  the  image  of 
our  Savior,  sent,  by  our  Savior  himself  to 
Abgarus,  king  of  Edessa  f  another  of  our 


Celebrit.  p.  151.)  As  the  Romans  were  some  time 
(for  the  space  of  one  hundred  and  seventy  years) 
without  images,  says  Giraldus,  so  were  we  Christians 
in  that  church  wiiich  is  called  primitive. —  (Girald. 
Syntagm.  1.  1.  p.  14.)  The  worship  of  images  was 
condemned,  as  appears  from  St.  Jerom,  by  almost  all 
the  holy  fathers,  says  Polydore  Virgil,  (Polydor.  Virgil. 
de  Invent.  Herum,  1.  6.  c.  13.)  for  fear  of  Idolatry. 
And  Mendoza — the  private  bishops  abstained  for 
awhile  from  tlie  worship  of  images  (that  is,  for  the 
space  of  seven  hundred  years,  as  shall  be  shown,)  lest 
the  heathens  should  deride  them,  or  imagine  that  the 
Christians  worshiped  them  as  gods. —  (Mendoz.  de 
Concil.  Elib.  1.  3.  c.  5.)  How  much  the  Christians  ab- 
horred all  veneration  of  images  in  tlie  beginning  of 
the  church,  Origen  alone  sufficiently  shows  in  his 
book  against  Celsus,  says  Cassander. —  (Cassand.  Con- 
sult, cap.  de  Imagin.  p.  168.)— Erasmus  owns,  that  to 
the  days  of  Jerom,  who  died  in  420,  men  of  approved 
religion  would  suffer  no  graven  or  painted  images  in 
places  of  worship. —  (Erasm.  vol.  5.  Symbol.  Catech. 
p.  989.)  And  I'etrus  Crinitus  finds  fault  with  some  of 
the  fathers,  especially  Lactantius  and  Tertullian,  for 
suffering  themselves  to  be  so  transported  by 'their 
zeal  against  the  images  of  the  heathens,  as  to  con- 
demn images,  and  the  worship  of  images,  in  general. 
—  (Petr.  Crin.  de  Honor.  Disciplin.  1.  9.  c.  9.) 

>  Bar.  ad  Ann.  102.  Binius  Not.  in  Concil.  Antioch. 
t.  1.  p.  fi2. 

^  Evagrius  writes,  that  Abgarus,  king  of  Edessa, 
being  extremely  desirous  of  seeing  our  Savior,  in- 
vited him  by  a  letter  into  his  small  kingdom  ;  and  that 
finding  from  his  answer  he  was  not  to  expect  so  great 
a  favor,  he  sent  a  painter  into  Judea,  to  draw  his  pic- 
ture. This  the  painter  attempted  ;  but  being  dazzled 
by  the  brightness  of  the  ginry,  that  shone  in  his  face,  and 


means  to  convey  it  away,  and  crucified  it  out  of  hatred 
to  Christ  and  the  Christians,  there  issued  from  it,  as 
if  Christ  himself  had  been  crucified  anew,  an  incredi- 
ble quantity  of  blood  and  water,  which  was  sent  into 
all  parts  of  Asia,  Africa,  and  Europe.— (Con.  Nic.  2. 
Act.  4.)  For  this  tale  the  council  quoted  a  treatise  on 
the  passion  of  the  image  of  our  Lord,  which  they 
ascribed  to  St.  Athanasius.  But  that  St.  Athanasius 
was  not  the  author  of  that  treatise,  is  allowed  even  by 
Bellarmine,  who,  speaking  of  that  work,  expresses 
himself  thus:  "The  treatise  on  the  passion  of  the 
image  of  our  Lord  was  quoted,  read,  and  received,  by 
the  second  council  of  Nice,  under  the  name  of  St. 
Athanasius.  But  it  seems  to  have  been  written  by  a 
much  later  author;  and  Sigebert  informs  us  in  his 
chronicle,  that  the  miracle  related  there  happened  in 
the  year  of  our  Lord,  766,  when  the  lawfulness  of 
image-worship  first  began  to  be  questioned." — (Bel- 
larm.  de  Script.  Eccles.  in  Observat.  in  torn.  4.  Athan.) 
So  that,  to  prove  tlie  antiquity  of  the  use  and  wor- 
ship of  images,  a  miracle  was  alleged  by  the  very 
learned  bishops  of  that  venerable  assembly,  which  had 
been  wrought,  according  to  Bellarmine  and  Sigebert, 
in  their  own  time,  and  but  twenty  years  before  they 
met;  for  that  famous  council  was  first  opened  in  the 
year  786.  But  that  it  was  not  wrought  in  their  time, 
and  consequently  in  no  other,  is  evident  from  their 
supposing  it  to  iiave  been  wrought  400  years  before. 
And  here  I  cannot  help  observing  the  disingenuity  of 
Bellarmine,  allowing  in  his  book  on  the  ecclesiastical 
writers,  (Idem,  ibid.)  the  above-mentioned  treatise  to 
be  the  work  of  a  much  later  writer  than  Athanasius, 
nay,  and  the  supposed  crucifixion  and  miracle  to  have 
happened  about  the  year  766,  and  yet  protending 
where  he  undertakes  to  prove  the  ancient  use  of 
images,  (Idem,  lib.  de  Imagin.  c.  12.)  the  same  treatise 
to  have  been  written  by  a  very  ancient  author,  be- 
cause it  was  quoted  by  the  fathers  of  the  council,  as  a 
very  ancient  work;  which  is  allowing,  in  the  one 
place,  the  fathers  to  have  been  mistaken  in  quoting  it 
as  an  ancient  work,  and  proving  it  in  the  other  (where 
the  more  ancient  it  was,  the  better  it  served  his  pur- 
pose) to  be  an  ancient  work,  because  it  was  quoted  a8 
such  by  the  fathers. 

2  We  are  told,  that  as  our  Savior  was  carrying  his 
cross  to  mount  Calvary,  a  pious  woman,  named  Vero- 
nica, seeing  him  bathed  in  sweat  under  so  great  a 
burden,  and  touched  with  compassion,  made  her  way 
through  the  crowd,  and  wiped  his  face  with  a  hand- 
kerchief; and  that  our  Savior,  to  reward  the  good 
woman  for  that  small  relief,  left  the  impression  of  his 
countenance  on  the  cloth.    That  image,  called  by  the 


unable  to  proceed,  our  Savior  took  a  piece  of  linen  cloth 

imprinted  his  pictureon  it,  and  sent  itto  Abgarus.  Thus'  name  of  its  original  owner,  the  Veronica,  is  supposed 
Evagrius,  (Evag.  1.  4  c.  26.)  and  after  him  Metaphras-  I  to  have  been  brought  to  Rome,  in  the  time  of  the  em- 
tes,  (Metaphrast.  in  Vit.  t>)nstaiitin.)  Damascene,  (Da-  peror  Tiberius  ;  and  there  it  is  kept  to  this  day,  and 
mascen.  de  Imaginib.)  Nicephorus  Callistus,  (Niceph.  '  exposed,  at  solemn  times,  to  public  adoration;  the 
1.  2.  c.  2.)  Baronius,  Bellariuine,  &c.  But  of  this  fa-  1  many  miracles,  says  Pamelius,  (Pamel.  Annnt.  in 
moiis  image  no  mention  is  made  by  any  writer  what-  '  Apcdoget.  Tertiill.  c.  12  )  that  are  daily  wrought  by  it, 
ever  before  the  lime  of  Evagrius,  that  is,  till  the  latter  I  leaving  no  room  to  question  its  authenticity.  It  is 
end  of  the  sixth  century  ;  for  that  author  ended  his  once  a  year  visited,  and  solemnly  worshiped,  by  the 
history,  such  as  it  is,  in  the  twelflli  year  of  the  empe-  I  pope,  and  all  the  cardinals  ;  and  the  following  prayer 
ror  Mauritius,  that  is,  about  the  year  595,  of  the  Chris-  is  appointed  to  be  said  at  the  showing  of  it :  "Hail, 
tian  era.  Eusebius,  who  wrote  near  three  hundred  holy  face  of  our  Redeemer,  printed  upon  a  cloth  as 
years  before  Evagrius,  mentions  indeed  the  pretended  ,  white  as  snow  ;  purge  us  from  all  spot  of  vice,  and 
letters  from  Abgarus  to  our  Savior,  and  from  our  1  join  us  to  the  company  of  the  blessed.  Bring  us  to 
Pavior  to  Abgarus  ;  (Euseh.  Hist.  Eccles.  I.  1.  versus  our  country,  O  happy  fiaurel  there  to  see  the  pure 
fin.)  and  even  translated  them  out  of  Syriac  into  face  of  Christ."  Ileasonable  requests  indeed,  to  be 
Creek  ;  but  takes  no  kind  of  notice  of  the  above  men-  made  to  a  painted  handkerchief:  To  every  repetition 
tioned  picture.  A  plain  proof,  that  in  his  time  the  fa-  ]  of  this  prayer,  pope  John  XXII.,  annexed  ten  thoti- 
ble  of  the  letters  was  already  invented,  but  not  the  sand  days'  indulgence.  As  that  cloth  is  supposed  to 
fable  of  the  imaee,  or  the  picture.  1  say  the  fable  of  ,  have  touched  the  body  of  Christ,  it  is  worshiped  with 
the  letters,  which  I  hope  no  Roman  catiiolic  will  take  the  worship  of  Latria,  that  is,  with  the  same  supreme 
amis.-!,  since  it  was  proscribed  as  such,  by  pope  Cela-  orsovereicn  worship  that  is  due  to  God  ;  and  it  has  an 
sius,  in  a  council  of  seventy  bishops.  —  (Tom.  .'t.  Concil.  t  altar  consecrated  to  it  in  the  church  of  St.  Peter  at 
etapudGratian.dist.lS.Can.SanctaRomana.)    These!  Rome,  called  "The  altar  of  the  most  holy  handker- 

c2 


30 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Gregory  H. 


Some  emblematical  figures  used  in  the  primative  times.    Such  figures  difi°erent  from  images.    The  supposed 

statue  of  our  Savior  at  Paneas. 


of  Christ,  and  seven  of  the  virgin  Mary, 
drawn  by  St.  Luke,  whom  they  suppose, 
upon  the  authority  of  Metaphrastes,  a  writer 
of  the  ninth  century,  to  have  been  her  secre- 
tary, and  an  eminent  painter.'  But  of  the 
supposed  apostolical  decree  no  mention  is 
made,  no  notice  is  taken,  by  any  writer 
whatever,  till  seven  hundred  years  after  the 
times  of  the  apostles,  that  is,  till  the  dispute 
about  images,  and  the  worship  of  images, 
made  such  a  council  and  such  a  decree 
necessary.  And  on  that  consideration  both 
are  given  up,  as  inventions  of  the  more 
modern  Greeks,  by  Petavius,^  by  Pagi,'  and 
by  all  the  Roman  catholic  writers  of  judg- 


chief "  But  of  this  wonder-working  image  no  men- 
tion is  made,  nor  is  the  least  notice  taken,  by  any 
writer  whatever  during  the  long  dispute  about  the 
antiquity  and  lawfulness  of  images,  nor  indeed  during 
the  first  ten  centuries  after  Christ.  And  who  can  be- 
lieve, that  such  an  image  could  have  remained  so  long 
utterly  unknown  to  the  Christian  world;  or,  if  it  had 
been  known,  that  no  writer  would  have  mentioned  it ; 
that  none  of  the  advocates  for  images,  not  even  the 
fathers  of  the  second  council  of  Nice,  who  believed 
every  old  woman's  story  they  had  ever  heard,  would 
have  availed  themselves  of  it  against  their  adversa- 
ries ?  An  image  of  our  Savior,  made  by  himself,  would 
have  been  a  stronger  proof  of  the  lawfulness  of  images, 
than  one  made  by  his  night  disciple  Nicodemus.  As 
for  the  miracles  said  and  believed  to  be  daily  wrought 
by  the  Veronica  at  Rome,  no  less  stupendous  miracles 
are  said  to  be  daily  wrought  by  the  Veronica  in  Spain, 
and  by  an  other  at  Jerusalem.  For  in  these  three  dif- 
erent  places  Veronicas  are  shown,  are  worshiped  with 
the  worship  of  Latria,  and  by  their  respective  votaries 
proved  to  be  originals,  from  the  miracles  they  daily 
work.  This  multiplication  of  Veronicas  occasioned 
warm  disputes,  each  of  the  contending  parties  pre- 
tending theirs  to  be  the  original,  and  the  other  two 
only  copies,  till  a  lucky  discovery  of  the  Jesuit  Gret- 
ser  put  an  end  to  the  quarrel :  for  by  him  it  was  found 
out,  that  the  handkerchief  of  Veronica  had  three  fold- 
ings, that  on  each  of  them  our  Savior  imprinted  a 
distinct  image,  and  consequently  that  they  are  all  ori- 
ginals. It  were  to  be  wished  that  Gretser  had  like- 
wise discovered,  and  let  us  know,  where  these  three 
originals  were  kept  concealed  from  all  mankind,  for 
the  space  of  one  ttiousand  years  and  upwards. 

'  VVe  are  told  by  Nicephorus  Calistus,  (Niceph.  Hist. 
I.  14.  c.  2.)  that  St.  Luke  drew  a  picture  of  our  Sa- 
vior, and  no  fewer  than  seven  of  the  virgin  Mary  ; 
and  what  he  writes  is  confirmed  by  the  following  in- 
scription, which  I  have  often  seen  in  one  of  the  cha- 
pels of  Santa  Maria  in  Via  Lata  in  Rome  :  Here  was 
formerly  the  oratory  of  St.  Paul  the  apostle,  of  St. 
Luke  the  evangelist,  and  of  St.  Martial,  all  three  mar- 
tyrs ;  and  here  was  likewise  found  the  image  of  the 
blessed  virgin  Mary,  one  of  the  seven  that  were 
painted  by  St.  Luke.  "It  was  at  Rome,"  says  Paulus 
Aringhus,  speaking  of  this  inscription,  "  that  the  wor- 
ship of  the  virgin  Mary  was  first  begun  and  recom- 
mended to  the  world;  there  St.  Luke  made  war  on 
the  Iconoclasts  with  his  pencil,  which  served  him  in- 
stead of  a  sword  against  the  heretics,  enemies  of 
images."— (Paulus  Aringhus,  Rom.  subterran.  1.  3. 
c.  12.)  From  these  pictures  Nicephorus  gives  us  a 
very  minute  description  of  the  virgin  Mary  as  to  her 
person,  her  stature,  size,  coniple.\ion,  &c.,  and  even  of 
the  length  of  her  fingers,  which,  he  says,  were  some- 
what too  long,  and  not  quite  proportioned  to  the  rest 
of  her  body.  (Niceph.  Hist.  Eccles.  1.  2.  c.  23.)  But 
in  the  time  of  St.  Austin,  who  lived  in  the  fifth  cen- 
tury, not  one  of  these  pictures  had  yet  been  heard  of; 
for  that  father  tells  us,  that  in  his  days  no  one  could 
give  any  account  of  the  person  of  Christ,  or  of  the  virgin 
Mary  :  (August,  de  Trinit.  1.  7.  c.  4.  et  5.)  nor  indeed 
was  any  of  them  heard  of  till  the  time  of  Nicephorus, 
that  is,  till  the  fourteenth  century.  But  since  his  time 
they  have  multiplied  to  such  a  degree,  that  twenty  at 
least  are  now  shown  in  different  parts;  all  painted  by  St. 
Luke,  and  all  alike  famo\is  for  the  miracles  they  work 
s  Petav.  Dog.  Theol.  de  Incar.  1.  15.  c.  14. 
"  Pagi  Critic.  Bar.  ad  Ann.  56. 


ment  and  candor;  and  so  are  the  images 
mentioned  above,  though  declared  authentic 
by  several  popes,  and  still  honored  by  them 
with  an  extraordinary  worship. 

The  first  instance  that  occurs  in  any  cre- 
dible author  of  images  among  Christians,  is 
that  of  certain  cups,  or  chalices,  as  Bellar- 
mine  will  have  it,  on  which  was  represented 
the  parable  of  the  good  shepherd  carrying 
the  lost  sheep  on  his  shoulders. '  But  all 
that  can  be  inferred  from  thence  is,  that  the 
church,  at  that  time,  did  not  think  emble- 
matical figures  unlawful  ornaments  of  cups 
or  chalices.  And  what  protestant,  how 
averse  soever  to  images,  and  the  worship  of 
images,  ever  thought  otherwise?  The  rep- 
resentation of  the  good  shepherd  was  the 
representation,  or  image,  of  a  type  of  Christ, 
not  of  Christ  himself,  no  more  than  the 
representation  or  image  of  a  woman  lighting 
a  candle,  and  sweeping  the  house  till  she 
finds  the  piece  of  silver,  which  she  had  lost; 
of  a  hen  gathering  her  chickens  under  her 
wings  ;  of  a  vine ;  of  a  gate,  &c.  These 
are  all  images,  not  of  Christ,  but  of  things 
to  which  Christ  is  compared  in  the  parables; 
and  here  we  only  inquire,  whether  images 
of  God,  of  Christ,  of  the  saints,  were  wor- 
shiped by  the  primitive  Christians,  or  used 
by  them  in  their  worship  ?  The  image  of 
the  good  shepherd,  say  they,  was  the  image 
of  Christ  under  that  type  or  figure,  and  con- 
sequently a  true  object  of  worship.  But  the 
image  of  Christ,  under  a  type  or  figure,  is 
nothing  in  effect,  but  the  image  of  a  figure 
or  type  of  Christ;  and  if  such  an  image  is 
an  object  of  worship,  the  images  of  a  woman 
sweeping  the  house,  of  a  hen  gathering  her 
chickens  under  her  wings,  of  a  gate,  vine. 
Sec,  must  all  be  allowed  to  be  objects  of 
worship ;  or  rather,  a  real  woman,  hen, 
vine,  and  gate,  they  being  the  real  types  of 
Christ,  and  their  images  only  types  of  the 
types.  Indeed  I  can  see  no  reason  why  a 
shepherd,  carrying  a  lost  sheep  on  his 
shoulders,  should  be  painted  with  a  glory 
round  his  head,  and  not  a  hen  gathering  her 
chickens  under  her  wings;  or  why  a  papist 
should  not  fall  down  on  his  knees,  and  wor- 
ship the  image  of  the  hen,  as  well  as  the 
image  of  the  shepherd;  nay,  why  he  should 
not  worship  a  real  shepherd,  and  a  real  hen, 
rather  than  their  images. 

The  other  instance  they  allege  to  prove 
the  antiquity  of  the  use  and  worship  of 
images,  is  out  of  Eusebius  :  for  that  histo- 
rian tells  us,  that  in  his  time  were  to  be  seen 
two  brass  statues,  and  he  saw  them  himself, 
in  the  city  of  Paneas,  or  Ca^sarea  Philippi ; 
the  one  of  a  woman  on  her  knees,  with  her 
arms  stretched  out,  the  other  of  a  man  over- 
against  her,  with  his  hand  extended  to  re- 
ceive her.  These  two  statues  were  said,  as 
Eusebius  informs  us,  to  be  the  images  of 


«  Tertul.  de  Pudicit.  c.  10. 


Grfrory  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


31 


No  proof  of  the  use  of  images  among  Christians,  much  less  of  the  worship.  That  statue  not  worshiped  by  the 
Christians.  Why  images  were  neither  used  nor  worshiped  in  the  primative  times.  Reasons  alleged  by  the 
advocates  for  images. 


our  Savior,  and  the  woman  whom  he  cured 
of  an  issue  of  blood ;  and  to  have  been 
erected  by  her  on  her  return  home,  as  a 
lasting  monument  of  her  gratitude  for  so 
miraculous  a  cure.  The  historian  adds,  that 
from  the  foot  of  the  statue,  said  to  be  our 
Savior's,  sprung  up  an  exotic  plant,  which 
was  said  to  cure  all  sorts  of  distempers,  as 
soon  as  it  grew  to  touch  the  border  of  his 
garment.'  Hence  they  conclude,  that  not 
only  emblematical  figures,  but  real  images, 
were  used  as  early  as  our  Savior's  time, 
and  that  the  use  of  them  was  confirmed  by 
a  standing  miracle.  But,  1st,  those  statues 
were  only  said  to  be  images  of  Christ,  and  j 
the  woman,  whom  he  cured;  the  woman' 
was  only  said  to  be  a  native  of  that  place; 
she  was  only  said  to  have  erected  those  sta- 
tues, and  indeed  very  improbably,  "  as  she 
had  spent  all  that  she  had  on  physicians;" 
and  lastly,  the  plant  that  grew  at  the  foot  of 
the  statue,  was  only  said  to  cure  all  sorts  of 
distempers  :  for  Eusebius  vouches  none  of 
these  things,  but  seems  rather  to  question 
them  all.  But,  secondly,  allowing  all  that 
is  said  to  be  true,  it  Avill  not  follow  from 
thence,  that  the  use  of  images  was  so  early 
introduced  among  Christians  :  for  Eusebius 
supposes  the  woman,  who  erected  the  statue 
of  our  Savior,  to  have  been  a  pagan ;  nay, 
and  ascribes  the  erecting  it  to  a  pagan  cus- 
tom. "  No  wonder,"  says  he,  "  that  the 
pagans  thus  preserved  the  remembrance  of 
the  benefits  which  they  had  received  of  our 
Savior.  It  was  their  custom  to  transmit  to 
posterity  such  marks  of  gratitude  to  their 
benefactors  ;  and  I  myself  have  seen  several 
pictures  of  Christ,  and  his  apostles  Paul  and 
Peter,  thus  preserved  by  them  to  our  days."^ 
It  is  quite  surprising,  that  this  passage 
should  be  alleged,  as  it  is  on  all  occasions, 
by  the  advocates  for  image-worship,  to  prove 
that  the  use  and  worship  of  images  obtained 
among  Christians  in  the  earlier  times;  when, 
on  the  contrary,  it  evidently  proves,  that  in 
the  time  of  Eusebius,  or  in  the  beginning  of 
the  fourth  century,  it  was  still  thought  a 
heathenish  custom  to  make  any  images  of 
Christ  or  his  apostles. 

But  the  above-mentioned  statue,  says  Ba- 
ronius,  Bellarmine,  and  Natalis  Alexander, 
was  placed  in  the  diaconicon,  or  vestry  of 
the  church  of  Paneas,  and  worshiped  there 
by  the  Christians.  This  they  confidently 
affirm  upon  the  authority  of  Nicephorus 
Calistus,  whom  Baronius  himself  styles  a 
writer  of  fables,  and  Bellarmine  the  most 
fabulous  of  all  writers.  And  truly  had  they 
but  looked  into  Philostorgius,  of  whom  Ni- 
cephorus borrowed  all  he  says  of  that  statue, 
they  would  have  been  confirmed  in  the 
opinion  which  they  entertained  of  him.  For 
whereas  Nicephorus  sayS,  that  the  Christians 

■  Euseb  Hist.  Eccles.  1.  7.  c.  18. 
'  Idem,  ibid. 


kept  the  statue,  and  worshiped  it,'  Philos- 
torgius  tells  us  in  express  terms,  that  they 
carefully  preserved  it,  "  but  paid  no  kind  of 
worship  to  it,  because  it  is  not  lawful  for 
Christians  to  worship  brass,  or  any  other 
matter  ;"2  no,  not  brass,  or  any  other  matter, 
though  representing  Christ  himself.  I  shall 
add  here  the  answer  given  by  Charlemagne 
to  those  who  in  his  time  instanced  the  above- 
mentioned  statue,  to  prove  the  antiquity  of 
the  use  and  worship  of  images.  "  'J'hat 
story,"  says  he,  "  though  we  should  allow 
it  to  be  true,  is  quite  foreign  to  the  subject 
in  debate ;  that  image  having  been  erected 
by  a  Aveak,  ignorant  woman,  to  express  her 
gratitude  after  the  best  manner  among  the 
Gentiles.  And  what  is  that  to  the  church 
of  God?  Should  we  even  suppose  mira- 
culous cures  to  have  been  wrought  by  the 
herb,  that  grew  at  the  foot  of  the  statue,  it 
would  not  follow  from  thence,  that  men  are 
to  worship  images,  but  rather  that  they 
ought  to  quit  their  idols,  and  embrace  the 
true  faith,  signs  not  being,  according  to  the 
apostle,  for  believers,  but  unbelievers. "^ 

These  are  the  only  instances  that  have 
been  yet  alleged  to  prove  the  antiquity  of  the 
use  and  worship  of  images,  but  instances  so 
very  little  to  the  purpose,  even  in  the  opi- 
nion of  many  learned  Roman  catholic  di- 
vines, that  they  have  chosen  to  give  up  the 
question  rather  than  allege  them,  and  inge- 
nuously owned,  as  has  been  observed  above, 
that  for  the  first  four  ages  after  Christ,  there 
was  little  or  no  use  at  ail  of  images  among 
Christians.  But  it  was  not,  say  they,  be- 
cause the  primitive  Christians  thought  the 
use  and  worship  of  images  unlawful  in 
themselves,  that  they  forbore  to  use  and  to 
worship  them,  but  lest  they  should  thereby 
give  offence  to  the  Gentiles,  \vho  might  think 
that  the  Christians  Avorshiped  their  images 
as  they  worshiped  theirs,  or  should  at  least 
expose  such  of  them  as  embraced  the  Chris- 
tian religion  to  the  danger  of  idolatry,  that 
is,  of  paying  the  same  worship  to  the  images 
of  Christ  and  the  saints,  after  their  conver- 
sion, which  they  had  paid  to  the  images  of 
the  false  gods  before  their  conversion.  But 
these  motives  ceasing  when  idolatry  was 
quite  rooted  out,  and  the  Christian  religion 
established  in  its  room,  the  Christians,  find- 
ing images  great  helps  to  devotion,  and  see- 
ing no  reason  why  they  should  still  forbear 
the  use  of  them,  thought  it  advisable  to  ad- 
mit them  into  their  churches,  and  give  them 
due  worship,  for  the  sake  of  those  whom 
they  represented.^  Thus  they  account  for 
the  Christians  not  having  nor  worshiping 
images,  while   idolatry  prevailed  over  the 

'  Niceph.  1.  10.  c.  .SO. 
>  Philost.  Eccles.  Hist.  1.  7.  c.  3. 
'  Carol.  Lib.  de  Iniagin   I.  4.  c.  15. 
«  Petav.   Dopm.   Thcoloir..  iibi   siipr.    Anton.    Pagi. 
Critic.    Bar.   ad  Ann.  OO.   Francis,    i'agi  llrev.  Pont. 
,  Rom.  t.  1.  p.  522.  Dupin.  Nouv.  IJiWiolli.  t.  2.  p.  300. 


32 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES. 


[Gregory  II. 


Reasons  alleged  by  the  pritnative  Christians  for  their  neither  using  or  worshiping  images.  They  thought 
it  a  thing  unlawful  in  itself,  to  make  any  images  of  the  Deity.  The  reasons  they  alleged  against  the  use  and 
worship  of  images  e.\tend  to  all  images,  and  hold  good  in  all  times. 


Christian  religion,  that  is,  for  the  first  three 
centuries  of  the  church,  and  the  greater  part 
of  the  fourth;  and  for  their  using  and  wor- 
shiping them,  when  the  Christian  religion 
prevailed  over  idolatry. 

But  the  primitive  Christians  have  them- 
selves accounted  for  their  neither  using  nor 
worshiping  images  ;  and  the  reasons  which 
they  allege  why  they  neither  used  nor  wor- 
shiped them,  are  such  as  must  hold  good  in 
all  times,  in  the  times  when  the  Christian 
religion  prevailed  over  idolatry,  as  well  as 
in  those  when  idolatry  prevailed  over  the 
Christian  religion.  For  the  chief  reasons 
we  find  alleged  by  them,  against  the  use  as 
well  as  the  worship  of  images,  are:  because 
all  material  images  of  the  Deity  are  "un- 
worthy of  God,"  are  "  unsuitable  to  his 
divine  nature,  debase  his  Godhead,  and 
lessen  his  majesty.  It  is  an  injury  to  God," 
says  Justin  Martyr,  "to  make  an  image  of 
him  of  base  wood  or  stone."'  "  Visible 
representations  of  the  Deity,"  says  Clemens 
Alexandrinus,  "  lessen  his  majesty,  and 
make  him  contemptible;"^  such  representa- 
tions of  the  Trinity,  as  are  frequently  seen  in 
the  churches  abroad,  of  an  old  man  holding 
a  crucifix  in  his  hand,  with  a  dove  on  his 
shoulder;  or  of  an  old  man  on  the  one  side 
with  a  globe,  and  a  younger  on  the  other 
with  a  cross,  and  a  dove  between  them ;  or 
of  an  old  man  in  the  dr^s  of  the  pope;  for 
as  they  blasphemously  call  the  pope  god 
upon  earth,  so  they  sometimes  blasphemously 
represent  God  the  Father,  as  the  pope  of 
heaven.  What  images  among  the  pagans 
more  debased  the  Divine  nature,  or  were 
better  calculated  to  beget  a  mean  opinion  of 
God  in  the  minds  of  the  ignorant  muhitude? 
And  yet  these  and  such  like  representations 
are  allowed  in  the  church  of  Rome,  and 
Clement  XI.  in  our  days  condemned  some, 
who,  shocked  at  seeing  "  the  truth  of  God 
thus  changed  into  a  lie,  and  the  glory  of  the 
incorruptible  God  into  an  image  made  like 
to  corruptible  man,  had  ventured  to  censure 
them.  Clemens  Alexandrinus  commends 
Numa  for  forbidding  images  of  God  like  to 
man,  or  to  any  living  creature ;  and  says  that 
he  acted  therein  very  wisely  (more  wisely 
than  the  infallible  Head  of  the  church,) 
"  since  God  ought  only  to  be  represented  to 
our  minds.s  And  St.  Austin,  after  quoting 
Varro,  saying  that  the  Romans,  for  the  space 
of  one  hundred  and  seventy  years,  worshiped 
the  gods  without  pictures  or  images  ;  that 
their  worship  would  have  been  more  pure, 
had  images  never  been  introduced  ;  and  that 
they,  who  first  introduced  them,  took  away 
from  men  the  fear  of  the  gods,  and  added 
to  their  error;  St.  Austin,  I  say,  after  quo- 
ting that  passage,  and  approving  it,  adds, 
that  if  "  Varro  had  dared  to  speak  his  mind 


'  Justin.  Apol.  2.  p.  44.        »  Clem.  Alex.  Strom.  5. 
'Clem.  Alex.  Strom.  1.  et  Protrept.  p.  46. 


openly  against  so  ancient  an  error,  he  would 
have  said,  that  one  God  ought  to  be  wor- 
shiped; and  that  he  ought  to  be  worshiped 
without  an  image,  images  serving  only  to 
bring  the  Deity  into  contempt."*  The  same 
father  declares  elsewhere,  "  That  it  would 
be  impious  in  a  Christian  to  set  up  a  cor- 
poreal image  of  God  in  a  church  ;  and  that 
he  would  be  thereby  guihy  of  the  sacrilege 
condemned  by  St.  Paul,  of  turning  the  glory 
of  the  incorruptible  God  into  an  image  made 
like  to  corruptible  man."^  From  these  pas- 
sages, (and  many  more  might  be  alleged  to  the 
same  purpose,  it  is  manifest  beyond  contra- 
diction, that  the  primitive  Christians  thought 
it  a  thing  unlawful  in  itself  even  to  make 
any  images,  or  representations,  at  least,  of 
the  Deity;  and  consequently  that  it  was  not, 
as  is  pretended,  out  of  any  temporary  mo- 
tive, that  they  abstained  from  the  use  of  such 
images  in  their  worship. 

The  other  reasons,  which  they  alleged,  in 
their  disputes  with  the  Gentiles,  against  the 
use  and  worship  of  images,  are  taken  either 
from  the  nature  of  the  images  themselves,  or 
from  the  prohibition  of  the  divine  law ;  and 
consequently  such  as  extend  to  all  images, 
and  must  necessarily  hold  good  in  all  times. 
The  reasons  taken  from  the  images  them- 
selves are,  that  they  are  the  work  of  men's 
hands,  made  of  earth,  the  same  earth  with  that 
of  which  vessels  are  made  for  the  most  com- 
mon and  meanest  uses  f  that  they  are  desti- 
tute of  life,  and  all  sense  ;  incapable  of  as- 
sisting those,  who  apply  to  them,  or  hurting 
those,  who  despise  them ;  more  insignificant 
than  the  most  imperfect  insect,  and  less 
worthy  of  worship  ;''  that  the  works  of  God 
are  not  to  be  worshiped,  much  less  the 
works  of  men ;  that  it  were  more  reasonable 
to  worship  the  artificel-s ;  and  that  the  images 
themselves,  were  they  not  destitute  of  all 
sense,  would  worship  those  who  made 
them  f  that  birds,  mice,  and  spiders,  have 
less  folly  than  men,  since  they  despise,  and 
even  defile,  without  fear,  the  things  before 
which  men  fall  down  with  fear  and  tremble- 
ing;^  that  the  objects,  worshiped  by  images, 
would  laugh  at  that  kind  of  worship,  if  capa- 
ble of  laughter ;  and  would  be  provoked  by 
it  to  indignation,  if  subject  to  anger;'  that, 
if  they  are  in  heaven,  we  ought  to  direct  our 
eyes  to  heaven,  and  not  to  stones,  to  wood, 
or  to  walls  f  that  man  is  the  living  image 
of  God,  and  therefore  can  Avorship  no  image 
but  what  is  less  worthy  of  worship  than 
himself,  whom  yet  it  would  be  a  crime  to 
worship  :'  and  are  not  all  images,  even  the 


»  Aug.  1.  de  Civ.  Dei,  1.  7.  c.  5.  et  I.  4.  c.  32. 

">  Idem  de  Fide,  et  Symb.  c.  7. 

M.act.  1.  2.  c.  3. 

*  Tertull.  Apol.  c.  12.  Minuc.  p.  26.  Arnob.  1.  6.  p.  202. 

5  Lact.  1. 2.  c.  2.  Athan.  rontr.  Gent.  Aug.  in  Psal.  113. 

6  Tertull.  Apol.  c.  12.  Minuc.  p.  22.  Clem.  Alex.  Pro- 
trep.  Lact.  Arnob.  Aug.  ubi  supra. 

■>  Arnob.  I.  6.  p.  189.  e  Idem,  p.  195. 

»  Lact.  I.  2.  c.  17. 


Gregory  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


33 


The  second  comraandment  understood  by  the  fathers  as  forbidding  the  use  and  worship  of  all  images  whatever. 
And  by  some,  as  forbidding  the  very  arts  of  painting  and  engraving. 


images  of  Christ,  and  the  virgin  Mary,  the 
famous  Madonna  of  Loreto  not  excepted, 
the  work  of  men's  hands,  made  of  earth,  des- 
titute of  sense  and  all  life,  incapable  of  as- 
sisting those,  who  apply  to  them,  &c.  and, 
on  that  consideration,  no  more  worthy  of 
worship  than  the  images  of  the  heathens  ? 
If  the  fathers  had  thought  that  any  images 
whatever  might,  at  any  time  whatever,  be 
lawfully  worshiped,  they  would  not  have 
thus  condemned  that  worship  in  general ;  and 
condemned  it  for  reasons,  that  evidently  con- 
clude against  the  worship  of  all  images,  and 
in  all  times. 

The  other  reason,  which  the  primitive  fa- 
thers of  Christians  alleged  why  they  neither 
used  images  in  their  worship,  nor  worshiped 
them,  was  the  prohibition  of  the  divine  law, 
"  thou  shah  not  make  to  thyself  any  graven 
image,"  See.  and  that  prohibition  they  under- 
stood as  extending  to  all  images  made  with 
respect  to  the  worship  of  God,  and  conse- 
quently to  the  images  of  Christ,  of  the  virgin 
Mary,  of  the  saints  and  angels,  and  of  the 
true  God  as  well  as  of  the  false  and  heathen- 
ish gods.  "  We  Christians,"  says  Origen, 
"  have  nothing  to  do  with  images  on  ac- 
count of  the  second  commandment ;'  the  first 
thing  we  teach  those,  who  come  to  us,  is  to 
despise  idols,  and  all  images,  it  being  the 
peculiar  character  of  the  Christian  religion 
to  raise  our  minds  above  images,  and  all 
worship  of  creatures,  agreeably  to  the  law, 
which  God  himself  has  given  to  mankind. "^ 
The  same  father  distinguishes  elsewhere  be- 
tween worship  and  service ;  and,  after  telling 
us,  that  worship  belongs  to  the  body,  and 
service  to  the  mind,  he  adds,  "  but  we  are 
forbidden  by  the  divine  law  to  give  either  to 
any  image  or  similitude ;"'  so  that,  by  the 
second  commandment  we  are  forbidden,  ac- 
cording to  Origen,  to  perform  any  external 
act  of  worship,  such  as  bowing  down,  kneel- 
ing, &c.  to  any  image  whatever.  When  the 
Jews  and  Christians  were,  on  account  of 
their  enmity  to  images,  compared  by  Celsus 
to  the  Scythians,  the  Numidians,  the  Seres, 
and  other  barbarous  nations,  that  had  nei- 
ther civility  nor  religion,  Origen  answered, 
that  men  should  examine  the  reason  and 


selves  with  such  impieties.'  And  it  is  to  be 
observed,  that  Origen  does  not  allege  here 
the  second  commandment  as  a  reason  why 
the  Jews  and  Christians  did  not  use  nor 
worship  the  same  images,  that  were  used 
and  worshiped  by  the  heathens ;  but  why 
they  neither  used  nor  worshiped  any  images 
of  their  own  :  for  it  was  because  they  had 
no  images  at  all,  none  even  in  their  own 
way  of  worship,  that  Celsus  compared  them 
to  the  barbarous  and  lawless  nations  men- 
tioned above.  With  Origen  the  other  fa- 
thers all  agree  :  "  God  by  his  law  forbids  all 
similitudes,"  says  TertuUian,  "especially 
the  similitude  of  himself  ;2  and  in  answer  to 
those,  who  alleged,  or  might  have  alleged, 
the  instance  of  the  brazeti  serpent,  against 
this  general  command,  he  reasons  thus: 
"  God  by  his  law  forbad  the  making  of  any 
likeness ;  and  it  was  by  an  extraordinary  com- 
mand that  he  required  the  hkeness  of  a  ser- 
pent to  be  made.  If  thou  observest  the  same 
God,  thou  hast  his  law,  'make  no  likeness.' 
As  to  the  command  of  making  a  likeness 
afterwards,  do  thou  also  imitate  Moses ; 
make  no  image  whatever  against  the  law, 
unless  God  command  thee  also,  in  particu- 
lar, so  to  do:"^  and,  in  the  same  treatise, 
"  every  figure,"  says  he,  "  is  by  the  law  of 
God  an  idol,  and  every  service  performed 
about  it  is  idolatry. "^  "  The  sense  of  the 
law,"  says  Lactantius, "  is,  that  nothing  is  to 
be  worshiped,  that  is  seen."^  "  The  idols," 
says  St.  Cyprian, "  which  the  law  forbids  us 
to  make,  or  to  worship,  are  such  as  the  pro- 
phet describes,  saying,  they  have  eyes  and 
see  not,  ears  and  hear  not,"  Stc^  that  is, 
all  images  that  are  worshiped,  whomsoever 
they  represent.  "  By  the  first  command- 
ment," says  St.  Austin,  (for  he  and  Fulgen- 
tiuscall  the  first  commandment  what  all  the 
other  fathers  call  the  second),  "all  simili- 
tudes, even  of  God  himself,  are  forbidden  to 
be  worshiped,  because  no  image  of  God  is 
to  be  worshiped,  but  what  is  God  himself; 
neither  is  that  to  be  worshiped  in  his  stead, 
but  together  with  him.'' 

Some  of  the  fathers,  namely,  TertuUian,' 
ClemensAlexandrinus^andOrigen,'*' wereof 
opinion,  that,  by  the  second  commandment. 


motive  of  the  action  as  well  as  the  action,    the  very  arts  of  painting  and  engraving  were 


since  those,  who  acted  alike,  might  act  upon 
very  different  principles;  and  consequently, 
the  same  action  might  in  some  be  worthy  of 
reproach,  and  of  praise  in  others;  that  the 
Jews  and  Christians  agreed  indeed  with 
some  barbarous  and  lawless  nations  in  ab- 
staining from  the  use  and  worship  of  images, 
but  disagreed  in  the  motive,  their  only  mo- 
tive being  to  obey  the  express  command  of 
God,  saying,  "  thou  shalt  not  make  to  thy- 
self any  graven  image,"  Sec.  and  that  the 
Christians,  in  compliance  with  that  com- 
mand, would  rather  die  than  defile  them- 


'  Orig.  cont.  Cels.  1.  7.         »  Idem  ibid.  I.  5. 
"  Idem,  Exhort,  ad  Martyr,  et  in  Esod,  Horn  8. 

Vol.  II.— 5 


rendered  unlawful  to  a  Christian,  styling 
them  evil  and  wicked  arts,  arts  invented, 
and  brought  into  the  world,  by  the  devil. 
"  We  Christians,"  says  Clemens  of  Alexan- 
dria, "are  plainly  forbidden  to  exercise  these 
deceitful  arts,  the  prophet  saying, '  thou  shall 
not  make  the  likeness  of  any  thing  in  hea- 
ven, or  on  the  earth.'"     Origen  commends 


»  Orig.  cont.  Ccls.  1.  7.  p.  357. 

«  Tert.  de  Spect.  c.  23. 

*  Idem  ibid.  c.  3. 

s  Cypr.  Exhort.  Martyr. 

»  Tertull.  de  Idol   c.  3. 

9  Clem.  Alex.  Admonit.  ad  Gent 

'»  Orig.  contr.  Cels.  I.  6.  p.  182. 

"  Clem.  Protrept.  p.  30. 


3  Idem  de  Idololat.  c. 

»  Lact.  1.  2.  c.  2. 

'  Aug.  Ep.  119.  c.  11. 

p.  41. 


34 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Gregory  H. 


The  heathens  neither  worshiped  their  images  as  gods,  nor  false  gods  through  them. 


the  Jews  forsufTeriDg  no  painter  or  statuary 
in  their  republic,  as  acting  therein  agreeably 
to  the  divine  law.'     "The  divine  law  pro- 
claims," says  Tertullian,  "Thou  shaltmake 
no  idol,  and,  adding,  neither  the  likeness  of 
any  thing  in  heaven,  or  in  the  earth,   has 
forbidden  the  servants  of  God  to  exercise 
such  arts."     And  to  the  excuse  of  the  image 
maker,  saying,  "  I  have  no  other  means  of 
earning  a  livelihood,"  he  answers,  "  What 
hast  thou  to  do  with  God,  if  thou  wilt  live 
by  thy  own  laws  1     The  church  permits  all 
men  to  labor;  but  not  to  labor  in  those  arts, 
which  the  discipline  of  God  does  not  al- 
low."^    Had  Tertullian  only  thought  it  un- 
lawful, as   some  have  understood  him,  to 
paint  or  engrave  images  of  the  false  gods, 
and  not  of  the  true  God,  of  Christ  or  the 
virgin  Mary,  he  would  have  naturally  ex- 
horted the  painters  and  engravers  to  paint 
and  engrave  them,  to  copy  the  picture,  which 
our  Savior  sent  to  the  king  of  Edessa,  the 
Veronica,  or  some  of  the  pictures  drawn  by 
Nicodemus  and  St.  Luke,  and  not  required 
them,  as  he  absolutely  does,  to  quit  their 
profession,  and  earn  a  livelihood  by  some 
other  means.     It  is  true  that  the  fathers,  who 
thought  it  unlawful  for  a  Christian  to  exer- 
cise the  arts  of  painting  and  engraving,  suf- 
fered themselves  to  be  transported  by  their 
zeal  against  images,  beyond  the  bounds  of 
all  reason  :  but  yet,  their  thinking  so,  whe- 
ther right  or  wrong,  plainly  shows,  that  the 
church,   in  their  days,   neither   used,   nor 
thought  it  lawful  to  use,  pictures  or  images 
in  their  worship,  under  any  color  or  pre- 
tence whatever,  not  even  as  helps  to  me- 
mory, or  books  for  those  who  could  not  read; 
for  if  she  had,  she  never  Avould  have  suffer- 
ed the  arts,  to  which  she  owed  such  books 
and  helps,  to  be  thus  condemned  as  unlawful. 
The  popish  writers,  to  elude  the  testimo- 
nies of  the  fathers,  thus  condemning   the 
worship,  the  use,  and  even  the  making  of 
images,  would  have  us  to  understand  them 
as  speaking  only  of  the  images  of  the  hea- 
thens, or  of  the  worship  of  images  as  prac- 
tised by  the  heathens,  who,  they  say,  either 
■worshiped  the  images  themselves  as  gods, 
or  worshiped  false  gods  through  them  ;  and 
were,  on  that  account,  condemned  by  the 
fathers,  and  deservedly  condemned,  as  guilty 
of  idolatry:  but  that,  they  say,  does  not  at 
all  affect  the  worship,  which  they  give  to 
iniages,  since  they  neither  worship  them  as 
gods,  nor  worship  false  gods  through  them, 
but  the  true  God,  or  his  saints  and  holy 
angels ;  for  on  them  the  worship  terminates, 
that  is  given  to  their  images :  but,  I.  The 
fathers  thought  it  unlawful  to  worship,  to 
use  in  their  worship,  or  even  to  make  any 
images  of  the  true  God,  as  has  been  proved 
above.     II.  They  allege   the  second  com- 
mandment as  a  reason,  why  they  neither 

>  Orig.  ubi  supra,  1.  6.  p.  321. 

I  Terlull.  de  Spect.  c.  23.  et  de  Idol.  c.  4. 


worshiped  the  images  of  the  heathens,  nor 
any  of  their  own,  as  has  been  likewise 
shown ;  and  consequen  tly  thought  it  a  breach 
of  that  commandment  to  worship  either. 
III.  The  heathens,  I  mean  the  wiser  hea- 
thens, who  stood  up  for  the  worship  of 
images  in  opposition  to  the  fathers,  neither 
worshiped  their  images  as  gods,  nor  did  they 
worship  false  gods  through  them  :  that  they 
did  not  worship  their  images  as  gods,  but  only 
as  representations  of  the  beings,  which  they 
worshiped,  whatever  those  beings  were,  has 
by  a  very  eminent  writer  been  made  to  ap- 
pear evident  beyond  contradiction,  from  the 
testimonies  of  the  Christian  as  well  as  the 
heathen  writers.'  And  indeed,  none  but 
fools  and  idiots  could  think,  as  was  observed 
by  Celsus,  that  the  wood  or  stone  of  their 
images  made  and  governed  the  world ;  that 
an  image,  made  by  a  smith  or  a  carpenter, 
was  the  Creator  of  the  world,  the  Maker  of 
the  very  man  who  made  it,  and  of  the  very 
metal  of  which  it  was  made.^     Neither  did 


•  Stillingfleet's  Defence  of  the  Discourse  of  Idolatry, 

&c.  p.  382.  et  seq. 

*" Images,"  says  Maximus  Tyrius,  "are  only  in- 
tended to  help  our  memory,  and  a  Itind  of  nianuduc- 
tion  to  the  gods ;  but  no  more  like  to  them,  than  hea- 
ven is  to  the  earth."  And  a  few  lines  after,  "  whether 
men,"  says  he,  "worship  God  by  the  art  of  Phidias, 
as  the  Greeks  do,  or  by  the  worship  of  living  creatures, 
after  the  manner  of  the  Egyptians,  or  by  the  worship 
of  rivers,  or  of  fire,  as  is  practised  by  otlier  nations,  I 
condemn  not  the  variety  ;  let  them  only  understand, 
love,  and  remember  Him,  whom  they  worship." — 
(Max.  Tyr.  Diss.  38.)  "You  are  mistaken,"  say  the 
heathens  in  Arnobius,  "if  you  think  that  we  look  on 
our  images  as  gods  :  We  do  not  believe  that  the  brass, 
the  silver,  the  gold,  and  the  other  materials  that  com- 
pose them,  are  gods  of  themselves,  nor  do  we  worship 
them  ;  but  in  them  those  to  whom  they  are  conse- 
crated; and  who  dwell  in  them,  in  virtue  of  their  con- 
secration."—(Arnob.  1.  7.  p.  200.  202.)  And  St.  Austin 
introduces  a  heathen  speaking  thus  ;  "  I  do  not  wor- 
ship that  visible  sign,  or  image  ;  but  the  invisible 
deity,  that  dwells  in  it. —  (Aug.  in  Psal.  113.)  And 
here  we  may  observe,  that,  as  the  Roman  catholics 
believe  the  virgin  Mary  and  the  saints,  to  be  in  a  par- 
ticular manner  present  in  their  images,  after  they  are 
consecrated ;  and  to  be  in  a  more  particular  manner 
present  in  some,  than  in  others;  for  in  some  they 
work  miracles,  and  not  in  others  ;  so  did  the  heathens 
believe  that  their  gods  were  present,  after  a  particular 
manner,  in  their  images  ;  and  made,  as  it  were,  to 
dwell  in  them  by  their  consecration.  In  the  famous 
apology,  which  Athenagoras  wrote  for  the  Christian 
religion,  in  the  latter  end  of  the  second  century,  and 
dedicated  to  the  two  emperors  Marcus  Aurelius,  and 
Commodus,  the  heathens  are  brought  in  declaring, 
that  "  images  were  only  representations  of  the  gods, 
to  whom  tiiey  were  consecrated  ;  and  that  the  honors, 
gifts,  and  sacrifices,  offered  to  the  images,  did  not  be- 
long to  them,  but  to  the  gods,  whom  they  represented. 
— (Athen.  Apol.  p.  17.)  The  emperor  Julian,  as  zeal- 
ous an  advocate  for  the  worship  of  images,  and  as 
orthodox,  with  respect  to  that  article,  as  the  pope  him- 
self, reasons  thus  on  that  subject :  "  He,  who  loves  the 
king,  takes  pleasure  in  seeing  the  picture  of  the  king; 
and  he,  who  loves  his  child,  or  his  father,  loves 
every  representation  of  his  child,  or  his  father  :  in  like 
manner  he,  who  loves  the  gods,  loves  every  represen- 
tation of  the  gods;  and,  beholding  their  images,  se- 
cretly fears  and  reverences  them:"  and,  in  another 
place,  "The  images  of  the  gods,"  says  he,  "were 
placed  by  our  ancestors,  as  signs  and  symbols  of  their 
presence ;  not  that  we  should  believe  tliem  to  be  gods, 
but  that  we  should  worship  the  gods,  by  giving  wor- 
ship to  them." — (Julian.  Oper.  p.  537.  539.)  The  very 
doctrine  of  the  church  of  Rome,  with  respect  to  the 
worship  of  the  saints  and  their  images.  Tully,  in  his 
treatise  on  "The  Nature  of  the  Gods,"  will  have  the 


Gregory  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


35 


Different  grades  of  worship. 


they  worship  false  gods  through  their  images, 
but,  according  to  the  different  opinions  that 
obtained  among  them,'  either  the  true  God, 
and  him  alone,  or  together  with  him,  but  in 

gods  to  have  been  first  represented  in  human  shape, 
'•either  by  the  advice  of  wise  men  to  bring  the  igno- 
rant multilude  the  more  easily  to  worship  them,  or 
out  of  superstition,  that  when  they  worship  the 
images,  tliey  might  believe  that  ttipy  approached  and 
worshii)ed  tlie  gods  themselves." — (C'ic.  de  Natur. 
Deor.  1.  1.  c.  27.)  When  Synjmachus  pleaded,  under 
the  emperor  Valentinian,  fur  the  toleration  of  the  pa- 
gan religion,  he  alleged  the  following  reason  in  be- 
half of  paganism,  that  "  the  same  God  was  worshiped 
by  all ;"  and  "  tliat,  by  several  ways,  men  aimed  at  the 
same  end." — (Symmach.  1.  11.  Ep.  54.)  And  it  is  ob- 
servable, that  St.  Ambrose,  who  answered  him,  does 
not  charge  the  pagans  with  worshiping  their  images 
as  gods  ;  but  finds  fault  with  them  for  worshiping  the 
true  God  by  images,  when  he  has  declared,  that  he  will 
not  be  worshiped  after  such  a  manner,  "  Non  vult  se 
Deus  in  lapidibus  coli,  God  will  not  be  worshiped  in 
stocks  and  stones." — (Ambros.  Relat.  Symm.  2.)  To 
these  testimonies  I  shall  add  one  more,  that  of  Plutarch, 
who,  speaking  of  the  Egyptian  idolatry,  that  is,  of  the 
worship  of  living  creatures,  as  practised  by  the  Egyp- 
tians, tells  us,  that  "though  the  ignorant  and  supersti- 
tious people  worshiped  the  living  creatures  themselves, 
as  gods,  and  thereby  exposed  their  religion  to  scorn  and 
contempt,  their  wiser  men  did  not  worship  the  ani- 
mals, but  looked  on  them  only  as  representations  of 
some  divine  perfection,  which  Ihey  discovered  in  them, 
and  through  them  worshiped  the  Deity."  Nay,  Plu- 
tarch thinks,  that  living  creatures  are  better  represen- 
tations of  the  Divine  Being,  than  images,  that  have 
neither  life,  sense,  nor  motion  ;  and  that  God  should 
rather  be  worshiped  in  his  own  works  than  in  the 
works  of  men. —  (Plut.  de  Isid.  p  382.)  From  these 
passages  it  is  manifest  beyond  all  dispute,  that  the 
wiser  heathens  neither  looked  on  their  images,  nor 
worshiped  them,  as  gods  ;  and  consequently  that  the 
worship  of  images  was  not  on  that  account  condemned 
in  them  by  the  fathers  as  unlawful,  or  idolatrous. 

'  Some  of  the  heathen  philosophers,  or,  as  we  may 
call  them,  divines,  namely,  the  Stoics,  acknowledged 
but  one  God,  the  first  cause  of  all  things  ;  and  him 
alone  they  worshiped  under  different  names,  titles, 
and  representations:  "We  worship  but  one  God," 
says  one  of  them,  "Maximus  Madaurensis,  under  dif- 
ferent names,  thereby  to  express  his  different  powers 
diffused  through  the  world." — (Max.  Madaur.  apud 
Aug.  ep.  43.)  "The  same  deity,"  says  another,  "is 
worshiped  under  different  names,  in  different  images, 
and  with  different  customs. "^(Apuleius  apud  Metam. 
1.  11.)  Thus,  under  the  different  names,  and  in  the 
different  images  of  Saturn,  Jupiter,  Neptune,  Minerva, 
&c.,  they  worshiped  one  and  the  same  God,  meaning 
by  Saturn  his  eternity,  by  Jupiter  his  power  on  earth, 
by  Neptune  his  power  on  the  sea,  by  Minerva  his  wis- 
dom, &,c.,  as  Marsilius  Ficinus,  (Ficin.  in  Platon. 
Pha'd.)  Ca;lius  Rhodiginus,  (Coel.  Rhodig.  Antiq.  1.  16. 
c.  12.)  Simon  Majolus,  (Majol.  Dies  Canicul.  Part.  2. 
Col.  1.)  and  many  others,  have  made  it  appear  from 
the  writings  of  the  Stoic  philosophers.  On  the  other 
hand  the  Platonists  held  a  plurality  of  gods;  not  a 
plurality  of  uncreated,  and  self-existent  or  independ- 
ent beings  ;  but  of  inferior  beings,  whom  they  called 
gods,  though  they  supposed  them  to  have  been  cre- 
ated by,  and  to  depend  upon  the  supreme  God.  To 
the  supreme  God  they  gave  the  highest  adoration  and 
worship  ;  and  to  the  inferior  gods  an  inferior  worship, 
proportioning  the  degrees  of  their  worship  to  the  de- 
grees of  the  perfections,  which  those  beings  had  re- 
ceived, or  were  supposed  to  have  received,  from  the 
supreme  God  over  all,  as  has  been  fully  proved  by 
the  learned  Cardinal  Bessarion,  in  his  vindication 
of  Plato.— (Card.  Bessarion  advers.  Calumniat.  Pla- 
ton. 1.  2.  c.  3.)  In  short,  the  Platonists  worshiped 
the  supreme  God  with  the  worship  of  Latria,  and 
the  inferior  gods,  that  is,  angels  and  saints,  or  men 
whom  they  believed  to  be  saints,  with  the  wor- 
ship of  Dulia,  or  Ilypcrdulia  ;  insomuch  that  Paulus 
Benius  Eugutiinus  could  find  no  other  difference  be- 
tween the  Platonic  principles  of  worship,  and  those 
of  his  church,  but  that  the  Platonists  called  those  pods 
whom  the  church  called  angels  or  saints:  (Paul.  Eu- 
gub.  Platon.  et  Aristot.  Theolog.  Decad.  2.  1.  2.)  a 
very  small  difference  indeed  between  his  church  and 
those  whom  the  fathers  accounted  idolaters  I 


an  inferior  degree,  the  heavenly  intelligences, 
and  deified  men,  that  is,  men  whom  some 
extraordinary  excellency  had  raised  above 
the  condition  of  other  men,  and  they,  on 
that  account,  styled  gods,  a  name  given, 
even  in  Scripture,  to  princes,  to  judges,  and 
to  other  magistrates :'  I  said,  "  in  an  inferior 
degree;"  for  they,  who  worshiped  with  the 
supreme  God  other  inferior  deities,  sup- 
posed the  inferior  deities  to  have  been  all 
created  by  the  supreme  God,  and  to  depend 
entirely  upon  him;  and  consequently  could 
not  worship  them  and  their  images  with  the 
same  worship  which  they  gave  to  the  su- 
preme God  and  to  his  images,  but  with  an 
inferior  worship,  that  is,  says  Augustinus 
Steuchus,  an  Italian  bishop  of  great  reputa- 
tion, "with  that  worship,  Avhich  is,  with 
great  reason,  given  by  us  to  saints  and 
angels  :"^  and  it  is  to  be  observed,  that  many 
of  those,  whom  the  heathens  styled  gods, 
and  worshiped  with  a  relative,  inferior,  and 
subordinate  worship,  are  allowed  by  several 
Roman  cathoUe  Avriters  to  have  been  good 
men,  "the  servants  of  the  great  God,"  as 
Hierocles  called  them  f  and,  according  to 
the  principles  of  the  church  of  Rome,  worthy 
of  the  worship  that  was  given  them.*    If 


'  Exod.22:  28.  Psal.  82:  1.  6. 

a  August.  Stench,  de  perenni  Philosoph.  1.  5.  c.  1. 

'  Ilierocl.  apud  Aug.  Psal.  96. 

*  Vide  Campanell.  Triumph.  Atheism,  c.  11. 

Some  Roman  catholic  writers,  and  among  the  rest 
Cainpanella,  have  undertaken  to  prove,  that  the  hea- 
thens, under  the  names  of  their  several  deities,  wor- 
shiped Noah,  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  the  other  patri- 
archs, who  were  as  great  saints,  says  Canipanella, 
and  as  worthy  of  worship  as  any  of  the  apostles,  even 
as  St.  Peter  himself. —  (Campan.  Triumph.  Atheism, 
c.  11.)  However,  what  Bellarmine  says  here,  may 
perhaps  be  true  ;  namely,  that  among  those,  whon» 
the  heathens  worshiped,  were  some  who  had  been 
wicked  men  ;  nay,  and  some  who  had  never  existed. 
But  how  many  has  the  church  of  Rome  long  worshiped 
as  saints,  who  were  afterwards  found  unworthy  of  the 
worship  that  was  given  them,  and  struck  out  of  the 
calendar  ■?  How  many  have  still  a  place  in  the  calen- 
dar, who  never  existed'?  Whom  did  the  heathens 
ever  worship,  whose  existence  may  be  more  justly 
questioned,  than  that  of  St.  Almachius,  or  St.  Alma- 
nac, St.  Curandarum  Viarum,  St.  George,  St.  Chris- 
topher, of  the  seven  sleepers,  of  the  ten  thousand 
virgins  of  Cornwall,  or  of  the  holy  virgins  St.  Faith, 
St.  Hope,  and  St.  Charity,  the  three  daughters  of  a 
venerable  matron  named  St.  Wisdom  ?  What  the 
popish  divines  allege  in  such  cases  to  justify  their 
worship,  and  render  it  lawful;  namely,  the  general 
intention  of  worshiping  those  only,  who  deserve  to  be 
worshiped;  will,  in  the  like  cases,  equally  justify  the 
worship  of  the  heathens,  who  intended,  as  we  may 
well  suppose,  to  worship  such  only  as  deserved  to  be 
worshiped. 

"  But  all  the  gods  of  the  heathens,"  adds  Bellar- 
mine, "are  in  Scripture  called  devils;"  (Psal.  96. 
ver.  5.)  ergo,  the  heathens  neither  worshiped  the 
true  God  in'their  images,  nor  good  men,  nor  good  an- 
gels ;  but  the  infernal  spirits,  or  devils.  Had  Bellar- 
mine perused,  with  the  least  degree  of  attention,  the 
works  of  the  famous  Aquinas,  which  are  said  by  pope 
Pius  V.  to  have  been  ajiproved  by  Christ  himself,  he 
would  have  found  this  very  objection  answered  by 
him.  For  that  great  divine,  after  showing  that  the 
heathens,  though  they  worshiped  the  true  God,  were, 
nevertheless,  by  the  fathers,  justly  charged  with  ido- 
latry, because  they  worshiped  other  gods  besides  him, 
puts  this  question,  "How  all  the  other  gods  whom 
they  worsliiped,  could  be  called  devils,  since  they 
worshiped,  among  the  rest,  the  heavenly  intelligences, 
who  were  not  devils,  but  good  angels  V'    And  to  that 


36 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Gregory  H. 


Idolatry  to  worship  the  true  God  in  an  image.    The  Jews  worshiped  the  true  God  in  the  golden  calf,  and  yet 
guilty  of  idolatry.    Idolatry  to  give  any  religious  worship  whatever  to  a  creature. 


the  fathers  therefore  condemned,  and  con- 
demned as  idolatrous,  the  worship  of  im- 
ages, even  in  those,  who  neither  worship- 
ed the  images  themselves  as  gods,  nor  wor- 
shiped false  gods  by  them,  according  to  the 
received  meaning  of  that  word,  but  either 
the  true  God  alone  under  different  represen- 
tations and  images,  or  together  with  him, 
but  in  an  inferior  degree,  the  heavenly  spi- 
rits, and  the  servants  of  the  great  God,  that 
IS,  in  the  language  of  the  church  of  Rome, 
angels  and  saints,  it  must  be  idolatry,  ac- 
cording to  their  doctrine,  to  worship  the  true 
God  by  images,  or  to  worship,  even  with  an 
inferior  worship,  any  creature,  how  perfect 
soever,  and  excellent,  and  much  more  the 
meanest  of  all  creatures,  the  work  of  men's 
hands.  And,  if  that  be  idolatry,  I  leave  Ba- 
ronius  and  Bellarmine  to  show,  that  the  hea- 
thens were,  and  they  are  not,  according  to 
the  doctrine  of  the  fathers,  guilty  of  idolatry. 
Several  Roman  catholic  writers,  and 
among  the  rest  cardinal  Du  Perron,  and 
Natalis  Alexander,  a  most  zealous  advocate 
for  the  worship  of  images,  well  aware  that 
they  cannot  excuse  from  idolatry  the  wor- 
ship, which  they  give  to  images,  if  they  al- 
low the  heathens,  whom  the  fathers  charged 
with  idolatry,  to  have  neither  worshiped  the 
images  themselves  as  gods,  nor  to  have 
worshiped  false  gods  by  them,  have  en- 
deavored to  prove,  that  the  heathens  looked 
on  their  images  as  gods,^  and  worshiped 
them  as  such  with  the  highest  worship  ;  and 
reason  thus ;  should  we  allow  the  worship- 
ing of  God  by  images  to  have  been  forbidden 
by  the  second  commandment,  as  is  pretend- 
ed, it  would  indeed  follow  from  thence,  that 
those  who  thus  worshiped  God,  would  wor- 
ship him  in  an  unlawful  manner;  but  so 
long  as  they  worshiped  the  true  God,  and 
worshiped  no  other  God  besides  him,  they 
could  not  be  justly  charged  with  idolatry, 
which  consists  in  worshiping  something  as 
God,  that  is  not  God,  or  in  worshiping,  and 
with  the  same  kind  of  worship,  more  gods 
than  one :  hence  they  conclude,  that,  since 
the  fathers  charged  the  heathens  with  idola- 
try, they  must  either  have  worshiped  the 
images  themselves  as  gods,  or  false  gods 
by  them,  and  with  the  same  worship  which 
they  gave  to  the  supreme  God :  but,  I.  The 
heathens  themselves  declared,  over  and  over 
again,  in  their  disputes  with  the  fathers,  that 
they  did  not  look  on  their  images  as  gods, 
but  only  as  representations  of  the  gods ; 
that  in  them  they  worshiped  those  to  whom 
they   were   consecrated ;   that  the   honors. 


he  answers,  "That,  though  the  heavenly  intelligences 
were  not  devils  in  themselves,  they  were  so  never- 
theless, as  they  were  the  gods  of  the  heathens,  that  is, 
as  they  had  divine  worship  given  them. — (Thom. 
Aquin.  contr.  Gent.  1.  1.  c.  42.  et  Caietan.  in  Aquin. 
22.  Quffist.  94.  Art.  4.)  And,  in  that  sense,  all  the 
popish  saints  may  be  said  to  be  devils,  St.  Peter  him- 
self not  excepted,  since  they  too  have  divine  worship 
given  them;  the  very  same  worship'that  was  given  by 
the  heathens  to  the  heavenly  intelligences. 


gifts,  and  sacrifices  offered  to  the  images,  did 
not  belong  to  them,  but  to  the  gods  whom 
they  represented,  &c.i  and  surely  they  knew 
better  what  they  worshiped  than  Natalis 
Alexander,  or  the  cardinal  himself.  II.  To 
worship  God  in  a  prohibited  and  unlawful 
manner  is  idolatry,  according  to  the  Scrip- 
ture notion  of  idolatry.  Thus  the  Israelites, 
worshiping  the  golden  calf  contrary  to  the 
express  command  of  God,  saying,  "Thou 
shalt  not  make  to  thyself  any  graven  image, 
&c,  thou  shalt  not  bow  down  to  them,  nor 
worship  them,"  are  charged  in  Scripture 
with  idolatry,  though  they  neither  believed 
that  image  to  be  the  true  God,  "  the  God 
that  brought  them  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt," 
nor  worshiped  it  as  such,  but  intended  to 
worship  the  true  God  in  it,  as  has  been  un- 
answerably proved  by  the  learned  bishop  of 
Worcester  f  and  is  owned  by  Ferus,^  Abu- 
lensis,  Caietan,*  and  several  other  Roman 
catholic  writers.^  Nay,  Bellarmine  himself 
thinks,  that  the  Jews  may  be  said,  "  and  not 
improbably,  to  have  worshiped  the  true  God 
in  the  molten  image  :"^  if  so,  in  what  could 
their  idolatry  consist,  but  in  worshiping  an 
image,  though  in  the  image  they  intended  to 
worship  the  true  God  ?  III.  God,  by  com- 
manding us  to  worship  him,  and  to  worship 
him  alone,  has  appropriated  all  religious 
worship  to  himself;  and  therefore  to  give 
any  religious  worship  to  an  image,  or  any 
other  creature,  is  giving  to  a  creature  the 
worship  that  is  due  to  God  alone,  which 
none  will  pretend  to  excuse  from  idolatry. 

I  know  that  the  popish  writers,  to  clear 
their  church  from  that  imputation,  dis- 
tinguish here  between  supreme  and  inferior 
worship,  absolute  and  relative,  direct  and 
reductive  ;  worship  by  itself,  and  worship  by 
accident ;  worship  of  Latria,  and  worship  of 
Dulia,  Hyperdulia,  &,c.  "The  heretics," 
says  Arriaga,  "  allege  many  passages  from 
the  Scriptures,  the  fathers,  and  the  councils, 
where  it  is  said  that  God  only  is  to  be  wor- 
shiped. But  to  all  the  passages  that  have 
been,  or  can  be  alleged,  we  answer  in  one 
word,  that  they  are  to  be  understood  of  the 
worship  of  Latria,  or  supreme  Avorship, 
which  must  be  given  to  God  alone ;  and 
would  become  idolatrous,  if  given  to  any 
but  to  God."  But  God  commands  us  to 
worship  him  and  serve  him  only,  without 
any  distinction  of  the  nature,  kind,  or  de- 
grees of  worship;  the  Jews,  to  whom  the 


>  See  p.  34,  35.  note  2. 

"^  Stillingfleet  ubi  supra,  p.  748.  et  seq. 

'  Joh.  Ferus  in  Act.  7. 

<  Apud  Bellar.  de  Imag.  1.  2.  c.  13. 

'"The  Israelites  were  not  so  stupid,"  says  Ferus, 
"to  believe  that  Aaron  could  make  a  God;  non  tam 
stupidi  erant,  quod  crederent  Aaron  posse  facere 
Deum  ;"  or  that  the  image  which  he  made,  had  brought 
them  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt  before  it  was  made. 
They  meant  no  more,  therefore,  than  that  Aaron  should 
make  them  an  image  of  the  God  who  brought  them 
out  of  Elgypt ;  and  in  that  image  Ihey  worshiped 
him. — (Ferus  ubi  supra.) 

6  Apud  Bellar.  de  Imag.  1.  2.  c.  13. 


Gregory  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


37 


Idolatry  to  give  worship  to  the  most  perfect  creature.  The  primitive  Christians  did  not  forbear  the  use  and 
worship  of  images,  lest  they  should  give  offence  to  the  Gentiles;  and,  lest  they  should  expose  their  prose- 
lytes to  the  danger  of  idolatry.  The  worship  of  images  gives  now  as  great  offence  to  many  Christians,  as 
it  formerly  gave  to  the  pagans;  and  exposes  the  proselytes  from  paganism  to  the  same  danger. 


law  was  first  given,  knew  of  no  such  dis- 
tinctions, but  thought  it  idolatry  to  give  any 
kind  of  worship  whatever  to  a  creature;  and 
so  did  the  fathers  in  the  fourth  and  fifth  cen- 
turies, charging  the  Arians  with  idolatry, 
for  worshiping  Christ,  while  they  believed 
him  to  be  but  a  creature,  though  they  could 
not,  in  that  supposition,  worship  him  with 
the  worship  of  Latria,  but  only  with  an  in- 
ferior, subordinate,  and  relative  worship,  with 
the  worship  of  Dulia,  or  rather  with  that  of 
Hyperdulia,  which,  in  the  present  system 
of  the  popish  worship,  is  due  to  the  virgin 
Mary  alone,  and  was,  in  the  Arian  system, 
due  only  to  Christ  as  the  first  of  all  creatures. 
Had  the  fathers  thought  it  lawful  to  give 
any  kind  of  Avorship  whatever  to  a  creature, 
they  would  not  have  charged  the  Arians 
with  idolatry  for  worshipinir,  even  with  an 
inferior  worship,  one,  who,  in  their  opinion, 
was  the  most  perfect  of  all  creatures :  the 
only  answer  they  give  here  to  clear  them- 
selves, in  the  worship  of  saints  and  images, 
from  the  idolatry,  which  the  Arians  were 
charged  with,  in  the  worship  of  Christ, 
by  the  fathers,  is,  that  the  Arians  worshiped 
Christ  as  God,  though  they  believed  him  to 
be  but  a  creature  ;  which  is  supposing  them 
to  have  been  all  mere  idiots,  that  they  may 
not  themselves  be  thought  idolaters. 

As  for  the  reasons  alleged  above,  by  Pe- 
tavius  and  others,  why  the  primitive  Chris- 
tians abstained  from  the  use  and  the  wor- 
ship  of  images,  namely,  lest  they  should 
thereby  give  offence  to  the  pagans,  or  ex- 
pose such  of  them  as  embraced  the  Christian 
religion  to  the  danger  of  idolatry,  or  of  giv- 
ing the  same  worship  to  images  after.their 
conversion,   which   they   had   been   accus- 
tomed  to  give   to   them   before  their  con- 
version ;    I    have    shown    already,   that    it 
was  not  out  of  any  temporary  motive  that 
the  primitive  Christians  forbore  to  worship 
images,  or  to  use  them  in  their  worship,  but 
for  reasons,  that  must  render  the  one  and 
the  other  ever  unlawful.    I  shall  add  here,  that 
the  aversion,  which  the  primitive  Cliristians 
showed  to  all  images,  and  all  worship  of 
images,  was  one  of  the  chief  exceptions  of 
the  pagans  against  the  Christian  religion;' 
and  that  the  fathers  ought  therefore  to  have 
rather  recommended  and  countenanced  that 
kind  of  worship,  than  abstained  from  it,  for 
fear  of  giving  offence  to  the  Pagans :  they 
would  thereby  not  only  have  removed  that 
exception ;  but,  as  the  pagans  were  all  ac- 
customed to  the  worship  of  images,  and  it 
is  far  more  easy  to  bring  men  from  worship- 
ing some  images  to  worship  others,  than  to 
bring  them  from  worshiping  images  to  wor- 
ship none,  they  v/ould  have  greatly  facilitat- 
ed, instead  of  obstructing  their  conversion. 


'  Orig.  in  CeU.  J.  8.  p.  399.  404.  et  1.  6.  p.  189. 


As  to  the  danger  of  idolatry  in  the  prose- 
lytes from  paganism,  I  should  be  glad  to 
know  what  worship  a  pagan  gave  to  the 
image  of  Jupiter,  for  instance,  before  his 
conversion,  which,  according  to  the  Romish 
principles  of  worship,  would  have  become 
idolatrous,  if  given  to  the  image  of  God  or 
of  Christ  after  his  conversion  ;  or  what  wor- 
ship he  gave  to  the  images  of  the  inferior 
gods,  while  yet  a  pagan,  which  it  would  in 
him  have  been  idolatry  to  give,  when  a 
Christian,  to  the  images  of  the  virgin  Mary, 
and  to  the  saints?  As  the  pagans  neither 
worshiped  their  images  as  gods,  nor  false 
gods  through  them,  but  either  the  true  God, 
and  the  heavenly  intelligences,  or  the  souls 
of  good  men  ;  nay,  and  worshiped  the  true 
God  with  the  highest  adoration  and  worship ; 
and  the  inferior  gods,  as  they  called  them, 
with  an  inferior,  relative,  and  subordinate 
worship;  in  the  popish  system  of  worship 
they  needed  only,  upon  their  conversion,  to 
have  changed  the  names ;  and  by  that  change 
alone,  without  the  least  alteration  either  in 
their  worship,  or  in  most  of  the  objects  of 
their  worship,  they  would  have  become  good 
Christians,  as  well  as  good  catholics. 

To  what  has  been  said  in  answer  to  the 
reasons  alleged  by  Petavius  and  Pagi,  why 
the  primitive  Christians  abstained  from  all 
worship  of  images,  might  be  farther  added, 
that,  if  the  primitive  Christians  thought  it 
advisable  to  abstain  from  that  worship, 
though  not  unlawful  in  itself,  for  fear  of 
giving  offence  to  the  pagans ;  the  present 
church  of  Rome  ought,  in  like  manner,  to 
abstain  from  the  same  worship,  knowing 
that  it  has  given,  and  that  it  still  continues 
to  give,  great  offence,  not  only  to  the  ene- 
mies of  the  Christian  religion,  but  to  millions 
of  Christians,  who  think  that  the  worship 
which  she  requires  to  be  given  to  images, 
cannot  be  excused  from  idolatry.  They  do 
not  even  pretend  the  worship  of  images  to 
be  either  commanded  in  Scripture,  or  ne- 
cessary to  salvation  ;  and  to  keep  up,  to  the 
great  scandal  of  the  Christian  name,  a  divi- 
sion among  Christians  for  what  is  neither 
commanded  in  Scripture,  nor  necessary  to 
salvation,  is  wicked,  and  quite  inexcusable. 
If  the  primitive  church  thought  it  advis- 
able to  forbear  the  use  and  worship  of  images 
so  long  as  idolatry  prevailed  over  the  Chris- 
tian religion,  that  is,  for  the  space  of  near 
four  hundred  ypars,  lest  the  pagans,  accus- 
tomed to  worship  images,  should  give  them 
the  same  worship  after  their  conversion 
which  they  had  given  them  before  it;  the 
church  of  Rome  ought,  for  the  very  same 
reason,  not  to  have  allowed  her  missionaries 
to  carry  any  images  with  them  into  the  East 
and  West  Indies,  upon  the  discovery  of 
those  countries,  nor  suffered  images  to  be 
worshiped,  or  to  be  used  there,  till  the  pagan 
D 


38 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES. 


Gregory  H. 


The  use  and  worship  of  images  first  introduced  by  heretics  ;  by  Simon  the  sorcerer,  in  the  first  century  ;  and 
in  the  succeeding  century  by  the  Gnostics,  and  the  Carpocratians. 


superstition  Avas  quite  rooted  out,  and  the 
Christian  religion  established  in  its  room.  If 
the  primitive  church  acted  very  wisely,  as 
Petavius  and  Pagi  tell  us  she  did,  in  not  per- 
mitting images  to  be  used,  or  to  be  worship- 
ed till  the  Christian  religion  had  prevailed 
over  idolatry;  the  church  of  Rome  must  be 
said  to  have  acted  very  much  otherwise,  in 
permitting  images  to  be  used  and  to  be  wor- 
shiped where  idolatry  still  prevailed  over 
the  Christian  religion,  and  consequently 
where  the  converts  were  exposed  to  the  dan- 
ger, to  avoid  which  the  church  had,  in  the 
primitive  times,  thought  it  advisable  to  abstain 
from  the  use  of  images  as  well  as  the  worship. 

As  the  dispute  about  the  worship  of 
images  divided  the  whole  church,  as  soon 
as  it  was  moved,  and  keeps  it  to  this  day 
divided  into  two  opposite  and  irreconcilable 
parties ;  before  I  proceed  to  the  dreadful  dis- 
turbances, which  it  occasioned  in  the  state, 
as  well  as  the  church,  I  must  beg  leave  to 
inform  the  reader,  and  hope  it  will  not  be 
thought  foreign  to  the  subject,  by  what  steps 
that  execrable  superstition,  though  condemn- 
ed in  the  strongest  terms,  as  well  as  the 
plainest,  by  all  the  primitive  fathers,  crept 
nevertheless  into  the  church;  when,  and 
under  what  color  or  pretence,  images  were 
first  admitted  into  the  places  of  Christian 
worship;  when  they  first  began  to  be  wor- 
shiped ;  by  whom  the  use,  as  well  as  the 
worship  of  images,  was 'first  introduced 
among  Christians ;  and  by  whom  approved 
and  countenanced.  It  will  from  thence  still 
further  appear,  that  to  forbid  images  to  be 
worshiped  was  no  innovation  in  Leo,  no 
heresy,  no  apostacy  from  the  faith ;  but,  on 
the  contrary,  that  it  was  an  innovation,  that 
it  was  heresy,  and  apostacy  from  the  faith 
of  all  the  preceding  ages,  to  worship  them. 

And  here  we  must  allow  the  use  and  wor- 
ship of  images  among  Christians,  or  those 
who  pretended  to  be  Christians,  to  be  as 
ancient  as  the  Christian  religion  itself.  For 
they  were  first  used  and  worshipped,  if  St. 
Austin  is  to  be  credited,  by  Simon,  the  fa- 
mous sorcerer,  who  was  contemporary  with 
the  apostles,  and  gave  his  own  image,  as 
that  father  informs  us,'  and  the  image  of  his 
harlot,  lo  be  worshiped  by  his  followers. 
As  he  was  therefore  the  first,  who  recom- 
mended the  use  and  worship  of  images,  he 
may  be  justly  styled  the  author  and  father 
of  that  superstition :  and  probably  some, 
whose  images  have  been,  and  are  still  wor- 
shiped in  the  church  of  Rome,  no  more  de- 
serve that  honor,  nor  perhaps  fare  better  in 
the  other  world,  than  he  and  his  harlot. 

In  the  following  century  the  Gnostic  and 
Carpocratian  heretics,  pretending  they  had 
images  of  Christ  made  by  Pontius  Pilate, 
crowned,  censed,  and  worshiped  them  after 
the  manner  of  the  heathens,  as  we  read  in 


»  Aug.  ad  Quodv.  c.  1. 


Irenseus,'  .Epiphanius,^  and  Austin.''  But 
the  worship  which  they  gave  to  those  images, 
though  no  less  authentic  than  any  supposed 
to  have  been  made  by  Nicodemus,  or  St. 
Luke,  nay,  than  the  Veronica  itself,  was 
accounted  by  the  catholic  church  among 
the  abominations  of  those  heretical  sects ; 
and  they  Avere,  on  that  score,  by  all  the 
fathers,  arraigned  of  idolatry.''  They  are 
said,  it  is  true,  to  have  worshiped,  with  the 
images  of  Christ,  the  images  of  Pythagoras, 
Plato,  and  Aristotle.  But  the  fathers  con- 
demned them  for  "  worshiping  the  images 
of  Christ,  and  the  images  of  the  philoso- 
phers of  this  world;"  that  is,  for  the  wor- 
ship which  they  gave  to  the  images  of  Christ, 
as  well  as  for  the  worship  which  they  gave 
to  the  images  of  the  philosophers.  For  had 
the  fathers  thought  it  no  crime  to  worship 
the  images  of  Christ,  but  only  to  worship 
the  images  of  the  philosophers,  they  would 
have  found  fault  with  those  heretics  for 
joining,  in  their  worship,  the  images  of  the 
philosophers  with  the  images  of  Christ,  and 
not  for  worshiping,  without  any  distinc- 
tion, the  images  of  Christ,  and  those  of  Py- 
thagoras, Plato,  and  Aristotle.^ 

Thus  was  the  use  and  worship  of  images 
introduced,  indeed  in  the  earliest  times 
among  Christians,  but  introduced,  by  the 
worst  of  heretics;  and  by  them  alone  they 
continued  to  be  used  till  the  beginning  of  the 
fourth  century,  when  some  Christians  in 
Spain,  thinking  they  might  lawfully  use 
pictures  at  least  as  ornaments,  began  to 
adorn  with  them  the  walls  of  their  churches. 
But  the  Spanish  bishops,  looking  upon  that 
practice  as  a  dangerous  innovation,  and 
plainly  repugnant  to  the  practice  and  doctrine 


»  Iren.  1.  1.  c.  24.  2  Epiph.  haeres.  27. 

^  Aug.  de  haeres.  c.  7.  *  Iren.  Epiph.  Aug.  ibid. 

'The  Gnostics,  say  some  here,  worsiiiped  the  im- 
ages of  Christ  with  sovereign  worship,  or  the  worship 
of  Latria;  and  were,  on  that  account,  justly  charged 
by  the  fathers  with  idolatry.  But  if  the  Gnostics 
were,  on  that  account,  justly  charged  with  idolatry, 
how  will  the  church  of  Rome  clear  herself  from  idola- 
try, in  giving,  as  she  does,  sovereign  worship  to  the 
cross,  to  the  nails,  to  the  spear,  to  all  the  instruments 
of  the  passion,  nay,  and  to  everything  that  has  touched 
the  body  of  Christ,  the  skin  of  the  ass  not  excepted, 
on  which  our  Savior  rode  into  Jerusalem  f  The  im- 
age of  Christ  represents  Christ ;  and  why  should  con- 
tact entitle  a  piece  of  wood,  or  of  iron,  to  sovereign 
worship,  and  representation  not  entitle  an  image  'f 
Nay,  representation  is,  according  to  the  practice  and 
doctrine  of  the  church  of  Rome,  as  good  a  title  to 
sovereign  worship  as  contact,  if  the  object  represented 
be  worthy  of  that  worship.  Thus  sovereign  worship, 
or  the  worship  of  Latria,  is  not  only  given  in  that 
church  to  the  cross,  on  which  Christ  suffered,  but  to 
all  other  crosses,  as  representations  of  that  cross;  and 
it  is  a  current  doctrine  among  the  popish  divines,  that 
images  are  to  be  worshiped  with  the  same  worship 
which  is  given  to  the  prototypes,  or  objects,  which 
they  represent;  because  the  worship,  say  they,  passes 
from  them  to  their  objects.  Now  it  can  be  no  more 
idolatry,  according  to  that  doctrine,  to  worship  the 
images  of  Christ,  than  lo  worship  Christ  himself,  with 
sovereign  worship,  or  worship  of  Latria.  And  if  that 
be  no  idolatry,  I  should  be  glad  to  know  in  what  the 
idolatry  consisted,  which  tlie  Gnostic  heretics  were 
charged  with  by  the  fathers,  or  what  worship  they 
gave  to  their  images,  which  the  church  of  Rome  does 
not  approve  of,  or  does  not  allow  to  be  given  to  hers. 


Gregory  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


39 


The  use  of  images  in  churches,  even  as  ornaments,  condemned  by  a  council  of  Spanish  bishops  in  the  beginning 
of  the  fourth  century.     St.  Epiphanius  a  zealous  Iconoclast  in  the  latter  end  of  the  same  century.  I 


of  the  three  preceedin^  ages,  condemned  it 
in  a  council  held  at  Eliberis,in  305,  issuing, 
with  one  consent,  the  following  decree ;  "  it 
pleases  us,"  or  we  decree,  "  that  pictures 
ought  not  to  be  in  churches  :"'  and  they  give 
the  reason  why  pictures  ought  not  to  be  in 
churches,  "  lest  that,  which  is  worshiped  or 
adored,  be  painted  upon  wails  ;"  the  very 
reason,  that  was  alleged  by  the  primitive 
fathers  against  all  pictures  and  images,  such 
representations  serving  only  to  debase  the 
objects  of  our  worship,  and  beget  wrong  ap- 
prehensions of  the  Deity  in  those  who  be- 
hold them,  especially  in  the  ignorant  multi- 
tude.2  j(\i,j  jt  jg  to  be  observed,  that  the 
present  canon  extends  to  the  pictures  of 
Christ,  as  well  as  to  those  of  God  the  Father ; 
for  Christ  is  a  true  object  of  adoration  and 
worship,  and  nothing,  that  is  worshiped  or 
adored,  ought,  according  to  the  council,  to 
be  painted  upon  walls.'    This  decree  was 


'  Contil.  Elib.  can.  S6.  »  See  p.  32. 
'  This  decree  has  aftbrded  good  employment  to  the 
Roman  catholic  divines;  and  they  have  left  nothing 
unattempted  to  elude  it.  Some  of  them  have  pretend- 
ed the  council  of  Eliberis,  or  at  least  the  decree  against 
pictures,  to  be  a  mere  forgery  ;  which  was  cutting  the 
knot  they  could  not  untie. —  (Bellar.  de  Iniag.  I.  2.  c.  9. 
Bar.  ad  Ann.  392.)  But  that  opinion  is  now  univer- 
sally e.xploded,  as  rash  and  groundless. —  (Petav.  de 
Incarn.  I.  15.  c.  14.  Dupin  Nouv.  Bibliotli.  torn.  2. 
p.  306.)  And  indeed  an  Arian,  or  a  Nestorian, 
might  as  well  pretend  the  councils  of  Nice,  and  of 
Ephesus,  or  the  decrees  of  those  councils  condemning 
their  doctrines  to  be  mere  forgeries,  and  the  inven- 
tions of  heretics.  Others  therefore  will  have  the  fa- 
thers of  Eliberis  to  have  only  forbidden  pictures  upon 
walls,  and  to  have  been  induced  by  the  regard  and 
veneration,  which  they  had  for  pictures,  to  issue  that 
prohibition,  the  good  bishops  apprehending,  that  the 
saltpetre,  or  moistness  of  the  walls,  might  spoil  and 
disfigure  them  ;  or  that  the  Christians  not  being  able 
to  remove  them  in  time  of  persecution,  and  carry 
them  with  them,  as  Rachel  carried  her  teraphim,  they 
would  be  thereby  exposed  to  the  insults  of  the  pagans. 
Thus  they  interpret  in  favor  of  images  the  very  de- 
cree, that  was  issued  against  them.  But  the  decree 
of  the  council  was,  "That  pictures  ought  not  to  be  in 
churches,"  without  any  kind  of  distinction  between 
pictures  upon  walls,  and  pictures  upon  canvas,  >ipon 
boards,  or  upon  vails;  between  pictures  that  could, 
and  pictures  that  could  not  be  removed  ;  so  that  all 
pictures  were  banished  by  that  decree  from  the 
churches,  or  places  of  Christian  worship.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  reason  which  the  council  alleged  why 
images  ought  not  to  be  in  churches,  namely,  "  lest  that, 
which  is  worshiped,  be  painted  ;"  plainly  shows,  that 
their  intention  was  to  forbid,  agreeably  to  the  doctrine 
of  the  purer  ages,  the  painting  any  ways,  or  in  any 
place  whatever,  that  which  was  worshiped,  or  the 
Deity  and  Christ,  the  only  objects  of  worship  at  that 
time  among  Christians.  They  added  upon  walls,  to 
suppress  the  practice  that  had  begun  to  creep  into  the 
churches  of  Spain,  and  had  given  occasion  to  that  de- 
cree. And  indeed  the  original  use  of  pictures  was,  as 
we  shall  see,  to  embellish  and  adorn  the  walls  of  the 
churches  ;  and  they  had  been,  for  some  ages,  on  the 
walls,  before  they  were  preferred  to  a  place  on  the 
altars.  Some,  to  elude  this  canon,  find  nothing  else 
satisfactory  to  recur  to,  but  the  new  notion  of  the 
Disciplina  Arcani ;  and  tell  us,  that  by  the  council  of 
Eliberis  were  only  forbidden  the  images  of  the  Trini- 
ty ;  and  that  they  were  forbidden,  lest  the  Catechu- 
mens should  be  let  into  the  secrets  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion, and  understand  the  mystery  of  the  Trinity  be- 
fore their  time.  This  pleasant  notion  was  invented 
by  Mendoza;  (Mendoz.  Not.  in  Con.  Elib.  c.  .36.  Concil. 
t.  1.  p.  1240.)  was  approved  by  Bona;  (Hon.  Rer. 
Liturg.  1.  1.  c.  16.)  and  is  highly  extolled  by  Schel- 
Blrat  (Schelstrat.  Discip.  Arcan.  in  Arcan.  c.  6.)  and 
Pagi,  (Pagi  Critic.  Bar.  ad  Ann.  55.  n.  6.)  as  a  full  and 


inviolably  observed  for  several  ages  by  the 
churches  of  Spain,  as  will  be  shown  in  the 
sequel  of  this  history. 

That  images  ought  not  to  be  in  churches, 
was  not  an  opinion  peculiar,  in  this  age,  to 
the  bishops  of  Spain.  Epiphanius,  bishop 
of  Salamis,  and  metropolitan  of  Cyprus, 
thought  so  too  ;  and  gave  as  signal  an  in- 
stance of  zeal  against  all  pictures  and 
images,  as  any  that  occur  in  the  whole  his- 
tory of  the  Iconoclasts.  The  fact  is  related 
by  himself  in  a  letter  to  John,  bishop  of  Jeru- 
salem ;  and  I  shall  give  it  in  his  own  words  : 
"As  I  was  traveling,"  says  he,  "to  a  holy 
place  called  Bethel,  I  passed  through  a  vil- 
lage of  Palestine,  named  Anablatha ;  and 
observing  there  a  burning  lamp  in  a  house. 


satisfactory  answer  to  all  the  arguments,  which  the 
protestants  can  urge  from  the  above  mentioned  decree 
against  images,  and  the  worship  of  images.  But,  in 
the  first  place,  from  the  words  of  the  decree  it  is  mani- 
fest, that  it  was  the  design  of  the  council  to  forbid  all 
pictures  in  churches.  Is  not  that  the  plain,  natural, 
and  obvious  sense  of  the  words,  "It  pleases  us  that 
pictures  ought  not  to  be  in  churches'!"  Thus  they 
were  understood  even  by  Bellarmiiie;  (Bellar.  de 
Iniag.  I.  2.  c.  9.)  "The  council,"  says  he,  "speaks  of 
pictures  in  general;"  and  I  should  be  glad  to  know 
what  terms,  less  liable  to  misinterpretation,  could 
Mendoza  himself  have  suggested  to  forbid  all  pictures 
in  churches'!  In  the  second  place,  who  can  believe 
the  Spanish  bishops  to  have  known  so  little  themselves 
of  Cod,  and  the  mysteries  of  our  religion,  especially 
of  the  Trinity,  as  to  imagine  that  the  catechumens 
could  understand  them,  from  pictures  or  images?  It 
was,  on  the  contrary,  because  all  pictures  and  images 
of  the  Deity  arc  apt  to  beget  wrong  notions  of  God  in 
those  who  behold  them,  that  such  representations 
were  condemned,  as  1  have  shown,  and  proscribed  by 
the  fathers  :  and  Aubespine,  bishop  of  Orleans,  was 
of  opinion,  that  for  the  same  reason  they  were  con- 
demned and  proscribed  by  the  present  council.  "All 
images  of  God  and  the  Trinity,"  says  that  prelate, 
"were  forbidden  by  the  fathers  of  Eliberis,  lest  the 
catechumens,  and  new  converts,  should  entertain 
wrong  notions,  and  dishonorable  thoughts  of  God, 
when  they  saw  him,  whom  they  had  been  taught  to 
believe  invisible,  immaterial,  and  incomprehensible, 
circumscribed  in  visible  colors  and  lines. —  (Aubespin. 
Not.  in  Can.  36.  Con.  Elib.)  And  truly  the  only  rea- 
son alleged  by  the  council  in  prohibiting  such  repre- 
sentations was,  "lest  that  which  was  worshiped  and 
adored,  should  be  painted;"  or,  in  other  words,  lest 
an  invisible,  immaterial,  and  incomprehensible  being 
should  be  circumscribed  in  visible  colors  and  lines. 
The  decree  of  Eliberis,  says  here  Ivo,  (Ivo  Part.  3. 
c.  4.)  was  but  a  temporary  decree  to  prevent  the  con- 
verted Gentiles  from  giving  the  same  worship  to  the 
images  of  God,  or  of  Christ,  which  they  had  given  be- 
fore their  conversion  to  the  images  of  Jupiter,  Mars, 
or  Apollo.  But,  not  to  repeat  here  what  has  been 
said  above  of  the  worship  of  the  Gentiles,  the  council 
did  not  forbid  images,  lest  that  which  was  painted, 
should  be  worshiped,  but  lest  thai  which  was  wor- 
shiped should  be  painted.  To  conclude,  no  interpre- 
tation has  yet  been  offered  to  elude  the  force  of  that 
canon,  which  is  not  plainly  repugnant  to  the  natural 
sense  and  meaning  of  tlie  words  ;  nay,  and  has  not 
been  exploded  as  such  as  some  of  the  most  eminent 
writers  of  the  church  of  Rome,  and  anu)ng  the  rest  by 
the  learned  Petavius  and  Dupin;  (Petav.  et  Dupin 
ubi  supra.)  who,  ashamed  of  the  mean  shifts  and  sub- 
terfuges used  on  this  occasion  by  their  brethren,  have 
ingenuously  owned,  that  at  the  time  of  the  council  of 
Eliberis,  that  is,  in  the  heginning  of  the  fourth  cen- 
tury, no  images  were  yet  allowed  in  the  churches  of 
Spain;  and  that  the  Spanish  bishops,  not  yet  apprised 
of  the  great  advantages  attending  the  use  of  images, 
did  not  think  it  lawful  for  the  Christians  to  use  them. 
The  same  thing  is  owned  by  Melchior  Canus  ;  but  he 
charges  the  Spanish  bishops  not  only  with  imprudence, 
but  impiety,  in  issuing  such  a  decree. — (Can.  Loc. 
Theol.  1.  5.  c.  4.) 


40 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Gregory  H. 


The  use  of  images,  in  the  opinion  of  Epiphanius,  contrary  to  Scripture.  Pictures  introduced  in  some  places 
as  ornaments  about  the  latter  end  of  the  fourth  century;  in  Italy  by  Paulinus  of  Nola;  and  in  Fiance  by 
Severus  of  Bourges.     The  use  of  images  opposed  by  some,  even  in  the  fifth  century. 


and  being  told  it  was  a  church,  I  went  in  to 
pray ;  and  on  entering,  found  a  vail  hanging 
before  the  door,  on  which  was  painted  the 
image  of  Christ,  or  some  saint;  for  I  do  not 
well  remember  whose  image  it  was.  But 
seeing  the  image  of  a  man  hanging  in  the 
church  of  Christ,  '  contrary  to  the  authority 
of  the  holy  Scriptures,'  I  tore  it,  and  advised 
the  keepers  of  the  church  to  use  it  as  a 
winding-sheet  for  some  of  their  poor.  They 
complained,  and  required  me  to  give  them 
another  vail  in  the  room  of  that  which  I 
tore.  Their  demand  was  just,  and  in  com- 
pliance with  it  I  send  them  one  by  the 
bearer,  which  I  beg  you  will  order  the  pres- 
byters of  the  place  to  receive  as  sent  by  me ; 
and  at  the  same  time  to  command  them  to 
take  care,  that  no  such  vails,  '  as  they  are  in- 
consistent with  our  religion,'  be  for  the 
future  hung  up  in  the  church  of  Christ. 
For  it  is  incumbent  upon  you  to  '  redress 
such  abuses,  unworthy  of  the  church  of 
Christ,  and  the  people  committed  to  your 
care.'  "* 

Here  we  have  the  use  of  pictures  or 
images  in  churches,  condemned  "  as  con- 
trary to  the  authority  of  the  holy  Scriptures, 
as  inconsistent  with  the  Christian  religion, 
as  unworthy  of  the  church  of  Christ,  and 
the  Christian  people  ;"  and  thus  condemned 
by  one,  whom  all  allow  to  have  been  a  man 
of  as  much  learning  as  an^'  of  his  time,  nay, 
and  whom  the  church  of  Rome,  though  she 
now  condemns  his  doctrine,  still  honors  as 
a  sainl.^  As  St.  Jerom  translated  that  letter 
into  Latin  ;  and  in  translating  it,  found  no 
fault  either  with  the  sentiments  or  the  be- 
havior of  the  metropolitan  of  Cyprus  on  that 
remarkable  occasion  ;  we  may  well  conclude 
that  father  to  have  approved  of  both,  the 
rather  as  he  elsewhere  bestows  on  Epipha- 
nius the  highest  commendations,  styling  him 
"  the  father  of  all  bishops,  a  true  pattern  of 
the  primitive  sanctity,  a  holy  pope,  &c."3 

However,  the  use  of  pictures  in  churches 

'  Epiph.  apud  Hieron.  tom.  2.  ep.  6. 

•»  No  room  is  left  here  for  the  shifts  and  subterfuges, 
that  have  been  used  by  the  advocates  for  images  to 
elude  the  decree  of  Eliberis.  For  the  picture  at  the 
sight  of  which  Epiphanius  expressed  such  indignation, 
was  the  picture  of  Christ,  or  some  saint,  and  not  of 
the  Deity,  or  the  Trinity  ;  was  on  a  veil,  and  not  on 
the  wall  of  the  church  ;  and  consequently  capable  of 
being  removed,  and  in  no  danger  of  being  disfigured 
by  the  moisture  or  saltpetre  of  the  walls,  or  being  in- 
sulted and  abused  by  the  pagans.  And  it  is  to  be  ob- 
served, that  this  happened  in  the  latter  end  of  the 
fourth  century,  when  the  Christian  religion  prevail- 
ing over  idolatry,  the  use  of  images  could  not  give 
that  otfence  to  the  Gentiles,  which  it  would  have 
given,  as  is  supposed,  when  idolatry  prevailed  over 
the  Christian  religion.  Some  here  have  recourse  to 
the  common  evasion,  and  pretend  either  the  whole 
letter  to  be  supposititious,  or  that  part  of  it,  at  least, 
which  makes  against  images. —  (Bar.  ad  Ann.  392.  Bel- 
lar.  de  Imag.  1.  2.  c.  9.)  But  that  the  letter  is  genuine, 
that  Epiphanius  believed  the  use  of  images  in  churches 
to  be  against  the  holy  Scriptures,  and  that  in  his  time 
none  were  suffered  in  the  Cyprian  churches,  is  now 
allowed  by  all  but  Baronius  and  Bellarmine. 

3  Hier.  ad  Pammach. 


did  not  at  this  time  meet  everywhere  with 
the  same  opposition,  which  it  met  with  in 
Spain,  and  in  Palestine.  Some  of  the  more 
eastern  bishops,  looking  upon  pictures  as 
proper  ornaments  for  churches,  and  recon- 
ciled to  them  in  that  light,  began,  in  the  lat- 
ter end  of  this  century,  to  admit  them  into 
their  places  of  worship,  as  appears  from  the 
testimonies  of  Gregory  of  Nyssa,  and  Aste- 
rius,  quoted  by  Petavius.'  About  the  same 
time  they  were  introduced  in  the  west  by 
Paulinus,  bishop  of  Nola  in  Italy  ;  who, 
having  built  in  that  city  a  magnificent 
church  in  honor  of  St.  Felix,  embellished  it 
with  the  pictures  of  martyrs,  and  the  his- 
tories, of  Esther,  of  Job,  of  Tobit,  of  Judith, 
and  other  Scripture  histories,  painted  on  the 
walls,  as  he  himself  informs  us.*  However, 
he  owned  it  was  a  rare  custom  in  his  time, 
that  is,  in  other  words,  an  innovation,  to 
paint  churches,  or  to  have  pictures  in 
churches,  "  pingere  sanclas  raro  more 
domos,"  and  thought  it  necessary  to  apolo- 
gize for  it ;  saying,  that  he  did  it  to  entertain 
the  populace,  and  divert  the  multitude  from 
the  excesses  and  riots,  which  they  were  apt 
to  run  into,  when  they  met  to  celebrate  the 
anniversary  festival  of  the  dedication  of  the 
church.''  The  example  of  Paulinus  was 
followed  by  Severus,  bishop  of  Bourges, 
and  his  intimate  friend,  who,  having  built  a 
baptistery  in  that  city,  caused  the  picture  of 
Martin,  formerly  bishop  of  Tours,  and  that 
of  Paulinus,  then  living,  to  be  painted  on  the 
walls  ;'^  and  Paulinus,  who  was  a  poet,  and 
in  that  age  not  a  bad  one,  sent  him  an  epi- 
gram to  be  placed  under  the  two  pictures, 
exhorting  men  to  imitate  the  one  as  a  saint, 
and  the  other  as  a  penitent  sinner.'' 

But  the  custom  that  was  rare  in  the  latter 
end  of  the  fourth  century,  became  common 
in  the  fifth ;  and  pictures  of  saints  and  of 
martyrs  were  admitted  into  most  churches, 
but  still  admitted  only  as  ornaments ;  and 
they  met,  even  as  such,  with  some  opposi- 
tion both  in  the  east  and  west.  In  the  east 
Theodotus  of  Ancyra,  and  Amphilochius  of 
Iconium,  would  not  suffer  images  or  pic- 
tures in  the  churches  of  their  respective  dio- 
ceses, under  any   pretence  or  color  what- 


'  Petav.  de  Incar.  1.  15.  c.  13. 
=  Paulin.  Natal.  9.  Felic.  p.  615. 
3  Idem.  Natal.  20.  p.  617. 

*  The  pictures  of  tlie  living  were  at  first  intermixed, 
as  appears  from  this  instance,  with  those  of  the  dead  ; 
and  we  read  of  the  pictures  of  Macedonius,  of  Acacius, 
of  Gennadius,  patriarchs  of  Constantinople,  set  up, 
while  they  were  still  livinsr,  in  the  churches  in  that 
city.— (Bar.  ad  Ann.  488.  Vales.  Not.  in  Theodor. 
Led.  I.  2.  p.  167.)  Of  Timotheus,  the  successor  of 
Macedonius,  it  is  recorded,  that  whatever  church  he 
went  into,  he  would  never  begin  divine  service,  till 
the  picture  of  Macedonius  was  taken  down  and  re- 
moved.—(Theodor.  Lect.  1.  2.  p.  563.) 

s  "  Adstat  perfectne  Martinus  regula  vita; 
Paulinus  voniam  quo  mereare  docet. 
Hunc,  peccatores,  ilium  spectate,  Beati: 
Exemphim  Sanctis  ille  sit,  isle  reis. — (Paulin. 
Epig.  12.  ad  Sever.) 


Gregory  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


41 


The  use  of  images  obtains  universally  in  the  sixth  century.     Images  worshiped  by  some  as  soon  as  admitted 
into  the  places  of  worship.     That  worship  condemned  by  St.  Austin,  and,  in  his  time,  by  the  church. 


ever,  alleging,  that  "  the  Christians  had  no 
tradition  to  represent  the  saints  in  material 
colors ;  and  that  they  strove  to  imitate  their 
virtues,  but  cared  not  to  have  their  persons 
and  bodies  represented  to  them  in  pictures 
or  images.'"  And  it  is  to  be  observed,  that 
Amphilochiiis,  who  cared  not  to  have  the 
images  of  the  saints,  was  one  of  the  most 
learned  men  of  the  age  he  lived  in ;  and  is 
highly  commended  by  St.  Jerom,  and  like- 
wise by  the  famous  St.  Basil,  who  addressed 
to  him  his  book  on  the  Holy  Ghost.  In  the 
west,  St.  Austin,  speaking  of  some  Gentiles, 
who  blasphemously  gave  out,  that  the 
author  of  the  Christian  religion  had  written 
books  of  magic,  and  left  them  with  his  two 
followers,  Peter  and  Paul,  conjectures  those 
two  apostles  to  have  been  named  because 
they  were  seen  in  some  places  painted  with 
Christ;  and  adds,  "thus  they  deserve  to  err, 
who  seek  Christ  and  his  apostles,  not  in  the 
holy  Scriptures,  but  on  painted  walls."^ 
Indeed  the  worship  of  images,  the  grossest 
of  all  errors,  never  had  obtained,  had  men 
sought  Christ  only  in  the  Scriptures;  nor 
could  it  long  obtain,  were  not  the  books 
taken  from  the  people,  in  which  alone  St. 
Austin  thought  they  should  seek  Christ,  and 
painted  walls  substituted  in  their  room. 
The  same  father  elsewhere  finds  fault  with 
the  Manichees,  on  account  of  their  fondness 
for  images ;  and  ascribes  it  to  a  wicked 
design  in  them,  of  reconciling  the  heathens 
to  their  mad  and  despicable  sect.^ 

But  though  in  the  fifth  century  the  use  of 
images  was  still  opposed,  or  at  least  not  ap- 
proved, by  some  of  the  most  eminent  men 
for  learning  and  sanctity  who  lived  in  that 
age  ;  in  the  following  century  it  became  uni- 
versal, and  the  churches  were  everywhere 
filled,  both  in  the  east  and  the  west,  not 
only  with  the  histories  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testament,  painted  on  the  walls  and  the 
windows,  but  with  pictures  of  Christ,  under 
the  type  of  a  Iamb,*  of  the  virgin  Mary,  of 


«  Apud  Concil.  Nic.  2.  Act.  6. 

a  All?,  de  Cons.  Evang.  1.  I.e.  20. 

•  Idem  contr.  Adamant,  c.  13. 

*  No  images  of  Christ,  in  the  figure  of  a  man,  were 
allowed  in  the  church  till  the  latter  end  of  the  seventh 
century,  as  has  been  observed,  and  fully  proved  by 
Cassander.— (Cassand.  Consult,  de  Imagiii.  165.)  Till 
that  time  he  was  only  represented  under  the  type  or 
figure  of  a  lamb  ;  all  images  representing  him  in  hu- 
man shape  being  thought  not  only  imperfect,  but  false 
and  unworthy  of  hiui,  since  they  could  only  represent 
him  as  a  man,  whereas  he  was  both  God  and  man. 
Thus  when  Constantia,  sister  of  ('onstans,  and  wife 
of  Licinius,  wrote  to  Eusebius,  at  that  time  bishop  of 
Ceesarea,  desiring  hiui  to  send  her  a  picture  of  Christ ; 
the  bishop  sent  her  the  following  answer:  "That  lie 
could  not  send  her,  nor  could  he  suppose  that  she  had 
desired  him  to  send  her,  a  picture  of  the  divinity  or 
Godhead  of  Christ,  since  no  man  knew  the  Father  but 
the  Son,  and  none  knew  the  Son  but  the  Father;  that 
as  to  his  human  nature,  it  was  tempered  with  the 
glory  of  the  divinity,  and  therefore  could  not  bo  ex- 
pressed in  dead  and  lifeless  colors,  nor  with  the  sha- 
dows of  a  pencil."— (Euseb.  apud  Concil.  Nic.  2. 
Act.  C.)  When  that  letter  was  read  in  the  second 
council  of  Nice,  the  fathers  of  that  very  learned  as- 
sembly could  find  nothing  to  object  against  it,  but  that 

Vol.  II. — G 


the  apostles,  and  other  saints,  especially  of 
the  martyrs  and  their  passions  or  sufferings. 
However,  no  statues,  but  only  paintings  or 
pictures,  were  yet  suffered  in  the  churches, 
as  has  been  observed  by  Petavius  ;'  all  massy 
images,  whether  of  wood,  stone,  or  metal, 
being  thought  to  bear  too  near  a  resemblance 
to  the  idols  of  the  Gentiles.  And  thus  was 
the  use  of  images,  which  the  primitive 
Christians  had  so  much  abhorred  in  their 
worship,  and  places  of  worship,  brought,  by 
degrees,  and,  we  may  say,  by  stealth,  into 
the  church  :  for  though  it  was  now  become 
general,  it  had  not  yet  been  authorized  by 
any  general  council;  nay,  image3  had  not 
been  yet  so  much  as  once  mentioned  in  any 
council  whatever,  except  that  of  Eliberis, 
which  expressly  forbad  them. 

As  to  the  worship  of  images,  they  were 
no  sooner  admitted  into  the  churches,  and 
places  of  worship,  than  they  began  by  some 
to  be  worshiped;  it  being  natural,  as  was 
observed  by  St.  Austin,^  for  those,  who  pray 
looking  on  an  image,  to  be  so  affected  as  to 
believe  that  the  image  hears  them,  and  can 
grant  them  what  they  ask.  And  here  we 
may  observe  by  the  way,  that  St.  Austin  did 
not  at  all  approve  of  the  practice  of  praying 
before  an  image,  but  looked  upon  it  as  ca- 
pable of  seducing  those,  who  thus  prayed, 
to  address  their  prayers  to  the  image  itself. 
As  in  his  time,  that  is,  in  the  latter  end  of 
the  fourth,  or  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  cen- 
tury, images  first  found  admittance  into  the 
Christian  churches  and  oratories  ;  so  in  his 
time  they  first  began  to  be  worshiped.  And 
what  was  his  opinion  concerning  the  wor- 
ship that  Avas  given  them,  nay,  and  the 
opinion  of  the  church  in  his  time,  we  may 
gather  from  his  treatise  "on  the  Manners  of 
the  Catholic  Church."  For  the  Manichees, 
taking  occasion,  from  the  practice  of  a  few,  to 
reproach  the  whole  church  with  the  worship 
of  images,  St.  Austin  answered  thus,  in  the 
treatise  I  have  mentioned  :  "  Name  not  such 
professors  of  Christianity  as  know  not,  or 
observe  not  the  laws  of  the  religion  which 

Eusebius  was  a  heretic,  and  an  Arian,  though  in  that 
very  letter  he  acknowledged,  in  the  plainest  terms, 
the  divinity  of  Christ,  and  the  Arians  were  as  ortho- 
do.x,  with  respect  to  images,  as  the  catholics  them- 
selves. We  know  at  least  of  no  disagreement,  in  that 
particular,  between  them  and  the  catholics;  and 
therefore  the  authority  of  an  Arian  ought  to  have 
been  of  as  much  weight  with  the  fathers  of  the  coun- 
cil, in  what  concerned  images,  as  the  authority  of  a 
catholic.  But  Aslerius,  bisliop  of  Aniasa,  was  a  good 
catholic  ;  and  yet  exhorted  the  Christians  of  his  time 
to  bear  Christ  in  their  souls,  to  carry  the  incorporeal 
Word  in  their  minds,  but  not  to  humble  him  anew  by 
painting  him  in  the  servile  form,  which  for  our  sake 
he  look  upon  him.— (Aster.  Iloniil.  de  Pivit.  ct  l.azar. 
p.  .')G5.)  And  in  that  servile  form  he  was  not  painted, 
at  least  in  churches,  or  places  of  worship,  but  only  re- 
presented under  the  type  of  a  lamb,  till  the  time  of 
the  Quinisext  council,  that  is,  till  the  year  691,  when 
the  worship  of  images  beginning  to  obtain,  the  fathers 
of  that  assembly,  thinking  it  indecent  to  worship  the 
image  of  a  lamb,  decreed  lliat  Christ  should  be  thence- 
forth painted  in  the  form  of  a  man. — (Concil.  Uuini- 
sext.  Can.  83.) 
<  Petav.  de  Incar.  1.  15.  c.  14.    »  Aug.  in  Tsal   tl3. 

d2 


42 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Gregory  II. 


In  the  sixth  century  images  still  used  only  as  helps  to  devotion,  as  books  for  the  ignorant,  &c. ;  and  likewise 
in  the  beginning  of  the  seventh.  The  worship  of  images  condemned  by  Gregory  the  Great,  in  the  strongest 
terms. 


they  profess,  nor  the  ignorant  muhitude, 
who,  in  the  tiue  religion  itself,  are  either 
superstitious,  or  so  given  up  to  their  lusts,  as 
to  forget  what  they  once  promised  to  God. 
I  myself  have  known  some,  who  were  wor- 
shipers of  tombs  and  pictures.  But  how 
foolish  such  men  are,  how  hurtful,  how  sa- 
crilegious, I  propose  to  show  in  another 
treatise.  In  the  mean  time  I  would  not  have 
you  thus  to  slander  the  catholic  church,  up- 
braiding her  with  the  manners  of  those, 
whom  she  herself  condemns,  and  endeavors 
daily  to  correct  as  untoward  children.'" 
Thus  St.  Austin  :  and  from  his  words  it  is 
manifest,  that  to  worship  images  was  thought 
by  him,  and  by  the  catholic  church  in  his 
time,  a  superstitious  practice,  repugnant  to 
the  principles  of  the  Christian  religion;  and 
that  it  was  condemned  as  such,  both  by  him 
and  the  church.  And  it  is  to  be  observed, 
that  those,  of  whom  St.  Austin  speaks,  were 
sons  of  the  church;  and  therefore  cannot  be 
supposed  to  have  worshiped  these  images  as 
gods,  or  to  have  worshiped  false  gods  by 
them. 

The  fathers  of  the  two  succeeding  cen- 
turies were  of  the  same  mind  with  St.  Aus- 
tin concerning  the  worship,  though  they 
countenanced  the  use  of  images.  For  in 
the  sixth,  when  images  being  every  where 
admitted  into  the  churches,  the  Jews  began 
to  charge  the  Christians,*  on  that  account, 
with  a  breach  of  the  second  commandment, 
the  only  answer  they  returned  to  so  heavy 
a  charge  was,  that  the  second  command- 
ment did  not  forbid  images  to  be  made,  but 
to  be  worshiped,  or  to  be  made  in  order  to 
be  worshiped ;  that  they  neither  bowed  down 
to  them,  nor  worshiped  them,  but  used  them 
only  as  helps  to  memory  and  devotion,  or 
as  books  to  instruct  those,  who  could  not 
read.'^  Had  they  thought  it  consistent  with 
the  second  commandment  to  give  any  kind 
of  worship  whatever  to  images,  they  would 
have  taken  care  to  distinguish,  as  the  wor- 
shipers of  images  do  now  when  they  answer 
the  same  charge,  between  the  worship  that 
was  not,  and  the  worship,  that  in  their 
opinion  was,  consistent  with  that  command- 
ment; and  not  declared  without  any  restric- 

•  Aug.  de  Morib.  Eccles.  Cath.  c.  34. 

'^  These  pleas  and  pretences  for  the  use  of  images 
were  all  borrowed  of  the  heathens.  "Images,"  say 
they  in  Maximus  Tyrius,  "serve  the  ignorant  instead 
of  books  ;  put  us,  when  we  look  on  them,  in  mind  of 
the  objects  which  they  represent ;  are  a  kind  of  manu- 
duction  to  the  gods ;  and  raise  our  minds  from  what 
is  material  and  visible,  to  what  is  immnterial  and  in- 
visible.—  (Max.  Tyr.  Dissert.  38.)  But  these  pre- 
tences did  not  satisfy  the  primitive  fathers  ;  and  they 
urged  the  prohibition  of  the  divine  law,  "Thou  shalt 
not  make  to  thyself  any  graven  image,"  &c.,  against 
the  use  of  images  in  the  worship  of  God,  under  any 
color  or  pretence  whatever ;  and  thus  said  the  fathers 
of  Frankford,  in  answer  to  that  plea,  "  What  madness 
is  it  to  pretend,  that,  by  an  image  we  may  be  put  in 
mind  of  Christ's  presence  on  the  earth !  O  unhappy 
memory,  which,  that  it  may  remember  Christ,  who 
should  never  be  out  of  the  mind  of  a  good  man,  needs 
the  beholding  of  an  image'?— (Lib.  Carol.  4.  c.  2.), 


tion,  hmitation,  or  distinction,  that  they  did 
not  worship  images,  but  used  them  only  as 
helps  to  memory,  as  books  for  the  ignorant. 
That  they  were  to  be  used  only  as  such, 
and  by  no  means  to  be  worshiped,  was  still 
the  doctrine  of  the  church  in  the  beginning 
of  the  seventh  century,  if  the  doctrine  of 
pope  Gregory  the  Great  may  be  called  the 
doctrine  of  the  church  :  for  when  Serenus, 
bishop  of  Marseilles,  caused  the  images 
throughout  his  diocese  to  be  cast  out  of  the 
churches,  and  destroyed,  because  they  began 
to  be  worshiped  by  the  people,  as  has  been 
related  elsewhere,'  Gregory  found  fault  with 
him  indeed  for  destroying  them ;  but,  at  the 
same  time,  commended  his  zeal  in  not 
suffering  them  to  be  worshiped.  "We 
commend  your  zeal,"  said  he,  "  in  not  al- 
lowing images,  or  anything  that  Avas  made 
with  hands,  to  be  worshiped  :  but  we  can- 
not approve  of  your  breaking  them,  since 
images  were  set  up  in  churches,  that  the 
ignorant  may  see  on  the  walls  what  they 
are  not  capable  of  reading  in  books  :  you 
should  therefore  have  preserved  them  for 
that  purpose ;  and  been  satisfied  with  re- 
straining the  people  from  worshiping  them  : 
thus  the  illiterate  would  by  them  have  been 
instructed  in  history;  and  would  not  have 
sinned  in  giving  them  worship."^  Serenus, 
who  knew,  and  knew  by  experience,  how 
difHcult  a  thing  it  was  to  restrain  the  igno- 
rant multitude  from  worshiping  images  so 
long  as  they  were  suffered  in  the  places 
of  worship,  and  had,  in  all  likelihood,  order- 
ed them  to  be  removed  out  of  the  churches, 
and  broken,  because  he  could  by  no  other 
means  prevent  their  being  worshiped,  was 
so  surprised  at  his  being  found  fault  with  on 
that  account,  that  he  could  not  believe  the 
letter  came  from  the  pope,  and  therefore  paid 
no  kind  of  regard  to  it :  but  Gregory  soon 
wrote  to  him  again,  repeating  what  he  had 
said  in  his  former  letter;  namely,  that  images 
were  set  up  in  churches  only  to  instruct  the 
minds  of  the  ignorant;  and  exhorting  him 
to  preach  that  doctrine  to  his  flock ;  and  not 
to  forbid  images  to  be  made,  but  to  forbid 
them  by  all  means  to  be  worshiped.  "  It  is 
one  thing,"  says  he,  "  to  adore  an  image, 
another  to  learn  from  an  image  what  is  to  be 
adored :  what  those,  who  can  read,  learn 
from  books,  they  who  cannot  read,  learn 
from  pictures  :  they  serve  the  barbarians  in 
the  room  of  books,  which  you,  who  live 
among  the  barbarians,  ought  to  have  minded, 
and  checked  your  zeal,  however  right,  lest, 
by  your  indiscretion,  you  should  have  scan- 
dalized them,  and  estranged  them  from  you.^ 


•  See  vol.  I.  p.  416.  =  Greg.  1.  7.  Ep.  110. 

3  Frangi  non  debuit,  quod  non  ad  adorandum  in  ec- 

j  clesiis,  sed  ad  instruendas  Solumodo  mentes  fuit  ne- 

scientium  colloc;itum.    Si  quis  imagines  facere  volue- 

rit,  minime  prohibe  ;  adorari  vero  imagines  omnibus 

I  niodis  devita.     Unde   et  praecipue  Gentihus  pro  lec- 

I  tione  pictura  est.    Quod  magnopere  a  te,  qui  inter 


Gregory  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


43 


Gregory  the  Great  makes  no  distinction  between  one  worship  and  another.  About  the  middle  of  the  seventh 
century,  images  looked  upon  as  something  more  than  helps  to  memory.  Commonly  worshiped  in  the  be- 
ginning of  the  eighth  century  by  the  monks  and  the  populace. 


As  part  of  Serenus's  flock,  provoked  at 
his  destroying  their  images,  had  separated 
themselves  from  his  communion,  the  pope 
exhorts  him,  to  bring  back,  by  gentle  methods, 
those  whom  his  indiscretion  had  estranged 
from  him.  You  would  do  well,  says  he, 
to  call  your  people  together  j  and,  having 
shown  them  from  Scripture,  that  it  is  not 
lawful  to  worship  any  thing  that  was  made 
with  hands,  because  it  is  written,  "  Thou 
shalt  worship  the  Lord  thy  God,  and  him 
only  shalt  thou  serve ;"  tell  them,  that  find- 
ing they  worshiped  the  images,  which  were 
set  up  only  for  instruction,  your  spirit  was 
stirred  in  you,  and  you  could  not  help  de- 
stroying them :  that  nevertheless  you  are 
willing  to  allow  them  the  use  of  images  ac- 
cording to  the  ancient  institution,  (an  insti- 
tution of  about  two  hundred  years'  stand- 
ing,) provided  they  used  them  only  for  in- 
struction ;  but  that  you  will  by  no  means 
sufifer  them  to  be  worshiped.'  Thus  Gre- 
gory ;  and  from  both  letters  it  is  manifest, 
that  so  late  as  the  beginning  of  the  seventh 
century  (for  both  were  written  in  601) 
images  were  still  thought,  and  by  the  infal- 
lible head  of  the  church,  to  have  been  set 
up  for  no  other  purpose,  but  to  instruct  the 
minds  of  the  ignorant;  that  by  the  infallible 
head  of  the  church  it  was  still  deemed  a  sin, 
and  a  breach  of  the  second  commandment, 
to  give  them  any  kind  of  worship  whatever; 
and  that  to  cast  them  out  of  the  churches, 
and  destroy  them,  to  prevent  their  being 
worshiped,  was  not  yet,  in  the  opinion  of  the 
infallible  head  of  the  church,  either  heresy 
or  apostacy  from  the  true  faith;  but  only 
indiscretion,  or  the  act  of  a  right,  but  indis- 
creet zeal,  in  one  living  among  the  barba- 
rians, who,  having  been  accustomed  to  the 
use  of  images  before  their  conversion,  ought, 
according  to  the  doctrine  of  Gregory,  to 
have  been  indulged  in  the  use  of  them  after 
it.  I  know,  that  the  popish  divines  distin- 
guish here  between  sovereign  and  subordi- 
nate worship,  absolute  and  relative,  proper 
and  improper,  between  worship  for  the  sake 
of  the  image,  and  worship  for  the  sake  of 
the  prototype,  &c.  But  had  Gregory  thought 
it  lawful  to  give  one  kind  of  worship  to 
images,  or  the  work  of  men's  hands,  and 
unlawful  to  give  another,  he  would,  without 
all  doubt,  have  informed  Serenus  on  so  re- 
markable an  occasion,  and  it  was  his  duty  as 
head  of  the  church,  what  worship  he  might 
allow  his  people  to  give  to  their  images,  and 
what  he  might  not;  and  not  said,  without 
distinguishing  between  the  one  and  the  other, 
that  he  must  by  no  means  allow  images  to 
be  worshiped,  "  adorari  vero  imagines  om- 
nibus modis  devita ;"  or,  as  these  words  are 


pentes   habitas,  attendi  debuerat,  ne  duni  recto  zelo 
incaute  succenderis,  ferocibus  animis  scandalum  ge- 
nerares;"  are  (Jregory's  own  words. 
>  Greg.  1.  y.  Ep.  9. 


translated,  perhaps  inadvertently,  by  Dupin, 
"  that  he  must  not  allow  images  to  be  wor- 
shiped in  any  manner  whatever."' 

From  the  beginning  of  the  seventh  cen- 
tury, when  Gregory  condemned  the  worship 
of  images,  as  we  have  seen,  to  the  begin, 
ning  of  the  eighth,  not  a  single  instance  oc- 
curs of  any  worship  given,  or  allowed  to  be 
given  to  them,  by  any  council  or  assembly 
of  bishops  whatever :  however,  as,  about 
the  middle  of  the  seventh  century,  we  be- 
gin to  read  of  wondrous  things  performed 
by  images,  of  victories  obtained  by  their 
means,  of  distempers  cured  by  applying 
them  to  the  part  affected,  &c.,  we  may  well 
conclude,  that,  if  they  were  not  then  yet 
commonly  worshiped,  they  were  at  least 
commonly  looked  upon  as  something  more 
than  mere  "  helps  to  memory,"  or  "  books 
for  the  ignorant."  Some  are  of  opinion,  and 
their  opinion  is  not  ill  grounded,  that  it  was 
during  the  famous  dispute  concerning  the 
will  and  operations  of  Christ,  which  was 
moved  in  626,  and  carried  on  with  great 
warmth,  till  the  end  of  that  century,  that  the 
worship  of  images  began  to  obtain ;  the  bi- 
shops being  too  much  taken  up  in  determin- 
ing so  important  a  point,  to  restrain  or  cor- 
rect the  abuses,  which,  during  that  time, 
crept  into  their  churches. 

However  that  be,  certain  it  is,  that  though, 
in  the  beginning  of  the  seventh  century, 
images  were  by  no  means  allowed  to  be  wor- 
shiped, as  we  have  seen,  they  were  never- 
theless commonly  and  publicly  worshiped 
in  the  beginning  of  the  eighth ;  nay,  and 
that  some  of  the  chief  bishops  of  the  church, 
instead  of  destroying  them,  as  Serenus  had 
done,  when  they  found  they  were  worship- 
ed, or  teaching  their  people,  agreeably  to 
the  doctrine  of  Gregory,  that  images  were 
set  up  only  for  instruction,  began  to  teach 
the  quite  opposite  doctrine;  and  eventopre- 
tend,  so  utterly  were  they  unacquainted  with 
the  practice  and  doctrine  of  all  the  preceding 
ages,  that  the  worship  of  images  was  en- 
joined by  the  apostles,  and  had  ever  since 
the  apostolic  age  been  constantly  practised 
by  the  catholic  church.  At  the  same  time 
the  monks,  finding  iu  the  gifts  and  the  offer- 
ings, that  were  daily  made  to  their  images, 
the  good  effects  of  that  new  devotion,  spared 
no  pains  to  promote  and  establish  the  grow- 
ing superstition;  insomuch  that  in  the  year 
726,  when  Leo  published  his  famous  edict,  it 
had  already  spread  into  all  the  provinces 
subject  to  the  empire.  But  though  it  ob- 
tained almost  universally  among  the  people, 
it  was  still  opposed,  and  opposed  with  great 
zeal,  by  several  bishops  ;  nay,  some  of  them, 
finding  that  the  use  of  images  had  by  de- 
grees degenerated  into  worship,  were  even 
for  casting  them  every  where  out  of  the 

>  Dupin  Nouv.  Biblioth.  torn.  5.  p.  122. 


44 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Gregory  II. 


The  church  divided  into  three  parties  about  the  use  of  images.  The  worship  of  images  obtained  yet 
only  in  the  empire.  What  may  be  gathered  from  what  has  been  said.  Disturbances  in  Constantinople,  occa- 
Eioned  by  the  imperial  edict. 


churches ;  and  that  they  looked  upon  as 
the  only  effectual  means  of  preventing  them 
from  being  worshiped  by  the  ignorant  mul- 
titude, and  restoring  the  Christian  religion 
to  its  primitive  purity.  But  others  thought, 
that  images  ought  to  be  retained  to  instruct 
the  ignorant,  and  excite  the  people  to  devo- 
tion and  piety,  the  only  purposes  for  which 
they  were  originally  introduced ;  but  that 
the  people  should  by  all  means  be  restrained 
from  giving  them  any  kind  of  worship. 

Thus  was  the  church,  in  the  present  con- 
troversy, divided  into  three  different  and  op- 
posite parties,  some  approving  of  the  use, 
but  condemning  the  worship  of  images ; 
others  condemning  the  use  as  well  as  the 
worship ;  and  some  approving  both  of  the 
use  and  the  worship  ;  nay,  and  pretending, 
that  not  to  use  images,  or  to  use  them  only 
for  instruction,  and  not  to  worship  them, 
was  heresy,  Judaism,  and  apostasy  from  the 
Christian  faith:  against  the  use  of  images 
■were  urged  by  those,  who  thought  that 
images  ought  all  to  be  removed  out  of  the 
places  of  worship,  and  destroyed,  the  pro- 
hibition of  the  divine  law,  the  doctrine  and 
practice  of  the  primitive  church,  the  decree 
of  the  council  of  Eliberis,  the  example  of 
Epiphanius,  and  the  difficulty  of  restraining 
the  ignorant  multitude  from  praying  to  the 
images  themselves,  and  jvorshiping  them, 
so  long  as  they  were  allowed  to  pray  and 
worship  before  them.  On  the  other  hand, 
for  the  use  of  images,  were  alleged  by  those, 
who  thought,  that  they  ought  "neither  to  be 
worshiped,  nor  destroyed,  the  practice  of  the 
three  last  ages,  the  many  advantages  accru- 
ing from  them,  as  they  pretended,  especially 
with  respect  to  the  illiterate  vulgar ;  the  de- 
finition of  Gregory,  that  images  were  nei- 
ther to  be  destroyed,  nor  worshiped  ;  and 
the  canon  of  the  €luinisext  council,  allow- 
ing Christ  to  be  painted  in  the  form  of  a 
man.  As  the  third  opinion,  that  images 
were  not  only  to  be  used,  but  to  be  worship- 
ed, was  destitute  of  all  proof  from,  nay,  and 
plainly  repugnant  to.  Scripture,  reason,  and 
antiquity,  nothing  was  alleged,  as  we  shall 
see,  to  support  that  opinion  by  those  who 
maintained  it,  but  fabulous  stories,  but  vi- 
sions, or  dreams  of  visionary  monks,  and 
miracles  pretended  to  have  been  wrought, 
either  by  the  images  themselves,  or  by  those 
who  worshiped  them.  And  here  it  is  to  be 
observed,  that  though  the  worship  of  images 
obtained  at  this  time  almost  universally, 
among  the  people,  in  the  countries  subject 
to  the  empire,  being  there  countenanced  and 
recommended  by  the  bishops  of  Constanti- 
nople, and  Rome;  France,  Germany,  Spain 
and  Britain,  were  yet  quite  free  from  that 
superstition  ;  nay,  when  the  present  contro- 
versy was  moved,  and  the  second  council 
of  Nice  defined,  to  the  great  surprise,  I  may 
say,  of  the  whole  Christian  world,  that  im- 


ages were  to  be  worshiped,  they  rejected,  as 
will  be  shown  in  the  sequel,  with  the  utmost 
indignation  and  abhorrence,  that  definition. 

And  now,  to  conclude,  from  what  has  been 
said  it  is  manifest  beyond  contradiction  ;  I. 
That  the  primitive  Christians  neither  wor- 
shiped images,  nor  used  any  in  their  wor- 
ship, or  places  of  worship.'  II.  That  the 
reasons,  which  they  alleged  against  the  use 
as  well  as  the  worship  of  images,  were  such 
as  must  necessarily  hold  good  in  all  times ; 
and  render  both  the  use,  and  the  worship 
of  images  ever  unlawful.^  III.  That  when 
they  first  began  to  be  used,  they  were  used 
only  as  ornaments,  or  as  helps  to  memory, 
and  books  for  the  ignorant;  and  that  some 
of  the  most  learned  men  in  the  church  could 
never  be  reconciled  to  them,  even  in  that 
light.3  IV.  That  till  the  latter  end  of  the 
fourth  century  they  were  used  only  by  here- 
tics; and  worshiped  by  none  but  by  heretics, 
till  the  latter  end  of  the  seventh.*  Lastly, 
That  in  the  beginning  of  the  eighth  century, 
when  Leo  undertook  to  put  a  stop  to  the 
growing  superstition,  it  was  yet  unknown 
to,  or  was  zealously  opposed  by,  the  far 
greater  part  of  the  Christian  world ;  and  con- 
sequently, that  if  it  was  a  damnable  heresy 
in  that  emperor,  as  was  then,  and  is  still 
pretended,  not  to  worship  images,  or  forbid 
them  to  be  worshiped,  the  far  greater  part 
of  the  catholic  church  was  at  that  time,  and 
the  whole  catholic  church  had  been  for  near 
seven  hundred  years,  guilty  of  a  damnable 
heresy.  Having  thus  made  it  undeniably 
appear,  for  the  justification  of  Leo  as  well 
as  of  those,  who  then  adhered,  and  still  ad- 
here to  him,  that  his  edict  was  entirely 
agreeable  to  the  doctrine  and  practice  of  the 
church  in  all  the  preceding  ages,  I  shall  now 
resume  the  thread  of  the  history,  not  doubt- 
ing but  the  importance  of  the  subject  will 
excuse,  with  every  protestant  reader,  the 
length  of  the  digression. 

The  imperial  edict,  though,  not  forbidding 
the  use,  but  only  the  worship  of  images, 
was  no  sooner  published,  than  the  monks 
took  the  alarm,  and  with  them  the  populace, 
especially  the  Avomen,  who  distinguished 
themselves,  as  we  shall  see,  in  this  dispute; 
and,  as  it  formerly  happened  at  Ephesus, 
on  the  like  occasion,  the  whole  city  was  at 
once  filled  with  confusion  f  nay,  and  the 
whole  empire.  For  though  it  was,  but  in 
the  beginning  of  the  preceding  century,  "  a 
crime  to  worship  images  with  any  kind  of 
worshi{l ;"  and  only  indiscretion  to  pull 
them  down,  to  cast  them  out  of  the  churches, 
and  break  them,  lest  they  should  be  wor- 
shiped;^ it  was  now  with  the  monks,  with 
the  superstitious  multitude,  and  the  women, 
a  heinous  crime  not  to  worship  them  ;  and 
heresy,  apostasy  from  the  faith,  Judaism,  to 


'  See  p.  28.    2  See  p.  31.  »  See  p   39. 

'  See  p.  42.    »  Acts  c.  19.  v.  24.  et  seq.     «  See  p.  42. 


Gregory  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


45 


The  inhabitants  of  the  Cyclades  revolt ;— [Year  of  Christ,  727.]  They  are  defeated,  and  all  taken  or  slain. 
Leo's  generosity  to  tlie  prisoners.  The  patriarch  Germanus  remonstrates  against  the  undertalting  of  the 
emperor.     The  reason  he  alleges. 


forbid  them  to  be  worshiped  :  and  the  empe- 
ror was  accordingly  no  longer  looked  upon 
as  a  Christian,  orthodox,  and  religious 
prince;  though  he  had  been  esteemed  such 
by  all,  even  by  the  pope,  till  the  publication 
of  this  edict ;  but  as  a  declared  heretic,  nay, 
as  a  heresiarch,  as  an  apostate  from  the 
faith  ;  and  one,  who  had  nothing  less  in  view, 
than  utterly  to  abolish  Christianity,  and  es- 
tablish Judaism  in  its  room.  These  notions 
were  industriously  propagated  among  the 
populace,  chiefly  by  the  monks,  to  stir  them 
up  against  the  emperor,  and  defeat  the  un- 
dertaking ;  insomuch  that  had  not  Leo,  fore- 
seeing the  danger,  caused  strong  bodies  of 
troops  to  be  posted  in  the  different  quarters 
of  the  city,  and  by  that  means  prevented  the 
people  from  assembling,  a  general  revolt 
would  have  ensued ;  and  he,  in  all  likeli- 
hood, have  fallen  a  victim  to  the  rage  of  the 
incensed  multitude. 

The  imperial  edict  was  no  better  received 
in  the  provinces,  than  it  was  at  Constanti- 
nople ;  but  no  where  was  the  publication  of 
it  attended  with  greater  disturbances,  than  in 
the  islands  of  the  Archipelago  :  for  it  was  no 
sooner   published   there,  than   the   people, 
thinking  that  the  whole  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion was  at  stake,  and  thereupon  moved, 
says  Theophanes,  with  divine  zeal,  openly 
withdrew  themselves  from  all  subjection  and 
obedience  to  one,  who  had,  by  his  heresy, 
forfeited  all  right  to  command  them  ;  flew  to 
arms ;  and  having  declared  Leo  deposed  from 
the  empire  as  an  enemy  to  God   and   his 
church,  proclaimed  one  Cosmas,  a  leading 
man  among  them,  and  a  most  zealous  advo- 
cate  for   image   worship,   emperor   ip   his 
room  :  as  they  were  all  expert  mariners,  and 
had,  as  a  trading  people,  a  good  number  of 
ships,  they  armed  them  all  with  incredible 
expedition  ;  and,  in  a  very  short  time,  put  to 
sea  with  a  considerable  fleet  under  the  com- 
mand of  Agallianus,  and  Stephen,  two  brave 
and  experienced  officers.     They  steered  their 
course  strait  to  Constantinople,  not  doubting 
but  they  should  surprise  the  emperor  ;  and, 
being  joined  by  their  friends,  who  were  very 
numerous  in  that  city,  and  no  less  dissatisfied 
than  they,  drive  him,  almost  without  blood- 
shed, from  the  throne.     But,  instead  of  sur- 
prising Leo,  they  found  him,  to  their  great 
surprise,  ready  to  receive  them  ;  and  the  im- 
perial fleet  drawn  up  before  the  harbor,  and 
only  waiting  their  approach  to  engage  them. 
An  engagement  ensued  accordingly,  which 
was  neither  long  nor  doubtful  ;  for,  by  means 
of  the  artificial   fire,  with  which  Leo  had 
some  years  before  destroyed  the  whole  naval 
power  of  the  Saracens,  the  fleet  of  the  rebels 
was  all  at  once  seen  in  a  flame;  and  all,  but 
such  as  choose  to  yield,  and   throw  them- 
selves  upon  the  mercy   of  the  conqueror. 


lianus,  chosing  rather  to  die,  than  to  fall  into 
the  hands  of  the  enemy,  threw  himself, 
armed  as  he  was,  into  the  sea.  But  Stephen, 
the  other  commander,  and  the  usurper 
Cosmas,  were  both  taken,  and,  by  the  em- 
peror's order,  publicly  beheaded.  The  other 
prisoners,  (for  not  a  man  escaped,)  were 
all  spared  ;  and  by  the  cruel,  inhuman,  and 
blood-thirsty  tyrant,  as  Baronius  is  pleased 
to  call  Leo,  set  at  liberty,  and  suffered  to  re- 
turn unmolested  to  their  respective  homes.' 
This  rebellion,  Theophanes  calls  a  godly 
conspiracy ;  and  truly,  to  worship  images, 
and  maintain  that  worship  even  with  trea- 
son and  rebellion,  was  in  his  time,  that  is, 
in  the  beginning  of  the  ninth  century,  the 
height  of  all  godliness.  However,  the 
church  of  Rome  has,  it  seems,  been  ashamed 
to  canonize  Cosmas,  Stephen,  or  Agallianus, 
though  they  fell,  and  were  the  first,  who 
fell  martyrs  in  that  godly  cause. 

In  the  mean  time  the  patriarch  Germanus, 
a  most  zealous  patron  of  the  new  supersti- 
tion, apprehending,  that  the  emperor  would 
ascribe  the  success,  that  had  attended  his 
arms  against  the  rebels,  to  the  justice  of  his 
cause  ;  and  be  thereby  encouraged  to  pursue 
the  war,  which  he  had  begun  against  God, 
and  his  saints  ;  thought  it  his  duty  to  un- 
deceive him ;  and  with  that  view  he  either 
went  in  person,  or  sent,  as  we  read  in  the 
acts  of  the  pretended  martyr  Stephen,  one 
of  his  ecclesiastics,  a  man  greatly  respected 
for  his  piety,  to  represent  to  him  that  the 
worship  of  images,  which  he  condemned  as 
idolatrous,  had  from  the  earhest  times  obtain- 
ed in  the  church;  that  our  Savior  himself 
had  approved  of  it ;  and,  in  token  of  his  ap- 
probation, sent  his  picture  to  Abgarus,  king 
of  Edessa,  to  be  worshiped  by  him,  and  his 
people  ;2  that  the  woman,  whom  he  had 
miraculously  cured  of  an  issue  of  blood, 
havincr,  out  of  gratitude,  erected  a  statue  to 
him  in  the  city  of  Paneas,  he  had,  by  a 
standing  miracle,  authorized  posterity  to  fol- 
low her  example  ;3  that  the  worship  of 
images  had,  by  the  apostles,  been  recom- 
mended to  the  faithful ;  that  from  their  time 
to  the  present,  no  Christian,  but  only  Jews 
and  Saracens,  had  ever  questioned  the  law- 
fulness of  that  kind  of  worship  ;  and  that  the 
six  general  councils,  consisting  of  different 
bishops,  and  held  in  different  times  and 
places,  had  all  not  only  approved,  but  enjoin- 
ed  it.''     As  these  were    the   only    reasons 

'  Theoph.  Ann.  Incar.  secund.  Alexandr.  718. 

«  See  p.  29.  note  (2).  3  See  p.  30. 

*  Spanhem  cannot  pecsuade  himself,  that  the  patri- 
arch was  capable  of  alleging,  to  so  wise  and  learned  a 
prince  as  Leo,  the  fables  that  were  told  of  the  picture 
at  F.df'Ksa,  and  the  statue  at  I'aneas  ;  and  much  less, 
that  he  was  sn  utterly  unacquainted  with  the  ancient 
practice  and  doctrine  of  the  churcli,  as  not  to  know, 


that  the  primitive   Christians  had  abhorred,  not  the 
worship  only,  but  even  the  iise  of  images  ;  and  not  the 

miserahlv  nerisViPfr  pilbpr  r-nn^imied    hv  the    ''*''^'  mention  had  been  made  of  images  in  any  of  the 
miserauiy  perisnea,  euner  COnSUmeU    oy  me  ^  ^j_^  eeneral  councils.     That  learned  writer  therefore 


flames,  or  swallowed  up  by  the  sea.      Agal-  j  suspects,  and  not  without  reason,  the  speech  that  is 


46 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


Gregory  II. 


The  patriarch  attempts  anew  to  divert  Leo  from  his  resolution  ;  but  in  vain.  The  emperor  acquaints  the  pope 
with  his  resolution  ;  who  warmly  opposes  it.  The  emperor  orders  his  edict  to  be  published  in  Italy.  The 
people  rise  in  Ravenna. 


alleged  by  the  patriarch  to  prove  the  lawful- 
ness of  image  worship,  and  divert  the  em- 
peror from  the  resolution  he  had  taken,  it  is 
not  at  all  to  be  wondered,  that  Leo,  instead 
of  hearkening  to  him,  dismissed  him,  as  he 
is  said  to  have  done,  without  so  much  as 
deigning  to  return  him  an  answer;  and 
thenceforth  appeared  more  determined  than 
ever  to  have  his  edict  put  in  execution ;  and  by 
all,  without  exception,  rigorously  observed. * 
However,  the  patriarch  thinking  it  incum- 
bent upon  him,  says  Theophanes,  to  leave 
nothing  unattempted  he  could  think  of  to 
retrieve  the  emperor  from  his  impiety,  re- 
paired again  in  a  few  days  to  the  imperial 
palace ;  and  being  received  by  Leo  with  un- 
common marks  of  respect  and  esteem,  as 
he  did  not  yet  despair  of  being  able  to  gain 
him,  he  put  him  in  mind  of  the  oath  he  had 
taken  at  his  coronation,  not  to  attempt  or  to 
suffer  any  change  or  innovation  whatever, 
in  the  doctrine  and  practice  of  the  church; 
represented  to  him  the  danger  to  which  he 
exposed  both  himself  and  the  empire,  by 
condemning  as  unlawful  and  wicked,  what 
all  good  Christians  had  ever  thought  lawful, 
and  highly  pleasing  to  God  ;  threatened  him 
with  vengeance  from  heaven,  which,  he 
said,  an  undertaking  so  hateful  to  God  and 
his  saints,  would  not  fail  to  bring  down  upon 
him,  and  all  who  were  concerned  in  it  with 
him  ;  and,  declaring,  with'great  intrepidity, 
that,  as  for  himself,  he  had  rather  suffer  the 
most  cruel  death,  than  approve,  or  seem  to 
approve,  so  impious  a  tenet,  earnestly  en- 
treated him  to  revoke  the  edict  which  he  had 
too  rashly  issued ;  and  allow  the  church  to 
enjoy  that  tranquillity,  which  his  valor  and 
conduct  had,  with  the  blessing  of  heaven, 
procured  to  the  state.  But  Leo,  continues 
Theophanes,  was  hardened  in  his  iniquity, 
and  not  to  be  moved  ;  nay,  though  convinced 
by  the  patriarch,  that  to  worship  images 
was  no  idolatry,  (it  is  a  pity  he  forgot  to  tell 
us  with  what  arguments  the  patriarch  con- 
vinced him,)  the  more  the  holy  prelate  strove 
to  divert  him  from  the  execution  of  his  edict, 
the  more  warmly  he  insisted  on  its  being 
executed,  and  by  all  punctually  complied 
with.^  However,  he  dismissed  the  patriarch, 
as  all  agree,  without  offering  him  the  least 
violence ;  a  plain  proof,  that  to  contradict 
him,  and  not  to  acquiesce  at  once  in  his  so- 
vereign will  and  pleasure,  was  not  with  him, 

said  to  have  been  made  by  the  patriarch,  to  have  been 
made,  not  by  him,  but  by  some  of  the  later  Greeks  for 
him. — (Span.  Hist.  Imag.  Restitut.  sect.  2.)  Baronius 
himself  is  forced  to  own,  that  nothing  was  determined 
concerning  the  worship  of  images,  by  any  of  the  six 
general  councils;  (Bar.  ad  Ann.  726.  n.  6.)  but  yet 
thinks,  that,  as  they  did  not  condemn  that  worship, 
they  may  be  truly  said  to  have  approved  it.  But  that 
is  supposing  the  worship  of  images  to  have  obtained 
at  the  time  of  those  councils;  and  nothing  is  more 
certain,  than  that  images  did  not  begin  to  be  wor- 
shiped, till  after  the  last  of  the  six  general  councils. 

»  Stephan.  Diac.  in  Vit.  S.  Steph.  Junior. 

2  Theoph.  ubi  supra. 


as  Maimbourg  would  have  us  believe,  trea- 
son and  rebellion. 

Leo  had  written  a  long  letter  to  the  pope 
as  soon  as  he  published  his  edict,  to  acquaint 
him  with  the  resolution  he  had  taken  of  ex- 
tirpating the  idolatry  that  had  begun  to  pre- 
vail in  the  church,  as  well  as  the  motives, 
that  had  induced  him  to  take  it,  and  exhort 
his  holiness  to  concur  with  him  in  so  com- 
mendable an  undertaking.  That  letter  the 
pope  immediately  answered ;  and,  on  this 
occasion,  several  letters  passed,  as  appears 
from  the  writers  of  those  days,  between  him 
and  the  emperor:  but,  as  none  of  them  have 
reached  our  times,  all  we  know  for  certain 
is,  that  the  pope  declared  with  great  warmth 
for  the  worship  of  images;  that  he  alleged 
all  the  reasons  and  arguments  he  could  think 
of,  to  dissuade  the  emperor  from  attempting 
any  innovation,  as  he  called  it,  in  the  faith 
or  practice  of  the  church ;  that  he  threaten- 
ed him  with  the  indignation  of  St.  Peter; 
and  openly  declared,  that,  far  from  concur- 
ring with  him  in  so  impious  an  undertaking, 
he  could  not  think  of  it  without  horror; 
would  ever  oppose  it  to  the  utmost  of  his 
power ;  and  think  himself  happy,  should  he 
shed  the  last  drop  of  his  blood  in  so  godly  a 
cause.'  But  nothing  was  capable  of  shaking 
the  constancy  of  Leo,  whom  yet  Maimbourg 
paints  as  a  cowardly  and  timorous  prince : 
his  zeal  for  the  purity  of  the  Christian  wor- 
ship was  proof  against  all  opposition  ;  and  he 
was  no  less  ready  to  hazard  his  life  to  root  so 
detestable  an  abuse  out  of  the  church,  than 
the  pope,  or  the  patriarch,  were  ready  to 
hazard  theirs  to  maintain  it.  Having  there- 
fore this  year,  without  any  regard  to  the  re- 
monstrances of  the  patriarch,  caused  the 
images  to  be  placed  higher  in  all  the  churches 
of  Constantinople,  and  removed  out  of  the 
reach,  and  almost  out  of  the  sight  of  the  peo- 
ple, to  prevent  their  being  worshiped,  pursu- 
ant to  his  edict,  he  sent  a  copy  of  the  edict  to 
Scholasticus,  exarch  of  Ravenna,  strictly 
enjoining  him,  without  any  regard  to  the 
remonstrances  of  the  pope,  to  publish  it,  and 
cause  it  to  be  punctually  complied  with  in 
that,  and  all  the  other  cities  subject  to  the 
empire  in  Italy.  The  exarch,  in  obedience 
to  the  order  of  the  emperor,  published  the 
edict  as  soon  as  he  received  it,  in  the  city  of 
Ravenna :  but  the  populace,  rising  as  soon 
as  it  was  published,  openly  declared,  that 
they  would  rather  renounce  their  allegiance 
to  the  emperor,  than  the  worship  of  images, 
and  the  catholic  faith.  Hereupon  great  dis- 
turbances ensued;  and  while  the  soldiery 
strove  to  appease  them,  the  superstitious 
multitude  grew  outrageous,  fell  on  them, 
and  a  great  deal  of  blood  was  shed  on  either 
side.  Of  these  disturbances  Luitprand,  king 
of  the  Lombards,  was  no  sooner  informed, 

>  Anast.  in  Greg.  II.  Paul.  Diacon.  1.  6.  c.  49.  The- 
oph. ubi  supra. 


I 


Gregory  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


47 


The  king  of  the  Lombards  reduces  Ravenna.  The  pope  stirs  up  the  Venetians  against  him; — [Year  of  Christ, 
723  ;] — who,  in  conjunction  with  the  e.xarch,  recover  the  place.  The  pope  strives  anew  to  divert  the  emperor 
from  his  undertaking.     Leo  said  to  have  hired  assassins  to  murder  the  pope. 


than  thinking  that  a  favorable  opportunity 
of  making  himself  master  of  the  seat  of  the 
exarch,  and  driving  the  Greeks  out  of  all 
Italy,  he  drew  his  forces  together,  with  in- 
credible expedition;  and  entering  the  territo- 
ries of  the  empire,  appeared  unexpectedly 
before  Ravenna,  and  closely  besieged  it. 
The  garrison  made  at  first  a  vigorous  resist- 
ance ;  but  the  politic  king  having  gained  the 
populace  by  pretending  great  zeal  for  the 
worship  of  images,  they  were  in  a  few  days 
obliged  to  surrender  at  discretion.  From 
Ravenna  the  king  marched,  without  loss  of 
lime,  to  the  other  cities  of  the  exarchate, 
where  the  same  disturbances  reigned;  and 
being  every  where  received  by  the  people, 
not  as  an  enemy,  but  as  one  sent  from  hea- 
ven to  defend  the  catholic  faith,  and  protect 
them  who  professed  it,  he  found  himself  at 
once^  and  almost  without  bloodshed,  master 
of  all  the  Pentapolis,  which  he  reduced  to  a 
dukedom,  appointing  Hildebrand,  his  grand- 
son, to  govern  it  with  the  title  of  duke.' 

The  popes  had  ever  entertained  great  jea- 
lousy of  the  power  of  the  Lombards,  well 
apprised  that,  were  they  lords  of  Italy,  they 
would  keep  a  watchful  eye  over  them,  and 
be  better  able  to  discover  and  defeat  their 
ambitious  designs,  than  the  emperors  of  the 
east,  who  were  at  a  distance.  Gregory  there- 
fore, alarmed  at  the  rapidity  of  Luitpraud's 
conquests,  and  apprehending,  that  were  he 
not  diverted  from  pursuing  them,  he  should 
himself  be  soon  obliged  to  acknowledge  him 
for  his  lord  and  sovereign,  made  his  zeal  for 
what  he  called  the  catholic  faith  give  way, 
on  this  occasion,  to  his  interest;  and,  under 
pretence  of  serviag  his  liege  lord  the  empe- 
ror, wrote  a  very  pressing  letter  to  Ufsus, 
duke  or  doge  of  Venice,  the  Venilians 
making  already  no  small  figure,  conjuring 
him  to  assist  his  son  the  exarch,  and  exert 
his  zeal  for  the  holy  faith,  by  attempting,  in 
conjunction  with  him,  the  recovery  of  the 
exarchate,  which  the  wicked  nation  of  the 
Lombards  had  unjustly  taken  from  his  sons 
the  great  emperors  Leo  and  Constantine.  It 
was,  as  we  have  seen,  out  of  zeal  for  the 
holy  faith,  or  what  the  pope  thought  the 
holy  faith,  that  the  people  had  withdrawn 
themselves  from  all  subjection  to  the  empe- 
ror, and  submitted  to  the  Lombards :  but  as 
it  was  not  the  interest  of  the  holy  see,  that 
they  should  continue  subject  to  them,  it  was, 
with  the  pope,  zeal  for  the  holy  faith  to  drive 
them  out,  though  good  catholics,  and  rein- 
state the  emperor,  though  a  heretic,  in  the 
possession  of  the  country  which  they  had 
seized.  What  was  the  interest  of  the  holy 
see,  was,  with  the  popes,  the  interest  of  the 
holy  faith  ;  and  it  was  by  pretending  to  pro- 
mote the  interest  of  the  holy  faith,  that  they 
so  successfully  promoted  the  interest  of  the 


«  Paul.  Diac.  J.  6.  c.  32.  Anast.  in  Greg.  II. 


holy  see.  The  Venetians,  no  less  jealous  of 
the  power  of  the  Lombards  than  the  popes, 
especially  under  so  warlike  and  enterprising 
a  prince  as  Luitprand,  promised  to  assist  the 
exarch  in  the  recovery  of  the  exarchate  with 
the  whole  strength  of  their  republic.  They 
fitted  out  accordingly  a  considerable  fleet, 
pretending  it  was  designed  for  the  service  of 
the  emperor  against  the  Saracens ;  but  ap- 
pearing with  it,  when  least  expected,  before 
Ravenna,  invested  the  place  by  sea,  while 
the  exarch,  who  had  raised  what  forces  he 
was  able  in  the  cities  still  subject  to  the  em- 
pire, laid  siege  to  it  by  land.  Luitprand  was 
then  at  Pavia  ;  but  the  town  was  taken  by 
storm,  before  he  could  assemble  his  troops 
to  relieve  it.' 

The  city  of  Ravenna  being  thus  recovered, 
the  pope,  flattering  himself  that,  as  it  had 
been  recovered  chiefly  by  his  means,  the 
emperor  would,  out  of  gratitude,  hearken  to 
his  remonstrances,  took  care  to  acquaint 
him  with  the  eminent  service  he  had  done  to 
the  empire  ;  and,  at  the  same  time,  earnestly 
entreat  him  to  give  over  an  undertaking, 
that  exasperated,  to  the  greatest  degree,  the 
minds  of  the  people ;  estranged  them  from 
his  government;  and  would  be  certainly  at- 
tended in  the  end  with  a  general  revolt,  and 
the  loss  of  the  provinces,  that  still  remained 
to  the  empire  in  Italy.  He  added,  that  as 
the  worship  of  images  had  been  ever  ap- 
proved by  the  catholic  church,  he  not  only 
would  not  himself  comply  with  his  edict 
forbidding  that  worship,  but  would,  to  the 
utmost  of  his  power,  prevent  it  from  being 
complied  with  by  others.  Leo  well  knew, 
that  Gregory  had  consulted  his  own  interest, 
in  getting  the  Lombards  driven  out  of  the 
exarchate,  more  than  his,  or  that  of  the  em- 
pire, and,  being  at  the  same  time  sensible, 
that  his  edict  would  not  be  received  by  the 
people,  so  long  as  the  pope,  whom  he  now 
despaired  of  gaining  over  to  his  side,  con- 
tinued to  oppose  it,  resolved  to  rid  himself, 
by  some  means  or  other,  of  so  powerful  an 
adversary.  Pursuant  to  that  resolution  he 
hired,  says  Anastasius,  three  assassins  to 
murder  the  pope;  and,  at  the  same  time, 
wrote  to  Mauritius,  duke  or  governor  of 
Rome,  secretly  enjoining  him  to  assist  the 
assassins  in  perpetrating  the  murder,  and 
screen  them  after  it  from  the  fury  of  the  peo- 
ple. But  the  murderers  finding  no  favor- 
able opportunity  of  putting  their  design  in 
execution,  though  one  of  them  is  said  to  have 
been  a  deacon,  who  attended  the  pope,  the 
emperor  began  to  siispect  that  the  exarch 
Scholasticus,  who  owed  the  recovery  of  the 
exarchate  and  his  dignity  to  the  pope,  did 
not  countenance  them  as  he  ought.  He 
therefore  removed  him,  and  sent  Paul  the 
Patrician  to  govern  in  his  room,  with  pri- 

«  Paul.  Diac.  1.  6.  c.  32. 


48 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Gregory  H. 


Leo  falsely  accused  of  having  employed  assassins  to  murder  the  pope.  The  emperor  orders  the  pope  to  be 
seized  and  sent  to  Constantinople  ;  but  the  king  of  the  Lombards  espouses  his  cause,  and  protects  him.  The 
emperor  orders  the  edict  against  images  to  be  published  in  Rome; — [Year  of  Christ,  729.] 


vate  instructions  to  encourage  them  with  the 
promise  of  great  rewards,  and  assure  them, 
if  they  succeeded  in  the  attempt,  of  his  pro- 
tection and  favor.  But,  in  the  mean  time, 
the  conspiracy  was  luckily  discovered,  no- 
body knows  how,  nor  by  whom ;  and  trwo 
of  the  conspirators,  falling  into  the  hands 
of  the  enraged  populace,  were  by  them  put 
immediately  to  death.  The  third  had  the 
good  luck  to  escape  to  a  monastery,  and 
there,  as  it  was  a  greater  crime  to  force  him 
from  it,  than  it  would  have  been  to  have 
murdered  him  out  of  it,  he  was  suffered  to 
spend  the  remainder  of  his  life.' 

For  this  account,  which  has  supplied  all 
the  later  historians  with  ample  matter  for 
invectives  against  Leo,  the  world  is  indebted 
to  Anastasius  alone :  for  he  was  the  first, 
who  discovered  that  plot,  and  acquainted 
posterity  with  it.     The  historians,  who  lived 


his  edict  in  Italy.  Agreeably  to  that  de- 
sign, he  sent  fresh  and  most  pressing  orders 
to  the  exarch,  to  get  the  pope,  by  all  means, 
and  at  all  events,  into  his  power,  and  con- 
vey him  prisoner  to  Ravenna,  and  from 
thence  by  sea  to  Constantinople.  In  obe- 
dience to  that  order,  the  exarch,  finding  the 
pope  was  too  much  upon  his  guard,  and  too 
well  guarded  by  the  populace  to  be  seized 
and  conveyed  away  privately,  as  it  had 
formerly  happened  to  pope  Martin,'  resolved 
to  proceed  by  open  force ;  and  having  accord- 
ingly drawn  together  a  considerable  body  of 
troops,  he  ordered  them  to  march  with  all  pos- 
sible expedition  to  Rome,  to  join  the  garison 
there,  and  in  conjunction  with  them  to  seize 
on  the  pope,  in  spite  of  all  opposition,  and 
carry  him  with  them  back  to  Ravenna. 
With  these  orders  they  set  out  on  their 
march   to   Rome ;  but  being  informed,  oa 


much  nearer  to  those  times  than  Anastasius,  their  arrival  in  the  neighborhood  of  Spoleto, 


namely,  Theophanes,  Paulus  Diaconus,  Ni 
cephorus,  and  pope  Adrian  I.,  and  were 
themselves  no  less  prejudiced  than  he,  and 
no  less  desirous  of  prejudicing  the  world 
against  that  excellent  prince,  take  no  kind 
of  notice  of  any  attempt  made  by  him,  or 
by  others,  at  his  instigation,  on  the  life  of 
the  pope  :  a  plain  proof,  that  the  pretended 
conspiracy  was  not  in  their  times  yet  dis- 
covered, nor  heard  of:  for,  to  do  them  jus- 
tice, they  have  omitted  i»othing  they  ever 
had  heard,  true  or  false,  that  could  render 
the  name  and  memory  of  Leo  odious  to  all 
future  generations.  But  no  wonder  that  the 
above-mentioned  writers  were  all  strangers 
to  that  plot,  or  attempt,  since  the  pope  him- 
self was,  it  seems,  as-  great  a  stranger  to  it 
as  they  :  for  in  the  letter,  which  he  wrote  to 
Leo  in  730,  to  show  that  it  was  not  without 
the  greatest  provocation,  that  he  had  stirred 
up  the  people  of  Italy  against  him,  he  does 
not  charge  the  emperor  with  having  ever 
attempted  his  life,  with  having  hired  assas- 
sins to  murder  him ;  but  only  with  having 
threatened  to  have  him  seized,  and  conveyed 
in  chains  to  Constantinople,  as  it  had  happen- 
ed to  pope  Martin,  in  the  time  of  the  emperor 
Constantine.2  And  who  can  believe,  that 
had  the  emperor  made  such  an  attempt  on 
the  life  of  the  pope,  had  the  assassins,  whom 
he  employed,  been  apprehended,  and  put 
publicly  to  death,  the  pope  would  not  have 
known  it,  or,  knowing  it,  would  not,  on  such 
an  occasion,  have  upbraided  the  emperor 
with  it? 

The  design  of  the  emperor  was  therefore, 
in  all  likelihood,  only  to  have  the  pope  ap- 
prehended without  bloodshed  or  noise,  and 
sent  to  Constantinople,  that  he  might  not 
have  it  in  his  power  to  raise  disturbances,  to 
stir  up  the  people  to  sedition  and  rebellion, 
and  prevent  by  that  means  the  execution  of 


that  a  body  of  Lombards,  far  superior  to 
them  in  strength,  and  in  number,  was  ad- 
vancing full  march  to  meet  them,  they  laid 
aside  all  thoughts  of  their  intended  expedi- 
tion to  Rome,  and  returned  in  great  haste  to 
Ravenna.2  Those  troops  had  been  sent  by 
the  king  of  the  Lombards  to  protect  the 
pope,  and  prevent  his  falling  into  the  hands 
of  the  exarch.  For  that  politic  prince,  fore- 
seeing the  disturbances,  that  would  be  raised 
in  Italy  by  the  pope,  and  not  doubting  but 
they  would  end  in  a  civil  war  between  him, 
(as  he  was  supported  by  the  populace,)  and 
the  exarch,  had  resolved  to  suffer  neither 
party  to  prevail  over  the  other,  but  by  al- 
ways siding  with  the  weaker  to  keep  the 
balance  even  between  them,  and  by  that 
means  prolong  the  war,  till,  the  one  and  the 
other  being  sufficiently  weakened,  he  should 
be  able  to  crush  them  both.  Pursuant  to 
that  resolution,  though  he  was  highly  in- 
censed against  the  pope  for  stirring  up  the 
Venetians  to  retake  Ravenna,  yet  he  no 
sooner  heard  of  the  march  of  the  imperial 
troops,  than,  sacrificing  his  revenge  to  his 
interest,  he  espoused  his  cause,  and  sent  a 
strong  body  of  Lombards  to  protect  him. 

But  as  no  reasons  or  arguments  had  yet 
been  offered,  either  by  the  pope,  or  the  pa- 
triarch, to  satisfy  the  emperor,  and  convince 
him,  that  to  bow  down  to  images,  and  wor- 
ship them,  was  not  idolatry,  he  still  persist- 
ed in  the  resolution  he  had  taken,  not  to  suf- 
fer any  kind  of  worship  to  be  given  to  them, 
at  least  in  the  empire.  He  sent  according- 
ly, in  the  beginning  of  the  following  year, 
fresh  and  peremptory  orders  to  the  exarch 
Paul,  to  cause  his  edict  to  be  published,  and 
strictly  observed,  in  all  the  cities  of  Italy 
subject  to  the  empire,  especially  in  Rome, 
threatening  to  look  upon  those,  Avho  did  not 
comply  with  it,  as  rebels  and  heretics,  and 


»  Anast.  in  Greg.  II.  "  Apud  Bar.  1.  9.  65,  et  seq.       «  See  vol.  I.  p.  452. 


3  Paul.  Diac.  ubi  supra. 


Gregory  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


49 


The  exarch  excommunicated.  The  people  of  Rome  revolt.  All  the  people  of  Italy  stirred  up  by  the  pope 
against  the  emperor.  Great  disturbances  in  Ravenna.  The  exarch  murdered;  and  likewise  the  duke  of 
Naples  and  his  son. ^ 


to  treat  them  as  such.     The  pope  had  flatter- 
ed himself,  that  the  disturbances,  which  the 
publication  of  the  imperial  edict  had  occa- 
sioned in  the  exarchate,  would  have  diverted 
the  emperor  from  pursuing  his  design  ;  but, 
looking  upon  him  now  as  an  incorrigible 
heretic,  and  well  apprised,  that  the  supersti- 
tious multitude  only  waited  for  the  signal  to 
renounce  their  allegiance,  and  fly  to  arms, 
thought  it  high  time  to  give  it ;  and  he  thun- 
dered accordingly,  with  great  solemnity,  the 
sentence  of  excommunication  against  the 
exarch  as  a   heretic,  and    an  abettor  of  a 
most  execrable   heresy,  Jbr  attempting,  in 
obedience  to  the  express  command  of  his 
sovereign,  to  publish  the  edict  against  images 
in  Rome,  or  rather  against  image-worship  ; 
for,  by  that  edict,  the  emperor  did  not  com- 
mand  all   images    to   be   cast  out  of    the 
churches,  and  broken,  as  has  been  observed 
above;  but  only  required  his  loving  subjects 
to  worship  God  in  spirit  and  in  truth,  to  ab- 
stain from  the  worship  of  images  as  of  so 
many  idols,  and  to  suffer  them  to  be  raised 
higher  in  all  places  of  prayer,  that  the  igno- 
rant populace  might  not  be  tempted  to  bow 
down  to  them,  to  kiss  them,  or  to  perform  to 
them  any  other  external  acts    of  religious 
worship, that  were  due  only  to  God.     How- 
ever the  sentence  of  excommunication  was 
nosooner  thundered  against  the  exarch,  than 
the  people   of  Rome,  persuaded   that   the 
whole  of  the  Christian  religion  was  at  stake, 
flew  to  arms,  and,  having  overpowered  the 
garrison,  pulled  down  all  the  statues  of  the 
emperor,  broke  them  to  pieces,  and  openly 
declared,  that  since,  of  the  defender,  he  was 
become  a  persecutor  of  the  catholic  faith,  and 
of  those  who  professed  it,  they  no  longer  ac- 
knowledged him  for  their  lord  and  sovereign.' 
The  pope  was  sensible  that  the  people  of 
Rome  were  not  capable,  alone  and  unas- 
sisted, to  support  him  against  the  emperor, 
and  the  whole  strength  of  the  empire;  and 
therefore  undertook,  not  only  to  persuade 
the  other  cities  subject  to  the  empire  in  Italy 
to  follow  the  example  of  Rome,  but  to  unite 
the  different  states  there  in  a  league  against 
the  emperor  as  a  common  enemy.     With 
that  view  he  wrote,  as  soon  as  he  had  ex- 
communicated the  exarch,  a  circular  letter 
to  the  Venetians,  to  king  Luitprand,  to  all 
the  Lombard  dukes,  and  all  the  chief  cities 
in  Italy,  exhorting  them  to  continue  sted- 
fast  in  the  catholic  faith ;  to  guard  them- 
selves against  the  new  and  execrable  heresy, 
which  the  emperor  had  undertaken  to  esta- 
blish in  the  church ;  and  to  oppose  with  all 
their  might  the  execution  of  the   impious 
edict,  which  he  had  issued  for  that  purpose. 
Upon  the  receipt  of  the  pope's  letter   the 
people  took  every  where  the  alarm,  as  if  the 
emperor  had  not  only  renounced  himself,  but 
intended  to  oblige  all  his  subjects  to  renounce 
«  Paul.  Diac.  I.  6.  c.  9.  Anast.  in  Vit.  Gregor.  II. 

Vol.  II.— 7 


the  Christian  religion  together  with  him. 
The  people  of  Pentapolis,  now  Marca  d'An- 
cona,  not  satisfied  Avith  renouncing  their  alle- 
giance to  Leo,  with  pulling  down  his  statues, 
and  breaking  them,  appointed  by  their  own 
authority  magistrates  to  govern  ihem,  during 
the  pretended  interregnum :  nay,  and  were  for 
choosinga  new  emperor,  and  conducting  him 
to  Constantinople,  not  doubting  but  the  peo- 
ple would  everywhere  join  them  in  defence 
of  the  church  and  the  catholic  faith.  But 
the  pope,  remembering  the  bad  success  that 
had  lately  attended  the  people  of  the  Cy- 
clades  in  the  like  attempt,  and  therefore  not 
approving  of  that  project,  it  did  not  take 
place.  The  Lombards,  and  the  Venetians 
from  the  beginning  a  wise  and  politic  peo- 
ple, promising  themselves  great  advantages 
from  these  disturbances,  joined  with  great 
readiness  the  pope,  and  the  other  rebels, 
under  color  of  defending  the  catholic  cause, 
and  the  cause  of  the  church.' 

But  the  exarch,  Paul,  a  bold  and  enter- 
prising man,  not  in  the  least  disheartened  in 
seeing  so  great  an  alliance  formed  against 
the  emperor,  resolved  to  cause  the  imperial 
edict  to  be  observed,  at  all  events,  at  least  in 
the  place  of  his  residence,  in  the  city  of  Ra- 
venna; and  he  ordered  it  accordingly  to  be 
published  anew,  threatening  to  treat  as  re- 
bels allj  without  distinction,  who  did  not 
comply  with  it.  But  the  officers  no  sooner 
began  to  remove  the  images,  in  order  to 
place  them  higher,  and  out  of  the  reach  of 
the  people,  than  the  populace,  rising  in  a 
tumultuous  manner,  fell  upon  them,  and 
those  who  supported  them,  declaring  that 
images  had  been  worshiped  in  the  church 
ever  since  the  times  of  the  apostles  (for  so 
they  had  been  taught  by  the  pope  and  the 
monks ;)  and  that  they  would  continue  to 
worship  them  in  spite  of  the  emperor.  But 
the  exarch  had,  besides  the  soldiery,  a  con- 
siderable party  among  the  citizens,  who,  de- 
claring for  the  emperor,  and  the  faith  of 
their  ancestors,  who,  they  said,  had  wor- 
shiped no  images,  but  thought  it  idolatry  to 
worship  them,  fell  in  their  turn  on  the  po- 
pulace; and  great  numbers  were  killed  on 
both  sides  in  the  fray.  But  the  party  of  the 
exarch  was,  in  the  end,  quite  overpowered ; 
and  the  populace  thereupon  raging  without 
restraint  or  control,  a  general  massacre  en- 
sued ;  and,  among  the  rest,  the  exarch  him- 
self was  inhumanly  murdered.^ 

In  Naples,  Exhilaratus,  duke  or  governor 
of  that  city,  did  all  that  lay  in  his  power  to 
persuade  the  people  to  receive  the  imperial 
edict,  and  abstain,  in  compliance  with  it, 
from  the  worship  of  images.  But  finding 
all  his  endeavors  defeated  by  the  pope,  and 
therefore  looking  upon  him  no  longer  as  a 

'  Paul.  Diac.  1.  6.  c.  9.  Anast  in  Vit.  Greftor.  II. 
>  Idem  I.  6.  c.  10.  Begin.  Chronol.  1. 1.  p.  47.  Sigon  ad 
Ann.  726. 


E 


50 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES. 


[Gregory  H. 


Luitprand  makes  himself  master  of  the  Pentapolis.     The  people  of  the  Ravenna  receive  the  new  exarch  ;  who 
16  said  to  have  hired  assassins  to  murder  the  pope ;  but  very  improbably. 


bishop,  whose  duty  it  was  to  teach  the  peo- 
ple submission  and  obedience  to  those,  whom 
God  had  placed  over  them,  but  as  a  traitor, 
a  rebel,  an  incendiary,  he  resolved,  and 
thought  it  would  be  no  crime,  to  deliver  the 
empire,  by  his  death,  from  one  who  seemed 
to  aim  at  nothing  less  than  the  utter  ruin 
both  of  the  slate  and  the  church.  This  de- 
sign he  only  communicated  to  two  persons, 
whom  he  thought  the  most  capable  of  put- 
ting it  into  execution.  But  they  betrayed  him, 
and  he  was  immediately  torn  to  pieces  by  the 
enraged  multitude,  with  his  son  Adrian  and 
another  person  of  distinction,  who  was  said 
to  have  composed  a  libel  against  the  pope.' 
Perhaps  Exhilaratus  too  was  only  said,  by 
the  monks,  and  emissaries  of  Rome,  to  have 
formed  the  design  of  murdering  the  pope, 
that  they  might,  by  that  means,  stir  up  the 
populace  to  murder  him.  The  pope  well 
knew,  that  the  emperor  was  extremely  de- 
sirous of  getting  him  into  his  power ;  and 
so  did  the  people  of  Rome,  who  therefore, 
carefully  guarded  him,  as  we  are  told,^  night 
and  day.  It  is  not  therefore  at  all  probable, 
that  the  governor  of  Naples  should  have  en- 
gaged in  an  attempt,  which  he  must  have 
been  sensible  could  not  possibly,  in  these 
circumstances,  be  attended  with  success. 

In  the  mean  time  Luitprand,  who  had 
undertaken  the  defence  of  the  pope  with  no 
other  view,  but  to  improve  to  his  own  ad- 
vantage the  disturbances,  which  he  foresaw 
he  would  raise,  if  thus  protected,  entered 
the  Pentapolis,  at  the  head  of  a  numerous 
army;  and,  pretending  great  zeal  for  the 
catholic  faith,  for  the  worship  of  images,  and 
the  safety  of  their  common  father  the  pope, 
was  every  where  received  by  the  populace 
as  their  deliverer,  with  loud  acclamations  of 
joy.  However,  the  people  of  the  city  and 
dukedom  of  Naples,  bearing  an  irreconcila- 
ble hatred  to  the  neighboring  Lombards, 
with  whom  they  were  ever  at  variance, 
continued  steadfast  in  their  allegiance  to 
the  emperor,  and  received  the  new  duke 
sent  from  Constantinople  to  govern  them  in 
the  room  of  Exhilaratus.''  At  the  same  time 
arrived  at  Ravenna  with  a  considerable  fleet, 
and  a  good  number  of  troops  on  board,  the 
eunuch  Eutychius,  sent  by  the  emperor,  as 
ne  was  a  man  of  great  address,  intrepidity, 
and  experience  in  war,  with  the  title  and 
authority  of  exarch,  to  reduce  the  revolted 
cities  in  Italy,  and  persuade,  if  by  any  means 
he  could,  the  king  of  the  Lombards  to  aban- 
don the  pope.  As  the  inhabitants  of  Ra- 
venna had  not  revolted,  nor  submitted  to  the 
Lombards,  they  received  Eutychius  into  the 
city,  and  acknowledged  him  for  their  lawful 
governor,  declaring  that  they  would  ever 
continue  faithful  to  the  emperor,  though 


they  could  not,  in  compliance  with  his  edict, 
renounce  the  cathohc  faith.  The  exarch 
dissembled  for  the  present,  flattering  himself 
that  he  should  soon  be  able  to  make  them 
pay  dear  for  the  death  of  his  predecessor, 
and  the  many  enormous  excesses  of  which 
they  were  guilty.' 

The  first  thing,  says  Anastasius,  which 
the  new  exarch  attempted,  and  had  chiefly 
at  heart,  was  to  accomplish  what  his  prede- 
cessor and  others  had  attempted  in  vain,  to 
get  the  pope  murdered ;  and  he  dispatched 
accordingly,  on  his  first  arrival  in  Italy,  a 
messenger  to  Rome  with  a  letter,  which  he 
had  received  from  the  emperor  at  his  depar- 
ture from  Constantinople.  The  letter  was 
directed  to  all  the  officers  of  the  emperor  in 
that  city,  and  they  were  required  by  it,  and 
commanded,  to  put  the  pope  to  death,  at  all 
events,  as  a  disturber  of  the  public  tranquil- 
lity, and  an  enemy  of  the  empire.  But  the 
letter  was  intercepted  by  the  Roman  people; 
and  they  would  have  torn  the  messenger  to 
pieces  in  the  transport  of  their  zeal,  had  not 
the  pope  interposed,  and  contented  himself 
only  with  excommunicating  the  exarch. ^ 
Thus  Anastasius ;  and  from  thence  the  mo- 
dern advocates  for  images  have  all  taken  oc- 
casion, and  above  all  Maimbourg,  to  indulge 
themselves  in  long  descants  on  the  cruelty, 
treachery,  and  barbarity  of  Leo,  as  if  it  were 
cruelty,  treachery,  or  barbarity  in  a  prince  to 
put  to  death,  or  cause  to  be  put  to  death,  a 
traitor,  a  rebel,  a  declared  enemy  both  to 
him  and  the  state.  But  against  this  attempt 
lie  the  same  objections,  that  have  been  al- 
leged above  against  that  of  the  exarch  Paul, 
the  silence  of  all  the  other  writers,  though 
they  lived  much  nearer  to  those  times  than 
the  bibliothecarian,  nay,  and  of  the  pope 
himself,  who  reproached  the  emperor  indeed 
with  many  other  things,  but  never  charged 
him  with  having,  at  any  time,  attempted 
upon  his  life,  or  given  the  least  encourage- 
ment to  such  an  attempt.  Besides,  what 
advantage  could  the  emperor  have  reaped 
from  the  death  of  the  pope  ?  He  well  knew, 
that  were  he  removed,  the  revolted  Romans 
would  choose,  without  his  consent  or  ap- 
probation, another  in  his  room,  and  no  doubt 
one  who,  they  were  sure,  would  espouse 
the  same  cause,  and  promote  it  with  the 
same  zeal.  But  he  had  good  reason  to  be- 
lieve, that  could  he  once  get  him  into  his 
power,  he  should  be  able  to  prevail  upon 
him,  as  his  predecessor  Justinian  formerly 
prevailed  on  Vigilius,''  to  condemn  what  he 
had  hitherto  approved,  and  approve  what  he 
had  hitherto  condemned.  All  the  attempts, 
therefore,  said  by  Anastasius  to  have  been 
made  upon  the  life  of  the  pope,  (and  Baro- 
nius*  reckons  up  no  fewer  than  six,)  were, 


» Paul.  Diac.  I.  6.  c.  10.  Regin.  Chronol.  1.  1.  p.  47. 
Sigon.  ad  Ann.  726.  a  Anast.  in  Greg,  II. 

»  Vide  Freher.  in  Chron.  Exarch.  Raven. 


'  Paul.  Diac.  ubi  supra. 

2  Anast.  in  Greg.  II. 

«  Bar.  ad  Ann.  726.  p.  77—7 


»  See  vol.  I.  p.  368. 


Gregory  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


51 


The  exarch  strives  to  gain  the  king  of  the  Lombards  ;  and  gains  him  in  the  end.     Rome  besieged  by  the  ex- 
arch and  the  liing.     The  pope  repairs  to  the  king's  camp.    How  received  there. 

in  all  likelihood,  attempts  only  to  seize  him  ; ,  without  loss  of  time,  to  Spoleto,  surprised 
means  not  being  wanting  to  convince  him,  'there,  and  struck  the  two  dukes  with  such 


had  the  emperor  had  him  in  his  power,  that 
images  were  not  to  be  worshiped. 

However  that  be,  the  new  exarch,  de- 
spairing of  ever  being  able  to  reduce  the 
pope,  and  the  other  rebels,  so  long  as  they 
were  supported  by  the  king  of  the  Lombards, 
applied  to  him  in  the  first  place ;  and  he  left 
nothing  unattempted  to  gain  him,  or  engage 
him  at  least  to  stand  neuter,  and  suffer  the 
emperor,  and  his  friend  and  ally,  if  he  would 
not  assist  him,  to  bring  his  rebellious  sub- 
jects back  to  their  duty.  He  even  offered 
to  yield  to  the  Lombards  for  ever  the  cities 
they  had  seized,  and  persuade  the  emperor 
to  renounce,  in  the  most  solemn  manner,  all 
title  and  claim  to  them,  provided  they  joined 
him,  and  acted  in  concert  and  conjunction 
with  the  imperial  troops  against  the  pope 
and  the  Romans.  But  the  king  had  nothing 
less  in  his  view,  than  to  conquer  all  Italy  ; 
and  that  he  flattered  himself  he  should  be 
able  to  accomplish,  when  by  a  long  war 
(and  he  was  determined  by  some  means  or 
other  to  prolong  it)  both  parties  were  suf- 
ficiently weakened.  He  therefore  withstood 
all  the  offers,  of  the  exarch,  alleging  that  he 
could  not  in  honor  abandon  the  pope,  nor  in 
conscience  the  catholic  cause.  But  that  he 
only  pursued  his  own  interest,  under  the 
cloak  of  honor  and  conscience,  as  most 
princes  do,  who  pretend  to  either,  was  soon 
made  to  appear  on  the  following  occasion. 
Two  Lombard  dukes,  Thrasimund  of  Spole- 
to, and  Gregory  of  Benevento,  seeing  Luit- 
prand  engaged  in  a  war  with  the  emperor, 
took  from  thence  occasion  to  shake  off  the 
yoke,  and  claim,  in  their  respective  duke- 
doms, a  power  and  authority  independent 
of  the  king.  Their  revolt  gave,  at  this 
juncture,  great  uneasiness  to  Luitprand,  ap- 
prehending that  the  other  dukes  would  be 
all  prompted  by  them,  to  follow  their  ex- 
ample :  but  it  offered  to  the  exarch  the  iTiost 
favorable  opportunity  he  could  have  wished 
for  of  applying  anew  to  the  king,  and  at- 
tempting to  engage  him  in  the  interest  of 
the  emperor  and  the  empire ;  and  he  took 
care  not  to  let  it  pass  unimproved.  For  he 
was  no  sooner  acquainted  with  what  had 
happened,  than  pretending  great  friendship 
for  the  king,  and  no  less  zeal  for  the  rights 
and  authority  of  princes  in  general,  he  de- 
clared that,  far  from  lending  any  kind  of  as- 
sistance to  the  rebel  dukes,  it  being  a  prece- 
dent of  most  dangerous  con  equence  for  one 


terror,  that  they  immediately  submitted,  and, 
throwing  themselves  at  the  king's  feet,  sued 
in  that  humble  posture  for  pardon,  which 
he  readily  granted  them.' 

From  Spoleto  the  two  armies  marched, 
pursuant  to  the  agreement  between  the  king 
and  the  exarch,  to  Rome,  and  encamped  in 
the  meadows  of  Nero,  as  they  were  called, 
between  the  Tiber  and  the  Vatican.  The 
Romans  had  openly  revolted  from  the  em- 
peror, and  pulled  down  the  statues,  had  by 
their  own  authority  appointed  magistrates  to 
govern  them,  and  used  the  officers  of  the 
emperor  with  the  utmost  barbarity,  and  all, 
who  offered  to  oppose  them,  and  maintain 
his  authority.  As  for  the  pope,  he  not  only 
had  not  restrained  the  people  from  such  ex- 
cesses, but  encouraged  them  in  them ;  and 
could  not  but  know  that  he  was  looked 
upon,  and  very  deservedly,  as  the  first  and 
chief  author  of  all  the  excesses,  which  they 
had  committed.  We  may  therefore  well 
imagine  how  great  was  the  consternation 
and  dread,  that  seized  both  the  people  and 
him,  at  the  sight  of  two  numerous  armies 
come  to  revenge  the  many  enormities  of 
which  they  were,  and  knew  themselves 
guilty.  They  were  forsaken  by  the  only 
ally  they  had,  and  who  alone  was  able  to 
protect  them ;  nay,  he  was,  of  their  friend 
and  protector,  become  their  avowed  enemy  ; 
and  they  expected,  and  could  expect,  no- 
thing but  present  destruction. 

In  that  extremtiy  the  only  means  that  oc- 
curred to  the  pope,  (and  he  thought  it  might 
possibly  succeed,)  of  escaping  the  vengeance, 
with  which  he  was  threatened,  was  to  repair 
to  the  camp  of  the  Lombards,  and  there  de- 
liver himself  up  to  the  king.  He  hoped 
that,  as  the  king  had  but  very  lately  given  so 
remarkable  an  instance  of  his  good  nature 
and  mercy,  in  pardoning  those  who  had  re- 
volted from  him,  he  might  perhaps  be  pre- 
vailed upon  to  interpose  his  good  offices 
with  the  exarch  in  favor  of  those,  who  had 
revolted  from  the  emperor;  the  rather  as  he 
had  encouraged  them  in,  and  reaped  no 
small  advantages  from  their  revolt.  Ani- 
mated with  that  hope,  he  set  out,  attended 
by  some  of  his  clergy,  and  of  the  chief 
citizens  of  Rome  ;  and  arriving  at  the  king's 
quarters,  presented  himself  unexpectedly  be- 
fore him  ;  represented  to  him,  in  a  pathetic 
speech,  his  present  distress ;  and  earnestly 
begged,  that  to  the  glorious  instance,  which 


prince  to  assist  or  protect  the  rebels  of  an-  ihe  had  lately  given  of  his  royal  mercy,  he 
other,  he  was  ready  to  join  the  king  with  all  i  would  add  another  still  more  glorious,  that 
the  forces  under  his  command  against  them,  \  of  delivering  him,  the  city  of  Rome,  and  the 
on  condition,  that  when  they  were  reduced,  whole  Roman  people,  from  the  jaws  of 
he  engaged  to  join  him  with  all  his  forces  death  and  destruction.  The  king,  who  was, 
against  the  pope  and  the  Romans.  The  pro-  it  seems,  a  man  of  great  humanity,  was 
posal  was  approved  by  the  king ;  the  two  touched  with  his  speech,  and  so  affected,  if 
armies  joined;  and  marching  thus  joined,  j  « Anasi.  in  Greg.  ii. 


52 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES. 


[Gregory  H. 


The  king  obliges  the  pope  and  the  Romans  to  submit  to  the  emperor.  The  pope  persuades  the  Romans  to 
join  the  exarch  against  the  usurper  Tiberius.  That  no  great  merit  in  the  pope.  The  emperor  resolves  to 
remove  the  patriarch  Germanus. 


we  believe   Anastasius,  with   his  distress, 
that,  throwing  himself  at  his  feet,  he  begged 

Eardon  for  entering  into  an  alliance  against 
im ;  and,  assuring  both  him  and  the  Ro- 
mans of  his  protection,  he  attended  him  to 
the  neighboring  church  of  St.  Peter,  and 
there  disarmed  himself  in  the  presence  of 
his  officers,  laying  his  girdle,  his  sword,  and 
his  gantlet,  with  his  royal  mantle,  his  crown 
of  gold,  and  a  cross  of  silver,  on  the  tomb  of 
the  apostle.'  However,  to  fulfill  his  engage- 
ments with  the  exarch,  he  obliged  both  the 
pope  and  the  Romans  to  submit  to  him,  to  ac- 
knowledge his  authority,and  to  receive  him, 
after  he  had  promised  a  general  amnesty, 
into  the  city.^ 

While  the  exarch  was  still  at  Rome,  he 
was  informed,  that  one  Petasius,  who  had 
taken  the  name  of  Tiberius,  and  pretended 
to  be  descended  from  the  ancient  emperors, 
had  seduced  several  cities  in  Tuscany,  and 
was  by  them  proclaimed  emperor.  This  in- 
telligence gave  him  great  uneasiness,  the 
army  of  the  usurpur  being  already,  as  he 
was  informed,  far  superior  in  number  to  his, 
and  acquiring  daily  new  strength.  But  he 
had  treated  the  pope  and  the  Romans,  though 
master  of  the  city,  with  the  greatest  human- 
ity and  kindness;  had  taken  no  manner  of 
notice  of  the  many  excesses,  which  they  had 
committed  ;  and  never  once  mentioned  the 
edict  against  images  ;  but,  waiting  for  fresh 
orders  on  that  head  from  the  emperor,  had 
connived,  in  the  mean  time,  at  their  wor- 
sliiping  what  images  they  pleased.  The 
pope,  therefore,  partly  out  of  gratitude,  and 
partly  to  regain  the  favor  of  the  emperor, 
and  incline  him  to  hearken  to  his  complaints 
and  remonstrances,  persuaded  the  Romans 
to  join  the  imperial  troops,  and  march  joint- 
ly with  them  against  the  rebels  in  Tuscany. 
With  that  reinforcement  the  exarch  took  the 
field,  defeated  the  rebels,  and,  having  taken 
the  usurper,  cut  off  his  head,  and  sent  it  to 
the  emperor.^  The  pope  did  no  more  than 
what  was  his  duty,  and  the  duty  of  every 
subject  to  have  done  at  such  a  juncture;  and 
I  cannot  well  comprehend  in  what  he  dis- 
played that  nobleness  of  mind,  that  great- 
ness of  soul,  which  on  this  occasion  Baro- 
nius  and  Maimbourg  so  much  admire  and 
extol  in  his  holiness.  At  the  same  time  that 
these  writers  bestow  the  highest  encomiums 
on  the  pope,  for  thus  returning,  say  they, 
good  for  evil,  and  favors  for  injuries,  they 
paint  the  emperor  as  a  monster  of  ingrati- 
tude, for  still  urging  the  execution  of  his 
edict  against  images ;  as  if  he  ought  to  have 
suffered,  out  of  gratitude  to  the  pope,  and  in 
return  for  the  service  he  had  done  him,  all 
his  subjects  to  turn  idolaters.  The  popes, 
as  we  may  observe  here  by  the  way,  proved 
ever  very  faithful  and  loyal  to  the  emperors, 
when  Rome  was,  or  they  apprehended  it  to 


«  Anast.  in  Greg.  II.        "  Idem.  ibid.        »  Idem  ibid. 


be,  in  the  least  danger  of  falling  under  the 
yoke  of  a  prince,  who  might  reside  there, 
and  by  his  presence  defeat  their  ambitious 
designs,  and  confine  their  authority  within 
its  due  bounds.  For  thus  were  the  bishops 
of  Constantinople,  though  no  less  ambitious 
than  the  bishops  of  Rome,  and  ever  aspiring 
to  the  same  grandeur  and  power,  restrained 
from  the  attaining  of  either.  The  loyalty 
therefore,  of  the  pope,  on  occasion  of  the 
present  rebellion,  was  not  perhaps  so  much 
owing  to  the  regard  he  had  for  the  interest 
of  the  emperor,  as  to  that  which  he  had  for 
his  own :  nay,  it  is  not  at  all  improbable, 
that  Gregory,  considering  the  distance  of 
the  emperor,  the  distracted  state  of  the  em- 
pire, the  weakness  of  the  imperial  army  in 
Italy,  and  the  attachment  of  the  people,  es- 
pecially of  the  Romans,  to  him,  entertained 
at  this  time  some  thoughts  of  making  him- 
self, or  at  least  paving  the  way  for  his  suc- 
cessors to  make  themselves,  as  they  soon 
did,  masters  of  Rome;  and  consequently, 
that  it  was  to  prevent  any  other  power  from 
prevailing  in  Italy,  which  would  have  de- 
feated at  once  all  his  designs,  that  he  exerted 
so  much  zeal  against  the  usurper. 

In  the  east  the  imperial  edict  was  no  bet- 
ter received  by  the  people,  especially  at  Con- 
stantinople, than  it  was  in  the  west  by  the 
people  of  Rome.  However,  the  presence 
of  the  emperor,  and  the  numerous  forces, 
which  he  kept  constantly  on  foot  to  oppose 
the  attempts  of  the  Saracens,  awed  the  po- 
pulace ;  and  restrained  them  at  least  from 
openly  revolting,  though  the  patriarch  Ger- 
manus, the  famous  Damascene,  and  under 
their  banners  the  whole  body  of  monks,  who 
found  their  account  in  the  new  superstition, 
made  it  their  business  to  stir  them  up  to  se- 
dition and  rebellion,  pursuading  the  igno- 
rant multitude,  as  appears  from  their  wri- 
tings, that  the  worship  of  images  was  ap- 
proved by  our  Savior  himself,  was  com- 
manded by  the  apostles,  was  looked  upon  by 
the  primitive  church  not  only  as  lawful,  but 
even  as  necessary  to  salvation  :  and  conse- 
quently, that  to  renounce  that  worship  was 
to  renounce  Christianity,  and  turn  Jew  or 
Mahometan.!  Leo, "  that  monster  of  cruel- 
ty, with  whom  contradiction  was  treason, 
that  inhuman  wild  beast  thirsting  more  after 
blood  than  his  namesake  the  lion,"  as  he  is 
painted  by  one  of  the  impartial  writers  of 
those  days,  quoted  by  Baronius  and  Maim- 
bourg, had  now  for  three  whole  years  borne 
patiently  with  Germanus,  respecting  his  cha- 
racter, and,  unwiUing  to  use  any  violence 
with  a  man  of  his  years  ;  for  he  was  at  this 
time  in  his  ninety-fifth  year ;  but  finding  that 
the  aged  patriarch,  relying  on  his  good  na- 
ture, grew  daily  more  daring  and  insolent ; 
that,  in  spite  of  all  the  kindness  he  could  show 
him,  he  still  obstinately  continued,  and  made 

»  Apud    Bar.  ad  Ann.  727.  p.  88,  89. 


Gregory  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


53 


A  great  council  assembled  by  the  emperor.  Determined  there,  that  images  should  be  cast  out  of  the  churches 
and  broken.  That  determination  probably  approved  by  all  but  Germanus,  who  opposes  it,  and  resigns  his 
dignity.     Not  ill  used,  nor  put  to  death  by  the  emperor. 

it  his  Study,  to  inflame  the  minds  of  the  peo-  teen  bed-tables,  because  on  Christmas-day 
pie  against  him,  not  only  as  the  protector,   the  emperor  used  to  entertain  the  nobility 


but  the  author  of  a  most  damnable  heresy; 
nay,  and  that  he  had  the  presumption  to 
anathematize,  in  an  assembly  of  the  clergy, 
all,  who  did  not  worship  images,  who  thought 
it  idolatry  to  worship  them,  or  communicat- 
ed with  those,  who  thought  so  ;  he  resolved 
to  oblige  him,  and  thought  it  was  high  time, 
to  resign  his  dignity,  or  alter  his  conduct. 
Having  therefore  sent  for  him  to  the  impe- 
rial palace,  he  let  him  know,  that  since  he 
abused  the  authority  that  was  given  him  to 
promote  the  Christian  religion,  and  the  puri- 
ty of  worship  among  Christians,  to  counte- 
nance idolatry,  and  the  worship  of  idols,  he 


there  at  nineteen  tables,  none  of  them  silting 
on  that  occasion,  but  all  lying  on  beds  after 
the  manner  of  the  ancient  Romans.' 

As  the  fathers  of  the  second  council  of 
Nice  ordered  all  writings,  records,  acts  of 
councils,  &c.  against  images,  to  be  destroy- 
ed, the  only  thing  we  know  of  this  council 
is,  that  it  was  there  determined,  that  since 
images  could  not  be  allowed,  as  was  now 
found  by  experience,  and  idolatry  prevented, 
or  the  ignorant  multitude  be  restrained  from 
worshiping  them,  they  should  be  all  pulled 
down,  cast  out  of  the  churches,  and  destroy- 
ed.2     A  determination  worthy  of  so  Chris- 


must  either  quit  that  authority,  or  use  it  for  tian  an  emperor,  and  so  august  an  assem- 


the  purpose  for  which  it  was  given  him. 
Here  Maimbourg  makes  the  patriarch  recur 
to  all  the  futile  and  unmeaning  distinctions, 
that  are  used  in  the  schools  of  the  Jesuits  to 
excuse  the  worship  of  images  from  idolatry. 
But  Leo,  he  adds,  was  extremely  ignorant, 
and  consequently  did  not  understand  those 
distinctions.  If  not  to  understand  them  ar- 
gues an  extreme  ignorance,  I  should  be  glad 
to  know  where  the  man  is  to  be  found  that 
has  any  knowledge.' 

The  emperor,  finding  that  Germanus  was 
not  to  be  gained,  but  at  the  same  time  un- 
alterably determined,  as  he  thought  it  his 
duty,  to  banish  idolatry  (for  so  he  called  the 
worship  of  images)  at  all  events,  and  in 
spite  of  all  opposition,  from  the  church,  or 
at  least  from  the  empire,  assembled  a  grand 
council  a  few  days  after  his  interview 
with  the  patriarch,  Theophanes  says  on  the 
seventh  of  January,  730,  to  concert  with  his 
ministers,  and  the  chief  men  of  the  empire, 
the  most  proper  and  effectual  means  of  ac- 
complishing so  commendable  a  work.  At 
that  council  assisted  the  emperor  in  person, 
the  senate,  all  the  great  officers  of  state,  all 
the  bishops,  who  were  then  at  Constanti- 
nople, and  among  the  rest  the  patriarch 
himself,  in  virtue  of  an  express  order  from 


bly  !  Baronius,  and  his  transcriber  Maim- 
bourg, would  make  us  believe,  that  the  em- 
peror abruptly  declared,  at  his  first  coming 
into  the  council,  and  without  consulting  any 
of  the  assembly,  or  giving  them  an  op- 
portunity of  speaking  on  the  subject,  that  it 
was  his  will  and  pleasure,  that  all  images 
should  be  cast  out  of  the  churches,  and 
broken  ;  as  if  he  had  called  together  all  the 
chief  men  of  the  empire  only  to  disoblige 
and  affront  them  at  a  time  when  he  most 
stood  in  need  of  their  aid  and  concurrence. 

As  the  worship  of  images  had  yet  pre- 
vailed only  among  the  monks,  the  populace, 
and  the  women,  I  am  rather  inclined  to  be- 
lieve that  the  above-mentioned  determina- 
tion was  approved  and  agreed  to  by  all  but 
Germanus.  We  do  not,  at  least,  read  of  its 
being  opposed  by  any  but  him ;  and  it  is  not 
at  all  to  be  doubted,  but  had  others  opposed 
it  as  well  as  he,  their  names  would  have 
been  transmitted  to  posterity  as  well  as  his, 
and  with  the  highest  enconiums.  He,  in- 
deed, far  from  consenting  to  the  demolition 
of  images,  maintained,  and,  to  do  him  jus- 
tice, with  great  intrepidity,  that  they  ought 
not  only  to  be  retained,  but  worshiped ;  and 
upon  the  emperor's  pressing  him  to  sign  the 
first,  an  edict  which  so  many  men,  no  less 


the  emperor.  They  met  in  the  great  hall  of  distinguished  by  their  learning  and  piety, 
the  magnificent  palace  adjoining  to  the  j  than  their  rank,  were  ready  to  sign  after  him, 
Hippodrome,  called  the  palace  of  the  nine-  i  he  boldly  told  him  that  he  attemped  in  vain 
j  to  extort  his  consent  to,  or  connivance  at,  so 

■  Theophanes  writes,  that,  at  this  interview,  Ger-    wicked   an   action  :    that  he  WOuld   ever  op- 
manus  told  the  emperor,  that,  accnrdme  to  an  ancient    _  •.  *    .l        .  .     r  u-  j  .l    » 

prophecy,  all  imases  were  indeed  to  be  one  day  pulled    PO^e  It  tO  the  Utmost  of   hlS  power  ;  and  that 

down,  and  cast  out  of  the  churches;  but  that  it  was   if  they  apprehended  the  present  storm   to 
.u        ,  ^_,       ,.  .,,_.  .    ,      jjj^yg  been  raised  by  him,  they  might  throw 

him,  like  another  Jonas,  into  the  sea.  At 
these  words  he  divested  himself  of  his  pall, 
delivered  it  to  the  emperor,  and  having  thus 
resigned  his  dignity,  withdrew  to  the  house 
in  which  he  was  born,  and  there  passed  the 
remainder  of  his  life  quite  undisturbed.^ 
Thus  Theophanes,  and  with  him  agree 
Paulus    Diaconus,   Anastasius,  and    even 


not,  he  thanked  God,  in  his  reign  that  so  wicked 
thins;  wTis  to  happen ;  that  the  emperor  thereupon 
asked  him,  in  whose  reien  it  was  to  happen  ;  and  that 
he  answering  in  the  reign  of  one  Conon,  Leo  replied, 
"That  is  my  name,  the  name  that  was  civen  me  at 
my  baptism."  At  these  words  the  good  patriarch, 
adds  Theophanes,  struck  with  horror,  cried  out  in 
the  greatest  consternation,  "Heaven  forbid  such  a 
prophecy  should  he  accomplished  in  your  reign  !  the 
prince,  in  whose  reign  that  happens,  is  to  be  the  fore- 
runner of  anti-christ."— (Theoph.  ad  Ann.  Leon.  13.) 
Thus  Theophanes.  Hut  that,  Leo  was  not  the  fore- 
runner of  anti-christ,  thoueh  he  caused  all  the  images 
to  be  pulled  down,  and  cast  out  of  the  churches  ;  and 
consequently,  that  the  author  of  the  pretended  pro- 
phecy was  a  false  and  lying  prophet ;  will  now,  I  be- 
lieve, hardly  be  denied  even  by  Baronius. 


«  Vide  Ducang.  Constantin.  Christian.  1.  2.  n.  6. 
'  Theoph.  ad  Ann.  Incar.  secund.  Alexand.  728. 
'  Idem  ibid. 

e2 


54 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Gregory  II. 


Anastasius  appointed  in  the  room  of  Germanus.    The  pope  declares  him  deposed,  if  he  does  not  renounce  his 
pretended  heresy.    Edict  issued,  commanding  all  images  to  be  cast  out  of  the  churches  and  broken. 


Cedrenus.  But  Baronius,  Maimbourg,  Na- 
talis  Alexander,  &c.  displeased  at  the  mo- 
deration shown  on  this  occasion,  according 
to  the  accounts  of  those  writers,  by  the  em- 
peror, as  not  at  all  suiting  the  character,  in 
which  they  constantly  paint  him,  of  a  pas- 
sionate, cruel,  and  barbarous  tyrant,  of  an 
ever-roaring  and  all-devouring  lion,  add 
from  the  legendry  writers,  that  Germanus 
was  soon  after  dragged,  by  the  emperor's 
order,  from  the  place  of  his  retreat  to  a 
distant  monastery ;  that  he  was  most  inhu- 
manly used,  and  cruelly  beaten  by  the  sol- 
diers who  conveyed  him  to  it ;  and  that  he 
had  not  been  long  there  when  he  was,  by  a 
new  order  from  the  emperor,  barbarously 
strangled,  in  the  hundredth  year  of  his  age. 
He  was  descended  of  a  patrician  family. 
His  father,  Justinian,  was  put  to  death  by 
the  emperor  Constantine  Pogonatus,  we 
know  not  for  Avhat  crime;  and  he,  for  speak- 
ing on  that  occasion  with  too  much  freedom, 
made  an  eunuch.  Being  thus  well  qualified 
for  the  ecclesiastical  order,  he  betook  himself 
to  the  church;  and,  having  passed  through 
all  the  inferior  degrees,  was  raised  to  the  see 
of  Cyzicus,  and  translated  from  thence  to  the 
see  of  Constantinople.'  He  is  said  to  have 
applied  himself  chiefly  to  the  study  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures ;  but  his  maintaining  the 
lawfulness  of  image  Avorship,  so  often  and 
so  expressly  condemned  in  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures, is  no  proof  of  his  h'aving  made  any 
considerable  progress  in  that  study.  He  is 
now  honored  as  a  saint,  and  his  anniversary 
is  kept  on  the  12th  of  May. 

He  was  succeeded  by  Anastasius,  whose 
indefatigable  endeavors  to  root  out  the  pre- 
vailing idolatry,  in  conjunction  with  the 
emperor,  have  given  occasion  to  the  more 
modern  Greek  writers  to  represent  him  as 
the  most  wicked  of  men.  But,  with  them, 
all,  who  opposed  the  worship  of  images, 
were  the  most  wicked  of  men  ;  and  all  saints 
of  the  first  rate,  who  countenanced  that  wor- 
ship. Had  the  writings  of  both  parties 
reached  our  times,  we  should  have,  without 
all  doubt,  very  different  accounts  of  both  : 
but  the  good  fathers  of  Nice  took  care,  that 
we  should  hear  only  one  side.  As  to  Anas- 
tasius, the  more  ancient  and  more  credible 
writers  were  utterly  unacquainted  with  the 
many  enormous  crimes  that  have  been  laid  to 
his  charge  by  the  later  Greek  writers,  and  co- 
pied from  them  by  Baronius  and  Maimbourg. 

The  new  patriarch  had  no  sooner  taken 
possession  of  his  see,  than  he  wrote  to  the 
pope  to  acquaint  him  with  his  promotion, 
and  beg  his  communion  :  but  Gregory,  find- 
ing that  he  did  not  approve  of  the  worship 
of  images,  instead  of  acknowledging  him  for 
his  fellow  bishop,  declared  him  deposed  from 
his  dignity,  and  divested  of  all  power,  if  he 
did  not,  upon  the  receipt  of  his  letter,  re- 

•  Theoph.  in  Constantin.  Pogonat. 


nounce  his  heresy,  and  embrace  the  catholic 
faith;'  for  though  the  worship  of  images 
had  not  yet  been  decreed,  nor  approved,  nor 
so  much  as  mentioned,  in  any  council  what- 
ever, all,  who  did  not  worship  them,  were 
looked  upon  as  declared  heretics  by  those 
who  did,  and  they,  who  worshiped  them,  as 
the  only  good  catholics.  The  patriarch  paid, 
as  we  may  well  imagine,  no  kind  of  regard 
to  the  letter,  or  the  sentence,  of  the  pope. 

The  emperor  was  not,  it  seems,  at  first 
averse  to  the  use  of  images,  but  rather  of 
the  opinion  of  pope  Gregory  the  Great,  that 
images  should  neither  be  destroyed,  nor  wor- 
shiped ;-  and  he  had  done  all  that  lay  in  his 
power  to  prevent  their  being  worshiped, 
without  destroying  them.  He  had  ordered 
them,  as  we  have  seen,  to  be  raised  higher 
in  all  places  of  worship,  flattering  himself, 
that  being  out  of  the  reach,  and  less  exposed 
to  the  view  of  the  populace,  the  multitude 
would  be  thus  weaned,  by  degrees,  from 
their  superstition,  or  would  not,  at  least,  be 
so  easily  tempted  to  bow  down  to  their 
images,  to  prostrate  themselves  before  them, 
to  kiss  them,  deck  them  with  flowers  after 
the  manner  of  the  Gentiles ;  and,  as  he  ex- 
pressed it,  make  them  their  gods,  by  giving 
them  the  worship  that  was  due  to  God  alone : 
but  now,  convinced  by  experience,  that  the 
use  of  images  could  not  possibly  be  allowed, 
and  the  worship  prevented,  he  resolved  to 
lay  the  axe  to  the  root,  and  cause,  pursuant 
to  the  determination  of  the  late  council,  all 
images,  without  distinction,  to  be  pulled 
down,  to  be  broken  in  pieces,  and  publicly 
burnt.  And  here  I  cannot  help  admiring 
the  invincible  firmness  and  constancy,  the 
true  Christian  spirit  and  zeal,  of  this  most 
excellent  emperor,  in  thus  pursuing  un- 
daunted so  difficult  an  undertaking,  notwith- 
standing the  great  opposition,  which  it  had 
already  every  where  met  with,  and  the  far 
greater,  which  it  was  likely  to  meet  with 
from  the  more  than  ever  provoked  supersti- 
tion and  rage  of  the  people.  Some  about  the 
emperor,  better  statesmen  than  Christians, 
apprehending  the  dreadful  consequences, 
which  they  foresaw  would  attend  the  de- 
struction of  images,  took  the  liberty  to  sug- 
gest to  him,  that  he  had  better  suffer  the 
ignorant  multitude  to  worship  what  images 
they  pleased,  even  those  of  Jupiter,  Mars, 
or  Apollo,  than  involve  the  empire  in  end- 
less disturbances,  and  expose  both  his  crown 
and  his  life  by  attempting  to  cure  an  evil, 
which  they  looked  upon  as  quite  incurable. 
But  the  good  emperor,  thinking  it  incum- 
bent upon  him  to  reform  the  abuses  in  the 
church  as  well  as  the  state,  and  ready  to 
risk  all,  rather  than  to  be  wanting  in  so 
essential  a  part  of  his  duty,  instead  of  hear- 
kening to  so  wicked  a  suggestion,  ordered 
the  edict,  or  decree  of  the  council,  to  be  im- 


Anast.  in  Greg.  II. 


2  See  p.  42. 


Gregory  H.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


55 

The  execution  of  the  edict  against  images  opposed  by  the  populace,  and  the  women.  Several  of  the  emperor's 
officers  barbarously  murdered.  The  patriarch  grossly  insulted  by  the  women.  Many  of  the  rioters  either 
killed  by  the  soldiery,  or  publicly  executed.  None  suffered  on  this  occasion  but  such  as  were  concerned  in 
the  riot. 


mediately  published,  and  put  in  execution. 
It  was  published  accordingly ;  and  no  sooner 
was  it  published,  than  the  officers,  who 
were  charged  with  the  execution  of  it,  be- 
gan, in  the  first  place,  pursuant  to  the  ex- 
press order  of  the  emperor,  to  pull  down, 
break,  and  destroy,  all  the  images,  that  were 
set  up  in  the  public  places  of  the  imperial 
city,  and  consequently  of  all  others  the  most 
apt  to  seduce  the  superstitious  and  ignorant 
multitude,  as  being  constantly  exposed  to 
their  view. 

Among  these  was  an  image  of  our  Savior 
over  the  gate  of  the  imperial  palace,  called 
the  brazen  gate,  from  the  tiles  of  gilt  brass, 
that  covered  the  magnificent  vestibule,  or 
porch,  before  it.  That  statue  the  emperor, 
to  begin  with  his  own  palace,  ordered  to  be 
pulled  down  the  first  of  all,  and  dashed  in 
pieces.  But  they  had  scarce  begun  to  exe- 
cute that  order,  when,  the  report  of  such  an 
attempt  spreading,  and  it  spread  in  an  in- 
stant all  over  the  city,  the  populace,  ready 
to  part  with  their  lives  rather  than  their 
images,  flew  to  arms,  and  crowding  from  all 
quarters  to  the  imperial  palace,  fell,  in  the 
transport  of  their  rage,  on  the  emperor's 
officers,  and  put  many  of  them  to  death  on 
the  spot.'  The  women  had  hitherto  never 
concerned  themselves  in  religious  disputes  ; 
but  being  naturally  fond  of  pictures  and 
imajjes,  and  finding  their  children  took  great 
delight  in  them,  and  learnt  by  their  means, 
before  they  were  capable  of  learning  by  any 
other,  the  mysteries  of  our  holy  religion, 
they  were  not,  in  this  dispute,  and  on  the 
present  occasion,  behind  hand  in  zeal  with 
the  men :  for  they  too,  transported  with  di- 
vine rage,  says  the  deacon  Stephen,  and  for- 
getful of  their  sex,  flew  to  the  palace,  and 
finding  there  one  of  the  officers  busied  on 
the  top  of  a  ladder  in  pulling  down  the  holy 
image,  overset  the  ladder,  and  rushing,  m 
the  heat  of  their  zeal,  on  the  unhappy  \vretch, 
while  he  lay  on  the  ground  bruised  with  his 
fall,  tore  him  to  pieces.^  Thus  did  the  im- 
pious minister  of  the  emperor's  impiety, 
says  another  writer  of  those  blessed  times,^ 
fall  at  once  from  the  top  of  the  ladder  to  the 
bottom  of  hell. 

But  the  zeal,  or  the  rage,  of  these  furies 
was  not  yet  satisfied.  The  new  patriarch 
was  thought  to  have  suggested  the  late  edict 
to  the  emperor;  and  on  him  chiefly  they 
wanted  to  wreak  their  vengeance  and  fury. 
From  the  imperial  palace  therefore  they  flew, 
like  so  many  blood-thirsty  tigers,  to  the  great 
church;  where  they  were  informed,  that  the 
patriarch  was  then  performing  divine  ser- 
vice ;  and,  laying  aside  all  shame  and  mo- 


>  Theoph.  ad  Ann.  Leon.  10. 

'  Steph.  Diac.  in  Vit.  S.  Steph.  Junior,  apud.  Lop- 
pin.  Analect.  GrtBc.  Tom.  1. 
'  Consiantin.  Acropolii.  in  Encom.  S.  Theodosiae. 


desty  for  the  sake  of  Christ,  says  one  of  the 
authors  of  this  account,' entered  the  church, 
and,  without  any  regard  to  the  sacredness 
of  the  place,  discharged  a  shower  of  stones 
at  the  patriarch,  calling  him  wolf,  thief,  trai- 
tor, heretic,  and  all  the  opprobrious  names, 
that  female  rage,  wrought  up  to  the  highest 
pitch,  could  suggest.  The  patriarch  received 
several  wounds,  and  so  did  those  who  at- 
tended him ;  but  nevertheless  he  had  the 
good  luck  to  escape  with  his  life,  and  to 
reach,  through  by-ways,  the  imperial  pa- 
lace. He  there  informed  the  emperor  of 
what  had  passed,  who  immediately  ordered 
his  guards  to  appease  the  tumult;  and  many 
of  the  rioters,  women  as  well  as  men,  were 
killed  by  the  provoked  soldiery  before  it  was 
appeased.  Some  of  the  more  audacious  and 
obstinate  were  seized,  and  either  publicly 
executed  as  guilty  of  treason,  sedition,  and 
murder,  or  whipt,  and  sent  into  exile.  These 
just  executions  have  given  occasion  to  the 
more  modern  Greek  writers,  Cedrenus,  Zo- 
naras,  Glycas,  Constantine  Mauasses,  and 
their  transcribers  Baronius,  Maimbourg,  and 
Natalis  Alexander,  to  compare  this  good 
emperor  to  the  Nero's,  the  Dioclesian's,  and 
the  other  bloody  tyrants  and  persecutors  we 
read  of  in  the  annals  of  the  church,  as  if  he 
had  exercised  the  same  cruelties  on  the  wor- 
shipers of  images,  that  were  exercised  by 
them  on  the  worshipers  of  Christ. 

From  their  accounts  one  would  conclude, 
that  he  had  commanded  a  general  massacre; 
and  that  all  the  women  of  Constantinople, 
and  the  greater  part  of  the  men,  had  by  his 
orders  been  inhumanly  butchered.  In  the 
Greek  martyrology  it  is  said,  that  nine  men, 
who  are  all  named,  and  one  woman,  Maria, 
descended  of  a  patrician  family,  were  thrown 
into  diff'erent  dungeons ;  that  they  there  re- 
ceived, for  the  space  of  eight  months,  five 
hundred  lashes  a  day;  and  that  when  they 
were  ready,  at  the  term  of  that  time,  to  ex- 
pire (and  it  was  a  great  miracle  that  they 
did  not  expire  sooner,)  the  emperor  ordered 
their  faces  to  be  pricked  with  red  hot  bod- 
kins, and  then  their  heads  to  be  cut  ofl",  and 
their  bodies  to  be  cast  into  the  sea  :*  with 
such  instances  of  Leo's  cruelty  have  the 
later  Greeks  filled  their  histories ;  and  their 
accounts,  et  quidquid  Gra^cia  mendax  audet 
in  historia,have  been  all  copied  by  Baronius, 
Maimbourg,  and  Natalis  Alexander;  nay, 
and  improved.  But  Theophanes,  who  lived 
near  three  hundred  years  before  the  earhest 
of  the  above-mentioned  writers,  and  was  as 
great  an  enemy  to  Leo  as  Baronius,  or 
Maimbourg,  and  as  zealous  a  worshiper  of 
images  as  either,  (for  he  died  an  exile  in  that 
cause,)  supposes  none  to  have  suffered  on 
this  occasion,  but  such  as  were  concerned 

«  Metaphrast.  apud  Bar.  ad  Ann.  726.  p.  59. 
3  Mence.  ad  Diem  9.  Augusti 


56 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[GREGoRr  n. 


Tale  of  the  oecumenical  master  and  twelve  professors  burnt  with  their  college  by  the  emperor's  order. 


in  the  riot  spoken  of  above.  For  all  he  says  [ 
is,  that  the  populace  rose  in  a  tumultuous  I 
manner ;  that  they  killed  many  (not  some,  I 
as  Baronius  has  it,)  of  the  emperor's  offi-l 
cers  attempting  to  pull  down  the  image  of 
Christ  over  the  brazen  gate  of  the  palace ; 
and  that  many  of  them,  that  is,  of  those, 
who  were  concerned  in  that  riot,  were  pun- 
ished with  the  loss  of  their  limbs,  (perhaps 
of  the  hands,  which  they  had  imbrued  in 
the  blood  of  the  emperor's  ofBcers,)  Avith 
stripes,  with  banishment,  and  with  the  for- 
feiture of  all  their  effects.'  Had  the  protes- 
tant  subjects  of  Lewis  XIV.  been  guihy  of 
the  same  excesses,  when  required  to  wor- 
ship images,  which  the  subjects  of  Leo 
were  guilty  of  when  forbidden  to  worship 
them,  would  Maimbourg,  who  on  this  occa- 
sion exaggerates  above  all  others  the  cruelty, 
the  barbarity,  the  tyranny  of  the  emperor, 
have  thought  it  cruelty,  barbarity,  tyranny, 
in  the  grand  monarch,  to  have  treated  his 
subjects  as  Leo  treated  his? 

The  above-mentioned  writers,  not  satis- 
fied with  exaggerating,  in  the  manner  we 
have  seen,  the  punishments  that  were  justly 
inflicted  by  Leo  on  his  rebellious  subjects, 
and  representing  them  as  the  effects  of  ty- 
ranny, have  charged  him  with  innumerable 
acts  of  cruelty,  that  have  not  the  least  ap- 
pearance of  truth,  nor  foundation  in  history. 
But  of  the  many  instances  they  allege  of  his 
more  than  brutal  and  infernal  barbarity,  to 
use  the  expression  of  Maimbourg,  I  shall 
only  take  notice  of  the  following  two,  as 
they  are  thought  the  most  authentic  of  all, 
and  related  most  at  length  by  the  modern 
historians,  to  raise  the  indignation  of  their 
readers  against  that  most  religious  and  ex- 
cellent emperor.  There  was,  say  they,  in 
Constantinople,  a  kind  of  college,  consist- 
ing of  a  master,  styled,  from  his  universal 
knowledge,  the  oecumenical  master,  and 
twelve  professors,  all  chosen  out  of  the  most 
learned  men  of  the  empire,  to  instruct  the 
youth  in  the  different  branches  of  literature, 
each  of  them  in  that  particular  branch,  to 
which  he  had  most  applied,  and  chiefly 
excelled  in.  Their  fame  for  learning  drew 
crowds  of  disciples  to  them  from  all  parts 
of  the  world  ;  and  they  were  so  highly  es- 
teemed for  their  wisdom  and  probity  by  the 
emperors  themselves,  that  they  undertook 
nothing  without  previously  advising  with 
them.  This  famous  college  was  founded, 
they  say,  and  endowed,  by  Constantine  the 
Great,  and  enriched  by  the  succeeding  em- 
perors, with  the  most  costly  ornaments  and 
furniture,  with  innumerable  vessels  of  sil- 
ver and  gold,  with  all  the  valuable  rarities 
which  the  then  known  world  could  afford  ; 
but,  above  all,  with  a  library,  consisting, 
according  to  Constantine  Manasses,  of  thir- 
ty-three thousand,^  according  to  Glycas,  of 

1  Theoph.  ad  Ann.  Leon.  10. 

»  Maimbourg  is  here  guilty  of  a  miatake,  that  shows 


thirty -six  thousand  five  hundred  choice  hooks, 
for  the  use  of  the  professors  and  students. 
Among  the  other  invaluable  curiosities  to  be 
seen  there,  was  that  famous  miracle  of  art 
in  little,  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey  distinctly 
written  in  letters  of  gold,  on  the  great  gut 
of  a  dragon.  As  the  oecumenical  master 
and  the  twelve  professors  were  universally 
revered  as  so  many  oracles,  and  the  eyes  of 
the  whole  people  were  upon  them,  the  em- 
peror did  not  doubt  but  if  he  could  gain  them, 
their  example  would  be  followed  by  the  rest 
of  his  subjects.  He  therefore  sent  for  them 
to  his  palace,  and  having  there  alleged  to 
them  some  childish  and  trifling  reasons,  and 
he  could  allege  none  but  what  were  childish 
and  trifling,  against  the  worship  of  images, 
he  spared  neither  caresses,  nor  threats,  nor 
promises,  to  gain  them  over  to  his  party. 
But  he  labored  in  vain  :  they  were  too  well 
versed  in  the  Scriptures  and  fathers,  to  be 
convinced  by  him,  that  to  worship  images 
was  idolatry ;  and  men  of  too  much  zeal 
for  the  truth,  and  too  much  firmness  and 
constancy  in  the  cause  of  truth,  to  yield  to 
his  caresses,  to  his  threats,  or  his  promises : 
nay,  they  maintained  in  his  presence  the 
lawfulness  of  image-worship,  and  proved  it 
with  such  reasons  and  arguments,  as  nothing 
could  have  withstood,  but  the  most  invinci- 
ble obstinacy.' 

Leo  therefore,  despairing  of  ever  being 
able  to  convince  or  to  gain  them,  resolved  to 
exert  all  his  cruelty,  and  punish  their  con- 
stancy in  so  exemplary  a  manner  as  should 
strike  the  whole  empire  with  terror,  and 
teach  the  rest  of  his  subjects,  that  he  was 
their  sovereign,  and  Avould  be  obeyed.  He 
ordered  accordingly  those  innocent  men  to 
be  all  shut  up  in  their  college,  great  quantity 
of  dry  wood  to  be  plied  all  around  it,  and 
fire  to  be  set  to  it  in  the  night;  which  soon 
consumed  them,  and,  with  them,  that  state- 
ly habitation  of  the  muses,  that  so  fiimous  a 
library,  and  that  inestimable  treasure  of 
rarities,  which  the  emperors  had  been  era- 
ployed  in  collecting,  and  at  an  immense  ex- 
pence,  ever  since  the  time  of  Constantine 
the  great. 


him  equally  unacquainted  with  the  Greek  and  the 
Latin.  For  he  tells  us,  that  the  library  consisted  of 
three  hundred  and  three  thousand  books,  taking  the 
Greek  word,  "trismyrias,"  and  the  Latin,  "tricena 
millia,"  that  signify  thirty  thousand,  to  signify  three 
hundred  thousand. —  (Mainib.  Hist.  Icon.  I.  1.  p.  73.) 

'  If  so,  the  reasons  and  arguments,  which  they  al- 
leged, must  have  been  of  a  very  different  nature  from 
any,  that  have  been  alleged  since  their  lime.  And 
what  a  pity  that  the  writers  of  those  days  all  forgot  to 
acquaint  posterity  with  them  !  Had  they  transmitted 
them  to  us,  Maimbourg  would  have  had  no  occasion 
to  recur,  as  he  does  in  the  long  speech,  which  he  makes 
for  the  oecumenical  master,  and  his  twelve  professors, 
to  the  picture  sent  by  our  Savior  to  the  king  of 
Edessa,  (See  p.  29.  note  2)  to  the  statue  of  Paneas, 
and  the  miracles  wrought  by  the  herb,  that  grew  at 
the  foot  of  that  statue;  (See  p.  31.)  and  much  less 
to  the  distinctions  and  cavils,  that  are  now  used  by 
the  schoolmen  to  excuse  the  worship,  which  they  give 
to  images,  from  the  idolatry,  which  the  pagans  were 
all  chareed  with  hv  the  fathers.  — (Maiinb.  Hist,  des 
Iconoclagt.  1.  1.  p.  70— SI.) 


Gregory  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


57 


The  tale  of  the  burning  of  the  oecumenical  master,  &c.  a  mere  fable.  No  account  of  it  in  the  more  ancient 
writers.  The  library  consumed  long  before  Leo's  time.  Such  an  action  repugnant  to  the  rules  of  polio/, 
and  common  prudence.     Leo  charged  with  attempting  to  get  Damascene  put  to  death. 


Thus  Cedrenus,'  Zonaras,*  Glycas,"  and 
Constantine  Manasses.*  But  that  the  whole, 
from  the  beginning  to  the  end,  is  a  mere 
fable,  without  so  much  as  the  least  appear- 
ance of  truth,  may  be  easily  made  to  appear 
beyond  all  contradiction.  And,  1st,  of  this 
conflagration  not  the  least  notice  is  taken 
either  by  the  fathers  of  the  second  council 
of  Nice,  though  it  is  supposed  to  have  hap- 
pened but  forty-seven  years  before  the  meet- 
ing of  that  council,  and  consequently  in  the 
memory  of  some  of  the  bishops,  who  com- 
posed it,  nor  by  any  of  the  many  historians, 
who  wrote  in  the  present  and  the  two  suc- 
ceeding centuries,  though  they  relate,  ex- 
aggerate, and  even  seem  to  have  believed  all 
the  ill-natured  actions  they  ever  had  heard 
of  that  good  emperor.  And  who  can  be- 
lieve, that  so  remarkable  an  event  could  have 
happened,  and  been  so  soon  forgotten,  or 
never  been  once  mentioned  by  those  who 
remembered  it?  What  could  have  induced 
the  historians,  who  lived  in  or  near  to  those 
times,  and  made  it  their  study,  as  appears 
from  their  writings,  to  paint  Leo  as  the  most 
wicked  of  men;  what,  I  say,  could  have  in- 
duced them  to  pass  over  in  silence  an  act  in 
him  of  so  much  brutal  barbarity,  as  none 
could  be  guilty  of  but  the  most  wicked  of 
men?  Is  not  their  silence  a  far  stronger 
proof  of  his  innocence,  than  the  assertions 
of  writers,  who  lived  two,  three,  and  four 
hundred  years  after  them,  are  of  his  guilt? 
For  Cedrenus,  the  first,  who  related  that 
tragical  story,  and  probably  invented  it, 
wrote  in  the  eleventh  century ;  and  from  him 
it  was  copied,  and  notably  improved,  by 
Zonaras  and  Glycas,  but  most  of  all  by  Con- 
stantine Manasses,  whom  therefore  Baranius 
and  Maimbourg  have  chiefly  followed, 
though  he  wrote  so  late  as  the  middle  of  the 
twelfth  century.  II.  That  famous  library, 
with  all  the  books  and  rarities  it  contained, 
and  the  above-mentioned  Iliad  and  Odyssey 
in  particular,  was  consumed,  according  to 
Suidas,5  by  accidental  fire  in  the  time  of  the 
emperor  Zeno,  about  two  hundred  and  fifty 
years  before  the  reign  of  the  present  empe- 
ror :  and  Suidas  is,  at  least,  as  worthy  of 
credit  as  any  of  the  authors  quoted  by  Baro- 
niusand  Maimbourg.^    III.  Had  these  learn- 


'  Cedrnn.  in  in  Leon.  Isaur.  p.  454. 

»  Zonar.  Hist.  I.  3.         3  Glyc.  .\nnal.  Part.  4.  p.  2S1. 

*  Cnnstantin.  Manass.  in  Compend.  Chron.  p.  87. 
'  Siiid.  in  Malcho. 

•  Maimboura;,  indeed,  to  reconcile  the  testimony  of 
Suidas  with  that  of  his  authors,  allows  the  library  to 
have  been  burnt  in  the  roipn  of  Zeno  ;  but  at  the  same 
lime  supposes  it  to  have  been  rebuilt,  to  have  been 
filled  anew  with  books  and  rarities,  and  the  wonderful 
copy  of  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey  to  have  been  saved  out 
of  the  first  fire,  and  consumed  in  the  second.  Hut  that 
supposition  has  not  the  least  foundation  in  history  ; 
and  Suidas  mentions  that  curious  performance  in  par- 
ticular, among  the  many  valuable  thinps  thnt  were 
consumed  by  fire  in  the  reign  of  Zeno.  But  Maimbourg 
would  rather  allow  it  to  have  perished  a  second  time, 
as  well  as  the  books  and  the  library,  than  absolve  Leo 
from  the  pnilt  of  so  barbarous  and  wicked  an  action. 

Vol.  II.— 8 


ed  men  stood  up  against  Leo  in  defence  of 
images  and  image-worship,  might  he  not 
easily  have  removed  them,  have  banished 
them  to  the  most  distant  parts  of  the  empire, 
have  caused  them  to  be  privately,  or  even 
publicly  executed  as  rebels,  and  appointed 
others  in  their  room,  who  would  have  taught 
and  maintained  with  as  much  zeal  the  unlaw- 
fulness, as  they  are  supposed  to  have  taught 
and  maintained  the  lawfulness  of  that  kind 
of  worship?  Why  should  he  have  chosen 
to  destroy  them  in  so  cruel  and  barbarous  a 
manner?  And  what  could  he  possibly  have 
proposed  to  himself  in  destroying  together 
with  them  one  of  the  most  stately  edifices 
and  ornaments  of  the  imperial  city,  with 
that  invaluable  collection  of  books  and 
rarities,  which  it  had  cost  his  predecessors 
so  much  pains  and  treasure  to  collect,  when 
he  could  not  but  know,  that  he  would  have 
thereby  raised  the  indignation  of  all  mankind, 
disgraced  his  undertaking,  and  prejudiced 
the  whole  world  against  it?  Was  that  act- 
ing like  a  wise  prince,  for  such  hi.s  whole 
conduct  bespeaks  him,  or  even  like  a  politic, 
crafty,  and  subtil  prince,  as  he  is  represent- 
ed by  Baronius  and  Maimbourg,  and  not 
rather  like  a  mad-man?  IV.  The  imperial 
palace,  the  palace  of  the  patriarch,  and  his 
library,  the  famous  church  of  St.  Sophia, 
that  wonder  of  the  east,  were  all  adjoinina:, 
or  very  near,  to  the  college ;  and  therefore 
had  fire  been  .set  to  it,  and  to  the  library, 
containing  thirty-three  or  thirty-six  thousantl 
volumes,  the  other  buildings  must  have  been 
all  consumed,  or  would  at  least  have  been 
in  great  danger  of  being  consumed  by  the 
same  fire.  And  can  any  man  believe,  that 
Leo,  to  be  revenged  on  a  few  men,  whose 
obstinacy  he  might  have  punished  a  thou- 
sand different  manners,  would  have  exposed 
his  own  palace,  and  so  many  noble  edifices, 
to  so  great  a  danger?  I  might  add,  that  in 
the  menology  of  the  Greeks,  though  filled 
with  the  names  of  monks,  and  other  obscure 
persons,  who  suflfered  in  this  cause,  not  the 
least  mention  is  made  of  the  oecumenical 
master,  and  the  twelve  professors  ;  and  yet, 
if  what  is  said  of  ihem  were  true,  they 
would  have  a  much  better  title  to  a  place 
among  the  martyrs  than  any,  who  are  ho- 
nored in  that  number.  But  that  the  whole 
is  an  invention,  destitute  even  of  the  appear- 
ance of  truth,  is  sufficiently  manifest  from 
what  has  already  been  said. 

The  other  charge  they  bring  against  Leo 
is,  his  having  attempted,  by  the  basest  arti- 
fice, and  the  blackest  treachery,  a  man  could 
be  guilty  of,  to  get  the  famous  Damascene, 
or  John  of  Damascus,  put  to  a  cruel  death, 
though  not  a  subject  of  the  empire,  for 
maintaining,  in  opposition  to  his  edict,  the 
worship  of  images.  Damascene  was,  ac- 
cording to  the  author  of  his  life,  John  of 
Jerusalem,  a  native  of  Damascus,  descended 


58 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Gregory  H. 

DamaBcene  highly  esteemed  by  the  caliph  of  the  Saracens.     Leo  is  said  to  have  attempted  his  ruin,  and  by 
what  means.    The  caliph  orders  his  right  hand  to  be  cut  off;  which  is  miraculously  restored  to  him. 


from  one  of  the  most  illustrious  and  wealthy 
families  of  that  ancient  city.  His  father 
was  a  most  zealous  Christian,  but,  never- 
theless so  highly  esteemed  by  the  Saracen 
princes,  lords  of  Damacus,  that,  reposing 
in  him  an  entire  confidence,  they  preferred 
him  to  the  first  employments  of  the  slate, 
and  undertook  nothing  either  at  home  or 
abroad  without  his  advice  and  direction. 
The  son  was  no  less  esteemed  by  them  for 
his  eminent  virtue,  and  extraordinary  talents 
than  the  father;  and  was,  therefore,  upon 
his  death,  not  only  appointed  by  the  caliph 
to  succeed  him  in  all  his  employments,  but 
trusted  besides,  notwithstanding  his  known 
zeal  for  the  Christian  religion,  with  the  go- 
vernment and  defence  of  Damascus,  at  that 
lime  the  metropolis  of  Syria,  and  the  bul- 
wark of  the  Saracen  empire.  But  Dama- 
scene, though  thus  engaged  in  secular  af- 
fairs, and  affairs  of  state,  no  sooner  heard 
of  the  emperor's  last  edict,  commanding  all 
images  to  be  removed  out  of  the  churches, 
and  destroyed,  than,  fired  Avilh  zeal  for  the 
ancient  doctrine  and  practice  of  the  church, 
he  undertook  to  oppose  so  wicked  an  at- 
tempt. He  opposed  it  accordingly,  and 
with  such  success,  by  the  learned  writings 
which  he  daily  published,  and  his  friends 
took  care  privately  to  disperse  all  over  the 
empire,  that  the  emperor,  despairing  of  ever 
being  able  to  establish  his  heresy,  so  long  as 
the  catholic  doctrine  was  'maintained  by  so 
able  an  advocate,  resolved  to  remove  him  by 
some  means  or  other  out  of  the  Avay. 

With  that  view  he  forged  a  letter,  as 
written  to  him  by  Damascene,  to  inform 
him,  that  the  city  of  Damascus  was  weakly 
garisoned,  and  very  ill  guarded  ;  that  he 
might  easily  surprise  it;  that  he  needed  only 
send  for  that  purpose  a  small  body  of 
troops,  and  that  he  would  take  care  to  open 
the  gates  to  them,  a.s  he  commanded  in  the 
place ;  and  put  them  in  possession  of  the 
metropolis  of  Syria,  and  the  whole  treasure 
of  the  cahphs,  without  the  loss  of  a  man. 
He  conjured  the  emperor  not  to  neglect  so 
favorable  an  opportunity  of  delivering  so 
flourishing  a  city  from  the  tyranny  of  the 
Saracens,  and  enriching  himself  with  the 
spoils  of  the  enemies  of  the  Christian  name. 
This  letter  the  emperor  caused  to  be  copied 
by  one,  who  could  perfectly  counterfeit  the 
hand-writing  of  Damascene,  and  sent  it  thus 
copied  to  the  caliph  with  one  of  his  own, 
wherein  he  assured  him  of  the  sincerity  of 
his  friendship,  and  his  firm  resolution,  in- 
violably to  observe  the  articles  of  the  treaty 
lately  concluded  between  the  Romans  and 
Saracens ;  which  he  said  the  caliph  could  no 
longer  doubt  of,  since  he  had  chosen  rather 
to  adhere  to  the  terms  of  that  treaty,  than 
make  himself,  by  a  breach  of  them,  master 
of  his  metropolis,  and  all  his  treasures, 
which  the  very  person,  in  whom  he  chiefly 
confided,  had  by  an  unparalleled  treachery. 


offered  to  deliver  up  to  him,  and  earnestly 
entreated  him,  as  he  might  learn  from  his 
letter,  to  accept.  He  added,  that  the  traitor, 
looking  upon  those  as  his  enemies,  who  dif- 
fered from  him  in  religion,  had  thought  it 
his  duty  to  betray  in  so  flagrant  a  manner, 
the  trust  they  had  reposed  in  him  ;  but  that 
as  no  disagreement  in  religion  could,  in  his 
own  opinion,  authorize  or  justify  treachery, 
instead  of  availing  himself  of  the  ofi'er,  that 
was  made  him,  he  had  thought  it  his  duty 
to  discover  the  traitor  who  made  it,  though. 
a  fellow-Christian  and  a  friend. 

Upon  the  receipt  of  that  letter  the  caliph, 
knowing  that  Damascene  was  a  most  zea- 
lous Christian,  and  therefore  concluding  him 
guilty,  without  further  inquiry,  of  the  crime, 
that  was  laid  to  his  charge,  sent  for  him; 
showed  him  both  letters ;  and  after  many 
bitter  reproaches  ordered  his  right  hand,  the 
hand  with  which  he  was  thought  to  have 
written  so  criminal  a  letter,  to  be  immediate- 
ly cut  off,  and  exposed  on  a  gibbet  to  the 
view  of  the  whole  city.  Damascene  with- 
drew, after  so  cruel  and  shameful  a  punish- 
ment, to  his  own  habitation;  and  from  thence 
sent  in  the  evening,  when  he  thought  the 
caliph  might  be  returned  to  himself,  some 
of  his  friends  to  beg  that  he  would  cause  his 
hand  to  be  taken  down,  and  restored  to  him, 
in  order  to  be  buried  ;  the  pain  which  he 
suffered,  and  must  suffer,  so  long  as  it  con- 
tinued above  ground,  and  exposed  to  the  air, 
being  quite  insupportable. 

The  caliph,  now  coolly  reflecting  on  what 
he  had  done,  and  sensible  that  he  had,  at 
least,  acted  too  rashly,  readily  complied  with 
ihe  request;  and  Damascene  prostrating  him- 
self, as  soon  as  his  hand  Avas  delivered  to 
him,  before  an  image  of  the  blessed  virgin, 
besought  her  by  a  fervent  prayer  to  restore 
him  to  the  use  of  it,  since  she  well  knew, 
that  the  loss  of  it  was  owing  to  his  zeal  in 
combating  the  new  heresy,  and  maintaining, 
in  opposition  to  the  heresiarch  Leo,  the 
worship  of  her  and  her  son  in  their  images. 
He  had  scarce  ended  his  prayer,  when  fall- 
ing asleep  he  dreamt  that  the  image  of  the 
virgin,  appearing  to  him  with  a  smiling  and 
heavenly  countenance,  granted  him  his  re- 
quest, but  on  condition  that  he  continued  to 
employ  his  hand,  as  he  had  hitherto  done, 
in  combating,  by  his  writings,  the  impiety 
of  those,  who  had  undertaken  to  abolish  a 
worship  so  acceptable  to  her  son  and  to  her. 
He  awaked  with  joy,  and  found  his  hand 
restored  to  its  place,  and  himself  to  the  free 
use  of  it,  with  only  a  small  scar  round  the 
place,  where  it  had  been  severed  from  the 
rest  of  his  body.  That  mark  was  left,  that 
he,  by  seeing  it,  might  be  kept  constantly  in 
mind  of  so  miraculous  a  cure,  as  well  as  the 
end,  for  which  it  was  wrought.  Of  this 
miracle  the  whole  city  of  Damascus  was  an 
eye-witness,  and  the  caliph  himself  among 
the  rest,  wh.o,  being  thereupon  convinced 


Gregory  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


59 


Damascene  tarns  monk. 


The  whole  account  evidently  fabulous.     The  imperial  edict  put  in  execution  all 
over  the  east,  and  images  everywhere  destroyed. 


of  ihe  innocence  of  his  minister,  begged 
pardon  publicly  for  the  injustice  he  had  done 
him  ;  and,  unwilling  to  part  with  so  faithful 
a  servant,  omitted  nothing,  that  lay  in  his 
power,  to  persuade  him  to  resume  his  em- 
ployments, and  continue  in  his  service.  But 
the  saint,  panting  after  a  monastic  life,  pre- 
vailed in  the  end,  and  having  made  over  his 
immense  wealth,  and  all  his  possessions, 
partly  to  his  relations,  and  partly  to  the 
church  and  the  poor,  he  left  llie  world  as 
naked  as  when  he  first  came  into  it  (his  gar- 
ments excepted,  as  the  author  of  his  life 
takes  care  to  observe ;)  and  withdrew,  no 
less  lamented  by  the  Saracens  in  Damascus 
than  the  Christians,  to  the  famous  monas- 
tery of  St.  Sabas  in  Palestine.  There,  mind- 
ful of  his  engagement,  and  the  end  for  which 
he  was,  at  the  expense  of  so  great  a  miracle, 
restored  to  the  use  of  his  hand,  he  continued 
to  employ  it  so  long  as  he  lived  in  combat- 
ing the  new  heresy,  and  maintaining,  in  op- 
position to  the  blasphemies  of  Leo,  and  his 
followers,  the  catholic  and  apostolic  doc- 
trine.' 

Thus  John  of  Jerusalem,  in  his  life  of 
Damascene  ;  and  thus,  after  him,  Baronius,^ 
Maimbourg,3  a^j  Natalis  Alexander.''  But 
to  convince  even  the  most  credulous,  that 
the  whole  is  a  mere  fable,  I  need  only  ob- 
serve, that  such  an  extraordinary  event,  so 
stupendous  a  miracle,  which  soon  filled  with 
its  fame,  says  Maimbourg,  the  whole  Chris- 
tian world,  is  vouched  by  John  of  Jerusalem 
alone,  an  obscure  writer  of  the  ninth  cen- 
tury ;  and  that  not  the  least  notice  is  taken 
of  it  by  any  other  author  whatever,  nay,  not 
even  by  Damascene  himself.  And  can  even 
the  most  credulous  papist  imagine,  tha-t  so 
marvellous  an  event,  an  event  that  filled  the 
whole  Christian  world  with  its  fame  could 
possibly  have  escaped  all  the  writers,who  lived 
before  the  time  of  John  of  Jerusalem,  and  all 
who  lived  after  it?  Is  not  their  silence  an 
evident  proof,  that  in  the  time  of  those,  who 
wrote  before  him,  this  fable  was  not  yet  in- 
vented;  and  that  it  appeared  to  those,  who 
wrote  after  him,  too  trrossly  absurd  to  de- 
serve any  notice?  In  what  other  manner 
can  we  account  for  the  silence  of  so  many 
writers,  with  respect  to  a  fact  so  favorable  to 
the  cause,  which  they  had  all  most  zealous- 
ly espoused  ?  But  though  so  surprising  an 
event  could  have  escaped  all  other  writers, 
it  could  not  surely  have  escaped  Damascene 
himself;  nor  could  he  ever  have  forgotten  so 
great  a  miracle  wrought  on  himself:  and  yet 
not  the  least  mention  is  made,  nor  so  much 
as  a  distant  hint  given  of  it  by  him  in  all  his 
works.  He  wrote  three  orations  against  the 
Iconoclasts,  and  could  Baronius  or  Maim- 


'  Joan.  Hier.  in  Vit.  Joan.  Uamas. 
'  n.ir.  ad  Ann.  728.  p.  92,  93. 
»  Malrab.  Hist,  des  Tconolclnst.  1.  2.  p.  IIC.  124. 
«  Natal.  Ale.xand.  Hist.  Ecclcs.  Secul.  8.  c.  2.  Art.  1. 
p.  664. 


bourg  think,  that  if  he  had  recovered  his 
hand  in  the  manner  we  are  told,  he  would 
not    have    there,   at    least,    mentioned    so 
miraculous  a  cure ;   and   urged   it  against 
those,  with  whom  he  disputed,  as  an  unan- 
swerable proof,  that  the  worship  of  images 
was  pleasing  to  God  ?     I  might  add,  that  it 
is  highly  improbable,  to  say  no  more,  that 
the  caliph  of  the  Saracens,  who,  by  the  way, 
is  never  once  named,  should  have  trusted  a 
Christian  with  the  government  and  defence 
of  his  metropolis  ;  a  zealous  Christian,  nay, 
and  a  most  sanguine  advocate  for  the  wor- 
ship of  images,  to  which  the  Saracens  had 
all  an  utter  abhorrence;  that  he  should  have 
reposed  an  entire  confidence  in  Damascene, 
knowing  him  to  be  a  Christian,  and  yet  con- 
cluded him  guilty,  without  farther  inquiry, 
of  the  blackest  treachery,  because  he  was  a 
Christian;  that  he  should  have  been  an  eye- 
witness of  so  great   a  miracle  wrought  in 
favor  of  images,  and  yet  continue  a  Maho- 
metan,  an   enemy    to    images ;    that  Leo, 
though  convinced  of  the  truth  of  the  miracle, 
should,  instead  of  yielding,  and  abjuring  his 
former  opinion,  be  more  confirmed  in  it,  and 
persecute,  as  he  is  said  to  have  done,  with 
more  cruelty  than  ever,  all  who  opposed  it : 
but  the  reader  will   perhaps,  think  that  I 
have  dwelt  already  too  long  on  so  idle  a 
story.     And  truly  I  should  not  have  thought 
it  worthy  of  a  place  in  this  history,  though 
gravely  related   by  Baronius,  Natalis,  and 
Maimbourg,  had  it  not  been  to  show,  by  so 
remarkable  an  instance,  what  means  were 
employed,   what    absurd    and    improbable 
stories  were  invented,  to   establish  among 
the  ignorant  vulgar  the  growing  superstition. 
To  return  to  Leo,  the  people  of  Constanti- 
nople finding  him  unalterably  determined  to 
have  his  edict  put,  at  all  events,  in  execu- 
tion, and   to  spare   none,  who  opposed  it, 
fear  in  the  end  got  the  belter  of  superstition  ; 
and  they  tamely  suflfered  their  most  revered 
images  to  be  pulled  down,  to  be  cast  out  of 
the  churches,  to  be  broken,  or  torn  in  pieces, 
and  publicly  consigned  to   the  flames.     In 
the  provinces  the  execution  of  the  edict  was 
opposed  with   great    warmth   by   some   bi- 
shops; namely,  by  ^Emilianus  of  Cyzicum, 
Eudemonof  Lampsacus,  Basilius  of  Parium, 
and  Nicholas  of  ApoUonias  ;   but  they  being 
driven  from  their  sees,  and  sent  into  exile 
with  some  obstinate  and  refractory  monks, 
who  attempted  to  stir  up  the  populace  to  re- 
bellion, and  have  been  canonized  on  that  ac- 
count, the  emperor,  had,  and  in  a  very  short 
time,  the  so  much  and  so  long  wished  for 
satisfaction,  of  seeing  the  far  greater   part 
of  his    empire,    all    the  eastern   provinces, 
cleansed,  to  use  his  expression,  from  the 
filth  of  idolatry. 

As  for  the  western  provinces,  the  empe- 
ror was  well  apprised,  that  the  execution  of 
his  edict  would  meet  there  with  great  oppo- 


60 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Gregory  H. 


The  emperor  resolves  to  cause  the  same  edict  to  he  published  and  observed  in  the  west.  He  writes  to  the 
pope.  The  pope's  answer  to  his  letter  filled  with  the  grossest  abuse.  Arguments  alleged  by  the  pope  in 
favor  of  image  worship  quite  foreign  to  the  purpose. 


sition  ;  that  the  pope,  who  had  opposed  with 
so  much  obstinacy  his  former  edict,  though 
only  commanding  images  to  be  placed  higher 
in  the  churches,  would  leave  nothing  unat- 
lempted  to  render  this  ineffectual,  ordering 
them  to  be  removed  out  of  all  places  of  wor- 
ship, and  destroyed;  that  he  would,  in  all 
likelihood,  not  only  stir  up  his  own  subjects, 
but  all  the  western  princes,  against  him  as 
a  heretic ;  and  that  thereupon  a  general  re- 
volt might  ensue,  and  perhaps  be  attended 
with  the  loss  of  the  provinces,  that  were 
still  subject  to  the  empire  in  Italy.  Of  all 
this  the  good  emperor  was  well  apprised; 
but,  choosing  to  risk  the  loss  of  those  pro- 
vinces, rather  than  suffer  them  to  continue 
unreclaimed  from  their  idolatry,  he  resolved 
to  cause  his  edict  to  be  published  in  Italy, 
and  to  be,  so  far  as  in  him  lay,  as  punctually 
executed  there,  and  as  strictly  complied  with, 
as  it  was  in  all  the  other  provinces  of  the 
empire.  The  pope  had  broken  off  all  cor- 
respondence with  the  emperor  ever  since  the 
year  726,  when  he  published  his  first  edict; 
had  armed  all  his  subjects  in  Italy  against 
him  as  a  heretic ;  had  countenanced  them 
in  the  many  unnatural  murders  they  com- 
mitted in  defence  of  their  images;  and,  by 
the  disturbances  he  raised,  given  occasion  to 
the  warlike  king  of  the  Lombards  to  seize 
on  several  cities,  and  extend  his  dominions 
at  the  expense  of  the  empire.  But  Leo, 
forgetting  so  monstrous  a'conduct,  and  not 
yet,  it  seems,  quite  despairing  of  being  able 
to  gain  him,  or  at  least  determined  to  do  all 
that  lay  in  his  power  to  gain  him,  resolved 
to  write  to  him  on  this  occasion ;  and  he 
Avrote  to  him  accordingly,  at  the  same  time 
that  he  sent  his  edict  to  the  exarch,  to  be 
published  in  Italy.  His  letter  has  not  been 
suffered  to  reach  our  times,  nor  indeed  has 
any  other  writing  whatever  against  the  wor- 
ship of  images.  But  from  the  pope's  answer 
to  it,  it  appears,  that  he  alleged  several  pas- 
sages out  of  the  Scripture,  to  show  that  it 
was  not  lawful,  that  it  was  idolatry  to  wor- 
ship any  thing  that  was  made  with  hands  ; 
that  he  justified  his  casting  all  idols  (for 
so  he  constantly  called  images)  out  of  the 
church,  by  the  example  of  king  Hezekiah, 
who  broke  the  brazen  serpent,  and  cast  it 
out  of  the  temple,  when  he  found  that  it 
was  worshiped  by  the  people ;  that  he  pro- 
posed the  assembling  of  a  general  council, 
and  declared  himself  ready  to  acquiesce  in 
the  decision  and  judgment  of  the  bishops 
who  composed  it;  that  he  assured  the  pope 
of  his  protection  and  favor,  if  he  complied 
with  his  edict;  but  threatened,  if  he  did  not,  to 
cause  him  to  be  seized,  and  carried  prisoner 
to  Constantinople,  where  he  should  meet 
with  no  better  treatment  from  him  than  his 
predecessor  pope  Martin  had  met  with  from 
the  emperor  Constans ;  and  that,  in  the  close 
of  bis  letter,  he  earnestly  entreated  the  pope 


not  to  oppose  so  commendable  a  work  as 
that  of  extirpating  idolatry,  but  rather  to 
concur  with  him,  with  Anastasius  the  holy 
bishop  of  new  Rome,  and  many  other  vene- 
rable prelates,  in  promoting  it,  in  removing 
out  of  the  sight  of  the  people  the  stocks  and 
the  stones  which  they  worshiped,  and  in  re- 
storing the  Christian  service  to  the  purity  of 
the  primitive  times.' 

As  it  was  an  act  of  the  greatest  conde- 
scension in  the  emperor,  to  write  the  first  to 
the  pope,  after  his  late  so  criminal  behavior, 
and  so  long  a  silence  on  either  side,  his  let- 
ter deserved,  on  that  consideration  alone, 
had  the  pope  been  even  upon  the  level 
with  him,  to  be  answered  at  least  with  com- 
mon respect  and  civility.  But,  instead  of 
that,  the  insolent  pope,  forgetting  that  he 
wrote  to  his  liege  lord,  and  his  sovereign, 
answered  him  in  a  style  that  would  be  quite 
unbecoming  in  a  wretch  of  the  lowest  con- 
dition to  his  equal.  For,  not  satisfied  with 
contemptuously  treating  him  as  a  school- 
boy; with  bidding  him  go  and  learn  his 
catechism  among  the  children  at  school,  and 
take  care  not  to  let  his  school-fellows  know 
that  he  is  an  enemy  to  images,  lest  they 
should  throw  their  table-books  at  his  head ; 
he  addresses  him  almost  in  every  line  with 
the  epithets  of  "ignorant,  blockish,  stupid, 
dull;"  calls  him  a  conceited  pretender  to 
learning,  but  void  not  only  of  all  learning, 
but  of  all  judgment  and  sense  ;  not  able,  lor 
his  stupidity  and  dullness,  to  distinguish  be- 
tween right  and  wrong,  between  falsehood 
and  truth;  worse  than  a  heretic,  since  here- 
tics err  in  points  that  are  intricate  and  ob- 
scure, whereas  he  erred  in  points  as  clear  as 
the  light  of  day.  This  Baronius  calls  a  let- 
ter worthy  of  the  high  pontiff.^  Indeed  no 
man  upon  earth,  but  the  high  pontiff,  would 
have  had  the  presumption  to  write  such  a 
letter  to  his  lord  and  master. 

But  his  holiness  was  better  at  abuse  than 
at  argument.  When  the  infallible  head  of 
the  church  undertakes  to  prove  a  catholic 
doctrine,  and  confute  the  opposite  error,  one 
might  expect  to  hear  something  uncommon, 
and  very  extraordinary,  some  convincing 
and  unanswerable  argument  in  favor  of  the 
one,  and  against  the  other.  But,  alas !  all 
the  reasons  alleged  by  Gregory,  to  prove 
the  lawfulness  of  image  worship,  are  either 
quite  impertinent,  or  foreign  to  the  purpose, 
or  the  very  same  that  were  offered  by  the 
pagans  in  defence  of  their  idolatry,  and  a 
thousand  limes  answered  by  the  fathers.  In 
the  first  class  we  may  rank  the  arguments, 
which  he  draws  from  the  "  works  done  in 
gold,  in  silver,  and  in  brass;"  by  the  two 
artificers  Bezaleel  and  Aholiab,'  from  the 
tables  of  stone  "  written  with  the  finger  of 


«  Apud  Bar.  ad  Ann.  726.  p  65—77. 
»  Bar.  ad  Ann.  726.  p.  65. 
'  Exod.  c.  31  :  v.  4.  et  6. 


Gregory  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


61 


Arguments  alleged  by  the  pope  in  favor  of  image  worship,  grounded  on  mere  fable. 


God,'"  from  ihe  ark,  the  cherubim  upoathelput  us  in  mind  of  the  objects  which  they 


ark,  the  table  of  shittim-wood,  and  the  pot 
of  manna,  which  were  all  figures  and 
images,  says  the  pope,  made  by  God's  own 
command.  But  what  have  these  images  to 
do  with  the  present  question,  whether  it  is 
lawful  to  worship  the  work  of  men's  hands? 
None  of  these  images  were  set  up  to  be 
worshiped,  nor  did  the  Jews  ever  worship 
them.  They  are  therefore  very  impertinently 
brought  in  to  prove  the  lawfulness  of  image 
worship;  and  yet  this  is  all  his  holiness 
could  allege  from  Scripture,  to  countenance 
that  kind  of  worship.!^    He  adds,  that  images 


'  Exod.  c.  31  :  vers,  ultim. 

»  From  these  words,  "  Adore  ye  the  footstool  of 
God,"  (Psal.  99:  ver.  5.)  some  have  concluded,  that 
the  Jews  really  worshiped  the  ark,  which  they  will 
have  to  be  meant  by  the  footstool.  IJut  the  Chaldee 
Paraphrast  renders  these  words  thus,  "Worship  him 
in  his  sanctuary,"  understanding  by  the  footstool  the 
sanctuary,  which  surely  was  not  to  be  worshiped  ; 
and  those  who  think,  that  the  ark  was  meant  by  the 
footstool,  interpret  the  words  of  the  psalmist,  "Wor- 
ship before,"  or  "at  his  footstool,"  agreeably  to  what 
we  read  in  Psalm  132.  "  We  will  worship  at  his  foot- 
stool."—(Psal.  132:  ver.  7.  See  Sim.  de  Muis  in  loc.) 
Some  of  the  fathers  indeed,  namely,  Ambrose,  Jerom, 
Austin,  Athanaslus,  and  Chrysostom,  have  thought 
that  we  are  commanded  to  worship  the  footstool  it- 
self; but  by  the  footstool  they  understood  the  hu- 
manity of  Christ,  and  not  the  ark.  "The  Scripture," 
says  Austin,  "elsewhere  (Isa.  16:  1.  Matth.  5:  v.  35.) 
calls  the  earth  Ood's  footstool ;  and  does  he  bid  us 
worship  the  earth?  This  throws  me  into  great  per- 
plexity. I  dare  not  worship  the  earth,  lest  he  should 
damn  me,  who  made  the  heaven  and  the  earth;  and 
dare  not  l)ut  worship  his  footstool,  because  he  com- 
mands me  to  worship  it.  In  this  perplexity  I  turn  to 
Christ ;  and  in  him  I  find  relief.  For  his  flesh  was 
earth." — (.^ug.  in  Psal.  99.)  From  this  passage  it  is 
manifest,  that  Austin  did  not  think  the  ark,  or  any 
other  mere  creature  whatever,  a  proper  object  of  wor- 
."hip;  nay,  elsewhere  (Aug.  de  Verb.  Domin.  secund. 
Joan.  Serm.  58.)  he  will  not  allow  even  the  humanity 
of  Christ  to  be  otherwise  worshiped,  than  as  it  is, 
and  because  it  is  united  to  the  Divinity. 

As  for  the  two  statues,  or  images  of  the  cherubims, 
on  which  great  stress  is  laid  by  some  popish  writers  ; 
we  may  in  the  first  place  give  the  same  answer  to 
those,  who  uree  them  in  favor  of  images,  that  was 
given  by  Tertullian  to  those,  who  urged  the  brazen 
serpent :  "If  thou  observest  the  same  God,  thou  hast 
his  law,  make  no  similitude  :  as  to  the  command  of 
making  a  likeness,  do  thou  also  imitate  Moses  ;  make 
no  image  acainst  the  law,  tinless  God  commands  thee 
to  make  It." — (Tert.  de  Idoi.  c.  5.)  II.  Those  images 
were  concealed  from  the  sight  of  the  people,  and  kept 
in  the  holy  of  holies,  which  the  high  priest  entered  but 
once  a  year,  and  none  of  the  Jews  were  so  much  as 
allowed  to  look  into;  a  convincing  proof,  that  they 
were  not  set  up,  as  the  popish  images  are,  to  be  wor- 
shiped ;  the  worshiping  of  invisible  images,  or  images 
that  were  never  to  be  seen,  being  a  thing  never  before 
heard  of,  and  plainly  repugnant  to  the  original  de- 
sisn  or  institution  of  images;  which  was,  that  men 
misht  have  visible  objects  of  worship,  and  through 
them  worship  the  invisible  beings.  Let  the  church  of 
Rome  but  ki^ep  her  images  from  the  sight  of  the  peo- 
ple, and  no  protestant  will  quarrel  with  her  about 
them.  III.  That  the  images  of  the  cherubim  were  not 
intended  for  objects  of  worship,  is  allowed  by  many 
very  eminent  I?oman  catholic  divines,  namely,  Vas- 
quez,  (Vasq.  Disput.  101.  c.  fi.)  I.orinus,  (Lorin.  in 
Acts  17.  25.)  A7.orius,  (Aror,  \nM\t-  Moral.  I.  9.  c.  6.) 
Visorius,  &r  (Visor.  Resp.  ad  Monrei.)  And  the  rea- 
son they  give  is,  because  they  were  not  set  up  for 
their  own  sake,  but  only  as  appcndases  or  ornaments 
to  another  thing,  the  throne  of  God,  to  whom  alone 
worship  was  given  :  Nay,  the  angelic  doctor  Aquinas 
says,  in  express  terms,  tliat  Ihejteraphim  (meanine  the 
chf'nihun)  were  set  up  only  as  symbols  of  the  divine 
presence,  and  were  bv  no  means  to  be  worshiped. — 
(Aqiiin.  \n.  1.  2.  Quiest.  102.  Art.  4.  ad.  6.)  Indeed, 
there  is  not  in  Srripture  the  least  intimation  of  any 
kind  of  worship  havijig  ever  been  paid  to  them. 


represent;  that  they  stir  us  up  to  compunc- 
tion, which  he  says  he  can  attest  upon  his 
own  experience,  since  he  never  entered  the 
church  of  St.  Peter,  but  at  the  sight  of  the 
image  of  that  apostle  his  eyes  became  two 
fountains  of  tears ;  that  they  instruct  the 
ignorant,  and  raise  their  stupid  and  dull 
minds  from  the  things  of  this  earth  to  those 
of  heaven.  And  are  they  therefore  to  be 
worshiped  ?  Ought  we  not  rather  to  worship 
the  Bible,  that  instructs  us  much  better  than 
pictures  or  images,  and  raises  our  minds, 
more  than  any  pictures  or  images,  from  the 
things  of  this  earth  to  those  of  heaven '? 
That  some  advantages  attended  images,  and 
the  use  of  images,  Leo  knew  as  well  as  the 
pope,  and  would  therefore  have  been  glad  to 
have  retained  them :  and  it  was  not  till  he 
found,  by  experience,  that  images  could  not 
be  allowed,  and  idolatry  prevented,  that  he 
undertook  to  destroy  them. 

The  pope  proceeds,  and  tells  the  emperor, 
that  the  fame  of  our  Savior's  preaching,  and 
the  miracles  he  wrought,  being  spread  all 
over  the  world,  good  men  flew  to  Jerusalem 
from  the  most  distant  parts  of  the  earth, 
agreeably  to  that  of  St.  Matthew,  "  Where- 
soever the  carcass  is,  there  will  the  eagles  be 
gathered    together;'"  for  Christ,   says   the 
pope,  is  the  carcass,  and  the  good  men  are 
the  eagles,  Christus  cadaver,  aquilse  religiosi 
sunt  homines.     Now  these  good  men  were 
all,  it  seems,   painters;  for  Gregory  adds, 
that,  having  seen  our  Lord,  they  painted 
him,  such  as  they  saw   him,  that   we  too 
might  see  him;  that,  in  like  manner,  they 
painted  James  the  brother  of  our  Lord,  and 
Stephen    the   protomartyr,    and   the    other 
martyrs  and  champions  of  the  faith  ;   and 
that  these  images  being  everywhere  shown, 
men   renounced  the   worship  of  the   devil 
throughout  the  world,  and  worshiped  them  : 
so  that,  according  to  the  pope,  the  apostles, 
and  first  planters  of  the  Christian  religion, 
carried  those  images  about  with  them  ;  and 
it  was  to  them   that  the  conversion  of  the 
world  was  owing.     It  were  to  be  wished  he 
had  named  those  painters,  (for  St.  Luke  was 
not  known  to  have  been  a  painter  till  some 
hundred  years  after,^)  and  let  us  know  what 
authority  he  had  for  the  many  things  he  ad- 
vances, which  no  man  had  ever  heard  of 
before.     Gregory  does  not  forget  the  picture 
sent  by  our  Savior  to  Abgarus  king  of  Edes- 
sa  ;'  but  takes  not  the  least  notice  of  the  Ve- 
ronica, no  less  famous  in  our  days,  than  the 
picture  of  Edessa  was  in   his  :    he  round- 
ly asserts,  that  the  worship  of  images  was 
approved,  confirmed,  and  established,  by  all 
the  general  councils  held  to  his  time  ;  where- 
as it  is  certain,  and  allowed  on  all  hands, 
that  of  images  not  the  least  mention  was 
made  in  any  of  those  councils  ;  nor,  indeed. 


'  Matth.  c.  24  :  v.  28. 
>  See  p.  29,  note  (2) . 


"See  p.  30,  note. (2) 


63 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


Gregory  II. 


Arguments  alleged  by  the  pope  in  favor  of  image  worship,  the  very  same  that  were  alleged  by  the  pagans  to 
justify  their  idolatry.  In  what  sense  we  are  forbidden,  according  to  the  pope,  to  worship  the  work  of  men's 
hands.     The  pope  utterly  unacquainted  with  the  Scripture. 


in  any  other  whatever,  except  that  of  Eli- 
beris,  which  condemned  not  only  the  wor- 
ship, but  even  the  use  of  images  in  all  places 
of  worship.'  And  was  Gregory  infallible? 
He  was,  says  Baronius ;  for  he  meant  no 
more,  than  that  none  of  the  general  councils 
had  condemned  the  worship  of  images  :  and 
are  not  to  condemn,  and  to  approve  syno- 
nymous terms?  By  means  of  such  expla- 
nations and  comments,  Baronius  himself 
might  be  proved,  notwithstanding  all  his 
blunders,  as  infallible  as  the  pope. 

As  for  the  reasons  alleged  by  Gregory  to 
excuse  from  idolatry  the  worship,  that  was 
given  to  the  images  of  Christ,  of  the  virgin 
Mary,  and  of  the  other  he  and  she  saints, 
they  are  the  very  same  that  were  alleged  by 
the  pagans,  when  charged  with  idolatry,  and 
derided  by  the  fathers,  for  the  worship,  which 
they  gave  to  the  images  of  Jupiter,  and  of 
their  other  gods,  goddesses,  and  heroes ; 
namely,  that  images  were  not  looked  upon 
as  gods  by  those  who  worshiped  them,  nor 
worshiped  as  gods  ;  that  they  were  not  wor- 
shiped for  their  own  sake,  but  for  the  sake 
of  those,  whom  they  represented ;  that  the 
worship  given  to  the  image,  passed  from  the 
image  to  the  original,  Stc.^  Thus  the  learn- 
ed pagans  answered  the  fathers  charging 
them  with  idolatry  in  the  worship  of  images ; 
and  thus  the  pope  answers  the  same  charge, 
only  adding,  that  the  pagans  worshiped  not 
God  in  their  images,  but'the  devil;  which  I 
have  shown  above  to  be  absolutely  false.^ 
The  pagans  worshiped  the  true  God  as  well 
as  the  pope  ;  but  were  charged  with  idolatry 
by  the  fathers,  because  they  worshiped  im- 
ages, and  other  creatures,  together  with  him. 

The  emperor  had  said  in  his  letter,  that 
we  are  forbidden  to  worship  the  work  of 
men's  hands;  and  urged  that  prohibition 
against  the  worship  of  images.  In  answer 
to  that  the  pope  tells  him,  that  such  a  pro- 
hibition was  only  made  for  the  sake  of  the 
pagans^  who  dwelt  in  the  land  of  promise, 
and  worshiped  animals  of  gold,  of  silver, 
and  brass,  and  birds,  and  all  other  creatures ; 
and  said,  "  These  are  our  gods,  and  there  is 
no  other  God ;"  as  if  there  ever  had  been 
such  fools  in  the  world ;  that  such  images 
were  made  in  honor  of  the  devil ;  and  that 
we  were  therefore  forbidden  to  worship  them^ 
but  that  the  work  of  men's  hands,  when 
made  for  the  honor  of  God,  ought  to  be  wor- 
shiped. Gregory  I.  had  declared,  that  the 
work  of  men's  hands  ought  by  no  means  to 
be  worshiped  ;''  and  Gregory  II.  declares  that 
the  work  of  men's  hands  ought  to  be  wor- 
shiped. And  it  is  to  be  observed,  that  both 
speak  of  Christian  images,  and  consequent- 
ly of  the  work  of  men's  hands  done,  as  was 
pretended,  for  the  honor  of  God  :  but  both 
were  infallible  ;  Gregory  I.  in  forbidding  im- 


»  See  p.  39. 

'See  p.  35.  note  (4). 


2  See  p.  43.  note  (2). 
*  See  p.  44. 


ages  to  be  worshiped,  and  Gregory  II.  in 
commanding  them  to  be  worshiped.  Gre- 
gory I.  spoke  ex  cathedra  to  Serenus,  and 
Gregory  II.  spoke  ex  cathedra  to  Leo.  What 
a  great  change  was  made  in  the  doctrine 
and  practice  of  the  Roman  church  in  the 
space  of  little  more  than  a  century. 

Leo,  to  justify  his  casting  images  out  of 
the  churches,  and  breaking  them,  had  alleged 
the  example  of  the  king,  who  broke  the  bra- 
zen serpent,  and  cast  it  out  of  the  temple ; 
but  ascribed,  it  seems,  to  kingUzziah,  what 
was  done  by  king  Hezekiah :  for  the  pope, 
repeating  the  words  of  the  emperor's  letter, 
"  you  have,''  says  he,  "  written  to  us  thus  : 
Uzziah,  king  of  the  Jews,  cast  the  brazen 
serpent  out  of  the  temple ;  and  I  have  cast 
the  idols  out  of  the  church.  The  brazen 
serpent  was  broken,  as  is  well  known,  not 
by  Uzziah,  but  his  great  grandson  Hezekiah, 
who,  on  that  account,  is  commended  in 
Scripture,  and  said  "  to  have  done  thatwhich 
was  right  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord.'"  But 
the  pope,  not  perceiving  the  mistake,  nor 
knowing  that  to  break  the  brazen  serpent 
•'  was  right  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord,"  abuses 
at  the  same  time  the  king  for  breaking  it,  and 
the  emperor  for  following  his  example. 
"  Uzziah,"  says  he,  "  who  cast  the  brazen 
serpent  out  of  the  temple,  was  your  brother, 
such  a  man  as  yourself,  proud,  insolent, 
headstrong,  one  who  offered  violence,  as 
you  do,  to  the  priests  of  his  time  :"  he  adds, 
that  the  brazen  serpent  was  brought  into  the 
temple,  with  the  ark,  by  the  holy  king  David, 
who  died,  as  all  know,  who  ever  dipt  into 
the  Bible,  before  the  foundation  of  the  temple 
was  laid ;  and  from  thence  he  concludes, 
that  it  was  wrong  in  Uzziah  to  remove  it  out 
of  the  temple,  and  destroy  it.  But  the  pope 
was,  as  is  evident,  very  little  acquainted  with 
the  Bible ;  and  as  he  was  so  very  little  ac- 
quainted Avith  it,  as  to  think  that  it  was  wrong 
in  Hezekiah  to  cast  the  brazen  serpent  out  of 
the  temple,  and  break  it,  it  is  not  at  all  to  be 
wondered,  that  he  should  have  thought  it 
wrong  in  the  emperor  to  cast  images  out  of 
the  churches,  and  break  them :  but,  had  he 
thought  it  worth  his  while  to  consult  the 
Bible,  and  found  there,  that  Hezekiah,  in 
breaking  the  brazen  serpent,  "  did  that  which 
was  right  in  the  sight  of  God,"  I  should  be 
glad  to  know  what  answer  he  would,  in 
that  case,  have  returned  to  the  emperor,  who 
did  no  more  than  what  Hezekiah  had  done, 
and  was  commended  for  doing.^ 


>  2  Kings,  c.  18:  v.  3,  4. 

»" The  Jews,"  says  here  Bellarmine,  "answering 
for  the  pope,  worshiped  the  brazen  serpent  as  a  god  ; 
that  the  good  king  knew,  and  therefore  destroyed  it." — 
(Bell,  de  imag.^Sanct.  1.  2.  c.  17.)  But  how  did  the 
good  king  know,  that  the  Jews  worshiped  it  as  a  god  1 
That  he  could  only  have  concluded  from  their  burning 
incense  to  it,  the  only  reason  alleged  in  Scripture  for 
his  destroying  it.  But,  if  he  concluded  from  thence, 
that  they  worshiped  it  as  a  god  ;  it  will  follow,  by  an 
undeniable  consequence,  that  to  burn  incense  to  an 


Gregorv  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


63 


Gregory's  answerlo  the  proposal  of  assembling  a  general  council ;  and  to  the  threats  of  the  emperor.  Approves 

the  murder  of  the  imperial  officer. 


To  the  proposal  made  by  the  emperor  of 
assembling  a  general  council,  the  most  ef- 
fectual means  that  had  been  employed  by 
his  predecessors,  lo  put  an  end  to  the  dis- 
putes in  the  church,  Gregory  answers,  that 
there  was  no  occasion  to  assemble  a  general 
council;  that,  if  he  would  but  be  silent,  an 
end  would  be  thereby  put  to  all  disputes,  all 
scandals  would  be  removed,  and  the  world 
would  again  enjoy  its  former  tranquillity. 
"  But  suppose,"  says  the  pope,  "  I  should 
obey  you,  suppose  bishops  should  assemble 
from  all  parts  of  the  world,  where  could  they 
find  a  pious  and  religious  emperor  to  take 
his  place  among  them,  according  to  custom, 
in  order  to  reward  those,  who  speak  well, 
and  check  such,  as  speak  amiss?  As  for 
you,  you  are  more  like  a  barbarian  tiian  a 
Christian  emperor  ;  and  actually  engaged  in 
a  turbulent,  wicked,  and  insolent  under- 
taking :  pursue  it  no  further ;  trouble  the 
world  no  longer;  and  the  assembling  of  a 
council  will  be  needless.  But  you  threaten," 
continues  the  pope,  "  and  think  to  frighten 
us,  saying,  I  will  cause  even  the  image  of 
St.  Peter  in  Rome  to  be  broken  in  pieces, 
and  the  pontiff  Gregory  to  be  seized,  and 
carried  in  chains  to  Constantinople,  as  it 
happened  to  pope  Martin  in  the  lime  of  the 
emperor  Constans  :  but  your  threats  make  no 
impression  upon  us ;  the  pontiff  Gregory 
needs  only  retire  twenty-four  furlongs  from 
Rome  to  be  out  of  your  reach,  and  bid  you 
defiance.  It  is  true  the  holy  pontifT  Martin 
was  seized,  was  carried  in  chains,  by  tyran- 
nical violence,  to  Constantinople,  and,  after 
unheard  of  sufferings,  sent  from  thence  into 
exile:  but  Constans,  by  whom  he  was  thus 
inhumanly  treated,  was  murdered  in  the 
church,'  and  died  in  his  sin  ;  whereas  Mar- 
tin is  honored  all  over  the  north  as  a  sflint; 
and  people  flock  from  all  parts  to  his  tomb, 
where  miraculous  cures  are  daily  performed 

image,  which  is  daily  done  in  all  the  popish  churches, 
was,  in  the  opinion  at  least  of  that  good  king,  to  wor- 
ship it  as  a  god.  Vasquez,  not  able  to  persuade  him- 
self, that  the  Jews  were  such  fools  and  idiots,  as  to 
believe,  that  the  brazen  serpent  was  a  god,  delivers  it 
as  his  opinion,  that  they  gave  no  other  worship  to  that 
image,  than  what  is  given,  in  his  church,  to  the  images 
of  Christ,  and  the  saints  ;  but  thinks,  th.it  the  worship, 
which  is  lawful  to  Christians,  was  unlawful  to  the 
Jews.— (Vasq.  in  3.  Disput.  104.  Art.  3.  c.  5.)  But  who 
made  the  worship  lawful  to  the  Christians,  that  was 
unlawful  to  the  Jews?  Was  if  not  the  second  com- 
mandment, that  made  it  unlawful  for  a  Jew  to  bow 
down  to  an  image,  and  worship  it  ?  And  Joes  not  that 
commandment  bind  alike  tlie  (Christian,  and  the  Jew  i 
or  who  repealed  iti  Our  Savior  came  not  to  destroy, 
but  to  fulfil  the  law  ;  and  who  else  could  destroy  iti 
Might  we  not  as  well  pretend  the  laws,  forbidding 
theft,  murder,  or  adultery,  to  be  binding  only  with  re- 
spect to  the  Jews'!  The  truth  is  ;  Hezekiah,  finding 
that  the  people  burned  incense  to  that  image,  broke 
the  brazen  bauble,  Nehushtan,  (2  Kings,  c  18  :  ver.  4.) 
as  he  called  it,  in  pieces,  without  inquiring  whether 
they  burned  incense  to  it  as  a  god,  or  only  as  an  image 
or  representation  of  God,  the  one  and  the  other  being, 
as  he  well  knew,  contrary  to  the  law. 

'  The  pope  was  not,  it  seems,  better  acquainted  with 
history,  than  he  was  with  the  Scripture.  Constans  was 
not  murdered  in  the  church,  but  in  the  bath  at  Daphne, 
as  has  been  related  above;  (.Sre  vol.  1.  p.  400).  and 
is  attested  by  all  the  authorj,  who  speak  of  his  death. 


in  their  favor  :  I  should  think  myself  happy, 
could  I  tread  in  his  footsteps ;  but  yet  think 
it  adviseable  to  consult  my  own  safety  at  so 
critical  a  juncture,  since  the  eyes   of  the 
whole  west  are  upon  me  ;  and  all  trust  ia 
me,  and  in  him,  whose  image  you  threaten 
to  have  broken  in  pieces ;  nay,  all  the  king- 
doms in  the  west  look  upon  him  as  a  terres- 
trial God:  let  me  therefore  advise  you  not 
to  meddle  with  his  image.     The  people  in 
the  west  are  all  ready  to  revenge,  and  would 
upon  such  a  provocation,  the  cruel  and  un- 
deserved treatment  which  their  friends  have 
met  with  from  you  in  the  east.     And  now 
that  I  have  warned  you,  I  shall  be  innocent 
of  the  blood  that  will  certainly  be  shed,  if 
j  you  offer  to  insult,  as   you  threaten  to  do, 
I  the  prince  of  the  apostles  in  his  image."    In 
the  close  of  his  letter  he  tells  the  emperor, 
that    he    has   been    invited    to    administer 
1  baptism  to  a  great  lord  in  the  most  distant 
I  parts  of  the  west  (perhaps  a  German  lord 
converted  by  Boniface,  who  was  preaching, 
[  at  this  time,  the  Gospel  in  Germany  ;)  that 
he  is  preparing  for  the  journey;  but  that  it 
I  gave  him  the  greatest  concern  to  reflect,  that, 
i  while  the   barbarians  turned   Christians,  a 
Christian  emperor  should  turn    barbarian. 
He  ends  with  praying  God  to  convert  him 
I  from  his  wicked  ways  ;  that,  being  sensible 
]  of  his  error,  he  may  renounce  it ;  and,  ad- 
I  hering  to  truth,  repair  the  scandal  he  has 
given  to  the  world.'     Thus  did  "  the  servant 
I  of  servants,  the  successor  of  St.  Peter,"  who 
'taught  subjection  to  kings,  and  to  magis- 
trates,'' the  vicar  of  the  meek  and  humble 
Jesus,  write  to  his  lord  and  his  master.     A 
letter  worthy  indeed,  as  it  was  thought  by 
Baronius,  and  Pagi,  of  the  high  pontiff:*  I 
defy  all   history  to  produce   such   another 
from  a  subject  to  his  sovereign.     As  to  the 
epithets  of  dull,  ignorant,  stupid,  &c.  which 
the  pope  so  freely   bestows,  throughout  his 
letter,  on  the  emperor,  I  leave  it  to  the  judg- 
ment of  the  reader,  which  of  the  two  those 
epithets  fitted  best,  Gregory  or  Leo  ?    Which, 
of  the  two  most  wanted  to  be  sent  to  school, 
the  emperor  to  learn  his  catechism  among 
the  children,  or  the  pope  to  read  among  the 
children  the  Bible  ? 

I  cannot  help  observing,  before  I  dismiss 
this  remarkable  letter,  that  the  pope  there 
approves  of  the  murder  of  the  imperial  of- 
ficer ;^  and  commends  the  zeal  of  the  wo- 
men, by  whom  he  was  so  inhumanly  mur- 
dered, blasphemously  comparing  them  to  the 
women  in  the  Gospel,  who  brought  spices 
and  ointments  to  anoint  the  body  of  our  Lord 
in  the  sepulchre,^  "  succensae  zelo,  et  illarum 
ajmulK,  quaj  unguenta  ferebant."''  Why  he 
compared  those  furies  to  these  holy  women, 
I  know  not,  nor  can  I   so  much  as  conjec- 

'  Apud.  Bar.  ad  Ann.  726.  p.  65 — 77. 

2  1  Pet.  c.  2:  V.  13,  14. 

=  Bar.  ubi  supra.  I'airi  Breviar.  Rom.  Pont.  p.  52-9. 

•  See  p   55.  s  l.ukc  c  2.1 :  v.  60.  et  c.  24  :  v.  1. 

»  Apud  Bar.  ad  Ann.  726.  p.  71. 


64 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[GREGORy  n. 


Gregory  condemns  all  images  of  God  the  Father,  and  the  Trinity.    The  emperor  writes  again  to  the  pope. 
His  answer.     The  emperor  writes  another  letter  to  the  pope. 


ture  ;  but  from  his  comparing  tiiem  it  is 
manifest,  that  he  thought  the  one  action  as 
meritorious  as  the  other;  the  murdering  the 
officer  as  meritorious  as  the  anointing  the 
body  of  our  Lord  in  the  sepulchre. 

Another  thing  worthy  of  notice  in  that 
letter  is,  that  the  pope,  at  the  same  time 
that  he  pleads  so  earnestly  for  the  images  of 
Christ  and  the  saints,  disapproves  and  con- 
demns all  images  of  God  the  Father,  and  the 
Trinity.  "  We  make  no  images,"  says  he, 
"  of  God,  the  Fatherofour  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
because  it  is  impossible  to  paint  or  describe 
him  :  but  if  we  had  seen  or  known  him,  as 
we  have  seen  and  known  his  Son,  we  should 
have  painted  and  represented  him  as  well  as 
his  Son."  The  patriarch  Germanus,'  Da- 
mascene,^  and  Stephen  the  younger,''  the 
three  most  renowned  champions,  after  the 
pope,  in  the  cause  of  images,  in  like  manner 
disapprove  all  representations  of  God  the 
Father,  and  for  the  same  reason,  because  he 
is  "  invisible,  incorporeal,  without  quantity, 
magnitude,  or  form."*  We  should  err  in- 
deed," says  Damascene,  "should  we  at- 
tempt to  make  an  image  of  God,  who  can- 
not be  seen."*  This  error  the  church  of 
Rome  has  added  to  her  other  errors ;  and 
now  images  representing  the  "  incorruptible 
God  like  unto  a  corruptible  man"  are  not 
only  allowed,  but  often  seen  exposed  at  the 
same  time  to  public  worship  in  the  churches, 
and  to  public  scorn  on  the  sign-posts.  When 
such  images  were  first  allowed  we  know 
not ;  but  Christianus  Lu\)us  assures  us,  that, 
in  the  time  of  pope  Nicholas  L  raised  to  the 
chair  in  858,  they  were  not  yet  used  in  the 
Roman  church.®  The  only  argument  they 
allege  for  the  lawfulness  of  such  images  is 
the  general  practice  of  the  church,  which, 
they  say,  would  never  suffer  them  to  be  pub- 
licly set  up,  as  she  does,  if  they  were  unlaw- 
ful :'  but  the  church  did  not  suffer  them  to  be 
set  up  in  the  primitive  times,  nor  till  many 
ages  after ;  and  should  we  not  from  thence 
rather  conclude  them  unlawful,  than  con- 
clude them  lawful  from  her  suffering  them  to 
be  set  up  in  later  times  ?  If  the  church  does 
not  err  now  in  allowing  such  images,  she 
erred  for  the  space  of  nine  hundred  years,  at 
least,  in  not  allowing  them. 

One  would  think,  that  Leo,  upon  the  re- 
ceipt of  so  abusive  a  letter,  and  so  injurious 
to  the  imperial  dignity,  would,  at  least,  have 
broken  off  all  correspondence  with  Gregory, 
as  a  declared  rebel  and  enemy.  But,  instead 
of  that,  the  good  emperor,  overlooking,  with 
a  greatness  of  mind  scarcely  to  be  matched, 
the  insolent  and  affronting  behavior  of  the 


»  German.  Ep.  ad  Joan.  Synod.  Act.  4.  Concil.  Nic. 

»  Damasc.  Orat.  1,  2,  et  3.  de  Imag. 

'Act.  Staph,  jun.  apud.  Damasc. 

*  Damasc.  Orat.  1.  »  Idem.  Orat.  2. 

»  Lup.  Not.  in  Constantin.  c.  5. 

'>  Bellar.  de  Imag.  I.  2.  c.  8.  Vasquez  ad  3.  Aquin. 
Dispiit.  103.  c.  3.  Arriag.  ad  3.  Aquin.  Disp.  5.  Tanner, 
t.  3.  Disput.  5.  Quxst.  2.  Dub.  3.  &.c. 


pope,  no  sooner  received  the  above-men- 
tioned letter,  than  he  wrote  to  him  again  : 
but  as  his  letter  was  an  answer  to  the  pope's, 
care  has  been  taken  that  we  should  only 
know  from  the  pope's  reply  what  he  wrote. 
Gregory  begins  thus  :  '•  We  have  received 
your  letter  by  Ruffinus  your  embassador, 
and  life  itself  is  become  burdensome  to  us ; 
finding  that,  instead  of  abandoning,  you 
pursue  more  obstinately  than  ever,  your 
wicked  resolution.  Are  they,  whom  you 
have  chosen  for  your  guides,  wiser  than 
Gregory  the  wonder-worker,  than  Gregory 
of  Nyssa,  than  Gregory  the  divine,  than 
Basil,  and  Chrysostom,  than  thousands  of 
other  holy  and  learned  fathers,  whom  we 
think  it  needless  to  name."  He  does  not 
produce  a  single  passage  or  text  out  of  these 
thousands  of  holy  and  learned  fathers ;  but 
would  have  the  emperor  to  take  it  upon  his 
word,  that  they  all  worshiped  images;  where- 
as it  is  certain,  that  some  of  the  very  fathers 
he  names,  so  far  from  worshiping  images, 
though  they  lived  after  the  third  century, 
condemned  even  the  use  of  them  in  all  places 
of  worship.'  "You  say,"  continues  Gre- 
gory, "  that  you  are  both  emperor  and  priest : 
your  predecessors  indeed  Constantine  the 
Great,  Theodosius,  Valentinian,  and  Con- 
stantine the  father  of  Justinian,  who  built 
churches,  enriched  and  embellished  them, 
were  deservedly  styled  both  priests  and  em- 
perors :  but  as  for  you,  who  have  stript  the 
holy  places  of  their  ornaments,  who  have  sa- 
criligiously  disfigured  them,  and  left  them 
quite  naked,  what  right  can  you  have,  what 
claim  or  pretension,  to  the  title  of  priest?" 
He  then  repeats  whathe  had  said  in  his  former 
letter  concerning  the  many  advantages  ac- 
cruing from  images  ;  and  adds,  that  men, 
women,  and  children,  were  edified  by  them  ; 
more  especially  children,  while  their  mothers 
and  nurses,  holding  them  in  their  arms, 
!  pointed  out  to  them,  in  the  pictures,  the 
1  sufferings  of  our  Saviour,  and  the  combats 
I  of  the  martyrs.  A  childish  argument  for 
!  the  use,  and  quite  impertinent  as  to  the  wor- 
ship of  images!  As  the  children  were  thus 
pleased  and  edified  with  pictures  and  images, 
we  need  not  wonder,  that  the  women,  who 
had  never  before  interfered  in  religious  dis- 
putes, should  have  so  zealously  taken  part 
in  this,  and  distinguished  themselves,  in  the 
manner  we  have  seen. 

The  pope  had  roundly  asserted,  in  his 
answer  to  the  emperor's  letter,  that  the  use 
and  worship  of  images  had  been  approved 
and  confirmed  by  the  six  general  councils: 
that  the  emperor  knew  to  be  false,  being, 
it  seems,  belter  acquainted  than  the  pope 
with  the  councils,  as  well  as  the  Scriptures. 
In  his  reply,  therefore,  he  told  him,  that  he 
was  not  a  little  surprised  at  his  so  confidently 
asserting,  that  the  six  general  councils  had 

»  See  p.  40,  (Sec. 


Gregory  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


65 


That  images  were  not  mentioned  by  any  of  the  general  councils,  is  owned  by  the  pope.  He  will  not  allow 
princes  to  concern  themselves  with  the  affairs  of  the  church.  His  Christian  prayer.  The  pope  assembles  a 
council  at  Rome.     The  reasons  he  alleged  from  Scripture,  in  favor  of  images. 


all   approved   and   confirmed   the  use  and 
the  worship  of  images,  since  it  was  very 
certain,  and  might  be  easily  demonstrated, 
that  images  were  not  so  much  as  once  men- 
tioned in  any  of  those  councils:  he  added, 
that  he  should  be  glad  to  know,  why  none 
of  the   councils  had  ever  once  mentioned 
them,  if  they  were,  as  his  holiness  pretended, 
so  useful  and  necessary?     To  that  very  per- 
tinent question,  the  pope  returned  as  imper- 
tinent an  answer.  "You  ask,"  says  he, "  how 
it  happened,  that  nothing  was  said  of  images 
in  any  of  the  six  general  councils  :  and  how 
happened  it  that  nothing  was  said  of  eating 
and   drinking   in   any    of   those   councils? 
Eating  and  drinking  were  necessary  from 
the  beginning;  and  so  were  images:  for  the 
bishops  carried  them  with  them  to  the  coun- 
cils; and  no  man  of  any  religion  or  piety 
ever  travelled  without  them."     Here,  in  the 
first  place,  the   pope    tacitly   owns,  as    is 
manifest,  that  no    mention    was   made   of 
images  in  any  of  the  six  general  councils  ; 
though  in  his  former  letter,  he  had  positively 
affirmed,  that  the  use  and  worship  of  images 
had  been  approved  and  confirmed  by  them 
all.     Had  any  thing  at  all  been  said  of  them, 
had  they  been  but  once  mentioned  in  any  of 
those  councils,  the  pope  would,  as  we  may 
well    imagine,   for  his    own   justification, 
have   produced   the   canon  or   passage,  in 
which  they  were  mentioned,  instead  of  al- 
leging so  silly  a  reason  for  their  not  being 
mentioned.     The  advocates  for  images  pre- 
tended, from  the  beginning,  to  have  all  the 
councils,  and  the  fathers,  on  their  side;  and, 
out  of  the  fathers  indeed,  they  quoted  several 
passages,  which  I  shall  have  occasion   to 
examine  hereafter ;  but,  out  of  the  councils, 
they  could   never   quote  one,   besides   the 
eighty-second  canon  of  the  quinisext  council; 
and  by  that  canon,  though  issued  so  late  as 
the  year  692,  it  was  only  enacted,  that  our 
Savior   might  (or   should)  be    thenceforth, 
not  worshiped,  but  painted  in  the  figure  of 
a  man.'     II.  The  pope  supposes  images  to 
be,  and  to  have  ever  been  from  the  beginning, 
as  necessary  for  the  support  and  life  of  the 
soul,  as  meat  and  drink  are  for  the  support 
and  life  of  the  body  :  a  doctrine  repugnant 
to  the  present  doctrine  of  the   church   of 
Rome,  and   of  all  her  divines   to   a   man 
III.  He  ought  to  have  alleged  some  autho- 
rity for  the  bishops  of  the  first  council  of 
Nice,  for   instance,  carrying   images  with 
them  to  that  council ;  for  he  could  not  but 
know,  that  the  emperor  would  not  take  it 
upon  his  word,  no  more  than  he  had  taken 
upon  his  word  the   boasted  approbation  of 
the  six  general  councils. 

The  emperor  had  said  in  his  letter,  that  it 
was  incumbent  upon  him  to  reform  the 
abuses,  that  prevailed  in  the  church,  as  well 

«  See  Vol.  1.  p.  493-94 

Vol.  II.— 9 


as  those  that  prevailed  in  the  state,  since  the 
church  was  committed  to  his  care,  as  well 
as  the  state.     In  answer  to  that,  the  pope 
tells  him,  that  it  is  his  duty  to  leave  the 
church,  and  follow  her,  such  as  he  found 
her;  that  the  bishops   "have  the  mind  of 
Christ,"'  and  not  the  emperor;  that  the  dull 
and  stupid  understanding  of  a  soldier  is  not 
capable  of  judging  of  dogmas,  or  doctrines; 
that  the  emperors  ought  no  more  to  concern 
themselves  with  the  affairs  of  the  church, 
than  the  bishops  concerned  themselves  with 
those  of  the  slate;  and  that  as  the  bishops 
did  not  take  upon  them  to  dispose  of  civil 
employments,  so  neither  should  the  empe- 
rors take  upon  them  to  dispose  of  ecclesiasti- 
cal dignities,  nor  at  all  to  interfere  in  the  elec- 
tions of  the  clergy.     He  reproaches  the  em- 
peror with   persecuting  him   unjustly,  and 
tyrannically  abusing  the  military  force,  and 
the  power,  which  heaven  had  been  pleased 
to  put  into  his  hands;  and  adds,  that,  as  for 
himself,  he  is  naked  and  unarmed,  has  no 
earthly  armies  to  oppose  him;    but  prays 
Christ,  who  is  above  all  the  armies  of  the 
heavenly  powers,  to  set  the  devil  upon  him, 
"  invocamus  Christum,  ut  immittat  tibi  dse- 
monem."      A   very   Christian   prayer,  and 
worthy  of  the  high  pontiff.     He  closes  this, 
as  he  had  done  his  former  letter,  with  ac- 
quainting the  emperor,  that  he  is  upon  the 
point  of  setting  out  for  the  most  distant  parts 
of  the  west,  to  baptize  there  some  converts 
of  great  distinction  ;  and  praying  God  to  open 
his  eyes,  that  he  may  see,  and  embrace  again, 
the  truth  which  he  so  shamefully  abandoned.^ 
Gregory,  not  satisfied  with  writing  thus  to 
the  emperor,  or,  to  use  the  expression  of  F. 
Pagi,  with  such  "  friendly  exhortations  and 
admonitions,"^  assembled  a  council  at  Rome, 
consisting  of  all  the  neighboring  bishops ;  not 
to  examine,  whether  it  was  lawful  to  wor- 
ship images,  or  not?  but  to  declare,  and  de- 
fine, that  it  was.     Of  this  council  we  have 
some  account  in  pope  Adrian's  first  letter  to 
Charlemagne ;  and  there  Gregory  is  said  to 
have  presided  at  it  in  person,  and  to  have 
opened  it  with  a  speech  proving  from  the  fa- 
thers, and  the  Scriptures,  that  images  ought 
not  only  to  be  retained,  but  adored.  What  tes- 
timonies he  alleged  from  the  fathers,  Adrian 
has  not  thought  fit  to  inform  us ;  but  tells 
us  that,  from  the  Scriptures,  he  reasoned 
thus.     "  God  commanded  Moses  to  make 
two  cherubims,  thou  shalt  7nakc  tioo  cheru- 
bims   of  gold^     Solomon  made  within   the 
orach  two  cherubims  of  olive  trees, ^  and  he 
overlaid   the   cherubims  with  gold ;  and  he 
carved  all  the  walls  of  the  house  round  about 
with  carved  figures  of  cherubims,  and  palm 
trees,*  &,c.     You  see,  my  beloved  brethren, 

'  1  Corinth,  c.  2 :  v.  ult.    a  Bar.  ad  Ann.  726.  p.  74.77. 

»  Pagi  Breviar.  Pont.  Rom.  p.  .WO. 

•  Exod.  c.  2.5 :  V.  18.  •  1  Kings,  c.  6.  v.  23. 

«  1  Kings  c.  6 ;  V.  29. 

f2 


66  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 

Gregory's  untogical  method  of  arguiii 


[Gregory  II. 


-„ — „.     The  worship  of  images  approved  and  decreed.   Gregory  said  by  most 
writers  to  have  excommunicated  the  emperor. 


what  Moses  did,  what  Solomon  did,  the 
wisest  of  kings,  by  God's  own  appointment, 
and  express  command.  And  how  much 
more  ought  we  to  worship  and  adore  Christ 
our  Lord,  his  holy  mother  the  virgin  Mary, 
the  apostles,  and  all  the  saints,  by  their 
sacred  effigies  and  images?  It  is  for  the 
sake  of  the  Word,  who  took  flesh  for  us,  and 
for  his  sake  alone,  that  we  make  and  wor- 
ship images.  If  the  works  of  men's  hands 
are  all  to  be  rejected,  the  ark  of  the  cove- 
nant, and  the  cherubims,  ought  not  to  have 
been  admitted  :  but,  if  they  were  admitted, 
why  should  not  other  images  be  so  too,  since 
they  are  all  aUke  made  for  the  honor  of  God  ? 
By  our  images  many  miracles  have  been 
wrought,  as  well  as  by  the  ark :  they  are,  it 
is  true,  inanimate  things,  and  the  works  of 
men's  hands ;  and  so  were  the  cherubims, 
and  the  ark  ;  but  yet  God  operated,  and  was 
glorified  by  them.' 

Thus  Gregory,  and  his  argument,  if  put 
in  due  form,  will  run  thus  :  God  command- 
ed Moses,  and  Solomon,  to  make  two  cheru- 
bims, or  the  images  of  two  cherubims  ;  ergo 
Christians  ought  not  only  to  make,  but  to 
worship  and  adore,  the  images  of  Christ, 
and  the  saints.  Such  an  argument,  if  I  may 
so  call  it,  deserves  no  answer ;  and  I  shall 
therefore  only  observe,  that  the  instance  of 
the  two  cherubims,  far  from  authorizing  the 
worship,  does  not  so  much  as  authorize  the 
use  or  the  making  of  images ;  nay,  from 
the  very  passages  alleged  by  the  pope 
oat  of  Scripture,  we  ought  rather  to  con- 
clude it  unlawful  to  make  any  images, 
than  lawful  to  worship  them  ;  and  argue 
thus;  we  are  forbidden,  by  the  second  com- 
mandment, to  make  any  graven  images,  or 
the  likeness  of  any  thing  in  heaven,  or  in 
the  earth  ;  ergo,  we  ought  to  make  no  such 
likenesses,  unless  we  are,  as  Moses  and  as 
Solomon,  were,  expressly  commanded  to 
make  them.  Thus  Tertullian  argued,  and 
he  was  a  better  logician  than  the  pope,  in 
answer  to  those,  who  alleged  the  instance 
of  the  brazen  serpent  against  the  general 
prohibition,  "  thou  shalt  not  make  to  thy- 
self any  graven  image."^  Had  any  of  the 
bishops,  who  were  present  at  this  council, 
urged  that  prohibition,  and  required  the  pope 
to  show  such  a  command  given  to  the 
church,  with  respect  to  the  images  of  Christ, 
and  the  saints,  as  was  given  to  Moses  and 
Solomon  concerning  the  cherubims,  his 
holiness  would,  I  believe,  have  been  greatly 
at  a  loss  how  to  satisfy  him,  and  justify,  not- 
withstanding so  express  a  prohibition,  I  will 
not  say  the  worshiping,  but  the  very  making 
of  images  :  but  no  such  impertinent  bishop 
assisted  at  this  council :  they  all  acqueisced 
in  the  reasoning  of  the  pope,  however  un- 
logical ;  and,  concluding  with  him,  that,  if 
images  were  commanded  to  be  made  under 


'  Concil.  Nic.  Act.  2 


a  See  p.  33, 


the  law,  they  ought  not  only  to  be  made,  but 
to  be  worshiped,  under  the  Gospel,  issued 
with  one  consent  a  decree,  commanding 
them  to  be  worshiped  accordingly  ;  and  con- 
demning as  heretics,  all  who  did  not  wor- 
ship them,  or  taught  that  they  were  not  to 
be  worshiped.  What  could  be  expected 
after  such  absurd  reasoning,  but  as  absurd  a 
decree  ? 

The  Greek  historians  Theophanes,  Cedre- 
nus,  Zonaras,  Nicephorus,  &,c.  write,  that 
in  this  council  the  pope  not  only  condemned 
the  doctrine  of  the  Iconoclasts,  but  thunder- 
ed the  sentence  of  excommunication  against 
the  emperor,  as  the  author  of  that  heresy, 
and  ordered  that  thenceforth  no  tribute 
should  be  paid  to  him.  They  add,  that  a 
general  revolt  thereupon  ensued,  and  the 
loss  of  ail  the  provinces  subject  to  the  em- 
pire in  the  west.  Thus  the  Greek  historians ; 
and  the  modern  Latin  writers  have  almost  all 
copied  them,  the  friends  as  well  as  the  enemies 
of  Rome,  but  with  very  different  views ;  the 
friends,  to  prove  from  thence  the  temporal  as 
well  as  the  spiritual  power,  which  they  vest 
in  the  pope,  over  the  greatest  of  princds ;  and 
the  enemies,  to  take  occasion,  from  the 
monstrous  behavior  of  the  pope  to  his  lord 
and  sovereign,  to  inveigh  against  him  as  a 
traitor  and  rebel,  as  an  incendiary,  as  the 
chief  author  of  the  ruin  and  downfall  of  the 
empire  in  the  west.  "  Gregory,"  says  Ba- 
ronius,  "  restrained  the  people  from  revolt- 
ing, so  long  as  he  entertained  any  hopes  of 
the  emperor's  revoking  his  impious  edict. 
But  finding,  that,  in  spite  of  all  his  en- 
deavors, he  continued  obstinate,  and  grew 
hardened  in  his  wickedness,  he  thought  it 
was  high  time  to  lay  the  axe  to  the  root  of 
the  unhappy  tree;  and  he  gave  accordingly, 
in  virtue  of  his  apostolic  authority,  the 
signal  for  cutting  it  down.  The  signal" 
(that  is,  the  sentence  of  excommunication) 
"  roused  all  the  faithful  in  the  west ;  and 
they  renounced  their  allegiance  to  Leo,  and 
adhered  to  the  pope.  Thus  did  Gregory 
leave  a  worthy  example  to  posterit}'-,  that 
heretical  princes  should  not  be  suffered 
to  reign  in  the  church  of  Christ,  if,  being 
often  admonished,  they  nevertheless  ob- 
stinately persist  in  their  error."'  The  same 
thing,  namely,  that  Gregory  excommuni- 
cated Leo,  that  he  forbad  the  people  of  Italy 
to  pay  him  any  tribute,  is  affirmed  by  Bel- 
larmine,^  by  Sigonius,^  by  Leo  Allatius,^ 
DeFresne,6Spanheim,^Mezerai,'&c.  "Gre- 
gory," says  Bellarmine,  "  having  excom- 
municated Leo,  ordered  that  no  tribute  should 
be  thenceforth  paid  to  him  by  his  subjects  in 

»  Bar.  ad  Ann.  730.  p.  99. 
a  Bellar.  ad  Rom.  Pont.  1.  5.  c.  8. 
3  Sigon.  de  Regn.  Ital.  1.  3. 

*  Leo  Allat.  de  perpet.  Orient.  Consens.  1.  3.  c.  11. 
6  De  Fresne  in  Famil.  Leon.  Isaur.  Hist.  Byzantin. 
Part.  1.  p.  124. 
6  Spelman.  Hist.  Imag.  Kestitul.  p.  83.  et  seq. 
'  Mez.  1,  8.  p.  326. 


Gregory  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


67 


Gregory  did  not  excommunicate  the  emperor;  but  contented  himself  with  only  exhorting  him  to  change  his 
opinion.  lie  stirs  up  the  people  against  the  emperor,  and  forbids  any  tribute  to  be  paid  to  him;  but  therein 
guilty  of  high  treason. 


Italy  ;  and  thus  deprived  him  of  that  part  of 
the  empire ;  nay,  and  if  some  authors  are  to 
be  credited,  of  the  Avhole  empire.'"  From 
thence  he  concludes,  that  the  pope  is  vested 
with  a  temporal  as  well  as  a  spiritual  power 
over  all  Ivingdoms  and  empires;  and  con- 
sequently that  he  may  in  many  cases,  more 
especially  in  cases  of  heresy,  pull  down  both 
kings  and  emperors  from  their  thrones,  and 
set  others  up  in  their  room ;  obliging  the 
people,  by  his  apostolic  authority,  to  swear 
allegiance   to   those,    whom   he   has    been 

f)leased  to  set  up,  and  renounce  their  al- 
egiance  to  those,  whom  he  has  been  pleased 
to  pull  down.2 

But  in  the  first  place ;  as  to  Gregory's  ex- 
communicating the  emperor,  I  cannot  help 
questioning  the  fact.  It  is  indeed  attested, 
as  Baronius  and  Bellarmine  have  observed, 
by  Theophanes,  Cedrenus,  Zonaras,  Nice- 
phorus,  and  the  Greek  historians  in  general. 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Latin  historians 
are  all  silent  about  it,  even  those,  who  have 
given  us  the  minutest  accounts  of  the  pres- 
ent dispute  between  the  pope  and  the  empe- 
ror. Now  to  me  it  appears  far  more  pro- 
bable, that  the  Greek  historians  (or  rather 
that  Theophanes,  for  of  him  all  the  rest  bor- 
rowed what  they  relate,)  who  lived  at  a  great 
distance  from  Rome,  should  have  been  mis- 
informed, than  that  the  Latin  historians,  who 
lived  in  Italy,  nay,  and  in  Rome,  should 
have  been  either  utterly  unacquainted  with 
so  remarkable  a  transaction,  or,  being  ac- 
quainted with  it,  should  have  all  passed  it 
over  in  silence.  In  the  life  of  Gregory,  the 
bibliothecarian  has  taken  care  to  let  us  know, 
that  the  holy  pontiff,  exerting  his  authority, 
declared  the  patriarch  Anasiasius  excommu- 
nicated, divested  of  the  priesthood,  and  de- 
graded, if,  renouncing  his  heresy,  he  did  not 
return  to  the  catholic  faith.'  And  is  it  at  all 
probable,  that  if  the  pontiff  had  exerted  his 
authority  in  excommunicating  the  emperor, 
as  well  as  the  patriarch,  the  bibliothecarian 
would  not  have  acquainted  us  with  it? 
Could  he  have  known,  that  the  pope  excom- 
municated the  patriarch,  and  not  have  known 
that  he  excommunicated  the  emperor?  Or 
did  he  think  the  excommunicating  of  the 
emperor  an  event  less  worthy  of  notice,  or 
less  worthy  of  a  place  in  the  history  of  the 
pope,  by  whom  he  was  excommunicated, 
than  the  excommunicating  of  the  patriarch? 
The  same  historian,  after  acquainting  us 
with  the  sentence  pronounced  by  the  pope 
against  the  patriarch,  continues  thus  :  "  He 
gave  at  the  same  time  wholsome  advice  to 
the  emperor,  exhorting  him  by  letters  to  re- 
nounce so  execrable  a  doctrine.'"  And 
would  he  have  written  thus,  had  he  known 
that  the  pope  had  excommunicated  the  em- 


peror as  well  as  the  patriarch,  or  rather  had 
he  not  known,  that  the  pope  did  not  excom- 
municate the  emperor,  but  contented  him- 
self with  only  exhorting  him  to  change  his 
opinion,  and  his  conduct?  And  it  is  to  be 
observed,  that  the  bibliothecarian  wrote  in 
Rome  ;  that  he  copied  what  he  wrote,  as  he 
himself  witnesses,  from  the  authentic  re- 
cords lodged  in  the  archives  of  the  Roman 
church,  and  committed  to  his  care;  and  con- 
sequently that  he  must  have  been  better  in- 
formed of  all  that  passed  in  this  famous  dis- 
pute, than  Theophanes,  who  wrote  at  Con- 
stantinople, and  had  no  such  helps.  Paulus 
Diaconus,  who  flourished  scarce  fifty  years 
after  the  pontificate  of  Gregory,  and  relates 
the  most  material  incidents  of  those  unhap- 
py times,  takes  no  more  notice  of  the  pre- 
tended excommunication  than  the  bibliothe- 
carian ;  nor  indeed  does  any  other  Latin 
writer  whatever.  And  did  they  all  agree, 
though  they  wrote  at  different  times,  and  in 
different  places,  to  pass  it  over  in  silence? 
Or  was  it  unknown  to  them  ?  If  it  was,  it 
it  is  the  first,  and  I  believe  the  only  instance 
of  a  fact  known  where  it  did  not  happen, 
and  utterly  unknown  where  it  did. 

As  to  Gregory's  forbidding  the  people  of 
Italy  to  pay  thenceforth  any  tribute  to  the 
emperor,  or  obey  him,  and  depriving  him, 
by  that  means,  of  part  of  his  dominions ;  it 
is  certain,  as  appears  from  what  already  has 
been  said,  that  he  stirred  up  the  people  of 
Italy  to  rebel,  and  encouraged  them  in  their 
rebellion.  But  are  we  to  conclude  from 
thence,  with  Baronius  and  Bellarmine,  that 
he  had  a  right,  or  was  empowered  by  his 
apostolic  authority  so  to  do ;  and  that  the 
popes,  in  general,  are  empowered  by  the 
same  authority,  in  similar  cases,  that  is,  in 
cases  of  heresy,  or  what  they  think  heresy, 
to  arm  subjects  against  their  sovereigns,  to 
forbid  them  to  "  render  unto  Caesar  the  things 
which  are  Caesar's,"'  or  "  tribute  to  whom 
tribute  is  due  ;"  and  deprive,  by  that  means, 
lawful  princes  of  their  just  rights  and  do- 
minions? And  why  should  we  not,  upon 
finding  a  pope  guilty  of  murder  or  adultery, 
(and  we  shall  find  some  guilty  of  both,)  as 
well  conclude,  that  he  had,  and  all  popes 
have,  a  right  to  commit  those  crimes?  Are 
not  treason  and  rebellion  as  expressly  forbid- 
den, and  to  all,  the  pope  not  excepted,  as 
murder  and  adultery?  "  Every  soul,"  says 
the  famous  Bernard  in  a  letter  to  pope  Eu- 
gene, "  is  commanded  to  be  subject  to  the 
higher  powers,  as  to  God's  ministers;  if 
every  soul,  yours  too;  and  if  any  man  (a 
Baronius,  or  a  Bellarmine,)  attempts  to  ex- 
cept you,  he  attempts  to  deceive  you."^  But 
of  the  temporal  power  usurped  by  the  popes 
over  crowned  heads,  I  shall  have  occasion  to 
discourse  at  length,  in  the  ever  memorable 


•  Bellar.  ubi  supra. 

*  Anast.  in  Greg.  II. 


^  Idem  ibid. 
*  Idem  ibid. 


I      'Matth.  22:  V.  21. 


*  Bernard.  Ep.  42. 


68 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES. 


[Gre(jort  It. 


The  popes  did  not  at  this  time  commence  princes.    The  emperor  confiscates  the  patrimonies  of  the  Roman 
church,  and  subjects  east  Ulyricum  to  the  see  of  Constantinople. 


pontificate  of  pope  Hildebrand,  or  Gregory 
Vlllh  ;  and  shall  therefore  only  observe  here, 
that  in  history  more  instances  occur,  and 
much  earlier  instances,  one  as  early  as  the 
fourth  century,"  of  popes  deposed  by  the 
emperors,  than  of  emperors  deposed  by  the 
popes ;  and  consequently,  that  if  instances 
are  arguments  of  right,  as  Baronius  and 
Bellarmine  pretend,  arguing  from  the  sup- 
posed deposition  of  Leo  by  Gregory,  a  pow- 
er in  the  popes  of  deposing  the  emperors, 
the  emperors  had,  even  according  to  them, 
and  their  method  of  arguing,  a  much  better 
claim  to  the  power  of  deposing  popes,  than 
the  popes  ever  had  to  the  power  of  deposing 
emperors.  But  the  truth  is ;  the  exercising 
of  a  power  argues  in  no  person  whatever, 
and  least  of  all  in  a  pope,  a  right  to  that 
power ;  ambitious  men  being  but  too  apt, 
as  daily  experience  teaches  us,  to  exceed 
the  bounds  of  their  lawful  power  and  au- 
thority. I  said  least  of  all  in  a  pope,  the 
popes  having,  from  the  beginning,  made  it 
their  study  to  extend  by  all  means,  even  by 
the  basest,  their  jurisdiction  and  power;  in- 
somuch that  the  history  of  the  popes  ma.y 
be  justly  styled  a  history  of  papal  usurpa 
tion,  and  encroachments  on  the  liberties  and 
rights  of  mankind. 

Some  Roman  catholic  writers,  and  great 
friends  to  the  pope,  tell  us,  that  the  Romans, 
revolting  from  Leo,  upon  his  being  excom- 
municated by  Gregory,  (for  that  he  was  ex- 
communicated by  him,  they  take  for  grant- 
ed,) proclaimed  the  pope  in  his  room,  and 
would  thenceforth  acknowledge  no  other 
sovereign.  "  Then  at  last,"  says  the  Jesuit 
Gianettasius,  in  his  late  History  of  Naples, 
"  the  Romans  shook  off  the  yoke  of  the  east- 
ern empire,  saluted  Gregory  their  lord,  and 
took  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  him.  Gregory 
accepted  the  sovereignty,  which  they  of  their 
own  accord  offered  him.  And  thus  was  he 
happily  raised,  not  by  arms,  armies,  or  in- 
trigues, but  by  the  free  choice  and  affection 
of  the  people,  to  the  station  and  rank  of  a 
prince."^  That  is,  in  other  words,  the  Romans 
rebelled  against  their  lawful  sovereign  ;  of- 
fered the  sovereignty  to  their  bishop  and 
fellow  subject  the  pope;  he  (ill  imitating 
our  Savior  who  fled  from  the  multitude  when 
they  would  have  made  him  a  king)*  accept- 
ed the  offer ;  and  thus  was  the  priest,  not  by 
armies,  or  by  arms,  but  by  the  rebellion  of 
his  fellow  subjects  and  his  own,  happily 
raised  to  the  state  and  rank  of  a  prince.  If 
that  was  not  a  barefaced  usurpation,  if  the 
pope  was  not,  according  to  that  account,  an 
usurper,  I  should  be  glad  to  know  the  mean- 
ing of  these  terms.  But  that  the  popes  did 
not  commence  princes  in  the  time  of  Grego- 
ry; that  his  two  immediate  successors  ac- 
knowledged Leo,  and  his  son  Constantine, 


>  See  vol.  I.  p.  61.      »  Gianet.  Hist.  Neap.  1.  5.  p.  94. 
»  John,  c.  6 :  V.  15. 


for  their  lawful  sovereigns,  and  lords  of 
Rome;  thai  the  temporal  dominion  of  the 
Roman  see  had  its  rise  not  in  Rome,  nor  in 
the  dukedom  of  that  city,  but  in  the  exar- 
chate, and  the  Pentapolis,  now  Marca  d'An- 
cona,  will  undeniably  appear  in  the  sequel 
of  this  history  :  and  it  is  quite  surprising, 
that  Gianettasius  should  have  been  thus 
grossly  mistaken  with  respect  to  facts,  which 
none  can  be  unacquainted  with,  who  have 
but  dipt  into  the  writings  of  those  times. 

The  emperor  was  soon  informed  of  what 
had  passed  at  Rome  ;  and  being  highly  pro- 
voked at  the  arrogance  and  presumption  of 
the  pope,  in  writing  to  him  in  the  manner 
we  have  seen,  but  still  more  at  his  establish- 
ing in  a  council  the  superstition,  which  he 
was  taking  so  much  pains  to  abolish,  he 
seized  on  the  rich  patrimonies  of  the  Roman 
church  in  Sicily  and  Calabria ;  and  at  the 
same  time,  to  prevent  the  popes  from  intro- 
ducing the  same  superstition  into  the  pro- 
vinces of  East  Ulyricum,  which  were  iheu 
subject  to  the  see  of  Rome,  and  had  been 
subject  to  it  ever  since  the  time  of  Damasus, 
he  dismembered  them  from  the  Roman  pa- 
triarchate, and  subjected  them,  with  Sicily 
and  Calabria,  to  the  patriarch  of  Constanti- 
nople. This  was  wounding  the  pope  in  the 
most  tender  and  sensible  part;  and  the  suc- 
cessors of  Gregory  left  nothing  unattempted 
to  prevail  on  the  succeeding  emperors  to  re- 
store what  they  said  Leo  had  unjustly  taken 
from  them.  Pope  Nicholas  L  even  pretend- 
ed, in  a  letter  which  he  wrote  on  that  sub- 
ject to  the  emperor  Michael,  that  the  arch- 
bishops of  Syracuse  had  been  all  ordained 
by  his  predecessors,  ever  since  the  times  of 
the  apostles.  Indeed  the  island  of  Sicily, 
and  consequently  the  city  of  Syracuse,  had 
been  immediately  subject,  as  well  as  Cala- 
bria, to  the  see  of  Rome,  not  since  the  times 
of  the  apostles,  but  ever  since  the  establish- 
ing of  the  ecclesiastical  hierarcy  in  the  reign 
of  Constantine  the  Great.'  But  as  to  East 
Ulyricum,  it  appearing,  on  occasion  of  the 
claim  Avhich  the  popes  laid  to  those  pro- 
vinces, in  order  to  recover  them,  that  they 
did  not  originally  belong  to  their  see;  that 
the  jurisdiction  which  they  had  so  long  ex- 
ercised over  them,  was  usurped  by  pope 
Damasus;  and  that  the  bishops  of  Constan- 
tinople had  frequently  protested  against  it ; 
none  of  the  emperors,  to  whom  the  popes 
applied,  could  ever  be  persuaded  to  hearken 
to  their  demands  with  respect  to  Ulyricum, 
though  some  of  them  showed  themselves 
inclined  to  re-annex  (which  they  never  did) 
Sicily  and  Calabria  to  the  Roman  patri- 
archate.2 

Thus  was  the  power  of  the  popes  greatly 
curtailed,  and  the  revenues  of  their  church 


>  See  vol.  I.  p.  50. 

^  Epist.  Adriani  Papaj  ad  Carol.  Mag.  et  Nicol.  I.  ad 
Michael.  Imp.  Vid.  AUat.  1.  2.  de  perpet.  Cons.  Eccles. 
Occident,  et  Orient,  c.  1. 


Gregory  III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


69 


The  unpardonable  partiality  of  the  historians  of  those  times.     Gregory  dies  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  732.]     Gregory 
HI.  chosen.     Declares  for  the  worship  of  images,  and  sends  a  legation  to  Constantinople. 


considerably  lessened.  Indeed  the  eoiperor, 
whose  authority  was  now  quite  precarious 
in  Italy,  had  no  other  means  of  wreaking  his 
just  vengeance  on  one,  who,  presuming  on 
the  zeal  which  his  fellow  rebels  showed  for 
his  safety,  had  in  a  most  arrogant  and  in- 
sulting manner,  bid  him  open  defiance,  and 
told  him,  that  he  needed  only  retire  but  a  few 
miles  from  Rome  to  be  out  of  his  reach,  and 
laugh  at  his  menaces. 

And  here  I  cannot  help  observing  the  un- 
pardonable partiality  of  Theophanes,  and 
the  other  historians  of  those  times,  whose 
v/orks  have  been  suffered  to  reach  ours,  in 
charging  the  emperor,  as  they  do,  with 
tyranny,  in  thus  depriving  the  pope  of  a  ju- 
risdiction, which  his  predecessors  had  so 
long  enjoyed,  and  withholding  the  revenues 
that  were  due  to  St.  Peter,  when  the  pope 
had,  according  to  them,  deprived  the  empe- 
ror of  a  great  part  of  his  dominions,  and 
withheld  his  subjects  from  paying  him  any 
tribute.  Had  the  pope  a  better  right  to  the 
provinces  of  Illyricum,  than  the  emperor 
had  to  the  provinces  of  Italy  ?  or  St.  Peter 
a  better  right  to  the  revenues  of  the  confis- 
cated patrimonies,  than  Leo  had  (and  would 
have  had,  according  to  the  doctrine  of  the 
Gospel,  had  he  even  been  a  pagan,  or  an 
atheist)  to  the  tribute,  that  was  paid  to 
him  by  his  subjects?  An  impartial  histo- 
rian would  rather  have  commended  Leo  for 
his  Christian  moderation  and  temper,  in  for- 
bearing so  long  to  resent  the  insolent  behavior 
of  the  pope,  than  charged  him  with  tyranny 
for  resenting:  it  at  last  in  the  manner  he  did. 


In  the  beginning  of  the  following  year 
died  Gregory  ;  and  his  death  happened,  ac- 
cording to  Anastasius,  on  the  20th  of  Febru- 
ary, 732,  after  he  had  governed  the  Roman 
church  from  the  I9th  of  May,  705,  when  he 
was  ordained,  to  that  time ;  that  is,  fifteen 
years,  eight  months,  and  twenty-three  days.' 
I  need  say  nothing  of  his  character,  it  being 
sufficiently  manifest  from  what  has  already 
been  said,  that  he  was,  of  all  the  popes,  who 
had  yet  sat  in  the  chair,  the  most  assuming 
and  arrogant.  Other  popes  had  quarreled 
with  the  emperors  as  Avell  as  he :  but  he  was 
the  first,  to  use  the  expression  of  Baronius, 
"who  left  the  worthy  example  to  posterity, 
that  heretical  princes  should  not  be  sufl"ered 
to  reign  ;"  in  other  words,  that  subjects  may 
lawfully  rebel  against  their  princes,  as  Gre- 
gory rebelled  against  Leo,  if  they  presume 
to  countenance  doctrines,  which  the  pope 
has  thought  fit  to  condemn  as  heretical.  So 
worthy  an  example  has  procured  him  a  place 
in  the  calendar  ;  and  he  is  now  honored  as  a 
saint  for  having  maintained  (not  by  reasons 
and  arguments,  but  by  rebellion  and  treason) 
the  worship  of  images,  against  the  wicked  and 
Iconoclast  emperor  Leo.^  Gregory  is  said 
to  have  repaired,  embellished,  and  endowed 
several  churches  and  monasteries,  and  among 
the  rest,  the  famous  monastery  of  Monte 
Casino,  which  had  been  plundered  and  laid 
in  ashes  by  Zoto,  first  duke  of  Benevento, 
one  hundred  and  thirty  years  before,  and 
had,  ever  since  that  lime,  been  abandoned 
by  the  raonks.^ 


GREGORY  III.,  EIGHTY-NINTH  BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[Leo  Isauricus,  Constantine. — Luitprand,  king  of  the  Lombards.'] 


[Year  of  Christ,  732.]  Gregory  II.  was 
succeeded  by  Gregory  III.  of  that  name, 
presbyter  of  the  Roman  church,  a  native  of 
Syria,  and  the  son  of  one  John.  He  was 
chosen  by  the  whole  Roman  people,  says 
Anastasius,  who,  being  moved  by  a  sudden 
inspiration  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  took  him  by 
force,  while  he  was  assisting  at  the  obsequies 
of  his  deceased  predecessor,  and  placed  him 
in  the  chair.'  However,  he  was  not  or- 
dained till  the  18th  of  March,  when  the  de- 
cree of  his  election,  confirmed  by  the  exarch, 
was  brought  back  from  Ravenna  to  Rome.^ 
And  he  was  the  last,  whose  election  the  ex- 
archs confirmed.  He  had  no  sooner  taken 
possession  of  the  see,  than,  treading  in  the 
footsteps  of  his  predecessor,  and  loudly  de- 
claring for  the  worship  of  images,  he  wrote 
to   the    emperors    Leo,  and  his    son  Con- 


stantine  (for  Leo  had  taken  Constantine  for 
his  partner  in  the  empire  ever  since  the  year 


>  Anast.  in  Greg.  III. 


9  Idem  ibid. 


>  Anast.  in  Greg.  II.  »  Martyr.  Roman.  13  Feb. 
Anastasius  conlirnis  the   sanctity  of  Gregory  with 

the  following  account.  Eudo,  duke  of  Aquitain,  find- 
ing that  the  Saracens,  at  this  time  masters  of  tjie  far 
greater  part  of  Spain,  wi're  preparing  to  break  into 
his  territories,  .sent  to  Rome  to  crave  the  pope's  bless- 
ing, before  hn  engaged  in  so  perilous  a  war.  The 
pope,  not  satisfied  with  sending  him  his  blessing,  sent 
him  along  with  it  three  sponges,  that  served  to  wipe 
his  holiness'  table,  sponges  being,  it  seems,  still  Used, 
as  they  were  in  Martial's  (Mar.  1.  14.  Epigr.  149.) 
time,  for  that  purpose.  These  sponges  Eudo  caused 
to  be  divided  among,  and  eaten  by  his  soldiers;  who, 
finding  themselves  thereby  delivered  at  once  from  all 
apprehensions  of  danger,  and  sure  of  victory,  fell  on 
the  enemy,  threw  them,  at  'the  first  onset,  into  the  ut- 
most confusion,  and  killed  three  hundred  and  seventy- 
live  thousand  of  them  on  the  spot,  with  the  loss  of 
one  thousand  five  hundred  men  only  on  their  side: 
and  among  these  there  was  not  a  man,  nor  indeed 
among  the  wounded,  who  had  the  least  share  of  the 
sponges. —  (Anast.  in  Greg.  II.)  Of  this  victory,  and 
the  sponges,  to  which  it  was  said  to  be  owing,  men- 
tion is  likewise  made  by  Frodoard. —  (Frod.  de  Pont 

>  Anast.  in  Greg.  II. 


70 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Gregory  III. 


The  cowardly  behavior  of  the  legate.  He  is  arrested  in  Sicily,  and  sent  into  exile.  Deputies  sent  from  Boni- 
face come  to  Rome,  to  consult  the  pope  in  his  name.  Tlie  pope  declares  baptism  administered  by  pagans, 
&c.  to  be  null;  which  is  now  rank  heresy. 


720,)  exhorting  them,  says  Anastasius,  with 
all  the  vigor  and  energy  of  the  apostolic  see, 
to  renounce  the  error,  which  they  had  unad- 
visedly espoused,  and  return,  like  dutiful 
children,  to  the  bosom  of  their  mother  the 
catholic  church.  With  this  letter  was  dis- 
patched to  Constantinople,  Gregory,  presby- 
ter of  the  Roman  church,  named  to  that  le- 
gation by  the  pope,  as  a  man  on  whose 
knowledge,  firmness,  and  zeal,  he  couM  en- 
tirely depend.  But  the  presbyter  had  no  vo- 
cation to  be  either  a  martyr,  or  a  confessor ; 
and  therefore  finding,  on  his  arrival  in  the 
imperial  city,  that  both  emperors  were  un- 
alterably determined  to  extirpate  the  new  su- 
perstition (for  so  was  called  at  Constantino- 
ple what  was  styled  at  Rome  the  ancient  and 
primitive  doctrine  of  the  catholic  church  ;) 
and  spared  none,  who,  in  opposition  to  their 
edicts,  presumed  to  defend  it ;  he  thought  it 
advisable,  as  matters  then  stood,  to  check 
his  zeal,  and  reserve  it  till  an  opportunity 
offered  of  exerting  it  with  better  success  than 
he  could  promise  himself  from  it  at  present. 
He  left  Constantinople  accordingly,  and, 
with  the  pope's  letter,  returned  in  great  haste 
to  Rome,  without  so  much  as  acquainting 
the  emperors,  or  any  of  their  ministers,  with 
his  arrival.  His  return  to  Rome  was  quite 
unexpected  ;  and  the  pope,  provoked  beyond 
measure  at  so  cowardly  a  behavior  in  a  le- 
gate of  the  apostolic  see,  who  ought  to  have 
joyfully  laid  down  his  lifeln  so  good  a  cause, 
immediately  summoned  a  council  to  delibe- 
rate, with  his  clergy,  and  the  neighboring 
bishops,  what  punishment  he  should  inflict 
on  one,  who  had  thus  betrayed  the  cause  of 
God,  and  his  church  ;  and,  what  was  worse, 
disgraced,  by  a  criminal  pusillanimity,  the 
character  of  a  legate  from  the  see  of  St. 
Peter.  The  pope  was  for  deposing  the  un- 
happy presbyter;  but  the  other  members  of 
the  council,  as  well  as  the  nobility,  all  inter- 
posing in  his  favor,  and  he  himself  acknow- 
ledging his  crime,  and  oflTering  to  atone  for 
it  in  what  manner  soever  his  holiness  and 
the  council  should  judge  proper,  the  anger 
of  the  pope  was  somewhat  assuaged  ;  and 
by  all  it  was  agreed,  that  he  should  return 
with  the  same  letter  to  Constantinople,  and  de- 
liver it  into  the  emperor's  own  hands.  With 
this  resolution  Gregory  cheerfully  complied  ; 
and  he  set  out  a  second  time  for  the  imperial 
city,  which  however  he  never  reached  :  for, 
landing  in  Sicily,  he  was  stopt  there  by  the 
officers  of  the  emperor,  the  letter  was  taken 
from  him,  and   he,  by  an   order  from  the 

Rom.  in  Greg.  II.)  But  to  waive  the  objections,  that 
might  be  reasonably  made  to  the  probability  of  the 
t^ct  itself;  history  tells  us  of  several  no  less  remarka- 
ble victories  gained,  under  the  greatest  disadvantages, 
and  without  the  help  of  any  relics,  by  men,  who  were 
persuaded  they  should  conquer  before  they  engaged. 
And  to  that  persuasion  the  present  victory  ought  to 
be  ascribed,  rather  than  to  any  extraordinary  virtue 
in  the  sponges,  or  the  blessing  of  Gregory. 


imperial  court,  sent  into  exile.'  Such  was 
the  issue  of  the  first  legation  of  the  new  pope. 
In  the  mean  time  arrived  at  Rome  depu- 
ties sent  by  Boniface,  the  apostle  of  Ger- 
many, to  promise,  in  his  name,  all  subjection 
and  obedience  to  the  new  pope,  to  acquaint 
him  with  the  extraordinary  success  of  his 
mission,  and  have  several  doubts  or  diffi- 
culties solved  by  him,  Boniface  choosing  to 
be  guided  by  his  judgment,  rather  than  his 
own.  Gregory  received  the  deputies  with 
the  greatest  marks  of  respect  and  esteem ; 
and  sent  by  them,  on  their  return  to  Ger- 
many, a  pall  for  Boniface,  to  be  used  by  him 
only  in  performing  divine  service,  or  in 
consecrating  a  new  bishop.  By  the  same 
legates  he  wrote  to  Boniface,  answered  his 
doubts,  and  gave  him  some  particular  in- 
structions concerning  the  erecting  of  new 
bishoprics.  The  direction  of  the  letter  was, 
"  to  the  most  reverend,  and  most  holy  bro- 
ther, and  fellow-bishop  Boniface,  sent  by 
this  apostolic  see,  to  give  light  to  the  na- 
tions of  Germany,  and  the  nations  round 
about,  that  sit  in  darkness,  and  in  the 
shadow  of  death."  One  of  Boniface's  doubts 
was,  whether  they,  who  had  been  baptized 
by  pagans,  or  by  priests,  who  had  sacrificed 
to  Jupiter,  or  eaten  meats  offered  to  idols, 
should  be  rebaptized,  or  not  ?  And  the  pope 
answered,  that  they  should ;  which  is  now 
rank  heresy  in  thechurch  of  Rome,  baptism 
being  valid,  according  to  the  present  doctrine 
of  that  church,  by  whomsoever  administer- 
ed ;  and  consequently  not  to  be  reiterated, 
provided  the  intention  benotwanting,^  with- 
out a  sacrilege.  What  Baronius  says  here, 
to  excuse  the  pope,  is  scarce  worthy  of 
notice;  namely,  that  he  only  declared 
baptism  to  be  null,  when  administered  by  a 
pagan,  or  a  priest,  who  had  sacrificed  to 
Jupiter,  if  they  did  not  administer  it  in  the 
name  of  the  Trinity  ;3  as  if  the  apostle  of 
Germany  had  been  so  ignorant  as  not  to 
have  known,  without  consulting  the  pope, 
that  baptism  was  null,  by  whomsoever  ad- 
ministered, if  it  was  not  administered  in  the 
name  of  the  Trinity :  that  he  certainly  knew ; 
and  therefore  could  only  have  doubted, 
whether  baptism,  administered  in  due  form 
by  an  apostate  priest,  or  a  pagan,  was  valid, 
or  not;  and  that  doubt  the  pope  resolved  in 
the  manner  we  have  seen.  In  the  same  let- 
ter Gregory  forbids  the  eating  of  horse-flesh, 
and  requires  Boniface  to  impose  severe 
penances  on  all,  who  eat  it,  because  it  is  un- 
clean ;  not  remembering  the  saying  of  our 
Savior,  "  not  that,  which  goeth  into  the 
mouth,  defileth  the  soul;"^  nor  the  doctrine 
of  St.  Paul,  agreeing  therewith,  that,  under 
the  Gospel,  "  there  is  nothing  unclean  of  it- 
self."5     In  the  remaining  part  of  the  letter, 

'  Anast.  in  Greg.  III.         ^  See  vol.  I.  p.  45.  note  (*). 

=  Bar.  ad  Ann.  731.  p.  104. 

«  Matth.  c.  15  :  v.  11.  s  Ad  Rom.  c.  14  :  v.  14. 


Gregory  III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


71 


The  worship  of  images  established  in  a  council  held  at  Rome.  A  second  legation  sent  to  Constantinople,  but 
without  success.  The  pope  fills  the  churches  of  Rome  with  pictures  and  images.  Third  legation  sent  to  the 
emperor,  but  attended  with  no  better  success  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  733.] 


the  pope  forbids  marriages  among  rela- 
tions to  tlie  seventh  generation ;  excludes 
parricides  from  the  eucharist,  except  at  the 
point  of  death,  enjoining  them  to  abstain,  so 
long  as  they  live,  from  flesh,  and  from  wine, 
and  to  fast  three  days  in  the  week ;  imposes 
the  same  penance  on  such  as  sold  their 
slaves  to  be  immolated  by  the  pagans,  the 
barbarous  custom  of  immolating  slaves  still 
obtaining  among  the  pagans  in  Germany  ; 
and  requires  Boniface  to  prevent  men,  so 
far  as  in  him  lies,  from  marrying  more  than 
twice.' 

The  legates  of  Boniface  had  scarce  left 
Rome,  when  the  pope  was  informed,  by  his 
friends  in  Sicily,  of  the  detention  of  his 
legate  in  that  island,  and  the  treatment  he 
had  met  with  there.  Upon  that  intelligence, 
to  be  revenged  on  the  emperor,  and,  at  the 
same  time,  engage  in  his  interest,  as  his  pre- 
decessor had  done,  the  rebel  and  fanatic 
people  of  Rome,  he  assembled  a  council,  in 
great  haste,  at  the  pretended  tomb  of  St. 
Peter.  At  that  council  assisted,  with  all 
the  Roman  clergy,  even  those  of  the  lowest 
rank,  ninety-three  bishops,  among  whom 
were  Antony  archbishop  of  Grado,  and  John 
bishop  of  Ravenna  ;  and  the  whole  Roman 
people,  the  populace  as  well  as  the  nobility, 
were  allowed  to  be  present.  By  that  as- 
sembly was  issued  a  decree,  or  constitution, 
as  the  bibliothecarian  styles  it,  establishing 
the  worship  of  images,  "  agreeably  to  the 
ancient  practice  of  the  apostolic  church," 
(that  is,  to  a  practice  at  this  time  of  about 
seventy  years  standing ;)  and  the  sentence  of 
excommunication  was  thundered  against  all, 
"  who  should  thenceforth  presume  to  ,pull 
down,  destroy,  profane,  or  blaspheme,  the 
sacred  images ;  namely,  the  images  of  our 
Lord  God  Jesus  Christ,  of  his  ever  immacu- 
late and  glorious  mother  the  virgin  Mary, 
of  the  holy  apostles,  and  other  saints."  This 
decree  passed  without  opposition,  no  one 
daring  to  offer  any  ;  and  wiis  received  by  the 
rabble  with  loud  acclamations,  as  establish- 
ing the  doctrine,  which  had  been  taught  by 
the  apostles,  for  so  they  were  made  to  be- 
lieve, had  been  defined  by  the  councils,  and 
recommended  by  the  fathers.'^ 

In  the  same  council  it  was  resolved,  that 
the  salvation  of  the  emperor  should  not  be 
despaired  of,  but  a  new  attempt  should  be 
made  towards  his  conversion.  The  pope 
therefore  wrote  a  second  letter  to  him, 
and  dispatched  with  it  Constantine,  de- 
fender of  the  Roman  church.  But  he  too 
was  stopt,  before  he  reached  the  imperial 
city,  by  the  officers  of  the  emperor,  who 
took  the  letter  from  him,  threw  him  into  jail, 
and,  having  kept  him  there  closely  confined 
nearly  a  whole  twelvemonth,  sent  him  back 


'  Concil.  Tom.  6.  p.  1458.  et  apud  Bar.  ad  Ann.  731. 
104. 
1  Anast.  in  Greg.  III. 


to  Rorne,  to  acquaint  the  pope  with  the  suc- 
cess of  his  legation.' 

The  pope  finding  the  emperor  thus  un- 
alterably bent  on  the  extirpation  of  images, 
resolved,  in  opposition  to  him,  and  in  de- 
fiance of  his  edict,  to  fill  the  churches  of 
Rome  with  them,  while  they  were  all  cast  out 
of  the  churches  of  Constantinople.  Agree- 
ably to  that  resolution,  he  laid  out  the  whole 
wealth  of  his  church,  the  patrimony  of  the 
widows,  the  orphans,  and  the  poor,  on  pic- 
tures and  statues,  crowding  them  chiefly 
into  the  churches  of  St.  Peter,  St.  Mary  ad 
Praesepe,  and  St.  Andrew,  whither  the  peo- 
ple flocked  daily  to  worship  them.  As  Leo 
was  for  suppressing  the  worship  of  saints, 
and  of  relics,  as  well  as  of  images,  the  pope 
caused  relics  to  be  everywhere  sought  for, 
and  conveyed,  says  Anastasius,  from  all 
parts  of  the  world,  to  Rome ;  where  he  built 
a  magnificent  oratory  for  their  reception  and 
worship,  appointing  them  a  proper  service, 
and  monks,  who  were  maintained  at  the  ex- 
pense of  his  see,  to  perform  it.  In  these 
pious  works,  the  pope  is  said  to  have  expen- 
ded seventy-three  pounds  weight  of  gold, 
and  three  hundred  and  seventy-six  pounds 
weight  of  silver ;2  while,  the  treasure  of  the 
church  being  thus  exhausted,  the  poor  were 
left  to  shift  for  themselves. 

The  pope  might,  one  would  think,  by  this 
time,  have  been  fully  satisfied,  that  the  em- 
peror was  not  to  be  diverted  from  the  reso- 
lution he  had  taken.  However,  that  he  might 
not  be  thought  to  be  wanting  in  his  duty,  he 
resolved  to  make  one  eff"ort  more  towards 
his  conversion,  as  he  styled  it.  With  that 
view  he  persuaded  the  people  of  Italy  to 
write  a  letter,  or  rather  a  memorial,  in  com- 
mon, representing  to  the  emperor  the  dread- 
ful disturbances,  which  his  edict  had  occa- 
sioned in  the  west,  and  earnestly  entreating 
him  to  give  over  an  undertaking,  which 
they  thought  themselves  bound  in  conscience 
to  oppose,  and  ever  would  oppose,  as  evi- 
dently repugnant  to  the  doctrine  of  the  fa- 
thers, and  the  practice,  in  all  times,  of  the 
catholic  church.  With  this  memorial,  and 
two  letters  from  the  pope,  the  one  to  the  em- 
peror, and  the  other  to  the  patriarch,  were 
dispatched  to  Constantinople  some  of  the 
chief  men  of  the  Roman  church,  and  the  city 
of  Rome.  But,  on  their  landing  in  Sicily, 
they  were  stopt  by  the  patrician  Sergius, 
commander  of  the  imperial  troops  in  that 
island,  who  took  all  their  papers  from  them, 
kept  them  eight  months  closely  confined, 
and  then  caused  them  to  be  conveyed  back 
to  Italy,  threatening  to  treat  them  as  sowers 
of  sedition,  as  rebels,  as  enemies  of  the  em- 
peror and  the  empire,  if  they  ever  again  set 
foot  in  the  island  of  Sicily.^  From  this  time 
forward  Gregory  sent  no  more  legates  into 


'  Auaet.  in  Greg.  III.       ^  Idem  ibid.       ^  Idem  ibid. 


72 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Gregory  HI. 


A  fleet  sent  against  the  pope  and  the  other  rebels  in  Italy  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  734  ;] — which  is  wrecked.  Rome, 
at  this  time,  a  kind  of  republic.  Boniface  comes  the  third  time  to  Rome  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  738.]  The  following 
year,  Bavaria  is  divided  into  four  dioceses.  The  dukedom  of  Rome  invaded  by  the  king  of  the  Lom- 
bards ;— [Year  of  Christ,  740.]     Rome  besieged;— [Year  of  Christ,  741.] 


the  east,  nor  did  he  henceforth  concern  him- 
self at  all  with  the  affairs  of  those  churches. 
In  the  mean  time  the  emperor,  on  the  one 
hand  highly  provoked  against  the  people  of 
Italy,  and  most  of  all  against  the  pope  and 
the  Romans,  and  determined  on  the  other  to 
restore,  at  all  events,  the  Christian  vv^orship 
to  its  primitive  purity  in  the  west,  as  well 
as  in  the  east,  caused  a  mighty  fleet  to  be 
equipped,  in  order  to  bring  the  pope  and  the 
other  rebels  back  to  their  duty,  and  oblige 
them  to  renounce  their  idolatry,  and  comply 
with  his  edict.  The  fleet  put  to  sea  in  the 
spring  of  the  present  year,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Manes,  one  of  the  most  experienced 
officers  in  the  whole  empire  ;  but,  a  violent 
storm  arising  as  they  entered  the  Adriatic 
gulph,  most  of  the  ships  were  either  swal- 
lowed up  by  the  waves,  or  dashed  to  pieces 
against  the  shore  ;  insomuch  that  the  whole 
coast  of  Calabria,  as  well  as  the  sea  between 
Italy  and  Epirus,  was  covered  with  the 
wreck.'  From  this  time  the  emperor  con- 
cerned himself  no  more  with  the  affairs  of 
the  west,  than  the  pope  concerned  himself 
with  those  of  the  east.  The  exarch  contin- 
ued still  to  reside  at  Ravenna  ;  but  was  not 
in  a  condition  to  cause  the  imperial  edict 
against  images  to  be  observed  even  in  that 
city,  and  much  less  to  undertake  any  thing 
against  the  pope,  or  the  Romans :  for  the 
people  of  Rome,  having,  at  the  instigation 
of  the  pope,  withdrawn  themselves  from  all 
subjection  to  the  emperor,  were  governed,  at 
this  time,  by  their  own  magistrates,  or  by 
magistrates,  whom  they  had  appointed  by 
their  own  authority  ;  and  they  formed  a  kind 
of  repubUc  under  the  pope,  not  yet  as  their 
prince,  but  only  as  their  head. 

We  hear  no  more  of  Gregory  till  the  year 
738,  when  he  received  at  Rome,  Boniface, 
the  apostle  of  Germany,  come  to  consuh 
him  about  the  government  of  the  churches 
he  had  founded,  and  to  visit,  for  the  third 
time,  the  tombs  of  the  apostles.  The  pope 
received  and  entertained  him,  during  his 
stay  in  that  city,  with  the  greatest  friendship 
and  kindness;  and  loaded  him,  at  his  de- 
parture, with  relics,  to  establish,  by  his 
means,  in  Germany,  the  superstition,  which 
the  emperor  was  striving  to  abolish  in  the 
empire.  On  this  occasion  the  pope  wrote 
three  letters,  namely,  one  to  all  bishops,  ab- 
bots, and  presbyters  ;  another  to  the  Chris- 
tians in  Germany,  converted  by  Boniface  ; 
and  the  third  to  the  bishops  of  Bavaria,  and 
Germany.  The  purport  of  these  letters  was 
to  recommend  Boniface,  and  exhort  those, 
to  whom  they  were  addressed,  to  hearken 
to  his  instructions,  and  obey  him  as  legate 
of  the  apostolic  see.^    Boniface,  on  his  re- 


«  Theoph.  ad  Ann.  Leon.  17. 

'  Othlon.  in  Vit.  Bonifac.  1. 1.  c  28  vide  Bar.  ad  Ann. 
738.  p.  120.  et  seq. 


turn  to  Germany,  divided  Bavaria  into  four 
dioceses,  or  bishoprics,  namely,  of  Saltz- 
burg,  Freisinghen,  Ratisbone,  and  Passaw  ; 
and  that  division  the  pope  approved  and 
confirmed  by  a  letter  dated  the  29ih  of  Octo- 
ber, 739.' 

But  to  return  to  the  affairs  of  Italy ;  the 
pope  and  the  Romans  had  enjoyed,  ever 
since  the  loss  of  the  imperial  fleet  in  734,  a 
profound  peace  and  tranquillity,  without  the 
least  apprehension  of  any  further  attempts 
being  made  by  the  emperor  towards  reducing 
them,  or  obliging  them  to  comply  with  his 
edict.  But,  in  the  year  740,  the  peace, 
which  they  had  so  long  enjoyed,  was  greatly 
disturbed,  and  they  found  themselves  unex- 
pectedly involved  in  new  troubles  on  the 
following  occasion :  the  two  dukes  of  Spoleti 
and  Benevento,  who  had  revolted  a  few 
years  before  from  Luitprand,  and  been  by 
him  generously  forgiven,  and  even  restored 
to  their  dukedoms,  having  revolted  anew, 
and,  upon  their  being  defeated  by  the  king, 
taken  refuge  in  Rome,  Luitprand  sent  to  de- 
mand them  of  the  pope  and  the  Romans, 
threatening  to  turn  his  arms  against  them, 
if  they  did  not  deliver  up  the  two  rebels,  or 
at  least  drive  them  out  of  their  city.  Gre- 
gory, jealous,  as  his  predecessors  ever  had 
been,  of  the  growing  power  of  the  Lom- 
bards, had  perhaps,  as  some  have  surmised, 
privately  stirred  up  the  dukes  to  rebel,  in 
order  to  keep  the  king,  who  was  a  prince  of 
an  unbounded  ambition,  of  a  most  warlike 
and  enterprising  genius,  employed  at  home, 
and  divert  him,  by  that  means,  from  attempt- 
ing the  conquest  of  the  dukedom  and  city 
of  Rome.  However  that  be,  the  pope  took 
the  rebels  into  his  protection ;  nor  could  he, 
by  any  means,  be  prevailed  upon  to  deliver 
them  up,  or  oblige  them  to  withdraw  from 
the  city.  Luitprand  therefore,  highly  pro 
voked,  and  perhaps  only  wanting  a  plausible 
pretence  to  invade  the  Roman  territories, 
and  make  himself  master  of  Rome,  drew 
his  forces  together;  put  himself  at  their 
head,  and,  entering  the  Roman  dukedom  in 
a  hostile  manner,  possessed  himself  there  of 
four  cities ;  namely,  Ameria,  Hortas,  Poli- 
martium,  and  Blera.  Upon  his  retreat  (for, 
the  season  being  this  year  uncommonly  hot, 
he  retired  in  the  beginning  of  August  with 
his  army  to  Pavia,)  Thrasimund,  duke  of 
Spoleti,  quitting  his  asylum,  took  the  field, 
and,  with  the  assistance  of  the  Romans, 
who  readily  joined  him,  recovered,  in  a  very 
short  time,  most  of  the  cities  of  his  duke- 
dom, and,  among  the  rest,  the  capital  itself. 

War  being  thus  declared  between  the  Ro- 
mans and  Luitprand,  and  hostilities  begun 
on  both  sides,  the  king  assembled  his  forces 
early  in  the  spring,  and  marching  with  them 


'  Willibald.  in  Vit.  Bonif.  c.  3.  et  Othlon.  ibid.  c.  31. 


Gregory  III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


n 

The  pope  and  the  Romans  in  the  utmost  distress.  The  pope  resolves  to  apply  to  Charles  Martel.  Sends  a 
solemn  legation  into  France.  Charles  declines  to  assist  the  pope  against  the  Lombards.  The  pope's  letter 
to  him. 


Straight  to  Rome,  laid  waste  the  whole 
neighboring  country ;  gave  up  even  the 
church  of  St.  Peter,  that  stood  without  the 
walls,  to  be  plundered  by  his  men  ;  and  laid 
close  siege  to  the  city.  The  consternation, 
which  the  approach  of  so  formidable  an 
enemy  occasioned  in  Rome,  can  hardly  be 
expressed.  The  Romans  well  knew,  that 
they  could  not  hold  out  long  unassisted, 
against  the  whole  strength  of  the  kingdom 
of  the  Lombards ;  and  were,  at  the  same 
time,  entirely  at  a  loss  to  whom  they  should 
apply  lor  assistance.  The  emperor  was  no 
less  provoked  against  them,  and  more  justly, 
than  the  king ;  and  his  resentment  they 
dreaded  more  than  the  king's.  The  Vene- 
tians, though  already  a  respectable  republic, 
and  greatly  attached  to  the  pope,  were  not 
however,  yet  able  to  match  the  warlike  na- 
tion of  the  Lombards.  As  for  Spain,  it  was 
at  this  time  overrun,  most  miserably  harass- 
ed, and  almost  entirely  possessed  by  the  Sa- 
racens. The  French  therefore  were  the  only 
nation  at  this  time  capable  of  assisting  the 
pope  and  the  Romans,  and  effectually  res- 
cuing them  out  of  the  imminent  danger  they 
were  in  of  being  obliged  to  submit  to  the 
yoke  of  the  Lombards,  which  the  popes  had 
of  all  things  ever  most  dreaded.  The  French 
had  been  now  governed  twenty-six  years  by 
the  celebrated  Charles  Martel,  who,  content- 
ing himself  with  the  title  of  mayor  of  the 
palace,  ruled  the  kingdom  with  an  absolute 
sway.  He  had  signalized  himself  by  a 
thousand  warlike  exploits  in  France,  and  in 
Germany  ;  had  gained  a  few  years  before,  a 
most  remarkable  victory  over  the  Saracens 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Tours;  and  was,  at 
this  time,  universally  reputed  the  best.com- 
mander,  and  the  hero  of  the  age.' 

To  him  therefore  the  pope  resolved  to  ap- 
ply in  his  present  distress  ;  and  that  resolu- 
tion he  had  no  sooner  taken,  than  he  sent, 
without  loss  of  time,  and  indeed  no  time 
was  to  be  lost,  a  solemn  legation  by  sea  into 
France,  with  the  keys  of  the  tomb  of  St. 
Peter,  at  this  time  in  great  request,  with 
some  small  pieces  or  filings  of  the  chain, 
with  which  the  apostle  was  supposed  to  have 
been  bound  while  prisoner  in  Rome,  and 
many  other  valuable  presents,  probably  of 
the  same  kind,  "cum  magnis  et  infinitis 
muneribus,"  says  the  historian.-  These 
very  valuable  presents  the  two  legates,  Anas- 
tasius,  bishop,  and  Sergius,  presbyter,  were 
to  deliver  to  Charles,  and,  laying  before  him 
the  deplorable  condition  to  which  his  holiness 
was  reduced,  earnestly  to  entreat  him,  in  the 
name  of  St.  Peter,  to  undertake  the  protec- 
tion of  that  apostle,  of  his  church,  and  his 
people,  against  the  wicked  nation  of  the 
Lombards,  by  whom  they  were  most  cruelly 
harassed  and  oppressed.     Charles  received 

»  Anast.  in  Greg.  HI.  Continual.  Fredegar.  c.  110. 
9  Continnat.  Fredegar.  ibid. 

Vol.  IL— 10 


the  legates  with  the  greatest  marks  of  re- 
spect and  esteem;  made  them  many  valua- 
ble presents  in  his  turn,  more  valuable  than 
those  he  had  received ;  and  entertained  them, 
so  long  as  they  continued  at  his  court,  with 
all  the  splendor  and  magnificence  of  a  great 
prince.  But  he  lived  at  this  time,  and  ever 
had,  in  great  friendship  and  amity  with  the 
king  of  the  Lombards;  had  been  powerfully 
assisted  by  him,  even  in  person,  against  the 
Saracens,  and  the  rebels  of  Provence ;  and 
he  thought  the  bonds  of  friendship  and  gra- 
titude loo  sacred  to  be  broken,  at  the  request 
of  the  pope  himself,  without  the  greatest 
provocation.  Besides,  he  well  knew,  that 
Luitprand,  his  friend  and  ally,  was  justly 
provoked  against  the  pope  and  the  Romans, 
since  they  had  not  only  harbored  and  protect- 
ed, but  openly  joined  his  rebel  vassals,  and, 
in  defiance  of  him,  restored  one  of  them, 
the  duke  of  Spoleti,  to  his  forfeited  duke- 
dom. Upon  these  considerations,  Charles 
withstood  all  the  solicitations  of  the  legates, 
determined  not  to  break  with  the  king,  but 
suffer  him  to  pursue  his  just  revenge.  Of 
this  the  legates  gave  immediate  notice  to  the 
pope,  who  thereupon,  trusting  more  to  his 
own  eloquence  than  to  that  of  his  legates, 
wrote  the  following  letter  to  Charles,  and 
dispatched,  in  all  haste,  a  messenger  with  it 
into  France. 

"  Pope  Gregory  to  his  most  excellent  son 
Charles,  viceroy,  Carolo  Subre^ulo.  We  are 
overwhelmed  with  grief,  and  tears  stream 
night  and  day  from  our  eyes,  in  beholding 
the  holy  church  of  God  (himself  and  the 
rebellious  populace  of  Rome)  abandoned  by 
all  her  children,  even  by  those,  in  whom  she 
had  most  reason  to  confide.  Can  we  see 
without  sighs  and  groans,  without  the  deep- 
est concern  and  affliction,  the  little  that  re- 
mained, after  the  last  year's  devastations, 
in  the  territories  of  Ravenna,  for  the  sup- 
port of  the  poor,  and  the  necessary  charge 
of  the  lights  in  the  church  of  St.  Peter, 
now  entirely  destroyed  with  fire  and  sword 
by  Luitprand  and  Hildebrand,  kings  of 
the  Lombards  ?"  There  Avoukl  not  have 
been  wanting  wherewithal  to  support  the 
poor,  notwithstanding  all  these  devasta- 
tions, and  even  to  defray  the  unnecessary 
expense  of  the  lights,  had  the  pope  been 
less  extravagant,  and  not  squandered  away, 
as  he  did,  the  treasures  of  his  church  on 
statues  and  pictures.  "They  have  pur- 
sued," continues  the  pope,  "  and  at  this  very 
time  still  pursue  the  like  ravages  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Rome,  whither  they  have 
sent  armies,  that  lay  the  whole  country 
waste,  that  burn  and  destroy  all  the  houses 
belonging  to  St.  Peter,  after  having  stripped 
them  of  every  thing  they  found  in  them.  In 
the  midst  of  these  tribulations  we  have  re- 
curred to  you,  our  most  excellent  son;  but 
have  yet  received  no  comfort  or  relief  from 
G 


74 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES. 


[Gregory  III. 


The  pope's  letter  makes  no  impression  on  Charles;  nor  a  second,  which  he  wrote  soon  after. 


you.  But  we  are  not  unapprised  why  you 
suffer  these  kings  to  insult  thus  with  impu- 
nity. You  give  more  credit  to  their  lying 
suggestions,  than  to  the  truths  that  are  told 
you  by  us;  and  I  fear  you  will,  on  that 
score,  be  one  day  found  guilty.  O  could  you 
but  hear  the  insulting  and  reproachful  lan- 
guage, with  which  they  revile  us,  or  rather 
you  !  Where  is  that  mighty  Charles,  say 
they,  whose  protection  you  have  implored  ? 
Where  those  formidable  French  armies? 
Let  them  come,  and  deliver  you,  if  they  dare, 
out  of  our  hands.  What  grief  pierces  my 
heart  in  hearing  such  reproaches,  and  find- 
ing that  none  of  the  children  of  the  holy 
church  stir  to  defend  their  spiritual  mother, 
and  her  peculiar  people!  (namely,  the  mob 
of  Rome.)  My  dear  son,  St.  Peter  is  able, 
by  the  power  which  God  has  granted  him, 
to  defend  his  own  house  and  his  people,  and 
to  revenge  them  on  all  their  enemies  without 
the  assistance  of  any  mortal  man ;  and  it  is 
only  to  know  who  are  his  true  children,  and 
to  try  their  zeal,  that  he  permits  them  to  be 
thus  oppressed.  Suffer  not  yourself,  my 
dear  son,  to  be  imposed  upon  by  the  crafty 
and  false  suggestions  of  the  Lombard  kings. 
They  loudly  complain  of  the  dukes  of  Spo- 
leti  and  Benevento ;  they  charge  them  with 
high  treason  and  rebellion.  But  this  is  all 
a  barefaced  lie.  They  would  not  last  year 
join  the  kings  against  us;  they  would  not, 
in  conjunction  with  them,  lay  waste,  burn, 
and  destroy  the  goods  of  the  holy  apostles, 
nor  make  war  on  the  church  of  God,  and 
his  peculiar  people.  This  is  their  only 
crime;  it  is  on  this  account,  and  this  alone, 
that  they  are  persecuted  by  the  kings,  being 
ready  to  obey  them  in  every  thing  else,  ac- 
cording to  the  laws  and  the  custom  of  their 
nation.  But,  my  most  Christian  son,  that 
you  may  be  convinced  of  the  truth  of  what 
I  say,  send  some  person  hither,  on  whose 
integrity  and  veracity  you  can  rely,  that, 
being  an  eye  witness  of  the  calamities  which 
we  suffer,  of  the  ravages  committed  by  the 
kings,  of  the  tears  of  the  pilgrims,  and  the 
deplorable  condition  of  the  church,  he  may 
give  you  a  true  and  full  account  of  the 
whole.  We  therefore  exhort  you,  as  you 
tender  the  salvation  of  your  soul,  to  hasten 
to  the  relief  of  the  church  of  St.  Peter  and 
his  people,  to  oblige  the  kings  to  forbear  all 
hostilities,  to  withdraw  their  troops,  and 
peaceably  retire  to  their  own  dominions. 
Shut  not  your  ears,  my  most  Christian  son, 
to  our  prayers,  lest  the  prince  of  the  apostles 
should,  in  his  turn,  shut  the  gates  of  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  upon  you.  Prefer  not, 
I  conjure  you  by  the  living  God,  and  the 
most  sacred  keys  of  the  tomb  of  St.  Peter, 
which  I  send  you,  the  friendship  of  the  Lom- 
bard kings  to  the  regard  that  you  owe  to  the 
prince  of  the  apostles.  Let  us  soon  feel, 
my  dear  son,  for  in  you  we  place  all  our 
trust  after  God,  the  wished-for  effects  of 
your  protection  and  favor;  that  we  may  say 


with  the  prophet,  "  the  Lord  hear  thee  in 
the  day  of  trouble,  the  name  of  the  God  of 
Jacob  defend  thee.'"  Ancard,  the  bearer  of 
this  letter,  and  your  faithful  servant,  will 
acquaint  your  excellency  by  word  of  mouth, 
as  we  have  directed  him,  with  what  he  him- 
self has  seen.  All  is  at  stake;  upon  your 
answer  depend  our  safety  and  happiness; 
and  we  therefore  conjure  you  anew,  in  the 
presence  of  God,  our  witness  and  our  judge, 
to  afford  us  some  relief,  and  afford  it  without 
delay,  that  being  delivered,  by  your  means, 
from  the  evils  that  surround  us  on  all  sides, 
we  may  pray  night  and  day,  before  the 
tombs  of  the  holy  apostles  St.  Peter  and  St. 
Paul  for  your  safety,  and  the  safety  of  all 
your  subjects.^ 

From  this  letter  it  appears,  that  while  the 
pope  was  thus  striving  to  engage  Charles  in 
his  cause,  the  Lombard  kings  were  using 
their  utmost  endeavors,  to  persuade  him  to 
stand  neuter;  and  that,  Avith  respect  to  the 
cause  of  the  present  quarrel,  Charles  gave 
more  credit  to  them  than  to  the  pope.  In- 
deed the  historians  of  those  times,  all  to  a 
man,  tell  us,  that  the  two  dukes  rebelled  a 
second  time,  that  they  took  refuge  in  Rome, 
and  that  it  was  because  the  pope  and  the 
Romans  refused  to  deliver  them  up,  that 
Luitprand  broke  into  the  Roman  territories, 
and  committed  the  ravages,  which  the  pope 
complains  of  in  his  letter.  Be  that  as  it  will, 
the  letter  of  the  pope  made  no  impression 
upon  Charles;  he  continued  firm  in  the  re- 
solution, Avhich  it  seems,  he  had  taken,  not 
to  concern  himself  at  all  in  the  quarrel  be- 
tween the  Romans  and  the  Lombards.  The 
pope,  however,  wrote  a  second  letter  to  him, 
filled  with  new  complaints  against  the  Lom- 
bards, who  had,  it  seems,  retired  from  before 
Rome;  but  committed  most  dreadful  ravages 
in  the  neighborhood,  and  on  the  lands  of  the 
Roman  church  in  Campania,  being  chiefly 
provoked  against  the  pope,  by  whose  coun- 
sels they  knew  the  Romans  were  entirely 
governed.  In  that  letter  the  pope  omitted 
nothing  he  could  think  of  to  provoke  Charles 
against  the  Lombards,  telling  him,  that  they 
had  not  only  pillaged  the  lands,  but  the 
church  of  St.  Peter ;  that  they  had  sacrili- 
giously  seized  and  carried  off  the  many 
valuable  gifts,  which  his  ancestors  had  of- 
fered to  that  apostle ;  that  they  now  raged 
with  more  cruelty  than  ever,  for  no  other 
reason,  but  because  the  people  of  Rome  had 
applied  to  him  in  their  distress,  and  in  him 
had  placed  their  confidence,  as  if  he  were 
able  to  rescue  them  out  of  their  hands,  &,c. 
With  this  letter,  though  perhaps  more 
moving  and  pathetic  than  the  former,  Charles 
was  no  more  affected  than  he  was  with  the 
former ;  and  he  still  kept  to  the  resolution  he 
had  taken,  not  to  break  with  the  Lombard 
kinffs. 


>  Psalm  20. 

^  Greg.  in.  ep.  5.  t.  6.  Concil.  p.  1471.  et  apud  Bar. 
ad  Ann.  740.  p.  133,  134. 


Gregory  III,] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


75 

Gregory  sends  a  second  legation  into  France.     Proposals  made  by  hmi.     Charles  hearkens  to  them    and  a 

treaty  concluded  between  him  and  the  pope.    The  Lombards  withdraw  their  troops  out  of  the  dukedom  of 

_Roine^  Gregory  dies._JIisjwr^ilings.     He  had  senta  pall  to  Egbert  of  York  dukedom  of 

But  the  pope  did  not  yet  despair  of  being 
able  to  gain  him.  He  found  that  pious  mo- 
tives were  of  no  weight  with  him  ;  that  he 
made  but  httle  or  no  account  of  the  favor  or 
protection  of  the  prince  of  the  apostles,  and 
the  great  reward  which  he  was  to  receive 
hereafter  for  protecting  his  pecuhar  people, 
and  his  church.  Gregory  therefore,  to  leave 
nothing  unattempted,  resolved  to  recur  to 
motives  of  a  different  nature,  and  try  whe- 
ther he  might  not  be  attended  with  better 
success  by  applying  to  his  ambition,  than  he 
had  hitherto  been  by  applying  lo  his  piety  and 
devotion.  He  sent  accordingly  a  second  le- 
gation into  France,  no  less  solemn  than  the 
first,  with  proposals,  which  he  knew  would 
be  acceptable  to  Charles,  as  they  flattered  his 
ambition,  and  would  incline  him,  if  any 
thing  could,  to  undertake  his  defence,  and 
the  defence  of  the  Roman  church  and  the 
Romans.  The  proposals  were,  that  the  pope 
and  the  Roman  people  should  solemnly  re- 
nounce iheir  allegiance  to  the  emperor,  as 
an  avowed  heretic  and  persecutor  of  the 
church;  that  they  should  put  themselves 
under  the  protection  of  Charles,  acknow- 
ledge him  for  their  protector,  and  confer  on 
him  the  consular  dignity,  as  it  had  been 
formerly  (in  508,)  conferred  by  the  emperor 
Anastasius  on  Clovis  the  first  Christian 
king  of  France,  after  he  had  defeated  the 
Visigoths,  and  killed  their  king  :  on  the  other 
hand,  Charles  was  to  engage,  on  his  side, 
to  defend  and  protect  the  pope,  the  Roman 
church,  and  the  people  of  Rome,  against 
the  Lombards  ;  and  likewise  against  the  em- 
peror, should  they  by  either  be  attacked  or 
molested.  These  treasonable  proposals  were 
well  received  and  readily  agreed  lo  by 
Charles,  resolved,  no  doubt,  to  improve  to 


tioned  treaty.  Charles  died  on  the  22d  of 
October  of  the  present  year,  and  the  pope 
on  the  27th  of  November,  having  governed 
the  Roman  church  ten  years,  eight  months, 
and  eleven  days.  The  zeal,  which  he  ex- 
erted in  the  defence  of  images  and  image- 
worship,  has,  however  treasonable,  procured 
him  a  place  in  the  calendar;  and  he  is  now- 
honored  as  a  saint  of  the  first  rate.  He  is 
said  to  have  been  a  man,  in  those  days,  of 
uncommon  learning  :  for  he  knew  all  the 
Psalms  by  heart,  which  was  then  looked 
upon,  says  Walfrid,  as  a  new  thing,  as  a 
thing  that  had  never  before  been  heard  of, 
tanquam  novum  quiddam  et  inauditum.' 
Indeed  the  Scripture  was,  at  that  time,  a 
book  which  very  few,  if  any,  were  at  all  ac- 
quainted with,  or  concerned  themselves 
about.  Gregory  wrote,  as  Anastasius  in- 
fornis  us,  three  books  to  prove  the  lawfulness 
of  image-worship  which  he  addressed  to 
the  emperors  Leo  and  Constantine,  and  one 
book  of  letters.  But  none  of  these  pieces 
even  reached  the  time  of  Anastasius,  who 
flourished  about  the  middle  of  the  following 
century ;  and  I  do  not  find  them  once  quoted 
by  any,  who  in  those  days  defended  the 
same  cause ;  a  plain  proof  thai  they  were 
held  in  no  great  esteem. 

By  this  pope  a  pall  was  sent  in  735,  to 
Egbert,  who  was  descended  of  the  royal 
family  of  Northumberland,  and  had  in  732. 
succeeded  Wilfrid  the  younger  in  the  see  of 
York.  As  he  was  the  first  bishop  of  York 
after  Paulinus,  whom  the  popes  had  honored 
with  that  mark  of  distinction,  our  historians 
all  tell  us,  that  the  church  of  York  was  go- 
verned only  by  bishops,  from  the  time  of 
Paulinus  to  that  of  Egbert,  Avhen  York, 
,.       ,    -  .'--,---:--'  -   ■;"^.--  >-    they  say,  was  restored,  by  the  pall  sent  from' 

his  advantage  the  authority  which  the  title    Rome,  to  his  former  rank,  or  the  archiepis- 

: Lrh  ::^Tn  ""tt:  """"^^Z^^.:^^   -P^^  ^^^^^^^    ^-l  "  -  -^l-n^  that  In^the 


give  him  in  Rome.  He  had  "therefore  no 
sooner  dismissed  the  legates,  whom  he  loaded 
Avith  rich  pre,senls  at  their  departure,  than 
he  dispatched  Grimon,  abbot  of  Corbie,  and 
Sigebert,  monk  of  St.  Denys,  to  Rome,  to 


time  of  Gregory  III.  the  pall  Avas  not  yet 
looked  upon,  nor  given  as  a  badge  of  the 
metropolitan  or  archiepiscopal  dignity;  but 
only  as  an  acknowledgment  of  some  extra- 
ordinary merit  in  the  pei-son,  to  whom  it  was 


confirm  the  treaty,  and  take,  in  his  name,   given.  '  The  historians,  whom  I  have  quotel 
the  pope  and  the  Roman  people  into  his    above,  flourished  in   times,  when  the  oaU 

fhnr'",'°";t,  t'  'T "  f '/'?'■  ^''^^'"  ^'"^^'^  "^ '  ^^^  b«^^°"i^  «  badge  of  the  archiepiscopal 
that  city  the  Lotnbard  kings  put  an  end  to  dignity,  nav,  and  was  thousht  to  confer  the 
ail  hostilities,  withdrew  iheir  troops  out  of  ,  power  and  authoritv  annexed  to  ihatdi-nitv  • 
the  Roman  dukedom,  and  retired  to  their  and  they  spoke  of  the  transactions  Sf  the 
own  dominions;  it  is  generally  taken  for  more  ancient  times,  accordin^r  to  the  notions 
granted,  though  not  expressly  affirmed  by  '  that  obtained  in  their  own.^  Gre<Torvis  ^aiJ 
any  ancient  writer,  that  Charles  threatened  ,  to  have  changed,  some  time  before  his  death 
them  with  war  by  his  embassadors,  if  they  did  the  solemnity,  which  Boniface  IV.  had  ap- 
not  return.  They  kept,  however,  the  four  pointed  to  be  kept  on  the  13th  of  Mav  in 
w LTh  ,h  T"?.'?  '\  ^""'^'l'  clukedom,  |  honor  of  the  Virgin  Mary  and  all  the  mar- 
wluch  they  had  taken  the  year  before.'  :  tyrs,^  into  that  of  all  saints,  ordering  it  to  be 

his  treS"     H"°r  T  'V'P.'iV'i:"'^,  °''  '-^"""^lly  observed  on  the  1st  of  November;' 

nis  treason.     He  died,  and  so  did  Charles,   ■ 

soon  after  the  conclusion  of  the  above-men- 


a.'A'J^'m'I  ^"'^-  '."■   Continuat.  Fredegar.  c.  110. 
Annales  Metenscsad  Ann.  741. 


735.  Con- 


'  Walfrid.  c.  25. 
I     >  Malmes.  de  Pontif.  1.  J.  Iloved.  ad  Ann 
'  tinuat.  Epit.  Bed.  ad  eund.  Ann. 

'See  vol.  I.  p.  430.  note  (t).    «  See  vol.  I.  p.  428. 
I     »  Annast.  in  Greg.  III. 


76  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES,  Zacharv. 

The  emperor  Leo  dies' — [Year  of  Christ,  741.]     His  character.     Zachary  chosen,  and  ordained  before  his 
election  was  confirmed  by  the  exarch,  or  the  emperor. 


and  on  the  1st  of  November  it  is  observed 
to  this  day. 

In  the  same  year  741,  died  the  emperor 
Leo,  after  he  had  reigned  twenty-four  years, 
two  months,  and  twenty  days.  During  that 
time  he  restored  the  decayed  military  disci- 
pline, defended  the  empire  with  great  bravery 
against  the  barbarians,  entirely  destroyed  the 
naval  power  of  the  Saracens,  and  obliged 
that  warlike,  and  till  his  time,  victorious  peo- 
ple, who,  in  the  beginning  of  his  reign,  had 
even  had  the  boldness  to  besiege  him  in  his 
capital,  to  court  his  friendship,  and  sue  for  a 
peace.  He  was,  on  the  other  hand,  as  ap- 
pears from  his  whole  conduct,  a  prince  of 
great  temper,  moderation,  and  clemency,  of 
uncommon  penetration  and  discernment,  a 
strict  observer  of  the  six  preceding  general 
councils,  with  which  he  seems  to  have  been 
better  acquainted  than  most  men  of  his  time, 
and  a  most  zealous  asserter  of  the  catholic 
doctrine,  as  it  was  taught  and  practised  in 
the  primitive  ages.  As  for  vices,  he  was 
charged  with  none;  but,  on  the  contrary, 
commended  by  the  pope  himself,  pope  Gre- 
gory II.,  as  the  best  of  princes,  and  said  to 
have  reigned  without  blame,'  till  he  publish- 
ed his  edict  against  images  ;  insomuch  that 
had  he  either  never  concerned  himself  with 
matters  of  religion,  or  as  zealously  promoted, 
as  he  opposed  the  superstitions,  that  began 
to  prevail  in  his  time,  it  is  not  at  all  to  be 
doubted  but  that  he  would  have  been  ranked 
by  the  writers  of  those  times  amongst  the 
greatest  princes,  as  well  as  the  best,  who 
had  yet  filled  the  imperial  throne,  and  be 


now  even  honored  by  the  church  of  Rome 
as  a  saint.  But  his  zeal  for  the  purity  of 
the  Christian  worship,  and  unrelenting  en- 
deavors to  suppress  the  superstitious  wor- 
ship of  images,  which  he  thought  incon- 
sistent with  it,  provoked  the  ignorant  and 
bigotted  monks  of  those  days  against  him; 
and  they  have  spared  no  pains  nor  lies  to 
blacken  his  character,  and  represent  him  to 
posterity  as  the  most  wicked  of  men.  But  the 
many  fables  invented  by  them  for  that  pur- 
pose, and  gravely  related  by  the  more  modern 
historians,  especially  by  Baronius,  JMaim- 
bourg,  and  Natalis  Alexander,  have  been  all 
unanswerably  confuted  by  the  learned  Span- 
heim;'  and  to  him  I  refer  the  reader,  only 
observing  here,  that  though  the  menology 
of  the  Greeks  is  filled  with  the  names  botix 
of  men  and  of  women,  who  are  there  said  to 
have  been  put  to  most  cruel  deaths  for  main- 
taining the  catholic  doctrine,  that  is,  the 
worship  of  images,  against  the  impious 
Iconoclast,  emperor  Leo,  it  does  not  appear 
from  the  more  credible  historians  of  those 
times,  that  a  single  person  suffered  death  on 
that  score,  during  the  whole  time  of  that 
emperor's  reign.  Upon  his  death  his  son 
Constantine,  surnamedCopronymus,"  whom 
he  had  taken  for  his  partner  in  the  empire 
ever  since  the  year  72U,  reigned  alone.  Of 
him,  as  he  most  zealously  pursued  the  great 
work,  which  his  father  had  begun,  of  ex- 
tirpating idolatry,  and  restoring  the  Chris- 
tian worship  to  its  primitive  purity,  we  shall 
have  frequent  occasion  to  speak  in  the 
sequel. 


ZACHARY,  NINETIETH  BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[Constantine. — Luitprand,  Hildebrand,  Rachis,  kings  of  the  Lombards.'] 


[Year  of  Christ,  741.]  Gregory  died  on 
the  27th  of  November;  and  the  third  day 
after  his  death  Zachary,  a  native  of  Greece, 
and  the  son  of  one  Polychronius,  was  cho- 
sen in  his  room.2  BVom  the  shortness  of 
the  vacancy  it  is  manifest,  that  the  new 
pope,  knowing  how  precarious  the  power 
of  the  emperor  was  at  this  time  in  Italy, 
neither  waited  for  the  confirmation  of  the 
exarch,  nor  asked  it:  and  he  was  the  first 
pope  thus  chosen  and  ordained,  without  the 
approbation  of  the  prince,  or  his  ministers, 
ever  since  the  year  483,  when  Odoacer,  then 
master  of  Italy,  issued  his  edict  (and  he  is- 
sued it  at  the  request  of  Pope  Simplicius 
while  on  his  death-bed,)  forbidding  the  pope 
to  be  thenceforth  ordained,  till  his  election 
was  confirmed  by  him,  or  by  those,  whom 

•Concil.  1.  7.  p.  7.  et  apud.  Bar.  ad  Ann.  726.  p.  66. 
'  Anast.  in  Zacb. 


he  should  appoint  to  confirm  it.^    The  law 
of  Odoacer  was  adopted  by  the  Gothic  kings, 

»  Spanh.  Hist.  Imag.  Restitut.  Sect.  2. 

"^  He  was  surnamed  Copronymus  from  his  having 
been  said  to  liave  bewrayed  the  sacred  font  at  his  bap- 
tism. "  Dum  baptizaretur,  dirum  quiddam  et  fcedum 
parvulus  Constantinus  exhibuit  argumentum,  stercus 
eniittens  in  sanctum  lavacrum,"  says  the  author  of 
the  Miscella.  He  adds,  that  the  holy  patriarch  Ger- 
manus,  who  baptized  him,  alarmed  at  what  had  hap- 
pened (at  an  accident  that  was  quite  natural,  and  must 
liave  happened  to  many  other  infants,  as  they  were  all 
baptized,  agreeably  to  the  practice  of  the  eastern 
church,  by  immersion,)  prophetically  declared,  that 
the  child  would  one  day  prove  a  great  enemy  and  per- 
secutor of  the  church.  But  as  neither  of  that  predic- 
tion, nor  of  the  accident,  that  is  supposed  to  have 
given  occasion  to  it,  the  least  mention  is  made  by 
Theophanes,  the  patriarch  Nicephorus,  Paulus  Dia- 
conus,  Anastasius,  thouch  they  all  wrote  long  before 
the  time  of  the  author  of  the  Miscella ;  and  were,  as  is 
manifest  from  their  writings,  no  less  prejudiced  against 
Constantine  than  the  compiler  of  that  work;  we  may 
well  conclude  the  whole  to  be  a  mere  invention,  or 
one  of  the  many  fables  that  were  invented  by  the 

5  See  vol.  I.  p.  271. 


Zachary.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


77 


Zachary  sends  a  solemn  legation  to  the  king  of  the  Lombards  ;— [Year  of  Clirist,  742.]— Who  grants  a  peace  to 
the  Romans,  but  obli^'es  them  to  join  him  against  the  duke  of  Spoleti.  The  pope  leaves  Borne,  and  repairs 
to  the  king's  camp  at  Terni.  How  received  by  the  king.  Persuades  the  king  to  restore  the  four  cities  he 
had  taken. 

his  successors  in  the  kingdom  of  Italy  ;  and  j  they  alleged,  granted  a  peace  to  the  pope 
likewiseby  the  emperors,  who,  having  driven  j  and  the  Romans;  and  even  promised  to  le- 
out  the  Golhs,  took  care  to  have  it  strictly  store  to  them,  in  token  of  an  entire  reconci- 
observed,  as  we  have  seen,  from  the  time  liation,  the  four  cities  he  had  taken.  How- 
they  became  again  masters  of  Italy  to  the  ;  ever,  he  insisted  on  the  pope's  not  only 
present,  when  their  power  being  at  a  very  j  abandonding  the  duke  of  Spoleti,  whom  his 
low  ebb  in  the  west,  they  were  no  longer  predecessor  had  taken  into  his  protection, 
able  to  curb  the  growing  power  of  the  popes,  and  assisted  in  the  recovery  of  his  dukedom, 
or  restrain  them  from  encroaching  on  the  j  but  on  his  obliging  the  Romans  to  join  him 
just  rights  of  their  crown.  with  all  the  forces  they  could  raise  against 

Zachary  was  raised  to  the  see  in  the  most   that  rebel.     The  pope  chose  rather  to  aban 


difficult  times  the  popes  had  yet  seen.  The 
king  of  the  Lombards  had,  at  the  persuasion 
or  menaces  of  Charles  Martel,  withdrawn 
his  troops  out  of  the  dukedom  of  Rome,  as 
has  been  related  above.  But  Charles  being 
dead,  he  not  only  kept  the  four  ciiies  he  had 
taken,  but  was  preparing  to  invade,  with  a 
numerous  army,  that  dukedom  anew,  and 
attempt  the  reduction  of  Rome  itself.  The 
Romans,  who  had  openly  revolted  from  their 
lawful  sovereign,  and  formed  themselves 
into  a  kind  of  republic,  with  the  pope  at  their 
head,  were  not  able  to  withstand  so  power- 
ful an  enemy  alone.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
domestic  troubles,  that  reigned  at  this  time 
in  France,  and  the  revolt  of  the  German 
nations  subject  to  that  crown,  kept  the  arms 
of  Carloman  and  Pepin,  the  sons  of  Charles, 
so  wholly  employed,  that  they  could  not  pre- 
tend to  undertake  their  defence,  agreeably  to 
the  treaty  lately  concluded  between  Gregory 
III.  and  their  father;  nor  even  to  lend  them 
the  least  assistance  in  their  present  distress. 
As  for  the  emperor,  the  pope  well  knew, 
that  he  looked  both  upon  him  and  the  Ro- 
mans as  traitors  and  rebels  ;  that  he  would 
rather  join  the  Lombards  against  them,  than 
join  them  against  the  Lombards ;  and  was 
therefore  no  less  afraid  of  him,  than  he  was 
of  the  Lombards  themselves.  Zachary,  find- 
ing himself  and  the  Romans  thus  left  to  the 
mercy  of  their  enemies,  resolved  to  recur  to 
motives  of  religion,  since  he  had  nothing 
else  to  recur  to ;  and  try  whether  he  could 
not  thus  appease  the  wrath  of  the  provoked 
king,  and  divert  him  from  his  intended  ex- 
pedition against  the  city  and  dukedom  of 
Rome.  With  that  view  he  sent  a  solemn 
legation  to  Luitprand,  who  not  only  received 
the  legates  with  extraordinary  marks  of  res- 
pect and  esteem,  but,  moved  by  the  motives 

lying  monks,  to  revile  the  memory  of  that  excellent 
prince,  when  the  worship  of  images,  which  he  had 
spared  no  pains  to  suppress,  was,  by  the  second  coun- 
cil of  Nice,  universally  established  in  the  east.  He 
was  likewise  surnamed  Cabaltinus,  probably  from  his 
being  a  great  lover  of  horses  ;  at  least  more  probably 
from  thence,  than  from  his  frequently  covering  his 
whole  body  with  their  dung,  and  obliging  his  favorites 
to  follow  therein  his  e.xample,  as  by  the  later  Greeks 
he  is  gravely  said  to  have  done,  and  aft'T  tliem  by 
Daronius  (Bar.  ad  Ann.  775.  p.  330.)  and  Mainibourg, 
(Maiuib.  Hist,  des  Iconoclast.  1.  2.  p.  179.)  not  ashamed 
to  adopt  every  absurd,  ridiculous,  and  iniprobable 
story,  that  the  Greeks  have  invented  to  render  the 
memory  of  that  prince  odious  or  contemptible  to  pos- 
terity. 


don  the  duke,  than  disoblige  the  king ;  who, 
being  joined  by  a  considerable  body  of  Ro- 
mans, entered  the  dukedom  of  Spoleti,  in 
order  to  lay  siege  to  that  city :  but  Trasi- 
mund,  trusting  more  in  the  mercy  of  the 
king,  than  in  his  own  strength,  went  out  to 
meet  him  as  he  approached ;  and  delivered 
himself  up  into  his  hands.  The  king  grant- 
ed him  his  life,  but  deprived  him  of  his 
dukedom  ;  and,  appointing  another  duke  in 
his  room,  obliged  him  to  spend  the  remain- 
der of  his  days  in  a  monastery.' 

The  pope  had  performed  whatever  the 
king  had  required  of  him  :  but  the  king  still 
delayed  the  execution  of  the  promise  he  had 
made  to  restore  the  four  cities.  Zachary 
therefore,  impatient  to  see  those  places  evacu- 
ated by  the  Lombards,  and  united  again  to 
the  dukedom  of  Rome,  instead  of  sending  a 
new  legation  for  that  purpose  to  the  king, 
resolved  to  wait  on  him  in  person,  being 
thereunto  chiefly  encouraged  by  the  kind  re- 
ception which  his  predecessor  Gregory  II. 
had  met  with,  when  he  went  to  wail  on  him 
in  his  camp  before  Rome.^  Agreeably  to 
that  resolution  he  set  out  from  the  Lateran 
palace,  attended  by  several  bishops,  and  a 
great  number  of  other  ecclesiastics;  and  ar- 
riving at  Ortona,  in  his  way  to  the  king's 
camp,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Interamna, 
now  Terni,  he  was  there  met  by  Griraoald, 
one  of  the  great  officers  of  state,  sent  by  the 
king,  upon  the  first  notice  of  his  journey, 
to  receive  him.  From  Ortona  he  was  con- 
ducted by  Grimoald  to  Narni,  and  there  re- 
ceived with  extraordinary  honors  by  the  king, 
who  attended  him  from  thence  with  all  the 
nobilitv,  and  almost  the  whole  army,  to  Ter- 
ni. The  two  following  days,  Friday  and 
Saturday,  the  pope  and  the  king  met  in  the 
church  of  St.  Valentine;  and,  in  these  two 
interviews,  the  pope,  by  representing  to  the 
king,  with  great  energy  and  eloquence,  the 
shortness  and  vanity  of  all  temporal  gran- 
deur; by  putting  him  in  mind  of  the  strict 
account  he  was  one  day  to  give,  and  per- 
haps very  soon,  for  all  the  human  blood, 
which  he  had  caused  to  be  shed  to  gratify 
his  ambition;  and  threatening  him  with 
eternal  damnation,  if  he  did  not  restore  the 
four  above-mentioned   cities ;   softened   the 


>  Anast  in  Zach. 


o2 


"See  p.  51. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Zachary. 


Peace  concluded  between  the  Romans  and  the  Lombards.  Germany  divided  into  three  bishoprics.  The  de- 
bauched lives  of  the  French  clergy.  Pagan  ceremonies  still  prevail  in  Rome.  [Year  of  Christ,  743  ;] — the 
pope  sends  a  solemn  legation  into  the  east. 


mind  of  that  warlike  prince  to  such  a  de- 
gree, that  he  immediately  yielded  those  cities, 
declaring,  in  the  presence  of  all,  that  they 
no  longer  belonged  to  him,  but  to  the  apostle 
St.  Peter ;  the  emperor,  who  alone  had  an 
unquestionable  right  to  them,  being  quite 
out  of  the  question.  At  the  same  time  the 
king  ordered  the  weahhy  patrimony  of  the 
Roman  church  in  the  country  of  the  Sabines, 
which  the  Lombards  had  seized  thirty  years 
before,  to  be  forthwith  restored,  and  with  it 
the  patrimonies  of  that  church  in  the  terri- 
tories of  Narni,  of  Osimo,  of  Ancona,  and 
Polimartium. 

He  likewise  released,  at  the  request  of 
the  pope,  Avithout  ransom,  all  the  prisoners 
he  had  taken  in  his  wars  with  the  Romans, 
among  whom  were  four  consular  men  ;  and 
concluded  a  peace  for  twenty  years  with  the 
dukedom  of  Rome.  As  the  see  of  Terni 
was  at  this  time  vacant  by  the  death  of  Con- 
stantine,  bishop  of  that  city  ;  the  following 
Sunday  the  pope  ordained,  at  the  desire  of 
the  king,  a  new  bishop  in  his  room,  the 
king  assisting  at  the  ceremony,  with  all  the 
chief  officers  both  of  the  court  and  the  army, 
and  likewise  at  divine  service,  which  was 
performed  by  the  pope  with  extraordinary 
pomp  and  solemnity.  When  the  service 
Avas  over,  the  pope  gave  an  entertainment  to 
the  king  and  his  attendants,  the  most  splen- 
did and  sumptuous,  as  all  declared,  they 
ever  had  seen.  Indeed^  the  Christian  pon- 
tiffs soon  rivalled  the  pagan  in  banquets  and 
luxury.  The  next  day  the  pope,  taking 
leave  of  the  king,  set  out  on  his  return  to 
Rome,  attended  by  Aldeprand,  the  king's 
grandson,  and  several  other  persons  of  the 
first  rank,  whom  the  king  had  appointed  to 
conduct  him  to  the  four  cities,  and  deliver 
them  up  to  him ;  which  was  accordingly 
done.  The  pope,  having  thus  obtained  of 
the  king  whatever  he  had  asked,  entered 
Rome  in  a  kind  of  triumph,  and  the  next 
day  ordered,  by  way  of  thanksgiving,  a 
solemn  procession  from  the  church  of  St. 
Mary  ad  Martyr.es,  the  ancient  Pantheon, 
to  that  of  St.  Peter. 

Zachary,  on  his  return  to  Rome,  received 
a  letter  from  Boniface,  the  apostle  of  Ger- 
many, congratulating  him  on  his  promotion, 
and  assuring  him  of  his  entire  subjection  to 
the  apostolic  see.  In  the  same  letter  Boni- 
face acquainted  the  pope  Avith  his  having 
divided  the  province  of  Germany  into  three 
bishoprics,  namely ,  of  Wirtzburg,  Buraburg, 
and  Erphesfurt ;  begged  his  holiness  to  con- 
firm them ;  consulted  him  concerning  certain 
points  relating  to  discipline;  and  desired  leave 
to  assemble  a  council  in  the  dominions  of 
Carloman :  the  pope  in  his  ansAver,  ap- 
proved Avhat  he  had  done,  declared  the  three 


the  letter  of  Boniface,  and  the  pope's  an- 
swer to  it,  it  appears,  that  in  France  the 
clergy  from  the  highest  to  the  loAvest,  the 
bishops  as  well  as  the  presbyters  and  dea- 
cons, led,  at  this  time,  most  debauched  and 
dissolute  lives ;  that  incest,  fornication,  con- 
cubinage, and  adultery,  were  common 
among  them  ;  that  some  of  them  kept  four, 
five,  and  more  concubines;  the  blessed  ef- 
fects of  a  forced  celibacy !  that  they  bore 
arms,  served  in  war  against  the  Christians  as 
well  as  the  Saracens,  and  distinguished  them- 
selves from  the  laity  only  by  their  lewdness 
and  debauchery. •  The  pope,  in  his  answer, 
empowered  Boniface  to  suspend  fiom  their 
office,  and  from  all  the  functions  of  their 
ministry,  not  only  such  bishops,  presbyters, 
and  deacons,  as  should  be  found  guilty  of 
the  above-mentioned  excesses,  but  those  too 
who  had  been  twice  married,  or  who  con- 
tinued to  cohabit  with  the  wives  they  had 
married  before  their  ordination.^ 

From  the  same  letters  it  appears,  that  the 
pagan  ceremonies  were  not  yet,  in  742,  nor 
had  been  but  very  lately,  quite  abolished  in 
Rome  :  for  Boniface  in  his  letter,  desires  the 
pope  to  inform  him,  Avhether  Avhat  he  had 
been  told  by  some  persons,  come  lately  from 
Rome,  was  true  or  not ;  namely,  that  there 
NeAv-year's  day  Avas  still  kept  after  the 
pagan  manner ;  that  all  the  profane  and  su- 
perstitious ceremonies,  formerly  practised 
on  that  day  by  the  pagans,  were  still  prac- 
ticed on  the  same  day  by  the  Christians  ;  that 
charms,  amulets,  and  phylacteries,  or  pre- 
servatives against  all  dangers  and  distem- 
pers, were  still  worn  by  the  Avomen  on  their 
legs  and  arms,  and  publicly  sold.^  The 
pope  in  his  ansAver,  OAvns  many  pagan  su- 
perstitions, and  superstitious  practices,  to 
have  obtained  in  Rome  even  to  the  time  of 
his  predecessor,  and  his  own,  notAvithsland- 
ingall  the  pains  that  had  been  taken  to  sup- 
press them:  but  adds,  that  they  Avere  noAV, 
he  hoped,  utterly  abolished,  in  virtue  of  a 
decree,  Avhich  Gregory,  his  immediate  pre- 
decessor, had  issued  for  that  purpose,  and 
he  had  confirmed.''  As  the  people  of  Rome 
were  so  fond  of  the  customs  and  manners 
of  their  pagan  ancestors,  it  is  not  to  be  won- 
dered, that  they  distinguished  themselves, 
in  the  manner  Ave  have  seen,  by  their  zeal 
for  the  Avorship  of  images. 

Zachary  had  sent,  as  soon  as  ordained,  a 
solemn  legation  into  the  east,  with  a  letter 
to  the  emperor,  and  a  confession  of  his  faith, 
addressed,  not  to  the  patriarch,  as  Avas  cus- 
tomary, since  he  had  been  excommunicated 


»  Concil.  t.  6.  p.  1494.  Epist.  Bonif.  132. 

^  Concil.  ibid,  et  apud  Rir.  ad  Ann.  742.  p.  146. 

'  Phylacteries  were  amulets  made  of  ribinds,  with 

text  of  Scripture,  or  some  other  charm  of  words 
cities  episcopal   sees,  and    readily    consented    written  upon  them,  and  hung  about  the  neck,  to  cure 

♦^  kJo   oc^omKlinrr    o    nr^.ir./^;!    ^Ja „;j' dlseases,  and  preservB  men  from  dnngers.   Andthence 

to  his   aSsembhng    a   council    and    presiding  it^ey  were  called  phylacteries  or  preservatives. 

at  It  as  legate  oi  the  apostouc  see.    From  |    *  Concii.  t.  6.  p.  1494.  apud  Bar.  ad  Ann.  742.  p.  146. 


Zachary.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


7<» 


The  legates  find  the  usurper  Astabasdus  in  possession  of  the  throne. 


by  his  predecessor  Gregory  II.  but  to  the 
church  of  CoQstantiaople.  The  legates,  on 
their  arrival  in  the  imperial  city,  found  all 
there  in  the  utmost  confusion  ;  and  notCon- 
stantine,  to  whom  the  letter  was  addressed, 
but  the  usurper  Artabasdus,  in  possession  of 
the  throne.'     As  his  usurpation  had  divided 

«  Of  this  revolution  the  historians  of  those  times  give 
us  the  followiiij,'  account.  Constaiitine,  being  iiiforined 
that  the  Saracens  had,  upon  the  news  of  the  death  of  his 
father  Leo,  made  an  irruption  into  Asia,  and  commit- 
ted dreadful  ravages  there,  left  Constantinople,  and 
taking  with  him  the  flower  of  his  troops,  marched 
against  them  in  person.  In  his  absence,  Artabasdus, 
who  had  married  his  sister,  taking  advantage  of  the 
hatred  the  populace  bore  him  on  account  of  his  aver- 
sion to  images  (for  he  insisted  on  the  strict  observance 
of  the  edicts,  which  his  father  had  issued  against  them), 
caused  himself  to  be  proclaimed  emperor  by  the  troops, 
which  he  had,  as  governor  of  I'hrygia  and  Bithynia, 
under  his  command.  At  the  same  time,  he  dispatched 
one  Tliala.sius  to  acquaint  Theophanes,  whom  Con- 
stantine  had  trusted  with  the  government  of  Constan- 
tinople, that  both  the  soldiery  and  the  people  of  the 
two  above-mentioned  provinces  had  readily  acknow- 
ledged him  for  emperor;  and  persuade  him  to  espouse 
his  cause,  and  dispose  the  garrison,  as  well  as  the  in- 
habitants, to  receive  him  into  the  city.  Theophanes, 
not  doubling  but  that  Artabasdus  would  prevail  in  the 
end,  the  superstitious  multitude  being  everywhere 
ready  to  rise  in  defence  of  their  images,  not  only  de- 
clared for  the  usurper,  but,  to  prevent  the  friends  of  ■ 
Constaiitine  from  raising  disturbances  in  the  city,  as- 
sured the  people,  whom  he  assembled  for  that  purpose  ; 
in  the  great  cliurch,  that  the  emperor  was  killed  ;  and 
that,  upon  his  death,  the  legions  had  all  proclaimed 
Artabasdus  in  his  room.  The  news  of  Constantine's  ! 
death  was  believed,  and  Artabasdus  thereupon  ac-  I 
knowledged  by  all,  without  the  least  opposition,  for 
lawful  emperor.  In  the  mean  time  Nicephorus,  the 
son  of  Artabasdus,  and  governor  of  Thrace,  having 
assembled  in  great  haste  the  troops,  that  were  quar- 
tered in  that  province,  entered  the  imperial  city  at 
their  head,  and  seizing  on  such  as  he  knew,  or  only 
suspected  to  be  well  affected  to  Constantine,  caused 
some  of  them  to  be  cruelly  beaten,  deprived  others  of 
their  sight,  and  commanded  the  rest  to  be  thrown  into 
dungeons,  and  kept  there  closely  confined.  Nicepho- 
rus was  soon  followed  by  Artabasdus  himself,  wlio 
entered  the  city  amidst  the  loud  acclamations  of  the 
populace ;  and  was,  the  very  next  day,  solemnly 
crowned  by  the  patriarch  Anastasius,  whom  TJieo- 
phanes  had  persuaded  to  declare  in  his  favor.  As  the 
report,  that  had  been  industriously  spread,  of  Con- 
stantine's death,  was,  by  this  time,  found  to  be  ground- 
less, the  time-serving  patriarch,  to  keep  the  people 
nevertheless  steady  in  the  allegiance  they  had  sworn 
to  the  usurper,  assembled  them  at  his  persuasion,  in 
the  great  church;  and  there,  after  painting  Constan- 
tine to  them  as  the  most  wicked  of  men,  he  assured 
them,  that,  as  to  his  belief,  he  was  an  Arian  in  his 
heart ;  that  he  held  Christ  to  be  but  a  mere  man  ;  and 
that  he  himself  heard  him  one  day  utter  the  following 
blasphemy,  "I  do  not  believe  him  to  be  the  Son  of 
God,  who  was  born  of  Mary,  and  is  called  Christ,  but 
a  mere  man  ;  for  Mary  was  delivered  of  him  after  the 
same  manner  as  Mary,  my  mother,  was  delivered  of 
me."  This  the  patriarch  confirmed  with  a  solemn 
oath,  holding  a  cross  in  his  hand,  and  swearing  by 
him,  who  died  on  it  to  redeem  mankind,  that  he  had 
advanced  nothing,  but  what  he  himself^  knew  to  be 
true.  The  whole  was,  as  will  hereafter  be  made  to  ap- 
pear, a  barefaced  calumny,  invented  by  the  patriarch, 
to  prejudice  the  populace  still  more  against  Constan- 
tine; and  to  make  his  court,  by  that  means,  to  the 
usurper.  However,  as  it  was  so  solemnly  attested  by 
him,  it  made  so  deep  an  impression  on  the  stupid  and 
credulous  multitude,  that,  loading  Constantine  with  a 
thousand  curses,  they  declared,  with  one  voice,  that 
they  would  stand  by  Artabasdus  to  the  last ;  and  main- 
fain  him,  at  the  expense  of  their  fortunes  and  their 
lives,  on  the  throne. 

Artabasdus  well  knew,  that  the  hatred,  which  the 
populace  and  the  monks,  who  stirred  them  up,  bore  to 
Constantine,  was  merely  owing  to  his  zeal  against  the 
euperstitioiis  use  and  worship  of  images;- and  there- 
fore, to  rivet  himself,  by  a  contrary  zeal,  in  iheir  favor, 
he  no  sooner  found  himself  placed  on  the  throne,  than 


both  the  people  and  the  army,  some  siding 
with  him,  and  some  with  Constantine,  the 


reversing  the  edicts  of  Leo,  commanding  all  images  to 
be  pulled  down,  he  ordered  them  by  a  new  edict,  to  be 
set  up  again  ;  approved  the  worship,  that  was  given 
them,  agreeably  to  the  practice,  as  he  pretended,  of 
the  catholic  church,  ever  since  the  apostolic  times  ; 
and  forbid,  on  the  pain  of  death,  or  e.xile,  any  person 
whatever  to  question  or  dispute  the  lawfulness  of  that 
worship.  Thus  were  images  once  more  restored,  to 
the  unspeakable  joy  of  the  monks,  of  the  populace,  and 
the  women ;  and  at  the  sametime,  all  the  superstitious 
practices  revived,  which  the  good  emperor  Leo  had 
taken  so  much  pains  to  suppress  and  abolish.  Many, 
however,  were  not  wanting,  among  the  laity  as  well 
as  the  clergy,  who  refused  with  great  firmness  and 
constancy,  to  bow  the  knee  to  Baal :  But  superstition 
now  reigned  without  restraint  or  control ;  and  they 
were  either  most  grossly  insulted  by  the  populace, 
or  driven  by  the  usurper  into  e.xile.  As  for  the  patri- 
arch Anastasius  he  had,  from  the  beginning,  espoused 
the  cause  of  the  usurper;  had,  by  the  lies  and  calum- 
nies he  invented,  redoubled  the  prejudices  of  the  mul- 
titude against  their  lawful  sovereign  ;  and  was  now 
as  busy  in  setting  up  images,  as  he  had  been  busy 
under  Leo  in  pulling  them  down.  The  new  emperor 
therefore  not  only  confirmed  him  in  his  dignity,  the 
only  object  of  his  zeal,  but,  reposing  an  entire  confi- 
dence in  him,  governed  himself,  in  all  matters  of  mo- 
ment, wholly  by  his  advice. 

While  these  things  passed  at  Constantinople,  Con- 
stantine, though  at  this  time  only  in  the  Iwenty-first 
year  of  his  age,  was  carrying  on  the  war  with  surpris- 
ing success  against  the  Saracens  in  Asia.  He  had 
defeated  them  in  several  engagements  ;  had  driven 
them  quite  out  of  the  territories  of  the  empire,  and 
was  preparing  to  attack  them  in  their  own.  But  re- 
ceiving, in  the  mean  time,  intelligence  of  the  revolt  of 
Artabasdus,  of  the  defection  of  great  part  of  the  army, 
and  the  reception  the  usurper  had  met  with  from  tlie 
people  of  Constantinople,  he  concluded  a  truce  with 
the  Saracens  ;  and,  bending  his  march  straight  to  Con- 
stantinople, arrived,  in  the  latter  end  of  the  autumn  at 
Chrysopolis,  on  the  Bosporus,  over  against  that  city, 
and  encamped  there  with  his  whole  army.  He  hoped, 
that  his  friends  in  the  city,  encouraaed  by  his  unex- 
pected arrival,  would  all  take  up  arms  in  his  favor; 
and,  by  keepinj  the  people  and  the  earrison  awed  and 
employed  within,  give  him  an  opportunity  of  attack- 
ing, amidst  that  confusion  the  place  from  without,  and 
putting  an  end  at  once  to  the  war.  But  he  found  to 
his  great  disappointment,  that,  notwithstandine  his 
approach  at  the  head  of  a  i)owerful  and  victorious 
army,  all  continued  quiet  in  the  city,  his  friends  being 
either  disarmed,  or  kept  closely  confined  in  the  dun- 
geons;  that  the  place  was  defended  by  a  very  nume- 
rous garrison  ;  and  tliat  the  citizens,  looking  upon  the 
cause  of  the  usurper  as  the  cause  of  the  faith  and  the 
church,  were  determined  to  hold  out  to  the  last.  In- 
stead therefore  of  making,  at  present,  any  attempt  on 
the  city,  or  engaging,  as  the  season  was  already  far 
advanced,  in  a  siege,  he  withdrew  into  Plirygia,  and 
there  put  his  troops  into  winter  quarters,  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Armorium. 

Early  in  the  spring  the  two  competitors  took  the 
field.  Artabasdus,  leaving  his  eldest  son,  Nicephorus, 
whom  he  had  taken  for  his  partner  in  the  empire, 
with  a  strong  garrison  in  Constantinople,  passed  over 
into  Asia  ;  and,  giving  out  there,  that  he  had  taken 
up  arms  with  no  other  design,  but  to  defend  the  catho- 
lic faith  against  one,  who  had  undertaken  to  establish 
the  blasphemous  doctrine  of  the  Mahometans  and  the 
Jews  in  its  room,  he  not  only  met  with  no  opposition 
in  that  province,  but  was  everywhere  received  by  the 
populace  with  the  ereatest  demonstrations  of  joy,  and 
his  army  plentifully  supplied  with  all  sorts  of  provi- 
sions. From  Asia  he  advanced  into  Lydia  ;  hut  in  that 
province,  he  was  unexpectedly  met  by  Constantine, 
who  had  hitherto  pretended  to  fly  before  him.  An  en- 
gagement thereupon  ensued,  which,  as  it  was  likely 
to  prove  decisive,  long  continued  doubtful,  victory  in- 
clining some  times  to  one  side,  and  sometimes  to  the 
other.  The  two  competitors,  as  they  fousht  not  for  a 
city,  or  a  province,  but  for  the  empire,  distinguished 
themselves  even  above  the  bravest  of  their  respective 
armies.  But  Constantine  prevailed  in  the  end;  the 
army  of  the  usurper  was  uttprly  defeated,  and  he 
obliged  to  give  over  the  tight,  and  fly,  when  be  found 
none,  who  would  stand  and  fisht  with  him.  He  was 
closely  pursued,  but  nevertheless  got  safe  to  Cjsicua 


80 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Zachart. 


The  emperor  grants  certain  lands  to  the  pope  :  who  pretends  great  zeal  for  his  service. 
Lombards  breaks  into  the  exarchate. 


The  king  of  the 


legates  continued  a  whole  year  in  Constan- 
tinople waiting  till   the   one  or  the   other 

on  the  Propontis,  and  from  thence  passed  over  in  a 
small  vessel  to  Constantinople. 

Nicetas,  the  usurper's  younger  son,  commanded  an 
army  in  Bythynia,  no  less  powerful  and  numerous, 
than  that  of  his  father;  and  had  already  reduced  with 
it  the  far  greater  part  of  that  province.  Against  him 
Constantine  marched  without  loss  of  time  ;  and  com- 
ing up  with  him  when  least  e.xpected,  engaged  him, 
cut  most  of  his  men  to  pieces,  and  obliced  tiim  to  save 
himself  with  the  rest  by  a  disorderly  flight.  He  did 
not  pursue  him,  but  led  his  victorious  army  straight 
to  Constantinople,  and  invested  the  place  by  sea  and 
by  land.  As  they  had  within  a  numerous  army, 
rather  than  a  garrison,  of  regular  and  well  disciplined 
troops,  commanded  by  the  usurper  himself;  and  the 
people  were  determined,  as  they  declared,  to  part  with 
their  lives  rather  than  their  images,  which  they  knew 
they  must  part  with,  should  Constantine  prevail;  the 
siege  lasted  two  whole  months;  and,  during  that  time, 
great  numbers  were  killed  on  both  sides  in  the  daily 
sallies  of  the  one,  or  the  repeated  attacks  of  the  other. 
Artabasdus  oflen  attempted,  as  provisions  began  to  be 
very  scarce  in  the  city,  to  open  himself  a  way,  sword 
in  hand,  through  the  enemy's  camp,  and  returu  into 
Asia.  But  he  was  as  often  repulsed,  and  driven  back, 
with  great  loss,  the  governor  Theophanes  being  killed 
among  the  rest  in  one  of  these  desperate  attempts. 
Nicetas  had  by  this  time,  raised  a  new  army,  and 
amassed  an  incredible  quantity  of  provisions  for  the 
relief  of  the  city,  where  a  dreadful  famine  now  raged. 
But,  as  he  approached  Constantinople,  he  was,  by 
Constantine,  a  second  time  defeated,  and  taken. 
Constantine,  on  his  return  before  the  city,  showed 
him  loaded  with  chains,  to  his  father  and  the  citizens 
on  the  walls  ;  and,  ordering  a  general  assault  before 
they  could  recover  from  the  consternation,  which  his 
defeat  and  such  a  sight  had  occasioned,  made  himself, 
with  a  very  inconsiderable  loss,  master  of  the  place, 
and  gave  it  up,  as  it  was  taken  by  storm,  to  be  plun- 
dered for  some  hours  by  the  soldiery.  Artabasdus 
and  his  son  Nicephorus  attempted  to  make  their  escape; 
but  were  taken  and  delivered  up  to  the  emperor,  who 
spared  the  lives  both  of  the  father  and  his  two  sons  ; 
but,  to  prevent  their  raising  new  disturbances,  ordered 
their  eyes  to  be  put  out,  and  showed  them,  in  that 
condition,  to  the  multitude  assembled  in  the  Hippo- 
drome. The  other  ringleaders,  and  heads  of  the  re- 
bellion, he  either  put  to  death,  deprived  of  their  sight, 
a  punishment  common  at  this  time  in  the  east,  or  sent 
into  exile.  As  for  the  patriarch  Anastaslus,  the  most 
guilty  of  all,  he  was,  by  the  emperor's  order,  first  pub- 
licly whipped,  and  then  deprived  of  his  sight,  and  car- 
ried in  that  condition,  through  the  circus,  on  an  ass, 
with  his  face  to  the  tail.  However,  as  he  owned  the 
justice  of  his  punishment,  and  bore  it  with  resigna- 
tion and  patience,  the  emperor,  pitying  his  condition, 
reinstated  him  in  his  dignity  ;  and  he  continued  to  go- 
vern the  church  of  Constantinople  to  the  year  753, 
when  he  died. 

Constantine,  having  thus  by  his  conduct  and  valor 
recovered  his  crown,  and  punished,  in  the  manner  we 
have  seen,  the  chief  authors  of  the  rebellion,  gene- 
rously forgave  all  the  rest,  and  even  entertained  the 
populace,  forgetting  their  late  conduct,  with  public 
sports  and  diversions.  As  he  was  resolved  to  leave 
the  city  again,  and  march  against  the  Saracens,  who 
had  broken  the  truce,  and  were  now  at  war  among 
themselves,  he  did  all  that  lay  in  his  power  to  win  the 
affections  of  the  people,  lest  they  should  raise  new 
disturbances  in  his  absence.  Unwilling  however  to 
court  their  favor  at  the  expense  of  his  conscience,  he 
caused  all  the  images  which  the  usurper  had  set  up, 
to  be  taken  down  again  and  destroyed,  assuring  the 
people,  that  he  would  take  care,  as  soon  as  he  was 
disengaged  from  his  wars,  and  had  settled  the  empire 
in  peace,  to  have  the  subject  of  the  present  fatal  dis- 
pute thoroughly  examined,  and  finally  determined,  by 
a  general  council.  He  added,  that,  as  his  father  had, 
by  repeated  edicts,  proscribed  both  the  use  and  wor- 
ship of  images,  he  would  suffer  none,  in  the  mean 
time,  to  be  worshiped,  or  to  be  set  up  in  the  places  of 
worship,  but  would  punish  with  the  utmost  severity 
all,  who  should  be  found  guilty  of  either. 

Such  is  the  account  the  two  most  credible  historians 
of  those  times.  Theophanes,  (Theoph.  ad.  Ann.  Con- 
stantin.  3.)  and  the  patriarch  Nicephorus,  (Niceph.  in 
Breviar.  ad  Ann.  2.)  have  given  us  of  the  present  re- 


should  prevail.  Constantine  prevailed  in  the 
end ;  and  he  was  no  sooner  seated  agaia 
quietly  on  the  throne,  than  he  sent  for  them, 
and  received  them  with  the  greatest  marks 
of  kindness  and  esteem.  It  does  not  appear, 
that  of  the  controversy  about  images  any 
mention  was  made  either  by  the  legates  ia 
the  audience  they  had,  or  by  the  pope  in  his 
letter.  For  all  Anastasius,  the  only  writer 
who  speaks  of  that  legation,  says  of  it  is, 
that  the  legates  were  well  received  by  the 
emperor;  and  that  "he  granted,  agreeably 
to  the  request  of  his  holiness  pope  Zachary, 
certain  crown  lands,  called  Nymphas  and 
Nornias,  to  be  for  ever  held  and  possessed 
by  the  said  most  holy  pope,  and  the  holy 
Roman  see."'  And  here  it  is  to  be  observed, 
that,  though  the  late  pope  Gregory  III.,  de- 
pending on  the  protection  of  Charles  Martel, 
had  openly  withdrawn  himself,  with  the 
city  and  dukedom  of  Rome,  from  all  sub- 
jection to  the  emperor  Leo ;  his  successor 
Zachary,  who  had  no  such  protector,  to 
amuse  Constantine,  and  divert  him  from 
sending  an  army,  as  he  had  threatened  to 
do,  against  the  rebels  in  Rome,  not  only 
pretended  to  acknowledge  him  for  his  law- 
ful sovereign,  but  found  means  to  persuade 
him,  that  he  had  nothing  so  much  at  heart 
as  the  re-establishing  of  his  authority  in  the 
provinces,  that  remained  to  the  empire  in 
Italy.  Constantine  therefore,  wholly  intent 
on  improving  to  the  advantage  of  the  empire 
the  intestine  broils,  that  reigned,  at  this  time, 
among  the  Saracens,  left  the  care  of  his  af- 
fairs in  the  west  entirely  to  the  pope, 
whose  interest  it  was,  as  he  well  knew,  to 
prevent  the  Lombards,  the  only  enemy  the 
empire  had  in  those  parts,  from  enlarging 
their  dominions,  and  becoming  more  power- 
ful. The  legates  brought  with  them,  on 
their  return  to  Rome,  and  delivered  to  the 
pope,  a  grant  of  the  above-mentioned  lands 
signed  by  the  emperor  himself. 

In  the  mean  time  the  king  of  the  Lom- 
bards, taking  advantage  of  the  disturbances, 
that  reigned  in  the  east,  broke  unexpectedly 
into  the  exarchate,  made  himself  master  of 
the  castle  of  Cesena,  a  place  of  great  strength 
and  importance,  and  was  preparing  to 
lay  siege  to  Ravenna  itself.  As  neither  that 
nor  the  other  cities  of  the  exarchate 
were  any-ways  in  a  condition  to  withstand 
so  powerful  an  enemy,  and  no  succors  could 
be   sent,  or,  though   sent,  could   arrive   in 


volution  ;  an  account  very  different  from  that,  which 
the  reader  will  find  in  the  more  modern  Greek  writers, 
representing  Constantine  as  acting,  on  the  present 
occasion,  with  an  unheard  of  barbarity;  as  unpeo- 
pling the  city  with  executions;  as  sparing  none,  but 
racking,  maiming,  or  putting  to  the  most  cruel  deaths, 
all,  who  were  any  ways  concerned,  or  only  suspected 
to  have  been  any  ways  concerned  in  the  revolt.  But, 
as  the  facts  they  relate  were  either  utterly  unknown 
to  the  above-mentioned  historians,  and  other  contem- 
porary writers,  or  looked  upon  by  them  as  fabulous, 
we  too  may  well  be  allowed  to  look  upon  them  in  that, 
and  no  other  light. 
>  Anast.  in  Zacb, 


Zachary.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


81 


Tbc  exarch  and  the  pijople  apply  to  the  pope  ;  who  sends  a  solemn  legation  to  the  king.  The  pope  un 
a  journey  to  Pavia,  to  treat  in  person  with  the  king.  Is  well  received,  and  obtains  of  him  whatever  h 
Council  assembled  in  Rome,  to  restore  the  decayed  discipline. 


dertakes 
:ver  be  asked. 


time  from  the  east,  Eutychius,  at  this  time 
exarch,  having  no  other  resource,  resolved 
to  recur  to  the  pope.  And  to  him  was  sent 
accordingly  a  solemn  deputation  in  tlie  name 
of  the  exarch,  of  John,  archbishop  of  Ra- 
venna, and  of  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  ex- 
archate, for  they  all  joined,  earnestly  en- 
treating his  holiness  to  interpose  his  good 
offices,  in  their  behalf,  with  the  king.  Za- 
chary, jealous,  as  his  predecessors  ever  had 
been,  of  the  growing  power  of  the  Lom- 
bards ;  and  well  apprised,  that,  should  they 
once  become  masters  of  the  exarchate,  they 
would  be  thereby  both  tempted  and  enabled 
to  make  themselves  masters  of  the  city  and 
dukedom  of  Rome ;  wanted  no  entreaties  to 
exert  all  his  credit  and  interest  with  the  king 
on  such  an  occasion.  He  therefore  dis- 
patched in  great  haste,  before  the  king  took 
the  field,  the  bishop  Benedict,  his  major 
domo,  and  Ambrose,  the  chief  of  the  nota- 
ries, to  represent  to  him  the  crying  injustice 
of  which  he  was  guilty  ;  and  the  strict  ac- 
count he  must  one  day  give  for  all  the  blood, 
that  should  be  shed  in  a  war,  which  his 
ambition  had  wantonly  kindled :  but  Luit- 
prand,  instead  of  hearkening  to  their  repre- 
sentations, ordered  his  army,  while  they 
were  still  at  Pavia,  to  assemble  in  that  neigh- 
borhood, determined  to  march  at  their  head, 
as  soon  as  they  were  assembled,  straight  to 
Ravenna. 

Of  this  the  pope  was  no  sooner  informed, 
than,  apprehending  the  whole  exarchate,  as 
as  well  as  the  city  of  Ravenna,  to  be  in  im- 
minent danger  of  becoming  soon  a  prey  to 
the  Lombards,  he  resolved  to  repair  in  per- 
son to  Pavia,  and  try  a  second  time  \vhat 
effect  his  presence  might  have  on  the  king. 
He  set  out  accordingly  without  delay, 
and,  taking  Ravenna  in  his  way,  he  en- 
tered that  city  attended  by  the  exarch, 
who  had  gone  a  whole  day's  journey  to  meet 
him,  and  by  all  the  nobility,  as  well  as  the 
officers,  both  civil  and  military,  and  amidst 
the  loud  acclamations  of  the  people,  who 
looked  upon  him  as  their  deliverer,  and  their 
only  refuge  in  their  present  distress.  From 
Ravenna  he  dispatched  Stephen,  the  pres- 
byter, and  Ambrose,  the  chief  of  the  nota- 
ries, to  acquaint  the  king  with  his  arrival  in 
that  city,  and  his  design  of  advancing  to 
Pavia  to  confer  with  him  in  person.  The 
king,  unwilling  to  be  diverted  from  his  in- 
tended expedition,  would  not  hear  the  le- 
gates, nor  admit  them  to  his  presence:  but 
the  pope,  who  had  followed  them,  arriving 
in  the  mean  time  in  the  neighborhood,  the 
king  sent  out  all  the  chief  men  of  his  court 
to  receive  him,  and  attend  him  into  the  city. 
The  next  day,  the  festival  of  St.  Peter,  the 
pope  performed  divine  service  with  great 
solemnity  in  the  church  of  that  apostle, 
standing  uMthout  the  walls  of  the  city ;  and 
returning  with  the  king,  who  had  assisted  at 

Vol.  II.— II 


the  service,  to  the  palace,  he  was  there,  by 
him  magnificently  entertained,  with  all  the 
ecclesiastics  who  attended  him. 

The  day  after,  the  pope  and  the  king  had 
a  private  conference ;  and,  in  that  confer- 
ence, the  king,  after  having  withstood,  for  a 
long  while,  all  the  reasons,  remonstrances, 
entreaties,  of  the  pope,  yielded  at  last,  and 
was  persuaded,  post  multam  duritiam,  says 
Anastasius,  not  only  to  conclude  a  peace 
with  the  exarch,  and  the  people  of  Ravenna, 
but  to  restore  Cesena,  and  all  the  other 
places  he  had  taken.  He  attended  the  pope, 
at  his  departure,  to  the  banks  of  the  Po,  and 
there,  taking  leave  of  him  with  the  warmest 
expressions  of  friendship,  appointed  some  of 
his  chief  lords  to  deliver  up  to  him  the  places 
he  had  seized,  and  wait  on  him  to  the  bor- 
ders of  his  kingdom.'  Zachary  must  surely 
have  been  a  man  of  great  parts,  as  well  as 
great  eloquence,  else  he  could  never  thus 
have  persuaded  so  warlike  a  prince  as  Luit- 
prand  to  lay  down  his  arms,  and  live  io 
peace,  when  he  had  good  reason  to  promise 
himself  the  greatest  advantages  from  a  war. 
Baronius^  and  Pagi^  observe  here,  after  De 
Marca,''  that  the  preservation  of  the  imperial 
dominions  in  Italy  was  entirely  owing  to  the 
popes;  and  consequently,  that  the  loss  of 
those  provinces  has,  by  the  modern  Greek 
writers,  with  the  utmost  injustice  been  laid 
to  their  charge.  Indeed,  the  popes,  it  must 
be  owned,  prevented  the  Lombards  from 
making  themselves  masters  of  the  few  pro- 
vinces, that  still  remained  to  the  empire  in 
Italy ;  and,  in  that  sense,  they  may  be  said 
to  have  preserved  them  :  but  that  they  acted 
for  themselves,  while  they  pretended  to  act 
for  the  emperors,  that  they  preserved  them 
for  themselves,  and  not  for  the  emperors, 
will  appear  in  the  sequel. 

As  several  abuses  prevailed  at  this  time  ia 
the  churches  of  Italy,  especially  in  the 
churches  immediately  subject  to  the  Roman 
see,  the  two  preceding  popes  having  suffered 
their  attention  to  be  entirely  engrossed  by 
the  dispute  about  images  ;  Zachary,  on  his 
return  to  Rome,  after  celebrating  anew  the 
festival  of  St.  Peter,  and  returning  public 
thanks  for  the  success  of  his  negotiations, 
assembled  a  council,  to  restore  the  decayed 
discipline,  and  enforce  the  observance  of 
the  canons.  The  council  met  in  the  church 
of  St.  Peter,  and  consisted  of  forty  bishops, 
all  of  Italy,  twenty-two  presbyters,  six  dea- 
cons, and  all  the  clergy  of  Rome.  By  them 
were  issued  thirteen  canons,  most  of  thera 
tending  to  restrain  the  bishops,  presbyters, 
and  deacons  from  all  intercourse  with  wo- 
men, from  suffering  any  to  dwell  with  them 
besides  their  mothers,  their  sisters,  and  their 
nearest  relations.     How  many  canons  have 

'  Anast.  in  Zach.  «  Bar.  ad  Ann.  743.  p.  156. 

'  Anton.  Pagi  ad  Ann.  743.  n.  14. 
'  Marca  de  Concord.  1.  3.  c.  11.  n.  5. 


82 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Zachary. 


Zachary  receives  a  letter  from  Boniface  : — [Year  of  Christ,  744.]     The  churches  of  France  and  Germany  dis- 
turbed by  two  impostors  : — [Year  of  Christ,  745.]     The  errors  of  Adalbert. 


been  made  for  that  purpcse  since  celibacy  was 
first  introduced !  What  trouble  would  not 
the  bishops,  the  popes,  and  the  councils,  have 
saved  themselves — what  scandals  would 
they  not  have  prevented,  by  allowing  the 
clergy  to  marry  !  By  the  same  council  mar- 
riage was  declared  incestuous,  and  forbidden 
on  pain  of  excommunication,  between  a 
man  and  his  niece,  his  step-mother,  his 
brother's  widow,  his  cousin-german,' orany 
nearly  related  to  him;  that  is,  within  the 
seventh  degree  of  consanguinity  or  affinity .2 
In  the  church  of  Rome  such  marriages  are 
still  deemed  incestuous,  and  are  forbidden  to 
the  poor,  who  cannot  purchase  dispensa- 
tions ;  but  are  free  from  all  incest,  and  al- 
lowed to  the  rich,  who  can. 

The  following  year  Zachary  received  a 
letter  from  Boniface,  charging  him,  to  his 
great  surprise,  with  simony,  in  taking  money 
for  the  palls,  which  he  had,  at  his  request, 
sent  to  some  of  the  German  bishops.  The 
letter  of  Boniface  has  not  reached  our  times, 
but  the  pope's  answer  to  it  has  :  and  it  is 
observable,  that  Zachary  does  not,  in  his 
answer,  recur  to  any  of  the  distinctions  used 
by  the  modern  popes  and  divines,  to  excuse 
from  simony  the  receiving  of  money  on 
such  an  occasion;  but  supposing  that  it  was 
simony  to  exact  or  receive  any,  he  denies 
the  charge,  and  finds  fault  with  Boniface 
for  giving  credit  to  so  scandalous  a  report. 
"  Far  be  it  from  us,"  sa^s  he,  "  to  take  or 
exact  any  thing  whatever  for  the  palls  we 
bestow.  We  neither  require,  receive,  nor 
even  expect  any  thing  for  them,  but  freely 
give  what  we  have  freely  received,  anathe- 
matizing all,  who  presume  to  sell  the  gifts 
of  the  Holy  Ghost.'"'  Thus  Zachary  ;  and 
yet  the  pall,  for  which  it  was,  in  the  opinion 
of  this  great  pope,  simony  to  exact  or  receive 


'  Till  the  time  of  Theodosius  there  was  no  law,  civil 
or  ecclesiastical,  against  the  marriage  of  cousin-ger- 
mans;  but  that  emperor,  by  an  express  law,  forbid 
cousin-germans  to  marry,  on  pain  of  having  their 
goods  confiscated,  and  being  themselves  burnt  alive. — 
(Cod.  Theodos.  1.  3.  tit.  10.)  His  law  Arcadius  con- 
firmed, but  mitigated  the  punishment,  only  rendering 
all  intestable,  who  contracted  such  marriages,  and 
tlieir  children  illegitimate.— (Cod.  tit.  12.  leg.  3.)  Not 
satisfied  with  mitigating  the  punishment,  he  after- 
wards revoked  the  law  ;  allowed  cousin-germans  to 
marry ;  forbid  any  action  or  accusation  to  be  brought 
against  them,  on  account  of  their  marriage  ;  and  de- 
clared their  children,  whether  they  themselves  were 
the  children  of  two  brothers  or  two  sisters,  or  of  a  sis- 
ter .and  a  brother,  legitimate,  or  lawfully  begotten. — 
(Cod.  Justin.  1.  5.  tit.  4.  leg.  19.)  This  law  Justinian 
inserted  both  in  his  code  and  his  institutions;  (Cod. 
Justin,  ibid,  et  Institut.  1.  1.  tit.  10.)  and  thus  it  be- 
came the  standing  law  of  the  empire.  The  church 
however  kept,  and  still  keeps,  to  the  antiquated  law  of 
Theodosius,  in  opposition  to  some  of  her  most  eminent 
teachers,  or  fathers,  declaring  such  marriages  in  them- 
selves absolutely  lawful. — (Athan.  Synops.  Scriptur. 
Lib.  Numeror.  T.  2.  p.  70.  et  Aug.  de  Civ.  Dei,  1.  15. 
c.  16.) 

»  Till  the  fourth  Lateran  council,  held  under  Inno- 
cent HI.,  in  1215,  marriages  were  forbidden  by  the 
canons,  within  the  seventh  degree  of  affinity,  as  well 
as  consanguinity.  But  by  that  council  the  prohibition 
was  restrained  to  the  fourth  degree. — (Concil.  Lateran. 
4.  Can.  50.) 
'  Zach.  ep.  5. 


any  thing  whatever,  is  now,  and  has  long 
been,  one  of  the  chief  funds  of  the  papal 
see."  We  must  therefore  either  allow  Za- 
chary to  have  erred  in  his  notion  of  simony, 
or  his  successors  to  be  notoriously  guilty  of 
that  crime,  or,  as  he  calls  it,  heresy. 

At  this  time  the  churches  of  Germany, 
which  Boniface  had  founded,  and  those  of 
France,  were  greatly  disturbed  by  two  noto- 
rious impostors  and  heretics,  as  Boniface 
styles  them,  Adalbert,  and  Clement,  the 
former  a  native  of  France,  and  the  latter  of 
Scotland.  Adalbert  pretended  to  have  been 
sanctified  in  the  womb,  to  have  been  chosen 
by  God,  and  sent  into  the  world  to  reform 
the  manners  of  mankind,  and  retrieve  them 
from  their  wickedness.  Having  persuaded, 
or,  as  Boniface  writes  to  the  pope,  bribed 
some  bishops  to  ordain  him  bishop,  he  gave 
out,  that  God  had  vested  him  with  greater 
power  than  any  of  the  apostles,  and  raised 
him  to  a  degree  of  sanctity  above  them  all ; 
and  therefore  scorning  to  consecrate  churches 
to  St.  Peter,  to  St.  Paul,  or  to  any  other 
apostle  or  martyr,  he  consecrated  them  only 
to  St.  Adalbert,  that  is,  to  himself.  As  Bo- 
niface had  introduced  into  Germany  the  wor- 
ship of  relics,  Adalbert,  to  humor  the  su- 
perstition of  the  populace,  pretended  to  have 
some  of  an  extraordinary  virtue,  brought  to 
him  by  an  angel  from  the  most  distant  parts 
of  the  world ;  nay,  and  distributed  among 
his  followers  his  own  hair,  and  the  parings 
of  his  nails,  as  relics  no  less  worthy  of 
worship  than  any  that  were  worshiped  at 
the  tombs  of  the  apostles.  When  the  peo- 
ple came  to  confess  their  sins  to  him,  he 
would  not  hear  them ;  saying,  they  might 
save  themselves  the  trouble  of  telling  their 
sins  to  him,  since  he  knew  better  than  they 
what  sins  they  were  guilty  of;  nothing 
being  concealed  from  him,  not  even  their 
most  private  thoughts  and  intentions.  He 
wrote  his  own  life  under  the  following  title; 
"  The  Life  of  the  holy  and  blessed  Bishop 
Adalbert,  the  elect  of  God;"  filled  with 
most  absurd,  ridiculous,  and  incredible  sto- 
ries, though  none  of  them  more  absurd, 
more  ridiculous  and  incredible,  than  many 
we  read  in  the  approved  legends.  In  his 
life  he  pretended  to  have  received  a  letter 
from  our  Savior,  who,  he  said,  had  dispatch- 
ed an  angel  with  it  from  heaven.  He  had 
probably  heard  of  our  Savior's  letter  to  Ab- 
garus,  king  of  Edessa,  and  thought  that  the 
one  tale  might  be  believed  as  well  as  the  other. 
He  scorned  to  pray  to  saints,  looking  upon 
himself  as  superior  to  them  all ;  but  never- 
theless, invoked  the  angels  under  the  names 
of  Uriel,  Raguel,  Tubuel,  Michael,  Incar, 
Tubicas,  Sabaoc,  Simiel.  He  did  not  con- 
tinue long  in  one  place,  but  traveling  from 
town  to  town,  was  everywhere  followed, 
notwithstanding  the  gross  absurdities  he  ad- 


«  See  vol.  L  p.  430.  note  (t). 


Zachary.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


83 


The  errors  of  Clement.     Adalbert  and  Clement  condemned  in  a  council  held  at  Rome.      Carloman  arrives  at 
Rome  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  746 ;]— and  there  embraces  a  monastic  life  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  747.] 


vanced,  by  such  multitudes  of  the  seduced 
populace,  that  no  church  being  capable  of 
holding  them,  he  was  obliged,  like  the  stroll- 
ing impostors  and  fanatics  of  our  days,  to 
preach  in  the  fields,  and  the  fields  were  filled, 
as  Boniface  complained  in  his  letter  to  the 
pope,  while  the  churches  were  left  quite 
empty. 

As  for  Clement,  he  rejected  the  authority 
of  the  canons ;  understood  the  Scriptures  in 
a  different  sense  from  that  in  which  they 
were  understood  by  the  fathers ;  maintained, 
that  though  he  had  two  children  begotten  in 
adultery,  yet  he  was  still  a  true  bishop; 
thought  it  lawful  for  a  man  to  marry  his 
brother's  widow ;  taught  that  Christ,  on  his 
descent  into  hell,  delivered  all  who  were  de- 
tained there,  the  believers  as  well  as  the  un- 
believers, the  worshipers  of  the  true  God  as 
well  as  the  worshipers  of  images  ;  and  held 
several  heterodox  opinions  concerning  pre- 
destination.' 

Boniface   had   condemned    and   deposed 
both   Adalbert  and  Clement,  in  a  council 
held  under  Carloman  ;  nay,  and  had  per- 
suaded that  prince  to  cause  them  to  be  ap- 
prehended, and   closely  confined.     But  of 
that  severity,  the  populace,  ever  fond  of  new 
doctrines,  however  absurd,  and  new  preach- 
ers, loudly  complained  ;  and  even  threatened 
Boniface  for  depriving  them  of  their  holy 
apostle,  meaning  Adalbert,  of  their  great 
preacher,  of  one,   whom  they  themselves 
had  seen  work  no  less  stupendous  miracles, 
than  any  that  are  said  to  have  been  wrought 
by  the  apostles.     Boniface  therefore,  think- 
ing they  might  acquiesce  in  his  judgment, 
were  it  confirmed  by  the  pope,  dispatched  to 
Rome  the  presbyter  Deneard,  with  a  copy 
of  the  acts  of  his  council,  and  the  original 
pieces,  that  had  been  produced  against  the 
two  impostors,  and  for  which  they  had  both 
been   condemned.     Zachary,  upon  the   re- 
ceipt of  those  papers,  and  the  letter,  which 
Boniface  wrote  to  him  on  that  occasion,  en- 
treating his  holiness  to   confirm  the  judg- 
ment he  had  given,  assembled  a  council  to 
re-examine  the  cause.     The  council   con- 
sisted of  seven  bishops,  and  seventeen  pres- 
byters ;  and  by  them  the  judgment  of  Boni- 
face was  approved  and  confirmed,  and  the 
two  heretics  condemned  anew,  excommuni- 
cated, and  anathematized  with  all  their  fol- 
lowers.    The  life  of  Adalbert,  written   by 
himself,  the  letter  which   he  pretended   to 
have  received  from  our  Savior,  and  a  prayer 
he  had  composed  to  the  angels  mentioned 
above,  were,  by  the  council,  declared  blas- 
phemous, and   condemned  to  the  fiames  : 
but  the  pope  reprieved  them,  and  ordered 
them  to  be  lodged  in  the  archives  of  his 
church  .2 

The  following  year  arrived  at  Rome,  with 
a  great  retinue,  and  many  rich  presents  for 


the  pope  and  St.  Peter,  Carloman,  the  eldest 
son  of  Charles  Martel,  and  brother  of  Pepin. 
He  had  governed,  with  great  glory,  the  king- 
dom of  Austrasia  ever  since  the  death  of  his 
father,  and  gained,  by  several  remarkable 
victories,  the  reputation  of  a  brave  and  able 
commander :  but  he  was,  at  the  same  time, 
a  prince  of  great  religion  and  piety,  accord- 
ing to  the  notion  men  then  entertained  of 
religion  and  piety  ;  and  therefore  resolved, 
when  at  the  height  of  his  glory,  to  abandon 
the  world,  and  retire  to  a  monastery,  the 
monastic  profession  being  universally  looked 
upon,  not  only  as  of  all  others  the   most 
pleasing  to  God,  but  as  the  only  safe  and 
sure  way  to  heaven.     Pursuant  to  that  re- 
solution he  resigned  the  dominions  he  govern- 
ed to  his  brother,  who,  it  seems,  took  no 
great  pains  to  divert  him  from  so  godly  a 
design;   and,   to  the  great  surprise  of  all 
France,  retired  to  Rome,  to  receive  there  the 
monastic  habit  at  the  hands  of  the  pope.     As 
he  had  countenanced  and  assisted  Boniface 
to  the  utmost  of  his  power,  in  the  conversion 
of  Germany,  most  of  the  nations  to  which 
that  missionary  preached,  being  subject  to 
France ;  and  had  spared  no  pains  to  restore, 
in  the  dominions  he  governed,  the  ecclesiasti- 
cal discipline  entirely  neglected,  and  reform 
the  manners  of  the  monks  and  the  clergy, 
distinguished,  at  that  time,  only  by  their  vices, 
and  more  debauched  lives,  from  the  laity  ;' 
the  pope  received  him  with  most  extraordi- 
nary marks  of  respect  and  esteem,  and  en- 
tertained him  in  a  manner  quite  suitable  to 
his  rank,  during  the  short  time  he  continued 
at  Rome.     He  had  no  sooner  visited  the 
tombs  of  the  apostles,  and  the  other  reputed 
holy  places  of  that  city,  than,  dismissing  his 
retinue,  and  putting  on  the  monastic  habit, 
delivered  to  him  with  the  usual  ceremony  by 
the  pope,  he  withdrew  to  mount  Soracte, 
now  mount  St.  Sylvester,  and  there  built  a 
monastery.     But  as  that  place  was  distant 
only   a    few   miles   from    Rome,   he  sooa 
quitted  it  to  avoid  the  frequent  visits  of  the 
French,  who  came  to  that  city  ;  and  retiring, 
by  the  advice  of  the  pope,  to  the  more  re- 
mote  monastery   of  Monte  Cassino,  spent 
there  the  remaining  part  of  his  life.     He  is 
said  to  have  chosen  and  discharged,  with 


i  Epist.  Bonifac.  138. 


a  ConcU.  t.  6.  p.  1556. 


'  lie  had  assembled  three  councils  for  that  purpose, 
one  in  742,  another  in  743,  and  a  third  in  745,  and  as- 
sisted at  them  all  in  person.  That  of  743,  was  held  at 
Estines,  the  palace  of  the  kings  of  Austrasia,  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Cambrai.  Where  the  other  two  were 
held  we  know  not.  At  the.se  councils  Carloman  is 
said  to  have  presided,  and  Boniface  to  have  held,  as 
legate  of  the  apostolic  see,  the  first  place  among  the 
bishops.  Among  the  other  regulations  they  made  for 
the  reformation  of  the  manners  of  the  clergy,  it  was 
ordained  by  the  sixth  canon  of  the  tirst  council,  that 
such  priests,  as  were  found  guilty  of  fornication, 
should  be  whipped  to  bleeding,  should  be  imprisoned 
for  two  years,  and,  besides,  undergo  what  other  pe- 
nance the  bishop  should  think  fit  to  impose  on  them; 
and  that  the  inferior  clergy,  the  monks,  and  the  nuns, 
nonna,  if  guilty  of  the  same  crime,  should  be  thrice 
whipped  in  the  same  manner,  and  imprisoned  for  a 
twelvemonth. 


84 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Zachary. 


The  death  and  character  of  Luitprand,  king  of  the  Lombards.     Rachis  chosen  in  his  room.     He  invades  the 
Roman  dukedom,  and  besieges  Perugia  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  748.]     The  pope  repairs  to  his  camp. 


great  cheerfulness,  the  meanest  offices  of 
the  monastery,  to  have  even  served  in  the 
kitchen,  to  have  kept  the  sheep  of  the 
monastery,  and  to  have  worked,  like  a  day- 
laborer,  in  the  garden.'  Superstition  will 
soon  prevail,  if  men  once  give  way  to  it, 
and  extinguish,  if  not  withstood  in  time,  all 
reason,  and  even  common  sense.  It  was  no 
unusual  thing,  in  these  superstitious  and 
dark  ages,  for  a  king  to  exchange  the  royal 
diadem  for  the  cowl  of  a  monk.  Ceolwlf, 
king  of  Northumberland,  had  lately  (in  737,) 
made  that  exchange,  and  he  was  the  eighth 
Anglo-Saxon  king  that  had  made  it. 

In  the  mean  time  died  Luitprand,  king  of 
the  Lombards,  after  he  had  governed,  with 
great  glory,  that  warlike  nation  thirty-one 
years  and  seven  months.  The  contempo- 
rary writers  all  bestow  on  him  the  highest 
commendations,  and  paint  him  as  a  prince 
endowed  with  every  good  quality  becoming 
a  prince.  He  was  a  man,  says  Paulus  Dia- 
conus,  of  great  wisdom,  sagacity,  and  reli- 
gion ;  formidable  in  war,  but  a  lover  of 
peace ;  merciful  to  delinquents,  generous  to 
the  poor,  free  from  all  pride,  an  enemy  to 
all  ostentation  and  pomp,  chaste,  just,  mo- 
derate in  the  exercise  of  his  power,  benefi- 
cent even  to  his  enemies,  the  father  of  his 
people,  a  wise  lawgiver,  and,  though  igno- 
rant of  letters,  equal  in  wisdom  to  the 
greatest  philosophers.  He  built  and  endow- 
ed a  great  number  of  chnrches  and  monas- 
teries, and  appointed,  what  no  king  had 
done  before  him,  priests,  and  other  eccle- 
siastics, to  sing  daily  divine  service  to  him 
in  a  chapel,  which  he  built  for  that  purpose 
in  his  palace.2  Thus  Paulus  Diaconus,  who 
closes  his  history  of  the  Lombards  with  the 
death  of  this  king.  Luitprand  left  the  king- 
dom of  the  Lombards  in  a  most  flourishing 
condition,  and  considerably  enlarged  Avith 
the  addition  of  several  cities  of  the  Penta- 
polis,  and  the  greater  part  of  .^Emilia,  which 
he  seized,  improving  to  his  advantage  the 
disturbances  that  were  raised  by  the  pope 
and  the  Romans  in  Italy.  He  had  it  in  his 
power,  during  those  disturbances,  to  have 
made  himself,  and  almost  without  opposi- 
tion, master  of  all  Italy  :  but  hearkening  to 
the  exhortations  and  remonstrances  of  the 
popes,  he  suffered  himself,  out  of  the  great 
regard  he  had  for  them,  though  he  knew 
them  to  be  the  avowed  enemies  of  the  whole 
Lombard  nation,  to  be  diverted  from  pursu- 
ing his  conquests,  and  extending  his  king- 
dom.''    Upon    his  death,  Hildebrand,  his 


«  Continual.  Fredegar.  c.  110.  Eginard  in  Annal.  ad 
Ann.  746.  Chron.  Cassin.  I.  1.  c.  7. 

9  Paul.  Diac.  I.  6.  c.  57,  58. 

'  The  reign  of  Luitprand  is  for  nothing  more  re- 
markable in  the  annals  of  the  church,  than  for  the  dis- 
covery and  translation  of  the  body  of  St.  Austin,  or  of 
a  body  said  and  believed  to  be  his.  It  was  discovered 
in  Sardinia  ;  and  though  nobody  knew  how,  when,  or 
by  whom,  it  was  conveyed  from  Africa  to  that  Island. 
Luitprand  was  convinced,  by  the  many  miracles  which 


grandson,  whom  he  had  taken  for  his  partner 
in  the  kingdom  ever  since  the  year  736,  go- 
verned alone.'  But  the  Lombards,  finding 
him  quite  unequal  to  so  great  a  charge,  and 
besides,  of  a  cruel,  savage,  and  intractable 
temper,  deposed  him,  after  a  short  reign  of 
seven  months,  and  raised  Rachis,  duke  of 
Friuli,  a  person  highly  esteemed  for  his 
wisdom,  his  piety,  and  experience  in  war, 
to  the  throne  in  his  room.*^ 

Zachary  was  no  sooner  informed  of  the 
promotion  of  Rachis,  than  he  sent  a  solemn 
legation  to  the  new  king,  to  confirm  the 
twenty  years'  peace,  which  his  predecessor 
had  granted  to  him  and  the  Romans.  That 
peace  Rachis  readily  confirmed,  out  of  the 
great  veneration  which  he  had  and  profess- 
ed, says  Anastasius,  for  the  prince  of  the 
apostles.  The  cause  of  the  pope  was  now 
become  the  cause  of  the  prince  of  the  apos- 
tles; and  the  favors  or  injuries,  done  to  the 
pope,  were  done  to  the  prince  of  the  apos- 
tles. However,  Rachis  had  no  sooner  set- 
tled, to  his  satisfaction,  the  afTairs  of  his 
kingdom,  than,  forgetting  the  peace  he  had 
confirmed,  and  thinking  he  might,  without 
offending  St.  Peter,  seize  on  the  territories, 
that  neither  belonged  to  him  nor  the  pope, 
but  to  the  emperor,  he  broke  suddenly  into 
the  dukedom  of  Rome,  made  himself  master 
of  several  strong  places  there,  and  advancing 
to  Perugia,  laid  close  siege  to  that  city  :  but 
he  had  been  only  a  few  days  before  it,  when 
news  was  brought  him  of  the  arrival  of  the 
pope  in  that  neighborhood,  attended  by  the 
chief  men  of  his  clergy,  and  of  the  Roman 
nobility.  For  Zachary,  leaving  Rome  upon 
the  first  intelligence  of  that  unexpected  in- 
vasion, had  set  out  in  great  haste  for  the 
king's  camp  at  Perugia,  not  doubting,  as  he 
was  well  acquainted  with  the  character  of 
that  prince,  but  his  presence,  his  entreaties, 
exhortations,  remonstrances,  would  have  the 
same  effect  upon  him,  as  they  had  had,  on 
two  different  occasions,  upon  his  warlike 
predecessor,  and  work  the  same  change  in 
the  one,  as  they  had  wrought  in  the  other. 
And  truly,  Rachis  no  sooner  heard  of  his 


he  was  told  it  had  wrought,  that  it  was  the  true  body 
of  that  great  saint.  He  therefore  caused  it  to  be 
translated,  with  great  pomp  and  solemnity,  from  Sar- 
dinia to  Pavia,  the  metropolis  of  his  kingdom,  and  to 
be  deposited  there  in  a  most  magnificent  church,  which 
he  built,  at  an  immense  expense,  for  its  reception. — 
(Bed.  1.  de  Sex  jEtat.  Paul.  Diac.  1.  6.  c.  48.)  The 
anniversary  of  that  translation  is  kept  to  this  day ; 
(Martyr.  Rom.  prid.  Kalend.  Martii.)  and  as  we  read 
of  no  other  translation,  the  body  is  supposed  still  to 
remain  in  the  same  church,  the  churcli  of  St.  Peter, 
in  cxlo  aureo,  though  nobody  can  tell  in  what  place. 
The  letter,  which  Baronius  produces,  containing  a 
distinct  account  of  this  translation,  is  now  by  all  re- 
jected as  spurious.— (Vide  Pagi  ad  Ann.  725.  n.  11.) 

»  Luitprand  being  seized  that  year  with  a  dangerous 
malady,  and  thought  past  recovery,  the  Lombards, 
without  waiting  for  his  death,  proclaimed  Hildebrand 
king.  This  Luitprand  took  very  much  amiss  ;  but  yet, 
upon  his  recovery,  allowed  Hildebrand  to  keep  the 
title  of  king,  and  to  reign  together  with  him. —  (Paul, 
Diac.  1.  6.  c.  55.) 

a  Paul.  Diac.  1.  9.  c.  55.  Sigebert.  ad  Ann.  743. 


Zacharv. 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


85 


The  pope  persuades  Rachis  to  raise  the  siege,  and  restore  the  places  he  had  taken 

s  brot 

752.] 


_.  .         -  He  resigns  his  kingdom, 

and  retires  to  a  monastery ; — [Year  of  Christ,  749. J     Aistulphus,  his  brother,  chosen  in  his  room.     Pepin  of 
forms  the  design  of  seizing  on  the  crown  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  "'"  ^ 


France  i 


arrival,  than,  suspending  all  hostile  opera- 
tions, and  interrupting  the  siege,  he  detach- 
ed great  part  of  the  army  to  attend  him  to 
the  camp,  Avent  out,  as  he  approached,  in 
person  to  receive  him,  and  paid  him  the 
same  honors  he  would  have  paid  to  St.  Pe- 
ter himself.  The  pope  had  brought  with 
him,  as  Anastasius  mforms  us,'  many  valua- 
ble presents;  (probably  some  filings  of  the 
chains  of  St.  Peter,  the  key  of  his  tomb,  or 
the  supposed  bone  of  some  supposed  saint, 
for  these  were  the  valuable  presents,  which 
the  popes  now  commonly  dealt  in,)  and 
having  with  them  gained  the  good  will,  and 
engaged  the  attention  of  the  king,  he  repre- 
sented to  him,  with  such  force  and  energy, 
the  injustice  and  violence  of  which  he  was 
guilty,  in  thus  making  war  without  the  least 
provocation,  in  causing  the  innocent  blood 
of  so  many  Christians  to  be  shed  merely  to 
gratify  a  criminal  ambition,  and  in  seizing, 
by  a  breach  of  the  peace,  which  he  had  so- 
lemnly confirmed  and  sworn  to  observe, 
what  he  knew  it  was  a  crime  only  to  covet; 
he  represented,  I  say,  that  injustice  and  vio- 
lence with  such  force  and  energy,  that  the 
king,  affected  beyond  all  expression  with 
his  speech,  ordered  the  siege  to  be  imme- 
diately raised,  and,  confirming  anew  the 
twenty  years'  peace,  caused  it  to  be  proclaim- 
ed at  the  head  of  the  army.  At  the  same 
time  he  gave  up  the  places  he  had  taken, 
and  solemnly  renouncing  all  right  to  them, 
left  the  pope  in  possession  of  Perugia,  and 
returned  another  man,  says  Leo  Ostiensis, 
to  Pavia.  He  had  been  there  but  a  very  short 
time,  Anastasius  says  only  a  few  days,  when 
seriously  reflecting  on  the  shortness  and 
vanity  of  all  human  grandeur,  on  the  mtiny 
almost  irresistible  temptations  which  the 
pope  had  represented  to  him  as  unavoidably 
attending  the  station  in  which  he  was  placed, 
and  the  danger  to  which  his  eternal  salva- 
tion was  thereby  exposed,  he  resolved  to  lay 
down  his  crown,  which  he  now  looked  upon 
only  as  a  burden,  and  bidding  adieu  to  the 
world,  and  all  its  allurements,  retire  to  a 
monastery.  This  resolution,  as  he  appre- 
hended it  would  meet  Avith  "■reat  opposition 
from  his  people,  who  not  only  loved,  but,  in 
a  manner,  adored  him,  he  imparted  to  none 
but  to  Thesia  his  queen,  and  his  daughter 
Uattruda :  and  with  them  he  set  out  for 
Rome,  as  if  he  only  intended  to  gratify  his 
curiosity,  in  seeing  that  once  so  famous  mis- 
tress of  the  world,  and  at  the  same  time  his 
devotion  in  visiting  the  holy  places  there, 
especially  the  tombs  of  the  apostles.  But 
soon  after  his  arrival  in  that  city,  he  declared 
to  the  Lombard  lords  who  attended  him, 
that  he  came  to  Rome  with  a  design  to  re- 
sign the  crown;  that  he  resigned  it  accord- 
ingly, and  that,  the  throne  being  now  empty, 

'  Anaet.  in  Zacb. 


they  were  at  liberty  to  place  in  it  whom  they 
pleased  in  his  room.  The  Lombard  lords', 
greatly  surprised,  and  no  less  concerned  at 
so  sudden  and  unexpected  a  resolution,  al- 
leged all  the  motives,  to  divert  the  king  from 
it,  that  their  zeal  for  the  welfare  of  their 
country  could  suggest.  But  he  persisted  ia 
his  resolution,  received  the  monastic  habit 
from  the  pope,  and  retired,  as  soon  as  he  re- 
ceived it,  to  Monte  Cassino,  whither  Carlo- 
man  had  retired  but  two  years  before.'  Some 
years  after  his  zeal  cooled,  as  we  shall  see, 
and  he  would  have  resumed  the  crown  as 
willingly  as  he  resigned  it,  notwithstanding 
the  many  temptations  and  dangers  to  which 
it  exposed  him.  But  he  found,  when  it  was 
too  late,  that  it  is  not  so  easy  a  thing  to  re- 
cover a  crown  as  to  quit  it.  Upon  his  re- 
signation, his  wife  and  his  daughter,  who 
had  attended  him  to  Rome,  attended  him 
from  thence  to  Monte  Cassino ;  and  there, 
following  his  example,  retired  into  a  monas- 
tery of  virgins,  built  and  richly  endowed  by 
them  in  that  neighborhood.^ 

The  Lombards  were  no  sooner  informed 
of  the  resignation  of  Rachis,  than,  as- 
sembling in  Pavia,  they  chose  his  brother 
Aistulphus,  or  Astulphus,  in  his  room,  a 
man  of  a  warlike  genius,  and  one,  who  de- 
lighted in  nothing  so  much  as  in  war.  His 
promotion  gave  no  small  uneasiness  to  the 
pope  and  the  Romans ;  but  nevertheless 
Zachary  took  care,  upon  the  first  notice  he 
had  of  it,  to  congratulate  the  new  king,  by 
a  solemn  legation,  in  his  own  name,  and  in 
the  name  of  the  Romans,  the  peculiar  peo- 
ple of  the  prince  of  the  apostles,  on  his  being 
raised  by  the  suffrages  of  his  people,  to  the 
high  station,  of  which  his  eminent  virtues 
had  rendered  him  of  all  the  most  worthy. 
The  legates  were  well  received  by  the  king, 
who,  at  their  request,  confirmed  the  peace 
which  his  two  immediate  predecessors  had 
granted  ;  but  observed  it,  as  we  shall  see,  a 
very  short  time. 

Of  Zachary  nothing  else  occurs  in  history 
worthy  of  notice,  till  the  year  752,  a  year 
memorable  in  the  annals  of  France  for  the 
revolution,  that  happened  then  in  that  king- 
dom ;  and  no  less  memorable  in  the  annals 
of  the  Roman  church  for  the  part,  that  Za- 
chary acted  on  that  occasion,  and  the  ad- 
vantages, that  accrued,  from  the  part  he 
acted,  to  his  successors  (for  he  did  not  live 
to  enjoy  them  himself.)  and  his  see.  Of  this 
revolution  the  contemporary  historians  give 
us  the  following  account.  Pepin,  the  son 
of  the  famous  Charles  Martel,  governed,  at 
this  time,  the  whole  F^rench  monarchy  under 
Childeric  III.  with  an  absolute  power,  but 
only  with  the  title  of  mayor  of  the  pakce. 
With  that  title,  or  the  titles  of  majordomos. 


■Anastin  Zach.  Leo  Oslien.  in  Chron.  Casin.  c.  8. 
Sigebert  in  Chron. 
a  Leo  Ostien.  Anast.  ibid. 

H 


86 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Zachart. 


Pepin  imparts  his  design  to  the  pope,  who  approves  it.     He  is  chosen  l«ing  in  the  assembly  of  the  states. 
Childeric  deposed,  and  confined  to  a  monastery. 


of  dukes,  or  princes  ot  the  French,  or  vice- 
roys, his  family  had  exercised,  for  almost  a 
whole  century,  the  sovereign  power ;  leaving 
nothing  to  the  kings,  whom  they  took  care 
to  divert,  with  all  manner  of  pleasures,  from 
attending  to  the  affairs  of  their  kingdom, 
beside  the  bare  name  of  kings.  But  the 
ambition  of  Pepin  was  not  satisfied  with  the 
power  alone.  He  was  still  a  subject ;  and, 
as  such,  still  acted  with  a  borrowed  power; 
nay,  with  a  power,  that  was,  however  king- 
ly, only  precarious,  so  long  as  disjoined 
from  the  title  of  king.  Being  therefore  be- 
come, by  the  resignation  of  his  brother,  sole 
mayor  of  the  palace,  and  regent  of  the 
kingdom,  without  either  a  rival  or  a  partner 
in  the  power,  he  began  to  think  of  adding 
the  title  to  the  power ;  of  settling  the  one  in 
his  own  family,  as  well  as  the  other;  and 
being  in  name  what  he  already  was  in  effect. 
As  most  of  the  leading  men,  in  the  church 
as  well  as  the  state,  were  his  creatures,  and 
owed  their  rank  and  preferments  to  him,  or 
his  family,  he  did  not  doubt  but  they  would 
readily  concur  with  him  in  all  his  measures. 
But  the  people,  the  far  greater  part  of  the 
nation,  were  still  zealously  attached  to  the 
family  on  the  throne,  the  family  of  the  great 
Clovis,  the  founder  of  their  monarchy  ;  and 
had  shown  on  several  occasions,  that  they 
thought  themselves  bound,  in  justice  and 
conscience,  to  maintain  his  posterity,  how- 
ever degenerate,  in  the  possession  of  a  title, 
which  they  had  so  long  enjoyed  (for  the 
space  of  near  three  hundred  years,)  and  they 
alone  had  a  right  to  enjoy.  This  Pepin  well 
knew;  and  therefore,  not  thinking  it  ad- 
visable to  attempt  the  execution  of  his  de- 
sign till  the  minds  of  the  people  were,  in 
some  degree,  reconciled  to  it ;  till  their  con- 
sciences were  quieted,  and  their  scruples  re- 
moved ;  he  resolved  to  apply,  for  that  pur- 
pose to  the  pope,  and  get  his  intended  usur- 
pation approved  and  recommended  by  him. 
As  the  pope  stood,  at  this  time,  in  great 
need  of  a  powerful  protector  against  the 
warlike  king  of  the  Lombards,  who  he  knew 
would  not  long  observe  the  peace  he  had 
made,  Pepin  did  not  at  all  doubt  but  his  holi- 
ness would  approve  his  design ;  nay,  and 
embrace,  with  great  joy,  so  favorable  an  op- 
portunity of  earning  the  protection  of  one, 
who  alone  was  powerful  enough  to  protect 
him.  He  therefore  dispatched  to  Rome, 
Biirchard,  bishop  of  Wirtzburg,  and  his  first 
chaplain  Fulrad,  abbot  of  St.  Denys,  to  pro- 
pose the  following  question  to  the  pope,  and 
desire  his  holiness,  in  his  name,  to  resolve 
it ;  namely,  "  Who  best  deserved  to  be  styled 
king ;  he,  who  was  possessed  of  the  power, 
or  he,  who  was  only  possessed  of  the  title  ?" 
The  crafty  pope  well  understood  the  true 
meaning  of  that  question ;  and  therefore 
solved  it,  we  may  be  sure,  in  favor  of  Pepin, 
declaring  that,  "in  his  opinion,  he  ought  rather 


to  be  styled  king,  who  possessed  the  power, 
than  he  who  possessed  only  the  thle." 

With  this  answer  the  deputies  no  sooner 
arrived  in  France,  than  Pepin,  finding  it  en- 
tirely agreeable  to  his  expectation  and  wishes, 
assembled,  according  to  annual  custom,  the 
states  of  the  realm  in  the  city  of  Soissons. 
As  the  greater  part  of  the  members,  who 
composed  that  assembly,  were  his  creatures, 
and  had  by  him  been  made  privy  to  his  de- 
sign, they  took  occasion,  from  the  happy 
state  of  the  nation,  and  the  many  blessings 
they  enjoyed  under  the  mild  administration 
of  Pepin,  to  extol  his  many  eminent  virtues, 
and  extraordinary  quahfications,  his  wis- 
dom, his  courage,  his  application  to  busi- 
ness, his  zeal  for  the  public  welfare,  and  the 
indefatigable  pains  he  had  taken  to  procure 
the  happiness  of  the  people,  and  enhance 
the  fame  and  glory  of  the  nation.  While 
some  thus  magnified  the  many  good  quali- 
ties of  Pepin,  others  took  care  to  exaggerate, 
as  it  were  by  way  of  contrast,  the  opposite 
qualities  of  the  unhappy  Childeric  ;  his  sloth 
and  indolence,  his  love  of  pleasures,  his 
cowardice,  his  aversion  to  business,  his 
weakness,  and  total  want  of  every  qualifica- 
tion that  was  necessary  to  direct  in  council, 
or  head  in  the  field  so  great  and  warlike  a 
nation.  They  added,  that  the  only  means  of 
ensuring  to  themselves  the  many  invaluable 
blessings  they  enjoyed,  and  for  which  they 
were  indebted  to  Pepin  alone,  was  to  ensure 
to  him  the  power,  that  had  enabled  him  to 
procure  them,  by  adding  to  it  the  title  of 
king ;  that  as  it  was  not  fit  that  the  royal 
title  should  be  separated  from  the  power, 
nor  the  royal  power  from  the  title,  they  were 
now  to  determine  which  was  most  for  the 
advantage  of  the  nation,  that  the  power 
should  be  united  to  the  title  in  Childeric,  or 
the  title  to  the  power  in  Pepin.  Here  they 
urged  the  opinion  of  the  pope,  whom,  they 
said,  they  had  consulted,  as  they  thought  it 
their  duty,  in  an  affair  of  such  moment ;  and 
his  holiness  had  not  only  approved,  but  re- 
commended to  the  assembly,  the  proposal 
they  now  made,  as  in  the  present  circum- 
stances, absolutely  necessary  for  the  safety 
and  welfare  both  of  the  church  and  the 
state. 

They  had  scarce  done  speaking,  when  the 
other  friends  of  Pepin,  who  were  privy  to 
the  secret,  hfting  him  up  on  a  shield,  ac- 
cording to  the  ancient  custom  of  the  nation, 
proclaimed  him  king ;  and  not  allowing  the 
rest  time  to  deliberate,  acknowledged  him, 
with  loud  acclamations,  for  their  lord  and 
their  sovereign.  In  the  whole  assembly  not 
one  was  found  who  had  the  courage  to 
espouse  the  cause  of  the  unhappy  Childeric, 
or  to  utter  a  single  word  in  his  favor.  He 
was,  it  seems,  kept  quite  ignorant  of  what 
was  transacting,  till  notice  was  brought  him, 
that  he  was  no  longer  king;  that  another 


Zachary.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


87 


What  share  the  pope  had  in  that  revolution.    The  French  consulted  him  only  as  a  divine ;  and  he  acted  no 

other  part. 


was  placed  on  the  throne  in  his  room  ;  and 
that  he  must  take  the  monkish  habit,  and 
spend  the  rest  of  his  life  in  a  monastery. 
He  was  accordingly  immediately  conducted 
to  the  monastery  of  Sithieu,  now  the  abbey 
of  St.  Berlin,  where  he  died,  about  four 
years  after,  probably  of  grief.  From  history 
it  appears  that  he  had  a  son,  named  Theo- 
doric  ;  but  he  too,  to  make  room  for  Pepin, 
was  excluded  from  the  throne,  though  no- 
thing was,  nor  could  be  alleged,  to  justify 
such  an  exclusion,  and  confined,  as  well  as 
his  father,  for  life  to  a  monastery.' 

Such,  in  the  main,  is  the  account  the  con- 
temporary historians  give  us  of  that  famous 
revolution,  and  of  the  share  pope  Zachary 
had  in  it.  They  disagree,  indeed,  in  some 
particulars ;  but  in  this  they  all  agree  to  a 
man  ;  namely,  that  the  two  deputies.  Bur- 
chard  and  Fulrad,  were  sent  to  Rome  (whe- 
ther by  the  assembly  of  the  slates,  as  some 
write,  or  by  Pepin,  as  others  will  have  it, 
before  the  assembly  of  the  states  was  con- 
vened, it  matters  little,)  only  "to  consult 
pope  Zachary,^  to  know  his  opinions,^  to 
beg  he  would  declare  what  he  thought  should 
be  done  ;■*  to  advise  with  him  whether  Chil- 
deric  should  be  suffered  to  continue  on  the 
throne,  or  Pepin  should  be  raised  to  it  in  his 
room?"^  From  these  testimonies,  and  to 
them  many  more  might  be  added,^  it  is  mani- 
fest that  the  French,  in  transfering  the  mo- 
narchy from  the  Merovingian  to  the  Carlo- 
vingian  line,  had  recourse  to  the  pope  only  as 
a  divine,  or  a  casuist;  that  the  only  part  he 
was  required  to  act,  whatever  part  he  may 
have  acted,  was  that  of  a  divine,  no  other 
than  what  any  divine,  whom  they  had  been 
pleased  to  consult,  might  have  acted.  I  say, 
whatever  part  he  may  have  acted ;  for,  by 
several  historians  he  is  said  not  only  to  have 
advised,  but  to  have  commanded  the  French 
by  his  apostolic  authority,  by  the  authority 
of  St.  Peter,  to  depose  Childeric,and  choose 
Pepin  in  his  room  ;  and  by  the  same  writers 
Pepin  is  said  to  have  been  raised  to  ihe 
throne  by  the  command,  by  the  authority, 
by  a  decree  of  pope  Zachary.'  These,  and 
such-like  expressions  of  the  contemporary 
writers,  which  Bellarmine  has  taken  a  great 
deal  of  pains  to  collect,*  have  given  occasion 
to  the  popish  historians  to  ascribe  to  the 
pope  the  transferring  of  the  French  mon- 
archy from  one  family  to  the  other,  and  sup- 
plied, at  the  same  time,  the  popish  divines 

'  Iperius  in  Chron.  Sithiu.  Chron.  Fontanel.  Duchesn. 
Script.  Hist.  Franc.  I.  1.  Fredegar.  Continuat.  c  117. 

2Hlond.  Flav.  1.  10.  Decad.  1. 

'  R<'Cin.  Prum,  Chron.  I.  2.  ad  Ann.  Incar.  749. 

'  Marian.  Scot.  Chronic.  1.  3.  c.  750. 

»  Ado  Viennens.  Chron.  .Stat.  62. 

«  Vide  Dupin.  de  antiqua  Eccles.  Discip.  Dissert.  7. 
;i    513.  &  seq. 

^  Annal.  Franc.  Epinard  in  vit.  Carol.  Mag.  Regin. 
riiron.  1.  2.  Marian.  Scot.  Chron.  1.3.  Aimoii.  de  Gest. 
iranc.  1.  4.  Sigebert  Chron.  ad  Ann.  752.  Herman. 
('i)iitract.  Chron.  &c. 

"  Bellar.  de  Translat.  Imp.  Rom.  1.  2.  c.  2. 


with  what  Bellarmine  thinks  an  unanswer- 
able argument  in  favor  of  the  power  which 
he  vests  in  the  pope  over  temperal  princes 
and  kingdoms.     But,  in  the  first  place,  we 
may  well  suppose  those  historians  to  have 
meant  nothing  else  by  the  command,  au- 
thority, and  decree,  of  the  pope,  but  his  ap- 
probation, advice,  or  opinion ;  since  Pepia 
asked  nothing  else,  even  according  to  them, 
of  the  pope ;   and  what  is  said  by  those, 
Avhom  Bellarmine  quotes,  to  have  been  done 
by  the  authority  of  the   pope,  is  said   by 
others  (which  it  was  not  Bellarmine's  busi- 
ness to  lake  notice  of,)  to  have  been  done  by 
his  advice,  or  with  his  approbation.'    Indeed 
nothing  is  more  common  than  to  ascribe  the 
doing  of  a  thing  to  the  person,  by  whose 
advice,  and  with  whose  approbation,  it  was 
done.      "  Zachary,"   says  John   of    Paris, 
"  deposed  Childeric ;  that  is,  concurred,  by 
his  advice,  with  them    who  deposed   him. 
II.  From  the  conduct  of  the  French  on  this 
occasion,  it  is  evident,  that  they  were  yet, 
notwithstanding  their  long  and,  at  this  time, 
we  may  say,  daily  intercourse  with  Rome, 
utterly  unacquainted  with  the  boasted  power 
of  the  popes  over  kings  and  their  kingdoms. 
For  who  can  believe  that,  if  they  had  had 
the  least  notion  of  such  a  power,  they  would 
have  contented  themselves,  as  they  certainly 
did,  with  only  begging  Zachary  to  deliver 
his   opinion,   whether   Pepin   or   Childeric 
best  deserved  the  title  of  king,  and  not  ra- 
ther desired  him  at  once  to  take  the  kingdom 
from   the  one,  and  give   it  to  the   other'? 
Should  we  therefore  even  allow  Zachary, 
not  satisfied  with  acting,  on  so  remarkable 
an  occasion,  the  humble  part  of  a  divine,  to 
have  interposed  his  authority,  to  have  not 
only  advised,  but  commanded  the  French  to 
depose  Childeric,  and  choose  Pepin  in  his 
room,  and  to  have  issued  a  decree  for  that 
purpose ;  yet  Childeric  could  not  be  proper- 
ly said  to  have  been  deposed,  nor  Pepin  to 
have  been  chosen  by  the  authority  of  the 
pope  ;  since  they,  by  whom  the  one  was  de- 
posed, and  the  other  was  chosen,  were  alto- 
gether strangers  to  such  an  authority.     III. 
In  the  diet  or  assembly  of  the  states,  that 
was  convened  upon  the  return  of  the  am- 
bassadors from  Rome,  was  urged  indeed  by 
the  friends  of  Pepin,  the  opinion  or  appro- 
bation of  the  pope ;  but  not  the  least  men- 
tion was  made,  or  notice  was  taken,  of  any 
command  or  decree.     A  plain  proof  that  no 
such  decree  or  command  was  issued  by  the 
pope;  or,  if  it  was,  that  no  account  was 
made  of  it  by  the  French  ;  and  either  suf- 
ficiently shows  that  it  was  not  by  the  com- 
mand, by  the  authority,  by  a  decree  of  the 
pope  that  Childeric  was  deposed,  and  Pepin 
was  made  king  in  his  room.     To  conclude, 
from  the  account  the  contemporary  histo- 

I  Blond.  Flavius  Decad.  1.  I.  10.  Ado  Vienn.  ubi 
Bupra. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Zachary. 


The  pope's  answer  to  the  French  consulting  him,  highly  absurd.     Zachary  dies,  and  18  canonized. 


rians  give  us  of  this  revolution,  it  plainly 
appears,  that  it  was  not  in  truth  to  know  of" 
the  pope,  whether  the  design,  that  Pepin 
had  formed,  of  seizing  on  the  crown,  was 
or  was  not  agreeable  to  the  rules  of  justice 
and  conscience,  rules  little  regarded  where 
ambition  prevails,  that  the  French,  or  rather 
that  Pepin  sent  to  consult  him  ;  but  only  to 
engage  Zachary  in  his  cause,  and  render  the 
attempt  he  meditated  less  odious,  by  that 
means,  in  the  eyes  of  the  nation.  In  short 
it  was,  as  F.  Daniel  expresses  it,  to  remove 
the  scruples  of  the  people,  to  surprise  them 
into  his  measures,  to  impose  upon  them,  and 
blind  them,  that  Pepin  had  recourse  to  the 
pope.' 

I  shall  not  examine  here  whether  the  ad- 
vice given  by  the  pope  was  right  or  not. 
Whether  he  has  been  justly  or  unjustly 
charged  by  Calvin,^  and  the  Magdeburgen- 
ses,'' with  prostituting  his  conscience  to  the  in- 
terest of  his  see;  butonly  observe,  that  Childe- 
ric  had,  by  his  birth,  an  unquestionable  right 
both  to  the  power  and  the  title  of  king ;  and 
that  Pepin,  though  actually  possessed  of  the 
power,  had  no  kind  of  right  to  it,  no  more 
than  any  other  man  in  the  kingdom  would 
have  had,  who  had  been  ambitious  enough 
to  have  usurped  it ;  so  that  the  answer  or 
opinion  of  the  pope,  namely,  "  that  he  de- 
served to  be  styled  king,  who  was  possessed 
of  the  power,  and  not  he  who  was  only  pos- 
sessed of  the  title,"  was,  in  effect,  in  the 
present  circumstances,  that  the  king  had  for- 
feited all  right  to  the  title  of  king,  because 
another  had  usurped  the  power;  and  that  he 
who  had  usurped  the  power,  had  thereby 
acquired  a  right  to  the  title.  As  to  the  sloth, 
indolence,  love  of  pleasures,  and  neglect  of 
all  public  affairs,  both  ecclesiastic  and  civil, 
which  the  later  kings  of  the  Merovingian 
race  are  charged  with  by  the  contemporary 
historians,  all  partial  to  Pepin  and  his  family, 
it  is  well  known,  that  they  were  entirely 
owing  to  the  mayors  of  the  palace,  who, 
having  gained  the  ascendant  over  those  un- 
happy princes,  kept  them  shut  up  in  their 
royal  villas  quite  ignorant  of  all  public  af- 
fairs, suffered  none  to  approach  them  who 
could  give  them  the  least  information,  and 
only  took  care  to  supply  them  with  all  man- 
ner of  pleasures,  to  divert  them,  by  that 
means,  from  attempting  to  recover  their  an- 
cient authority.  To  judge  them  therefore 
unworthy  of  the  crown  on  account  of  their 
pretended  sloth,  indolence,  love  of  pleasures, 
&c.  was  judging  them  unworthy  of  the 
crown  for  faults,  which  it  was  not  in  their 
power  to  prevent;  for  minding  only  their 
pleasures,  when  they  were  not  suffered  to 
mind  any  thing  else ;  and  for  not  attending, 
as  they  ought,  to  the  affairs  of  the  state, 
when  they  were  not  allowed  to  attend  to 
them  at  all,  nor  to  concern  themselves  any- 


•  Daniel  Hist,  de  Franc.  I.  1.  c.  1.  p.  510. 

»  Calvin.  I.  4.  c.  7.  n.  17.      »  Magdeb.  Centur.  8.  c.  10. 


ways  with  them.  .They  had  indeed  de- 
generated, as  the  writers  of  those  times  take 
care  to  observe,  from  the  worth  of  their  an- 
cestors;  but  that  too  was  chiefly,  if  not 
wholly,  owing  to  their  wicked  ministers  in- 
dulging them  in  sloth,  in  idleness,  in  all 
kinds  of  pleasures,  with  a  design  to  enervate 
their  minds,  and  render  them  incapable,  by 
that  means,  of  emancipating  themselves,  or 
obliging  them  to  part  with  their  ill-gotten 
power.  Sigonius,  though  a  great  friend  to 
the  popes,  could  not  help  thinking  that 
Zachary,  in  advising,  or,  as  he  will  have  it, 
in  commanding  Childeric  to  be  deposed,  and 
Pepin  to  be  chosen  king  in  his  room,  betray- 
ed a  greater  regard  for  the  interest  of  his  see 
than  was  consistent  with  the  laws  of  true 
religion  and  piety ;  and  that,  by  his  sacred 
authority,  he  made  just  and  lawful  what 
would  have  been  otherwise  unjust  and  un- 
lawful.' F.  Daniel  bestows,  and  very  de- 
servedly, the  greatest  commendations  on 
Pepin  ;  but,  at  the  same  time,  owns  him,  ia 
the  softest  terms  indeed  he  could  have  used, 
to  have  been  an  usurper.^  If  he  w^s  an 
usurper,  what  was  Zachary,  who  approved 
of  his  usurpation,  and  seconded  him,  in  so 
unjust  an  attempt,  with  all  the  authority  of 
his  see?'' 

Zachary  did  not  live  to  reap  any  advantage 
himself  from  his  partiality  to  Pepin,  nay, 
scarce  to  congratulate  him  on  his  promotion ; 
for  Pepin  was  chosen  and  proclaimed  king 
in  the  assembly  of  the  states  convened  at 
Soissons  on  the  first  of  March,  according  to 
custom ;  and  the  pope  died  on  the  14th  of 
the  same  month,  having  presided  in  the 
Roman  church  ten  years  three  months  and 
fourteen  days.''  He  is  commonly  reckoned 
amongst  the  greatest  popes;  and  indeed  his 
whole  conduct  bespeaks  him  a  man  of  un- 
common parts,  of  great  penetration,  resolu- 
tion, and  address.  But  why  he  should  have 
been  allowed  a  place  amongst  the  canonized 
popes,  I  know  not,  unless  it  were,  as  it  pro- 
bably was,  for  his  having  earned,  in  the 
manner  we  have  seen,  the  protection  and 
favor  of  Pepin,  to  whose  protection  and 
favor  was  owing,  as  will  appear  in  the 
sequel,  the  temporal  grandeur  of  the  popes 
and  their  see.  As  the  successors  of  Zachary 
were  therefore,  in  great  measure,  indebted 
to  him  for  the  rank  of  princes,  to  which  we 
shall  soon  see  them  raised,  they  could  not 
do  less  than  to  place  him  among  the  saints 
of  heaven,  who  had  procured  a   place  for 


'  Sigon.  de  regn.  Ital.  1.  4. 

2  Daniel  ubi  supra,  p.  510.  &  550. 

'  Calvin  compares  Pepin  and  Zachary  to  two  rob- 
bers dividing  the  booty  between  them^  Pepin  helping 
Zachary  to  the  spiritual,  and  Zachary,  Pepin  to  the 
temporal  power.— (Calvin.  1.  4.  c.  7.  n.  17.)  Indeed 
Zachary  countenanced,  to  the  utmost  of  his  apostolic 
power,  the  usurpation  of  Pepin  ;  and  Pepin,  in  his 
turn,  encouraged  Boniface  to  exercise,  under  tlie  cha- 
racter of  the  pope's  legate,  an  authority  unknown,  till 
his  lime,  in  the  Galilean  cliurch. 

<  Anast.  in  Zach. 


Zachary.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


89 


The  writinss  of  Zachary.  His  answer  to  Boniface  concerning  the  sacrament  of  baptism  ungramatically  ad- 
niinistere'd.  Not  easily  reconciled  with  the  present  doctrine  of  the  church  of  Rome.  Virgilius  ignorantly 
charged  by  Boniface  with  teaching  a  plurality  of  worlds.  The  pope  orders  him  to  be  deposed,  if  guilty  of 
teaching  such  a  doctrine.  


them  among  the  princes  of  the  earth  ;  and 
probably  procured  it  at  the  expense  of  his 
conscience. 

Besides  the  letters  of  Zachary  already 
taken  notice  of,  several  others  have  reached 
our  limes  ;  most  of  them  answers  to  the 
doubts  of  Boniface,  concerning  the  functions 
of  his  ministry,  or  points  of  discipline.  One 
among  the  rest  he  wrote  to  that  missionary 
in  744,  on  the  following  occasion.  Boniface, 
desirous  of  bringing  the  churches  he  had 
founded  in  Germany  to  an  entire  uniformity 
with  the  Roman  church,  had  not  only  in- 
troduced amongst  the  Germans  all  the 
Romish  ceremonies,  but  together  with  them 
the  use  of  the  Latin  tongue  in  the  service. 
As  that  language  was  not  then  understood 
in  Germany  by  the  priests  themselves,  a 
priest  in  Bavaria  had  administered  the  sacra- 
ment of  baptism  in  the  following  words; 
"  baptizo  in  nomine  Patria,  et  Filia,  et 
Spiiitua  Sancta."  This  gave  occasion  to  a 
warm  dispute  between  Boniface  and  two  of 
his  disciples,  Virgilius  and  Sidonius  ;  Boni- 
iace  maintaining,  that  the  sacrament  thus 
administered  was  not  valid  ;  and  his  two 
disciples,  that  it  was.  Virgilius,  who  was, 
it  seems,  a  man  of  some  learning,  strove  to 
convince  Boniface,  that  the  ignorance  of  the 
minister,  or  a  solecism  in  the  language, 
could  by  no  means  affect  a  sacrament,  or 
prevent  its  operation.  But  the  apostle  of 
Germany  was  not  a  man  to  be  convinced 

by,  or  to  yield  to,  one  of  his  disciples  ;  and  I  Virgilius  could  have  meant  nothing  else  by 
therefore,  instead  of  hearkening  to  the  argu-   his   strange   assertion,  but  that   there   was 


matically  administered,  to  be  valid,  provided 
he  who  administered  it,  erred  not  against  the 
faith,  but  only  against  the  grammar  ;  which 
evidently  implies,  that  if  he  had  erred  against 
the  faith,  his  baptism  would  not,  in  that 
case,  have  been  valid.  But  ihat  no  heresy 
in  the  minister,  nor  even  atheism,  can  in- 
validate the  sacrament  of  baptism,  that  bap- 
tism is  no  more  to  be  reiterated  when  con- 
ferred by  a  Jew,  by  a  Gentile,  by  an  atheist, 
than  when  conferred  by  the  pope  himself, 
provided  it  be  conferred  in  the  name  of  the 
Trinity,  is  now  an  established  doctrine  in  the 
church  of  Rome,  and  the  contrary  opinion  a 
damnable  heresy. 

Boniface  acquiesced,  as  we  have  seen,  in 
the  judgment  of  the  pope;  but  bearing 
thenceforth  a  secret  grudge  to  Virgilius,  and 
jealous  of  the  growing  reputation  of  his 
disciple,  which  he  apprehended  might 
eclipse  his  own,  he  laid  hold  of  the  follow- 
ing opportunity,  the  first  that  offered,  of 
being  revenged  on  him,  and  discrediting 
him  in  the  opinion  of  the  pope.  Virgilius 
had  asserted,  on  what  occasion  we  are  not 
told,  that  the  figure  of  the  earth  was  globu- 
lar; that  it  was  inhabited  all  round  ;  and  that 
the  parts  of  it  diametrically  opposite  to  each 
other  had,  in  like  manner,  their  inhabitants 
diametrically  opposite  to  each  other.  This 
Boniface  could  not  comprehend  ;  and  there- 
fore concluding,  as  he  had  no  notion  of  the 
figure  of  the  earth,  or  the   antipodes,  that 


ments  and  reasons  of  V^irgilius,  he  was  for 
re-baptizing  all  whom    the  ignorant  priest 
had  baptized  against  the  rules  of  the  gram- 
mar.    Hereupon    Virgilius,   despairing   of 
being  able  to  overcome  his  obstinacy  by  any 
other  means,  resolved  to  propose  the  ques- 
tion to  the  pope,  who,  he  was  well  apprised, 
would   decide  it   in  his   favor,  and   whose 
judgment  he  knew  Boniface  would  not  pre- 
sume to  contradict.     He  proposed  it  accord- 
injly  ;  and  the  answer  of  the  pope  was,  that 
if  the  priest  had  administered  baptism  in  the 
words  mentioned  above  out  of  ignorance  of 
the  Latin  tongue,  and  not  with  a  design  to 
introduce  a  new  heresy,  the  sacrament  thus 
administered  was  good  and  valid ;  and  that 
such  as  had  been  thus  baptized,  should   by 
no  means  be  baptized  anew,  but  be  only 
purified  by  the  imposition  of  hands.'     As  of 
this  dispute  no  further  mention  is  made,  it 
is  not  at  all  to  be  doubted  but  that  Boniface 
acquiesced  without  reply  in  the  decision  of 
the   pope.     However,    it   would,    perhaps, 
puzzle  Baronius  himself  to  reconcile  that 
decision,  that  "  divine  oracle,"  as  he  styles 
it,  "  of  the  apostolic  see,"  with  the  present 
doctrine  of  that  church.    The  pope,  in  his 
answer,  declared  baptism,  though  ungram- 
'  Zach.  Ep.  e.  et  vit.  Bonif.  1,  2.  c.  3. 

Vol.  IL— 12 


another  world  under  this,  inhabited  by  other 
men,  and  enlightened  by  another  sun  and 
another  moon,  it  appearing  impossible  to 
him  that  the  same  sun  and  moon  should 
enlighten  this  and  another  world  under  it,  he 
wrote  to  the  pope,  charging  Virgilius,  as  if 
he  actually  believed,  and  had  actually 
taught,  a  plurality  of  worlds.  This  Zachary 
looked  upon  as  a  dangerous  heresy  ;  as  from 
thence  it  would  follow,  that  all  men  were 
not  descended  from  Adam,  that  all  men  had 
not  sinned  in  Adam,  that  Christ  did  not  die 
for  all  men.  Sec,  which  appeared  to  the  pope 
plainly  repugnant  to  the  holy  Scriptures. 
He  therefore  no  sooner  received  the  letter  of 
Boniface,  than  apprehending  the  authority 
of  the  sacred  books,  and  with  it  the  whole 
of  the  Christian  religion,  to  be  at  stake,  he 
wrote,  without  loss  of  time,  to  his  most  re- 
verend brother,  and  fellow-bishop,  as  he 
styled  Boniface,  commanding  him  to  assem- 
ble a  council  forthwith,  to  make  a  strict 
search,  together  with  his  fellow  bishops,  into 
the  life  and  doctrine  of  Virgilius;  and,  if  he 
should  be  found  to  have  taught  such  an 
execrable  heresy  against  God,  and  his  own 
soul,  and  did  not  publicly  adjure  it,  to  de- 
grade him,  and  cut  him  off,  as  a  rotten 
member,  from  the  bodv  of  the  faithful.  The 
h'2 


90 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Stephen  II. 


The  conduct  of  Boniface  on  this  occasion,  inexcusable.  Virgilius  not  condemned  for  asserting  the  antipodes. 
Mentz  made  the  metropolitan  see  of  Boniface,  with  an  extensive  jurisdiction.  Zachary's  public  woriis.  A 
great  treasure  discovered  at  Rome  in  his  time.     Stephen  II.  chosen,  but  dies  before  his  ordination. 


pope  wrote,  at  the  same  time,  two  other 
letters  ;  one  to  Odilo,  or  Otilo,  duke  of  Ba- 
varia, entreating  him,  as  he  tendered  the 
welfare  of  his  people,  to  send  the  presbyter 
Virgilius  to  Rome,  charged  with  teaching 
in  his  dominions  strange  and  anlichristian 
doctrines  ;  and  another  to  Virgilius  himself, 
summoning  him  to  clear  himself  at  the  tri- 
bunal of  the  apostolic  see,  from  the  heresy, 
with  which  he  was  charged.'  Thus  much 
we  learn  from  Zachary's  answer  to  the  letter 
of  Boniface.  But  what  was  the  issue  of 
that  affair,  we  are  no  where  told.  However, 
as  Virgilius  continued  to  preach,  and  indeed 
with  great  success,  the  Gospel,  in  Bavaria 
and  Carinthia,  and  was,  some  years  after 
preferred  to  the  see  of  Saltzburgh,  nay,  and 
is  now  honored  by  the  church  of  Rome  as 
a  saint,  it  is  not  at  all  to  be  doubted  but  that 
he  cleared  himself  from  all  suspicion  of  he- 
resy, to  the  full  satisfaction  of  the  pope,  and 
the  great  mortification  and  confusion  of  his 
ignorant  rival  and  accuser. 

Some,  to  excuse  the  ignorance  of  Boniface, 
tell  us,  that  the  sentiments  of  Virgilius  were 
misrepresented  to  him  •  and  that  it  was  upon 
the  false  reports  of  ignorant  people,  who 
did  not  understand  them,  that  he  condemned 
them  f  not  aware,  that  while  they  thus  ex- 
case  his  ignorance,  which,  after  all,  was  no 
crime,  they  make  him  guilty  of  a  crime  al- 
together inexcusable,  that  of  arraigning  of 
heresy  at  the  tribunal  of  the  pope,  of  dis- 
crediting, and  bringing  into  great  trouble,  an 
apostolic  man,  his  disciple  and  fellow  laborer, 
and  that  upon  the  false  reports  of  ignorant 
people,  without  inquiring  whether  they  were 
false  or  not,  or  allowing  the  person  thus  ac- 
cused an  opportunity  of  vindicating  his 
character.  Was  that  acting  like  an  apostle  % 
Zachary,  I  know,  is  commonly  said,  by  the 
protestant  writers,  to  have  persecuted  Vir- 
gilius for  asserting  the  antipodes ;  and  that 
they  frequently  allege,  as  an  instance  of  the 
gross  ignorance  of  that  pope,  and  the  age 
he  lived  in.*  But  that  he  was  persecuted, 
not  for  asserting  the  antipodes,  but  because 
he  was  charged,  through  the  ignorance  of 


Boniface,  with  holding,  that  under  this  there 
was  another  world,  another  sun  and  moon; 
an  hypothesis  very  different  from  that  of  the 
antipodes,  sufficiently  appears  from  what 
has  been  said. 

Zachary  approved,  the  year  before  he  died, 
the  choice,  which  Pepin  had  made  of  the 
city  of  Mentz  for  the  metropolitan  see  of 
Boniface,  and  his  successors;  subjecting  to 
that  new  metropolis  the  city  of  Tongress, 
Cologn,  Worms,  Spires,  and  Utrecht,  with 
all  the  bishoprics  which  Boniface  had  erect- 
ed, and  those  that  had,  till  that  time,  been 
subject  to  the  see  of  Worms ;  namely,  the 
sees  of  Strasbourgh,  Ausburgh,  Buraburgh, 
Erford,  Eichstat,  Constance,  and  Coire.' 
Thus  was  the  jurisdiction  of  the  see  of 
Mentz  extended,  in  favor  of  Boniface,  over 
all  Germany ;  but,  a  few  years  after,  the 
cities  of  Tongress  and  Cologn,  and,  in  pro- 
cess of  time,  several  others,  were  exempted 
from  all  subjection  to  that  metropolis. 

Zachary  is  said  by  Anastasius  to  have 
built,  repaired,  and  adorned,  several  churches 
and  oratories  ;  to  have  been  more  generous 
than  most  of  his  predecessors  to  the  clergy, 
and  the  poor;  to  have  embellished  the  city 
Avith  divers  stately  buildings ;  and  to  have 
been  no  less  beloved  by  the  laity  of  Rome, 
than  he  was  by  the  clergy.^  The  same  writer 
tells  us  of  a  great  treasure  discovered  in  the 
time  of  this  pope  at  Rome;  namely,  the 
head  of  the  famous  champion  and  martyr 
St.  George,  who  fought  and  killed  the  dra- 
gon. As  the  Greek  inscription  on  the  shrine, 
in  which  the  venerable  skull  was  inclosed, 
left  no  room  to  question  its  authenticity,  the 
pope,  transported  Avith  joy  at  the  discovery 
of  so  authentic  and  valuable  a  relic,  as- 
sembled immediately  the  people  and  the 
clergy,  and,  with  great  pomp  and  solemnity, 
translated  it  from  the  place  in  which  it  was 
found,  to  the  church  of  St.  George  ad  Velum 
Aureum  ;  where  it  long  continued  to  attract 
the  veneration  of  the  whole  city,  by  the 
many  stupendous  miracles  which  it  daily 
wrought.* 


STEPHEN  II.,  NINETY-FIRST  BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[CoNSTANTiNE,  Leo. — AiSTULPHUS,  Desiderius,  kings  of  the  Lombards.^ 


[Year  of  Christ,  752.]  In  the  room  of 
Zachary  was  chosen,  a  few  days  after  his 
decease,  a  presbyter  named  Stephen ;  but  as 
he  did  not  live  to  be  ordained,  (for  he  died 
of  an  apoplexy  the  fourth  day  after  his  elec- 

«  Zach.  Ep.  12.  »  Marc.  Valser.  rer.  Boic.  1.  5. 

'Kepler.  Ep.  ante  lib.  4.  Epitom.  Origan.  Ep.  ad 
Elect.  Brandenb.  &c. 


tion,)  he  has  not  been  reckoned  by  the  more 
ancient  writers  in  the  number  of  the  popes ; 
and  therefore  the  following  pope,  who  bore 
the  same  name,  is  called  by  them  Stephen 
II.,  another  pope  of  that  name  having  been 


«  Zach.  Ep.  13.  apud  Othlon. 

9  Anast.  in  Zacb.  ^  Idem  ibid. 


Stkphen  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


91 


Stephen  II.  counted  by  the  moderns,  but  not  by  the  ancients,  among  the  popes.  The  pope  formerly  not  thought 
true  pope  till  ordained.  Another  Stephen  chosen  in  the  room  of  the  former.  He  the  first  who  was  carried,  as 
they  all  are  now,  on  men's  shoulders.  Stephen  gets  the  peace  with  Aistulphus,  king  of  the  Lombards,  con- 
firmed ;— [Year  of  Christ,  753.]     Aistulphus  breaks  suddenly  into  the  exarchate. 


raised  lo  the  see  in  253.'  However,  tiie 
more  modern  writers,  to  establish  this  point, 
that  the  pope  receives  all  his  authority  from 
his  election  alone,  have  allowed  to  this  pres- 
byter a  place  in  the  catalogue  of  the  popes; 
altering,  by  that  means,  the  number  of  the 
subsequent  Stephens,  and  calling  the  second 
in  the  ancient  catalogues  the  third  in  theirs; 
the  third  the  fourth ;  and  so  the  rest  to  the 
ninth,  whom  they  count  the  tenth;  which 
lias  occasioned  a  great  disagreement  between 
the  ancients  and  the  moderns,  and  no  small 
confusion  in  the  history  of  the  popes.  But 
that  the  person  elected  was  not  true  pope 
till  ordained  ;  that  his  election  gave  him  no 
kind  of  authority;  that  he  had  no  right  to 
issue  bulls  before  his  ordination  ;  are  truths, 
that,  for  the  space  of  a  thousand  years  and 
upwards,  were  never  once  called  in  ques- 
tion. In  the  year  1059,  pope  Nicholas  H. 
issued  a  decree,  declaring,  that  if  the  ordi- 
nation of  the  person  elected  should,  by  war, 
or  any  other  means,  be  prevented,  he  might, 
nevertheless,  exercise  his  authority,  as  true 
and  lawful  pope,  in  governing  the  Roman 
church,  and  disposing  of  the  goods  of  the 
holy  see  -.^  a  plain  proof  that  it  was  then 
thought  he  could  not  exercise  such  an  au- 
thority, or  at  least  disputed  whether  he  could 
or  not.  And  it  was,  two  hundred  and  fifty 
years  after  the  time  of  Nicholas  II.,  still  dis- 
puted whether  the  pope  had  a  right  to  issue 
bulls  before  his  ordination.  But  to  that  dis- 
pute Clement  V.  soon  put  an  end  ;  for  with 
him  the  right  was  contested ;  forbidding,  on 
pain  of  excommunication,  by  a  bull  issued 
for  that  purpose  in  1306,  any  such  quesuon 
to  be  brought  into  debate.^  But,  notwith- 
standing that  prohibition,  Stephen,  Avho  died 
before  his  ordination,  was  excluded  out  of 
the  number  of  the  popes,  and  the  Stephen, 
who  was  chosen  in  his  room,  called  Stephen 
II.  in  all  the  catalogues  of  the  popes,  from 
the  time  of  Clement  to  the  beginning  of  the 
seventeenth  century  ;  when  Stephen,  though 
never  ordained,  and  consequently  no  bishop, 
was  first  honored  by  Onuphrius  Panvinius, 
a  writer  wholly  devoted  to  the  see  of  Rome, 
with  a  place  among  the  Roman  bishops. 
Panvinius  has  been  followed  by  all,  who 
have  written  since  his  time;  and  it  is  at  pre- 
sent, a  settled  point  in  the  church  of  Rome, 
which  no  man  dares  to  call  ,in  question, 
though  contrary  to  the  opinion  of  all  an- 
tiquity, that  Stephen,  though  never  ordained, 
was  a  true  pope ;  and,  consequently,  that 
the  pope  receives  all  papal  power  and  au- 
tliority  from  his  election  alone.  I  shall, 
however,  adhere  to  the  more  ancient  writers, 
and  call,  with  them,  the  succeeding  pope 
Stephen  the  second  of  that  name. 


«  See  vol.  T.  p.  SO. 

«  Apud  Gratian.  Dist.  23.  Canon,  in  N'omine  Domini. 

*  Extravagant.  Commun.  1.  5.  c.  4.  tit.  10. 


He  was  a  native  of  Rome,  and  the  son 
of  one  Constantine;  but  his  father  dying 
while  he  was  yet  very  young,  and  he  being 
left,  by  his  death,  quite  destitute,  the  popes 
charged  themselves  with  the  care  of  his  edu- 
cation, and  brought  him  up  in  the  Lateran 
palace.  He  entered  himself  very  early  among 
the  clergy ;  and  having  discharged  all  the 
inferior  offices  with  great  reputation,  he  was 
preferred  to  the  dignity  of  deacon  of  the 
Roman  church  ;  and  from  that  station  raised, 
upon  the  death  of  Stephen,  the  presbyter 
elect,  with  one  consent  by  the  people  and  the 
clergy,  to  the  see.'  The  new  pope  was 
chosen  in  the  church  of  St.  Mary  ad  Praesepe, 
now  Santa  Maria  Maggiore,  and  carried 
from  thence,  on  men's  shoulders,  to  the  La- 
teran. And  this  is  the  first  instance,  as  has 
been  observed  by  Polydore  Virgil,  that  ap- 
pears of  this  ceremony  in  the  history  of  the 
popes,  or  rather  of  this  kind  of  pageantry, 
so  contrary  to  the  humility  of  Christ  and  his 
apostles. 

As  temporal  affairs,  and  the  preserving 
of  the  imperial  dominions  in  Italy  for  the 
emperors,  as  they  pretended,  but  in  truth 
for  themselves,  had  now  engrossed  the  whole 
attention  of  the  popes,  the  first  care  of  the 
new  pontiff  was  to  get  the  peace  confirmed, 
which  Aistulphus  had  lately  granted  to  his 
predecessor  Zachary.  With  that  view  he 
dispatched,  soon  after  his  ordination,  his 
brother  Paul,  and  Ambrose  the  primicerius, 
or  chief  of  the  notaries,  with  rich  presents 
to  the  king  of  the  Lombards  ;  who  received 
the  legates  with  the  greatest  marks  of  re- 
spect and  esteem  ;  and  not  only  ratified  the 
peace  he  had  granted  to  the  late  pope,  but 
extended  it  to  forty  years  more.  This  he  did 
with  no  other  view  but  to  divert  the  pope, 
by  that  means,  from  thwarting  the  design  he 
had  upon  the  exarchate,  which  he  was  re- 
solved to  invade  ;  the  emperor  Constantine 
being  engaged,  at  this  time,  in  war  with  the 
Saracens,  and  all  Asia  and  Greece  miser- 
ably wasted  by  a  dreadful  plague.  The  war- 
like king,  therefore,  not  to  let  pass  unim- 
proved so  favorable  an  opportunity  of  en- 
larging his  dominions  at  the  expense  of  the 
empire,  had  no  sooner  concluded  a  peace 
with  the  pope  and  the  Romans,  than,  break- 
ing unexpectedly  into  the  exarchate,  he 
marched  straight  to  the  city  of  Ravenna,  and 
closely  besieged  it.  Eutychius,  at  this  time 
exarch,  defended  the  place  for  some  time 


'  He  was  ordained  when  the  see  had  been  vacant, 
according  to  Anastasins,  twelve  days,  (.\nast.  in 
Steph.  II.)  and,  consequently,  on  the  26th  of  March, 
which,  in  the  year  752,  fell  on  a  Sunday.  For  th.it 
Anastasius  reckoned  those  twelve  days  from  tlie 
death  of  Zachary,  which  happened  on  the  11th  of 
March,  and  did  not  therefore  acknowledge  Stephen 
the  presbyter  for  true  pope,  is  manifest  from  his  al- 
loting  five  years  and  twenty-nine  days  to  the  pontifi- 
cate of  pope  Stephen,  who  died,  according  to  him  on 
the  29th  of  April,  757. 


93 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES. 


[Stephen  H. 


Aistulphus  reduces  Ravenna,  and  the  Pentapolis.  An  end  of  the  exarchate.  The  king  summons  the  Romans 
to  submit  to  him.  Marches  towards  Rome.  The  pope  sends  two  abbots  to  treat  with  him.  The  king  orders 
them  to  return  to  their  monasteries.  The  emperor  sends  an  ambassador  to  the  king,  who  will  hearken  to 
no  terms;  but,  to  anuise  the  emperor,  sends  an  ambassador  to  the  imperial  court. 


with  great  resolution  and  intrepidity  ;  but 
finding  his  men  quite  tired  out,  as  the  gar- 
rison was  but  small,  by  the  repeated  attacks 
of  the  enemy,  and  despairing  of  relief,  he 
abandoned  it  at  last,  and  returned,  carrying 
with  him  what  men  and  effects  he  could,  by 
sea  to  Constantinople.  Aistulphus,  become 
thus  master  of  the  metropolis  of  the  ex- 
archate, reduced,  almost  without  opposition, 
the  other  cities,  and  all  the  Pentapolis,  which 
he  added  to  his  kingdom ;  and  raised,  by 
that  addition,  the  power  of  the  Lombards  to 
the  highest  pitch  it  had  yet  attained  to  since 
the  time  they  first  entered  Italy."  Thus 
ended  the  exarchate  of  Ravenna,  and,  with 
the  exarchate,  the  splendor  of  that  ancient 
city  ;  which  had  been,  ever  since  the  time 
of  Valentinian,  the  seat  of  the  emperors  of 
the  west,  as  it  was  afterwards  of  the  Gothic 
kings,  and,  upon  their  expulsion,  of  the  ex- 
archs, who,  residing  there,  had,  for  the  space 
of  one  hundred  and  eighty-seven  years, 
maintained  the  power  and  authority  of  the 
emperors  in  the  west.  It  is  now,  as  are  all 
the  once  famous  cities,  that  have  had  the 
misfortune  to  fall  under  a  priestly  govern- 
ment, reduced  to  a  most  deplorable  condi- 
tion; and  scarce  are  the  vestiges  left  of  its 
ancient  grandeur. 

Aistulphus,  now  master  of  the  exarchate, 
thought  he  had  a  just  tiJ;le  to  all  the  places 
depending  on  it,  and,  among  the  rest,  to  the 
Roman  dukedom,  and  to  Rome  itself  He 
therefore  dispatched  a  messenger  to  that 
city,  requiring  the  inhabitants  to  acknow- 
ledge him  for  their  sovereign  ;  alleging,  that 
the  exarchate,  which  was  his  by  right  of 
conquest,  gave  him  all  the  power  the  ex- 
archs had  over  Rome,  and  the  other  cities, 
that  were  subject  to  them  in  Italy.  At  the 
same  time  he  marched  his  army  toAvards 
Rome;  and  having  taken  Narnia,  then  a 
place  of  great  strength,  in  the  Roman  duke- 
dom, he  dispatched  from  thence  a  second 
messenger  to  Rome,  threatening  to  plunder 
the  city,  and  put  all  the  inhabitants,  with- 
out distinction,  to  the  sword,  if  they  did 
not  acknowledge  him  for  their  lord  and  mas- 
ter, and  solemnly  engage  to  pay  yearly  to 
him,  as  such,  a  solidus  of  gold  a  head. 
This  message  from  the  king,  who  was  then 
encamped  with  his  whole  army  at  Narni, 
but  twenty-eight  miles  from  Rome,  threw 
the  whole  city  into  the  utmost  confusion, 
and  they  expected  hourly  to  see  him  with 
all  his  forces  at  their  gates.  The  citizens  all 
flew  to  arms,  resolved  to  die  on  the  walls 
rather  than  to  submit,  or  be  thought  capable 
of  submitting  tamely,  to  so  heavy  and  shame- 
ful a  tribute.  The  pope,  to  gain  time,  in- 
stead of  returning,  as  the  king  had  required 
him,  a  positive  answer  to  his  demand,  sent 
a  solemn  legation  to  him  ;  at  the  head  of 


which  were  the  abbots  of  the  two  famous 
monasteries  of  Monte  Cassino  and  St.  Vin- 
cent ;  charging  them  to  put  him  in  mind  of 
the  peace  he  had  but  very  lately  concluded 
with  the  Romans,  and  endeavor  to  pursuade 
him,  by  all  the  reasons  and  arguments  their 
zeal  for  the  honor  of  St.  Peter  could  suggest, 
to  observe  the  promise  he  had  made  to  that 
apostle,  and  solemnly  sworn  to  observe. 
The  king  admitted  the  abbots  to  his  pre- 
sence ;  but  it  was  only  to  reproach  them  for 
concerning  themselves  with  worldly  affairs, 
after  they  had  renounced  the  world,  and  com- 
mand them  to  repair,  without  returning  any 
answer  to  those,  who  had  sent  them  on  such 
an  errand,  straight  to  their  monasteries  ;  and 
there  only  mind  their  prayers  and  devotions. 
They  had  brought  rich  presents  with  them 
for  the  king  ;  but  he  would  not  receive  them, 
nor  so  much  as  see  them. 

The  pope  had,  upon  the  first  irruption  of 
the  Lombards  into  the  exarchate,  acquainted 
the  emperor  therewith.  But  Constaiitine, 
who  had  already  gained  great  advantages 
over  the  Saracens,  had  recovered  from  them 
most  of  the  cities  of  Syria,  Armenia,  and 
Assyria,  and  was,  at  this  very  time,  carrying 
on  his  conquests  with  surprising  success  be- 
yond the  Euphrates,  loth  to  weaken  his 
victorious  army,  contented  himself,  for  the 
present,  with  sending  John,  one  of  his  chief 
officers,  into  Italy,  with  the  character  of  his 
ambassador  to  the  king  of  the  Lombards. 
John  arrived  at  Rome  soon  after  the  unsuc- 
cessful legation  of  the  two  abbots,  and 
brought  with  him  letters  from  the  emperor 
to  the  pope;  commanding  him  (deferens 
pontifici  jussionem)  to  act  in  concert  with 
his  ambassador,  and  persuade  the  king  to 
send  a  minister  to  Constantinople,  to  treat 
there  of  an  accommodation  between  the  Lom- 
bards and  empire  ;  and  to  forbear,  in  the 
mean  time,  all  hostilities.  The  pope,  in 
obedience  to  that  command,  sent  his  brother 
Paul  with  the  emperor's  minister  to  Raven- 
na; where  the  king  received  and  treated 
them  with  great  politeness,  and  even  con- 
sented to  send  an  ambassador  to  the  imperial 
city  ;  but  could  by  no  means  be  prevailed 
upon  to  restore  any  of  the  places  he  had 
taken,  or  agree  to  a  cessation  of  arms  during 
the  negotiations.  From  Ravenna  the  impe- 
rial minister  returned  to  Rome  v/ith  the 
king's  ambassador  ;  and  from  Rome  both  re- 
paired to  Constantinople,  with  a  nuncio  sent 
by  the  pope  to  assure  the  emperor  that  the 
king  of  the  Lombards  only  amused  him ;  that 
he  would  agree  to  no  terms  ;  and  that  if  a 
powerful  army  were  not  sent  forthwith  into 
Italy,  Rome,  and  the  poor  remains  of  the 
Roman  empire  m  that  country,  would  be,  in 
a  very  short  time,  irreparably  lost.' 

Soon  after  the  departure  of  the  ambassa- 


>  Anast.  in  Steph.  II. 


'  Anast.  in  Steph.  II. 


Stephen  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


93 


The  king  enters  the  Rom;in  dukedom,  and  blocks  up  Rome  itself.  The  pope  recurs  to  prayers,  processions, 
litanies,  &c.  ;  but  with  better  success  to  Pepin  and  the  French  nation.  His  letter  to  Pepin.  Pepin  assures 
him  of  his  protection.  He  resolves  to  retire  to  France.  Pepin,  acquainted  with  his  design,  sends  two  persons 
of  distinction  to  attend  him.  The  pope  commanded  by  the  emperor  to  repair  in  person  to  the  court  of 
Aistulphus. 


dors,  the  king  sent  a  third  messenger  to  the 
pope  and  the  Romans  ;  peremptorily  requi- 
ring them  to  pay  the  same  homage  to  him,  as 
he  was  now  master  of  Ravenna,  which  they 
had  paid  to  the  emperor  while  he  was  mas- 
ter of  that  city.  This  request  the  Romans 
rejected  with  great  indignation ;  and  the  king 
thereupon  declaring,  that  he  looked  both 
upon  them,  and  the  pope,  as  rebels,  entered, 
in  great  wrath,  the  Roman  dukedom,  took 
several  cities  by  storm,  laid  waste  the  coun- 
try Avith  fire  and  sword,  carried  off  the  in- 
habitants, and,  by  the  reduction  of  the  castles 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Rome,  blocked  up 
the  city  on  all  sides.  In  this  distress  the 
pope,  to  keep  the  dispirited  people  from 
sinking  into  despair,  took  care  to  amuse 
them  with  public  prayers,  litaaies,  proces- 
sions, &,c.  assuring  them  that  heaven  would, 
in  the  end,  interpose  in  their  behalf.  In  one 
of  these  processions  the  whole  Roman  peo- 
ple, the  clergy,  and  the  pope  himself,  walk- 
ed barefoot  with  ashes  on  their  heads.  The 
pope  carried  on  his  shoulders  an  image  of 
our  Savior,  that  was  not  made  with  men's 
hands,  but  had,  like  the  image  of  Pellas  in 
old  Troy,  or  that  of  the  great  Diana  of  the 
Ephesians,  fallen  down  from  heaven.  At 
the  head  of  the  procession  was  carried  a 
cross  with  the  treaty  of  peace  fixed  on  the 
top  of  it,  which  the  king  of  the  Lombards 
had  lately  concluded  with  the  pope  and  the 
Roman  people.' 

Besides  this,  other  processions  were  daily 
made  to  one  church  or  another ;  and  in  them 
were  carried  images  of  the  virgin  Ma_ry, 
of  the  apostles  saint  Peter  and  saint  Paul, 
and  of  many  other  saints.  But  the  saints 
appearing  all  alike  deaf  to  the  prayers  of  the 
distressed  people,  as  deaf  as  their  images, 
the  pope,  despairing  of  relief  from  them,  re- 
solved to  apply  to  one,  who  he  flattered 
himself  would,  if  the  saints  would  not,  hear 
him.  Pope  Zachary  had,  as  we  have  seen, 
countenanced,  so  far  as  in  him  lay,  the  usur- 
pation of  Pepin ;  and  thereby  not  a  little 
contributed  to  the  settling  of  the  crown  of 
France  upon  him,  and  his  posterity.  This 
good  turn  Stephen  did  not  doubt  but  the 
most  religious  king  would  readily  requite 
with  another ;  and  therefore  resolved  to  ap- 
ply to  him,  and  implore  his  protection  against 
the  attempts  of  the  most  wicked  king  of  the 
Lombards.  As  for  the  emperor,  the  pope 
well  knew,  even  when  he  wrote  to  him  to 
send  troops  into  Italy,  that  he  could  spare 
none  ;  and,  in  truth,  dreaded  the  Greeks  as 
much  as  he  did  the  Lombards ;  Constantine 
as  much  as  Aistulphus.  He  therefore  wrote, 
pursuant  to  the  resolution  he  had  taken,  a 
most  pressing  letter  to  Pepin  to  acquaint  him 
with  the  deplorable  condition,  to  which  he 


and  the  peculiar  people  of  St.  Peter  were 
reduced  by  the  perfidious  king  of  the  Lom- 
bards, and  earnestly  entreat  him  to  take  them 
into  his  protection  ;  since  in  him  alone,  after 
God,  they  had  placed  all  their  confidence. 

This  letter  the  pope  sent  by  a  pilgrim,  or 
by  a  person  in  the  disguise  of  a  pilgrim, 
who,  not  being  suspected  by  the  Lombards, 
masters  of  the  passes,  arrived  safe  with  it  in 
France.  Pepin,  upon  the  receipt  of  the 
pope's  letter,  immediately  dispatched  an  ab- 
iiot  nained  Droctegangus,  to  Rome,  to  assure 
the  pope  of  his  protection;  and  by  him,  on 
his  return  to  France,  the  pope,  who  knew 
the  Lombards  would  not  dare  to  stop  him, 
wrote  anew  to  Pepin,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
to  the  French  nobility  in  general.  He  had 
resolved  to  consult  his  own  safety,  whatever 
became  of  the  peculiar  people  of  St.  Peter, 
and  withdraw  from  Rome  into  France  ;  and 
with  this  resolution  he  acquainted  Pepin  in 
his  letter ;  begging  him  to  send  some  persons 
of  distinction  to  conduct  him  safe  into  his 
dominions.  In  his  letter  to  the  nobility  he 
conjured  them  to  join  their  most  excellent 
king  in  the  defence  he  had  generously  un- 
dertaken of  their  common  protector  the  apos- 
tle St.  Peter,  and  his  favorite  people.'  Pepin 
had  no  sooner  received  the  pope's  letter, 
than,  in  compliance  with  his  request,  he  ap- 
pointed Chrodigangus,  bishop  of  Metz,  and 
Autcharius,  a  lord  of  great  distinction,  to 
attend  his  holiness  into  France;  ordering 
them  to  repair,  for  that  purpose,  without 
loss  of  time,  to  Rome.  They  set  out  imme- 
diately ;  and,  on  their  arrival  at  Rome,  found 
there  John,  the  imperial  envoy,  the  ambas- 
sador of  the  king  of  the  Lombards,  and  the 
pope's  nuncio,  returned,  a  few  days  before, 
from  Constantinople.  As  nothing  had  been 
concluded  in  the  conferences  held  in  that 
city,  the  emperor,  remembering  with  what 
success  pope  Zachary  had  negotiated  in  per- 
son with  the  two  kings  of  the  Lombards, 
Luilprand  and  Rachis,^  sent  an  order  by  his 
ambassador  to  Stephen  to  repair  in  person 
to  Pavia,  and  press  Aistulphus  to  restore 
Ravenna,  and  the  other  places  he  had  taken 
by  a  breach  of  the  most  solemn  treaties.  In 
obedience  to  this  order  the  pope  set  out  on 
the  14lh  of  October  of  the  present  year,  for 
Pavia,  attended  by  the  envoy  of  the  empe- 
ror, and  the  two  French  envoys,  Chrodigan- 
gus and  Autcharius;  of  whom  the  latter 
went  before,  as  they  approached  Pavia,  to 
acquaint  the  king  that  the  pope  was  coming 
to  treat  with  him  of  an  accommodation,  and 
let  him  know,  that  his  master  would  not  fail 
to  resent  any  evil  treatment  his  holiness 
might  meet  with.  The  king  assured  the 
envoy,  that  his  holiness  had  no  reason  to  be 
under  the  least  apprehension  of  any  ill  treat- 


Anast.  in  Steph.  II. 


Cod.  Carolin.  Num.  10,  et  11.    »  See  p.  77.  81.  84,  85. 


94 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Stephen  H. 


The  pope's  negotiations  at  tlie  court  of  Aislulplius  quite  unsuccessful.  From  the  king's  court,  the  pope  sets 
out  for  France.  Pepin  sends  two  persons  of  distinction  to  congratulate  him  on  his  safe  arrival  in  his  do- 
minions. How  received  by  Pepin  himself.  Pepin  promises,  upon  oath,  to  cause  the  exarchate  to  be  restored, 
and  to  protect  the  Roman  church; — [Year  of  Christ,  754.J 


ment  at  his  court ;  and  that,  had  he  even 
come  alone,  he  should  have  met  whh  none. 
However  he  sent  one  privately  to  warn  him 
against  urging,  or  so  much  as  mentioning 
to  him  the  restitution  of  Ravenna,  and  the 
other  cities  of  the  exarchate.  To  this  mes- 
sage the  pope  returned  answer,  that  he 
feared  nothing,  and  would  acquit  iiimself,  as 
he  ought,  of  the  commission,  which  he  was 
charged  with ;  and  accordingly  not  only 
mentioned  the  restitution  of  the  said  chies 
in  the  audience  he  had,  hut  represented  to 
the  king,  with  great  liberty  (trusting,  no 
doubt,  in  his  French  friends,)  the  injustice 
he  was  guilty  of,  in  not  restoring  what  he 
had  no  right  to  keep.  This  liberty  the  king 
highly  resented  ;  but,  dissembling  his  re- 
sentment, he  told  the  pope,  that  he  possessed 


and  other  ecclesiastics;  and,  traveling  with 
great  expedition,  to  get  quickly  out  of  the 
territories  of  the  Lombards,  arrived  in  a  few 
days  at  the  monastery  of  St.  Mauricius,  on 
the  Rhone,  a  little  above  the  lake  of  Geneva. 
As  that  monastery  stood  in  the  French  do- 
minions, the  pope,  now  out  of  all  danger, 
and  tired  with  his  journey,  rested  there  a 
few  days ;  and,  in  the  mean  time,  came  the 
abbot  Fulrad,  first  chaplain  of  the  palace, 
and  duke  Rotard,  sent  by  Pepin  to  congra- 
tulate his  holiness,  in  his  name,  on  his  safe 
arrival,  and  attend  him  to  Pontyon,  a  royal 
castle  in  the  neighborhood  of  Langres,  where 
the  king  then  was  with  all  the  royal  family. 
Pepin  no  sooner  heard  of  the  pope's  leaving 
the  monastery  of  St.  Mauricius,  than  he 
sent  his  son  Charles,  and  some  of  the  chief 


those  cities  by  right  of  conquest;  that  the    lords  of  his  court,  to  meet  him;  and  went 


emperors  themselves  possessed  them  origi- 
nally by  no  other  right ;  and  that  he  was  re- 
solved to  maintain,  as  they  had  done,  that 
right,  so  long  as  he  had  power  and  strength 
enough  to  maintain  it.  The  same  answer 
he  returned  to  the  emperor's  ambassador, 
who  had  brought  a  letter  to  him  from  the 
emperor.' 

The  two  French  envoys,  who  were  pre- 
sent at  this  interview,  finding  the  king  Avould 
hearken  to  no  terms  of  peace,  told  him,  that 
as  it  was  ho  longer  safe  /or  the  pope  to  con- 
tinue in  Rome,  they  had  been  ordered  by 
their  master  to  attend  him  into  France,  and 
entreat  him  not  to  molest  or  stop  his  holiness 
on  his  journey.  This  demand  surprised,  and 
at  the  same  time  alarmed  the  king;  not  doubt- 
ing but  Stephen,  treading  in  the  footsteps  of 
his  predecessor  Gregory  III.,  would  strive, 
and  probably  with  success,  to  engage  Pepin  in 
his  cause,  and  stir  up  the  whole  French  nation 
against  him.  Aistulphus,  therefore,  taking 
him  aside,  asked  him,  whether  he  was  really 
resolved  to  abandon  Rome,  and  retire  into 
France?  And  the  pope  answering  that  he 
was,  the  king  immediately  dismissed  him  ; 
but  sent  privately  the  next  day  some  of  his 
friends  to  divert  him  from  such  a  resolution, 
and  assure  him,  in  his  name,  that  he  had 
nothing  to  fear;  and  that  he  should  ever  be 
treated  with  all  the  respect  that  was  due  to 
his  sacred  character.  But  the  pope  persisted 
in  the  resolution  he  had  taken ;  and  the  king, 
unwilling  to  quarrel  with  Pepin,  told  him, 
in  the  next  audience,  that  if  he  continued  in 
the  same  mind,  and  was  still  determined  to 
retire  to  France,  he  should  meet  with  no 
hindrance  from  him;  but  might  set  out,  if 
he  pleased,  that  very  day.  The  pope  did 
not  delay  his  departure;  but  apprehending 
the  king  might,  under  some  pretence  or 
other,  change  his  mind,  he  left  Pavia  early 
the  next  day  (the  16th  of  November),  attend- 
ed by  the  two  French  envoys,  some  bishops, 

'  Anast.  in  Steph.  II. 


out  himself  with  his  queen  Bertrade,  his 
other  son  Carloman,  and  most  of  the  French 
nobility,  three  miles  to  receive  him.  As  he 
approached,  the  king,  quitting  his  horse, 
fell  prostrate  on  the  ground,  not  suffering 
the  pope  to  dismount,  and  attended  him  part 
cf  the  way  on  foot ;  performing,  says  Anas- 
tasius,  the  office  of  his  groom  or  equerry.' 
St.  Peter  would  not  have  suffered  himself  to 
be  thus  honored  ;  but  probably  rejected  such 
extraordinary  marks  of  veneration  rather 
than  respect,  with  as  much  indignation  as 
Paul  and  Barnabas  rejected  the  honors  that 
the  people  of  Lystra  would  have  paid  to 
them.2  But  the  pretended  successor  of  St. 
Peter,  the  servant  of  servants,  was  very  pa- 
tient on  the  occasion ;  nay,  we  shall  see  his 
successors  arrived,  in  process  of  time,  to  such 
an  height  of  antichristian  pride  and  pre- 
sumption, as  to  exact  the  like  honors  of  the 
greatest  princes  of  the  earth. 

The  pope  arrived  at  Poynton  on  the  6th 
of  January,  754 ;  and  the  very  next  day  he 
took  care  to  acquaint  Pepin  Avith  the  motives 
of  his  journey,  to  lay  before  hira  the  deplora- 
ble condition,  to  which  the  city  of  Rome, 
and  the  unhappy  people,  were  reduced,  and 
entreat  him,  by  the  merits  of  St.  Peter,  to 
undertake  the  defence  of  that  apostle  against 
the  wicked  and  perfidious  nation  of  the 
Lombards,  his  sworn  enemies.  Some  writers 
tell  us,  that  he  threw  himself  at  Pepin's  feet, 
and  would  not  rise  till  the  king  had  promised 
to  espouse  his  cause,  and  employ,  if  neces- 
sary, the  Avhole  strength  of  his  kingdom  in 
his  defence.  However  that  be,  certain  it 
is,  that  the  king  not  only  promised,  but 
bound  himself  by  a  solemn  oath,  since 
nothing  less  would  satisfy  his  holiness,  to 
protect  the  church  of  St.  Peter,  and  cause 
Ravenna  to  be  restored  with  the  other  cities, 
that  had  been  unjustly  seized  by  the  Lom- 
bards. Anastasias  says,  that  he  promised 
upon  oath  to  do  whatever  the  pope  should 


Anast  in  Steph.  II. 


2  Acts,  c.  19:  V.  11—19. 


Stephen  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


95 


The  pope  taken  dangerously  ill.    Pepin  anointed  by  him  on  his  recovery.     Pepin  promises  to  give  to  St.  Peter 
the  places  he  should  take  from  the  Lombards. 


require  or  advise  liirn  to  do.  Indeed  his 
coaducl  would  incline  one  to  think  that  he 
had  taken  such  an  oath.  From  the  castle 
of  Pontyon  Pepin  repaired  with  the  royal 
family,  and  the  pope,  to  Paris ;  and  from 
thence  Stephen,  highly  pleased  with  the  re- 
ception he  had  met  with,  retired  to  the  mo- 
nastery of  St,  Deals  to  pass  the  winter 
there.' 

In  that  monastery  the  pope  was  taken  dan- 
gerously ill,  but  recovered ;  and  his  unex- 
pected recovery  was  ascribed  by  him  to  the 
intercession  of  the  martyr  St.  Denis,  protec- 
tor of  the  monastery.-  Pepin  was  now  upon 
the  point  of  setting  out  from  Paris  ;  but 
hearing  the  pope  was  entirely  recovered,  he 
would  be  anointed  by  him  king  of  France 
before  he  left  that  city.  He  had  been  anoint- 
ed by  Boniface  at  Soissons  soon  after  his 
election ;  but  thinking  that  the  same  cere- 
mony, if  performed  by  the  pope,  would  re- 
commend him  more  to  the  respect  of  his 
subjects,  and  greatly  contribute  to  the  secu- 
ring of  the  crown  to  himself  and  his  posteri- 
ty, he  desired  to  be  anointed  anew  by  his 
holiness.  Stephen,  we  may  be  sure,  readily 
complied  with  his  desire  ;  and  the  ceremony 
was  performed,  with  the  greatest  solemnity, 
in  the  church  of  St.  Denis.     Bertrade   the 


»  Anast.  in  Steph.  II.  Annal.  Metens.  ad  Ann.  743. 
Conlinuat.  Fredeij.  c.  19. 

»  I  will  not  quarrel  with  Baronius  about  the  pope's 
miraculous  recovery ;  since  it  is  attested,  as  the  an- 
nalist observe.s,  by  his  holiness  himself;  but  only  re- 
late it  in  his  holincss's  own  words :  "  Being  given  over 
by  the  physicians,  says  the  pope,  in  one  of  liis  letters, 
(Apud   Hilduin.   in  Areopagiticis;  et   torn.  6.  Concil. 
p.  iG19.)  I  thought  I  was  praying  in  the  church  of  the 
iilcssed  martyr  Denis  ;  and  tliere  I  saw  the  good  shep- 
herd  Peter,  and   Paul    the   apostle   of  the   Gentiles, 
standing  before  the  altar.     I  knew  them  both  perfectly 
well  by  their  pictures.     With   them  was  the  thrice 
blessed   St.  Denis  ;  and  he  stood  .it  the  right  hand  of 
St.  Peter.    He  is  a  tall  thin  man,  with  a  comely  coun- 
tenance, and  gray  hair,  and  was  clad  in  white  ;  but 
had  a  scarlet  mantle,  seeded  w'ith  stars,  over  his  while 
garment.     They   conversed    among  themselves:    the 
good  shepherd  said  'this  sick  brother  of  ours  begs  to 
be  restored  to  his  health.'    Paul  answered, '  he  shall  be 
cured  this  moment ;'  and,  approaching  Denis,  he  laid 
his  hand  in  a  friendly  manner  on  his  breast,  and  looked 
at  Peter.     Peter  turned  to  Denis,  and  witli  a  cheerful 
countenance,  'your  favor,'  said  he  to  him,  'is  his  health.' 
At  these  words    Denis,   holding  a  censer  in  the  one 
hand,  and  the  branch  of  a  palm  tree  (the  badge  of  a 
martyr)  in  the  other,  drew  near  to  me,  attended  by  a 
priest  and  a  deacon,  who  had  hitherto  kept  at  a  dis- 
tance ;  saying,  as  he  approached  me,  'peace  be  to  you, 
brother ;  do  not  fear,  you  shall  not  die  before  you  return 
prosperously   to   your  see.     Rise  up,  and  consecrate 
this  altar  to  the  honor  of  God,  and  his  two  apostles, 
whom  you  see.'     Irose;  and  finding  myself  entirely 
restored  to  my  health  and  my  strength,  was  for  con- 
secrating the  altar  that  moment :  but  they,  who  at- 
tended me,  thinking  I  raved,  would  not  allow  me  to 
undertake  it,  till  I  had  related  to  them,  and  likewise 
to  the   king,  all  that  had  happened."    Thus  far  the 
pope   himself.    They   about   him   thought   he   raved, 
when  he  was  for  undertaking  the  consecration  of  the 
altar ;  hut  whether  they  had  not  more  reason  to  think 
FO,  when  he  gave  them  this  account  of  his  recovery,  I 
leave  the  reader  to  judge,  if  we  should  not  suppose 
the  whole  to  have  been  invented,  as  it  most  probably 
was,  by  the  pope,  with  a  political  view.    To  this  day 
is  to  be  seen,  in  the  abbey  of  St.  Denis,  a  pall,  sup- 
posed to  be  the  pall  of  pope  Stephen,  left  by  him  on 
the  altar  he  consecrated,  to  perpetuate  the  memory  of 
bis  miraculous  recovery. 


queen,  and  the  two  young  princes  Charles 
and  Carloman,  received  the  royal  unction 
at  the  same  time  ;'  and,  on  that  occasion,  the 
pope  bestowed,  in  the  name  of  the  Roman 
republic  and  his  own,  the  title  of  Roman 
patricians  on  Pepin  and  his  two  sons ;  a 
title,  which  Stephen,  and  his  successors, 
ever  afterwards  gave  them  in  all  the  letters 
they  wrote  to  them.  When  the  ceremony 
was  over,  the  pope  gave  a  solemn  blessing 
to  the  French  nobihty,  who  had  assisted  at 
it;  conjuring  them,  Anaslasius  says  binding 
them,  and  their  posterity,  in  virtue  of  the 
authority  of  St.  Peter  vested  in  him,  to  main- 
tain the  royal  dignity  in  the  family  of  Pepin, 
and  to  raise  no  other,  so  long  as  any  of  that 
family  remained,  to  the  throne.-  But  that 
the  French  did  not  think  the  pope  had  any 
power  of  binding  them  and  their  posterity, 
or  that  he  was  to  interfere  at  all  in  the 
election  of  their  kings,  appeared  two  hun- 
dred and  thirty-five  years  after,  when  they 
deposed  Charles  of  Lorrain,  though  descend- 
ed from  Pepin,  and  chose  Hugh  Capet  in 
his  room,  without  so  much  as  consulting 
the  pope,  as  they  had  done,  only  with  a  po- 
htical  view,  in  the  election  of  Pepin. 

From  St.  Denis,  Pepin  repaired  to  Cara- 
siacum,  now  Chiersi,  a  royal  palace  on  the 
Oise,  at  some  distance  from  Noion,  whither 
he  was  soon  followed  by  the  pope.  There 
the  pope  had  frequent  opportunities  of  con- 
ferring with  the  king ;  and  in  one  of  these 
conferences  it  was  agreed,  that  Pepin,  whom 

'  Though  Pepin,  says  here  Baronius,  had  been 
anointed  king  two  years  before  by  Boniface,  he  did  not 
reckon  the  years  of  his  reign  from  the  time  of  that 
unction,  but  from  the  year,  in  which  he  was  anointed 
by  the  pope,  as  appears  from  the  ancient  monuments 
of  the  French  nation. — (Bar.  ad  Ann.  752.  n.  6.)  But 
that  Pepin  reckoned  the  years  of  his  reign  from  the 
time  of  his  election,  that  is,  from  the  year  752,  and  not 
from  the  year  754,  when  he  was  anointed  king  by  the 
pope,  is  undeniabiy  evident  from  several  of  his  diplo- 
mas produced  by  F.  Pagi,  (F.  Pagi,  critic,  in  Annal. 
Bar.  ad  Ann.  752.  n.  2,  3.)  and  utterly  unknown  to 
Baronius.  As  for  the  ancient  monuments  of  the 
French  nation,  to  which  the  annalist  appeals,  not  one 
historian  or  annalist  of  that  nation  ever  computed  the 
years  of  Pepin  from  his  unction  in  the  monastery  of 
St.  Denis.  Indeed  Charles  and  Carloman,  who  were 
anointed  together  with  their  father,  counted,  so  long 
as  he  lived,  the  years  of  their  reign  from  the  time  of 
that  unction  ;  but,  when  he  died,  they  thenceforth 
reckoned  them  only  from  the  time  of  his  death. 

Pepin  is  the  first  king  of  France  said  by  any  credible 
historian  to  have  received  the  sacred  unction.  His 
predecessors  had  been  all  proclaimed  by  being  lifted 
up  on  a  shield,  according  to  the  ancient  custom  of  the 
Franks.  The  anointing  a  king  is  a  mere  ceremony, 
and  gives  no  kind  of  right  to  the  person  anointed. 
But  Pepin  thought  it  would,  in  great  measure,  autho- 
rize his  usurpation,  and  render  his  person  sacred  and 
respectable  in  the  eyes  of  the  multitude.  The  reader 
will  find  a  very  particular  and  curious  account  of  this 
ceremony  in  Edmundus  Martene,  who  shows  that  it 
had  obtained  long  before  Pepin's  time  in  the  ancient 
kingdom  of  Scotland,  and  in  Spain. —  (Edmund.  Mar- 
ten, de  Antiq.  Eccles.  llitib.  torn.  3.  c.  10.)  As  for  the 
famous  holy  vial  of  Rheims,  which,  we  are  told, 
was,  by  a  dove,  brought  from  heaven  w  ith  oil  for  the 
anointing  of  king  Clovis,  and  in  which  is  kept  the  oil 
the  kings  of  France  are  anointed  with  to  this  day, 
whatever  has  been  said  of  it  by  Ilincmar,  (Hincmar. 
in  vit.  S.  Remis.)  and  others  after  him,  is  now  univer- 
sally looked  upon  as  fabulous. 

^  Anast.  in  Steph.  II. 


96 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Stephen  H. 

Pepin  resolves  to  make  war  on  the  Lombards.     His  brother  Carloman  sent  by  Aistulphus  to  divert  him  from  it. 
New  terms  proposed,  but  not  agreed  to  by  Pepin. 

chosen  to  defeat  the  machinations  of  the 
pope,  and  divert  the  king  his  brother  from 
undertaking,  out  of  complaisance  to  hira,  a 
war,  in  which,  whether  the  Lombards  pre- 
vailed  in   the   end,  or   the    French,  much 
Christian   blood  would  be  shed  on   either 
side.      Carloman,  who  had  renounced  the 
world,  undertook  this  embassy,  says  Egin- 
hardus,'  much  against  his  will ;  but  he  could 
not  disobey  his  abbot,  nor  could  his  abbot 
disobey  the  king.     However  that  be,  certain 
it  is,  that  he  strove,  to  the  utmost   of  his 
power,   to   reconcile    his  brother  Avith  the 
king  of  the  Lombards,  and  prevent,  by  that 
means,   the   shedding   of  Christian   blood, 
which  was,  in  the  opinion  of  Anastasius, 
"striving  to  ruin  the  cause  of  the  holy  church, 
of  God. "2    The  monk   Carloman,   says   a 
French   historian,''  pleaded   the    cause    of 
Aistulphus  so  well  before  the  parliament  of 
Crecy,  which  he  mistakes  for  Chiersi,^  that 
it  was  resolved  by  the  states,  that  an  accom- 
modation should,  by  all  means,  be  attempted, 
between  the  two  nations,  and  a  new  em- 
bassy sent  to  the  king  of  the  Lombards  for 
that  purpose.     A  new  embassy  was  sent  ac- 
cordingly ;  but  no  alteration  being  made  in 
the  terms,  it  proved  as  unsuccessful  as  the 
other  two.     The  king,  it  seems,  offered  to 
put  an  end  to  the  war,  to  renounce  all  claim 
to  the  city  and  dukedom  of  Rome,  though 
master  of  Ravenna,  and  to  suffer  the  Roman 
people  to  enjoy,  undisturbed,  all  the  rights 
and   privileges    ihey   had   enjoyed   to    that 
time;  but  he  absolutely  refused  to  restore 
the  exarchate  and   the  Pentapolis.     These 
terms  appeared  highly  reasonable  to  several 
of  the  French  nobility  ;  and  they  were  for 
agreeing  to  them,  and  not  wasting  the  blood 
and  the  treasure  of  the  nation  to  gratify  the 
ambition  of  the  pope ;  nay,  some  of  them, 
to  divert  the  king  from  his  intended  expedi- 
tion into  Italy,  took  (he  liberty  to  tell  him, 
that,  notwithstanding  their  great  attachment 
to  his  person,  and  zeal  for  his  glory,  they 
would  not  attend  him  in  thatwar.^     But  the 
pope,  to  whom  Pepin  had  promised  the  ex- 
archate  and   the  Pentapolis,   had    already 
begun  to  look  upon  himself  as  a  prince,  and 
would  not  be  degraded  from  that  state  into 
the  mean  condition  of  a  subject.     He  there- 
fore warmly  insisted  with   Pepin,  against 
the   remonstrance   of   Carloman    and    the 
French  nobility,  upon  his  putting  him  in 
possession   of   the    promised    principality, 
quite  regardless  of  the  treasures  or  the  blood 
of  the  nation,  that  was  to  conquer  it  for 
him.      He  prevailed ;    and   Pepin  having- 
gained   over,  by  his   address,  such   of  the 
French  nobility  as  had  opposed  the  Italian 


the  pope  had  already  persuaded  to  make 
war  on  the  Lombards,  should  not  restore  the 
places,  that  might  be  taken  from  them,  to 
the  emperor,  who  alone  had  a  right  to  them, 
but  should,  for  the  good  of  his  soul,  and  the 
remission  of  his  sins,  give  them  for  ever  to 
be  freely  possessed  by  St.  Peter,  and  his 
successors.  Whether  this  article,  the  giving 
to  St.  Peter  what  belonged  to  the  emperor, 
and  enriching  the  pope  with  the  spoils  of 
the  empire,  was  first  proposed  by  Pepin,  as 
some  suppose,  or,  as  others  will  have  it,  by 
the  pope,  history  has  not  informed  us  ;  but 
certain  it  is,  that  if  the  pope  did  not  propose 
that  article,  he  readily  agreed  to  it ;  that  he 
extolled,  and  with  the  most  flattering  com- 
mendations, the  truly  royal  and  truly  Chris- 
tian generosity  of  Pepin  to  St.  Peter  and  his 
successors  ;  namely,  his  Christian  generosity 
in  giving  to  them  what  was  not  his  own, 
and  what  he  had  no  right  to  give;  and  that, 
not  satisfied  with  Pepin  signing  the  agree- 
ment, or  donation,  as  some  writers  call  it, 
he  required  iiis  two  sons,  Charles  and  Car- 
loman, likewise  to  sign  it.'  Thus  after  the 
popes  had  exclaimed  and  inveighed,  for  the 
space  of  near  two  hundred  years,  against 
the  Lombards,  as  the  most  wicked  of  men, 
as  freebooters,  robbers,  and  thieves,  for 
robbing  their  most  religious  sons,  the  empe- 
rors, of  their  dominions,  did  this  holy  pope 
encourage  and  countenance  others,  nay, 
and  make  it  a  work  of  great  merit,  to  rob 
them  of  those  very  dominions,  when  he  and 
his  successors  were  to  profit  by  the  robbery. 
In  this  ended  their  boasted  zeal  for  the  wel- 
fare of  the  empire,  and  the  indefatigable 
pains  they  took,  and  cried  up  as  so  merito- 
rious, to  preserve  the  dominions,  that  still 
remained  to  the  emperors  in  the  west. 

Pepin  had  already  sent  a  solemn  embassy 
to  Aistulphus,  conjuring  him,  by  their  mu- 
tual friendship,  and  the  regard  he  had  for 
St.  Peter,  to  put  an  end  to  the  unjust  war, 
in  which  he  was  engaged,  and  restore  the 
cities  he  had  taken  in  the  exarchate  and  the 
Pentapolis.  But  that  embassy,  and  another, 
which  Pepin  is  said  to  have  sent  soon  after, 
proving  ineffectual,  he  resolved  to  recur  to 
arms,  and  make  good,  by  that  means,  since 
he  could  by  no  other,  his  engagement  with 
the  pope.  Pursuant  to  that  resolution  he 
assembled  the  states  of  the  realm  at  Chiersi, 
where  he  still  was,  to  acquaint  them  with 
the  design  he  had  formed  of  making  war  on 
the  king  of  the  Lombards,  in  defence  of  the 
pope  and  the  Roman  people,  no  less  griev- 
ously than  unjustly  oppressed  by  that  king 
and  his  nation.  But  while  the  states  were 
yet  sitting,  Carloman,  the  brother  of  Pepin, 
who  had  embraced  a  monastic  life  in  the  mo- 
nastery of  Monte  Cassino,seven  years  before,^ 
arrived  at  Chiersi,  sent  by  Aistulphus,  as 
the    most    proper    person   he   could   have 


Anast.  in  Hadrian.  I. 


a  See  p.  83. 


>  Eginhard.  in  Annal.  ad  Ann.  753. 
!>  Anast.  in  Steph.  II. 
3  Mezeray.  Abreg6  Chronol.  ad  Ann.  754. 
*  Vide  Mabill.  Disqus.  de  Carisiac.  I.  4.  de  re  Diplo- 
mat, p.  258. 
'  Eginhard.  in  vit.  Carol.  Mag. 


Stephen  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


97 


Carloman,  on  his  return,  shut  up  in  a  inonaslery,  where  he  dies.  Pepin  sets  out  on  his  inarch  into  Italy,  attended 
by  the  pope.  Defeats  the  Lombards.  Besieges  their  king  in  his  metroi)oUs,  and  obliges  him  to  submit.  To 
what  terms  he  was  obliged  to  subtnit.  The  emperor  assembles  a  general  council  at  Constantinople  to  put 
an  end  to  the  dispute  about  images. 


expedition,  war  was  resolved  on,  and  the 
necessary  preparations  were  made  through- 
out the  kingdom  for  carrying  it  on  with  the 
wished-1'or  success. 

Carloman  had  occasion  to  repent  of  his 
taking  the  part  of  Aistulphus,  and  striving 
to  prevent  a  war,  that  was  to  prove,  if  suc- 
cessful, so  advantageous  to  the  pope  and  his 
see.  For  the  unhappy  monk,  on  his  return 
to  Italy,  was,  at  the  instigation  of  the  pope, 
stopped  at  Vienne  by  an  order  from  his  bro- 
ther, and  there  shut  up  in  a  monastery,  where 
he  died  a  few  days  after.  Pepin  showed  a 
greater  regard  for  him  after  his  death  than  he 
had  done  in  his  lifetime  ;  for  he  caused  his 
body  to  be  put  into  a  coffin  of  gold,  and  con- 
veyed back,  attended  by  several  persons  of 
distinction,  to  his  monastery.'  He  has  not, 
however,  been  canonized,  though  Rachis, 
the  brotlier  and  predecessor  of  Aistulphus, 
has,  who  embraced  a  monastic  life  about  the 
same  time  that  Carloman  embraced  it,  and 
in  the  same  monastery. 

War  being  now  declared,  Pepin,  spurred 
on  by  the  pope,  (impatient  to  see  himself  pos- 
sessed of  the  promised  dominions,  and  raised 
to  the  rank  of  a  prince,)  assembled  his  troops 
from  the  different  parts  of  the  kingdom,  and, 
heading  them  in  person,  set  out,  though  the 
season  was  already  far  advanced,  on  his 
march  into  Italy.  The  pope  would  attend 
the  king  in  this  expedition  to  receive  the 
cities  as  fast  as  they  were  taken,  and  divert 
him  from  hearkening  to  any  terms  whatever, 
different  from  those  that  had  already  been 
proposed.  The  army  reached  the  Alps 
about  the  middle  of  the  month  of  September 
of  the  present  year;  but  found  the  pas'ses 
and  defiles  leading  into  Italy,  all  carefully 
guarded  by  numerous  bodies  of  the  Lom- 
bards. However,  they  opened  themselves  a 
way,  sword  in  hand,  with  great  slaughter 
of  the  Lombards,  who  did  not  behave,  on 
this  occasion,  with  their  usual  bravery, 
though  animated  by  the  presence  of  their 
king.  Pepin,  having  thus  forced  the  passes, 
entered,  without  further  opposition,  the 
dominions  of  Aistulphus;  nay,  and  being 
informed  that  the  king,  quitting  the  field, 
had  shut  himself  up,  very  unadvisedly,  in 
Pavia,  he  bent  his  march  straight  to  that  city, 
and  closely  besieged  him  in  his  metropolis ; 
not  doubting  but  he  should  thus  at  once  put 
an  end  to  the  war.  And  truly  Aistulphus, 
sensible  that  the  city  must  fall  at  last,  his 
army  being  dispersed,  and  having  no  person 
of  reputation  or  abilities  to  head  them,  and 
that  the  longer  he  delayed  to  satisfy  Pepin 
and  the  pope,  the  higher  they  would  raise 
their  demands,  sent  out,  after  a  few  days 
siege,  one  of  his  chief  lords,  to  treat  with 
them  of  an  accommodation.     He  was  ready 


to  part  with  some  of  the  cities  he  had  taken  ; 
but  thought  it  very  hard,  that  he  should  be 
obliged  to  part  with  them  all.      However, 
Pepin  declaring,  that  he  would  hearken  to 
no  other  terms,  and  the  seige  being,  in  the 
mean  time,  carried  on  with  great  vigor,  he 
was,  in  the  end,  forced  to  acquiesce  ;  and  a 
treaty  was  drawn  up,  in  virtue  of  which  he 
was  to  deliver,  not  to  the  emperor,  as  he  had 
hitherto  understood  it,  but  to  the  pope,  the 
exarchate  and  the  Pentapolis,  with  all  the 
cities,  castles,  territories,  and  lands,  there- 
unto belonging,  to  be  for  ever  held  and  pos- 
sessed by  the  most  holy  pope  Stephen,  and 
his  successors  in   the  apostohc  see  of  St. 
Peter.     By  the  same  treaty  Aistulphus  was 
to  restore  all  the  places  he  had  seized  in  the 
Roman  dukedom ;  to  renounce  for  ever  all 
claim  to  that  dukedom  and  city ;  and  to  live 
in  peace  and  friendship  with  the  pope,  the 
common  father  both  of  the  French  and  the 
Lombards.     This  treaty  Aistulphus  signed, 
but  with  great  reluctance;  and  swore,  as  did 
all  the  judges,  and  chief  men  of  his  kingdom, 
punctually  to  observe,  giving  the  number  of 
hostages,  that  was  required,  for  the  faithful 
performance  of  the  articles  it  contained.  The 
war  being  thus  ended,  Pepin  returned,  Avith 
his  army,  to  France  ;  and  the  pope,  attend- 
ed by  the  abbot  Fulrad,  by  duke  Jerom,  a 
natural  son  of  Charles  Martel,  and  others  of 
the   French  nobility,  to   Rome.'     He  was 
met,  at  some   distance   from   the  city,  by 
several  bishops,  by  the  whole  Roman  clergy, 
and  crowds  of  people;   and  conducted   by 
them,  with  loud  acclamations,  to  the  Vati- 
can, where  he  returned  thanks  to  God  and 
St.  Peter  for  the  success  of  his  negotiations 
in  France.     When  he  left  Rome  he  was 
only  a   bishop,  and  he   returned  a  prince. 
But  it  cost  Pepin  another  expedition  into 
Italy  to  put  him  in  possession  of  his  princi- 
pality, as  I  shall  soon  have  occasion  to  relate. 
While  the  pope,  laying  aside  all  spiritual 
affairs,  was  thus  wholly  intent  on  procuring 
a  temporal  kingdom  for  himself,  and  his  suc- 
cessors, at  the  expense  of  the  empire,  the 
good  emperor  Constantine,  having  as  much 
at  heart  the  welfare  of  the  church,  and  the 
purity  of  the  Christian  worship,  as  the  pope 
had  the  temporal  power  and  grandeur  of 
his  see,  had  appointed  a  general  council  to 
meet ;  and  it  met  this  very  year,  finally  to 
determine  the  famous  controversy  concern- 
ing the  use  and  the  worship  of  images,  and 
settle,  by  that  means,  the  church,  as  he  had 
happily  settled  the  state,  in  peace  and  tran- 
quillity.   This  controversy  had  lain  dormant 
ever  since  the  time  of  Gregory  III.  the  em- 
peror being  diverted  from  attending  to  it  by 
his  wars  with  the  Saracens,  Bulgarians,  and 


»  Anast.  in  Staph.  II. 
Vol.  II.— 13 


1  Anast.  in  Staph.  II.  Epist.  Steph.  ad  Pepin.  Secund. 
Append,  ad  Contin.  Fredegar.  Annal.  Lauresh.  Loisel. 
Bertinian.  Begin.  &c. 


98 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Stephen  H. 


The  emperor  writes  to  all  the  metropolitans.  Synods  held  in  the  different  provinces.  The  council  meets  in 
the  palace  of  Hiera.  Who  presided.  The  council  condemns  both  the  worship  and  the  use  of  imases.  Reasons 
alleged  against  the  use  of  images.     How  answered  by  the  fathers  of  Nice. 


Other  barbarians  ;  and  the  popes  deeply  en- 1 
gaged  in  affairs,  that  appeared  to  them  of 
far  greater  moment  than  the  breaking  or 
worshiping  of  images.  The  emperor  Leo 
had  proposed  the  assembling  a  general  coun- 
cil to  pope  Gregory  II. ;  but  he  had  rejected 
the  proposal  with  scorn;  reflecting,  at  the  same 
time,  with  the  utmost  insolence,  on  the  cha- 
racter of  that  excellent  prince.'  Constantine 
upon  his  causing  the  images  to  be  again 
pulled  down,  which  the  usurper  Artabasdus 
had  set  up  in  the  imperial  city,  had  engaged 
his  word  to  the  people,  ready  to  revolt  anew 
on  that  occasion,  that  he  would  take  care, 
when  at  leisure  from  his  wars,  to  have  the 
question,  "Whether  images  were  or  were 
not  to  be  worshiped?"  fairly  examined,  and 
finally  determined,  by  a  general  council.^ 
No  sooner,  therefore,  had  he  put  an  end  to 
the  war  (and  he  put  an  end  to  it  the  prece- 
ding year,  by  a  peace  as  honorable  as  the 
war  was  glorious,)  than,  mindful  of  his 
promise,  he  wrote  a  circular  letter  to  all  the 
metropolitans  subject  to  the  empire,  to  ac- 
quaint them  with  the  resolution  he  had  taken 
of  causing  the  fatal  controversy,  that  had  al- 
most been  attended  with  the  ruin  of  the  em- 
pire, to  be  decided  by  them  and  their  fellow 
bishops  in  a  general  council,  that  no  room 
being  left  for  further  disputes,  the  church 
might  partake  of  that  peace  and  tranquillity, 
which  it  had  pleased  hea.ven  to  procure,  by 
his  arms,  to  the  state.  In  the  same  letter  he 
appointed  the  place,  where  they  were  to 
meet,  the  imperial  palace,  called  Hiera,  over 
against  Constantinople,  on  the  Asiatic  shore ; 
and  the  time  when  they  were  to  meet,  the 
10th  of  February  of  the  following  year,  754 ; 
but  required  them,  in  the  mean  while,  to 
convene  synods  in  their  respective  provinces, 
and  examine,  lest  they  should  come  unpre- 
pared, with  their  suffragans,  what  might  be 
alleged  against,  and  what  urged  in  favor  of 
the  points  in  dispute.' 

In  virtue  of  this  letter,  provincial  synods 
were  held  throughout  the  empire ;  and  the 
bishops  repairing  from  them  to  Constanti- 
nople, met,  at  the  appointed  time,  in  the 
palace  of  Hiera,  to  the  number  of  three  hun- 
dred and  thirty -eight ;  the  greatest  number 
of  bishops  that  had  ever  yet  met  at  a  gene- 
ral council.  The  honor  of  presiding  was  due 
to  the  patriarch  of  the  imperial  city;  but 
Anastasius  dying  a  few  days  before,  the  em 
peror  wisely  declined  naming  another,  lest 
the  person  he  named  should  be  looked  upon 
as  his  creature,  and  thought  to  act  as  in- 
structed or  directed  by  him.  Two  bishops, 
therefore,  of  rank,  Theodosius,  exarch  of  all 
Asia,  and  Pastillus  bishop  of  Perga,  and 
metropolitan  of  Pamphylia,  were  appointed, 
whether  by  the  council  or  the  emperor,  his- 
tory does  not  inform  us,  to  supply  the  place 


»  See  p  63.  2  See  p.  SO.  in  fin.  note. 

'  Theoph.  ad  Ann. 13.  Constantin. 


of  the  patriarch.'  We  shall  see  in  the  se- 
quel the  empress  Irene  acting  in  a  very  dif- 
ferent manner  on  occasion  of  the  second 
council  of  Nice.  For  the  patriarch  Paul, 
who  was  no  friend  to  images,  dying  before 
the  council  met,  she  caused  Tarasius  her 
secretary,  a  man  of  great  art  and  address, 
and  entirely  devoted  to  her,  to  be  raised  at 
once  from  the  state  of  a  layman  and  a  cring- 
ing courtier  to  the  patriarchal  dignity,  that 
he  might  preside  under  her  in  that  council. 
And  yet,  if  we  believe  the  popish  writers, 
nothing  was  done  unfairly  in  the  council  of 
Nice,  and  nothing  done  fairly  in  the  council 
of  Constantinople.2 

As  for  the  acts  of  this  council,  they  were 
suppressed  ;  and  so  were  all  other  writings 
against  images,  by  a  decree  of  the  second 
council  of  Nice.  However,  from  the  parts 
of  those  acts,  which  the  Nicene  fathers 
chose  to  confute,  and  preserved,  as  it  were, 
for  their  triumph,  it  appears,  that  the  three 
hundred  and  thirty-eight  bishops  condemn- 
ed, and  condemned  with  one  voice,  the  use 
of  images  in  places  of  worship  as  well  as 
the  worship ;  the  use,  as  a  custom  borrowed 
from  the  idolatrous  nations,  as  repugnant  to 
the  practice  of  the  purer  ages  of  the  church, 
as  no  ways  necessary,  as  dangerous,  or  ex- 
posing those,  who  used  them,  to  the  danger 
of  idolatry ;  and  the  worship,  as  expressly 
forbidden  by  God,  and  rank  idolatry,  the  very 
idolatry,  which  the  heathens  were  charged 
with  by  the  fathers.  To  make  good  what 
they  advanced  against  the  use  of  images, 
they  alleged  several  passages  out  of  the 
fathers,  but  chiefly  urged  the  following  three ; 
the  first  from  Epiphanius  speaking  thus  to 
the  Christians  of  his  time:  "Take  heed  you 
bring  no  images  into  the  churches,  or  the 
cemetries  of  the  saints,  nor  yet  into  your 
houses ;  for  it  is  not  lawful  for  a  Christian  to 
wander  after  them  with  his  eyes ;"  the  other 
from  Amphilochius  of  Iconium,  saying,  "  we 
care  not  to  paint  in  colors  the  persons  of  the 
saints,  having  no  need  of  them ;  but  we 
should  make  it  our  business  to  imitate  their 
virtues:"  and  the  third  from  Theodotus  of 
Ancyra,  saying,  "we  Christians  have  not 
the  colored  images  of  the  saints,  but  we 
imitate  their  virtues  as  their  living  images." 
The  fathers  of  Constantinople  added,  that  if 
the  use  of  images  had  obtained  among  the 
primitive  Christians,  they  would  not  have 
condemned,  as  it  appears  from  their  writings 
they  did,  the  use  of  images  in  general,  but 
confined  their  arguments  against  them  to  the 
images  of  the  pagans. 

In  opposition  to  the  fathers  of  Constanti- 
nople those  of  Nice  undertook  to  prove,  that 


'  Theoph.  ad  Ann.  13.  Constantin. 

"  It  was  called  the  council  of  Constantinople,  be- 
cause the  fathers  adjourned,  as  we  shall  see,  from  the 
palace  of  Hiera  to  the  church  of  St.  Mary  ad  Blacher- 
nas,  in  Constantinople,  and  there  issued  their  defini- 
tion and  decrees. 


Stephen  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


99 


Images  declared  an  invention  of  the  devil.    Reasons  alleged  against  the  worship  of  images.    How  eluded  by 
the  fathers  of  Nice.     Christians  may  relapse  into  idolatry. 


the  use  of  images  had  obtained  in  the  church 
from  the  earliest  times,  from  the  times  of  our 
Savior  and  his  apostles.  But  in  favor  of 
that,  as  they  called  it,  apostolical  tradition, 
they  could  only  alleg-e,  besides  the  statue  at 
Paneas,  and  tiie  picture,  which  our  Savior 
is  supposed  to  have  sent  of  himself  to  the 
kini^  of  Edessa,'  the  practice  of  the  fourth 
century,  and  the  eighty-second  canon  of  the 
quini-sext  council  held  in  G91,  allowing 
Christ,  who  had  been  painted  till  that  time 
in  the  figure  of  a  lamb,  to  be  thenceforth 
represented  in  the  shape  of  a  man.  And 
thus  they  proved  the  use  of  images  in  the 
church  ever  since  the  apostles  time.  As  to 
the  passages  out  of  the  works  of  the  fathers, 
they  pretended  that  Amphilochius  meant  no 
more,  than  that  we  ought  not  to  be  satisfied 
with  the  images  of  the  saints,  but  should 
besides  imitate  their  virtues.  The  other  two 
passages  they  did  not  pretend  to  explain,  but 
declared  them  at  once  supposititious,  and 
maliciously  inserted  by  the  heretics  into  the 
works  of  these  holy,  men  to  authorize  their 
heresy.  As  both  passages  are  unquestiona- 
bly genuine,  Du  Pin  wishes  the  good  fathers 
had  thought  of  a  better  answer  to  them.  But 
what  better  answer  could  they  have  thought 
of  or  given  to  the  prohibition  at  least  of 
Epiphanius,  "  take  heed  you  bring  no  images 
into  the  churches'?"  The  school  distinc- 
tions, by  means  of  which  this  and  all  other 
passages  are  now  eluded,  were  not  yet 
coined. 

The  fathers  of  Constantinople,  not  satis- 
fied with  condemning  all  images,  as  unne- 
cessary, as  hurtful,  as  dangerous,  declared 
them,  in  one  of  their  sessions,  an  "inven- 
tion of  the  devil,"  who,  envying  the  happi- 
ness of  mankind,  delivered  by  the  Son  of 
God  from  idolatry,  had,  by  their  means,  in- 
troduced idolatry  anew,  in  the  disguise,  and 
under  tlie  name  of  Christianity.  This  the 
Nicene  fathers  answered  only  with  excla- 
mations, reproaches,  and  injuries;  caUing 
those  who  had  thus  dared  to  defame  the 
immaculate  church,  heretics, and  worse  than 
heretics,  Jews,  apostates,  blasphemers  of 
God,  and  his  holy  institutions  and  doctrine. 
And  yet  the  council  of  Constantinople,  in 
calling  images  "an  invention  of  the  devil," 
only  repeated  what  some  of  the  most  emi- 
nent fathers  of  the  church  had  said  several 
hundred  years  before.  "The  devil,"  says 
TertuUian,  "  brought  the  makers  of  statues 
and  images  into  the  world. "^  "  Evil  angels 
taught  men  to  make  images:  the  invention 
of  images  was  an  invention  of  the  devil,  or 
of  men  actuated  by  the  devil,"  say  Eusebius 
and  Epiphanius.* 

Against  the  worship  of  images  were  al- 
leged, by  the  council  of  Constantinople,  se- 
veral passages  out  of  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 


«  See  vol.  I.  29.  30.  a  Tertul.  de  Idol.  c.  2. 

•  Euseb.  de  Prinpar.  Evang.  1. 4.  c.  16.  Epip.  Hsros.  79. 


ment ;  but  they  chiefly  insisted  on  the  second 
commandment,  by  which  we  are  in  as  plain 
and  express  term.s,  forbidden  to  make  graven 
images,  to  bow  down  to  them,  or  worship 
them,  as  we  are  forbidden  by  the  other  com- 
mandments to  commit  theft,  murder,  or 
adultery.  This  commandment,  they  said, 
our  Savior  had  not  abrogated,  but  enforced; 
commanding  us  to  "  worship  in  spirit  and 
in  truth."  To  the  texts  of  Scripture  they 
added  the  testimonies  of  the  fathers,  with 
whom  worshipers  of  images  and  idolaters 
were  synonymous  terms ;  concluding  from 
thence,  that  all  images,  without  distinction, 
that  were  worshiped,  or  made  to  be  wor- 
shiped, were  idols  ;  and  all,  who  worshiped 
them,  guilty  of  idolatry.  The  fathers  of 
Nice  answered,  that  they  only  were  guilty 
of  idolatry,  who  worshiped  devils,  or  the 
sun,  moon,  and  stars,  with  beasts,  and  birds, 
and  creeping  things,  and  worshiped  them, 
or  their  images,  as  gods  ;  which  was  ab- 
solving not  only  themselves,  but  the  whole 
pagan  world,  from  the  guilt  of  idolatry,  as 
has  been  shown  above.*  However,  thus  the 
good  fathers  understood  and  explained  all 
the  texts  from  Scripture  against  images,  and 
likewise  the  second  commandment,  "thou 
shalt  not  make  to  thyself  any  graven  image," 
to  worship  it  as  the  Maker  of  the  heaven 
and  the  earth ;  "  thou  shalt  not  bow  down 
to  images"  as  the  makers  of  all  things,  and 
of  the  very  man  who  made  them ;  "  nor 
worship  them"  as  such ;  as  if  there  could 
have  been  occasion  for  such  a  prohibition, 
or  the  second  commandment  had  been  made 
only  for  fools  and  idiots.^ 

But  on  no  one  thing  did  the  fathers  of 
Nice  lay  greater  stress  in  clearing,  against 
the  fathers  of  Constantinople,  the  worship- 
ers of  images  from  all  idolatry,  than  on  the 
following  notion,  quite  peculiar  to  them- 
selves ;  namely,  that  after  Christ  had  once 
redeemed  Christians  from  idolatry,  it  was 
impossible  they  should  ever  relapse  into 
that  crime.  This  they  gathered  from  God's 
promising  to  "  blot  out  the  names  of  idols 
from  under  the  heaven,"*  from  his  kingdom 
being  an  "  everlasting  kingdom  ;"^  "  from 
his  gifts  being  without  repentance;"^  and 
from  his  "  smiting  his  enemies  in  the 
hinder  parts,  and  putting  them  to  perpetual 
shame;"®  which  one  would  think  had  no 
relation  to  idolatry,  or  to  images.     But  St. 


'  See  p.  34. 

5  Had  God  intended  to  forbid  the  worship  of  all 
imacea  without  distinction,  I  should  be  glad  to  know 
with  what  more  significant  and  comprehensive  words 
he  could  have  expressed  hjs  mind,  than  those  of  the 
second  commandment,  "Thou  shnlt  not  make  to  thy- 
self any  graven  images,"  any  at  all.  Are  the  words, 
"Thou  slialt  not  commit  adultery,"  more  comprehen- 
sive or  significant ■?  As  to  the  distinction  of  absolute 
and  relative  worship,  now  used  in  the  schools  to  elude 
the  law,  "Thou  shalt  not  bow  down  to  them,  nor  wor- 
ship them,"  it  is  quite  impertiiient ;  for  whether  the 
worship  be  absolute  or  relative,  it  is  worship;  and 
whether  it  be  the  one  or  the  other,  they  "  bow  down 
to  them." 

»Zach.  13.       <Psal.  115.     «  Rom.  11.     »  Psal.  78. 


100 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Stephen  II. 


The  council  adjourns  to  Constantinople.  A  new  patriarch  appointed.  The  decree  of  faith  issued  by  the  council. 

The  canons. 


Paul  did  not  think  it  impossible  that  Chris- 
tians redeemed  from  idolatry  should  relapse 
into  that  crime;  nor  did  St.  John  ;  since  the 
one  exhorted  the  Christians  of  Corinth  to 
"  flee  from  idolatry ;"'  and  the  other  the 
Christians  in  general  to  "  keep  themselves 
from  idols. "2  These  two  apostles  were,  ac- 
cording to  the  divinely  inspired  divines  of 
Nice,  arrant  triflers ;  exhorting  men  to  flee, 
and  keep  themselves  from  a  crime,  which 
they  could  not  possibly  commit.  But  ab- 
stracting from  Scripture,  from  reason,  from 
daily  experience,  I  should  be  glad  to  know 
how  the  pretended  impossibility  of  relapsing 
into  idolatry  can  be  reconciled  with  the 
charge  of  idolatry,  brought  by  those  good 
fathers  themselves  against  the  Arians  for 
worshiping  Christ,  whom  they  believed  to 
be  but  a  mere  creature  !  Were  the  Arians, 
worshiping  the  most  perfect  of  all  creatures, 
guilty  of  idolatry,  notwithstanding  God's 
promise  to  "  blot  out  the  names  of  idols 
from  under  the  heaven ;"  and  they  not 
guilty  of  idolatry  in  worshiping  the  meanest 
of  all  creatures,  the  works  of  men's  hands'? 
But  to  return  to  the  council  of  Constanti- 
nople; the  fathers  of  that  assembly  conti- 
nued their  sessions,  without  interruption, 
from  the  10th  of  February  to  the  7th  of  Au- 
gust, examining,  as  they  declared,  and  re- 
examining, with  the  greatest  care  and  atten- 
tion, the  question,  for  the  determining  of 
which  it  had  pleased  tlieir  most  religious 
emperors,  Constantine  and  Leo,^  to  call 
them  together.  But  on  the  7th  of  August 
they  adjourned  from  the  palace  of  Hiera  to 
the  basilic  of  St.  Mary  ad  Blachernas  in 
Constantinople,  to  issue  there,  as  in  a  more 
proper  place,  the  decree  of  faith,  which  they 
had  all,  not  one  excepted,  agreed  to,  and 
which  they  were  all,  not  one  excepted,  ready 
to  sign.  The  emperor  attended  them  in  per- 
son with  the  great  officers  of  state,  and  all 
the  nobility;  and  when  the  bishops  had 
taken  their  places,  according  to  their  diff'er- 
ent  ranks,  in  the  above-mentioned  basilic, 
he  named  at  last,  after  a  short  speech  to  the 
assemby  (of  which  not  a  single  word  has 
been  suffered  to  reach  our  times,)  a  new 
patriarch  in  the  room  of  Anastasius.  The 
person  he  promoted  to  that  dignity  was 
Constantine,  by  profession  a  monk,  and 
bishop  of  Sylleum  in  Pamphylia ;  and  his 
promotion  was  received  by  all  with  the 
greatest  applause.''    And  now  the  exarch 


'  1  Corinth.  10  :  14.  a  1  .John  5 :  21. 

=  Constantine  took  his  son  Leo  for  his  partner  in  the 
empire  when  he  was  not  yet  a  year  and  a  half  old. 
He  was  born  on  the  25th  of  January,  750,  and  solemn- 
ly crowned  by  the  patriarch  Anastasius  on  Whitsun- 
day the  following  year. 

'"Baronius,  Maimbourg,  Natalis  Alexander,  and  other 
such  writers,  paint  the  new  patriarch  in  the  blackest 
colors;  tellint;  us,  from  the  lying  acts  of  the  pretended 
martyr  Stephen  the  Younger,  that  he  had  abandoned 
himself  from  his  youth,  without  shame  or  remorse,  to 
ail  manner  of  wickedness,  and  had  been  driven  from 
his  see  for  his  lewdness  and  debauchery.    But  as  the 


of  Asia,  and  the  metropolitan  of  Pamphyha, 
who  had  hitherto  presided,  yielding  their 
place  to  the  new  oecumenical  patriarch,  as 
they  styled  him,  the  emperor,  addressing 
himself,  with  great  respect,  to  the  bishops, 
desired  they  would  cause  the  determinations 
of  that  holy  and  CEcumenical  council  to  be 
read  so  as  to  be  heard  by  all  who  were 
present. 

They  were  read  accordingly,  after  a  pre- 
amble of  some  length,  giving  an  account 
of  the  rise  and  progress  of  the  new  idolatry  ; 
of  the  arts  used  by  the  contriver  of  all  mis- 
chief to  seduce  mankind  to  worship  the  crea- 
ture besides  the  Creator;  and  of  the  motives, 
that  had  induced  the  council  to  put  a  stop  to 
that  worship.  Next  to  the  preamble  was 
read  the  decree  of  faith,  and  after  it  the 
canons.  The  decree  of  faith  was  as  fol- 
lows :  "  The  holy  and  (Ecumenical  council, 
which  it  has  pleased  our  most  orthodox  em- 
perors Constantine  and  Leo  to  assemble  in 
the  church  of  St.  Mary  ad  Blachernas,  in 
the  imperial  city,  adhering  to  the  Word  of 
God,  to  the  definitions  of  the  six  preceding 
councils,  to  the  doctrine  of  the  approved 
fathers,  and  the  practice  of  the  church  in  the 
earliest  times,  pronounce  and  declare,  in  the 
name  of  the  Trinity,  and  with  one  heart  and 
mind,  that  no  images  are  to  be  worshiped ; 
that  to  worship  them,  or  any  other  creature, 
is  robbing  God  of  the  honor  that  is  due  to  him 
alone,  and  relapsing  into  idolatry.  Who- 
ever, therefore,  shall  henceforth  presume 
to  worship  images,  to  set  them  up  in  the 
churches,  or  in  private  houses,  or  to  conceal 
them,  shall  be  degraded,  if  a  bishop,  a  priest, 
or  a  deacon  ;  and  if  a  monk,  or  a  layman, 
excommunicated,  and  punished,  as  guilty  of 
a  breach  of  God's  express  command,  and 
the  imperial  laws ;  that  is,  of  the  very  severe 
laws  issued  by  the  Christian  emperors 
against  the  worshipers  of  idols."  By  the 
canons  were  anathematized,  I.  All  makers 
of  images,  whether  those  images  were  de- 
signed Jo  represent  the  Godhead,  and  Christ 
accordmgto  his  human  nature,'  or  only  the 


contemporary  historians,  though  all  his  sworn  enemies, 
take  not  the  least  notice  of  his  debauched  and  profli- 
gate life,  nor  of  his  having  ever  been  driven  from  his 
see,  we  may  well  conclude  the  compiler  of  the  above- 
mentioned  acts  to  have  been  an  impostor  and  liar, 
and  Constantine,  though  a  monk,  a  man  of  a  most  un- 
blemished character,  and  e.xemplary  life.  Indeed  the 
emperor  was  too  wise  a  prince  to  have  preferred  one, 
at  this  juncture,  to  the  patriarchal  see  of  the  imperial 
city,  whose  scandalous  Hfe  might  have  prejudiced  the 
world  against  his  council,  and  lessened  its  authority. 
The  author  of  those  acts  inveighs  with  great  bitter- 
ness against  the  emperor  for  presuming  to  appoint  a 
patriarch,  which  his  predecessors  had  all  done,  or  any 
ways  concerning  himself  with  the  affairs  of  the  church, 
when  he  had  spent  all  his  life  in  slaughtering  men, 
the  Saracens,  and  other  barbarians,  who  broke  into 
the  empire,  and  had  most  wickedly  defiled  himself 
with  no  fewer  than  three  women,  all  three  his  lawful 
wives. —  (Apud  Bar.  ad  Ann.  754.) 

'  Besides  the  reasons  they  alleged  against  images  in 
general,  they  urged  one  against  the  images  of  Christ 
in  particular  ;  namely,  that  they  were  false  represen- 
tations, and  teachers  of  lies,  (Hab.  2:  18.)  represent- 


Stephen  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


101 


The  decree,  and  the  canons,  issued  with  one  consent.    The  worship  of  images  suppressed  in  the  east, 
council  of  Constantinople  a  lawful  oecumenical  council. 


The 


virgin  Mary,  and  the  other  saints.  II.  All, 
who  did  not  confess  the  virgin  Mary,  the 
mother  of  God,  to  be  above  all  visible  and 
invisible  creatures.  III.  Such  as  did  not 
confess  tlie  saints,  who,  before  the  law,  and 
under  the  law,  had  pleased  God,  to  be  ho- 
norable in  his  sight.  They  added  here,  that 
the  virgin  Mary  and  the  saints  interceded, 
according  to  the  tradition  of  the  church,  for 
the  world  :  whence,  some  have  concluded, 
that  they  confessed  the  innovation  of  saints  ; 
not  aware  of  the  difference  (and  it  is  strange 
they  should  not  be  aware  of  it ;  for  it  is  wide 
enough)  between  the  "  saints  praying  for  us, 
and  our  praying  to  them."  IV.  All  were 
anathematized,  who  did  not  hold  and  pro- 
fess the  doctrine  delivered  in  the  holy  Scrip- 
tures, concerning  the  fall  of  man,  the  ineffa- 
ble mystery  of  the  incarnation,  the  resurrec- 
tion, the  eternity  of  rewards  and  punish- 
ments ;  and  lastly,  all,  who  did  not  receive 
that  sacred  and  universal  seventh  synod;  or 
should  presume  to  propose,  teach,  or  deliver, 
another  faith  ;  or  introduce  new  words,  or 
new-coined  distinctions  (of  absolute  and  re- 
lative worship,  of  supreme  and  inferior,  of 
Latria,  Dulia,  and  Hyperdulia,  &,c.,)  to 
elude  or  subvert  the  determinations  of  the 
present  holy  and  CEcumenical  synod. 

The  definition  of  faith  and  the  canons 
being  thus  publicly  read,  the  emperor,  ad- 
dressing himself  to  the  assembly,  desired 
the  holy  universal  synod  freely  to  declare 
whether  they  all  agreed  to  the  determina- 
tions they  had  heard.  The  bishops  answer- 
ed with  one  voice,  "we  all  thus  believe; 
we  are  all  of  the  same  mind;  we  all  unani- 
mously and  freely  subscribe;  we  all  worship 
and  adore  the  spiritual  Deity  in  a  spiritual 
manner :  this  is  the  faith  of  the  apostles ; 
this  is  the  faith  of  the  fathers;  this  is  the 
faith  of  all  truly  orthodox ;  thus  all  worship, 
who  worship  in  spirit  and  in  truth :  long 

in?  Christ  only  as  a  man,  whereas  he  was  boih  God 
and  man;  the  very  reason  why  it  was  not  thought 
lawful,  till  so  late  as  the  latter  end  of  the  seventh  cen- 
tury, to  paint  Christ  in  the  form  of  a  man. —  (See  vol. 
1.  p.  494.)  They  added,  as  we  are  informed  by  the 
fathers  of  Nice,  who  undertook  to  confute  them,  that 
to  paint  Christ  in  the  shape  of  a  man,  was  to  commend 
Ariiis  and  Nestorius.  Arius  held,  as  is  well  known, 
Christ  to  be  a  mere  man  ;  on  the  other  hand,  Ncsto- 
rious  owned  the  divinity  indeed  to  be  present  in,  but 
would  not  allow  it  to  be  hypostalically  united  to,  his 
h\imanity  ;  callini;  him  Homo  deiferus,  and  not  Homo 
Deus  Now  the  fathers  of  Constantinople  forbad,  per- 
haps, the  imajjesof  Christ  in  the  form  of  a  man,  because 
they  countenanced,  in  their  opinion,  the  error  of  Arius, 
by  representing  him  only  as  a  man;  and  the  error  of 
Nestorius  by  representing  his  humanity  separated  from 
liis  divinity.  But  they  had  better  have  kept  to  the 
reasons  alleged  above,  if  that  was  their  true  meaning; 
and  what  else  (hey  could  have  meant  sayinp,  that  to 
paint  Christ  in  the  form  of  a  man,  was  to  commend 
Arius  and  Nestorius,  I  cannot  conceive.  The  answer 
of  the  fathers  of  Nice  to  this  argument  was  as  imper- 
tinent as  the  argument  itself;  namely,  that  as  the 
image  of  a  man  may  represent  him  truly,  though  it 
does  not  represent  his  soul,  so  may  the  image  of  Christ 
represent  him  truly,  thoueh  it  does  not  represent  his 
divinity.  For  the  image  of  a  man,  if  it  represents  him 
livin?,  represents,  in  some  manner,  his  soul ;  but  the 
image  of  Christ,  in  the  form  of  a  man,  does,  in  no 
manocr  at  ail,  represent  his  divinity. 


live  the  most  religious  and  orthodox  empe- 
rors Constantine  and  Leo :  anathema  to 
Germanus,  a  worshiper  of  wooden  gods; 
anathema  to  George,  who  agrees  with  him, 
and  falsifies  the  doctrine  of  the  fathers ;  ana- 
thema to  Mansur  (or  Damascene,)  a  wor- 
shiper of  images,  and  a  writer  of  fables. 
Confounded  be  all  they  that  serve  graven 
images.'"  The  decree  of  faith  was  signed, 
and  so  were  the  canons,  by  both  emperors, 
and  all  the  bishops,  to  a  man  ;  who,  return- 
ing to  their  sees,  as  soon  as  they  had  signed 
them,  caused  them  to  be  observed  in  their 
respective  dioceses  and  provinces,  as  they 
had  been  enjoined  by  the  emperor,  with  the 
utmost  strictness  and  rigor.  And  thus  was 
the  new  idolatry,  as  it  was  styled,  condemn- 
ed at  last  in  a  general  council ;  and  the 
images,  that  gave  occasion  to  it,  banished 
from  the  churches,  as  Avell  as  from  the  pri- 
vate oratories  and  houses,  all  over  the  east. 
All,  but  the  monks,  readily  submitted  to  the 
decision  of  the  council.  They,  indeed,  op- 
posed it;  and  it  concerned  them  as  nearly  to 
oppose  it,  as  it  concerned  the  craftsmen  of 
Ephesus  to  oppose  the  doctrine  of  St.  Paul. 
But  of  their  unwarrantable  and  Avicked  at- 
tempts to  maintain  the  condemned  supersti- 
tion in  defiance  of  the  decisions  of  the  coun- 
cil, and  the  imperial  laws,  as  well  as  of  the 
severe  treatment  they  deservedly  met  with, 
on  that  score,  from  the  emperor  and  his  of- 
ficers, I  shall  have  occasion  to  speak  here- 
after. 

As  all  general  councils  are  believed  in  the 
church  of  Rome  infallible,  this  council,  we 
may  be  sure,  has  not  been  received  by  that 
church  as  a  general  council.  But  that  it 
has  as  good  a  right  to  that  title  as  any  of  the 
six  preceding  councils,  may  be  easily  de- 
monstrated. For,  I.  It  was  convened,  as 
were  all  the  other  councils,  by  the  emperor; 
and,  consequently,  lawfully  convened.  II. 
It  was  the  most  numerous  council  that  had 
been  yet  held  in  the  church,  consisting  of 
three  hundred  and  thirty-eight  bishops; 
whereas  at  the  first  council  of  Nice,  far  ex- 
ceeding in  number  all  the  rest,  assisted  only 
three  hundred  and  eighteen.  III.  The  fathers 
allowed  themselves  the  time,  that  was  ne- 
cessary to  examine  thoroughly  and  leisurely 
the  question  ;  a  question  of  infinite  moment, 
which  they  had  been  called  together  to  de- 
cide; continuing  their  sessions  from  the 
10th  of  February  to  the  7th  of  August. 
The  "  second  holy,  general,  and  divinely 
inspired"  council  of  Nice  did  not  proceed 


'  Germanus  was  heretofore  bishop  of  Constantino- 
ple, and  a  most  zealous  stickler,  as  we  have  seen,  for 
the  worship  of  images.  George  is  supposed  by  some 
to  have  been  a  bishop  ;  and  by  others,  to  have  been 
only  a  monk.  But  he  must  have  distinguished  him- 
self, whether  a  monk  or  bishop,  above  all  his  brethren, 
by  his  zeal  in  maintaining  the  worship  of  images,  and 
falsifying,  with  that  pious  view,  the  writings  of  the 
fathers.  As  for  Mansur  or  Damascene,  we  need  but 
dip  into  his  works  to  be  convinced  that  he  was,  as  the 
council  styles  him,  a  writer  of  fables. 

I  2 


102 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Stephen  IL 


A  council  may  be  lawful  without  the  pope,  and  without  the  other  patriarchs.    The  pope,  how  employed  at  this 

time. 


with  such  deliberatioQ  and  maturity,  nor 
employ  the  sixth  part  of  the  time  in  ex- 
amining the  same  question,  if  they  may  be 
said  to  have  examined  it  at  all ;  for  they  met 
on  the  24th  of  September,  and  all  was  over 
by  the  12th  of  the  following  October.  IV. 
In  the  council  of  Constantinople  the  debates 
were  entirely  free;  no  man  being  required, 
either  in  the  council,  or  before  it,  to  speak 
or  to  vote  the  one  way  or  the  other.  The 
emperor  not  only  declined,  as  has  been 
said,  appointing  a  patriarch,  whose  authority 
would  have  been  of  great  weight  with  the 
fathers  of  the  council,  but  would  not  appear 
amongst  them  himself  till  the  points  in  de- 
bate were  finally  determined,  lest  he  should 
awe  or  bias  them  to  either  side  with  his  pre- 
sence. On  the  other  hand,  none  were  al- 
lowed a  place  in  the  packed  assembly  of 
Nice,  as  we  may  justly  style  it,  who  did  not 
declare  beforehand  for  the  doctrine  they  in- 
tended to  establish,  the  lawfulness  of  image 
worship,  or,  having,  at  any  time,  held  the 
opposite  opinion,  did  not  solemnly  abjure  it. 
V.  The  bishops  of  Constantinople,  though 
in  every  respect  free,  agreed,  not  one  out  of 
the  three  hundred  and  thirty-eight  dissenting 
from  the  rest,  to  condemn,  "with  one  heart, 
and  one  mind,"  the  use  as  well  as  the  wor- 
ship of  images,  and  anathematize  all,  who 
either  worshiped  them,  or  used  them  in  their 
worship.  In  what  other  council  did  such 
harmony  reign  among  the  bishops  who  com- 
posed it?  VI.  They  did  not  ground  the 
doctrine  they  defined  upon  silly,  absurd, 
childish,  and  impertinent  reasons,  as  they 
are  called  by  Baronius,  Maimbourg,  Natalis 
Alexander,  but  upon  the  authority  of  Scrip- 
ture, as  understood  and  explained  by  the 
fathers  of  the  church,  by  the  councils,  and 
the  Christians  of  the  primitive  times ;  intro- 
ducing thereby  anew  the  use  of  that  long 
unfashionable  and  antiquated  book.  In 
short,  they  grounded  their  doctrine  on  rea- 
sons, which  the  good  fathers  of  Nice  had 
better  have  suppressed,  as  they  did  all 
other  writings  against  images,  than  offered 
to  answer.  VII.  They  received  the  six  pre- 
ceding general  councils,  confirmed  the  doc- 
trine which  they  had  defined,  and  condemn- 
ed the  heresies  and  heretics,  that  they  had 
condemned.  Lastly,  they  ascertained,  in  the 
manner  we  have  seen,  the  honor  that  is  due 
to  the  virgin  Mary,  and  the  saints,  at  the 
same  time  that  they  ordered  their  images  to 
be  cast  out  of  the  churches,  and  destroyed  ; 
nay,  and  to  prevent  even  the  sacred  utensils 
from  being,  on  this  occasion,  any  ways  pro- 
faned or  abused,  they  strictly  forbad  any  per- 
son whatever  to  lay  hands  on  them  under 
color  of  demolishing  images,  or  remove  them 
out  of  the  churches  or  vestries,  without  the 
approbation  and  consent  of  the  universal 
patriarch,  and  an  order  from  the  emperor. 
They  have   been   therefore   very   unjustly 


charged,  as  even  Natalis  Alexander  has  been 
ingenuous  enough  to  own,  by  Baronius,  Bel- 
larmine,  and  Maimbourg,  with  irreligion  and 
profaneness.'  To  conclude,  no  council  held 
yet  in  the  church  does  deserve,  if  this  does 
not,  the  title  of  a  general  or  oscumenical 
council. 

But  the  pope,  say  the  advocates  for  image- 
worship,  did  not  assist  at  this  council,  either 
in  person,  or  by  his  legates;  nor  did  the 
three  patriarchs  of  Alexandria,  Antioch  and 
Jerusalem,  nor  any  of  them.  But  neither 
did  pope  Damasus  assist,  either  in  person, 
or  by  his  legates,  at  the  first  council  of  Con- 
stantinople assembled  by  the  emperor  Theo- 
dosius;^  nor  did  pope  Vigilius  at  the  second,3 
convened  by  the  emperor  Justinian ;  nay, 
Theodoret  assures  us,  in  two  different  places,* 
that  the  first  consisted  of  the  eastern  bishops 
only  ;  and  as  to  the  second,  it  was  held,  not 
only  in  the  absence,  but  against  the  will,  of 
Vigilius.^  And  yet  both  these  councils  were 
received  by  the  whole  catholic  church ;  have 
been  approved  by  all  the  popes,  who  have 
governed  the  Roman  church  from  those 
times  to  the  present ;  and  are  ranked,  by  all 
the  Roman  catholic  divines,  among  the  in- 
fallible, lawful,  and  oecumenical  councils. 
And  hence  it  evidently  follows,  that  a  coun- 
cil may  be  lawful  and  oecumenical,  may  de- 
termine and  define,  censure  and  condemn, 
though  held  in  the  absence,  nay,  and  against 
the  will  of  the  pope.  As  for  the  three  above- 
mentioned  patriarchs,  they  were  prevented 
by  the  Saracens,  to  whom  they  were  subject, 
from  assisting  at  this,  or  even,  as  shall  be 
shown  hereafter,  at  the  second  council  of 
Nice,  which,  however,  is  received  in  the 
church  of  Rome  as  an  oecumenical  and  law- 
ful council.  To  conclude,  for  no  other  rea- 
son has  that  church  condemned  and  rejected 
the  present  council,  but  because  it  condemned 
and  rejected  her  doctrine ;  the  very  reason 
why  the  Arians  condemned,  and  condemn 
to  this  day,  the  first  council  of  Nice;  why 
the  Macedonians  condemned  the  first  of 
Constantinople;  the  Nestorians  that  of  Ephe- 
sus ;  the  Etuychians  the  council  of  Chalce- 
don ;  the  defenders  of  the  three  chapters, 
the  second ;  and  the  Monothelites  the  third 
council  of  Constantinople. 

Of  this  council,  and  its  whole  proceedings, 
a  full  account  was  immediately  transmitted 
to  the  pope  by  his  emissaries  in  those  parts, 
the  monks.  But  Stephen  was,  at  this  time, 
too  much  taken  up  with  temporal  affairs  to 
mind  those  of  the  church ;  and  more  con- 
cerned to  rob  the  emperor  of  his  dominions 
in  the  west,  than  to  oppose  the  heresy,  as  it 
was  called,  which  he  was  striving  to  esta- 
blish in  the  east.  He  had  begun  to  take 
upon  him  the  port  and  state  of  a  prince; 


«  Natal.  Alex.  Secul.  VIII.  p.  665. 

a  See  vol.  I.  p.  101.  '  See  vol.  I.  p.  336. 

<  Theodo.  1.  5.  c.  2.  6.  at.  7.    »  See  vol.  I.  p.  361. 


Stephen  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


103 


Aistulphus  renews  the  war  upon  the  Roman  dukedom, 
lays  close  siege  to  Home; 


The  pope's  letter  to  Pepin  on  that  occasion.  Aistulphus 
1— [Year  of  Christ,  755.] 


but  found  himself,  to  his  great  mortification 
and  disappointment,  still  a  mere  bishop  ; 
and  could  not,  under  so  grievous  and  unex- 
pected a  disappointment,  attend  to  disputes 
of  religion,  especially  to  so  trifling  a  dispute 
as  that  about  images,  whether  it  was  or  was 
not  idolatry,  and  a  breach  of  the  second 
commandment,  to  worship  them.  Aistul- 
phus had  signed,  as  we  have  seen,  but  much 
against  his  will,  the  treaty  of  Pavia;  by  vir- 
tue of  which  treaty,  he  was  to  deliver  up  to 
the  pope  all  the  places  he  had  taken  from 
the  emperor.  As  those  places  were  not  to 
be  restored  to  the  emperor,  the  king  thought, 
that  he,  who  had  taken  them  at  the  expense 
of  the  blood  and  treasure  of  his  nation,  had 
a  belter  right  to  them  than  the  pope,  who 
founded  his  whole  claim  to  them  on  the  do- 
nation of  one,  who  had  no  right  to  dispose 
of  them,  if  he  himself  had  no  right,  and  the 
pope  had  told  him  he  had  none,  to  keep 
them.  Having  therefore,  under  various  pre- 
tences, put  off,  for  some  time,  the  execution 
of  ihe  above-mentioned  treaty,  and,  in  the 
mean  while,  recruited  his  army  secretly, 
he  unexpectedly  broke  into  the  Roman  duke- 
dom, resolved  to  renew  the  war  at  all  events  ; 
and,  instead  of  parting  with  the  places  he 
had  taken,  to  seize  on  those  he  had  not  taken. 
Of  this  the  pope  gave  immediate  notice  to 
Pepin  in  a  long  letter,  which  he  delivered  to 
the  abbot  Fulrad,  who  had  attended  him  to 
Rome,  and  was  then  returning  to  France. 
•'  To  defend  the  church,"  says  the  pope  in 
that  letter,  "  is,  of  all  works,  the  most  meri- 
torious; and  that,  to  which  is  reserved  the 
greatest  reward  in  the  world  to  come.  God 
might  himself  have  defended  his  church,  or 
raised  up  others  to  ascertain  and  defend  the 
just  rights  of  his  apostle  St.  Peter.     But  it 

[)leased  him  to  choose  you,  my  most  excel- 
ent  son,  out  of  the  whole  human  race,  for 
that  holy  purpose.  For  it  was  in  compli- 
ance with  his  divine  inspiration  and  com- 
mand, that  I  applied  to  you,  that  I  came 
into  your  kingdom,  that  I  exhorted  you  to 
espouse  the  cause  of  his  beloved  apostle, 
and  your  great  protector,  St.  Peter.  You 
espoused  his  cause  accordingly ;  and  your 
zeal  for  his  honor  was  quickly  rewarded 
with  a  signal  and  miraculous  victory.  But 
St.  Peter,  my  most  excellent  son,  has  not 
yet  reaped  the  least  advantage  from  so  glo- 
rious a  victory,  though  owing  entirely  to  him. 
The  perfidious  and  wicked  Aistulphus  has 
not  yet  yielded  to  him  one  foot  of  ground  ; 
nay,  unmindful  of  his  oath,  and  actuated 
by  the  devil,  he  has  begun  hostilities  anew, 
and,  bidding  defiance  both  to  you  and  St. 
Peter,  threatens  us,  and  the  whole  Roman 
people,  with  death  and  destruction,  as  the 
abbot  Fulrad  and  his  companions  will  in- 
form you."  The  rest  of  the  pope's  letter 
consists  chiefly  of  repeated  invectives  against 
Aistulphus  as  a  sworn  enemy  to  St.  Peter, 


and  repeated  commendations  of  Pepin,  his 
two  sons,  and  the  whole  French  nation,  as 
the  chief  friends  and  favorites  of  that  apos- 
tle. In  the  end  he  puts  Pepin,  and  likewise 
his  two  sons,  in  mind  of  the  promise  they 
had  made  to  the  door-keeper  of  heaven ; 
tells  them,  that  the  prince  of  the  apostles 
himself  kept  the  instrument  of  their  dona- 
tion ;  that  it  had  been  delivered  into  the  apos- 
tle's own  hands  ;  and  that  he  held  it  tight, 
to  produce  it,  at  the  last  day,  for  their  pun- 
ishment, if  it  was  not  executed  ;  and  for  their 
reward,  if  it  was;  and  therefore  conjures 
them  by  the  living  God,  by  the  virgin  Mary, 
by  all  the  angels  of  heaven,  by  St.  Peter 
and  St.  Paul,  and  the  tremendous  day  of 
judgment,  to  cause  St.  Peter  to  be  put  in 
possesion  of  all  the  places  named  in  the  do- 
nation; and  to  be  put  in  possession  of  them 
all,  and  every  one  of  them,  without  further 
delay,  without  any  excuses  whatever;  lest 
by  excusing  others  they  should  themselves 
become  inexcusable;  and  be,  in  the  end, 
eternally  damned.' 

In  the  mean  time  Aistulphus,  advancing 
to  Rome,  encamped  on  the  first  day  of 
January,  with  his  army  divided  into  several 
bodies  before  the  different  gates  of  that  city, 
and  closely  besieged  it.  As  he  was  provoked, 
beyond  all  measure,  against  the  pope,  who 
had  not  only  stirred  up  the  French  to  invade 
his  dominions,  but  now  claimed  the  ex- 
archate and  the  Pentapolis  for  himself,  after 
he  had  threatened  him  with  vengence  from 
heaven,  as  guilty  of  the  greatest  injustice  in 
not  restoring  them  to  his  most  religious  son 
the  emperor,  who  alone  had  a  right  to  them, 
he  sent,  on  his  first  arrival,  one  of  his  officers 
into  the  city  to  assure  the  inhabitants,  that 
he  came  not  as  an  enemy  to  them,  but  only 
to  the  pope ;  that  if  they  consented  to  deliver 
him  up,  they  should  be  treated  with  the 
greatest  humanity  ;  but  if  they  refused,  he 
would  level  their  walls  with  the  ground,  and 
put  them  all  without  mercy,  to  the  sword. 
To  this  message,  the  Romans,  who  were 
not  yet  become  that  dastardly  crew  they  are 
now,  returned  answer,  that  the  pope  was 
their  common  father ;  that  they  would  stand 
by  him  to  the  last  drop  of  their  blood;  and 
that  the  brave  king  of  the  Lombards  might, 
if  he  prevailed  in  the  end,  put  the  women 
and  children  to  the  sword  ;  but,  as  to  the 
men,  they  were  all  determined  to  die  on  the 
walls  before  he  set  foot  in  the  city.  The 
king,  provoked  at  this  answer,  began  to  bat- 
ter the  walls  on  all  sides  with  the  utmost 
fury  ;  sending  out  parties,  at  the  same  time, 
to  ravage  the  neighboring  country,  to  carry 
off  the  inhabitants,  with  all  their,effects,  and 
set  fire  to  their  houses ;  insomuch  that  the 
country  all  round  appeared  in  a  flame ;  and 
the  shrieks  of  the  women  carried  into  cap- 


i  Cod.  Carolin.  Ep.  7. 


104 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES. 


[Stephen  II. 


The  pope  finds  means  to  convey  a  letter  to  Pepin.     The  contents  of  his  letter. 


tivity  were  heard  in  the  city.  However,  the 
Romans,  encouraged  by  the  pope,  and  not 
doubting  but  the  French  would  fly  to  their 
relief,  as  soon  as  they  could  be  acquainted 
with  their  distress,  defended  the  walls  with 
incredible  bravery,  repulsed  the  enemy  in 
their  repeated  attacks,  repaired  the  breaches, 
and,  sallying  frequently  out,  destroyed  the 
works  of  the  aggressors,  and  set  fire  to  their 
engines.  They  were  commonly  headed  by  a 
French  abbot  named  Warner;  who,  arming 
himself  with  a  breast-plate  for  the  love  of 
St.  Peter,  says  the  pope  in  one  of  his  letters, 
fought  like  a  good  soldier  of  Christ;  never 
quitting  the  walls  by  day,  nor  by  night. 

The  pope  had, from  the  time  the  city  was 
first  invested,  tried  all  means  of  getting  a 
letter  conveyed  to  Pepin,  his  only  protector 
and  refuge.  But  the  town  was  so  closely  be- 
sieged on  all  sides,  and  the  passes  so  care- 
fully guarded,  that  none  could  come  in  or 
go  out.  However,  private  intelligence  being 
given  him  on  the  fifty-fifth  day  of  the  siege, 
that  a  vessel,  then  on  the  coast,  was  ready 
to  sail  for  France,  the  abbot  Warner,  a  bishop 
named  George,  and  count  Thomeric,  ven- 
turing over  the  walls  in  the  dead  of  the 
night,  had  the  good  luck  to  avoid  the  ene- 
my's sentries,  and  get  undiscovered  to  the 
vessel,  which  put  immediately  to  sea,  and 
landed  them  safe  in  the  dominions  of  Pepin. 
They  were  charged  with  a  letter  from  the 
pope,  written  in  his  own  name,  and  the  name 
of  the  whole  Roman  people ;  and  addressed 
to  Pepin,  to  his  two  sons  Charles  and  Car- 
loman,  whom  he  styles  kings,  and  Roman 
patricians,  to  all  the  bishops,  abbots,  pres- 
byters, monks,  dukes,  counts,  and  the  whole 
French  army.  The  pope  begins  his  letter 
with  a  most  pathetic  account  of  the  deplo- 
rable condition  to  which  he  and  the  peculiar 
people  of  St.  Peter  were  reduced  ;  and  a  de- 
tail, exaggerated  beyond  all  measure,  of  the 
cruelties  practised  upon  that  unhappy  peo- 
ple by  the  perfidious  Aistulphus  and  his 
Lombards,  all  alike  possessed  with,  and  in- 
stigated by  the  devil;  1  say,  exaggerated 
beyond  all  measure ;  for  that  the  Lombards, 
not  satisfied  with  burning  the  houses,  root- 
ing up  the  vineyards,  cutting  down  the  trees, 
destroying  the  corn,  carrying  oflT  the  cattle, 
plundering  the  churches,  and  setting  fire  to 
them,  should,  besides,  have  sacrilegiously 
abused,  being  good  cathohcs,  the  most  sacred 
things,  even  the  holy  eucharist,  cruelly 
butchered  all  the  tenants  of  St.  Peter,  and 
the  Romans,  men  and  women,  ravished  the 
nuns,  whipped  the  monks  almost  to  death, 
debauched  the  married  women,  and,  tearing 
their  children  from  them,  dashed  out  their 
brains  before  their  mother's  eyes,  and  then 
murdered  them  too,  is  altogether  incredible. 
The  Lombards  were  a  warlike,  but  not  a  cruel 
people ;  and  Anastasius  only  charges  them, 
in  his  account  of  the  present  siege,  with 
having  laid  waste  the  neighboring  country. 


and  carried  off  many  bodies  of  saints  dug 
up  in  the  cemeteries.'  But  the  pope  wanted, 
not  only  to  move  the  French  nation  to  com- 
passion for  himself  and  the  Romans,  but  to 
inflame  them  against  the  Lombards ;  and 
thought  it  lawful,  perhaps  meritorious,  to 
exaggerate,  that  is,  to  lie,  for  so  holy  a  pur- 
pose. The  rest  of  the  letter,  which  seems 
to  have  been  written  in  a  great  hurry,  con- 
sists of  prayers,  entreaties,  promises,  me- 
naces, all  blended  together,  and  the  burden 
of  every  period.  Baronius  compares  him 
to  a  woman  in  labor  crying  out  for  help.- 
Indeed  no  woman  in  that  condition  ever  be- 
trayed more  anxiety,  or,  being  destitueof  all 
relief,  ever  craved  it  more  earnestly.  He 
entreats  over  and  over  again,  and  conjures 
the  king  and  the  French  nation,  the  first  and 
the  greatest  of  all  nations,  the  most  religious 
of  all  nations,  and  the  nation  favored  above 
all  other  nations  by  God,  nay,  and  by  the 
door-keeper  of  heaven,  to  complete  the  work 
they  have  begun,  the  great  work,  and  of  all 
works  the  most  meritorious,  that  of  redeem- 
ing the  church  of  God,  and  the  flock  of  St. 
Peter,  from  imminent  ruin  and  destruction; 
promises  them  prosperity  and  success  in 
all  their  undertakings,  victories,  coriquests, 
triumphs  over  all  their  enemies  in  thiSworld, 
and,  by  the  intercession  of  St.  Peter,  a  great, 
inconceiveably  great,  and  everlasting  reward, 
in  the  other,  if  they  suffer  not  those  to  be  con- 
founded, who,  after  God,  have  placed  all 
their  confidence  in  them ;  threatens  them 
with  the  wrath  of  heaven,  with  the  indig- 
nation of  St.  Peter,  with  all  the  calamities 
that  can  befal,  in  this  world,  a  faithless  peo- 
ple, and  eternal  damnation  in  the  world  to 
come,  if  unmindful  of  their  engagements, 
they  leave  imperfect,  or  abandon  the  work, 
which  they  have  been  chosen  by  God,  out 
of  all  the  nations  of  the  earth,  to  complete ; 
and  concludes  with  entreating,  and  most 
earnestly  pressing  them  anew,  as  they  ex- 
pected to  hear  it  said  to  them  on  the  last  day, 
"  come,  ye  blessed  of  my  Father,"  not  only  to 
come,  but  to  come  without  delay,  to  hasten 
with  all  possible  speed,  to  fly  to  the  relief  of 
the  distressed  beyond  expression,  forsaken, 
and,  but  for  the  trust  they  put  in  them,  despair- 
ing flock  of  St.  Peter,  lest  the  enemy,  who 
seeks  their  destruction,  and  thirsts  after  their 
blood,  should  in  the  meantime,  prevail,  and 
they  be  deprived  of  their  reward,  the  kingdom 
of  heaven."  It  is  to  be  observed,  that  the  pope, 
in  both  his  letters,  by  St.  Peter,  means  him- 
self; by  the  church,  the  catholic,  the  apos- 
tolic church,  the  temporalities  of  the  Roman 
church  ;  and,  by  the  flock  of  St.  Peter  the 
rebellious  people  of  Rome ;  as  if  the  rest  of 
the  world  had  nothing  to  do  with  St.  Peter, 
nor  St.  Peter  with  them. 
As  the  Lombards  carried  on   the  siege 


I  Anast.  In  Steph.  II.         i  Bar.  ad  Ann.  755  p.  231. 
3  Epist.  6.  Cod.  Carol,  torn.  6.   Concil.    p.   1663.  & 
apud  Bar.  ad  Ann.  755.  p.  229,  et  seq. 


Stephen  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


105 


The  pope  writes  to  Pepin  and  the  French  nation,  in  the  name  of  St.  Peter.     St.  Peter's  letter.    Pepin  returns 
to  Italy,  and  besieges  Pavia  a  second  time.     Ambassadors  sent  by  the  emperor  to  Pepin. 


with  great  vigor,  and  the  town,  if  not  re- 
lieved, could  not  hold  out  much  longer,  the 
pope,  who  had  yet  received  no  intelligence 
of  the  march  of  the  French  array,  began  to 
apprehend  that  his  letters  had  made  little  or 
no  impression  on  the  mind  of  the  king. 
Under  this  apprehension,  and  in  imminent 
danger  of  falling  into  the  hands  of  his  avow- 
ed enemies,  he  bethought  himself  of  an  arti- 
fice ;  of  which  there  is  not,  says  Pagi,  nor 
perhaps  will  there  ever  be  another  instance, 
in  the  whole  history  of  the  popes.  He  had 
already  employed  all  the  motives  he  could 
think  of  to  move  his  protectors  to  compas- 
sion, but,  as  he  feared,  to  no  effect.  Instead, 
therefore,  of  urging  the  same  motives  again, 
he  resolved  to  introduce  St.  Peter  himself 
as  urging  them  ;  persuaded,  that  though  the 
French  king  and  nation  had,  perhaps  with- 
stood his  entreaties,  promises,  and  threats, 
they  would  scarce  withstand  those  of  that 
apostle.  He  dispatched,  accordingly  a  mes- 
senger into  France,  as  sent  by  St.  Peter, 
with  a  letter  written  by  him.  The  direction 
of  the  letter  was:  "Simon  Peter,  a  servant 
and  apostle  of  Jesus  Christ,  to  the  three 
most  excellent  kings,  Pepin,  Charles,  and 
Carloman;  to  all  the  holy  bishops,  abbots, 
presbyters,  and  monks;  to  all  the  dukes, 
counts,  commanders  of  the  French  army, 
and  to  the  whole  people  of  France :  Grace 
unto  you,  and  peace  be  multiplied."  The 
letter  begins  thus ;  "  I  am  the  apostle  Pe- 
ter, to  whom  it  was  said,  'Thou  art  Peter, 
and  upon  this  rock,'  &c.,  'Feed  my  sheep,' 
&c.,  'And  to  thee  will  I  give  the  keys,'  &.c. 
As  this  was  all  said  to  me  in  particular 
(here  St.  Peter,  by  the  way,  contradicts  all 
the  fathers  and  the  four  evangelists,')  all, 
who  hearken  to  me,  and  obey  my  exhorta- 
tions, may  persuade  themselves,  and  firmly 
believe,  that  their  sins  are  forgiven  them ; 
and  they  will  be  admitted,  cleansed  from  all 
guilt,  into  life  everlasting.  Hearken,  there- 
fore, to  me,  to  me  Peter  the  apostle  and  ser- 
vant of  Jesus  Christ;  and  since  I  have  pre- 
ferred you  to  all  the  nations  of  the  earth, 
hasten,  I  beseech  and  conjure  you,  if  you 
care  to  be  cleansed  from  your  sins,  and  to 
earn  an  eternal  reward,  hasten  to  the  relief 
of  my  city,  of  my  church,  of  the  people 
committed  to  my  care,  ready  to  fall  into  the 
hands  of  the  wicked  Lombards,  their  merci- 
less enemies.  It  has  pleased  llie  Almighty 
that  my  body  should  rest  in  this  city;  the 
body,  that  has  suffered  for  the  sake  of  Christ 
such  exquisite  torments:  And  can  you,  my 
most  Christian  sons,  stand  by  unconcerned, 
and  see  it  insulted  by  the  most  wicked  of 
nations?  No,  let  it  never  be  said,  and  it 
will,  I  hope,  never  be  said,  that  I  the  apos- 
tle of  Jesus  Christ,  that  my  apostolic  church, 
the  foundation  of  the  faith,  that. my  flock 


'  See  vol  I.  p.  413.  note  (♦). 

Vol.  II.— 14 


recommended  to  you  by  me  and  my  vicar, 
have  trusted  in  you,  but  trusted  in  vain. 
Our  lady,  the  virgin  Mary,  mother  of  God, 
joins  in  earnestly  entreating,  nay,  and  com- 
mands you  to  hasten,  to  run,  to  fly,  to  the 
relief  of  my  favorite  people,  reduced  almost 
to  the  last  gasp,  and  calling,  in  that  extre- 
mity, night  and  day  upon  her  and  upon  me. 
The  thrones  and  dominions,  the  principali- 
ties and  the  powers,  and  the  whole  multi- 
tude of  the  heavenly  host,  entreat  you,  to- 
gether with  us,  not  to  delay,  but  to  come 
with  all  possible  speed,  and  rescue  my 
chosen  flock  from  the  jaAvs  of  the  ravening 
wolves  ready  to  devour  them.  My  vicar 
might,  in  this  extremity,  have  recurred,  and 
not  in  vain,  to  other  nations;  but  with  me 
the  French  are,  and  ever  have  been,  the  first, 
the  best,  the  most  deserving  of  all  nations  ; 
and  I  would  not  suffer  the  reward,  the  ex- 
ceeding great  reward,  that  is  reserved,  in 
this  and  the  other  world,  for  those  who  shall 
deliver  my  people,  to  be  earned  by  any 
other."  In  the  rest  of  the  letter,  St.  Peter 
is  made  to  repeat  all  the  pope  had  said  in 
his  letters;  to  court  the  favor  and  protection 
of  the  French  with  the  most  abject  flattery  ; 
to  inveigh  with  as  much  unchristian  resent- 
ment and  rancor,  as  the  pope  had  inveighed 
against  the  most  wicked  nation  of  the  Lom- 
bards ;  and  to  entreat  his  most  Christian  sons 
over  and  over  again  to  come,  and  with  all 
possible  speed,  to  the  relief  of  his  vicar  and 
people,  lest  they  should,  in  the  meantime, 
fall  into  the  hands  of  their  implacable  ene- 
mies ;  and  those,  from  Avhom  they  expected 
relief,  incur  the  displeasure  of  the  Almighty, 
and  his;  and  be  thereby  excluded,  notwith- 
standing all  their  other  good  works  from  the 
kingdom  of  heaven.' 

With  this  letter  the  pope  dispatched  a 
messenger,  in  all  haste,  to  Pepin ;  but  he 
had,  upon  the  receipt  of  his  first  letter,  as- 
sembled all  his  forces  anew  ;  and  was,  when 
he  received  this,  within  a  day's  march  of  the 
Alps.  He  pursued  his  march  without  de- 
lay ;  and,  having  forced  the  passes  of  those 
mouniains,  advanced,  never  once  halting, 
till  he  reached  Pavia;  and  laid,  a  secopd 
time,  close  siege  to  that  city,  not  doubting 
but  he  should  thus  oblige  Aistulphus  to  raise 
that  of  Rome.- 

In  the  mean  time  arrived  at  Rome,  in  their 
way  to  France,  two  oflicers  of  the  imperial 
court,  sent  by  the  emperor  to  congratulate 
Pepin  on  the  success  of  his  arms  against  the 
Lombards  in  Italy  ;  and,  at  the  same  time, 
to  thank  him,  in  his  name,  for  his  friend- 
ship and  generosity,  worthy  of  a  prince  of 
his  character,*  in  thus  defending  his  do- 
minions most  unjustly  invaded  in  the  west, 
while  he  was  employed  in  defending  the  em- 
pire against  the  common  enemy  in  the  east : 

«  Cod.  Carotin.  Ep.  7.  et  apud  Bar.  ad  Ann.  755.  p,  231, 


et  seq 


a  Anast.  in  Sleph  It. 


106 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES. 


[Stephen  II. 


The  ambassadors  are  allowed  to  enter  Rome.     They  repair  to  France,  and  arrive  at  Marseilles  ;  whence  one 
of  them  hastens  to  the  king's  camp.     His  speech  to  Pepin. 


for  Constantine  had  heard  of  the  expedition 
of  Pepin  into  Italy,  and  of  the  great  ad- 
vantages he  had  gained  there  over  tiie  Lom- 
bards ;  but,  as  he  had  given  no  kind  of  pro- 
vocation to  him,  or  his  nation,  he  took  it  for 
granted,  that  it  was  out  of  friendship  for 
him,  engaged  in  a  war  with  the  enemies  of 
the  Christian  name,  that  he  had  undertaken 
that  expedition  ;  or  perhaps  out  of  policy,  to 
prevent  the  Lombards,  of  whose  power  the 
French  might  be  jealous,  from  growing  more 
powerful ;  and  that  he  would  not  be  so  un- 
generous and  unjust  as  to  keep  the  places 
he  had  recovered  from  them.  Indeed  Con- 
stantine knew,  that  Pepin  came  into  Italy  at 
the  persuasion  of  the  pope ;  but  thought, 
that  as  his  predecessor,  pope  Gregory  II., 
had  stirred  up  the  Venetians  to  recover  Ra- 
venna, when  taken  by  the  Lombards,  not 
for  themselves,  but  for  the  emperor  Leo  his 
father,'  in  like  manner  Stephen  had,  as  it 
became  a  good  subject,  stirred  up  the  French 
to  recover  the  exarchate  and  the  Pentapolis, 
not  for  themselves,  but  for  him.  He  was, 
it  seems,  utterly  unacquainted  with  the  trea- 
sonable intrigues  of  the  pope,  and  the  pri- 
vate agreement  between  him  and  Pepin. 
And  truly,  as  the  popes  had  all  exclaimed 
against  the  Lombards  as  thieves  and  rob- 
bers for  invading  and  seizing  the  dominions 
that  belonged  to  the  empire,  it  never  once 
came  into  Constantine's  thoughts,  that  Ste- 
phen, who  had  exclaimed  against  them,  as 
much  as  any  of  his  predecessors,  could  ap- 
prove and  encourage  in  the  French  what  he 
had  condemned  as  a  crying  injustice  in  the 
Lombards.  The  good  emperor  was  not  ap- 
prised of  the  wide  difference  in  the  present 
case,  between  the  one  nation  and  the  other. 
The  Lombards,  the  most  wicked  of  all  na- 
tions, seized  on  the  imperial  dominions  for 
themselves  5  which  was  a  crying  injustice 
indeed;  a  damnable  robbery;  a  sin,  that 
provoked  the  vengeance  of  heaven,  and  could 
be  atoned  for  only  in  hell-fire.  But  the 
French,  the  first,  the  best,  the  most  religious 
of  all  nations,  seized  on  those  dominions ; 
not  for  themselves,  but  for  the  prince  of  the 
apostles,  St.  Peter;  which  was  a  work  of  all 
good  works  the  most  meritorious ;  a  work, 
that  deserved  to  be  rewarded  with  all  the 
blessings  and  good  things  of  this  world,  and 
w;ith  the  kingdom  of  heaven  in  the  world  to 
come. 

The  two  ambassadors  were  received  and 
treated  with  the  greatest  politeness  by  the 
king  of  the  Lombards,  sensible  that  the  in- 
terest of  the  pope  was  no  longer  the  same 
with  that  of  the  emperor,  nay,  and  were 
even  suffered  by  him  to  enter  Rome.  There 
they  were  informed,  by  the  few  friends  the 
emperor  had  still  in  that  city,  of  the  trea- 
sonable practices  of  the  pope ;  of  his  nego- 
tiations in  France ;  and  of  the  promise  he 

» See  p.  47. 


had  extorted  from  Pepin  of  yielding  to  St. 
Peter,  that  is,  to  himself  and  his  successors, 
instead  of  restoring  to  the  emperor,  the 
places  he  should  recover  from  the  Lombards. 
The  pope,  in  the  audience  he  gave  to  the 
ambassadors,  excused  his  recurring  to  the 
French  from  the  necessity  he  was  under  of 
choosing  new  protectors,  being  abandoned 
by  the  emperor,  not  able,  or  not  willing  to 
protect  him,  against  the  cruel  and  merciless 
nation  of  the  Lombards.  Of  his  agreement 
wilh  Pepin  he  took  no  kind  of  notice  to  them, 
nor  did  they  to  him.  However,  as  they 
could  not  well  doubt  of  it,  they  resolved  to 
leave  Rome,  when  they  had  been  but  a  few 
days  in  that  city,  and  repair,  in  all  haste,  to 
the  court  of  Pepin,  in  order  to  plead  there  the 
cause  of  their  master,  and  try  to  divert  that 
prince  from  seconding  the  ambitious  views, 
and  wicked  designs  of  the  pope.  This  the 
pope  suspected ;  and  therefore  apprehending, 
that  their  remonstrances  might  make  some 
impression  on  the  king,  perhaps  a  deeper 
impression  than  the  letter  from  St.  Peter,  he 
strove,  to  the  utmost  of  his  power,  to  dis- 
suade them  from  pursuing  their  journey. 
But  finding  he  could  not  prevail,  he  took 
care  to  send  one,  at  the  same  time,  with  the 
character  of  his  nuncio  to  Pepin  and  the 
French  nation,  to  remonstrate  against  the 
remonstrances  of  the  ambassadors;  and  main- 
tain, in  opposition  to  them,  the  cause  of  St. 
Peter.  The  nuncio  found  means  to  get,  un- 
discovered by  the  Lombards,  on  board  the 
vessel  prepared  for  the  ambassadors,  and 
they  sailed  together  to  Marseilles.' 

On  their  arrival  at  that  city  they  were  in- 
formed, that  the  king  had  already  crossed 
the  mountains,  and  entered,  at  the  head  of 
his  army,  the  dominions  of  the  Lombards. 
Upon  that  intelligence,  one  of  the  ambassa- 
dors, namely,  Gregory  the  emperor's  first 
secretary,  desirous  of  having  an  audience 
of  the  king  before  the  nuncio  could  prepos- 
sess him  against  him,  stole  privately  away, 
leaving  the  other  ambassador  in  Marseilles 
to  amuse  the  nuncio,  while  he  pursued  his 
journey,  with  all  expedition,  to  the  camp. 
He  came  up  with  the  army  at  a  small  dis- 
tance from  Pavia ;  and  being  immediately 
admitted  to  the  king,  he  told  him,  that  the 
fame  of  his  warlike  exploits,  especially  of 
the  success  that  had  attended  his  arms 
against  the  Lombards,  the  common  enemy 
of  France  and  the  empire,  having  reached 
the  most  distant  parts  of  the  east,  the 
great  and  most  catholic  emperor  Constan- 
tine had  sent  him  to  congratulate  the 
most  Christian  king  of  the  Franks,  his 
friend  and  ally,  upon  the  glory  and  renown 
he  had  thereby  acquired;  and,  at  the  same 
time,  to  acknowledge,  in  his  name,  the 
great  obligations  he  owed  him  for  his  ge- 
nerosity and   friendship    in    defending  the 


'  Anast.  in  Steph.  II. 


Stephen  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


107 


Pepin's  answer  to  the  speech  of  the  ambassador.     Aistulphus  obliged  to  raise  the  siege  of  Rome, 
granted  him;  and  upon  what  terms. 


Peace 


empire  against  the  Lombards  in  the  west, 
while  he  was  engaged   in  defending   both 
the  church  and  the  empire  against  the  Sa- 
racens in  the  east,  the  sworn  enemies   of 
both  ;  that  this  was  the  whole  of  the  com- 
mission he  was  charged  with  at  his  departure 
from  Constantinople  ;  but  that  he  had  since 
heard,  to  his  great  surprise,  that  it  was  not 
for  the  emperor  the  most  Christian  king  had 
made  war  on  the  Lombards,  nor  indeed  for 
himself,  but  for  the    pope ;    and    that  he 
was  not  to  keep  himself,  nor  yet  restore  to 
the  emperor,  but  to  yield  to  the  pope,  the 
places  he  should  recover  from  the  Lombards ; 
to  the  pope,  whom  he  should  have  thought 
of  all  men  the  least  capable  of  accepting  or 
encouraging  others  to  give,  what  he  could 
not  accept,  nor  they   could  give,  without 
being  guilty  of  the  greatest  injustice.     For 
though  the  exarchate,  said  he,  and  the  Pen- 
lapolis,  are  now  possessed  by  the  Lombards, 
yet,  as  they  were  seized  by  them  in  de- 
fiance of  the  law  of  nations,  and  by  an  open 
violation  of  the  most  sacred  treaties  subsist- 
ing at  the  time  they  seized  them,  between 
them  and  the  empire,  they  must  still  belong 
of  right  to  the  emperor,  unless  the  Lom- 
bards be  supposed  to  have  acquired  a  just 
title  to  them  by  a  breach  of  all  the  laws  of 
justice.  Of  this  the  popes  themselves  have  all 
been  sensible ;  this  they  have  often  inculcated 
to  the  Lombard  kings;  and,  by  that  means, 
even  sometimes  prevailed  upon  them  to  re- 
store,out  of  a  principle  of  justice,  the  places, 
which  their  ambition  had  tempted  them  to 
seize.      From   thence   Gregory   concluded, 
that  as  the  emperor  had  still,  and  he  alone 
had,  an  unquestionable  right  to  those  pro- 
vinces, they  ought  either  to  be  left  in-the 
possession  of  the  Lombards  till  he  himself 
was,  as  he  hoped  soon  to  be,  in  a  condition 
to  recover  them,  or  to  be  restored   to  him, 
if  recovered  by  any  other.     As  for  the  pope, 
to  whom  he  was  informed  they  were  to  be 
yielded,  he  begged  Pepin  to  consider,  that  he 
had  already  more  than  what  was  sufficient 
to  support  his  dignity  ;  that  Constantine,  not 
satisfied  wilh  suffering  liim  quietly  to  enjoy 
what  was  given  him  by  others,  had  himself 
contributed,  and   very   considerably,  to  the 
weahh  of  his  see  ;'  that  after  all,  the  pope 
was    as    much    a   subject  of  the  emperor 
as  any  other  man  in  the  empire;  that,  as  it 
would  be  treason  and  rebellion  in  any  other 
subject  to  usurp  the  dominions  of  his  sove- 
reign, so  it  was  treason  and  rebellion  in  the 
pope;  and  that  it  was  a  precedent  of  a  very 
dangerous  consequence    for  one   prince  to 
encourage   and  countenance   the  rebels  of 
another.     To  this  speech  Pepin  returned  no 
other  answer,  than  that  it  was  for  St.  Peter, 
and  not  for  the  emperor,-he  had  engaged  in 
the  present  war;  that  he  took  not  from  the 
emperor  the  disputed  dominions,  but  from 


the  Lombards,  who  had  taken  them  from 
the  emperor;  that  he  had  promised,  not 
prompted  thereunto  by  any  worldly  motive, 
but  merely  for  the  good  of  his  soul,  and  the 
remission  of  his  sins,  and  promised  upon 
oath,  to  yield  to  St.  Peter  and  his  successors 
whatever  he  should  recover,  with  the  as- 
sistance of  that  apostle,  from  his  enemies  the 
Lombards;  and  that  nothing  should  ever 
divert  him  from  performing  tliat  promise. 
Pepin  thought,  it  seems,  that  he  could  by 
no  other  means  better  atone  for  his  sins,  es- 
pecially for  his  having  robbed  his  lawful 
sovereign  of  his  crown,  to  place  it  on  his 
own  head,  and  degraded  him  from  a  king 
into  a  monk,  but  by  robbing  the  emperor  of 
his  dominions  to  bestow  them  on  the  pope  ; 
and  raise  him,  by  that  means,  from  the 
rank  of  a  bishop  to  that  of  a  prince. 

The  ambassador  offered  to  reply ;  but  Pe- 
pin, telling  him  that  this  was  his  firm  resolu- 
tion, which  nothing  should  ever  make  him 
alter,  dismissed  him  that  moment;  and,  ad- 
vancing to  Pavia,  laid  close  siege  to  that  city, 
and  pursued  it  with  such  vigor,  that  Aistul- 
phus, apprehending  the  French  might  make 
themselves  masters  of  his  metropolis,  before 
he  could  make  himself  master  of  Rome, 
thought  it  advisable  to  sue  a  second  lime,  be- 
fore it  was  too  late,  for  a  peace.  He  sued  for 
it  accordingly  ;  and  it  was  granted  him  upon 
the  following  terms,  Avhich,  however  hard, 
he  was  obliged  to  comply  wilh.  I.  That  he 
should  execute,  and  execute  immediately,  the 
treaty  concluded  the  year  before  at  Pavia. 
II.  That  to  the  places,  which  he  was  to  deliver 
up  in  virtue  of  that  treaty,  he  should  add  the 
city  of  Commachio,  for  having  put  Pepin  to 
the  trouble  of  crossing  the  mountains  a  second 
time.  III.  That  he  should  defray  all  the 
charges  of  the  present  war;  and,  lastly,  that 
he  should  pay  the  annual  tribute  of  twelve 
thousand  solidi  of  gold,  which  the  Lom- 
bards had  formerly  paid  to  the  French  na- 
tion.' These  terms  being  agreed  and  sworn 
to  by  Aistulphus,  Pepin  caused  a  new  instru- 
ment to  be  draAvn  up,  whereby  he  yielded 
all  the  places  mentioned  in  the  treaty  to 
be  forever  held  and  possessed  by  St.  Peter, 
and  his  lawful  successors  in  the  see  of  Rome. 
This  instrument,  signed  by  himself,  by  his 
two  sons,  and  by  the  chief  barons  of  the 
kingdom,  he  delivered  to  the  abbot  Fulrad  ; 
appointing  him  his  commissary  to  receive, 
in  the  pope's  name,  all  the  places  mention- 
ed in  it.  With  this  charier  the  abbot  re- 
paired immediately,  (for  Pepin  was  impa- 
tient to  return  to  France  :  but  yet  would  not 
withdraw  his  troops  out  of  the  territories  of 
the  Lombards,  till  the  treaty  was  executed, 
lest  his  sins  should   not  be  forgiven  him,) 


See  p.  80. 


'  Ajiast.  in  Steph.  II.  Annal.  Metens.  et  Fuldens.  et 
Continual.  Fredegar.  ad  Ann.  756. 

To  this  tribute  AgilulpU  submitted  in  the  reisn  of 
Clotaire  I.,  in  620;  l)Ut  the  Lombards  had  redeemed 
themselves  from  it,  by  paying  a  large  sura  at  once  in 
the  reign  of  Clotaire  11. 


108 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Stephen  IT. 


The  pope,  made  a  prince.     Stephen  dies  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  757.] 


attended  by  the  commissaries  of  Aistulphus, 
to  Ravenna ;  and  from  thence  to  every  city 
named  in  the  instrument  of  donation;  and 
having  taken  possession  of  them  ail  in  St. 
Peter's  name,  and  the  pope's,  and  every 
where  received  a  sufficient  number  of  host- 
ages, he  went  with  all  his  hostages  straight 
to  Rome;  and  there,  laying  the  instrument 
of  donation,  and  the  keys  of  each  city,  on 
the  tomb  of  St.  Peter,  put  the  pope  thereby 
at  last  in  possession  of  the  so  long  wished 
for  principality.'     And  thus  was  the  bishop 


»  Anast.  Annal.  Metens.  Contiiiuat.  Fredegar.  &c. 
The  donation  of  Pepin,  which  Leo  Ostiensis  con- 
founds with  that,  which  was  afterwards  made  by  his 
son  Charles  to  pope  Adrian,  (Leo  Ostiens.  1.  1.  c.  8.) 
e.xtended  only  to  the  exarciiate  and  the  Pentapolis. 
The  exarchate  comprised,  according  to  Sigonius,  the 
following  cities;  Ravenna,  Bologna,  Imola,  Faenza, 
Forlimpoli,  Forli,  Cesena,  Bobbio,  Ferrara,  Commachio, 
Adria,  Cervia,  and  Secchia.  The  Pentapolis,  now 
Marcad'Ancona.'comprehended  Rimini,  Pesaro,  Conca, 
Fano,  Sinigaglia,  Ancona,  Osimo,  Umana,  Jesi,  Fos- 
Bombrone,  Monteferetro,  Urbino,  Cagli,  Luceoli,  and 
Eugubio.  As  for  the  city  and  dukedom  of  Rome,  con- 
taining several  cities  of  note,  and  Perugia  among  the 
rest,  they  had  withdrawn  themselves  from  all  subjec- 
tion to  the  emperor,  and  submitted  to  St.  Peter  ever 
since  the  time  of  pope  Gregory  U.  So  that  St.  Peter, 
that  is,  the  pope,  made  no  contemptible  figure,  even  as 
a  temporal  prince.  Stephen  committed  the  govern- 
ment of  the  exarchate  to  the  archbishop  of  Ravenna; 
who  thereupon  assumed  the  title  of  exarch,  not  as 
archbishop,  but  as  an  officer  of  the  pope.  As  for  the 
Lombards,  they  remained  still  masters  of  all  the  coun- 
try now  called  Lombardy,  of  the  present  state  of 
Genoa,  of  all  Tuscany,  of  the  city  and  dukedom  of 
Spoleti,  and  of  all  the  present  kingdom  of  Naples,  ex- 
cept the  cities  and  dukedoms  of  Naples  and  Gaeta, 
and  some  maritime  cities  of  Brutium  and  Calabria, 
which  continuedsteadfast  in  th?;irallegiance  to  the  em- 
peror, though  they  looked  upon  him  as  an  heretic,  on 
account  of  liis  condemning  the  use  and  the  worship  of 
images.  The  people  of  Naples  were  as  much  addicted 
even  as  the  Romans  to  that  superstition.  But  not 
thinking  themselves  therefore  absolved  from  their  al- 
legiance, nor  authorized  to  shake  off  the  yoke,  they 
continued  to  acknowledge  Constantine  for  their  lawful 
sovereign  at  the  same  time  that  they  rejected  the  de- 
finition, and  refused  to  comply  with  the  decrees  of  the 
late  council  of  Constantinople. 

Aistulphus,  not  able  to  brook  his  having  been  obliged 
to  part  with  those  fruitful  provinces  in  favor  of  one, 
who  had  no  better  right  to  them  than  himself,  had  be- 
gun to  make  vast  preparations,  with  a  design  to  re- 
cover them,  and  put  himself,  at  the  same  time,  in  a 
condition  to  withstand  the  French,  who,  he  did  not 
doubt,  would  return  to  Italy,  and  renew  the  war 
there.  But  being,  in  the  meanwhile  overtaken  by  the 
vengeance  of  heaven,  say  Anastasius  and  the  annal- 
i.'t  of  Metz,  (Anast.  in  Steph.  II.  et  Aunal.  Met.  ad 
Ann.  756.)  lie  fell  from  his  horse  at  a  hunting-match 
(an  accident  that  had  happened  to  many  before  his 
time,  and  has  happened  to  many  since,  wliose  deaths 
no  man  will  ascribe  to  the  vengeance  of  heaven,)  and 
did  not  outlive  that  misfortune  three  whole  days.  He 
published,  in  the  5th  year  of  his  reign,  a  new  edict  of 


raised  to  the  rank  of  a  prince.  Whether  he 
acted  or  not  on  so  remarkable  an  occasion, 
I  will  not  say,  like  the  vicar,  but  like  a  dis- 
ciple of  Christ,  who  commanded  us  to 
"  render  unto  Casar  the  things  which  are 
Cassars;"  who  fled,  when  the  multitude 
would  have  made  him  a  king ;  who  declared, 
that  his  kingdom  was  not  of  this  world,  I 
leave  the  reader  to  judge. 

Stephen  enjoyed,  but  a  very  short  time, 
his  new  dignity;  for  the  donation  was 
brought  to  Rome  by  Fulrad  after  the  month 
of  August,  755,  and  he  died  on  the  29th  of 
April  757.'  He  was,  and  is  justly  styled, 
the  founder  of  the  temporal  grandeur  of  the 
popes;  and  yet,  who  can  account  for  it? 
So  deserving  a  pope  has  not  been  honored 
by  his  ungrateful  successors,  who  enjoy  to 
this  day  the  fruit  of  his  apostolic  labors,  with 
a  place  in  the  calendar ;  an  honor,  which,  as 
it  Avas  then  bestowed,  he  had  a  much  better 
claim  to  than  his  predecessor  Zachary,  or 
any  other  pope  Avhatsoever. 

And  now  that  we  have  seen  the  temporal 
power  united  in  the  popes  to  the  spiritual, 
the  crown  to  the  mitre,  and  the  sword  to 
the  keys,  I  shall  leave  them  for  awhile,  and 
close  the  present  history  with  two  short  ob- 
servations. I.  That  as  their  spiritual  power 
was,  so  was  their  temporal  owing  to  an 
usurper;  the  one  to  Phocas,^  and  the  other 
to  Pepin,  n.  That  as  they  most  bitterly 
inveighed  against  the  patriarchs  of  Constan- 
tinople as  the  forerunners  of  the  antichrist 
for  assuming  the  title  of  universal  bishop; 
and  yet  laid  hold  of  the  first  opportunity  that 
offered  to  assume  that  very  title  themselves; 
so  did  they  inveigh  against  the  Lombards  as 
the  most  wicked  of  men,  for  usurping  the 
dominions  of  their  most  religious  sons  the 
emperors ;  and  yet  they  themselves  usurped 
the  dominions  of  their  most  religious  sons 
as  soon  as  they  had  it  in  their  power  to 
usurp  them. 

laws  still  to  be  seen  entire  in  the  monastery  of  Cava, 
and  highly  commended  by  all  the  civilians.— (Gian- 
noni.  Historia  Civil,  di  Napoli,  1.  5.  c.  1.  sect.  3.)  In 
the  same  monastery  is  preserved  to  this  day  a  charter 
of  his  confirming  the  grant  of  certain  lands  to  the 
monks  of  Nonanlula  in  the  neighborhood  of  Modena, 
upon  condition  they  supplied  his  table  with  forty  pikes 
in  the  advent,  and  with  forty  more,  during  the  forty 
days  lent-fast :  so  that  Aistulphus  fasted,  at  least,  like 
a  true  son  of  the  church,  and  a  very  good  catholic. 
»  Anast.  in  Steph.  II.  *  See  vol.  I.  p.  426. 


Paul.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


109 


Paul  chosen.  Courts  the  favor  of  Pepin,  and  of  the  French  nation.  Pepin  assures  him  of  his  protection.  He 
complains  to  Pepin  of  the  king  of  the  Lombards.  Strives  to  keep  the  French,  the  Greeks,  and  the  Lombards, 
at  variance- 


PAUL,  NINETY-SECOND  BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[CoNSTANTiNE,  Leo. — Desiderius,  king  of  the  Lombards.'] 


[Year  of  Christ,  757.]  Stephen  dying, 
the  people  were  divided  in  the  election  of  his 
successor,  some  declaring  for  the  deacon 
Paul,  brother  to  the  late  pope,  and  some  for 
the  archdeacon  Theophylactus.  This  divi- 
sion occasioned  a  vacancy  of  one  month 
and  five  days.  But  the  nobility,  the  clergy, 
and  the  magistrates,  all  warmly  promoting 
the  interest  of  Paul,  his  party  prevailed  in 
the  end.'  And  this  is  the  only  instance, 
tliat  occurs  in  the  whole  history  of  the  popes, 
of  two  brothers  successively  raised  to  the 
papal  chair. 

The  new  pope,  sensible  that  unless  Pepin, 
who  of  a  bishop  had  made  him  a  prince, 
maintained  him  in  that  rank,  he  would  soon 
from  a  prince  be  degraded  again  into  a  bi- 
shop, did  not  wait  till  he  was  ordained  to 
engage  his  protection  ;  but  quite  unmindful 
of  the  affairs  of  the  church,  and  only  con- 
cerned to  ensure  his  temporal  dominions,  he 
dispatched  a  messenger  into  France,  the  mo- 
ment he  was  chosen,  Avith  a  letter  to  the 
king  to  acquaint  him  with  his  promotion, 
and  earnestly  entreat  him,  as  he  expected 
that  his  sins  should  be  forgiven  him,  not  to 
suffer  his  zeal  for  the  safety  and  welfare  of 
the  church  and  the  flock  of  St.  Peter  ever 
to  cool,  since  that  apostle  had  distinguished 
him  above  all  the  princes  of  the  earth  in 
choosing  him  for  their  only  protector  alter 
God  and  himself^  The  pope  wrote  at  the 
same  time  to  ilie  French  in  general,  to  thank 
them  for  the  zeal  they  had  so  meritoriously 
exerted  in  the  cause  of  the  apostolic  church 
of  St.  Peter,  and  assure  them  of  the  protec- 
tion and  favor  of  the  prince  of  the  apostles, 
so  long  as  they  continued  to  protect  and  to 
favor  his  church  and  his  people.'' 

Pepin,  in  his  answer,  congratulated  the 
pope  on  his  promotion  with  the  warmest  ex- 
pressions of  friendship  and  kindness,  exhort- 
ed the  Roman  senate  and  people  to  continue 
steadfast  in  their  obedience  and  submission  to 
St.  Peter  and  his  vicar,  and  assured  them, 
that  nothing  was  capable  of  lessening  his 
zeal  for  their  prosperity  and  welfare,  or 
shaking  the  resolution  he  had  taken  of  main- 
taining St.  Peter  and  his  successors  in  the 

'  Anast  in  Paiilo.  »  Cod.  Carolin.  Ep.  13. 

»  f^od.  Carol.  Ep.  26. 

The  direction  of  the  letter  was  "To  Pepin  of  France, 
our  most  excellent  son,  and  Rotnan  patrician,  Paul  the 
deacon,  and,  in  the  name  of  fJcxi,  the  elect  of^  the  holy 
apostolic  see." — (Cod.  Carolin.  Ep.  13.)  For  the  per- 
son elected  was  not  styled  pope,  as  has  been  observed 
elsewhere;  (See  vol.  I.  p.  438,  note  f.)  but  only  the 
elect,  during'  the  interval  between  his  election,  and 
bis  ordination. 


full  possession  and  quiet  enjoyment  of  what 
he  had  given  them,  and  employing  for  that 
purpose,  if  necessary,  the  whole  strength 
of  his  kingdom.' 

As  the  treaty  of  Pavia  was  not  fully  exe- 
cuted at  the  death  of  Aistulphus,  the  next 
care  of  the  pope  was  to  have  such  places 
delivered  up  to  him  as  had  been  yielded  to 
his  predecessor  by  that  treaty,  but  were  still 
kept,  under  various  pretences,  by  the  Lom- 
bards. Desiderius,  dukeorgovernor  of  Tus- 
cany, had  been  raised  to  the  throne  in  the 
room  of  Aistulphus  ;  and  he  owed  his  crown 
chiefly  to  the  interest  and  the  intrigues  of 
pope  Stephen,  who  had  not  only  himself  de- 
clared, but  had  prevailed  upon  Pepin  to  de- 
clare in  his  favor,  and  diverted  by  that 
means  the  Lombards,  unwilling  to  quarrel, 
at  so  critical  a  juncture,  with  the  French, 
from  choosing  the  monk  Rachis,  who,  being 
tired  of  a  monastic  life,  the  far  greater  part 
of  the  nation  were  for  placing  again  on  the 
throne.  But  it  was  upon  condition  that  De- 
siderius should,  if  he  succeeded,  execute, 
without  delay,  the  treaty  of  Pavia  to  its  full 
extent,  and  besides  yield  to  St.  Peter  certain 
cities,  territories,  and  strongholds,  not  con- 
tained in  that  treaty,  that  Stephen  had  es- 
poused his  cause,  and  persuaded  his  friend 
Pepin  to  espouse  it.  For  no  sooner  were 
the  popes  possessed  of  temporal  dominions, 
than,  giving  way  to  their  ambition,  they  be- 
gan, like  the  other  princes  of  this  world,  to 
contrive  all  possible  means  of  extending 
them.  To  those  conditions  Desiderius  had 
agreed  ;  but  as  he  had  not  yet  complied  with 
them,  Paul  took  care,  as  soon  as  he  was  or- 
dained, to  put  him  in  mind  of  his  agreement, 
j  and  challenge  the  performance  of  it.  De- 
!  siderius  pretended  to  have  nothing  so  much 
I  at  heart,  as  to  satisfy  the  pope  ;  but  alleging, 
I  that  the  afi'airs  of  his  new  kingdom  engross- 
j  ed  all  his  attention,  he  begged  his  holiness 
^  to  excuse  his  not  complying,  till  they  were 
j  settled,  with  his  demands.  Of  this  delay  the 
[  pope  complained,  in  a  long  letter  to  Pepin. 
1  And  truly  he  seems  to  have  been  entirely 
i  taken  up,  during  the  whole  time  of  his  pon- 
tificate, in  writing  letters  to  Pepin,  to  his 
two  sons,  to  the  French  in  general,  filled 
with  complaints,  either  against  the  king  of 
the  Lombards,  or  the  emperor ;  and  in  stri- 
ving, by  frequent  legations,  as  well  as  by 
letters,  to  keep  the  French,  the  Greeks,  and 
the  Lombards,  ever  at  variance.  In  most 
of  his  letters  he  paints  the  emperor  as  a  pro- 

>  Cod.  Carol.  Ep.  26. 

K 


110 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Paul. 


The  Greeks  and  Lombards  complain,  in  their  turn,  to  Pepin,  of  the  pope,  but  in  vain.  The  emperor  sends  a 
solemn  embassy  into  France  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  764.]  Proposes  a  match  between  his  son  and  Pepin's 
daughter.  The  proposal  rejected,  and  why.  The  ambassadors  undertake  to  show  that  their  master  was 
no  heretic. 


fessed  heretic,  as  a  persecutor  of  the  ortho- 
dox, as  a  faithless  tyrant;  as  one,  with 
whom  no  Christian  prince  could  live  in 
friendship  and  amity,  without  renouncing 
the  Christian  religion.  Of  these  letters,  no 
fewer  than  thirty-one  have  reached  our 
times,'  all  calculated  to  keep  Pepin  steady  in 
his  attachment  to  St.  Peter  and  his  see,  and 
to  prejudice  him  against  the  Greeks  and  the 
Lombards,  as  the  sworn  enemies  of  both. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  emperor  and  the 
king  of  the   Lombards  left    nothing  unat- 
tempted  to  gain  Pepin,  and  persuade  him  to 
abandon  the  protection  of  the  pope ;  repre- 
senting him  not  only  as  a  rebel  to  his  liege 
lord,  and  an  usurper,  but  as  a  public  incen- 
diary; who,  instead  of  striving  to  unite  the 
Christian  princes  among  themselves  against 
the  Saracens,  their  common  enemy,  made  it 
his  study  to  sow  and  foment  divisions  among 
them ;   and  that  with  no  other  view,  but  to 
aggrandize  himself  at  their  expense,  or  rather 
at  the   expense  of  the  Christian   religion  ; 
since  the  Saracens,  taking  advantage  of  their 
divisions,   had  already  extended,  and  con- 
tinued daily  to  extend,  their  conquests  both  in 
the  east  and  the  west,  and  with  their  con- 
quests their  detestable   superstition.      The 
eiBperor  urged,  in  particular,  his  unques- 
tionable right  to  the  exarchate  and  the  Pen- 
tapolis,  which,  he  said, -had  been  unjustly 
siezed  by  the  Lombards,  and  therefore  ought, 
in  justice,  to  have    been  restored   to  him, 
agreeably  to  the  known  and  never  yet  dis- 
puted maxim,  that  whatever  is  taken  from 
an  unlawful  possessor,  ought  to  be  restored 
to  the  lawful  owner.     But  the  remonstrances 
of  the  emperor  proved  all  ineffectual,  Pepin 
returning  no  other  answer  to  them,  but  that 
he    had    taken   those    provinces   from   the 
Lombards,  and  not  from   him;   that   they 
were  his   by  right  of  conquest,  and   that 
being,  consequently,  free  to  dispose  of  them 
to  whom  he  pleased,  he  had  thought  fit  to 
give  them,  for  the  good  of  his  soul,  to  be  for 
ever  possessed  by  St.  Peter  and  his  succes- 
sors, and  could  not,  without  being  guilty  of 
a  sacrilege,  revoke  thatdonation.^ 

The  emperor,  however,  did  not  yet  de- 

» James  Grezer  published  at  Ingolstat,  in  1613,  the 
letters  which  the  popes  Gregory  III.,  Zachary,  Ste- 
phen II.,  Paul,  Stephen  III.,  and  the  antipope  Con- 
stantine,  had  written  to  Charles  Martel,  to  Pepin,  to 
Charlemagne,  and  to  his  brother  Carloman.  These 
original  letters,  in  all  ninety-nine,  were  collected  into 
one  volume  by  Charlemagne  himself.  But  as  some  of 
them  were  greatly  damaged,  and  in  several  places 
hardly  legible,  he  caused  them  to  be  transcribed  in 
792,  as  appears  from  the  inscription  tliat  was  prefixed 
to  them  by  the  person  whom  he  employed  on  that  oc- 
casion. That  copy  is  still  preserved  in  the  emperor's 
library,  as  Lambecius  informs  us;  (Lamb.  Biblioth. 
CEBsar.  1.  2.  c.  5.)  who  adds,  that  the  transcriber,  who 
copied  them  for  Grezer,  took  too  much  liberty  in  alter- 
ing several  passages,  under  color  of  correcting  them. 
This  collection  is  commonly  known  by  the  name  of 
the  "  Caroline  Code,"  being  so  called  from  Charles, 
who  first  collected  the  letters  it  contains. 

3  Cod.  Carol.  Ep.  14,  17,  24. 


spair  of  being  able  to  gain  Pepin,  and  prevail 
upon  him  to  abandon  the  pope,  and  enter 
into  an  alliance  with  the  empire.     With  that 
view  he  sent,  in  764,  a  most  solemn  embas- 
sy into  France ;  the  most  solemn,  that  had 
yet  been  seen  in  that  kingdom.     It  consisted 
of  six  patricians,  of  several  bishops,  and  a 
great  number  of  other  ecclesiastics,  all  men 
eminent  for  their  piety  and  learning,  as  well 
as  for  their  address  in  negotiations,  and  skill 
in  affairs  of  state.     They  brought  with  them 
most  magnificent  presents  for  Pepin  and  the 
chief  lords  of  his  court ;  among  the  rest,  an 
organ,  an  instrument  till  then  never  seen  in 
France.     Their  commission  was,  to  propose 
a  marriage  between  Leo,  the  emperor's  son, 
born  in  750;  and  Gesil,  Pepin's  daughter, 
born  in  757  ;  Constantine  flattering  himself, 
that  Pepin  might  be  brought,  by  such  an  al- 
liance, to  hearken  to  his  just  remonstrances; 
and  either  restore  to  him  the  provinces  he 
claimed,  or  suffer  him,  at  least,  to  recover 
them.     He  well  knew,  that  the  pope,  to 
prejudice   the  western    princes,    especially 
Pepin  and  his  two  sons,  against  him,  had, 
on  account  of  his  aversion  to  images,  repre- 
sented him  to  them  as  a  professed  heretic,  as 
a  declared  enemy  of  the  church,  as  a  Jew  or 
a  Mahometan,  rather  than  a  Christian  ;  and 
it  was   to    remove    these    prejudices,   and 
satisfy  the  French  nation,  that  it  was   no 
heresy  to  forbid  the  worship  of  images  ;  but, 
on  the  contrary,  idolatry  to  worship  them, 
that  he  appointed  so  many  learned  ecclesias- 
tics to  attend  his  ambassadors,  on  this  occa- 
sion, into  France.     Pepin  granted  them  an 
audience  soon  after  their  arrival,  received 
them  with  great  politeness,  and  seemed  high- 
ly pleased  with  their  presents.     But  as  to 
the  marriage  between  his  daughter  and  the 
young  emperor   Leo,  he  told   them,  when 
they  proposed  it,  that  he  should  be  proud  of 
such  an  alliance,  were  their  master  a  catho- 
lic prince ;  but  being,  as  he  was  informed,  a 
heretic,  a  persecutor  of  the  church,  an  enemy 
to  the  virgin   Mary   and   the   saints,  who 
reigned  with  her  in  heaven,  to  contract  an 
alliance  with  him,  would  be  countenancing 
the  heresy,   which   he   professed,  and   re- 
nouncing the  faith  which  the  French  nation 
thought  it  their  greatest  glory  to  defend  and 
maintain. 

This  was  no  more  than  what  the  ambas- 
sadors expected ;  and  therefore  they  readily 
replied,  that  their  master  was  neither  a  here- 
tic, nor  an  abettor  of  heretics ;  that  he  re^ 
ceived  the  six  general  councils,  held  the 
doctrine  which  they  had  defined,  and  con- 
demned all  the  heretics  and  heresies  which 
they  had  condemned  ;  that,  treading  in  the 
footsteps  of  his  father  of  glorious  memory, 
and  animated,  as  well  as  he,  with  a  true 
zeal  for  the  purity  of  the  Christian  religion, 
he  had  indeed  proscribed  the  worship  of 


Pa0l.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


Ill 


A  great  council  assembled  at  Gentilli  about  images.  The  worship  of  images  not  approved  by  that  council. 


images,  and  obliged  all  his  loving  subjects 
to  worship  God  alone,  and  to  worship  him 
in  spirit  and  in  truth  ;  that  he  had  therein 
entirely  conformed  to  the  doctrine  of  our 
Savior  and  his  apostles,  as  well  as  to  the 
practice  of  the  primitive  Christians  and  the 
fathers,  who  had  all  abhorred,  as  might  be 
easily  made  to  appear  from  their  writings, 
not  only  the  worship,  but  even  the  use  of 
images  in  the  places  of  their  worship;  that 
the  worship,  which  their  master,  as  guardian 
of  the  church,  had  undertaken  to  abolish, 
was  an  innovation,  an  abuse  of  a  very  late 
date ;  that  it  had  been  zealously  opposed  by 
the  greatest  men,  as  Avell  as  the  greatest 
saints  in  the  church,  and  had  been  condemn- 
ed, but  ten  years  since,  by  the  most  numer- 
ous council  that  had  ever  been  convened. 
They  added,  that  the  French  nation,  and  the 
princes  in  the  west,  were  quite  misinformed, 
and  most  grossly  imposed  upon  with  respect 
to  the  state  of  religion  in  the  east;  that  the 
popes,  prompted  by  their  boundless  ambi- 
tion, wanted  only  a  pretence  to  shake  off  the 
yoke,  and  seize  on  the  dominions  of  their 
liege  lords  the  emperors ;  and  that  it  was 
only  to  disguise  their  treason  and  rebellion, 
thai  they  had  charged  them,  and  the  Greeks 
in  general,  with  heresy :  but  if  the  most 
Christian  king  would  allow  the  points  in  dis- 
pute to  be  candidly  examined  in  his  presence 
by  the  French  bishops,  and  the  ecclesiastics, 
whom  the  emperor  had  sent,  for  that  pur- 
pose, from  Constantinople,  (a  favor  which 
they  earnestly  entreated  him  to  grant  them) 
they  would  leave  him  to  judge,  and  stand  to 
his  judgment,  wliether  the  emperors  were 
justly  or  unjustly  traduced  by  the  popes  and 
their  emissaries  as  heretics.' 

Pepin  had  hitherto  entirely  acquiesced  in 
the  judgment  of  the  pope,  taking  it  upon  his 
word,  that  the  emperor  and  the  Greeks  were 
all  heretics.  But  tempted  by  the  favorable 
opportunity,  that  now  offered,  and  extreme- 
ly desirous  to  know  what  might  be  said  on 
either  side  in  a  dispute  that  had  made,  and 
continued  to  make,  so  great  a  noise  in  the 
church,  he  resolved  to  comply  with  the  re- 
quest of  the  ambassadors,  and  for  once  take 
the  liberty  of  judging  for  himself.  He  is- 
sued, accordingly  an  order,  enjoining  all  the 
bishops  in  his  dominions  to  meet,  after 
Easter,  at  Gentilli,  a  royal  villa  about  a 
league  from  Paris,  where  he  frequently  re- 
sided. The  bishops  met  at  the  place  and 
time  appointed  ;  and  it  proved  the  most 
solemn  and  numerous  assembly  that  had 
ever  yet  met  in  France.  It  consisted  of  all 
the  bishops  of  that  kingdom  and  those  of 
Germany  too,  who  were  subject  to  the 
crown  of  France ;  and  there  were  present, 
besides  the  six  ambassadors  from  the  empe- 
ror with  the  bishops  and  other  ecclesiastics, 
who  attended  them,  two  legates  sent  from 


>  Anna!.   Franc.   Bert,   ad  ann.   767.   Eeinhard, 
Chron.  Ado  Vienn.  Rhegin.  Almoin,  1.  i.  c.37. 


Rome  to  represent  the  pope,  a  great  number 
of  other  ecclesiastics,  and  Pepin  assisted  in 
person,  attended  by  the  chief  nobility,  and 
all  the  great  officers  of  state.  In  that  great 
council  (for  so  it  is  called  in  the  annals  of 
France)  two  points  were  proposed  and  de- 
bated ;  namely,  "  whether  it  was  lawful  to 
worship  images,  or  set  them  up  in  the  places 
of  worship  ;  and  whether  the  Holy  Ghost 
proceeded  only  from  the  P'ather,  or  from  the 
Father  and  the  Son;"  the  Greeks  charging 
the  Latins  with  having  added  to  the  Nicene 
creed  the  words,  "  and  from  the  Son  ;"  and 
the  Latins  reproaching  the  Greeks,  in  their 
turn,  with  having  erased  them.' 

What  was  the  issue  of  this  council,  what 
the  decision  concerning  eitherof  these  points, 
history  does  not  inform  us  :  and  hence  some 
have  concluded,  that  they  came  to  no  deter- 
mination ;  as  if  so  many  bishops  assembled 
on  purpose  to  decide  a  question,  and  a  ques- 
tion, so  far  as  it  concerned  the  worship  of 
images,  of  the  utmost  importance,  would 
haveleftit  quite  undecided.  Indeed  no  coun- 
cils, that  we  know  of,  have  been  thus  back- 
ward ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  most  of  them 
too  forward  to  decide  and  define,  and  even 
to  damn  all  who  did  not  acquiesce  in  their 
definitions  and  decisions.  The  Jesuit  Maim- 
bourg  takes  it  for  granted,  and  roundly  as- 
serts, as  a  thing  not  at  all  to  be  doubted,  that 
the  Gallican  bishops  condemned,  and  con- 
demned with  one  voice,  both  the  errors  of 
the  Greeks,  especially  that  concerning  the 
use  and  the  worship  of  images.  To  make 
good  his  assertion,  he  tells  us,  that  twelve  of 
the  most  learned  bishops  of  France,  sent  to 
represent  the  Gallican  church  in  a  council 
held  two  years  after  at  Rome,  distinguished 
themselves,  above  all  the  rest,  by  their  zeal  in 
the  defence  and  in  favor  of  images.  He  adds, 
that  as  no  man  can  doubt  but  those  bishops 
acted  agreeably  to  the  sentiments  of  their 
fellow-bishops,  and  the  council,  that  had 
been  held  on  the  same  subject  in  France,  no 
man  can  doubt  but  that  the  use  and  worship 
of  images  were  approved  by  that  council, 
and  the  opposite  doctrine  condemned  as  he- 
retical.^ But  I  should  be  glad  to  know  who 
informed  Maimbourg  that  the  twelve  Galli- 
can bishops  distinguished  themselves  by  their 
zeal  in  the  defence  of  images  ?  Anastasius, 
who  wrote  in  the  next  century,  and  has 
given  us  the  most  particular  account  we  have 
of  the  council  held  at  Rome,  and  has  been 
copied  by  Maimbourg,  and  almost  all  who 
speak  of  that  council,  tells  us,  indeed,  that 
twelve  of  the  most  learned  bishops  of  France 
were  sent  to  Rome  by  Charles,  or  Charle- 
magne, to  assist  at  it;  but  takes  not  the  least 
notice  of  their  boasted  zeal  in  the  defence 
of  images.'  One  of  them,  by  name  Herul- 
phus,  spoke,  it  is  true,  if  pope  Adrian  is  to 


'  Annal.  Franc.  Berf.   ad  ann.   767.    Eginhard,    in 
Chron.  Ado  Vienn.  Rhegin.  Ainioin,  I.  4.  c.  37 
2  Maimb.  Hist.  Iconoclast.  1.  3.  p.  228. 
»  Anast.  in  Steph.  111. 


112 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Paul. 


The  council  of  Gentilli  condemned  the  worship,  but  approved  the  use  of  images.  Pepin  satisfied  that  the 
Greeks  were  no  heretics,  but  unwilling  to  disoblige  the  pope,  rejects  the  proposed  alliance  with  the  emperor. 
Paul  dies  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  767.] 


be  credited'  without  any  warrant  from  the 
contemporary  historians,  for  the  worship  of 
images  ;  and  that  one  Mainibourg  has  taken 
the  liberty  to  multiply  into  twelve,  arguing 
thus :  one  of  the  twelve  Gallican  bishops 
spoke  in  the  council  of  Rome  for  the  wor- 
ship of  images,  therefore  they  all  spoke  for 
that  worship,  and  all  distinguished  them- 
selves by  their  zeal  in  maintaining  it:  no 
man  can  doubt  but  they  acted  therein  agree- 
ably to  the  sentiments  of  their  fellow  bishops, 
and  the  council  that  had  been  held  in  France 
but  two  years  before  on  the  same  subject ; 
therefore  no  man  can  doubt  but  the  worship 
of  images  was  approved  by  that  council, 
and  the  opposite  doctrine  condemned  as  he- 
retical. 

F.  Sirmond,  a  writer  well  known  for  his 
uncommon  erudition  and  learning,  and, 
though  a  Jesuit,  not  void  of  all  candor,  in- 
genuously owns  that  in  the  council  of  Gen- 
tilli the  worship  of  images  was  condemned, 
though  the  use  was  approved.  "  In  the 
council  of  Gentilli,"  says  he,  "  the  Gallican 
bishops  decreed  against  the  Greek  icono- 
clasts, that  images  should  be  retained  only 
as  helps  to  memory,  or  for  the  sake  of  in- 
struction, but  should  not  be  worshiped,  for 
that  they  absolutely  rejected  :"2  and  Sirmond 
is  extolled  by  Maimbourg  himself  as  better 
acquainted  than  any  other  writer  whatever 
with  the  ancient  disciplijie  and  faith  of  the 
Gallican  church.  That  this  was  the  doc- 
trine of  that  church  in  the  latter  end  of  the 
present,  and  the  beginning  of  the  following 
century,  is  manifest,  from  the  decrees  of  two 
other  councils;  the  council  of  Franckfort,  in 
794,  at  which  some  bishops  might  have  as- 
sisted, who  were  present  at  that  of  Gentilli ; 
and  the  council  of  Paris  in  824.  For  in 
both  these  councils,  consisting  chiefly  of 
Gallican  bishops,  it  was  decreed,  as  shall  be 
shown  in  the  sequel,  that  images  should  be 
retained  only  as  helps  to  memory,  as  books 
for  the  ignorant,  as  ornaments ;  but  that  no 
kind  of  worship  should  be  given  them.  We 
must  therefore  either  suppose  the  Gallican 
bishops  and  church  to  have  entirely  changed, 
in  the  space  of  thirty  years,  their  faith  and 
their  doctrine,  or  to  have  defined  at  Gentilli, 
in  764,  what  they  defined  in  794,  that  is,  thirty 
years  after,  at  Franckfort;  namely,  "that 
images  were  not  to  be  broken,  nor  were 
they  to  be  worshiped  ;"  the  very  doctrine  of 
pope  Gregory  the  Great."  And  here  it  is  to 
be  observed,  that  the  council  of  Constanti- 
nople did  not  condemn  the  use  of  images,  in 
the  places  of  worship,  as  evil  in  itself,  but 
only  as  dangerous,  as  exposing  those,  who 
prayed  before  them,  especially  the  ignorant, 
to  the  danger  of  praying  to  them;  and  it 
was  not  as  we  have  seen,"*  till  Leo,  the  first 


Iconoclast  emperor,  found  by  experience, 
that  the  use  of  images  could  not  be  allowed, 
and  the  worship  prevented,  that  he  ordered 
them  to  be  cast  out  of  the  churches,  and 
broken. 

And  now  the  only  objection  against  the  pro- 
posed marriage,  namely,  that  the  emperor 
was  a  heretic,  being  thus  removed,  and  Pe- 
pin satisfied  that  the  Greeks  were  no  ene- 
mies to  the  virgin  Mary  and  the  saints, 
though  they  did  not  worship  their  images, 
but  broke  them  to  prevent  their  being  wor- 
shiped, the  ambassadors  renewed  the  pro- 
posal, urging  the  great  advantages,  that 
would  accrue  to  the  Christian  religion  from 
an  union  between  the  two  chief  Christian 
powers,  at  a  time  when  the  common  enemy, 
avaihng  himself  of  their  divisions,  aimed  at 
nothing  less  than  its  utter  destruction.  But 
Pepin,  unwilhng  to  disoblige  the  pope,  who 
he  knew  Avould  be  no  less  displeased  than 
alarmed  at  an  alliance  between  France  and 
the  empire,  how  advantageous  soever  it 
might  prove  to  the  Christian  religion,  kept 
still  to  his  former  resolution,  nor  could  the 
ambassadors,  though  seconded  by  some  of 
his  court,  prevail  upon  him,  by  any  means, 
to  alter  it.  He  sent,  however,  in  his  turn,  a 
solemn  embassy  into  the  east  with  letters  in 
answer  to  those  which  the  imperial  ambas- 
sadors had  brought  him  from  the  emperor : 
but  lest  he  should  thereby  give  umbrage  to 
the  pope,  jealous  of  the  least  appearance  of 
a  good  understanding  between  him  and  the 
emperor,  he  took  care  to  transmit  copies  of 
all  these  letters  to  his  holiness,  who,  highly 
pleased  with  his  conduct,  dispatched,  as  soon 
as  he  received  them,  a  nuncio  extraordinary 
into  France,  to  thank  the  king  for  his  invio- 
lable attachment  to  the  apostolic  see,  and  as- 
sure him  of  the  favor  and  protection  of  St. 
Peter,  whose  honor  and  interest  he  had  so 
much  at  heart.' 

These  are  the  only  events,  I  find  recorded 
in  the  pontificate  of  Paul  worthy  of  notice, 
though  he  presided  in  the  Roman  church 
ten  years,  and  one  month.  For  he  was  or- 
dained on  the  29th  of  May,  757,  and  died 
on  the  28th  of  June,  767.  He  was  buried 
in  the  church  of  St.  Paul,  where  no  pope 
had  been  buried  before :  but  his  remains 
were,  three  months  after,  translated  to  the 
Vatican,  and  deposited  in  an  oratory,  which 
he  had  built  there  in  honor  of  the  virgin 
Mary .2  He  has  been  alloAved  a  place  in  the 
calendar,  and  is  now  worshiped,  on  the  28th 
of  June,  as  a  saint;  but  lor  what  extraordi- 
nary merit  history  does  not  inform  us,  nor 
even  the  legends,  unless  it  were  for  his  un- 
common address  in  courting  the  favor  of 
Pepin,  in  flattering  him,  for  all  his  letters  to 
that  prince  are  filled  with  the  most  fulsome 


>  Adrian,  in  ep.  ad  Carol. 

^  Sirmond.  Concil.  Gallican.  torn.  11.  p.  192. 

'Seep.  42.  «Seep.  55. 


«  Cod.  Carolin.  ep.  20. 

a  Anast.  Mart.  Pol.  Luitpr.  &c. 


Paul.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


113 


In  PauTs  time  an  invaluable  treasure  discovered  in  Rome.  In  the  east,  the  monks  refuse  to  comply  with  the 
delinition  of  the  council  of  Constantinople  against  images.  Treated  with  great  severity  by  the  governors 
of  the  provinces,  and  banished  Constantinople.     Some  of  them  quit  their  profession. 


flattery ;  and  keeping  him,  by  that  means, 
steadily  attached,  and  entirely  devoted  to  his 
see.  In  his  time  was  discovered  at  Rome 
an  invaluable  treasure,  the  body  of  St.  Pe- 
tronilla,  St.  Peter's  daughter;  and  the  pope, 
transported  with  joy  at  such  a  discovery, 
caused  it  to  be  translated  from  the  cemetery, 
where  it  was  found,  to  the  Vatican.  She 
died  at  Rome,  during  the  pontificate  of  her 
father. 

Of  this  pope  many  letters  have  reached 
our  times,  but  all  concerning  temporal  af- 
fairs, which  he  was  too  much  taken  up  with 
to  attend  to  the  affairs  of  religion,  or  to  think 
of  affording  any  comfort  or  relief  to  his 
friends  in  the  east,  though  treated  by  the  em- 
peror and  his  officers  with  the  utmost  seve- 
rity. It  had  been  but  very  lately  defined,  as 
we  have  seen,'  and  defined  in  a  council  con- 
sisting of  no  fewer  than  three  hundred  and 
thirty-eight  bishops,  that  to  worship  images, 
or  any  other  creature,  was  robbing  God  of 
the  honor  that  was  due  to  him  alone,  and 
relapsing  into  idolatry ;  and  by  the  same 
council,  they,  who  should  thenceforth  pre- 
sume to  set  up  images  in  the  churches,  or 
in  private  houses,  or  to  conceal  them,  had 
been  anathematized,  and  declared  guilty  of 
a  breach  of  God's  express  command,  and 
the  imperial  laws.  To  the  definition  and  de- 
crees of  so  great  and  so  numerous  a  council, 
all,  or  almost  all,  but  the  monks,  readily  sub- 
mitted ;  and  it  was  universally  received  in 
the  east  as  the  seventh  (Ecumenical  or  gen- 
eral council.  But  the  monks,  not  satisfied 
with  rejecting  it,  and  stigmatizing  the  pre- 
lates, who  composed  it,  with  the  opprobious 
names  of  heretics,  apostates,  Jews,  Maho- 
metans, still  retained  their  images,  continued 
to  expose  them  to  public  adoration,  and  even 
paid  them,  as  it  were  in  defiance  of  the 
council  and  the  imperial  laws,  extraordinary 
honors ;  nay,  quitting  their  solitudes,  and 
repairing,  in  great  numbers,  to  the  cities, 
they  strove  to  maintain,  by  stirring  up  the 
populace  to  sedition  and  rebellion,  in  spite 
of  the  emperor,  the  condemned  superstition. 
Of  this  the  bishops  complained  to  the  gover- 
nors of  the  provinces,  and  they  to  the  em- 
peror, who  thereupon  strictly  enjoined  them 
to  cause  the  decrees  of  the  council  to  be 
punctually  complied  with  in  their  respective 
governments,  and  the  laws  to  be  executed, 
with  the  utmost  severity,  against  the  wor- 
shipers of  images,  which  his  most  religious 
predecessors  had  issued  against  the  worship- 
ers of  idols.  Pursuant  to  this  order,  the 
monasteries  were  everywhere  stripped  by 
the  imperial  officers  of  all  their  images ;  and 
the  monks,  who  offered  to  defend  them, 
dragged  to  prison,  publicly  whipped,  and 
sent  into  exile.  Several  monasteries  were 
pulled  down,  or  set  on  fire,  and  the  monks. 


who  had  the  good  luck  to  make  their  escape, 
obliged  to  seek  for  shelter  in  the  deserts, 
against  the  fury  of  the  incensed  soldiery. 
Draco,  or,  as  some  call  him,  Laconodraco, 
governor  of  Lydia,  Ionia,  Caria,  and  Mysia, 
distinguished  himself,  on  this  occasion,  above 
all  the  rest :  for  finding  he  could  not,  by  fair 
means,  prevail  upon  the  monks,  who  were 
very  numerous  in  those  provinces,  to  part 
with  their  images,  nor  even  restrain  them 
from  seducing  the  ignorant  multitude,  and 
raising  disturbances  among  the  populace,  he 
resolved  to  extirpate  the  whole  race.  Hav- 
ing accordingly  surrounded,  with  the  troops 
under  his  command,  one  of  their  chief  mo- 
nasteries, he  seized  all  the  monks,  cut  off 
their  noses,  shut  up  thirty-eight  of  them  ia 
a  bath,  where  they  were  all  stifled,  and  sent 
the  rest  into  exile.  He  secured,  in  like  man- 
ner, all  the  monks  of  the  other  monasteries 
within  his  government,  who  had  not  made 
their  escape,  as  well  as  the  nuns ;  and  car- 
rying them,  surrounded  by  his  troops,  into 
a  spacious  field,  he  put  it  to  their  choice, 
either  to  quit  their  profession  and  marry, 
each  monk  a  nun,  or  to  have  their  eyes  put 
out,  and  be  confined  to  the  most  inhospi- 
table places  in  the  empire.  Most  of  them 
chose  to  quit  their  profession,  and  to  marry  ; 
and  those,  who  did  not,  met  with  no  mercy. 
Draco,  having  thus  quite  cleared  his  govern- 
ment of  monks  and  nuns,  burnt  all  their 
images,  gave  up  their  monasteries  to  be  plun- 
dered by  the  soldiery,  and  then  levelled  them 
with  the  ground.'  The  other  governors,  less 
strangers  to  compassion  and  mercy  than 
Draco,  contented  themselves  with  confining 
in  the  public  jails,  with  whipping  and 
sending  into  exile,  such  of  those  unhappy 
wretches  as  obstinately  refused  to  submit,  or 
encouraged  others  not  to  submit  to  the  defi- 
nition and  decrees  of  the  council. 

They  met  with  no  better  treatment  in 
Constantinople  than  they  did  in  the  pro- 
vinces ;  for  the  most  mad  enthusiasts  among 
them,  resorting  to  the  metropolis  to  keep  the 
people  their  steady  in  what  they  called  the 
catholic  faith,  raised  daily  such  disturbances 
in  every  quarter  of  the  city,  that  the  empe- 
ror, apprehending  a  general  revolt,  was 
obliged,  in  the  end,  to  issue  an  edict,  com- 
manding all  monks  to  quit  their  whimsical 
habit,  and  renounce  their  idle  profession,  or 
depart  the  city  in  the  term  of  three  days,  on 
pain  of  being  treated  as  disturbers  of  the 
public  peace,  as  rebels,  as  enemies  both  to 
the  state  and  the  church.  In  compliance 
with  that  edict,  many,  fearing  God,  says 
Theophanes,  less  than  the  emperor,  quilted 
their  holy  habit,  renounced  their  profession, 
and  of  monks  becoming  husbands,  had  even 
the  assurance  to  appear,  O  shocking  sight! 
leading  their  brides  in  the  public  streets  of 


Vol.  II.— 15 


>  See  p.  100. 


Theoph.  ad  ann.  Const.  20.  Cedren,  ibid. 

k2 


114 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Stephen  HI. 


The  insolent  behavior  of  the  monks  to  the  emperor,  punished  with  great  severity.  No  martyrs,  though 
honored  as  such.  The  monltish  order  suppressed  in  the  east,  and  the  worsliip  of  images  abolished.  Schism 
in  the  Roman  church.    Constantine,  yet  a  layman,  raised  by  his  party  to  the  see. 


Constantinople,  Others,  withdrawing  from 
the  city,  retired  to  the  deserts,  where,  none  be- 
ing allowed  to  relieve  them,  they  perished 
with  hunger,  and  the  hardships  they  suffer- 
ed. But  some,  more  zealous  than  the  rest, 
continued  at  Constantinople,  in  open  de- 
fiance of  the  imperial  edict,  and  concealing 
themselves  in  the  day-time,  but  skulking 
about  from  house  to  house  in  the  night,  still 
kept  up  the  spirit  of  sedition  and  rebellion 
in  the  people.  Two  of  them,  Andrew  and 
Stephen,  who  are  now  both  honored  as 
martyrs  and  saints  of  the  first  rate,  had  even 
the  boldness  to  appear  in  public,  nay,  and  to 
insult  the  emperor  in  person  ;  the  one  calling 
him  another  Julian,  a  Valens,  an  apostate,  a 
persecutor  of  Christ  and  the  saints  in  their 
images ;  and  the  other  treading  under  foot, 
in  his  presence,  a  coin  with  his  image,  and 
telling  him,  that  as  it  was  no  crime,  accord- 
ing to  him,  to  break  the  images  of  Christ 
and  his  saints,  it  could  be  no  crime  to  in- 
sult, abuse,  and  tread  under  foot,  his,  nor 
ought  he  to  take  it  amiss,  or  resent  it.  No 
wonder,  therefore,  that  Constantine,  thus 
provoked,  should  have  proceeded  against 
them,  as  he  is  said  to  have  done,  with  the 
utmost  severity ;  causing  all,  who  fell  into 
his  hands,  to  be  either  publicly  executed,  or 
severely  whipped,  deprived  of  their  sight,  a 
punishment  common  in  the  east,  and  sent 
into  exile.  As  for  Andrew  and  Stephen, 
the  one  was  whipped  to  death  by  the  empe- 
ror's guards;  and  the  other  dragged  by  them 
through  the  streets,  and  torn  to  pieces.' 
From  these  executions  the  Jesuit  Maimbourg 
takes  occasion  to  paint  Constantine  as  a 
Nero,  as  a  Dioclesian,  as  one  of  the  most 
cruel  and  merciless  tyrants  that  ever  swayed 
a  sceptre.  But  his  severity  to  the  rebellious 
monks  did  not,  perhaps,  exceed  that  of 
Lewis  XIV.  to  his  protestantsubjects,  though 
guilty  of  no  rebellion,  or  treason  :  and  yet 
Maimbourg,  far  from  thinking  his  grand  mon- 
arch a  Nero,  a  Dioclesian,  a  tyrant,  for  thus 
persecuting  his  innocent  subjects,  commends 
and  extols  him  as  thereby  well  deserving  the 
title  he  bore  of  the  most  Christian  king.^  If 
it  was  tyranny  in  Constantine  to  punish. 


with  so  much  severity,  those  who  worship- 
ed images ;  it  was  tyranny  in  Lewis  to  pun- 
ish, with  the  like  severity,  those  who  refused 
to  worship  them :  if  it  was  no  tyranny  in 
the  one,  it  could  be  none  in  the  other.  la 
short,  both  were  tyrants,  which  Maimbourg 
will  not  allow,  or  neither. 

The  menology  of  the  Greeks,  and  the  Ro- 
man martyrology.  are  filled  with  the  names 
of  monks,  who  are  said  to  have  suffered  mar- 
tyrdom, under  Copronymus,  in  the  defence 
of  images ;  but  it  was  not,  in  truth,  for  their 
opinion  they  suffered,  but  for  the  disturb- 
ances and  tumults  they  every  where  raised; 
insomuch,  that  had  not  the  emperor  pro- 
ceeded against  them  with  the  utmost  seve- 
rity, and  quite  cleared  the  empire  of  those 
incendiaries,  as  he  is  said  to  have  done,  he 
would  probably  have  seen,  as  they  were 
very  numerous,  and  had  a  great  ascendant 
over  the  multitude,  a  civil  war  kindled,  by 
their  means,  in  the  bowels  of  the  empire, 
and  a  favorable  opportunity  given  to  the  Sa- 
racens of  seizing  anew  the  provinces  virhicn 
he  had  lately  recovered,  and  carrying  on  their 
conquests  to  the  very  gates  of  Constantino- 
ple. The  monkish  order  being  thus  entirely 
suppressed  in  all  the  provinces  subject  to  the 
empire  in  the  east,  and  the  monasteries  either 
converted  to  better  uses,  or  levelled  with  the 
ground,  the  decrees  of  the  council  of  Con- 
stantinople were  quietly  complied  with  by 
all  ranks  of  people,  the  use  of  images  was 
every  where  abolished,  as  well  as  the  wor- 
ship ;  and  Constantine  had,  in  the  end,  the 
satisfaction  he  had  so  long  wished  for,  of 
seeing  the  Christian  Avorship  restored, 
throughout  his  dominions,  to  its  primitive 
purity.  During  this  cruel  persecution,  as  it 
is  called  by  the  Byzantine  historians,  the 
pope,  though  well  acquainted  with  the  suf- 
ferings of  his  friends  and  emissaries,  the 
monks,  never  once  offered  to  interpose  in 
their  favor,  nor  so  much  as  to  encourage 
or  to  comfort  them  in  their  distress  by  his 
letters,  his  attention  being  wholly  engrossed 
by  affairs  of  a  very  different  nature,  the  se- 
curing of  his  new  principality  against  the 
attempts  of  the  Greeks  and  the  Lombards, 


STEPHEN  III.,  NINETY-THIRD  BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[Constantine,  Leo. — Desiderius,  king  cf  the  Lombards.'] 


[Year  of  Christ,  767.]  The  death  of 
Paul  occasioned  great  disturbances  and  con- 
fusion in  Rome.  For  Toto,  duke  of  Nepi,  a 
small  city  in  the  present  patrimony  of  St. 
Peter,  resolved  to  raise  one  of  his  family  to 

'  Theoph.  ad  ann.  Const.  25. 

2  Maimb.  Hist,  du  Calvinis.  ep.  Dedicat. 


the  papal  chair;  and  coming  to  Rome  with 
that  view,  while  the  pope  lay  at  the  point  of 
death,  attended  by  his  three  brothers,  and  a 
great  number  of  his  friends  and  his  vassals, 
all  well  armed,  caused,  the  moment  Paul 
expired,  his  brother  Constantine  to  be  pro- 
claimed by  them  pope  in  his  room  j  and  car- 


Stephen  III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


115 


CoDStantine  strives  to  gain  Pepin.     His  letter  to  him.     Gives  him  an  account  of  the  state  of  religion  in  the 
east.     Great  disturbances  in  Rome  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  768.] 


rying  him  in  triumph,  without  loss  of  time, 
to  the  Lateran  palace,  obliged  George,  bishop 
of  Palestrina,  by  threatening  him  with  pre- 
sent death,  to  initiate  him,  as  he  was  yet  a 
layman,  with  the  usual  ceremonies  among 
the  clergy.  The  next  day  he  was,  by  the 
same  bishop,  ordained  subdeacon  and  dea- 
con ;  and  the  Sunday  after,  by  him  and  the 
two  bishops  of  Porto  and  Albano,  conse- 
crated bishop.' 

Constantine  well  knew,  that  the  most  ef- 
fectual, nay,  and  only  means  of  maintaining 
himself  in  the  station  to  which  he  had  been 
thus  raised,  in  open  defiance  of  all  the  laws 
and  canons  of  the  church,  was  to  engage 
the  French  nation  in  his  cause,  and  get  him- 
self acknowledged  by  them  for  lawful  pope. 
He  therefore  took  care,  as  soon  as  he  was 
ordained,  to  write  to  Pepin,  to  acquaint  him 
wiih  his  promotion,  to  assure  him  of  his  in- 
violable attachment  to  him  and  his  family, 
and  earnestly  entreat  him,  as  he  hoped  to  be 
favored  and  protected  by  St.  Peter,  to  take 
him,  the  successor  and  vicar  of  that  apostle, 
into  his  favor  and  protection.  In  the  same 
letter  he  had  the  assurance  to  tell  Pepin,  that 
he  had  been  chosen  by  the  joint  suffrages 
of  the  clergy  and  people  of  Rome;  that  he 
had  long  withstood  their  prayers,  their  en- 
treaties, and  even  their  tears  ;  but  that  find- 
ing them  determined  to  choose  no  other,  he 
had,  in  the  end,  been  obliged  to  acquiesce 
in  the  will  of  God  and  his  people.^  This 
letter  he  conveyed  to  Pepin  by  iwo  ambas- 
sadors, who  had  been  sent  by  that  prince  to 
beg  of  pope  Paul  the  Lives  of  the  Saints, 
legends  alone  being  now  in  request,  and 
were  then  returning  to  France.  As  the  am- 
bassadors had  been  present  at  his  electipn, 
and  well  knew  what  had  passed  on  that  oc- 
casion, he  took  care  to  engage  them,  before 
they  left  Rome,  with  many  rich  presents,  to 
confirm,  by  word  of  rnouth,  all  he  had  said 
in  his  letter.  As  he  was  well  apprised  that 
Pepin  would  soon  be  informed  by  others,  if 
not  by  them,  of  the  unlawfulness  of  his 
election,  to  prepossess  him  in  his  favor,  he 
dispatched,  soon  after  their  departure,  two  of 
his  most  trusty  friends  into  France ;  Christo- 
pher, presbyter,  and  Anastasius,  notary,  with 
another  letter  to  the  king,  entreating  him 
not  to  give  credit  to  certain  false  and  scan- 
dalous reports,  that  were  maliciously  spread 
abroad  by  his  enemies  concerning  his  elec- 
tion ;   and  assuring  him,  that  no  violence 


«  Anast.  in  Sleph.  III. 

It  was  not  then  thought  necessary,  as  we  may  ob- 
eerve  here  by  the  way,  tiiat  a  man  should  bo  ordained 
priest  in  order  to  he  made  a  bishop  :  for  deacons  were 
as  commonly  raised  to  the  episcopal  dignity  as  presby- 
ters ;  and  in  the  ancient  "Ordo  Romanus"  the  same 
ceremony  is  prescribed  for  the  ordination  of  the  one 
and  the  other. — (Vide  Mabill.  in  comment,  prievio  in 
Ord.  Rom.  n.  18.)  Constantine  was,  according  to  the 
account  of  Anastasius,  of  a  deacon  made  bishop;  and 
it  is  not  to  he  doubted  but  he  would  have  been  first 
ordained  presbvtcr,  had  he  thought  it  necessary. 

a  Cod.  Carol,  ep.  98. 


had  been  used  with  any  but  himself;  that 
no  bishop  had  ever  more  unfeignedly  de- 
clined, and  none  more  unwillingly  accepted 
the  episcopal  dignity,  than  himself;  that  he 
had  indeed  complied,  in  the  end,  with  the  will 
of  the  people,  or  rather  of  God,  revealed  to 
him  in  the  will  of  the  people.  He  added,  that 
he  had  sent  two  persons  of  the  greatest  pro- 
bity, and  the  most  unexceptionable  charac- 
ters, on  whose  veracity  he  might  entirely  rely, 
to  inform  him  of  every  particular  relating  to 
his  election ;  and  that  he  did  not  doubt,  but 
that  his  most  Christian  son  would  give  more 
credit  to  them,  than  to  the  emissaries  of  those 
whose  ambition  had  been,  to  their  great 
mortification  and  his  own,  disappointed.' 

In  the  same  letter,  to  make  his  court  to 
Pepin,  he  gives  him  an  account  of  the  state 
of  religon  in  the  east ;  teUing  him,  among 
other  things,  that  he  had  received  a  synodi- 
cal  letter  from  Theodore,  patriarch  of  Jeru- 
salem, addressed  to  his  predecessor,  to  ac- 
quaint him,  that  the  worship  of  image.? 
began  to  revive  in  the  east ;  and  that  not  only 
Theodore  himself,  but  the  two  patriarchs  of 
Antioch  and  Alexandria  entirely  agreed,  ia 
the  article  relating  to  images,  with  the  pa- 
triarch of  Rome.  Of  that  letter,  genuine  or 
supposititious,-  Constantine  sent  a  copy, 
both  in  Greek  and  in  Latin,  to  Pepin  ;  and, 
after  entreating  him,  over  and  over  again,  to 
continue  his  protection  to  the  church,  the 
people,  and  the  vicar  of  St.  Peter,  he  begged 
him  to  remind,  as  soon  as  possible,  the  two 
nuncios,  whom  his  predecessor  had  sent 
into  France;  pretending,  that  their  churches 
suffered  greatly  by  their  absence;  but  ia 
truth,  to  learn  of  them  what  the  French  and 
their  king  thought  of  his  election.  In  both 
letters  he  expresses  great  zeal  for  the  wel- 
fare of  the  church,  and  the  good  of  the 
Christian  religion  and  the  catholic  faith  ;  and 
had  not,  perhaps,  more  of  the  hypocrite  than 
most  of  his  predecessors. 

The  war  which  Pepin  was  carrying  on, 
at  this  time  against  Vaifar,  duke  of  Aqui- 
taine,  diverted  him  from  attending,  at  pre- 
sent, to  the  affairs  of  Italy :  and  before  he 
put  an  end  to  that  war,  which  he  did  soon 
after  by  the  reduction  of  that  country,  Con- 
stantine was  deposed,  and  another  raised  to 
the  see  in  his  room.  Of  this  event  Anasta- 
sius give  us  the  following  account.     Chris- 


»  Cod.  Carol,  ep.  99. 

5  I  said  genuine  or  supposititious  ;  it  not  being  at  all 
probable  that  the  Saracens,  who  were  more  averse  to 
images  even  than  the  emperor,  and  to  whom  the 
three  patriarchs  were  subject,  would  have  suffered 
that  worship  to  revive  in  their  dominions.  Besides, 
no  notice  is  taken  by  any  of  the  historians  of  those 
times,  though  all  most  zealous  advocates  for  pictures 
and  images,  nor  even  by  the  fathers  of  Nice,  of  any 
council  approving  at  this  time,  in  the  east,  the  use  or 
the  worship  of  images  ;  nay,  pope  Adrian,'  in  a  letter 
which  he  wrote,  thirty  years  after,  to  the  emperor 
Constantine,  the  present  emperor's  grandson,  and'  his 
mother  Irene,  tells  them,  that  till  their  time,  the  peo- 
ple in  the  east  had  all  erred  in  what  concerned 
images;  (Tom.  7.  Concil  p.  89.)  thai  is,  had  all  re- 
jected both  the  use  and  the  worship  of  images. 


116 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Stephen  III^ 


Duke  Toto,  Constantine's  brother,  killed, 
pope  and  deposed. 


Constantine  taken,  and  dragged  to  prison.    Philip,  a  monk,  made 
Stephen  chosen,  and  Constantine  degraded. 


topher  and  his  son  Sergius,  the  one  primice- 
rius  and  counsellor,'  and  the  other  treasurer 
of  the  Roman  church,  shocked  at  so  bare- 
faced an   usurpation,  formed   a  design  of 
driving  out  the  usurper,  by  some  means  or 
other,    and  making  room  for  a  new  and 
canonical  election.     This  design  they  im- 
parted to  some  Roman  citizens,  who,  they 
knew,  were  no  friends  to  Constantine  :  but 
finding    them   too   much    intimidated    and 
awed  by  Toto  and  his  followers,  to  join  in 
the  enterprise,  they  resolved  to  apply  to  the 
Lombards ;  and  with  that  view  begged  leave 
of  Constantine  to  retire,  as  being  tired  of  the 
world  to  the  monastery  of  St.  Savior  in  the 
dukedom  of  Spoleti.     Constantine,   appre- 
hending they  might  raise  some  disturbances 
in  the  city,  readily  complied  with  their  re- 
quest, but  obliged    them,  before  they    left 
Rome,  to  swear  that  their  design  was  to  em- 
brace a  monastic  life,  that  they  had  no  other 
design   whatsoever,   and   that  they   would 
never  undertake  anything  themselves,  or  en- 
courage others  to  undertake  anything  against 
him.    This  oath  they  both  took,  the  honor 
of  the  Roman  church  being  at  stake,  with- 
out the  least  scruple  or  remorse,  thinking  it 
could  be  no  sin  to  forswear  themselves  for 
the  good  of  the   apostolic  see.     And  now 
Constantine,   apprehending    nothing    from 
them,  suffered  them  to  depart.    But  they,  in- 
stead of  repairing  to  the  monastery,  where  the 
abbot  expected  them,  wetit  straight  to  Spoleti, 
and  from  thence  to  Pavia,  to  impart  their 
design  to  the  king  of  the  Lombards,  and 
gain  him  over,  which  they  thought  might  be 
easily  accomplished,  to  their  side.     But  they 
found  the  king  not  inclined  to  concern  him- 
self in  the  affair  the  one  way  or  the  other. 
However,  he  declared,  that  if  they  could 
persuade  any  of  his  subjects  to  join  them, 
he  would  not  prevent  it.     With  this  answer 
they  left   Pavia,  and  being  joined  in   the 
cities  of  Spoleti  and  Rieti  by  a  great  many 
Lombards,  they  marched  silently  with  them 
towards  Rome.     They  arrived  on  the  29th 
of  July  in  the  evening  at  the  gate  of  St.  Pan- 
erase,  which  being  early  next  morning  open- 
ed to  them  by  their  friends,  they  entered  the 
city,  and  declaring  that  they  were  come  to 
deliver  Rome  from  its  tyrants,  set  up  their 
standard  on   the  wall.      In   the  meantime 
Toto,  a  man  of  great  resolution  and  bravery, 
alarmed  at  the  noise,  and  hastening,  with 
one  of  his  brothers,  named  Passif,  and  some 
of  his  friends,  to  the  walls,  fell  on  the  Lom- 
bards, killed  with  his  own  hand  Racipert, 
their  leader,  and  put  the  rest,  both  Lombards 


'  The  primicerius  and  secundicerius  were  the  two 
chief  officers  of  the  Roman  church.  Their  office  was, 
to  judge  and  decide  all  disputes  among  those,  who  im- 
mediately belonged  to  the  pope,  or  waited  on  his  per- 
son ;  to  attend  him  in  the  public  processions,  the  one 
walking  on  his  right,  and  the  other  on  his  left  hand ; 
and  to  assist  him,  with  their  advice,  in  all  affairs  of 
importance,  ecclesiastical  or  civil.  Whence  they  are 
frequently  styled  the  pope's  counsellors. 


and  Romans,  to  flight.  But  while  he  was 
pursuing  them,  two  Romans,  who  were 
with  him,  and  pretended  to  be  his  friends, 
attacking  him  behind,  ran  him  through  with 
their  lances,  and  laid  him  dead  at  their  feet. 
Toto  being  killed,  all,  who  were  with  him, 
betaking  themselves  to  flight,  endeavored  to 
make  their  escape.  Passif  fied  to  the  La- 
teran  palace  to  acquaint  his  brother  Con- 
stantine with  what  had  passed,  and  apprise 
him  of  the  danger  he  was  in.  Both  took 
refuge  in  the  oratory  of  St.  Cassarius  within 
the  palace  ;  but  were  soon  discovered  there, 
and  dragged  to  prison.' 

During  this  confusion,  a  presbyter,  named 
Waldipert,  flew  with  some  Romans  to  the 
monastery  of  St.  Vitus,  and  taking  from 
thence  Philip,  a  Lombard  monk,  proclaimed 
him  pope,  conducted  him  to  the  Lateran, 
crying  aloud,  "  Long  live  pope  Philip,  St. 
Peter  has  chosen  him,"  and  there  placed 
him  in  the  pontifical  chair.  The  monk, 
who  had  never  once  thought  of  the  papal 
dignity,  looked  upon  all  this  as  a  djeara. 
But  Waldipert  encouraging  him,  and  some 
of  the  populace  applauding,  with  repeated 
acclamations,  the  election  of  pope  Philip,  he 
took  upon  him  all  the  state  and  majesty  of  a 
pope,  gave  his  blessing,  with  great  solemnity, 
to  the  people,  who  flocked,  from  all  quarters 
of  the  city  to  see  their  new  sovereign,  and 
entertained  that  night  at  supper,  the  leading 
men  of  the  mihtia  and  the  clergy.  In  the  mean- 
time Christopher  and  Sergius,  greatly  sur- 
prised at  this  new  election,  assembled,  upon 
the  first  notice  they  had  of  it,  the  heads  of 
the  people  and  the  clergy,  and  protesting 
against  it,  declared,  in  their  presence,  that 
they  were  determined  not  to  acquiesce  in 
the  election  of  Philip,  no  less  scandalous  than 
that  of  Constantine,  and  would  not  dismiss 
the  Lombards  they  had  brought  with  them, 
till  the  mock  pope  quilting  the  Lateran  re- 
turned to  his  monastery.  Waldipert  and 
his  party,  were  no  match  for  Christopher 
and  his  Lombards,  and  therefore  abandoning 
Philip,  advised  him  to  withdraw  quietly  to 
his  monastery  ;  which  he  did,  having  enjoy- 
ed the  papal  dignity  not  quite  twenty-four 
hours  .2 

Both  intruders  being  thus  driven  out, 
Christopher  assembled,  a  few  days  after,  the 
people  and  the  clergy,  in  order  to  proceed, 
according  to  the  canons,  to  a  new  election. 
They  met  on  the  fifth  of  August,  and  the 
same  day  chose,  with  one  consent,  Stephen, 
presbyter  of  the  church  of  St.  Csecilia,  and 
conducted  him,  with  the  usual  ceremonies, 
to  the  Lateran.  The  next  day,  the  sixth  of 
August,  some  bishops  and  Roman  presby- 
ters, assembling  in  the  church  of  St.  Savior, 
ordered  Constantine  to  be  brought  before 
them,  and  having  first  caused  the  canons  to 
be  read,  solemnly  deposed  him.     He  was 


Anast.  in  Steph.  III. 


9  Idem  ibid. 


Stephen  III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


117 


Constantine  and  his  friends  treated  with  the  utmost  cruelty.  The  new  pope  writes  to  Pepin  and  his  two  sons  ; 
[Year  of  Christ,  769]  Begs  them  to  send  some  of  their  bishops  to  assist  at  a  council  to  be  held  in  Rome. 
The  council  meets,  and  Constantine  is  brought  before  them. 


then  sent  to  CoUanova,  and  there  shut  up 
in  a  monastery.  The  day  after,  being  the 
seventh  of  August,  which  in  769,  fell  on  a 
Sunday,  Stephen  was  ordained,  and  an  end 
put  at  last  to  the  schism.' 

But  no  end  was  put  to  the  cruelties  prac- 
tised by  the  partisans  of  the  new  pope  on  all, 
who  had  adhered  either  to  Constantine,  or 
Philip.     Theodore,  a  bishop,  and  Consian- 
tine's  major  domo,   had  his  eyes  and   his 
tongue  plucked  out,  and  was  confined  to  a 
monastery  on  mount  Scaurus,  where  he  died 
of  hunger  and  thirst,  roaring  in  a  manner 
to  melt  the  most  hardened  heart,  but  in  vain, 
only  for  a  cup  of  water.     Passif,  Constan- 
tine's  brother,  was  likewise  deprived,  and  in 
a   most    barbarous    manner,   of  his   sight. 
Gracilis,  tribune  of  Alatri  in  Campania,  and 
Constantine's  friend,being  seized  and  brought 
to  Rome,  met  there  with  the  same  treatment 
as  Theodore.     Constantine  had  been  con- 
fined, as  I  have  related  above,  to  a  monastery 
in  Callanova;  but  these  barbarians,  thinking 
he  had  been  too  mildly  dealt  with,  dragged 
him  from  thence,  and  leading  him  about  ex- 
posed to  the  insults  of  the  populace  on  horse- 
back with  heavy  weights  at  his  feet,  in  the 
end  they  put  out  his  eyes,  and  left  him  in 
that  condition  lying  in  the  street.    The  pres- 
byter Waldipert,  who  had  caused  Philip  to 
be  proclaimed  pope,  was  dragged  from  the 
Pantheon,  where  he  had  taken  refuge,  and 
condemned  to  have  his  eyes  and  his  tongue 
pulled  out;  which  was  done  in  so  cruel  a 
manner,  that  he  died  of  the  pain.^     Did  the 
cruelty  of  the  emperor  to  the  monks,  allow- 
ing all  the  Byzantine  historians  have  said  of 
his  cruelty  to  be  true,  exceed  that,  I  will  not 
say  of  the  pope  to  these  unhappy  wretches, 
but  of  his  ministers  and  friends,  whom  it 
does  not  appear  that  he  ever  once  offered  to 
restrain  ?     The  cruelties  practised  at  Rome, 
Baronius  construes  into  a  judgment   upon 
those,  who  suffered  them,  for  presuming  to 
raise  a  layman,  and  raise  him  by  force  and 
violence,  to  the  throne  of  St.  Peter :    and 
may  we  not,  with  much  better  reason,  con- 
strue the  cruelties,  that  are  said  to  have  been 
practised  on  the  monks  at  Constantinople, 
into  a  just  judgment  upon  them  for  pre- 
suming to  maintain,  and  with  treason  and 
rebellion,  an  idolatrous  worship  forbidden  by 
the  law  of  God,  and  the  laws  of  the  empire  ? 
The  new  pope  was  a  native  of  Sicily,  and 
the  son  of  one  Olivus.     He  is  said  by  Anas- 
tasius,  to  have  been  held  in  great  esteem  by 
the  four  preceding  popes,  on  account  of 
his  piety  and  learning,  especially  by  his  im- 
mediate predecessor  Paul,  whom  he  attended 
in  his  last  malady  with  great  care  and  ten- 
derness, never  stirring  from  his  bed  till  he 
expired.'     Upon  his  death  he  withdrew  to 
his  church,  and  there  continued  quiet  till 
Constantine  being  deposed,  he  was  raised  to 


the  see  in  his  room,  in  the  manner  we  have 
seen.      He  was  no   sooner  ordained,  than 
courting  the  favor  of  Pepin,  as  his  prede- 
cessors had  all  done  ever  since  they  shook 
off  the  yoke  and  all  subjection  to  the  empe- 
rors, he  dispatched  Sergius,  the  son  of  Chris- 
topher, into  France  with  a  letter  to  the  king 
and  his  two  sons  Charles  and  Carloman,  to 
acquaint  them  with  his  election,  to  engage 
their  protection,  and  at  the  same  time  entreat 
them  to  send  some  of  the  most  learned  bi- 
shops of  their  kingdom  to  assist  at  a  council, 
which  he  proposed  to  assemble  at  Rome,  in 
order  to  restore  the  ecclesiastical  discipline 
entirely  neglected  during  the  usurpation  of 
Constantine.     Secgius  received,  on  the  road, 
the  melancholy  news  of  Pepin's  death,  (he 
died  of  a  dropsy  on  the  23d  of  September 
of  the  present  year,  in  the  fifty-fourth  year 
of  his  age,  and  the  seventeenth  of  his  reign,) 
but  pursuing,  nevertheless,  his  journey,  he 
delivered  the   letter,   with   which   he   was 
charged,  to  the  deceased  king's  two  sons, 
Charles  and  Carloman.     Both  received  him 
with  the  greatest  marks  of  respect  and  es- 
teem, assured  him  that  they  were  determined 
to  maintain  St.  Peter  and  his  vicar  in  the 
quiet  possession  of  whatever  their   father 
had,  out  of  his  great  piety  and  religion,  been 
pleased  to  give  them,  and  in  compliance  with 
the  request  of  the  pope,  sent  together  with 
the  legate,  on  his  return  to  Rome,  twelve 
of  the  most  learned  bishops  of  their  king- 
dom."    On  their  arrival,  a  council  was  as- 
sembled in  the  Lateran,  consisting  of  the  bi- 
shops of  Tuscany,  Campania,  and  of  some 
other  provinces  of  Italy,  and  the  twelve  bi- 
shops come  from  France.     The  pope  presi- 
ded in  person  ;  and  the  first  day  they  met, 
the  unhappy  Constantine  was,  by  his  order, 
brought,  in  a  most  deplorable  condition,  his 
wounds  not  being  yet  healed,  before  them. 
They  asked  him,  how  he  had  presumed  to 
intrude  himself,  being  yet  a  layman,  into  the 
holy  apostolic  see  1  What  could  have  tempt- 
ed him  to  commit  so  enormous  and  unheard 
of  a  crime?     He  answered,  that  it  was  not 
by  any  intrigues  of  his,  that  he  had  attained 
the  pontifical  dignity  ;  but  that  the  people 
had  carried  him  by  force  to  the  Lateran,  and 
obliged  him  to  accept  it,^  hoping  he  would 
redress  the  grievances  they  had  complained 
of  under  Paul.     He  then  threw  himself  on 
the  ground,  owned  himself  guilty,  confessed 
that  his  sins  were  more  in  number  than  the 
sand  of  the  sea,  and  stretching  out  his  arms, 
begged  they  would  suffer  mercy  to  take  place 
of  justice,  and  forgive  him.     The  fathers  re- 
turned him  no  answer,  but  only  ordered  him 
to  be  raised  from  the  ground,  and  led  out  of 
the  assembly. 

The  next  day  he  was  brought  again  before 
the  council,  and  interrogated  anew  concern- 
ing his  intrusion.     As  the  fathers  laid  great 


Anast.  in  Steph.  III.       3  idem  ibid.       '  Idem  ibid. 


>  Anast.  in  Stepb.  III. 


118 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Stephen  HI. 


Constantine's  cruel  treatment.     Sentence  pronounced  against  him.     Decrees  enacted  by  the  council. 


Stress  on  his  being,  in  defiance  of  the  laws 
of  the  church,  of  a  layman  ordained  bishop, 
calling  it  a  new  crime,  an  unheard  of  at- 
tempt ;  he  modestly  replied,  "  that  of  such 
ordinations  many  instances  occurred  in  the 
annals  of  the  church  ;•  and,  to  waive  more 
ancient  precedents,  that  Sergius  of  Ravenna, 
and  Stephen  of  Naples,  both  metropolitans, 
had  been  thus  ordained  in  the  late  potifi- 
cate."  This  answer  one  would  think,  could 
have  given  no  offence,  the  bishops  he  named 
being  still  living,  and  in  the  quiet  possession 
of  their  sees.  But  he  had  the  assurance  to 
speak  in  his  own  defence,  nay,  and  to  con- 
tradict the  council:  the  fathers  therefore,  pro- 
voked beyond  measure  at  his  insolence,  and 
fired  with  zeal,  says  Anastasius,  for  the  an- 
cient practice  of  the  church,  ordered  him  to 
be  most  cruelly  beaten  in  their  presence,  and 
drove  him  with  reproaches  and  curses  out 
of  the  assembly.  From  his  being  thus  bar- 
barously treated,  though  an  object  of  com- 
passion rather  than  of  resentment  and  re- 
venge, by  a  council,  at  which  the  pope  pre- 
sided, nay,  and  by  his  order,  for  all  the 
bishops  joined,  "universi  sacerdotes,"  says 
Anastasius,  in  that  cruel  order,  may  we  not 
conclude  the  cruelties  used  with  the  friends 
of  that  unhappy  man  to  have  been,  if  not 
commanded,  at  least  tacitly  approved  by  his 
holiness  ?  If  so,  I  leave  the  reader  to  judge, 
which  of  the  two  was  the  greater  tyrant, 
Stephen,  or  the  emperor  Constantine. 

In  the  third  session,  the  council,  that  is, 
the  acts  of  the  council,  that  had  confirmed 
the  election  of  Constantine,  and  not  the 
bishops,  who  composed  it,  as  Marianus 
Scotus  understood  it,  was  burnt  in  the  pre- 
sence of  all,  and  Constantine  himself  con- 
demned, as  if  no  punishment  had  yet  been 
inflicted  on  him,  to  lead,  so  long  as  he  lived, 
shut  up  in  a  monastery,  the  austere  life  of  a 
penitent.  This  sentence  being  pronounced, 
all,  who  had  acknowledged  him,  and  re- 
ceived the  eucharist  at  his  hands,  in  which 
number  was  Stephen  himself,  though  now 
so  zealous  for  the  ancient  practice  of  the 
church,  prostrating  themselves  on  the 
ground,  begged  pardon  of  God  for  so  great 
a  crime  ;  and  penance  was  enjoined  them, 
we  know  not  by  whom.^ 


In  the  next  place,  to  deter  and  prevent 
others  from  intruding  themselves  by  force, 
after  the  example  of  Constantine,  into  the 
throne  of  St.  Peter,  they  ordered  the  canons 
of  the  church  to  be  brought  in  ;  which  being 
publicly  read,  they  issued  a  decree,  for- 
bidding, on  pain  of  excommunication,  any 
person  whatever  to  be  thenceforth  raised  to 
the  pontifical  dignity  who  had  not  previously 
passed  through  the  inferior  degress  to  that 
of  cardinal  deacon,  or  cardinal  priest.  And 
thus  was  that  dignity  first  confined  to  the 
cardinal  deacons  and  cardinal  priests.'     By 


'  St.  Ambrose  wag  not  only  a  layman,  but  still  a 
catechumen,  and  not  yet  baptized,  when  the  people 
of  Milan  chose  him  for  their  bishop  ;  and  he  was  or- 
dained a  few  days  after  his  election. — (Paulin.  vit. 
Ambros.)  St.  Cyprian  was  but  a  neophite,  or  newly 
baptized,  when  he  was  chosen,  and  consecrated 
bishop ;  (Pontius  in  vit.  Cypri.)  and  so  was  Nectarius, 
when  he  was  named,  by  the  second  general  council, 
to  succeed  Gregory  Nazianzen  in  the  see  of  Con- 
stantinople.—(Socrat.  1.  5.  c.  8.  Sozom.  1.  7.  c.  8.) 
Eucherius  was  but  a  layman  when  chosen  and  or- 
dained bishop  of  Lions  ;  (Hilar.  Arelat.  in  vit.  Hono- 
rat.)  and  Philogonius  of  Antioch  was  carried,  as 
Chrysostom  informs  us,  (Chrys.  horn.  31.  de  Philog.) 
from  the  court  of  judicature  to  the  bishop's  throne. 
And  it  is  to  be  observed,  that  in  those  days,  a  layman, 
when  named  to  the  episcopal  dignity,  was  ordained 
bishop  at  once,  without  any  other  previous  ordi- 
nation. 

>  Anast.  in  Steph.  III. 


'The  word  cardinal  is  derived  from  the  Latin  word 
cardo,  a  hinge,  and  signifies  a  thing  upon  whch  other 
things  hang  or  depend,  as  a  door  does  on  its  hinges,  that 
is  a  chief  or  principal  thing.  Thus  the  four  chief  points 
of  the  compass,  and  the  ecliptic,  are  called  the  cardinal 
points,  the  fourchiefmoral  virtues,  the  cardinal  virtues; 
and  the  chief  or  leading  men  among  the  Donatists  are 
styled  by  St.  Austin,  the  cardinal  Donatists. —  (Aug.  de 
Baptist.  1.  1.  c.  6.)  In  like  manner  the  principal 
priests  and  deacons  of  a  church  were  called  the  cardi- 
nal priests,  the  cardinal  deacons,  of  that  church.  But 
who  were  the  principal  deacons  and  priests,  to  whom 
the  name  of  cardinals  was  appropriated,  is  not  agreed 
amongst  authors.  Onuphrius  Panvinius  is  of  opinion, 
that  as  several  priests  and  deacons  belonged  to  one 
and  the  same  church,  the  chief  priests  and  deacons 
were  those  who  presided  over  the  rest  of  their  respec- 
tive orders  in  the  same  church.  Thus  the  priest,  for 
instance,  who  presided  over  all  the  priests  of  the 
church  of  St.  Balbina,  was  styled  the  cardinal  priest 
of  St.  Balbina  ;  and  tlie  deacon,  who  presided,  over 
all  deacons  of  the  church  of  St.  Sabina,  was  styled 
the  cardinal  deacon  of  St.  Sabina. —  (Onuph.  Panvin. 
lib.  de  Episcopatibus,  titulis,  &c.)  According  to  this 
interpretation,  there  must  have  been  only  one  cardi- 
nal priest  in  each  church.  But  in  the  works  of  pope 
Gregory  the  Great,  we  frequently  read  of  several  car- 
dinal priests  belonging  to  the  same  church  ;  and  the 
acts  of  a  council,  which  that  pope  held  at  Rome,  are 
signed  by  three  cardinal  priests  of  St.  Balbina,  by  two 
of  St.  Damasus,  two  of  St.  Sylvester,  and  two  of  the 
holy  apostles. — (Greg,  regist.  1.  4.  c.  SB.)  By  the  car- 
dinal priests  Salmasius  understands  the  archpriests. — 
(Salm.  de  Primal,  c.  1.)  But  he  is  therein  grossly 
mistaken,  nothing  being  more  certain,  than  that  there 
were  several  cardinal  priests  in  the  same  city,  and  but 
one  archpriest.  Besides,  the  name  of  cardinal  is  of  a 
much  later  date,  and  not  to  be  found  in  any  genuine 
writer  till  the  time  of  Gregory  the  Great,  the  council 
of  Rome  under  pope  Sylvester,  the  only  authority  al- 
leged by  Bellarmine  (Bellar.  de  Cleric.  1.  1.  c.  IC.)  to 
prove  it  more  ancient,  being  now  universally  rejected 
as  a  mere  fiction.  Some  think  that  the  cardinal 
priests  and  deacons  were  so  called  from  their  being 
fixed  in  the  principal  churches,  where  baptism  might 
be  administered,  which  were  therefore  styled  ecclesije 
and  tituli  cardinales ;  (Bellar.  de  Cleric.  I.  1.  c.  16.)  so 
that  the  name  of  cardinal  was  according  to  this  opin- 
ion, first  given  to  the  place,  and  from  the  place  de- 
rived to  the  persons.  Others  tell  us,  that  when  the 
number  of  the  ecclesiastics  was  so  increased  in  the 
populous  cities,  that  they  could  not  all  conveniently 
meet  to  regulate  with  the  bishops  the  aftairs  of  the 
church,  some  presbyters  and  deacons  were  chosen  out 
of  the  rest  to  be,  as  it  were,  the  bishop's  council,  who 
were  therefore  called  chief  or  cardinal  presbyters  and 
deacons.— (Stillingfl.  Irenic.  part.  2.  c.  7.)  Machia- 
vel  in  his  history  of  Florence  gives  us  the  following 
account  of  the  original  of  cardinals  :  "  In  the  pontifi- 
cate," says  he,  "  of  pope  Paschal  I.,  (created  in  817,) 
the  curates  of  Rome  took  upon  them  the  pompous 
title  of  cardinals,  as  being  the  pope's  ministers  nearest 
to  his  person,  and  having  a  chief  share  in  his  election  : 
and  their  authority  increased  to  that  degree  after 
they  had  found  means  of  depriving  the  people  of  Rome 
of  the  right  of  electing  the  pope,  that  the  papal  dignity 
fell  almost  always  upon  one  of  them." — (Machiavel. 
Istor.  di  Firenz.  I.  1.)  In  Pasrhal's  time,  and  long 
after,  such  of  them,  as  were  only  deacons  or  priests, 
signed  all  public  writings,  as  appears  from  several 
councils  held  at  Rome,  after  the  bishops,  as  inferior 
in  rank  to  t'  n.  But  when  tbe  papal  dignity  was  re- 
strained tO;'  >im,  as  it  was  by  the  present  council; 


Stephen  III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


119 


Deacons,  presbyters,  and  bishops,  ordained  by  Constantine,  ordered  to  be  re-ordained.  The  worship  of  imaoes 
approved  by  this  council.     Upon  what  grounds  they  approved  it.  " 


the  same  decree  it  was  likewise  enacted,  on 
pain  of  excommunication,  that  none  should 
assist  at  the  election  with  swords,  clubs,  or 
any  other  weapon,  and  that  none,  coming 
from  Campania  or  Tuscany,  should  be  ad- 
mitted into  the  city,  till  the  election  was 
made.  As  to  the  deacons,  presbyters,  and 
bishops,  who  had  been  ordained  by  Constan- 
tine, it  was  decreed,  that  they  should  be 
chosen  anew  in  their  respective  cities  ;  that, 
repairing  to  Rome  with  the  decree  of  their 
election,  they  should  there  be  re-ordained  by 
the  pope,  and  that  the  deacons  and  presby- 
ters should  be  for  ever  excluded  from  the 
episcopal  dignity.  It  was  added,  that  the 
laymen,  whom  Constantine  had  preferred 
to  any  rank  in  the  church,  should  never  be 
admitted  among  the  clergy,  but  wear,  as 
penitents,  a  religious  habit  so  long  as  they 
lived.'  No  punishment  was  inflicted  upon 
those  who  had  acknowledged  Constantine 
and  communicated  with  him,  the  pope  him- 
self being  one  of  that  number. 

As  ordination  is  no  more  to  be  reiterated, 
according  to  the  present  doctrine  of  the  church 
of  Rome,  than  baptism,  and  it  is  thought  a 
sacrilege  in  that  church  to  reiterate  either, 
the  popish  writers  take  a  great  deal  of  pains, 
and  above  all  Natalis  Alexander,^  to  con- 
vince us,  that  the  deacons,  presbyters,  and 
bishops,  ordained  by  Constantine,  were  not, 
by  the  decree  of  the  present  council,  to  be 
ordained  anew,  but  only  to  be  restored,  by 
the  imposition  of  hands,  to  the  free  exercise 
of  their  respective  offices,  from  which  they 


and  they  had  besides  engrossed  to  themselves  the 
power  of  electing  the  pope,  their  dignity  increased 
with  his,  till  he  became  superior,  and  they  equal  to 
the  greatest  princes  of  the  earth.  Thus  what  was 
originally  no  degree  at  all,  nor  order  in  the  chufch, 
became,  in  process  of  time,  the  highest  degree  after 
the  papal,  and  was  courted  as  such  by  tlie  greatest 
bishops.  A  most  political  institution !  For  thus  the 
popes  were  supplied  with  the  means  of  gaining  and 
attaching  to  their  see  the  most  eminent  prelates  of  the 
different  Christian  kingdoms,  who,  being  once  vested 
with  that  dignity,  looked  upon  the  interests  of  the 
apostolic  see  as  their  own,  since  they  might  be  raised 
to  it  in  their  turn.  The  cardinals,  thouirhthus  distin- 
guished by  their  rank,  wore  no  peculiar  habit  nor 
badge  of  their  dignity  till  the  time  of  pope  Innocent 
IV.,  who  having  created  twelve  cardinals  in  a  coun- 
cil he  held  at  Lions  in  1214,  allowed  them  to  wear 
thenceforth  a  red  hat,  to  declare  thereby  that  they 
were  ready  to  defend  the  Roman  church,  then 
grievously  oppressed  by  the  emperor  Frederic  II.,  at 
the  expense  of  their  heads  or  their  lives. —  (Onuph. 
Panvin.  in  not.  ad  vit.  Innoc.  IV.)  Paul  II.  raised  to 
the  see  in  1464,  added  the  red  garment  and  cap,  to 
be  worn  by  all  but  monks  and  friars  :  and  to  them  too 
the  red  cap  was  granted  in  1500,  by  pope  Gregory 
XIV.  Lastly,  that  they  might  not  be  distinguished  by 
their  habit  alone,  Urban  VIII.,  chosen  in  1623,  granted 
them,  by  a  special  bull,  the  title  of  most  eminent.  It 
is  to  be  observed,  that  in  other  cities,  as  well  as  in  Rome, 
there  were  cardinal  priests  and  cardinal  deacons  :  but 
that  title  was  in  154."},  suppressed  by  Paul  III.,  in  all 
churches  but  the  Roman.  And  now  all  cardinals,  to 
what  church  soever  they  belonged  before  their  crea- 
tion, style  themselves  after  it  "cardinals  of  the  holy 
Roman  church."  They  arc  the  pope's  counsellors  ; 
and  with  them  he  advises  in  all  matters  of  moment, 
as  he  formerly  did  with  the  neighboring  bjshops,  but 
is  not  bound  to  follow  their  advice. 

'  Anast.  in  Steph.  III. 

»  Natal.  Alex.  sec.  8.  c.  1.  art.  8.  &  Bar.  ad  Ann.  769. 
p.  300.  n.  6. 


were  suspended  on  account  of  their  unlaw- 
ful ordination.  But  Anastasius,  the  only 
writer  who  gives  us  an  account  of  that  coun- 
cil, says  that  those  bishops,  presbyters  and 
deacons  were,  by  the  decree  of  the  council,  to 
be  all  consecrated  anew  ;  and  to  consecrate 
and  ordain  are  with  that  writer,  as  might  be 
shown  by  innumerable  instances,  synony- 
mous terms.  Besides,  Anastasius  tells  us, 
in  express  words,  that  "  by  the  same  council 
it  was  decreed,  that  all  things,  relating  to 
the  sacraments  of  the  church,  and  the  wor- 
ship of  God,  done  by  Constantine,  should 
be  reiterated,  except  baptism,  and  the  sacred 
chrism:"'  and  he  knew  better,  as  we  may 
well  suppose  (for  he  flourished  not  quite  a 
hundred  years  after  the  time  of  this  council) 
what  was,  and  what  was  not  to  be  reiterated, 
than  either  Natalis  or  Baronius. 

The  acts  of  Constantine  being  thus  an- 
nulled, and  such  measures  agreed  on  as 
seemed  the  most  proper  to  prevent,  for  the 
future,  all  force  and  violence  in  the  election 
of  the  pope,  in  the  fourth  and  last  session 
other  matters  were  settled,  and  among  the 
rest  the  point  relating  to  the  use  and  the  wor- 
ship of  images,  a  point,  which  the  popes  had 
now,  for  the  space  of  nearly  fifty  years,  never 
concerned  themselves  with,  being  too  much 
taken  up  with  state  affairs  to  attend  to  those 
of  religion.  What  was  the  determination 
of  the  council  concerning  that  article  Anas- 
tasius informs  us  in  a  few  words  :  the  testi- 
monies of  the  fathers,  says  he,  in  behalf  of 
images,  were  produced  and  most  carefully 
examined;  and,  it  being  found,  upon  the 
strictest  examination  and  inquiry,  thatimages 
had  been  used  and  worshiped  by  the  Chris- 
tians since  the  earliest  times,  that  the  popes 
and  all  the  holy  fathers  had  ever  approved, 
recommended,  and  promoted  their  use  and 
their  worship,^  it  was  decreed,  that  images 
should  not  only  be  retained,  but  be  honored 
and  worshiped,  and  the  execrable  synod, 
that  had  been  lately  assembled  in  Greece  to 
break  and  destroy  them  (the  council  of  Con- 
stantinople, which  consisted  of  three  hun- 
dred and  thirty-eight  bishops,  and  spent  six 
months  in  examining  what  a  few  bishops 
are  said  to  have  "  most  carefully  examined" 
in  a  few  hours)  was  condemned,  rejected, 
and  accursed.3  Of  this  council  some  frag- 
ments occur  in  the  letter  pope  Adrian  wrote 
to  Charlemagne  in  defence  of  the  second 
council  of  Nice ;  and  from  them  we  learn, 
that  a  passage  was  alleged  by  the  French 
bishop  Herulphus  out  of  pope  Gregory  the 
Great  to  show,  that  the  worship  of  images 
was  approved  by  that  pope ;  and  another  by 
Sergius  of  Ravenna,  out  of  St.  Ambrose, 
saying  that  a  person  appeared  to  him  re- 
sembling St.  Paul,  as  represented  by  his 
image.'*     But  that  no  Iconoclast  was  ever 


«  Anast.  in  Steph.  III.  a  gee  p.  28,  &c. 

'  Anast. ubi  supra. 

'  Epist.  Hadrian,  ad  Carol,  mag.  28.  act.  5. 


120 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


'  [Stephen  HI. 


The  pope  presses  the  king  of  the  Lombards  to  deliver  up  some  places  he  still  kept.  Great  disturbances  taised 
in  Rome  by  the  friends  of  the  king  ;  who  advances  to  Rome  with  his  army.  The  pope  grants  him  an  inter- 
view in  the  church  of  St.  Peter. 


more  averse  to  the  worship  of  images  than 
pope  Gregory  the  Great,  though  he  was 
against  breaking  them,  has  been  shown  else- 
where ;'  and  from  the  saying  of  Si.  Am- 
brose we  can  only  conclude,  that  in  his  time, 
or  in  the  latter  end  of  the  fourth  century, 
there  were  images  of  St.  Paul,  which  we  do 
not  deny,  the  use  of  images  having  been  in- 
troduced, as  I  have  observed  elsewhere,'^ 
about  that  lime.  From  the  same  letter  of 
pope  Adrian  it  appears,  that  by  the  very 
learned  bishops  of  the  present  assembly  great 
stress  was  laid  on  the  image,  which  our  Sa- 
vior was  said  to  have  sent  of  himself  to  Ab- 
garus,  king  of  Edessa.  But  should  we  allow 
all  that  has  been  said  of  that  image  to  be 
true,  and  the  letter,  which  our  Savior  is  sup- 
posed to  have  written  on  that  occasion,  to  be 
as  authentic  and  genuine  as  Stephen  and 
Adrian  believed  it,  it  would  from  thence 
only  follow,  that  the  use  of  images  was  ap- 
proved by  our  Savior  to  put  us  in  mind  of 
him,  nothing  else  being  said  of  that  image 
in  the  letter,  but  that  it  was  sent  to  satisfy 
the  desire  king  Abgarus  had  of  seeing  Jesus, 
and  to  convince  him  by  so  miraculous  an 
effigy,  that  the  miracles  he  had  wrought 
were  not  impossible.  But  the  whole  is  a 
mere  fable,  as  has  already  been  clearly 
shown  ;^  and  we  need  no  better  proof  of 
the  ignorance,  that  universally  prevailed 
in  the  times,  when  th^  worship  of  images 
was  established,  than  to  find  such  fabulous 
stories,  gravely  related,  and  firmly  believed 
by  the  bishops,  the  popes,  and  the  councils 
of  those  days. 

As  several  cities,  that  had  been  yielded  by 
the  treaty  of  Pavia  to  the  apostohc  see,  were 
still  kept  by  the  Lombards,  Stephen  had  no 
sooner  dismissed  the  council,  than  laying 
aside  all  thoughts  of  images  and  ecclesiastical 
affairs,  he  began  to  press  Desiderius  to  de- 
liver up  those  places  without  further  delay, 
threatening,  if  he  did  not  forthwith  comply 
with  his  just  demands,  to  recur  to  his  be- 
loved sons,  the  two  kings  of  France,  Charles 
and  Carloman,who,  he  said,  had  signed  that 
treaty  as  well  as  king  Pepin  their  father,  and 
had  bound  themselves  by  a  solemn  oath  to 
employ,  if  necessary,  the  whole  strength  of 
their  kingdom  in  procuring  the  execution  of 
the  articles  it  contained.  As  it  was  at  the 
instigation  of  Christopher  and  his  son  Ser- 
gius,  of  whom  I  have  spoken  above,  that  the 
pope,  v?ho  was  entirely  directed  and  govern- 
ed by  their  counsels,  thus  insisted  on  the 
immediate  execution  of  the  treaty,  and  they 
trusting  in  the  protection  of  France,  diverted 
him  from  hearkening  to  any  terms  of  ac- 
commodation with  the  Lombards,  Deside- 
rius resolved  to  remove  them,  by  some  means 
or  other,  out  of  the  way.  With  that  view 
he  privately  applied  to   Paul  Afiarta,  the 


'Seep.  42.       =  See  p.  40.       '  See  p.  29  note  (2). 


pope's  chamberlain,  by  nation  a  Lombard, 
and  one,  in  whom  the  pope  reposed  an  en- 
tire confidence,  conveying  to  him  by  means 
of  his  emissaries  in  Rome  many  rich  pre- 
sents, and  promising  him  a  great  reward, 
provided  he  prevailed  on  the  pope  to  dis- 
miss his  two  favorite  ministers.  This  Paul 
readily  undertook;  and  having  accordingly 
with  artful  insinuations,  with  censuring  their 
conduct,  and  misconstruing  their  measures, 
greatly  lessened  the  confidence  the  pope  had 
placed  in  them,  and  the  high  opinion  he  en- 
tertained of  their  integrity,  and  zeal  for  his 
welfare,  and  that  of  his  see,  he  at  last  as- 
sured him,  that  they  had  formed  a  design  of 
murdering  him,  and  making  themselves  so- 
vereigns of  Rome,  which  they  governed 
already  with  an  uncontrolled  power  and  ab- 
solute sway.  This  barefaced  calumny  he 
caused  to  be  published  by  his  friends  and 
accomplices  among  the  people ;  which,  as  it 
was  by  some  believed,  and  disbelieved  by 
others,  gave  rise  to  two  opposite  factions ; 
and  thereupon  great  divisions,  animosities, 
and  tumults  daily  ensued  in  the  city. 

Of  these  disturbances  Desiderius  was  soon 
informed  by  his  friends,  and  being  resolved 
to  avail  himself  of  them  he  drew  together, 
in  great  haste,  a  considerable  body  of  troops, 
and  marching  at  their  head  towards  Rome, 
gave  out  that  he  intended  to  visit  the  holy 
places  there,  and  confer  in  person  with  the 
pope,  which,  he  said,  was  the  most  expedi- 
tious way  of  settling,  to  their  mutual  satis- 
faction, all  points  in  dispute.  But  his  true 
design  was  to  foment  the  disturbances,  to 
support  Paul  and  his  friends,  to  crush  the 
opposite  parly,  and  get  the  two  ministers, 
with  such  persons  of  note  as  adhered  to 
them,  destroyed  or  delivered  up  into  his 
hands.  But  they,  receiving  timely  notice  of 
his  march,  and  suspecting  his  design,  took 
care  to  defeat  it,  assembling  for  that  purpose, 
with  incredible  expedition,  and  bringing  into 
the  city  a  numerous  militia  from  Tuscany, 
Campania,and  the  dukedom  of  Perugia;  inso- 
much that  the  king,  finding,  as  he  drew  near, 
the  gates  all  shut,  and  the  walls  well  defend- 
ed, encamped  his  army  in  the  meadows  of 
Nero,  and  went  himself,  attended  only  by 
his  guards,  to  the  church  of  St.  Peter  then 
without  the  city.  From  thence  he  sent  some 
of  his  chief  lords  to  acquaint  the  pope,  that 
he  Avas  come  to  confer  with  him  in  person, 
and  to  beg,  that  since  he  was  not  allowed  to 
enter  the  city,  though  he  had  no  hostile  de- 
signs, his  holiness  would  be  pleased  to  grant 
him  an  interview  in  the  church  of  the  apos- 
tle St.  Peter,  since  he  could  not  but  be  sensi- 
ble, that  their  differences  would  be  more 
easily  made  up  by  themselves  than  their 
ministers.  The  pope,  suspecting  no  trea- 
chery, readily  complied  with  the  request  of 
the  king.  But  ihe  conference  was  scarce 
begun,  when  the  pope  was  obliged  to  inter- 


Stephen  III.]  OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME.  121 

The  party  of  Paul  overpowered  in  Rome.     In  a  second  interview  he  obliges  the  pope  to  dismiss  his  two 
favorite  ministers ;  whom  he  seizes,  and  uses  with  great  barbarity. 

rupt  it,  and  hasten  back  into  the  city.     In  even  by  their  nearest  relations,  among  whom 


his  absence,  Paul  and  his  accomplices  had 
raised  the  mob,  as  was  agreed  between  them 
and  the  king  of  the  Lombards,  against  the 
two  ministers  with  a  design  to  destroy  them. 
But  they,  repelling,  with  the  assistance  of 
their  friends,  whom  they  quickly  assembled, 
force  by  force,  a  skirmish  ensued,  in  which 
the  party  of  Paul  was  in  the  end  overpow- 
ered and  obliged  to  take  shelter  in  the  Late- 
ran  palace.  Thither  the  conquerors  pursued 
them,  and  entering,  sword  in  hand,  the 
basilic  itself,  would  have  dragged  them  from 
thence  and  put  them  to  death,  had  not  the 
pope,  who  was  there,  severely  reprimanded 
them  and  obliged  them  to  retire. 

The  tumult  being  thus  appeased,  and  all 
quiet  in  the  city,  the  pope  returned  the  next 
day  to  the  conference.  But  the  king,  find- 
ing the  attempt  of  Paul  had  proved  unsuc- 
cessful, instead  of  entering  upon  business, 
broke  une.xpectedly  out  into  most  bitter  com- 
plaints and  invectives  against  the  two  ty- 
rants, as  he  called  them,  who,  not  satisfied 
with  usurping  the  power  and  tyrannically 
abusing  it  to  the  oppression  of  the  unhappy 
people  of  Rome,  had  most  wickedly  con- 
spired against  the  life  of  his  holiness,  with 
a  design  of  usurping  the  sovereignty  as  well 
as  the  power.  He  then  ordered  all  the  gates 
of  the  church  to  be  shut,  declaring,  as  if  he 
had  nothing  in  his  view  but  the  safety  of 
the  pope,  for  which  he  expressed  the  great- 
est concern,  that  neither  his  holiness  nor 
any  of  his  retinue  should  stir  from  thence, 
till  the  two  traitors  were  dismissed  from  their 
employments,  and  divested  of  all  power. 
The  pope,  now  in  the  power  of  the  Lom- 
bards and  in  a  manner  their  prisoner,  imme- 
diately dispatched  two  bishops  of  his  retinue 
into  the  city  to  declare  Christopher  and  his 
son  Sergius  dismissed  from  his  service,  and 
command  them,  in  his  name,  to  retire  forth- 
with into  a  monastery,  or,  if  they  Avere  con- 
scious of  their  innocence,  to  repair  to  the 
church  of  St.  Peter,  and  there  make  it  ap- 
pear to  the  king  of  the  Lombards  and  to  him. 
They  were  well   apprised  of  the  design   of 


was  duke  Gratiosus,  their  cousin-german,  a 
man  of  great  power  and  authority  with  the 
people  of  Rome.  And  now  the  party  of 
Paul  prevailing  in  the  city,  the  two  unhappy 
ministers  resolved  to  quit  it,  and  repairing 
to  the  pope  in  the  Vatican,  (the  king  of  the 
Lombards  being  returned  to  his  camp,)  to 
throw  themselves  at  his  feet,  and  having 
satisfied  him  of  their  innocence,  implore  his 
protection.  They  got  accordingly  over  the 
walls  in  the  night ;  but  falling  on  the  senti- 
nels of  the  Lombards,  they  were  carried  by 
them  to  their  king,  who  sent  them  the  next 
day  to  the  pope.  The  pope  had  engaged 
his  word  to  the  king  that  they  should  be  no 
more  employed ;  and  therefore  would  not 
suffer  them  to  utter  a  single  word  in  their 
defence,  but  let  them  know,  as  soon  as  they 
appeared  before  him,  that  they  must  take 
the  monkish  habit  and  spend  the  rest  of  their 
lives  in  a  monastery.  The  same  day  the 
pope  and  the  king  met  the  third  time  in  the 
church  of  St.  Peter,  when  the  king  pro- 
mised upon  oath,  and  he  took  it,  says  Anas- 
tasius,  on  the  body  of  St.  Peter,  to  satisfy 
his  holiness  as  to  all  his  pretensions  and 
claims  as  soon  as  he  returned  to  his  king- 
dom. They  then  took  leave  of  each  other, 
the  pope  returning  into  the  city,  and  the  king 
to  his  camp. 

As  for  Christopher  and  Sergius,  the  pope, 
desirous  of  saving  their  lives,  as  he  was 
indebted  to  them  for  his  dignity,  left  them  in 
the  church  of  St.  Peter,  the  king  having  pro- 
mised not  to  molest  them ;  and  they  were  to 
enter  the  city  in  the  night  to  avoid  falling 
into  the  hands  of  Paul  and  the  mob  of  his 
party,  who,  the  pope  well  knew,  sought  their 
destruction.  But  Paul  and  the  king,  ap- 
prehending they  might  make  their  escape  in 
the  dark,  and  perhaps  be  re-admitted  to  the 
confidence  and  favor  of  the  pope,  to  prevent 
their  being  ever  more  employed,  dragged 
them  before  night  from  their  asylum,  and 
caused  their  eyes  to  be  plucked  out  in  so 
barbarous  a  manner,  that  Christopher  died 
the  third  day  of  the  pain.     Sergius  survived 


the  king,  that  he  only  wanted  to  get  them  it,  but  it  was  only  to  be  kept  closely  confined 
into  his  power,  and  that  it  was  not  of  his!  so  long  as  the  pope  lived,  and  barbarously 
own  accord  that  the  pope  had  sent  them  such  j  murdered  as  soon  as  he  died.  Such  is  the 
a  message  or  command,  but  at  the  king's  in-j  account  the  bibliothecarian  gives  us  of  the 
stigation  and  to  gratify  him.  They  therefore!  cause  and  the  issue  of  the  present  disturb- 
returned  answer,  that  they  should  make  their  ances  :'  and  it  is  to  be  observed,  that  Chris- 
innocence  appear  to  his  holiness,  to  whom  topher  and  Sergius  were,  as  the  ruling 
alone  they  were  accountable  for  their  con-  ministers,  the  chief  authors  of  all  the  cruel- 
duct,  on  his  return  into  the  city  ;  but  would, !  ties,  that  were  practised  upon  the  anti-pope 
in  the  mean  time,  continue  with  their  friends  Constantine,  and  all,  who  adhered  to  him, 
to  defend  it  till  the  Lombards  were  retired,!  many  of  whom  were  shut  up  in  monasteries, 
and  his  holiness  left  at  full  liberty  to  absolve  as  we  have  seen,  after  they  had  been  most 
or  condemn  them,  as  he  should  find  them,' barbarously  deprived  of  their  sight,  a  punish- 
upon  a  fair  trial,  innocent  or  guilty.  Butas]  ment  scarce  ever  used,  before  their  time,  in 
disgraced  ministers,  generally  speaking,  have  ]  the  west.  Their  having  therefore  undergone 
no  friends,  it  was  no  sooner  known  in  the  .the  very  same  punishment,  may  be  looked 

city  that  the  pope  had  discharged  them,  than — — — 

they  found   themselves    abandoned  by  all,  >  Anast.  in  Steph.  ill.  &  Hadrian. 

Vol.  II.— 16  L 


[Stephen  III. 


122  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES. 

The  pope  excuses  the  kiiie  in  his  letter  to  Charlemagne  ;  which  was  probably  dictated  by  the  king  of  the 
Lombards.  The  king  of  the  Lombards  refuses  to  perform  the  promise  he  had  made  to  the  pope.  Strives  to 
persuade  him  to  enter  into  an  alliance  with  the  Lombards.     The  pope  at  a  loss  what  measures  to  pursue. 


upon  as  a  just  retaliation,  and  would  have 
been  construed  by  Baronius  into  a  manifest 
judgment,  had  they  been  Iconoclasts,  or  no 
friends  to  the  pope. 

The  account,  which  the  pope  himself 
gives  of  this  matter  in  a  letter  he  wrote  to 
queen  Bertrad  and  her  son  Charlemagne, 
is  very  different  from  that,  which  we  read 
in  Anastasius.  For  in  that  letter  the  pope 
tells  them,  that  Christopher  and  Sergius 
had,  in  concert  with  Dodo,  the  ambassador 
of  Carloman,  conspired  against  his  life,  and 
broken  into  the  Lateran  palace,  nay  and  into 
the  Basilic  itself  with  a  design  to  murder 
him  ;  that  he  had,  with  the  utmost  difficulty, 
escaped  their  fury,  and  taken  refuge  in  the 
church  of  St.  Peter,  from  whence  he  had 
sent  two  bishops  lo  command  Christopher 
and  Sergius,  in  his  name,  to  repair  to  him, 
which  they  refusing  to  do,  the  people,  ac- 
quainted with  their  wicked  design,  had 
seized  them,  and  carried  them  to  him  by 
force ;  that  the  incensed  populace  were  for 
tearing  them  to  pieces ;  that  he,  to  save  them, 
had  attempted  to  get  them  brought  into  the 
city  in  the  dead  of  the  night;  but  that  they 
had  unfortunately  fallen  into  the  hands  of 
their  enemies,  who  had  put  out  their  eyes, 
he  calls  God  to  witness,  without  his  consent, 
or  even  his  privity.  He  adds,  that  he  owes 
his  life  to  the  protection  of  God  and  St. 
Peter,  and  after  them  to  his  most  excellent 
son  Desiderius,  king  of  the  Lombards,  who 
happened  very  luckily  to  be  then  at  Rome, 
and  who,  he  says,  had  entirely  satisfied  him 
as  to  all  his  demands.' 

As  on  the  one  hand  it  appears  not  only 
from  the  account  of  Anastasius,  but  from 
the  whole  conduct  of  Christopher  and  Ser- 
gius, that,  far  from  conspiring  against  the 
pope,  or  affecting  the  sovereignity  of  Rome, 
they  had  nothing  so  much  at  heart  as  the 
interest  and  welfare  of  the  apostolic  see ;  and 
on  the  other  it  is  very  certain,  that  when  the 
pope  wrote  that  letter,  not  one  of  the  many 
places  he  claimed  had  been  yet  delivered  up 
to  him,  Le  Coint  is  of  opinion,^  and  so  is  F. 
Pagi,'  that  the  letter  was  dictated  by  the 
king,  while  the  pope  was  still  in  his  power, 
and  kept  by  him,  in  a  manner,  prisoner  in 
the  Vatican.  As  to  what  is  said  there  of 
Dodo,  the  ambassador  of  Carloman,  he 
might,  say  these  writers,  have  joined  the 
two  ministers,  who  were  friends  to  France, 
against  Paul  and  his  party,  who  favored  the 
Lombards,  and  together  with  them,  broken 
into  the  Lateran,  as  has  been  related  above. 
The  same  authors  add,  that  as  Charlemagne 
could  not  but  condemn  the  conduct  of  Dodo 
as  represented  in  that  letter,  Desiderius 
hoped  by  that  means  to  foment  and  increase 
the  misunderstanding  that  subsisted,  at  this 


»  Cod.  Carolin.  ep.  46.    «  Le  Coint.  ad  Ann.  769.  n.  7. 
'  Pagi  Crit.  Bar.  ad  Ann.  770.  n.  2. 


time,  between  the  two  brothers,  and  thus 
divert  them  from  uniting  their  forces  against 
him  in  favor  of  the  pope.  However  that 
be,  it  is  agreed  on  all  hands,  that  several  un- 
truths were  advanced  by  the  pope  in  that 
letter, 

Desiderius  having  thus  removed  out  of 
the  way  the  two  ministers,  whom  he  looked 
upon  as  his  enemies,  and  the  enemies  of  his 
nation,  returned  to  his  capital ;  whither  he 
was  soon  followed  by  two  legates  sent  by 
the  pope  to  challenge  the  performance  of  the 
promise  he  had  made,  and  sworn  upon  the 
tomb  of  St.  Peter  to  observe.  They  met 
with  a  very  cold  reception  from  the  king, 
who,  interrupting  them  as  soon  as  they  men- 
tioned the  treaty  of  Pavia  and  his  promise, 
"what  treaty,"  said  he,  "  what  promise? 
Does  not  his  holiness  owe  more  to  me,  than  I 
owe  to  him  1  Have  I  not  delivered  him  from 
imminent  destruction,  and  the  people  of 
Rome  from  imminent  slavery  1  And  is  this 
his  gratitude?  And  does  he  thus  repay 
such  eminent  services  ?  But  if  he  has  so 
quickly  forgotten  the  obligations  he  owes 
me,  he  will  soon  be  obliged  to  court  my 
protection  and  favor  anew.  The  treatment, 
which  Christopher  and  Sergius,  who  were 
under"  the  protection  of  Carloman  and  acted 
by  his  order,  have  met  with,  has  highly  pro- 
voked that  prince  ;  and  he  will  soon  appear  in 
Italy  at  the  head  of  an  army  to  revenge  it.  The 
Lombards  alone  are  able  to  withstand  him ; 
and  his  holiness  has  no  other  possible  means 
of  escaping  the  impending  vengeance,  but 
by  recurring  to  them."  He  then  proposed 
an  alliance  between  the  apostolic  see  and 
the  Lombards,  magnified  the  advantages 
that  would  accrue  from  such  an  alliance  to 
both,  and  pretending  great  zeal  for  the  safety 
of  the  pope,  whom,  he  said,  Carloman  was 
determined  to  carry  with  him  as  his  prisoner, 
into  France,  entreated  the  legates  to  per- 
suade his  holiness  to  accept,  before  the 
French  had  entered  Italy  and  it  was  too  late, 
the  offer  he  made  of  his  alliance  and  friend- 
ship.' 

Charlemagne  and  Carloman  were  quar- 
reling, at  this  very  time,  about  their  respec- 
tive shares  of  the  dominions  of  their  father, 
who  had,  by  his  will,  divided  them  between 
them ;  the  people  of  Aquitaine,  but  very 
lately  subdued  by  Pepin,  had  revolted  upon 
the  news  of  his  death,  and  Thassilo,  duke 
of  Bavaria,  had  already  begun  to  act  more 
like  a  sovereign  than  a  vassal,  and  seemed 
strongly  incfined  to  shake  off  the  yoke. 
Neither  Charlemagne,  therefore,  nor  Carlo- 
man  could  think  of  marching  an  army,  at 
this  juncture,  into  Italy.  But  Desiderius 
proposed,  by  thus  alarming  the  pope,  to 
frighten  him  into  an  alliance  with  him; 
which  he  knew  would  disoblige  the  French ; 


>  Anast.  in  Hadrian. 


Stephen  III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


123 


The  pope  delivered  from  all  perplexity  by  a  solemn  embassy  from  Charles  and  Carloman  ; — [Year  of  Chtist, 
770.]  Complains  in  his  letter  to  them  of  the  king  of  the  Lombards,  but  both  decline  breaking  at  present 
with  the  Lombards.  A  marriage  proposed  by  the  king  of  the  Lombards  between  his  son  and  the  gister  of 
the  two  kings,  and  between  his  daughter  and  either  of  them. 

and  he  might,  by  that  means,  be  abandoned    the  apostles,  (not  to  Christ,)  if  they  neglect 


by  them,  and  left  entirely  at  the  mercy  of 
the  Lombards.  The  report  of  the  legates 
perplexed  the  pope  beyond  expression.  Paul, 


or  even  delay  putting  that  apostle  and  his 
vicar  in  possession  of  every  inch  of  ground, 
that  was  given  and  consecrated  to  them  by 


and  those  of  his  party,  pressed  him  to  agree   the   great  and   most  religious    king    their 


to  the  proposed  alliance,  and  to  put  himself, 
without  delay,  under  the  protection  of  the 
Lombards,  who  were  near  at  hand  to  pro- 
tect and  defend  him  against  all  his  enemies. 
Others  loudly  declared  against  his  hearken- 
ing to   any  proposals  whatever  from  that 
quarter,  advising  him  steadily  to  adhere,  at 
all  events,  to  the   French  ;  and  the  pope, 
being  himself  no  deep  politician,  was  quite 
at  a  loss  what  measures  to  pursue.  But  from 
this  perplexity  he  was  soon  delivered  by  a 
solemn,  and  as   seasonable  as  unexpected 
an  embassy  from  France.     It  consisted  of  a 
bishop,   an  abbot,  and  two  lords  of  great 
distinction ;  and  they  were  sent  by  the  two 
kings  to  impart  to  his  holiness  the  agreeable 
news  of  their  entire  reconciliation,  and  as- 
sure him,  at  the  same  time,  that  they  were 
determined  to  maintain  St.  Peter  and  him, 
against  the  Greeks  as  well  as  the  Lombards, 
in  the  quiet  possession  of  all  the  places  their 
father  had  given  them.     The  pope  had  as- 
sured the  queen  and  her  son  Charlemagne, 
in  his  letter  to  them  mentioned  above,  that 
the  king  of  the  Lombards  had  entirely  satis- 
fied him  as  to  all  his  demands.    That  the 
two  kings  seem  to  have  taken  for  granted  ; 
'and  therefore  supposing  his  holiness  already 
possessed   of  the   places   he  claimed,  they 
only  signified  to  him,  at  present,  their  reso- 
lution of  maintaining  him  undisturbed  in 
the  possession   of  those   places.     But   the 
pope  took  care  to  undeceive  them,  assuring 
them,  as  his  holiness  was  not,  on  this  occa- 
sion, ashamed  to  give  himself  the  lie,  by  a 
letter,  which  he  wrote  to  both  kings  on  the 
return  of  their  ambassadors,  that  the  perfi- 
dious king  (to  whom  he  had  owned  himself 
in  his  former  letter  indebted  for  his  life)  had 
yet  complied  with  none  of  his  demands,  and 
begging  they  would  give  no  sort  of  credit 
to  any,  who  should  tell  them,  that  he  had, 
notwithstanding  all  his  promises,  delivered 
up,  to  that  day,  a  single  village,  nay,  or  a 
foot  of  ground  to  St.  Peter.     In  the  same 
letter,    alter  congratulating  his    two    most 
Christian   sons    upon   their    reconciliation, 
which  he  is  confident  will  redound   to  the 
exaltation  of  their  holy  mother,  the  church, 
he  conjures  them  over  and  over  again  by 
that  God,  who  has  placed  them  on  the  throne, 
to  cause  justice  to  be  done,  and  to  be  done 
without  delay,  to  St.  Peter  and  his  vicar: 
reminds  them  of   the  promise   they   made 
together  with  their  father  of  holy  memory  ; 
exhorts  them  to  tread  in  his  foot-steps,  and 
lastlv  begs  them  seriously  to  reflect  on  the 


father.'  Thus  the  pope:  but  as  notwith- 
standing the  boasted  reconciliation,  some  re- 
mains were  still  left  of  the  ancient  jealousy 
between  the  two  brothers,  neither  thought  it 
advisable  to  engage,  at  this  juncture,  for  the 
sake  of  the  pope,  in  a  war  with  the  Lom- 
bards, who,  they  knew,  would  not  comply 
with  his  demands  unless  forced  to  it  by  an 
unsuccessful  war. 

And  now  the  king  of  the  Lombards,  des- 
pairing of  being  able  to  take  the  pope  off 
from  his  attachment  to  the  French,  resolved 
to  leave  nothing  unaltempted  to  take  the 
French  off  from  their  attachment  to  the  pope. 
With  that  view  he  caused  proposals  to  be 
privately  made  of  a  marriage  between  his 
son  Adalgisusandthe  princess  Gisel, sister  to 
the  two  kings  ;  and  at  the  same  time  offered 
his  daughter  Desideria  in  marriage  to  either 
of  those  princes.  This  he  thought  the  most 
effectual  means  of  closely  uniting  the  two 
families  ;  and  he  did  not  at  all  doubt  but  that 
he  should  be  able,  if  the  proposed  alliances 
took  place,  to  divert  the  two  kings  from  in- 
sisting on  the  execution,  at  least  on  the  full 
execution,  of  the  treaty  of  Pavia.  There 
was  no  impediment  to  obstruct  the  marriage 
of  Adalgisus  and  Gisel;  and  but  one  to  ob- 
struct that  of  Desideria  with  either  of  the 
princes,  namely,  that  both  were  married  and 
their  wives  were  living.  But  that,  in  those 
days  of  ignorance,  was  scarce  looked  upon, 
at  least  in  France,  as  an  impediment,  as  ap- 
pears from  the  many  divorces  we  read  of  in 
that  and  the  two  following  centuries,  nay, 
and  from  the  decisions  of  a  council  held  in 
France  but  a  few  years  before.^  The  above- 


'  Cod.  Carol,  ep.  47. 

a  The  council  held  in  753,  at  Verberie,  a  royal  villa 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Compiegne.  By  that  council 
divorces  were  allowed  in  the  following  cases  ;  if  the 
wife  conspired  against  the  life  of  her  husband ;  if 
either  was  a  slave,  but  thought  free  at  the  time  of  the 
marriage  by  the  other;  if  the  wife  refused  to  accom- 
pany her  husband,  when  obliged  to  ren)ove  from  one 
country  to  another,  or  from  one  place  of  the  cotintry 
to  another  ;  if  the  husband  was  found  to  have  had  a 
criminal  conversation  with  his  wife's  sister,  or  her 
mother;  if  he  had  never  had  any  commerce  with  his 
wife,  whether  that  was  owing  to  aversion,  or  impo- 
tency ;  if  bnih  being  slaves,  the  hu.sl)and  should 
obtain  his  liberty  and  not  the  wife.  In  all  these 
cases  the  parly  was  allowed  to  marry  again. — 
(Sirmond.  Concil.  Gallic,  tom.  2.)  In  more  ancient 
times  divorces  were,  in  many  cases,  allowed  by  the 
imperial  laws,  but  by  the  ecclesiastical  laws  only  in 
the  case  of  adultery,  or  of  malicious  desertion.  Whe- 
ther, after  a  lawful  divorce,  the  husband  might  marry 
again,  during  the  life-time  of  his  divorced  wife,  or  the 
wife,  during  the  life-time  of  her  divorced  husband  ? 
is  aquestion  that  has  divided  both  councils  and  fathers. 
Such  marriages  were  allowed  in  some  churches  and 
forbidden  in  others ;  but  of  these  different  practices 

„„„„.,„•  ,v,^„  .r^,-,ct ,1    ,.  ~"..„    „.  .i,„  .-„    I  the  reader  will  find  a  curious  and  learned  account  in 

account  they  must  one   day  give,  at  the  tre-    „,g  notes  upon  Hermes  Pastor  by  Coteleriu9.-(Cote- 

mendous  tribunal  of  Christ,  to  the  prince  of  1  icr.  Patres  Apostoi,  1. 1.  p.  8S.)    i  shall  only  observe 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES. 


[Stephen  HI. 


124 

Charlemagne  is  persuaded  by  the  queen  to  marry  the  king's  daughter.     The  pope  opposes  the  match,  and 
strives  to  divert  the  two  princes  from  the  intended  alliance.    His  letter  to  them. 


mentioned  proposals  were,  it  seems,  secretly 
made  to  queen  Bertrad,  the  mother  of  the 
two  princes,  to  whose  counsels  great  defe- 
rence was  paid,  as  the  king  of  the  Lombards 
well  knew,  in  all  matters  of  moment  by  both, 
especially  by  Charlemagne;  and  she  not 
only  hearkened  to  them  with  great  joy,  but 
undertook  to  bring  the  intended  alliance 
about.  Her  thus  so  readily  engaging  in  such 
an  undertaking,  was  owing  to  her  zeal  for 
the  welfare  of  her  children  and  the  good  of 
the  kingdom.  She  was  sensible,  that  the  re- 
conciliation between  the  two  brothers  would 
be  but  of  a  very  short  duration,  Carloman, 
who  was  naturally  of  a  restless  and  turbu- 
lent temper,  being  still  dissatisfied  with  the 
share  allotted  him  of  his  father's  dominions. 
Besides,  she  knew  that  he  was  encouraged 
and  animated  underhand  against  his  brother 
by  the  king  of  the  Lombards,  and  the  duke 
of  Bavaria,  the  son-in-law  of  that  king,  (for 
he  had  married  Lutberg,  the  king's  other 
daughter)  with  a  design  of  kindling  a  civil 
war  in  the  bowels  of  France.  The  queen 
therefore,  satisfied  that  she  could  by  no  other 
means  more  effectually  prevail  upon  those 
princes  to  abandon  Carloman,  and  side  with 
Charlemagne,  than  by  persuading  the  latter 
to  marry  the  daughter  of  the  one,  and  the 
sister-in-law  of  the  other,  earnestly  entreated 
and  pressed  him  to  agree  to  that  marriage ; 
and  he  agreed  to  it  accordingly. 

Of  this  negotiation,  how  secretly  soever 
carried  on,  the  pope  was  soon  informed;  and 
no  sooner  was  he  informed  of  it,  than  he  re- 
solved to  oppose  it  to  the  utmost  of  his 
power,  to  exert  all  his  apostolic  authority, 
and  leave  nothing  unattempted  to  defeat  the 
wicked  measures  and  designs  of  the  queen; 
wicked,  because  likely  to  prove,  in  the  end, 
prejudicial  to  the  temporal  interest  of  his 
see,  though  intended  to  unite  two  Christian 
princes,  and  prevent,  by  their  union,  destruc- 
tive wars,  and  the  effusion  of  much  Chris- 
tian blood.  In  the  same  manner,  and  upon 
the  same  principle,  that  of  self-interest,  pope 
Paul  opposed,  as  we  have  seen,'  the  intend- 
ed alliance  and  union  between  France  and 
the  empire,  as  unlawful  and  wicked;  and 
this  has  been,  as  we  shall  see  in  the  sequel, 
the  policy  of  the  popes  since  the  time  they 
were  first  possessed  of  temporal  dominions 
to  the  present,  to  prostitute  their  authority, 
and  with  their  authority  all  faith,  morality 
and  religion,  to  worldly  views;  to  preach 
concord  and  discord  among  Christian  princes 
as  they  found  it  turn  most  to  their  interest 
to   preach  the  one  or  the  other;    and  to 


here,  that  marriages  of  children  under  age,  without 
the  consent  of  their  parents  or  their  guardians,  were 
null  by  the  laws  both  of  the  church  and  the  em- 
pire ;  that  slaves  or  nurses,  who  had  been  any  ways 
instrumental  in  bringing  such  marriages  about,  were 
to  be  burnt  alive  or  to  have  melted  lead  poured  down 
their  throats,  and  that  the  man  was  to  be  punished  as 
guilty  of  fornication,  and  the  woman  as  a  harlot  — 
(Cod.  Theodos.  1.  9.  tit.  24.  &.  1,  3.  tit.  7,  &c.) 
'  See  p.  112. 


choose  that  the  world  should  rather  be  de- 
luged in  Christian  blood  than  that  they 
should  forego,  or  run  the  risk  of  foregoing 
the  least  temporal  advantage.  In  the  present 
case  pope  Stephen,  no  less  alarmed  at  the 
measures  that  were  taken  to  establish  a  good 
understanding  between  the  French  and  the 
Lombards,  than  if  the  whole  of  the  faith 
and  the  Christian  religion  had  depended 
upon  a  misunderstanding  between  those  two 
nations,  dispatched  in  great  haste  two  le- 
gates into  France  with  a  letter  to  both  the 
young  princes,  to  divert  them,  with  prayers, 
menaces,  anathemas,  and  all  the  motives 
and  reasons  he  could  think  of,  from  the  in- 
tended aUiance,  or  any  kind  of  connection 
whatever  with  the  wicked,  perfidious,  and 
accursed  nation  of  the  Lombards. 

This  letter  he  begins  with  informing  the 
two  kings,  that  the  author  of  our  race,  the 
first  man  (so  far  he  goes  back)  was  se- 
duced by  a  woman ;  that  death  and  the  num- 
berless evils  mankind  now  groan  under  were 
all  brought  into  the  world  by  a  woman ;  that 
women  are  the  instruments  and  tools  of  the 
devil;  and  therefore  exhorts  the  young 
princes  to  be  upon  their  guard,  and  not  suffer 
their  hearts  to  be  ensnared  and  captivated  by 
their  charms.  Thus  far  he  abuses  women 
in  general;  and  one  would  think  he  intended 
to  inspire  men  with  an  aversion  to  all 
women,  even  to  their  wives.  In  the  next 
place  he  tells  the  kings,  that  he  has  heard, 
with  the  deepest  concern,  that  the  king  of ' 
the  Lombards  was  negotiating  a  marriage 
between  one  of  them  and  his  daughter;  ex- 
presses great  surprise  at  the  consummate 
wickedness  of  those,  who  have  dared  to 
propose  such  a  match ;  and  wonders  that 
his  most  Christian  sons  should  have  suffered 
such  a  proposal  to  be  made,  or  should  not 
have  rejected  it,  as  soon  as  it  was  made, 
with  the  utmost  indignation  and  horror.  He 
then  paints  the  Lombards  as  of  all  na- 
tions the  most  wicked,  the  most  perfidious, 
the  most  despicable;  as  a  herd  of  savages 
scarce  deserving  the  name  of  a  nation ;  as  a 
people  accursed  of  God,  and  bearing  the 
visible  marks  of  that  curse  in  the  plague  of 
leprosy  common  among  them  ;  as  of  all  the 
nations  on  the  earth  by  far  the  most  unwor- 
thy of  so  great  an  honor,  as  that  of  being 
allied  to  the  French,  of  all  nations  the 
greatest,  the  most  religious,  the  most  illus- 
trious, the  most  glorious,  and  as  much  ; 
above,  as  the  Lombards  are  below,  the  rest 
of  mankind.  And  what  fellowship,  says 
he,  has  righteousness  with  unrighteousness? 
What  communion  has  light  with  darkness? 
He  adds,  that  the  Lombards  are  a  strange 
nation  with  respect  to  the  French,  and  that 
marriages  with  strange  women,  or  women 
of  strange  nations,  are  frequently  condemn- 
ed in  the  Scriptures ;  thus  ignorantly,  or 
wickedly  perverting  the  sense  of  the  Scrip- 
ture, as  if  men  were  there  forbidden  to  marry 


Stephen  III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


125 


The  queen,  however,  prevails  on  Charles  to  agree  to  the  match ;— [Year  of  Christ,  771 ;]— and  on  the  pope 
not  to  oppose  it.     Stephen  dies  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  772.] 

women  of  a  different  nation  from  their  own,"  of  Bavaria  to  divert  that  duke  from  attempt- 
though  professing  the  same  faith  and  reli-  ing  to  shake  off  the  yoke,  which  he,depend- 
gion  with  their  own.  In  the  second  place,  ing  on  the  assistance  and  friendship  of  the 
he  alleges  against  the  proposed  marriage,  the  Lombards,  seemed  strongly  inclined  to 
what  he  ought  to  have  alleged  in  the  first,  j  attempt.  From  the  court  of  Bavaria  she  pur- 
and  indeed  what  alone  could,  in  the  present  sued  her  journey  to  that  of  Pavia,  and  havinc 


case,  be  of  any  weight;  namely,  that  both 
princes  were  already  married,  and  that  Chris- 
tians are  not  allowed  to  have  two  wives  at 
a  time,  nor  to  put  one  away  at  pleasure,  and 
take  another  to  their  bed  in  her  room.  Here 
he  tells  them,  that  king  Pepin,  their  father, 
had  once  proposed  to  divorce  their  mother, 
but  that  pope  Stephen,  his  holy  predecessor, 
representing  to  him  the  enormity  of  that 
crime,  he  had  laid  aside  so  impious  a  thought, 
and  lived  happily  with  her  to  the  day  of  his 
death;  exhorts  them  to  follow,  like  dutiful 
children,  the  e.xample  of  their  father,  and 
above  all  things,  to  avoid,  as  they  tendered 
the  protection  and  favor  of  St.  Peter,  having 
any  kind  of  connection  with  the  accursed 
nation  of  the  Lombards,  the  avowed  ene- 
mies of  that  apostle  and  his  favorite  people. 
The  rest  of  the  letter  is  filled  with  heavy 
complaints  against  the  Lombards,  and  he 
closes  it  with  entreating  and  conjuring  the 
two  kings  over  and  over  again  to  hearken  to 
his  admonitions,  and  threatening  them,  if 
they  did  not,  with  the  indignation  of  St. 
Peter,  and,  in  consequence  thereof,  with 
eternal  damnation.  "  If  any  one,"  says  he, 
"shall  presume  to  act  contrary  to  this,  our 
admonition,  we  declare  him,  by  the  authority 
of  our  lord  St.  Peter,  deprived  for  ever  of 
the  protection  of  that  apostle,  anathematized, 
excluded  from  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  and 
destined  to  burn  eternally  in  hell  fire,  with 
the  devil.'"  This  letter  the  pope  laid  on^^he 
tomb  of  St.  Peter,  and  having  there  cele- 
brated divine  service,  sent  it  from  thence,  by 
the  two  legates,  into  France. 

But  neither  the  reasons  alleged  by  the 
pope  against  the  proposed  marriage  (which 
were  indeed  all  absurd  and  ridiculous,  except 
the  unlawfulness  of  divorce,  and  divorces 
were  allowed  at  this  time  on  the  most  trifling 
occasions  in  France)  nor  his  entreaties,  me- 
naces, anathemas,  were  capable  of  diverting 
the  queen  from  pursuing  a  design,  that  ap- 
peared to  her  the  best  calculated  of  any  to  ,  vet.  Annal.  &  Annal.  Petav.  ad  Ann. 
maintain  the  tranquillity  and  peace  of  the  in  vit.  Carol, 
kingdom  :  nay,  so  much  had  she  at  heart  the  i    "  '^  "" 


there  settled  the  marriage  articles  to  her  entire 
satisfaction,  and  the  entire  satisfaction  of  the 
king,  she  resolved  to  try,  before  she  left  Italy, 
whether  his  holiness  might  not  be  prevailed 
upon,  by  some  means  or  other,  if  not  openly 
to  approve,  at  least  not  to  oppose  her  design. 
With  that  view  she  continued  her  journey 
to  Rome,  was  received  there  by  the  pope, 
the  clergy,  and  the  people,  as  the  widow  of 
Pepin  and  the  mother  of  the  two  French 
kings,  with  all  possible  marks  of  distinction; 
and  had,  during  her  slay  in  that  city,  several 
private  conferences  with  the  pope ;  the  re- 
sult of  which  seems  to  have  been,  that  his 
holiness  should  no  longer  oppose  the  design- 
ed marriage,  and  that  the  king  of  the  Lom- 
bards should,  in  consideration  thereof,  de- 
liver up,  before  his  daughter  set  out  for 
France,  certain  places,  which  he  had  hither- 
to withheld  from  the  apostolic  see,  and  solemn- 
ly engage  to  live  thenceforth  in  peace  and 
amity  with  the  pope  and  the  people  of  Rome. 
This,  I  say,  seems  to  have  been  the  result 
of  those  conferences ;  it  being  certain,  that 
Desiderius  delivered  up  several  places  to  the 
pope  at  the  request  of  the  queen,  while  she 
was  yet  in  Italy  ;  that  she  set  out,  as  soon 
as  the  pope  was  put  in  possession  of  them, 
on  her  return  to  France  with  the  king's 
daughter;  that  on  her  arrival  Charlemagne, 
divorcing  his  lawful  wife,  married  her,'  and 
that  no  further  opposition  is  said  to  have 
been  made  to  that  marriage  either  by  the 
pope  or  his  legates.  Thus,  what  was  an 
enormous  crime,  when  likely  to  prove  preju- 
dical  to  the  interest  of  the  apostolic  see,  be- 
came no  crime,  or  a  crime  to  be  connived  at, 
when  it  turned  to  the  advantage  of  that  see.^ 
Of  this  pope  no  further  mention  is  made 
till  the  time  of  his  death,  which  happened 
on  the  second  of  February,  772,  after  he  had 
governed  the  Roman  church  three  years, 
five  months,  and  twenty  days. 


70.  Eginard. 

2  Some,  to  excuse  the  pope  for  first  condemning  that 
,.-..-,  .  .  .  i  marriaee  as  an  enormous  crime,  and  afterwards  ap- 

bringmg  it  to  a  happy  issue,  that,  trusting  no  |  proving,  or  at  I<!ast  not  disapproving  it,  would  make 
other,  she  undertook  to  manage  the  whole  i  "s  believe,  that  the  first  marriage  of  Charles  was  null; 
mittpr  hersplf  Havina  arrnr  lino-lv  nersin  j 'hat  the  pope  was  not  acquainted  therewith  when  he 
mauer  nerseir.  naying  accordingly  persua-  condemned  his  second  marriage  as  a  crime,  but  was, 
ded  her  eldest    son  Charles  to  consent  to  the    when  ho  approved  it,  having  been  assured  of  its  nul- 

match,  notwithstanding  all  the  remonstrances  ''".y  ''y."^*;  ''V''''" '  ".""l ''  *'"J^'  f^^  ""^y- «"  ^f •■»}'*'>■  ^pr, 

c  ,\  1    u-      1  •  ••       L  after  she  had  prevailed  on  the  king  ot  the  Lombards  to 

Ol    tlie   pope,  and    his   legates  against   it,  she  yieUl  to  him  the  places  he  claimed,  that  he  consented 

set  out  for  Italy  to  settle,  in  person,  with  the  "'  'ast  to  that  match.     But  the  contemporary  histo 

king  of  the  Lombards,  the  terms  of  the  in-  "        '  "  """'  ~ '  ^'""'        """ 

tended  alliance.  She  had  an  interview  with 
her  son  Carloman  at  a  place  called  Salossa  ; 
and  from  thence  she  repaired  to  the  court 


>  Cod.  Carolin.  ep.  48. 


rians  all  suppose  the  first  marriage  of  Charles  to  have 
heoii  a  true  marriage,  and  speak  of  his  divorce  as  a 
thing,  that  gave  great  offence.  Paschasius  Ratbertus 
among  the  rest,  an  author  of  great  note,  who  flour- 
ished about  the  middle  of  the  next  century,  and  wrote 
the  life  of  St.  Adalbard,  the  brother  of  Pepin,  and 
uncle  of  the  two  kings,  tells  us,  that  all  good  men 
1  were  greatly  scandalized  at  the  king's  putting  away 

l2 


126 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Hadrian. 


Hadrian  chosen.    His  birth,  education,  Sec.    Charlemagne  divorces  the  daughter  of  the  king  of  the  Lombards, 
who  strives  to  engage  the  pope  on  his  side  to  revenge  that  affront. 


HADRIAN,  NINETY-FOURTH  BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[CoNSTANTiNE,  Leo,  Constantine   Porphyrogenitus,  Irene. — Desiderius,  king  of  the 

Lombards.'] 


[Year  of  Christ,  772.]  Stephen  was  suc- 
ceeded by  Hadrian  or  Adrian,  chosen  and 
ordained  after  a  vacancy  of  seven  days,  and 
consequently  on  the  9th  of  February,  which, 
in  the  present  year  772,  fell  on  a  Sunday,  the 
day,  on  which  bishops,  especially  the  popes, 
were  commonly  ordained.  Hadrian  was  a 
native  of  Rome,  descended  from  one  of  the 
most  illustrious  families  of  that  city  ;  and  he 
is  highly  commended  by  Anastasius  for  his 
extraordinary  piety,  uncommon  learning, 
engaging  behavior,  excellent  parts,  and  even 
for  the  majesty  of  his  mien,  and  the  comeliness 
of  his  person.  He  had  passed,  with  great 
reputation,  through  all  the  inferior  degrees, 
and  was  cardinal  deacon  of  the  holy  Roman 
church,  when  the  people  and  clergy  raised 
him  with  one  voice  to  the  see.'  On  the  very 
day  of  his  election,  Anastasius  says,  the 
very  hour  he  was  elected,  he  recalled  all, 
whom  Paul  Afiarta  had  sent  into  exile, 
during  the  illness  of  the  late  pope  ;  and  set 
at  liberty  such  as  were  kept  by  him  confined 
in  the  different  jails,  that  is,  all  the  leading 
men  of  the  French  party  in  Rome  :  so  for- 
ward was  he  in  declaring  his  resolution  of 
cultivating  the  friendship  of  the  French 
princes  and  nation. 

And  truly  he  soon  had  occasion  for  the 
favor  and  assistance  of  such  powerful  pro- 
tectors. For  scarce  had  he  taken  possession 
of  the  see,  when  a  misunderstanding  arose 
between  him  and  the  king  of  the  Lombards, 
which,  had  not  the  French  interposed  in  his 
behalf,  would,  in  all  likelihood,  have  proved 
as  fatal  to  him  and  the  Roman  people  as  it 
proved  in  the  end  to  that  unhappy  nation. 
It  arose  on  the  following  occasion.  Q,ueen 
Bertrad  had  persuaded  her  son  Charlemagne, 
as  has  been  related  above,  to  marry  the 
daughter  of  the  king  of  the  Lombards,  as 
the  most  effectual  means  of  taking  off  that 
prince  from  his  connection,  with  Carloman, 
and  engaging  him  in  the  interest  of  Charle- 

his  lawful  wife  without  any  just  cause  and  marrying 
another,  and  that  Adalhard  in  particular  was  shocked 
to  such  a  degree  at  so  wicked  an  action,  that  quitting 
a  court,  where  such  wickedness  was  countenanced, 
and  with  it  the  world,  he  retired  to  a  monastery, 
though  at  that  time  only  in  the  twentieth  year  of  his 
age  —  (Pasch.  in  vit.  S.  Adal.  apud  Mabill.  secul.  4. 
Benedictin.  part.  1.)  Besides,  it  was  not  only  be- 
cause Charles  was  already  married  that  the  pope  op- 
posed his  marriage  with  the  daughter  of  Desiderius  ; 
but  because  she  was,  according  to  him,  a  strange  wo- 
man, and  marriages  with  strange  women  are  con- 
demned in  Scripture.  And  how  will  they  excuse  his 
holiness  consenting  to  a  match,  which  he  had  con- 
demned on  that  account?  Did  the  queen  remove  that 
scruple  too,  and  teach  the  infallible  interpreter  of  the 
Scripture  the  true  meaning  of  the  Scripture? 
'  Anast.  in  Adrian. 


magne.     But  Carloman   dying  soon   after 
that  marriage,  and  Charlemagne,  who  dis- 
liked his  new  wife,  thinking,  as  he  became 
by  the  death  of  his  brother  sole  master  of 
the  whole  French  monarchy,  that  he  had  no 
further  occasion  for   an   alliance  with  the 
king  of  the  Lombards,  divorced  his  daugh- 
ter, and  marrying  Hildegard,  a  princess  of 
Suevia,  in  her  room,  sent  her  back  to  her 
father.'     Desiderius,  highly  provoked  at  the 
treatment  his  daughter  had  met  with,  re- 
solved to  revenge  it.     He  had  then  at  his 
court  Gilberg,  the  widow  of  Carloman,  and 
his  two  sons,  both  yet  infants.     For  Gilberg, 
apprehending  that  Charlemagne,  prompted 
by  his  arribition,  might  either  destroy  both 
her  and  them,  if  he  got  them  into  his  power, 
or  at  least  cause  them  to  be  shut  up  in  a 
monastery,   had    abandoned   the    kingdom, 
upon  the  death  of  her  husband,  and  taken 
refuge,  with  her  children,  in  the  court  of 
Desiderius.    The  king  had  received  them 
with  open  arras,  and  entertained  them,  as 
well  as  the  many  French  lords,  who  had  at- 
tended them  in  their  fiight,  in  a  manner  suit- 
able to  their  respective  ranks,  merely,  as  he 
pretended  and  declared  at  that  time,  out  of  the 
regard  he  owed  to  the  memory  of  his  deceased 
friend  and  ally.     But  on  the  present  occasion 
he  resolved  openly  to  espouse  their  cause,  to 
acknowledge  them  for  the  lawful  heirs  of 
their  father's  kingdom,  which  Charlemagne 
had  seized  upon  their  fiight,  and  to  attempt, 
by  stirring  up  their  friends  in   France,  to 
form  there  a  party  in  their  favor  and  kindle 
a  civil  war  in  the  bowels  of  that  kingdom. 
This  he  thought  he  should  easily  accomplish 
provided  he  could  prevail  on  the  new  pope 
to  engage  in  the  same  cause,  and  persuade 
him  not  only  to  take  the  children  of  Carlo- 
man  into  his  protection,  but  to  anoint  them 
kings  of  their  father's  kingdom.     With  that 
view  he  sent,  as  soon  as  he  heard  of  the  elec- 
tion of  Hadrian,  a  solemn  embassy  to  Rome  to 
congratulate  him  on  his  promotion,  to  assure 
him  of  his  friendship,  and  at  the  same  time  to 
recommend  to  him,  as  the  father  of  the  distress- 
ed, the  distressed  widow  and  destitute  child- 
ren of  Carloman.     The  ambassadors  omitted       . 
nothing  they  thought  capable  of  making  an     .1 
impression  on  the  mind  of  the  pope,  and     1 
awakening  his  compassion  for  the  children 
of  a  prince,  to  whom  his  see  owed,  in  great 


'  From  his  not  recalling,  on  this  occasion,  his  first 
wife  Himiltrude,  a\ithors  generally  conclude  that  she 
was  dead  ;  as  if  Charlemagne,  wtio  had  not  scrupled 
to  marry  a  second  wife  while  his  first  wife  was  living, 
would  have  scrupled  to  marry  a  third. 


Hadrian.]  OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 127 

The  pope  adheres  to  Charlemagne,  and  even  acquaints  him  with  the  designs  of  the  Lombards.  His  answer  to 
the  king's  ambassadors.  The  king  of  the  Lombards  invades  the  exarchate.  Promises  to  forbear  hostilities 
upon  the  pope's  anointing  the  sons  of  Carlnman  kings  of  their  father's  kingdom.  The  king  redoubles  his 
hostilities  upon  the  pope's  refusing  to  comply  with  his  demand. 


measure,  its  grandeur.  They  represented 
to  him,  in  the  strongest  light,  the  crying  in- 
justice of  Charlemagne  in  robbing  his  own 
brother's  children  of  a  kingdom,  to  which 
they  had  as  unquestionable  a  right  as  he,  or 
his  children,  had  to  his  ;  exaggerated  the 
deplorable  condition,  to  which  his  insatiable 
avarice,  and  unbounded  ambition  had  re- 
duced them  ;  put  his  holiness  in  mind  of  the 
extraordinary  regard  their  father  Carloman 
had  always  shown  and  professed  for  the 
apostolic  see,  and  assuring  him  that  what- 
ever assistance  he  should  lend  to  them  the 
king  of  the  Lombards  would  look  upon  it  as 
lent  to  himself,  they  entreated  him  in  the 
most  pathetic  terms,  to  pity  their  unhappy 
situation,  and  generously  undertake,  in  con- 
junction with  their  master,  who  had  nothing 
in  his  view  but  the  relief  of  the  distressed, 
their  defence  and  protection.' 

Hadrian  was  a  man  of  too  much  pene- 
tration not  to  be  apprised  of  the  true  designs 
of  the  king.  He  pitied  the  forlorn  condi- 
tion of  the  children  of  Carloman  :  but  sen- 
sible that,  should  he  take  them  into  his  pro- 
tection, and  anoint  them  kings  of  their  fa- 
ther's kingdom,  he  would  thereby  highly 
disoblige  his  protector  Charlemagne,  and  be 
abandoned  by  him  to  the  rnercy  of  the  Lom- 
bards, he  made  his  compassion  give  way  to 
his  interest,  and  not  only  declined  entering, 
at  so  critical  a  juncture,  into  any  engage- 
ments with  the  king,  but  to  earn  the  favor 
of  Charlemagne,  privately  acquainted  him 
with  the  designs,  that  the  king,  the  widow 
of  Carloman,  and  the  French  lords,  who 
had  attended  her  in  her  flight,  were  hatch- 
ing against  him  in  favor  of  his  nephews. 
However,  to  gain  time,  as  Charlemagne  was 
then  engaged  in  a  war  with  the  Saxons,  the 
pope  pretended  to  hearken  to  the  proposals 
of  the  ambassadors,  told  them  that  he  had 
nothing  so  much  at  heart  as  to  live  in  friend- 
ship and  amity  with  his  neighbors  the  Lom- 
bards; that  he  was  ready  to  do  everything 
they  could  in  reason  and  justice  require  of 
him  ;  but  that  as  their  master  had,  in  the 
pontificate  of  his  predecessor,  seized  on 
several  places  in  defiance  of  the  most  solemn 
treaties,  they  could  not  well  blame  him  for 
insisting,  first  of  all,  on  the  restitution  of  the 
said  places,  as  a  pledge  of  his  pacific  dispo- 
sition and  the  sincerity  of  his  intentions ; 
that  as  soon  as  they  were  restored,  he  would 
send,  if  agreeable  to  the  king,  legates  to  Pa- 
via  vested  with  full  powers  to  conclude, 
upon  his  own  terms,  a  treaty  of  friendship 
and  peace  between  the  Lombards  and  the 
Romans.* 

Desiderius,  finding  that  the  new  pope  was 
not  to  be  gained,  as  his  predecessor  had 
been,  with  fair  words,  protestations  and  pro- 


■  Anaat.  in  Hadrian. 


'  Anast.  in  Hadrian. 


mises,  resolved,  as  he  had  no  thoughts  of 
parting  with  the  places  he  had  taken,  to  re- 
cur to  violence  and  force.     He  entered  ac- 
cordingly the   territory  of  Ravenna,  made 
himself  master  of  several  places  there,  laid 
the  country  everywhere  waste,  and  suffer- 
ing no  kind  of  provisions  to  be  conveyed 
into  the  city,  reduced  the  citizens  to  the  ut- 
most extremity.     In  that  condition  they  ap- 
plied for  relief  to  the  pope,  who  immediate- 
ly wrote  to  the  king  to  put  him  in  mind  of 
the  promise  he  had  very  lately  made  to  live 
in  friendship  and  peace  with  the  apostolic 
see,  and  entreat  him,  as  he  tendered  his  re- 
putation and  character,  to  forbear  hostilities 
so  repugnant  to  his  protestations  and  pro- 
mises, so  unjust  in  themselves,  and  so  un- 
worthy of  a  Christian   prince.      The   king 
answered,  that  he  was  ready  to  withdraw 
his  troops,  to  forbear  hostilities,  and  to  live 
in  peace  with  the  pope   and  the  Romans 
upon  one  condition,  and  one  condition  alone, 
namely,  that  he  acknowledged  and  anointed, 
in  his  presence,  the  two  sons  of  Carloman 
kings  of  their  father's  kingdom.     He  added, 
tliat  those  unhappy  children  had  an  indispu- 
table right  to  the  dominions  of  their  father, 
as  his  holiness  well  knew,  and  that  his  re- 
fusing to  acknowledge  that  right,  by  anoint- 
ing  them  kings,  was  in  effect  countenan- 
eing,  and  declaringto  the  world  that  he  coun- 
tenanced the  usurper  in  his  unjust  usurpa- 
tion.    The  pope,  determined  to  do  nothing 
he  thought  could  give  the  least  umbrage  to 
Charlemagne,  still  kept  to  his  former  answer, 
assuring  the  king  that  he  was  ready  to  do 
every  thing  that  lay  in  his  power  to  oblige 
him,  but  insisting,  at  the  same  time,  on  his 
restoring  the  places  he  had  taken  before  he 
would  enter  into  any  new  engagements  with 
him  or  his  nation.' 

The  king  was  highly  provoked  at  this  an- 
swer, but  still  more  at  the  death  of  his  zea- 
lous partizan  Paul  Afiarta,  that  happened 
at  this  time.  Paul,  to  be  revenged  on  the 
pope,  who  had  driven  him  out  of  Rome, 
had  undertaken  to  return  to  that  city  ;  to  re- 
animate the  Lombard  faction,  that  was  there 
still  very  powerful,  and  even  to  seize  the 
pope  himself,  and  deliver  him  up  in  chains 
to  the  Lombards.  But  Hadrian,  receiving 
timely  intelligence  of  his  design,  and  the 
rout  he  was  to  take,  sent  a  private  order  to 
Leo,  archbishop  of  Ravenna,  to  arrest  and 
confine  him.  The  archbishop  was  not  satis- 
fied with  executing  that  order ;  but  having 
got  the  unhappy  wretch,  into  his  power,  he 
caused  him,  after  a  short  confinement,  to  be 
put  to  death,  contrary,  says  Anastasius,  to 
the  declared  intention  and  express  command 
of  the  pope.  The  king,  upon  the  news  of 
his  death,  redoubled  his  hostilities,  his  par- 

'  Anast.  in  Hadrian.  Eginhard.  in  vif.  Carol. 


138 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Hadrian. 


The  pope  recurs  to  Charlemagne.     His  answer  ti)  the  pope's  letter.    He  sets  out  with  a  numerous  army  for  f 
Italy.    The  king  of  the  Lombards  attempts  to  surprise  Rome  ; — [Year  of  Christ.  7^3.] 


ties  advancing  to  tlie  very  gates  of  Rome, 
and  putting  to  the  sword  or  carrying  into 
captivity  all,  who  fell  into  their  hands.  But 
nothing  could  make  Hadrian  depart  from  the 
resolution  he  had  taken  of  entering  into  no 
engagements  with  the  Lombards,  that  might 
give  the  least  jealousy  or  occasion  of  com- 
plaint to  the  French.  He  was  greatly  affect- 
ed with  the  calamities  of  the  unhappy  peo- 
ple exposed  to  the  insults  and  the  fury  of  the 
merciless  Lombards ;  but  at  the  same  time 
determined  to  take  no  step  for  their  relief, 
that  appeared  to  him  inconsistent  with  his 
interest,  when  the  king  offered  to  withdraw 
his  troops  and  put  an  end  to  all  hostilities 
the  very  moment  he  gave  the  royal  unction 
to  the  sons  of  Carloman,  he  returned  answer, 
that  the  king  was  by  former  treaties  and  re- 
peated promises  bound  to  forbear  hostilities  ; 
that  he  had,  by  an  open  breach  of  those 
treaties  and  in  defiance  of  the  most  solemn 
promises,  seized  on  several  places  belonging 
to  the  apostolic  see,  and  could  not  therefore 
well  require  the  holy  see  to  trust  to  his  pre- 
sent till  he  had  fully  executed  his  former 
promises  by  withdrawing  his  troops,  and  re- 
storing all  the  places  he  had  taken. 

The  pope  was  sensible  that  this  answer, 
instead  of  appeasing  the  king,  would  pro- 
voke him  beyond  all  measure ;  and  therefore 
apprehending,  that  not  satisfied  with  ravaging 
the  country,  he  might  lay  siege  to  the  city 
itself,  he  dispatched,  iri  great  haste,  a  mes- 
senger into  France  with  a  letter  to  Charle- 
magne to  acquaint  him  with  the  deplorable 
condition  to  which  he  and  the  Roman  peo- 
ple were  reduced  by  the  Lombards,  and 
putting  him  in  mind  of  the  vow  he  had  made 
in  his  father's  life-time  never  to  abandon  the 
protection  of  the  successors  of  St.  Peter,  and 
the  defence  of  his  church,  earnestly  entreats 
him  in  the  name  of  St.  Peter  and  his,  to  hasten 
to  their  relief  pursuant  to  that  vow.  He 
added,  that  to  delay  relieving  him,  let  the 
delay  be  ever  so  short,  at  so  critical  a  junc- 
ture, was  abandoning  him  to  the  mercy  of 
his  implacable  enemies  ;  and  took  care  to  let 
Charlemagne  know,  that  it  was  chiefly,  if 
not  merely,  on  account  of  his  inviolable  at- 
tachment to  his  interest,  and  because  he 
could  not  be  prevailed  upon  to  anoint  the 
sons  of  Carloman  kings  of  their  father's 
kingdom,  and  thereby  concur  with  his  ene- 
mies in  the  design  they  had  formed  of 
kindling  a  civil  war  in  the  bowels  of  his 
kingdom,  that  he  was  thus  cruelly  persecuted 
by  the  Lombards.  As  the  passes  in  the 
Alps  were  all  carefully  guarded  by  the  Lom- 
bards, the  messenger  went  by  sea,  and  being 
informed,  upon  his  arrival  at  Marseilles,  that 
Charlemagne  was  atThionville,  he  repaired 
thither,  and  delivered,  pursuant  to  his  in- 
structions, the  pope's  letter  into  his  own 
hands. 

Charlemagne  being  fully  informed  by  the 
messenger  of  the  state  of  affairs  in  Italy, 


and  the  designs  of  the  Lombards,  remanded 
him,  the  very  day  after  his  arrival,  with  an 
answer  to  the  pope's  letter,  assuring  his 
holiness  that  he  remembered,  and  should 
ever  inviolably  observe  the  vow  he  had 
made ;  that  he  was  resolved,  as  bound  by 
thai  vow,  to  march,  with  all  speed,  to  his 
relief,  to  employ,  if  necessary,  the  whole 
strength  of  his  kingdom  in  curbing  the  in- 
solence of  the  Lombards,  and  that  he  would 
hearken  to  no  treaties,  since  no  treaties  could 
bind  them,  but  strive  to  put  them  out  of  a 
condition  of  disturbing  hereafter  him  or  his 
successors  in  the  possession  of  the  places 
which  his  father  and  he  had,  for  the  redemp- 
tion of  their  souls,  given  to  St.  Peter.  Char- 
lemagne considered  that  the  Lombards  never 
would  suffer  the  pope  quietly  to  enjoy  the 
territories,  which  they  had  taken  from  the 
emperor,  and  claimed  as  their  own  by  right 
of  conquest ;  that  whatever  treaties  they 
pretended  to  agree  to,  they  would  observe 
them  no  longer  than  they  found  it  expedient, 
but  would  lay  hold  of  every  opportunity  that 
offered  to  raise  disturbances  in  Italy,  and  in 
his  own  dominions  too,  as  soon  as  they 
found  him  engaged  in  other  wars ;  that  as 
they  had  taken  into  their  protection  the  two 
sons  of  Carloman,  who  had  no  contemptible 
party  in  France,  such  disturbances  might 
end,  when  he  expected  it  the  least,  in  a  civil 
war.  Upon  these  considerations  he  resolved 
not  only  to  relieve  the  pope  in  his  present 
distress,  but  encouraged  by  his  late  extraor- 
dinary success  against  the  Saxons,  to  attempt 
the  conquest  of  Italy,  as  the  only  effectual 
means  of  delivering  the  apostolic  see  and 
himself  from  so  troublesome  and  faithless 
an  enemy.  Pursuant  to  that  resolution  he 
put,  without  delay,  all  his  forces  in  motion  ; 
appointed  the  city  of  Geneva  for  the  place 
of  the  general  rendevous,  and  repairing 
thither  in  person,  divided,  after  several 
councils  of  war,  his  numerous  army  into 
two  bodies.  The  one,  commanded  by  duke 
Bernard,  brother  of  the  late  king  Pepin,  and 
natural  son  of  Charles  Martel,  he  ordered 
to  enter  Italy  by  mount  St.  Bernard ;  with 
the  other  he  marched  himself  towards  mount 
Cenis.' 

In  the  mean  time  the  king  of  the  Lom- 
bards, despairing  of  being  able  to  persuade 
the  pope  to  anoint  the  sons  of  Carloman, 
resolved  to  surprise  him,  and  extort  by  force, 
when  he  had  him  in  his  power,  what  he 
could  not  obtain  by  art  or  persuasion.  With 
that  view  he  ordered  several  bodies  of  troops 
secretly  to  march,  by  different  ways,  towards 
Rome;  and  privately  leaving  Pavia  himself 
with  his  son  Adalgisus,  the  two  sons  of 
Carloman,  and  the  queen  their  mother,  he 
appeared  unexpectedly  at  the  head  of  a  pow- 
erful army  in  the  neighborhood  of  Rome. 
The  news  of  his  approach  threw  the  whole 


'  Anast.  Eginhard.  in  vit.  Carol. 


Hadrian.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


129 


The  king  finding  the  city  well  guarded,  begs  an  interview  with  the  pope.  His  answer  to  the  king's  demand. 
The  king  awed  with  the  threats  of  the  pope,  returns  to  his  own  kingdom.  Charlemagne  advances  with  his 
army  to  the  Alps.  Finding  the  passes  well  guarded,  proposes  an  accommodation.  His  proposals  rejected. 
lie  resolves  to  decamp  and  return  to  France.  The  Lombards  seized  with  a  panic,  betake  themselves  to  a 
disorderly  flight.  


city  into  the  utmost  confusion.      Hadrian 
however,  not  forgetting,  in  tlie  midst  of  that 
confusion,  to  provide  for  his  defence,  sum- 
moned the  mihtia  of  Campania,  Tuscany, 
and  the  dukedom  of  Perugia  into  the  city, 
caused  the  gates  and  the  walls  to  be  careful- 
ly guarded  night  and  day,  and  by  assuring 
the  people  that  Charlemagne  was  hastening, 
with  a  tnighty  army,  to  their  relief,  inspired 
them  with  such  courage,  that  even  those, 
who  at  first  had  betrayed  the  most  cowardice 
and  fear,  were  now  the  foremost  in  flying 
to  arms,  and  preparing  for  a  vigorous  de- 
fence.    The  king,  as  he  approached  Rome, 
sent  some  of  his  officers  to  acquaint    the 
pope  with  his  arrival,  and  to  beg  his  hohness 
would  grant  him  an  interview,  which,  he 
said,  he  was  confident  would  end  to  the  en- 
tire satisfaction  of  both.     To  this  message 
Hadrian  returned  the  same  answer  he  had 
given  to  all  the  other  proposals  and  messages 
from  the  king;  that  he  would  hearken  to  no 
proposals  whatever  till  all  the  places  he  had 
seized,  belonging  to  St.  Peter,  and  his  church, 
were  restored ;  that  the  restitution  of  those 
places  was  a  preliminary,  which  he  was  un- 
alterably determined  never  to  dispense  with. 
The  king,  finding  the  pope  thus  determined, 
pursued  his  march  towards  Rome,  plunder- 
ing the  cities,  and  laying  the  countries  every- 
where  waste    through   which    he   passed. 
Hereupon  the  pope,  resolved  to  try  the  edge 
of  his  spiritual  weapons  before  he  employed 
any  other,  drew  up  a  sentence  of  excommu- 
nication in  the  strongest  terms,  threatening 
the  king  and  all,  who  followed  him,  with 
immediate  vengeance  from   heaven,  if  he 
presumed   to  advance  one   step   nearer   to 
Rome,  or  ravaged  the  lands  of  the  church. 
With  this  sentence  Hadrian  dispatched  the 
three  bishops  of  Albano,  Palestrina  and  Ti- 
voli ;  and  it  struck  the  king  with  such  terror, 
that,  putting  a  stop  to  all  further  hostilities, 
he  set  out  that  instant  on  his  return  to  Pavia. 
So  great  was  the  awe  even  kings  and  princes 
stood  in  of  the  anathemas  of  the  popes  till 
experience  taught  them,  that  their  cursing 
did  no  more  harm  to  mankind  than  their 
blessing  did  good. 

In  the  mean  time  Charlemagne,  advanc- 
ing with  his  army  to  the  Alps,  found  all  the 
passes  and  defiles  so  well  fortified,  and  guard- 
ed by  such  numerous  bodies  of  Lombards, 
commanded  by  the  king  in  person  and  his 
son  Adalgisus,  that  most  of  the  officers 
thought  they  could  not  be  forced  ;  that  it 
would  cost  the  loss  of  the  whole  army  to  at- 
tempt it,  and  were  therefore  of  opinion,  in  a 
council  of  war  that  was  held,  that  they  should 
either  return  to  France,  without  exposing  so 
many  gallant  men  to  certain  destruction,  or 
try  whether  the  Lombards  might  not  be 
brought  by  way  of  negotiation  to  satisfy  the 

Vol.  II.— 17 


pope.  Charlemagne  chose  the  latter,  none 
in  the  whole  army  being  more  sensible  of  the 
difficulty  of  the  enterprise  than  himself;  and 
he  sent  accordingly,  as  soon  as  the  council 
broke  up,  ambassadors  to  represent  to  the 
king  the  justice  of  the  pope's  complaints 
and  demands,  the  obligation  the  kings  of 
France  were  under  of  making  good  the  do- 
nation of  Pepin,  the  dreadful  consequences 
that  would  inevitably  attend  the  war,  that 
was  upon  the  point  of  being  kindled  in  Italy, 
and  the  many  advantages,  that  would  accrue 
to  the  Lombard  nation  from  their  friendship 
with  France  :  nay  Charlemagne  was  so  ap- 
prehensive of  the  issue  of  the  present  un- 
dertaking, that  he  even  offered  to  defray  the 
charges  the  Lombards  had  been  at  in  their 
military  preparations  on  this  occasion,  pro- 
vided they  delivered  up  to  the  pope,  in  com- 
pliance with  the  treaty  of  Pavia,  all  the 
places  yielded  by  that  treaty  to  the  apostolic 
see.  What  is  still  more,  he  did  not  insist  on 
the  immediate  restitution  of  those  places, 
but  let  the  king  know,  that  he  was  will- 
ing to  allow  him  what  time  he  could  reason- 
ably require  for  the  execution  of  the  treaty; 
on  condition  that  he  delivered  three  hostages 
into  his  hands,  the  sons  of  some  of  the  chief 
lords  of  his  court,  as  pledges  of  his  sinceri- 
ty :  he  added,  that  as  soon  as  they  arrived  in 
his  camp,  he  should  forget  all  former  breaches 
of  so  solemn  a  treaty,  should  look  upon  the 
Lombards  as  his  friends  and  allies,  and  for- 
bearing all  further  hostilities,  march  back 
with  his  army  to  France. 

But  the  more  advantageous  were  the  offers 
of  Charlemagne  the  more  averse  was  the 
king  of  the  Lombards  to  accept  them,  con- 
cluding that  they  proceeded  from  fear,  and 
that  Charlemagne,  aware  of  the  difficulty 
of  his  undertaking  and  dispairing  of  success, 
would  rather  choose  to  retire,  if  his  proposals 
were  not  agreed  to,  and  abandon  the  pope  to 
the  mercy  of  the  Lombards,  than  expose  his 
army  to  the  evident  danger  of  being  entirely 
cut  off"  to  relieve  him.  Indeed  the  French 
generals  after  reconnoitring  the  situation  of 
the  enemy,  and  carefully  examining  the 
many  strong  works  they  had  raised  in  the 
passes  of  the  mountains,  delivered  it  as  their 
opinion,  that  it  was  impossible  to  dislodge 
them,  and  therefore  not  only  advised  but 
jointly  entreated  their  king  not  to  attempt  it, 
but  reserve  his  army,  the  strength  and  the 
flower  of  the  French  nation,  for  other  less 
hazardous  but  more  glorious  achievements. 
Charlemagne  yielded';  and  it  was  resolved 
in  a  council  of  war,  that  they  should  aban- 
don the  enlerprize  for  the  present  and  de- 
camp the  next  day.  But  heaven  interposed, 
says  Baronius,  and  confounding  the  enemies 
of  the  holy  pontiff",  opened  a  safe  and  free 
passage  to  his  friends.     For  that  very  night 


130 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Hadrian. 


The  flight  ascribed  by  Baronius  to  the  interposition  of  heaven.  Pavia  besieged  by  Charlemagne.  The  widow 
of  Carlonian  delivers  herself  and  her  children  up  to  Charlemagne.  Adalgisus  makes  his  escape.  Verona 
and  many  other  cities  submit  to  Charlemagne.     The  French  repulsed  with  great  slaughter  before  Pavia. 


the  advanced  guards  of  the  Lombards,  seized 
unpectedly  with  a  panic,  retreated  in  the  ut- 
most.confusion  to  the  main  guard,  and  the 
main  guard,  alarmed  at  their  fright  and  con- 
fusion, fled,  in  the  like  fright  and  confusion, 
to  the  army.  The  terror  in  an  instant  be- 
came general;  and,  as  it  commonly  hap- 
pens in  such  cases,  all  fled,  leaving  their 
tents  and  their  baggage  behind  them,  though 
nobody  could  tell  why.  The  king,  the  prince 
and  the  other  officers  did  all  that  lay  in  their 
power  to  reanimate  the  aff'righted  soldiery, 
and  stop  them  in  their  flight;  but  they 
were  themselves  carried  away  by  the  flying 
multitude.  Hereupon  the  king  threw  him- 
self, with  the  flower  of  his  troops,  into  Pa- 
via, and  his  son  Adalgisus  with  the  two  sons 
of  Carloman,  the  queen  their  mother,  and 
a  French  lord  named  Ancair,  into  Verona. 
Had  Charlemagne  out  of  a  principle  of  jus- 
tice, made  war  on  the  Lombards  to  reinstate 
the  emperor  in  those  dominions,  who  alone 
bad  a  right,  and  an  unquestionable  right  to 
them,  I  should  not  quarrel  with  Baronius 
for  ascribing  the  panic  and  sudden  flight  of 
the  Lombards  to  the  miraculous  interposi- 
tion of  heaven.  But  as  the  pope  had  no 
better  right  to  those  territories  than  the  Lom- 
bards, that  is,  no  right  at  all ;  nay  as  they 
belonged  in  justice  to  his  liege  lord  and 
sovereign,  and  he  could  not  consequently 
claim  them  without  bein^  guilty  of  treason 
and  rebellion,  to  suppose  that  heaven  mi- 
raculously interposed  in  his  favor  is  suppos- 
ing heaven  to  have  miraculously  interposed 
in  favor  of  a  traitor  and  a  rebel,  and  thereby 
countenanced  rebellion  and  treason. 

Charlemagne,  seeing  the  next  morning,  to 
his  great  surprise,  the  passes  all  open  and 
unguarded,  entered  them  at  first,  not  with- 
out fear  of  some  ambuscade;  but  finding 
that  the  Lombards  were  all  retired,  he  de- 
tached several  parties  after  them,  and  ad- 
vancing himself  with  the  main  body  of  the 
army  to  Pavia,  invested  it  on  all  sides,  and 
began  to  batter  the  walls  with  incredible  fury. 
But  as  the  town  abounded  with  all  manner 
of  provisions,  was  well  fortified,  and  de- 
fended by  the  king  in  person,  by  a  numerous 
garrison,  and  a  great  many  oflScers,  among 
whom  was  Hunald,  duke  of  Aquitaine,'  the 
French,  notwithstanding  all  their  efforts, 
made  but  very  little  progress  in  the  siege. 
Charlemagne  therefore,  changing  the  siege 
into  a  blockade,  marched  with  part  of  his 
array  to  attempt  the  reduction  of  Verona ; 
and  he  no  sooner  appeared  before  that  place, 

»  Hunald,  duke  of  Aquitaine,  had  attempted  to  re- 
cover his  dukedom,  which  Charlemagne  had  seized; 
but,  being  utterly  defeated  in  the  attempt,  he  took  re- 
fuge in  the  court  of  Lupus  duke  of  Gascony,  who 
chose  rather  to  deliver  him  up  than  engage  in  a  war 
with  the  conqueror.  Charlemange  carried  him  pri- 
soner with  him  into  France.  But  he  found  means  to 
make  his  escape,  and  get  safe  into  Italy,  where  he  is 
said  to  have  encouraged  the  king  of  the  Lombards  to 
reject  all  the  proposals  of  peace,  that  were  made  him. 


than  the  widow  of  Carloman,  sensible  she 
could  not  avoid  faUing  at  last  into  his  hands, 
begged  leave  of  Adalgisus  to  go  out  with 
her  children,  and  deliver  herself  up  to  him, 
flattering  herself,  that  the  confidence  she 
thereby  seemed  to  repose  in  him,  would  re- 
commend both  her  and  her  children  to  his 
mercy.  Her  request  was  readily  granted; 
and  she,  repairing  accordingly  to  the  camp, 
threw  herself,  with  her  children,  at  the  feet 
of  her  brother-in-law.  But  what  reception 
she  met  with ;  what  afterwards  became  of 
her  and  her  children,  history  has  not  inform- 
ed us.  Had  they  been  kindly  received ;  had 
Charlemagne  shown,  on  this  occasion,  the 
least  generosity,  I  cannot  persuade  myself 
that  the  contemporary  writers,  who  have 
omitted  nothing,  that  could  any  ways  re- 
dound to  his  glory,  would  have  all  passed 
it  over  in  silence.  As  no  mention  is  thence- 
forth made  of  that  unhappy  princess  and 
her  unfortunate  children,  it  would  not  per- 
haps be  absurd  to  suppose,  that  they  were 
soon  removed,  by  some  means  or  other.  Out 
of  the  way. 

The  siege  of  Verona  kept  Charlemagne 
employed  from  the  middle  of  June  to  the 
beginning  of  October,  when  Adalgisus,  find- 
ing himself  reduced,  for  want  of  provisions, 
to  the  last  extremity,  and  despairing  of  relief, 
privately  withdrew  from  the  place  in  the 
dead  of  the  night,  and  wandering  a  long 
time  about  the  country  in  disguise,  found 
means,  at  last,  to  make  his  escape  by  sea  to 
Constantinople,where  he  was  kindly  received 
and  entertained,  suitably  to  his  rank,  by  the 
emperor  Constantine.  Upon  his  flight  the 
garrison  and  inhabitants  of  Verona,  opening 
their  gates,  submitted  to  Charlemagne,  and 
their  example  was  followed  by  all  the  cities 
on  the  same  side  of  the  Po;  nay,  several 
cities  on  the  other  side,  and  nearer  to  Rome, 
namely,  Ancona,  Fermo,  Spoleti,  Rieti,  Fo- 
ligno,  looking  upon  the  kingdom  of  the  Lom- 
bards as  already  at  an  end,  submitted  them- 
selves, by  their  deputies,  to  the  apostolic  see, 
and  swearing  allegiance  to  St.  Peter  and  his 
successors,  caused  their  hair  to  be  cut  short, 
after  the  Roman  manner,  to  show  that  they 
renounced  the  Lombards,  who  wore  long 
hair,  and  their  modes. 

From  Verona  Charlemagne  returned  to 
Pavia,  and  sitting  down,  with  his  whole 
army,  before  that  city,  pursued  the  siege 
with  more  vigor  than  ever.  But  as  the  place 
was  defended  by  a  warlike  prince  fighting 
for  his  crown,  and  the  liberty  of  his  nation 
as  well  as  his  own,  the  French  were  repulsed, 
with  great  slaughter,  in  all  their  attacks; 
insomuch  that  the  town  was  in  as  good  a 
state  of  defence  at  Christmas,  and  the  citi- 
zens and  garrison  as  little  inclined  to  submit 
and  deliver  it  up,  as  they  were  the  first  day 
of  the  siege.  Charlemagne,  finding  the  town 
would  hold  out  much  longer  than  he  expect- 


Hadrian.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


131 


Charlemagne  goes  to  Rome ; — [Year  of  Christ,  774.] 
Charlemagne  visits  Ihe  holy  places  at  Rome. 


How  received  there   by  the  Romans,  and  the  pope. 
Confirms  the  donation  of  his  father  Pepin. 


ed,  sent  for  his  wife  and  his  children,  and 
continued  in  the  camp,  entertaining  himself 
with  them,  and  pursuing  the  siege  with  great 
loss  of  men,  and  little  success,  till  the  ap- 
proach of  Easter.  That  festival  Charle- 
magne resolved  to  keep  at  Rome ;  and  com- 
mitting accordingly  the  care  of  the  siege  to 
his  uncle  count  Bernard,  he  set  out  in  the 
latter  end  of  March  for  that  city,  attended 
by  a  great  many  bishops,  abbots,  and  other 
ecclesiastics,  who  had  accompanied  him  into 
Italy,  as  well  as  officers  and  persons  of  dis- 
tinction. As  he  had  not  acquainted  the  pope 
with  his  design,  having  perhaps  taken  it 
suddenly,  being  tired  with  the  length  of  the 
siege,  he  was  far  advanced  in  his  journey 
before  Hadrian  heard  of  his  coming.  But 
no  sooner  did  he  hear  of  it,  and  of  the  route 
he  had  taken,  than  thinking  it  his  duty  to 
distinguish  so  great  a  prince,  a  prince  to 
whom  his  see  was  so  highly  indebted,  above 
all  the  princes  and  kings,  who  had  ever  yet 
honored  Rome  with  their  presence,  he  sent 
all  the  magistrates  and  judges  of  the  city, 
with  their  banners,  and  the  badges  of  their 
respective  offices  to  meet  him  at  thirty  miles 
distance,  and  attend  him  the  remaining  part 
of  the  journey.  At  a  mile  from  the  gate  he 
was  received  by  all  the  miUtia  of  Rome  un- 
der arms,  and  a  procession  of  children,  car- 
rying branches  of  olive  trees  in  their  hands, 
and  singing  his  praises.  After  them  appear- 
ed at  some  distance  the  crosses,  that  were 
carried,  according  to  custom,  before  the  ex- 
archs, and  the  Roman  patricians  in  their 
public  entries.  Charlemagne  alighted,  as 
soon  as  he  saw  the  crosses,  from  his  horse, 
with  all  his  retinue,  and,  attended  by  his 
own  nobility  and  the  Roman,  went  on  fctot, 
amidst  the  loud  acclamations  of  the  people, 
crowding  from  all  parts  to  see  him,  the  rest 
of  the  way  to  the  Vatican.  As  for  the  pope, 
he  repaired  to  that  church  early  in  the  morn- 
ing, with  the  whole  body  of  the  clergy,  to 
wait  there  the  arrival  of  the  king,  and  con- 
duct him  in  person  to  the  tomb  of  St.  Peter. 
Charlemagne  being  arrived  at  the  foot  of 
the  steps  leading  up  to  the  church,  kneeled 
down  and  kissed  the  first  step  ;  and  thus  he 
continued  kneeling  down  and  kissing  each 
step  as  he  ascended.  At  the  entry  of  the 
church  he  was  received  by  the  pontiff  in  all 
the  gorgeous  attire  of  his  pontifical  orna- 
ments. They  embraced  each  other  with 
great  tenderness ;  and  the  king  holding  the 
pope's  right  hand  with  his  left,  they  thus 
entered  the  church,  the  people  and  clergy 
singing  aloud  the  words  of  the  Gospel, 
"  blessed  is  he  that  comelh  in  the  name  of 
the  Lord."  The  pope  conducted  the  king 
straight  to  the  confession,  that  is,  to  the  sup- 
posed tomb  of  St.  Peter ;  and  there,  pros- 
trating themselves  both  on  the  ground,  they 
returned  thanks  to  the  prince  of  the  apostles 
for  the  great  advantages  the  king  had,  by  his 
intercession,  already  obtained  over  his  ene- 


mies, and  the  enemies  of  the  church,  that  is, 
the  Lombards,  who,  in  truth,  were  as  good 
catholics,  and  wished  as  well  to  the  catholic 
church  as  the  French,  but  would  not  tamely 
suffer  themselves  to  be  robbed  by  the  pope  of 
the  countries  they  had  acquired  at  the  expense 
of  the  blood  and  the  treasure  of  their  nation, 
and  to  which,  on  that  consideration,  they 
thought  they  had  a  much  better  title  than  he 
or  his  church. 

Charlemagne,  having  thus  satisfied  his 
devotion  to  St.  Peter,  expressed  an  earnest 
desire  to  the  pope  of  visiting  the  holy  places 
within  the  walls;  and  they  entered  accord- 
ingly the  city  together,  after  the  pope,  with 
the  Roman  nobility  and  the  magistrates  on 
one  side,  and  the  king  with  the  French  no- 
bility on  the  other,  had  solemnly  sworn,  on 
the  body  of  St.  Peter,  perpetual  friendship 
to  each  other.  They  first  repaired  to  the 
Lateran,  where,  as  it  was  the  eve  of  Easter, 
one  of  the  days  appointed  by  the  church  for 
the  baptizing  of  catechumens,  the  pope  per- 
formed that  ceremony,  with  great  pomp,  in 
the  presence  of  the  king.  The  next  day, 
being  the  festival  of  Easter,  the  king,  at- 
tended by  the  militia  under  arms,  and  all  the 
Roman  nobility,  assisted  at  divine  service, 
performed  by  the  pope  in  the  church  of  St. 
Mary  ad  Praesepe,  now  Santa  Maria  Mag- 
giore,  and  after  the  service  dined  with  his 
holiness  in  the  Lateran  palace.  The  two 
following  days  were  spent  after  the  same 
manner,  in  different  churches ;  and  the  third, 
the  pope  and  the  king  had  a  conference  in 
the  Vatican,  when  Hadrian,  coming  to  the 
main  point,  put  the  king  in  mind  of  the 
promise,  which  king  Pepin,  his  father,  and 
he  himself  had  made  at  Chiersi  to  his  holy 
predecessor  pope  Stephen,'  extolled  the 
generosity  of  his  predecessors  and  his  own 
to  the  apostolic  see,  and  the  merit  they 
had  thereby  acquired;  and  the  reward  that 
was,  on  that  account,  reserved  for  them 
in  heaven,  and  earnestly  entreated  him,  as 
he  tendered  his  happiness  in  this  world  and 
the  other,  to  confirm  his  former  promise  or 
donation,  to  cause  all  the  places  mentioned 
therein  to  be  delivered  up,  without  further 
delay,  to  St.  Peter,  and  to  secure  for  ever  the 
possession  of  them  to  that  apostle,  and  his 
church.  Charlemagne  readily  complied  with 
the  desire  of  the  pope ;  and  having  caused 
the  former  instrument  of  donation  to  be  read, 
he  ordered  Etherius,  his  chaplain  and  notary, 
to  draw  up  another.  This  new  instrument 
he  signed  himself,  and  requiring  all  the  bi- 
shops, abbots,  and  other  great  men,  who  had 
attended  him  to  Rome,  to  sign  it,  with  his 
own  hand  he  laid  it  thus  signed,  kissing  it 
with  great  respect  and  devotion,  on  the  body 
of  St.  Peter.3 

What  countries  this  new  donation  com- 


•  See  p.  96. 

>  Anast.  in  Adrian.  Eginhard.  in  vit.  Carol.  Mag.  Leo 
Osiien.  I.  I.  c.  12. 


132 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Hadrian. 


The  countries  the  donation  of  Pepin  contained.  The  dukedom  of  Spoleti  added  to  the  former  donation. 
Charlemagne  returns  to  the  siege  of  Pavia.  The  king,  after  a  most  vigorous  defence,  is  obliged  to  submit. 
The  end  of  Lombard  kings. 


prised  is  not  agreed  among  authors.  Anas- 
tasius  writes,  that  Charlemagne,  not  satisfied 
with  the  donation  of  the  Pentapolis  and  the 
exarchate,  made  by  his  father ;  added  the 
island  of  Corsica,  and  the  large  country, 
which,  extending  from  Luna  to  Sorano  and 
Monte  Bordone,  comprehends  the  cities  and 
territories  of  Vercetri,  Parma,  Reggio,  Man- 
tua, and  Menselice;  nay,  the  present  dona- 
tion extended  besides,  according  to  that 
writer,  to  the  provinces  of  Istria  and  Vene- 
tia,  and  the  two  dukedoms  of  Benevento  and 
Spoleti.'  In  the  very  ancient  manuscript 
chronicle  of  the  monastery  of  St.  Clement 
at  Naples,  Charlemagne  is  said  to  have 
added  those  two  dukedoms  to  the  donation 
of  his  father.  Sigonius  will  have  the  dona- 
tion of  Charlemagne  to  have  comprised,  be- 
sides those  dukedoms  and  the  countries  given 
by  Pepin,  the  Sabinian  territory  with  great 
part  of  Tuscany  and  Campania.  De  Marca 
adds  all  Campania  with  the  city  of  Naples 
and  the  provinces  of  Abruzzo  and  Apulia.^ 
Others  add  Saxony,  which  he  had  lately 
conquered,  and  other  countries  too,  which 
he  never  conquered,  namely,  Sardinia  and 
Sicily  ;  for  these  two  islands  were  held  by 
the  emperors  of  the  east  till  torn  from  the 
empire  by  the  Saracens.  On  the  other  hand 
some  are  of  opinion  that  Charlemagne  only 
confirmed  the  donation  of  his  father,  com- 

f)rehending  the  exarchate  and  the  Pentapo- 
is.  In  short,  as  no  authentic  copy  of  this 
new  instrument  of  donation  is  any  where  to 
be  found,  some  will  not  allow  him  to  have 
given  any  thing  to  the  pope  on  this  occasion, 
but  to  have  only  renewed  and  confirmed 
the  donation  of  his  father;  while  others 
pretend,  that  he  kept  nothing  to  himself, 
but  gave  all  he  had  to  the  pope,  and  more 
than  he  had.  Charlemagne  indeed  caused 
the  patrimonies  of  the  Roman  church  in 
Compania,  Sabinia,  Tuscany,  Istria,  &c., 
which  had  been  confiscated  by  the  Lom- 
bards, to  be  restored  to  that  church;  and 
hence  probably  arose  the  mistake  of  the 
writers,  who  will  have  him  to  have  given 
those  provinces  to  the  pope:  They  con- 
founded the  patrimonies  of  the  church  in 
the  above-mentioned  countries  with  the 
countries  themselves.^  However,  that  Char- 
lemagne added  something  to  the  donation  of 
king  Pepin  his  father,  namely,  the  dukedom 
of  Spoleti,  is  manifest  from  the  letters  of 
Hadrian  to  that  prince :  for  in  several  of 
those  letters,  written  after  the  present  year, 
744,  express  mention  is  made  of  the  duke- 
dom of  Spoleti,  which  had  never,  till  that 
time,  been  subject  to  the  apostolic  see,  as 
then  subject  to  that  see.'*  As  the  pope,  in 
his  letters,  mentions  no  other  place,  that  was 


'Anast.  in  Hadrian. 

*Marc.  de  concord.  Sacerdot.  &  imper.  1.  3.  c.  10. 
'  See  Pietro  Giannone  Istor.  Civil,  di  Napol.  1.  5.  c.  4. 
*  Lib.  Carol. 


not  comprehended  in  the  former  donation, 
we  may  well  conclude,  that  no  other  was 
added  to  the  present. 

From  Rome  Charlemagne  returned  to  the 
camp  before  Pavia,  where  he  found  his  men 
quite  disheartened,  and  ready  to  despair  of 
ever  being  able  to  reduce  the  place.     His 
presence  inspired  them  Avith  new  courage: 
the  attacks  were  doubled,  and  the  wails  fu- 
riously battered  night  and  day  without  in- 
termission.    But  in  all  the  attacks  the  Lom- 
bards prevailed,  and  the  breaches  were  no 
sooner  made  than  repaired.     Thus  the  be- 
siegers and  the  besieged  continued  signaliz- 
ing themselves  till  an  epidemical  distemper 
began  to  rage  with  great  violence  in  the  city. 
As  by  that  distemper  great  numbers  were 
daily  swept  off  both  of  the  garri.?on  and  the 
inhabitants,  those,  who  survived,  began  to 
mutiny,  and  cry  out  that  it  was  time  to  sur- 
render.   The  duke  of  Aquitaine,  dreading 
to  fall  into  the  hands  of  Charlemagne,  took 
upon  him  to  restrain  the  mutineers  ;  but  he 
was  killed  by  the  enraged  multitude  on  the 
spot.    The  unhappy  Desiderius,  finding  him- 
self thus  abandoned  by  his  own  people,  was 
obliged  in  the  end  to  surrender  the  place, 
and  deliver  up  himself,  whh  his  wife  and 
his  daughter,  to  Charlemagne,  upon  condi- 
tion, for  the  conqueror  would  hearken  to  no 
other,  that  their  lives  were  spared.     Charle- 
magne took  them  with  him  into   France, 
and  confined  them,  according  to  some  wri- 
ters,' first  to  Liege  and  afterwards  to  the 
monastery  of  Corbie,  where  Desiderius  is 
said  to  have  spent  the  rest  of  his  life  in  fast- 
ing, in  praying,  and  in  other  good  works.^ 
Thus  ended  the  reign  of  the  Lombard  princes 
in  Italy,  two  hundred  and  six  years  after 
they  had  made  themselves  masters  of  that 
country.     I  say  the  reign  of  the  Lombard 
princes ;  for,  properly  speaking,  that  king- 
dom did  not  end  now,  Charlemagne  having 
assumed,  upon  the  surrender  of  Pavia  and 
the  captivity  of  Desiderius,  the  title  of  king 
of  the  Lombards,  and  left  the  people  in  the 
same  condition  he  found  them ;  so  that  the 
monarch  was  changed,  but  no  alteration  was 
made  in  the  monarchy.^ 

»  Annal.  Nazar.  &  Meten.     "Hepidan.  ad  Ann.  774. 

'  As  Charlemagne  claimed  the  kingdom  of  the  Lom- 
bards by  right  of  conquest,  he  caused  himself,  soon 
after  the  reduction  of  Pavia,  to  be  crowned  king  of 
Lombardy  by  the  archbishop  of  Milan  at  a  place  called 
Modostia  about  ten  miles  from  that  city.  Of  that 
ceremony  we  find  the  following  account  in  the  Ordo 
Romanus  a  very  ancient  ritual.  The  new  king  vv'as 
led  out  of  his  chamber  by  several  bishops  to  the 
church  ;  and  being  conducted  to  the  hiffh  altar,  the 
archbishop,  after  some  solemn  prayers,  asked  the  peo- 
ple, whether  they  were  willing  to  subject  themselves 
to  Charles,  and  with  constant  fidelity  obey  his  com- 
mands'! The  people  answering  they  were  willing, 
the  bishop  anointed  his  head,  breast,  shoulders,  and 
arms,  praying  that  the  new  king  might  be  successful 
in  his  wars,  and  happy  in  his  issue.  He  then  girt  him 
with  a  sword,  put  bracelets  on  his  arms,  and  gave  him 
a  robe,  a  ring  and  a  sceptre,  and  having  placed  the 
crown  on  his  head,  he  led  him  through  the  choir  to 
the  throne,  and  having  seated  hira  there,  and  given 


Hadrian.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


133 


The  pope  put  in  possession  of  the  places  yielded  to  him  by  Pepin.     No  change  made  by  Charlemagne  in  the 
government.     The  Lombards  unjustly  aspersed  by  the  popes.    Their  true  character. 


Charlemagne's  first  care,  after  the  reduc- 
tion of  Pavia,  was  to  put  the  pope  in  pos- 
sesion of  all  the  places,  that  had  been  yield- 
ed to  him  by  his  fttther  or  himself,  namely, 
the  exarchate,  the  PentapOlis,  and  the  duke- 
dom of  Spoleti,  which  however  continued 
to  be  governed  by  its  own  dukes.  Thus  the 
popes  had,  at  last,  the  satisfaction,  the  so 
long  wished  for  satisfaction,  of  seeing  the 
Lombards  humbled,  and  no  longer  able  to 
control  them  in  their  ambitious  views,  the 
emperor  driven  almost  quite  out  of  Italy, 
and  themselves  enriched  with  the  spoils  of 
both.  As  for  the  countries,  which  Charle- 
magne kept  to  himself,  namely,  the  country 
now  called  Piemont,  Monferrato,  the  Riviera 
of  Genoa,  the  Parmesan,  the  Modenese,  Tus- 
cany, the  Milanese,  the  Brescian,  the  Vero- 
nese, and  the  dukedoms  of  Friuli  and  Be- 
nevento,  he  made  there  very  little  change  in 
the  government,  continuing  in  most  places 
the  same  governors,  and  allowing  the  people 
to  enjoy  the  same  privileges  they  had  en- 
joyed under  the  Lombard  princes.  He  made 
no  alteration  at  all  in  their  laws,  but  only 
added  to  them,  as  king  of  the  Lombards, 
some  of  his  own.  In  Pavia  and  in  some 
other  strong  towns  he  left  French  governors 
and  garrisons,  but  strictly  enjoined  them  to 
govern  with  moderation  and  mildness,  that 
they  might  be  looked  upon  by  the  conquered 
people  as  friends  rather  than  conquerors. 
Charlemagne,  having  thus  settled  the  affiiirs 
of  Italy  to  the  entire  satisfaction  of  the  pope 
and  his  own,  repassed  the  mountains  in  the 
month  of  August  of  the  present  year,  and 
returned  to  France. 

I  cannot,  in  justice,  dismiss  this  subject 
without  vindicating  the  character  of  the  im- 
happy  Lombards  against  the  anti-christrian 
and  virulent  invectives  of  the  popes,  paint- 
ing them  in  all  their  letters,  as  a  "lawless, 
cruel,  brulal,  barbarous  and  savage  people, 
as  of  all  the  nations  on  the  earth  the  most 
wicked,  the  most  abandoned  to  every  kind 
of  vice,  as  the  dregs  of  mankind,  and  a  dis- 
grace to  human  nature."  They  were  indeed, 
Avhen  they  first  came  into  Italy,  a  rude  and 
unpolished  race ;  and  so  were  the  Goths>  the 
Franks,  the  Saxons,  and  the  other  northern 
nations,  when  they  first  broke  into  Spain, 
France,  Britain,  &c.  But  divesting  them- 
selves, by  degrees,  of  their  native  rudeness 
and  barbarity,  especially  after  they  had  em- 
braced the  Christian  religion,  they  became, 
in  the  course  of  a  few  years,  if  the  contem- 
porary writers  are  to  be  credited,  quite  an- 
other people.  Nowhere  was  justice  more 
impartially  administered,  nowhere  were  the 
rights  and  the  properties  of  the  people  more 

him  the  kiss  of  peace,  he  celebtated  divine  service. — 
(Ordo  Roman,  apud  Sieon.)  Charlemagne  ordained, 
that  the  same  ceremony  should  he  observed  in  the 
coronation  of  his  successors,  and  performed  by  the 
archbishop  of  Milan,  who  thonrcfurth  began  to  con- 
tend for  dignity  with  the  archbishop  of  Ravenna. 


safe,  or  secured  by  better  laws,  or  those  laws 
more  strictly  executed  than  under  their  go- 
vernment. Under  the  government  of  the  Lom- 
bards, says  Paulus  Diaconus,  no  violence 
was  committed,  no   man   unjustly  dispos- 
sessed of  his  property,  none  oppressed  with 
taxes  ;  theft,  robberies,  murder,  and  adultery 
Avere   Seldom   heard   of;    every  one   went, 
without  the  least  apprehension  of  danger, 
whither  he  pleased.'     Paul  was,  it  is  true, 
himself  a  Lombard ;  but  Gunter,^  the  in- 
comparable Grotius,^  and,  in  short,  all  who 
have  writ  of  the  Lombards,  except  the  popes 
and  their  avowed   partisans,  speak  no  less 
favorably  of  theni  than  Paul  himself.     And 
truly  their  many  wholesome  laws,-*  restrain- 
ing   and    severely   punishing   all    sorts   of 
crimes  ;  the  magnificent  churches,  and  rich 
monasteries,  with  which  they  filled  that  part 
of  Italy,  that  was  subject  to  them;  the  many 
bishoprics  they  founded;  the  many  towns 
and  cities  they  either  built,  repaired,  or  em- 
bellished ;  the  uncommon  respect  and  vene- 
ration, that  even  their  most  warlike  princes 
paid  to  the  pope,  when  he  acted  in  the  cha- 
racter of  a  Christian  bishop,  or  a  prelate  of 
the  Christian  church,  and  finally  the  many 
persons  of  both   sexes   and   all   conditions 
among  them,  whose  sanctity  and  eminent 
virtues  have  been  acknowledged  by  the  popes 
themselves,  are  convincing  proofs  of  their 
piety,  justice  and  wisdom,  and  at  the  same 
time  a  full  confutation,  as  Grotius  observes, 
of  the   many  calumnies,   with  which   the 
popes  have  endeavored,  in  their  letters,  or 
rather  in  their  libels,  to  blacken  them  in  the 
eyes  of  the  world.     As  the  Lombards  were 
the  only  power  in  Italy  capable  of  controlling 
the  ambitious  views  of  the  popes,  and  de- 
termined, as  they  apprehended,  to  control 
them,  they  dreaded  nothing  so  much  as  their 
ever  becoming  masters  of  that  country;  and 
therefore,  without  any  regard  to  conscience 
or  truth,  they  made  it  their  business,  as  it 
was  their  interest,  to  prejudice  and  stir  up 
first  the  emperors,  and  afterwards  the  French 
nation  against  them,  by  representing  them 
to  both  as  the  most  wicked  of  people :  and 
thus,  in  the  end,  they  accomplished  their 
ruin,  and  made  themselves,  at  their  expense, 
no  inconsiderable  princes.^ 


«  PaK  Diac.  Hist.  Long.  1.  3.  c.  8. 

3  Gunt.  in  Ligurino.     '  Grot,  in  Prolog,  ad  Hist.  Goth. 

*  Their  laws  were  found  so  just,  so  clear,  so  com- 
prehensive, that  they  were  retained  and  observed  in 
Italy  some  ages  after  the  reisn  of  their  princes  was  at 
an  end.  Grotius  equals,  and  in  many  particulars  pre- 
fers them  to  the  laws  of  the  Romans  themselves; 
(Grot,  in  Prolog,  ad  Hist.  Goth.)  and  Gunler,  a  famous 
poet  in  those  days,  sung  tlms  of  the  Lombards  in  his 
Ligurinum  : 

"  Gens  astuta,  saga.t,  prudens,  industria,  solers, 
Provida  consilio,  legum  jurisque  perita." 

s  For  the  better  un<ierstanding  of  what  will  be  said  in 
the  sequel,  I  shall  give  here  a  succinct  account  of  the 
slate  of  Italy  after  Charlemagne  had,  by  the  reduction  of 
Pavia  and  the  captivity  of  Desiderius,  put  an  end  to  the 
reign  of  the  Lombard  kings.  Italy  was  possessed,  at 
that  time,  by  four  diflferent  potentates,  the  Venetians, 

M 


134 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Hadrian. 


The  bishop  of  Ravenna  claims  the  exarcliate  and  seizes  it.  The  pope  invites  Charlemagne  again  into  Italy. 
He  excuses  himself  from  undertaking  that  journey; — [Year  of  Christ,  775.]  The  Lombard  dukes  falsely 
charged  by  the  pope  with  conspiring  against  Charlemagne. 


The  pope  had  by  Charlemagne  been  put 
in  possession,  as  has  been  related  above,  of 
the  exarchate,  the  Pentapolis,  and  the  duke- 
dom of  Spoleti :  and  he  now  flattered  him- 
self, that  he  should  enjoy  undisturbed  his 
new  principality,  and  besides  find  some  lei- 
sure to  attend  to  the  affairs  of  the  church,  to 
redress  the  many  enormous  abuses,  that  had 
everywhere  crept  into  it,  and  restore  the  ec- 
clesiastical discipline,  at  this  time,  entirely 
decayed.  But  he  found  himself,  when  he 
expected  it  the  least,  involved  in  new  trou- 
bles, that  engrossing  all  his  attention,  allow- 
ed him  no  spare  time  to  think  of  any  re- 
formation in  church.  For  no  sooner  had 
Charlemagne  left  Italy  than  Leo,  archbishop 
of  Ravenna,  pretending,  that,  by  the  ap- 
pointment of  that  prince,  he  had  succeeded 
the  exarch  in  all  his  rights  as  well  as  in  his 
power  and  authority,  and  laying  claim,  on 
that  pretence,  to  the  exarchate,  and  the  Pen- 
tapolis, seized  on  the  cities  of  Faenza,  For- 
limpopoli,  Forli,  Cesena,  Bobio,  Imola, 
Bologna,  and  the  dukedom  as  well  as  the 
city  of  Ferrara;  drove  everywhere  out  the 
officers  of  the  pope,  and  threw  those  into 
prison,  who  were  sent  from  Rome  to  com- 
plain, in  Hadrian's  name,  of  such  violent 
and  unwarrantable  proceedings  in  a  prelate 


the  French,  the  popes,  and  the  emperors.  The  Vene- 
tians, by  their  trade  to  the  Levant,  were  become  very 
considerable,  and  as  they  had  a  great  number  of  ves- 
sels, they  bore  no  small  sway  in  the  affairs  of  Italy. 
The  French  were  masters  of  the  several  provinces 
mentioned  above,  (See  p.  133.)  and  besides,  of  the 
two  great  dukedoms  of  Friuli  and  Benevento,  the 
former  comprehending  all  the  Friuli  with  the  greater 
part  of  Istria,  and  the  latter  above  two-thirds  of  the 
present  kingdom  of  Naples.  Those  two  dukes  Char- 
lemagne continued  in  their  respective  dukedoms  ;  nay, 
and  allowed  them  the  same  power  and  authority, 
which  they  had  enjoyed  under  the  Lombard  kings,  only 
requiring  them  to  take  annually  the  same  oath  of  al- 
legiance to  him  they  had  annually  taken  to  the  kings 
of  their  own  nation.  The  pope  possessed  the  ex- 
archate, the  Pentapolis,  (See  p.  108.  note  (1.)  and 
the  dukedom  of  Spoleti  with  the  city  and  dukedom  of 
Rome  ;  but  under  him  the  dukes  of  Spoleti  retained 
the  same  power,  that  the  other  dukes  retained  under 
Charlemagne.  The  emperors  still  held  the  dukedom 
of  Naples,  with  the  cities  of  Gallipoli,  Otranto,  and 
Tarento  in  the  hither  Calabria,  and  in  the  farther  Ca- 
labria, the  cities  of  Reggio,  Gerace,  Santa  Severina, 
Crotone,  Amantea,  Agripoli  and  Amalfi.  The  duke- 
dom of  Naples  comprised,  besides  that  city  and  its 
territory,  the  cities  of  Pozzuolo,  Baia,  Miseno,  Castel- 
lamare,  Sorrento,  and  all  the  adjacent  islands.  The 
dukedom  of  Naples  was  governed  by  a  duke  sent 
from  Constantinople ;  but  all  the  other  cities,  that  the 
emperors  still  retained  in  Italy,  were  under  the  go- 
vernor, or  as  he  is  styled,  the  patrician  of  Sicily.  In 
more  ancient  times,  only  the  farther  Calabria  was 
subject  to  the  patrician  of  Sicily.  But  the  cities, 
which  the  emperors  held  in  those  parts,  being  reduced 
to  a  very  small  number,  they  were  all  subjected  to 
that  patrician:  and  thence  that  part  of  Italy  took  the 
name  of  Sicily,  which  name  was  afterwards  extended 
by  the  Norman  and  Suevian  princes,  masters  of  those 
countries,  to  all  the  provinces,  of  which  the  present 
kingdom  of  Naples  is  composed.  From  a  charter  of 
Roger  the  Norman  of  the  year  1115,  it  is  manifest, 
that  the  name  of  Sicily  was  then  common  to  that 
island  and  that  kingdom,  but  with  this  difference,  that 
the  former  was  called  Sicily  beyond  the  Faro,  and  the 
latter  Sicily  on  this  side  the  Faro.  In  our  days  the 
king  of  Naples  is  still  styled  "  king  of  the  two  Sici- 
lies." 


of  the  church.  Hereupon  Hadrian,  not 
able,  or  not  caring  to  redress  himself  while 
he  had  one  ever  ready  to  fight  his  battles  for 
him,  had  again  Recourse  to  his  protector 
Charlemagne,  complaining  to  him,  in  a  long 
letter,  of  the  unparalleled  boldness  and  pre- 
sumption of  the  archbishop,  on  whom  he  be- 
stows, without  any  regard  to  his  character, 
the  epithet  of  Nefandissimus,  and  conjuring 
his  most  Christian  son,  by  all  that  is  sacred, 
to  undertake,  without  delay,  a  second  jour- 
ney into  Italy,  if  he  intended  that  St.  Peter 
should  reap  any  benefit  from  his  first.' 

Upon  the  receipt  of  the  pope's  letter 
Charlemagne,  who  was  then  pursuing  the 
conquest  of  Saxony,  or  rather  the  destruc- 
tion of  that  people  and  their  country,  dis- 
patched immediately  to  Rome,  Possessor,  bi- 
shop, and  the  abbot  Rabigaud  to  assure  the 
pope,  that  he  had  the  interest  of  the  aposto- 
lic see  as  much  at  heart  as  his  own ;  but,  at 
the  same  time,  to  let  him  know,  that  he  was 
not  then  at  leisure  to  undertake  another 
journey  to  Italy  ;  but  would  not  fail,  as  soon 
as  he  had  put  an  end  to  the  war,  in  which 
he  was  engaged,  to  comply  with  his  holi- 
ness' desire,  and  settle  matters  to  his  entire 
satisfaction.  But  that  war  was  not  likely  to 
be  soon  at  an  end,  and  the  pope  was  quite 
impatient  to  have  the  cities  restored,  that  the 
archbishop  had  siezed.  Being  therefore  in- 
formed by  a  nuncio,  whom  he  sent  to  Spoleti 
to  adjust  some  differences  between  him  and 
the  duke,  that  envoys  from  the  dukes  of 
Friuli,  Benevento  and  Chiusi  were  met  in 
that  city,  he  construed,  without  further  in- 
quiry, the  meeting  of  the  envoys  into  a  con- 
spiracy, that  was  hatching  by  the  dukes 
against  Charlemagne  and  himself.  And  ac- 
cordingly, to  make  Charlemagne  hasten  his 
return  into  Italy,  he  immediately  dispatched 
a  messenger  to  him  with  the  following  in- 
telligence; that  the  four  dukes  maintained  a 
private  correspondence  with  Adalgisus  and 
the  emperor,  who  had  warmly  espoused  the 
cause  of  that  prince;  that  early  in  the  spring 
a  mighty  fleet  was  to  be  sent  against  Italy 
with  a  numerous  army  on  board ;  that  the 
four  dukes  had  agreed  to  act  in  concert  with 
the  emperor,  and  that  they  had  nothing  less 
in  their  view  than  to  surprise  Rome,  to  drive 
the  French  everywhere  out,  and  placing 
Adalgisus  on  the  throne  of  his  father,  restore 
the  kingdom  of  the  Lombards.^  Charlemagne 
however  made,  it  seems,  no  great  account  of 
that  intelligence :  for  he  only  ordered  his 
envoys  Possessor  and  Rabigaud  to  repair  to 
the  courts  of  Spoleti  and  Benevento,  in  order 
to  discover  the  disposition  of  those  dukes, 
and  observe  whether  any  military  prepara- 
tions were  carrying  on  in  their  dukedoms. 
The  envoys  found  everything  quiet  in  both 
places,  and  the  dukes,  so  far  as  they  could 


>  Cod.  Carol,  ep.  54. 


>  Idem  ep.  59. 


Hadrian. 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


135 


The  duke  of  Friuli  takes  upon  him  the  title  of  kins  of  the  Lombards.  Charlemagne  returns  into  Italy  ; — 
[Year  of  Christ,  776.]— Takes  the  duke  prisoner  and  puts  him  to  death.  From  Friuli  he  returns  to  Saxony. 
The  pope  disappointed  and  mortified  at  his  departure.     His  letter  to  him. 


judge,  pleased  rather  than  dissatisfied  with 
the  new  government.  Hadrian  had  flattered 
himself,  that  the  king,  taking  upon  his  bare 
word  all  he  had  written  to  be  true,  would 
have  hastened  into  Italy,  would  have  de- 
posed those  dukes  without  further  inquiry, 
and,  what  was  his  chief  concern,  obliged 
the  archbishop  to  restore  all  the  places  he 
Iiad  taken.  But  Charlemagne,  knowing 
how  jealous  the  pope  was  of  the  power  of 
those  dukes;  what  hatred  he  bore,  as  all  his 
predecessors  had  done,  to  the  Lombards  in 
general,  acquiesced  in  the  report,  that  was 
made  to  him  by  his  envoys,  without  taking 
the  least  notice  to  the  dukes  of  the  pretend- 
ed conspiracy,  or  of  anything  else,  that  had 
been  written  against  them  by  the  pope. 
This  prudent  conduct  in  the  king  was  not  at 
all  pleasing  to  the  pope,  who,  thinking  him- 
self thereby  disiru.sted  and  slighted  by  his 
friend  and  protector,  loudly  complained  of  it 
in  a  letter  he  wrote  to  him  on  this  occasion.' 
But  Charlemagne  made  no  more  account  of 
his  complaints  than  he  had  made  of  his  in- 
telligence. 

However,  in  the  latter  end  of  the  present 
year  Rotgaud,  duke  of  Friuli,  and  next  to 
the  duke  of  Benevento  the  most  powerful  of 
all  the  Lombard  dukes,  scorning  to  live  sub- 
ject to  a  foreign  prince,  openly  revolted, 
with  a  design  to  place,  not  Adalgisus  but 
himself  on  the  throne.  Several  cities  de- 
clared in  his  favor;  and  others  he  surprised, 
or  took  by  force,  causing  himself  to  be  every- 
where proclaimed  king  of  the  Lombards. 
Upon  the  first  notice  of  this  revolt  Charle- 
magne, who  had  put  his  troops  into  winter 
quarters  on  the  frontiers  of  Saxony,  hastened 
with  the  choice  of  his  army  into  Alsace ;  for 
he  is  said  to  have  kept  his  Christmas  there, 
and  marching  from  thence  in  the  depth  of 
winter,  entered  Italy  before  it  was  known  that 
he  had  moved  from  Saxony,  surprised  the 
duke,  and  having  put  to  flight  the  few  troops 
he  had  time  to  assemble  in  that  surprise,  took 
him  prisoner,  and  caused  his  head  to  be 
publicly  struck  ofT.  Stabilinian,  father-in- 
law  to  the  duke,  shutting  himself  up  in  the 
city  of  Trevigio,  defended  the  place  with 
great  bravery  till  it  was  betrayed  to  the  ene- 
my by  an  Italian  priest,  whose  treachery 
Charlemagne  rewarded  with  the  bishopric 
of  Verdun.  Indeed  it  was  by  such  services 
that  the  clergy  qualified  themselves,  at  this 
time,  for  bishoprics ;  and  for  such  services 
were  they  commonly  preferred  to  that  sta- 
tion by  the  princes.  We  therefore  need  not 
it  all  wonder  at  the  scandalous  and  debauch- 
id  lives  that  the  ecclesiastics  of  all  ranks  are 
said  to  have  led  in  those  days.  The  princes 
areferred  such  only  as  had. been,  or  were 
japable  of  being  serviceable  to  them,  how- 
;ver  otherwise  disqtialified  ;  and  the  pretend- 


»  Cod.  Carolin.ep.  58. 


ed  heads  of  the  church  were  so  entirely  taken 
up  with  temporal  affairs,  that  they  had  no 
time  to  mind  the  ecclesiastic.  Upon  the  re- 
duction of  Trevigio  the  other  cities  all  sub- 
mitted of  their  own  accord ;  and  Charlemagne, 
not  caring  to  trust  a  Lombard  with  the 
government,  appointed  one  Marcaire,  a 
native  of  France,  duke  of  Friuli,  and  counts 
in  each  city  to  govern  under  him.' 

The  king  continued  at  Friuli  till  Easter, 
which  he  proposed,  as  he  wrote  to  the  pope, 
to  keep  at  Rome  ;  and  to  have  the  son,  whom 
queen  Hildegard  had  lately  brought  him,  bap- 
tized by  his  holiness  on  that  solemnity.  Bui 
being,  in  the  mean  time,  informed,  that  the 
Saxons  had  revolted  a  second  time,  that  is, 
had  endeavored  to  recover  their  liberty,  of 
which  Charlemagne  had  no  right,  nor  pre- 
tence to  rob  them,  he  solemnized  that  festival, 
which  fell  this  year  on  the  14th  of  April,  at 
Trevigio  ;  and  then  repassing  the  Alps  with 
the  same  expedition,  with  which  he  had 
passed  them,  he  appeared  on  the  frontiers 
of  Saxony  while  he  was  thought  by  the 
Saxons  to  be  still  in  Italy.^ 

His  sudden  departure  was  a  great  morti- 
fication to  the  pope,  who  had  flattered  him- 
self, that  before  he  left  Italy,  he  would  have 
obliged  the  audacious  archbishop  to  restore 
to  the  apostolic  see,  the  places  he  had  taken, 
and  at  least  severely  reprimanded  him  for 
presuming  to  seize  on  them.  But  instead  of 
that,  upon  the  return  of  the  legates,  whom 
he  had  sent  to  wait  on  the  king,  and  com- 
plain to  him  of  the  unjust  and  violent  pro- 
ceedings of  the  presumptuous  prelate,  he 
received  a  letter  written  with  the  king's  own 
hand  in  commendation  of  the  archbishop, 
who,  it  seems,  had  been  very  assiduous  in 
attending  him,  during  his  stay  in  Friuli,  and 
being  a  man  of  address,  had  found  means 
to  insinuate  himself  greatly  into  his  favor. 
The  pope,  in  answer  to  the  king's  letter,  as- 
sured him,  that  he  bore  no  ill  will  to  the 
archbishop  ;  that  whoever  was  so  happy  as 
to  be  favored  by  his  most  Christian  son, 
should  be  equally  favored  by  him ;  but  that 
he  could  not,  in  conscience,  suflTer  St.  Peter 
to  be  robbed  of  the  eflfects  of  his  generosity, 
nor  him  of  the  reward,  that  was  reserved 
for  his  generosity  in  heaven.  He  therefore 
earnestly  entreats  and  conjures  him,  as  he 
tenders  the  salvation  of  his  soul,  not  to  con- 
nive at  the  sacreligious  presumption  of  the 
archbishop,  how  well  soever  he  may  have 
deserved  of  him  in  other  respects,  but  oblige 
him,  without  delay,  to  restore  to  St.  Peter 
what  he  could  not  allow  him  to  keep  with- 
out taking  from  the  apostle  what  he  himself 
had  given  him,  and  thereby  forfeiting  his 
favor  and  protection." 

«  Annal.  Meten.  &  Petav.  Regin.  in  Chronic.  Cod 
Carol,  ep.  57.  Eginhard  in  vit.  Carol. 
«  Annal.  Met.  Sc  I.oisel.  Egolis  in  vit.  Carol. 
'  Cod.  Carol,  ep.  53. 


136 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES. 


[Hadrian. 


The  pope  complains  to  Charlemagne  of  the  duke  of  Chiusi  and  the  bishop  of  Ravenna,  and  presses  him  to  send 
commissaries  or  to  cnme  himself  into  Italy.  Charlemagne  sends  ambassadors  to  quiet  the  pope.  Goes 
himself  to  Rome; — [Year  of  Christ,  781.]  His  son  Carloman  baptized  there  by  the  pope,  who  gives  the 
royal  unction  to  hirn  and  his  brother  Lewis. 


This  year  the  pope  wrote  three  other  let- 
ters to  Charlemagne.  la  the  first  he  loudly 
complains  of  Raginald,  duke  of  Chiusi, 
who  had  seized  on  the  patrimony  of  St.  Pe- 
ter in  that  dukedom,  and  begs  that  he  may 
be  removed,  as  an  avowed  enemy  to  that 
apostle,  and  one  who  had  ever  been  at  va- 
riance with  him  and  his  vicars.'  In  the 
other,  to  prejudice  Charlemagne  against  his 
antagonist,  the  archbishop  of  Ravenna,  he 
acquaints  him  that  he  has  received  a  letter 
from  the  patriarch  of  Grado  in  Friuli,  which, 
he  says,  was  intercepted,  opened,  and  read, 
by  the  archbishop  of  Ravenna,  no  doubt, 
with  a  design  to  discover  the  contents,  and 
communicate  them,  if  he  found  they  were 
of  any  importance,  to  the  duke  of  Bene- 
vento,  and  to  the  other  enemies  of  the  apos- 
tolic see,  and  of  France.  As  John,  patriarch 
of  Grado,  lived  in  great  intimacy  with  the 
pope,  the  archbishop  might  have  opened  the 
letter,  and  probably  did,  to  discover  whether 
it  contained  any  thing  relating  to  himself. 
But  upon  that  action  the  pope  put  the  worst 
construction  he  possibly  could,  because  it 
best  served  his  purpose,  to  estrange  the  king 
from  one,  who  rivaled  him  in  his  favor.  To 
calumniate  with  so  pious  a  design,  was, 
it  seems,  no  crime,  but  rather  meritorious, 


himself  free  from  all  haughtiness  and  ambi- 
tion,) taking  upon  him,  in  the  meantime, 
the  port  of  a  prince,  and  enjoying  undis- 
turbed the  rich  revenues,  and  all  the  wealth 
of  the  exarchate.  He  therefore  wrote  a  third 
letter  to  Charlemagne,  pressing  and  conjur- 
ing him  to  send  ambassadors  without  delay, 
or  return  in  person  into  Italy  to  protect  the 
patrimony  of  St.  Peter  against  the  sacrile- 
gious depredations  of  wicked  men,  if  he  de- 
sired to  be,  as  he  had  hitherto  been  on  all 
occasions,  protected  by  that  apostle.'  Upon 
the  receipt  of  this  letter  Charlemagne  dis- 
patched to 'Rome  the  bishop  Possessor,  and 
an  abbot  n-amed  Dodo ;  but  it  was  only  to 
acquaint  the  pope,  or  rather  make  him  be- 
lieve, that  he  proposed  returning  to  Italy  the 
ensuing  October,  and  quiet  him,  as  he  grew 
daily  more  troublesome,  by  that  means  for  a 
while.  For  that  journey  he  put  off,  though 
importuned  by  the  pope  with  letters  after 
letters,  and  endless  legations,  till  the  year 
780,  when  having,  after  a  nine  years  war, 
settled,  for  the  present,  the  affairs  of  Saxony, 
he  set  out  for  Italy  at  last,  with  his  queen 
Hildegard,  and  two  of  his  sons  by  her,  Car- 
loman and  Lewis.  He  arrived  at  Pavia  in 
the  autumn  of  that  year,  and  having  kept 
his  Christmas,  and  spent  the  rest  of  the 


according  to  the  casuistry  of  Hadrian.     Inj  winter  in  that  city,  he  repaired  to  Rome,  as 
the  same  letter  he  teHs  the  king,  that  the  Easter  approached,  to  solemnize  that  festival 


insolence  of  the  archbishop  was  no  longer 
to  be  endured  ;  that  depending  upon  his  fa- 
vor and  protection  he  paid  no  kind  of  re- 
gard to  the  admonitions,  menaces  and  ex- 
hortations of  the  apostolic  see,  and  that, 
bidding  defiance  to  St.  Peter  and  himself,  he 
had  even  the  assurance  to  assume  and  oblige 
others  to  give  him  the  title  of  prince  of  Ra- 
venna.'^ To  theseletters  Charlemagne,  who 
had,  at  this  time,  other  affairs  of  greater 
importance  on  his  hands,  and  was  quite 
tired  with  the  pope's  complaints,  returned 
no  other  answer,  than  that  he  should  send, 
in  the  autumn,  ambassadors  into  Italy  with 
a  strict  charge  to  see  all  the  promises  made 
good,  that  had  ever  been  made  by  himself, 
or  his  father  to  St.  Peter  and  his  see.* 

The  pope  waited  the  arrival  of  the  am- 
bassadors with  the  greatest  impatience,  till 
the  month  of  November.  But  not  receiving, 
■  even  then,  any  tidings  of  them,  he  wrote  to 
the  magistrates  of  Pavia,  to  know  of  them 
when  he  might  expect  them.  The  magis- 
trates answered,  that  they  were  not  yet  set 
out  from  France,  nor  would  they,  they  be- 
lieved, set  out  in  haste.  This  answer  gave 
great  uneasiness  to  the  pope.  He  began  to 
apprehend,  that  Charlemagne  was  grown 
cold  in  his  friendship  for  him,  and  his  zeal 
for  the  interest  of  his  see;  and  besides  be- 
held, with  the  utmost  indignation,  the 
haughty  and  ambitious  archbishop,  (being 


»  Cod.  Carol,  ep.  60.      a  Idem  ep.  52.     a  Idem  ep.  51. 


there.  His  second  entry  into  Rome  was  no 
less  magnificent  and  solemn  than  his  first; 
and  he  was  attended,  so  long  as  he  stayed, 
by  the  pope  in  person,  by  the  Roman  magis- 
trates, and  all  the  Roman  nobihty.  One  of 
the  chief  motives  that  brought  him  to  Rome, 
at  this  time,  was,  that  his  son  Carloman 
might  be  baptized  on  Easter-day  by  the  pope. 
Carloman  was  born  in  776;  but  Charle- 
magne had  put  off  his  baptism  till  his  affairs 
allowed  him  to  repair  to  Rome  to  have  that 
sacrament  administered  to  him  there  by  his 
holiness:  and  it  was  administered  to  him 
accordingly  by  his  holiness  with  the  greatest 
solemnity.  It  is  observable,  that  the  pope, 
who  was  himself  sponsor  for  the  child, 
changed,  on  that  occasion,  the  name  of  Car- 
loman for  that  of  Pepin,  probably  out  of 
regard  to  the  memory  of  his  grandfather,  the 
author  of  his  temporal  grandeur.  As  Char- 
lemagne's eldest  son,  whom  he  had  by  his 
first  wife  Himiltrude,  bore  the  same  name, 
authors  frequently  mistake  the  one  for  the 
other.  A  few  days  after  Hadrian,  at  the  re- 
quest of  the  king,  gave  the  royal  unction  to 
his  two  sons;  and  Carloman,  now  Pepin, 
was  by  his  father  proclaimed  king  of  Lom- 
bardy,  and  Lewis,  at  this  time  but  three 
years  old,  king  of  Aquitaine.  Thus  he  pro- 
vided for  his  two  younger  children,  the  king- 
doms of  Neustria,  Auslrasia  and  Burgundy 
falling  to  the  share  of  the  two  elder  Pepin 


Cod.  Carol,  ep.  51. 


Hadrian.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


137 


The  affairs  of  Italy,  how  settled  by  Charlemagne.     Great  changes  in  the  court  of  Constantinople. 


and  Charles  ;  and  at  the  same  time  flattered 
himself,  that  the  Lombards  and  people  of 
Aquitaine,  whom  he  had  lately  conquered, 
having  kings  of  their  own,  would  not  be  so 
easily  tempted  to  shake  off"  the  yoke,  as  if 
their  countries  were  made  provinces  of 
France.' 

As  for  the  affairs  of  the  pope,  no  kind  of 
mention  is  made,  at  this  time,  of  the  quarrel 
between  him  and  the  archbishop  of  Raven- 
na, or  of  the  restitution  of  the  places  the 
arclibishop  had  seized.      However,  as  we 
find  the  pope  henceforth  possessed  of  those 
I)laces,  it  is  not  to  be  doubted  but  that  Char- 
lemagne caused  them  all  to  be  restored  be- 
fore he  left  Rome.     He  likewise  adjusted, 
during  his  stay  in  that  city,  the  difference, 
that  had  some  time  subsisted,  between  the 
pope  and  the  duke,  or  governor  of  Naples. 
The  duke  had  seized  on  the  patrimony  of 
St.  Peter  in  that  dukedom,  and  the  pope,  by 
way  of  reprisals,  on  the  city  of  Terracina. 
But  that  city  the  duke  had  retaken  by  sur- 
prise, and  still  continued  to  withhold  the  re- 
venues of  the  patrimony.     The  pope  there- 
fore, to  deliver  himself  from  so  troublesome 
a    neighbor,    would    have    willingly    per- 
suaded the  king  to  invade  the  dukedom,  and 
seize  on  the  city  of  Naples  itself,  alledging 
that  he  would  thereby  entirely  defeat  the 
wicked  designs  of  the  duke  of  Benevento, 
who,  depending  on  the   neighborhood  and 
the  assistance  of  the  Greeks,  was  ready,  he 
said,  to  declare  for  Adalgisus,  whose  sister 
he  had  married,  and  place  him,  when  an 
opportunity  offered,    on  the  throne  of  his 
father.     But  the  king,  unwilling  to  break  at 
this  juncture  with  the  emperor,  instead  of 
hearkening  to  the  suggestions  of  the  pope, 
contented  himself  with  interposing  hi&  good 
offices ;  and   it  was  agreed,  that  the  duke 
should   restore  the  patrimony  ;  should   pay 
the  arrears  as  soon  as  he  conveniently  could, 
and  in  the  meantime  deliver  up  to  the  pope 
four  children   of  the  four  chief  families  of 
Naples  to  be  kept  as  hostages  till  the  agree- 
ment was  fully  performed.     As  for  the  duke 
of  Benevento,  the  king,  knowing  how  jealous 
the  pope  was  of  the  power  of  that  duke, 
paid  no  kind  of  regard  to  his  insinuations 
against  him.     The  king  had  given  the  duke- 
dom of  Spoleti  to  the  pope,  as  has  been  re- 
lated above  ;  but  disputes  daily  arising  be- 
tween him  and  the  duke,  he  took  back  that 
dukedom,  before  he  left  Rome,  and  gave  the 
province  of  Sabina  to  the  pope   in  its  lieu.^ 
Charlemagne,  having  thus  settled  the  affairs 
of  Italy  returned  to  France,  leaving  his  son 
Pepin,  king  of  Lombardy,  in  Pavia  the  me- 
tropolis of  his  new  kingdom. 

During  these  transactions  in  the  west, 
great  changes  happened  at  the  court  of  Con- 
stantinople in  the  east..    The  emperor  Con- 


stantme,   surnamed    Copronymus,  died    in 
775,'  and  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Leo  the 


«  Effinhard.  in  vit.  Carol.  Chron.  Nibelung.  in  ap- 
pendice.  Annal.  Moissiac. 
'  Cod.  Carol,  ep.  69. 

Vol.  II.— 18 


»  The  contemporary  historians  give  us  the  following 
account  of  his  death.     The  king  of  the  Bulgarians, 
whose  army,  breaking  under  his  conduct  into  the  em- 
pire had  been  entirely  cut  off  by  Conslantine,  sus- 
pecting that  he  had  been  betrayed  by  some  of  his  own 
people,  wrote,  in  appearance,  a  most  friendly  letter  to 
the  emperor,  pretending  that  he  designed  to  quit  the 
crown,  and  lead  a  private  life  at  Consianlinople.    For 
that  purpose  he  begged  Constantine  would  send  hini 
a  safe  conduct,  and,  at  the  same  time,  let  him  know 
what   frieiid.'i   he    li:id    among    the    Bulsjariaim.   that 
he  might  repair  with  them  to   Constantinople,  being 
unwilling  to  trust  his  design  or  his  person  to  others. 
Constantine,  not  suspecting  any  deceit,  which  seema 
very  surprising  and  scarce  credible,  sent  him  immedi- 
ately the  names  of  the  Bulgarians,  who  corresponded 
privately  with  him;  which  the  crafty  prince  no  sooner 
received  than  he  caused  them  all  to  be   inhumanly 
massacred.     The  emperor,  finding  himself  thus  shame- 
fully deluded,  is  said  by  Theophanes  to  have  torn  off 
his  hair  in  the  transport  of  his  passion,  to  have  sworn 
revenge,  anil  ordered  vast  military  preparations  to  bu 
made  throughout  llic  empire,  v.ilh  a  design  to  extir- 
pate the  whole  race  of  the  Bulgarians.     Having  thus 
spent,  in  warlike  preparations,  the  greater  part  of  the 
year,  he  set  out  from  (Jonstantinople  in  the  latter  end 
of  the  summer.     But  being   seized  on  his  march,  as 
the  weather  was  extremely  hot,  with  a  violent  fever, 
and  carb\incles,  as  the  historians  call  them,'  breaking 
out  on  his  thighs  and  liis  legs,  he  returned  to  Archa- 
dropolis,  was  conveyed  from  thence  to  Selymbria,  and 
from  Selymbria  by  sea  to  Strongylum,  where  he  died 
in  the  vessel,  on  the   13th  of  September,  in  the  fifty- 
sixth  year  of  his  age,  after  he  had  reigned  fifty-five, 
namely,  twenty-one  with  his  father,  ten  alone,  and 
twenty-four  with  his  son. —  (Theoph.  ad  ann.  Constan- 
tin.  33,  34,  35.  Auctor.  Miscell.)     To  the  account   the 
author  of  the  Miscella,  and  Theophanes,  who  lived  at 
this  very  time,  give  us  of  Constantine's  death,  Cedre- 
nus,  who  wrote  three  hundred  years  after,  adds  that 
in  the  agonies  of  death  he  cried  out  that  "he  was  de- 
livered alive  to  an  unextinguishable  fire,  on  accountof 
the   virgin    Mary ;"   that   he   commanded   her   to   be 
thenceforth  honored  as  the  true  mother  of  God,  and 
that  he  expired  in  praying  for  the  safety  of  the  people, 
of  the  senate,  of  his  son,  and  the  preservation  of  the 
churches  of  >St.  Sophia,  of  .St.  Mary  in  lilachernis,  St. 
Mary  in  Chalcopratriis,  and   other  churches  of  Con- 
stantinople, which  that  writer  names.     Upon  the  au- 
thority  of  Cedrenus    Baronius,    Natalia    Alexander, 
Maimbourg  and  the  whole  tribe  of  the  popish  writers 
deliver  it  as  a  thing  not  at  all  to  be  doubted,  that  Con- 
stantine, at  the  point  of  death,  despaired  of  his  salva- 
tion; that  he  died  crying  out  he  was  condemned  alive 
to  the  eternal  flames,  for  the  blasphemies  he  had  ut- 
tered against  the  virgin  Mary,  and  that  he  commanded 
her  to  be  thenceforth  honored  as  the  true  mother  of 
God,  without  any  regard   to  what  he  had  said  or  done 
against   her.     But   of  all   this   not   a  single  word  in 
Theophanes,  in  the  author  of  the  Miscella,  in  Paulua 
Diaconus,  or  Nicephorus,  who  all  lived  in  these  times 
or  near  them,  and  were  all  no  less  zealous  advocates 
for   the   worship  of  images,  of  saints,  of  the  virgin 
Mary,  and  no  less  provoked  against  Constantine  for 
banishing  that  superstition  than  Cedrenus.     And  is  it 
at  all  probable,  that  had  they  been  acijuainted  with 
the  above  mentioned  circumstances  of  Constantine'a 
death,  so  favorable  to  the  cause  they  maintained,  they 
would  have  all  passed  them  over  in  silence  1     They 
would  not  perhaps  have  been  so  uncharitable  as  to 
triumph  and  exult,  as  Baronius  and  Maimbourg  have 
done,  in  the  supposed  damnation  of  the  emperor;  but 
neither  would  they   have  concealed   it.     Now,  if  Ihe 
writers,  who  lived,  as  some  of  them  did  whom  I  have 
mentioned,  at  the  very  time  of  Constantine's  death, 
were   unacquainted  with  those   melancholy   circum- 
stances  of  it,  how  came  Cedrenus  acquainted   with 
them  three  hundred  years  after  1     We  shall  soon  see 
the  testimony  of  Sigebert,  concerning  a  certain  coul^- 
cil,  rejected  by  Baronius,  and  all  the  popish  writers  to 
a  man,  (and  shall  reject  it  together  with  them)  chiefly 
because  no  mention  is  made  of  that  council  by  any  of 
the  contemporary  writers,  and   Sigebert  lived  three 
hundred  years  after  the  time,  in  which  it  was  sup- 
posed to  have  been  held.     The  only  reason  I  can  al- 
iedge,  and   Baronius  himself,  1  believe,  could  have  al- 
ledged  no  other,  why  he  rejected  the  testiujony  of  the 
one  writer,  and  admitted  that  of  the  other,  though  the 

m2 


138 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES. 


[Hadrian. 


Constantine  opposed  to  image  worship. 


XI.  of  that  name,  who  reigned  only  five  years.'     He  was  married  in  769  to  Irene, 


same  objection  lay  equally  against  both,  was  because 
the  testimony  of  the  one  made  against,  and  the  testi- 
mony of  the  other  made  for  the  cause,  which  he  had 
undertaken  to  maintain  without  any  regard  to  truth, 
conscience,  or  honesty.  As  for  Constantine's  blas- 
pheming the  virgin  Mary,  and  believing  himself  damn- 
ed on  that  account,  if  the  words  of  Cedrenus  are  to  be 
thus  understood  ;  he  would  not  indeed  allow  the  wor- 
ship to  be  given  to  her,  to  her  image,  or  to  any  other 
creature,  that  he  thought  due  to  God  alone  ;  but  at  the 
same  time  he  respected,  reverenced  and  honored  her 
as  the  mother  of  God,  anathematizing  with  the  fathers 
of  the  council,  that  was  held  under  him,  "all  who  did 
not  confess  the  virgin  Mary,  mother  of  God,  to  be 
above  all  visible  and  invisible  creatures." — (See  p. 
101.)  By  the  same  council  were  anathematized  "all 
who  did  not  confess  the  saints,  who  before  the  law, 
and  under  the  law  had  pleased  God,  to  be  honor- 
able in  his  sight;"  (See  p.  101.)  so  that  he  no  other- 
wise blasphemed  the  virgin  Mary,  or  the  other  saints, 
but  by  forbidding  them  to  be  worshiped,  or  command- 
ing all  worship  to  be  given  to  God  alone.  He  did  not, 
even  according  to  Cedrenus,  command  the  virgin  Mary 
and  the  saints  to  be  thenceforth  worshiped,  or  their 
images  to  be  restored,  which  he  had  caused  to  be  cast 
out  of  the  churches  ;  and  therefore  did  not  repent  or 
retract  what  he  had  done,  as  is  affirmed  by  Baronius 
and  Maimbourg,  who  from  thence  take  occasion  to 
compare  him  to  the  wicked  king  Anliochus,  and  would 
make  us'  believe,  that  repentance  was  as  useless  to 
him,  as  it  was  to  that  king. 

As  Constantine  spared  no  pains,  and,  I  may  say,  no 
punishments  to  suppress,  and  etfectually  suppressed 
the  superstitious  worship  of  images,  at  least  in  the 
east,  the  monks,  who  lived  chiefly  by  that  supersti- 
tion, and  wrote  after  it  was  restored,  have  spared  no 
pains  in  their  turn  to  blacken  his  character,  and  ren- 
der his  name  infamous  to  the  latest  posterity.  There 
is  no  crime,  which  they  have  not,  with  that  view  laid 
to  his  charge  ;  no  heresy,  of  which  they  have  not  ar- 
raigned him.  He  was,  if  they  are  to  be  credited,  an 
Arian,  an  Eutychian,  a  Nestorian,  a  Socinian,  a  Mani- 
chee,  &c.,  and  besides,  a  magician,  and  one,  who 
dealt  with  the  devil,  who  invoked  the  devil,  who  wor- 
shiped the  devil,  while  he  would  not  allow  the  ser- 
vants of  God  to  worship  the  saints.  Were  all  we 
read,  or  the  hundredth  part  of  what  we  read  in  the 
invectives  of  the  monkish  writers  against  this  excel- 
lent emperor  true,  Maimbourg  might,  in  drawing  his 
character,  have  called  him,  as  he  does,  and  called  him 
with  justice,  the  most  wicked  prince  that  ever  lived 
on  the  earth,  or  rather  a  monster,  in  whom  centered 
all  abominations  without  the  least  appearance  of  one 
single  virtue  to  atone  for  so  many  vices. — (Maimb. 
Hist.  Iconoclast.  1.  3.  p.  3.36,  337.)  But  with  no  one 
vice  is  he  charged  by  the  contemporary  historians, 
who,  had  they  known  he  was  guilty  of,  or  addicted  to 
any,  would  not  have  failed,  we  may  be  sure,  as  they 
were  all  his  avowed  enemies,  to  publish  them  to  the 
world.  They  speak  indeed  very  reservedly  of  his  vir- 
tues ;  but  yet  own  him  to  have  been  a  prince  of  great 
temperance,  of  uncommon  resolution  and  courage, 
well  skilled  in  war,  greatly  beloved  by  all,  who  served 
under  him  either  in  military  or  civil  employments,  and 
one,  who  defended  the  empire,  with  good  success, 
against  the  Saracens  and  the  Bulgarians,  that  is,  with 
such  success  as  would  have  procured  him  the  highest 
encomiums  from  the  writers  of  those  times,  had  not 
his  zeal  for  the  purity  of  the  Christian  worship  made 
them  his  enemies.  His  severity,  or,  as  it  is  called,  his 
cruelty  to  the  worshipers  of  images,  especially  the 
monks,  is  the  only  thing  the  historians,  who  deserve 
any  credit,  have  been  able,  with  the  least  appearance 
of  truth,  to  lay  to  his  charge.  Against  the  monks  in- 
deed he  proceeded,  it  must  be  owned,  with  the  utmost 
severity  ;  but  not  till  he  found  that  he  could  by  no 
other  means  overcome  their  obstinacy,  and  wean  them 
from  the  superstition,  which  he  was  determined,  at 
all  events,  to  suppress,  and  till  they,  not  satisfied  with 
setting  up  and  worshiping  images  in  defiance  of  his 
repeated  edicts,  and  the  definition  of  a  general  coun- 
cil, began  to  disturb  the  peace  of  the  empire,  to  stir 
up  the  people  to  sedition  and  rebellion,  and  had  even 
the  insolence  to  insult  him,  and  in  the  grossest  man- 
ner, to  his  face. — (See  p.  114.)  His  severity  to  them 
was  great,  and  great  was  the  provocation  they  save 
him.  Had  the  protestant  subjects  of  Lewis  "XIV., 
behaved  in  like  manner;  had  they,  in  defiance  of  his 
edicts,  pulled  down  and  destroyed  the  images  he  wor- 


shiped; had  they  disturbed  the  peace  of  his  king- 
dom, stirred  up  the  people,  by  seditious  harangues,  to 
rebellion,  and  publicly  insulted  and  reviled  him,  they 
would  not  have  met  with  better  treatment  from  him, 
perhaps  with  worse,  than  the  monks  met  with  from 
Constantine  ;  nor  would  Maixnbourg,  who  justifies  all 
the  severities,  that  were  practised  upon  that  unhappy 
people  without  the  least  provocation,  have  thought 
that  his  grand  monarch,  when  thus  provoked,  would 
have  deserved  to  be  painted  as  a  blood-thirsty  ty- 
rant, as  a  monster  of  cruelty,  for  resenting  such  usage 
with  the  same  severity  it  was  resented  with  by  the 
emperor. 

As  to  the  various  heresies,  which  the  monkish 
writers  have  charged  him  with;  they  are,  most  of 
them  at  least,  quite  incompatible  with  each  other; 
and  besides,  Constantine  condemned  with  the  council, 
which  he  assembled,  signed,  and  caused  to  be  received 
all  over  the  east,  every  heresy,  that  had  till  that  time 
been  condemned  by  the  church.  The  only  heresy 
therefore,  that  can  justly  be  laid  to  his  charge,  waa 
what  a  council  of  three  hundred  and  thirty-eight 
bishops  had  defined,  namely,  that  God  alone  is  to  be 
worshiped,  and  worshiped  "in  spirit  and  truth." 
Magic,  which  Constantine  has  been  arraigned  of  by 
the  monks,  as  well  as  of  heresy,  was,  in  those  days,  a 
common  charge;  and  all  were  magicians  and  dealt 
with  the  devil,  who  quarreled  with  the  monks  or  the 
clergy.  Upon  the  whole,  had  Constantine  as  zeal- 
ously promoted  the  worship  of  images  as  he  opposed 
it,  it  is  not  at  all  to  be  doubted  but  that  he  would  have 
been  placed  among  the  best  of  princes,  if  not  the 
greatest  saints,  by  those  very  writers,  who  have  filled 
their  histories  and  their  legends  with  virulent  decla- 
mations against  him.  His  undertaking  to  abolish  the 
most  wicked,  as  he  thought,  as  well  as  the  most  favor- 
ite superstition,  that  had  ever  crept  into  the  church, 
and  steadily  pursuing  so  difficult  an  undertaking  at 
the  expense  of  his  own  quiet,  and  not  without  endan- 
gering both  his  crown  and  his  life,  must  alone  convince 
every  unbiassed  reader  that  he  was  a  most  religious 
prince,  having  above  all  things  at  heart  the  purity  of 
the  religion  he  professed.  He  left  some  writings  be- 
hind him,  which,  we  may  be  sure,  have  not  been  suf- 
fered to  reach  our  times.  Some  of  them  however 
were  still  extant  in  the  time  of  Theosterictus,  who 
tells  us  that  he  had  read  thirteen  orations  written  by 
Constantine,  surnamed  Copronymus.  But  all  he  says 
of  them  is,  that  in  none  of  them  was  mentioned  the 
invocation  of  saints.  Indeed  Constantine  allowed,  as 
we  have  seen  elsewhere,  (See  p.  101.)  the  interces- 
sion, but  not  the  invocation  of  saints. 

'  Leo  was  born,  according  to  Theophanes,  in  750; 
was  taken  by  his  father,  in  751,  for  partner  in  the 
empire;  succeeded  him  on  the  13lh  of  September,  755, 
and  died  on  the  8th  of  the  same  month,  780 ;  so  that 
he  died  in  the  thirtieth  year  of  his  age,  having  reigned 
four  years  with  his  father,  and  twenty-five  alone, 
wanting  six  days.  Nothing  remarkable  happened  in 
his  reign  besides  the  conversion  of  Telerus,  king  of 
the  Bulgarians,  who,  moved  with  an  earnest  desire  of 
embracing  the  Christian  religion,  left  his  kingdom, 
and  repaired  to  Constantinople,  where  he  was  re- 
ceived by  the  emperor  with  extraordinary  marks  of 
kindness  and  esteem,  and  baptized  by  the  patriarch 
with  the  greatest  solemnity.  After  his  baptism  the 
emperor,  who  was  himself  his  sponsor,  created  him  a 
patrician,  married  him  to  a  near  relation  of  the  em- 
press Irene,  and  raised  him  to  the  highest  honors  of 
the  empire. — (Theoph.  ad  Ann.  Leon.  2.) 

Leo  was  as  great  an  enemy  to  images  as  his  father 
or  grandfather  ;  revoked  none  of  their  edicts,  and 
would  allow  no  images  to  be  publicly  set  up,  or  pub- 
licly worshiped;  but  yet  gave  no  encouragement  to 
informers,  suffered  no  searches  to  be  made,  in  private 
houses,  after  pictures  or  images,  and  contented  him- 
self with  only  reprimanding  those,  who  were  ar- 
raigned or  convicted  of  still  practising  the  condemned 
superstition.  He  flattered  himself,  that  he  should 
thus  more  effectually  wean  them  from  their  supersti- 
tious practices,  than  by  all  the  severity  and  rigor  he 
could  use.  Indeed  the  worst  of  sects  have  flourished 
the  most,  when  under  persecution,  and  insensibly 
mouldered  away,  when  toleration  and  mercy  took 
place.  The  famous  saying,  "  Sanguis  martyrum  semen 
Christianorum,"  may,  with  as  much  trulh,  be  applied 
to  every  religion,  as  it  was,  in  times  of  persecution, 
applied  to  the  Christian.  This  conduct  Leo  pursued, 
during  the  four  first  years  of  his  reign,  but  afterwards 


Hadrian.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


139 


Irene  governs  during  the  ministry  of  her  son  Constantine.     Causes  the  late  emperor's  brothers  to  be  shaved 

and  ordained. 


a  native  of  Athens,  of  whom  I  shall  have 
frequent  occasioQ   to  speak  in  the  sequel, 

changed  it  on  the  following  occasion.  When  liis  fa- 
ther Constantino  married  him  to  Irene  one  of  tlie  mar- 
riage articles  was,  that  she  should  neither  worship 
images  herself,  nor  ever  suffer  them  to  be  worshiped 
by  others.  Whether  she  then  really  was,  or  was 
only  suspected  to  be,  addicted  to  that  superstition, 
history  does  not  inform  us.  But  in  lliis  all  historians 
agree,  that  at  the  desire  of  both  princes  she  bound 
herself,  in  their  presence,  by  a  most  solemn  oath  to 
observe  that  article  most  religiously  so  long  as  she 
lived.  But,  without  any  regard  to  the  sacredness  of 
her  oath,  she  had,  after  the  death  of  the  emperor  Con- 
stantine, images  privately  conveyed  to  her,  and  pri- 
vately worshiped  them.  As  in  most  courts  there  are 
as  many  spies  as  courtiers,  and  what  is  spoken  or 
done  there  in  closets  is  proclaimed,  in  a  short  time, 
upon  the  house-tops,  Leo  was  soon  informed  of  the 
superstitious  practices  of  his  wife,  and  charged  her 
with  them.  But  she,  not  satisfied  with  denying  the 
charge,  had  even  the  assurance  to  reproach  the  em- 
peror with  want  of  confidence  in  crediting  his  lying 
informers  rather  than  her,  who  had  never  deceived 
him.  Hereupon  Leo,  who  was  better  informed  than 
she  imagined,  caused  her  closet,  her  bedchamber,  and 
even  her  bed  to  be  narrowly  searched,  and  at  last  two 
images  were  found  concealed  in  her  pillow.  Upon 
that  discovery  the  emperor,  provoked  beyond  measure 
in  seeing  his  very  palace  turned  into  a  temple  of  idols, 
spared  no  pains  to  find  out  the  persons,  who  had  had 
the  boldness  to  convey  them  thither  ;  and  he  found  in 
the  end,  that  the  papias,  or  the  person,  who  was 
trusted,  during  the  night  with  the  keys  of  the  gates  of 
the  palace,  had  brought  them  in  ;  that  the  captain  of 
Ihe  guards,  and  the  empress'  two  chamberlains  Stra- 
tegius  and  Theophanes,  were  privy  to  his  bringing 
them  in,  and  that  they  had  all  joined  with  the  empress 
in  the  idolatrous  worship  she  paid  to  those  images. 
The  emperor  therefore  ordered  them  to  be  immedi- 
ately apprehended,  to  be  severely  whipped,  and  to  be 
ignomiiiiously  conveyed  on  asses,  through  the  most 
frequented  streets  of  Constantinople,  to  the  public 
jail.  As  for  the  empress,  she  boldly  maintained  to 
the  last,  that  she  was  an  entire  stranger  to  the  whole 
affair,  and  that  the  two  images  had  been  concealed  in 
her  pillow  either  by  some,  who  still  adhered  to  that 
superstition,  but  never  suspected  that  any  one  would 
have  dared  to  search  her  very  bed  or  her  bed-cham- 
ber ;  or  by  some  malicious  person  with  the  wicked 
design  of  interrupting  the  harmony,  that  had  hitherto 
reigned  between  her  beloved  husband  and  her,  and 
with  that  harmony  the  happiness  of  both.-  Irene, 
Bays  here  Maimbourg,  was  not  so  zealous  a  catholic,  as 
the  holy  men  mentioned  above.  But  to  do  her  justice  ; 
if  Catholicism  consists,  as  that  writer  supposes  it  does, 
in  the  worship  of  images,  Irene  chose  rather  to  break 
a  most  solemn  oath,  than  to  abstain  from  that  worship  ; 
wliich  is  more  perhaps  than  those  holy  men  would  have 
had  zeal  or  courage  enough  to  have  done.  As  Leo 
was  too  well  informed  to  doubt  of  the  guilt  of  his  wife, 
he  bitterly  reproached  her  with  the  breach  of  her  oath, 
with  want  both  of  religion  and  honor,  and  driving  her 
from  his  pr«sence  would  never  afterwards  see  her. 
Maimbourg  tells  us  that  he  said  all  the  brutish  and 
shocking  things  to  her,  that  passion  and  rage  could 
suggest.  But  even  Cedrenus,  his  favorite  author, 
wliom  he  quotes,  says  no  more  than  that  he  called 
her,  in  a  passion,  "a  good  for  nothing  woman,"  "eam 
nauci  esse  dixit." — (Cedren.  toin.  11.  p.  409.) 

Leo  lived  but  a  very  short  time  after  tjiis  quarrel ;  and 
Theophanes,  the  author  of  the  Miscella,  and  Cedrenus 
give  us  the  following  account  of  his  death.  As  he 
was  passionately  fond  of  precious  stones,  he  took  out 
of  the  church  of  St.  Sophia  a  crown,  winch  had  been 
deposited  there  by  the  emperor  Mauricius  or  Hera- 
clius,  and  was  enriched  witJi  carbuncles  of  an  inesti- 
mable value,  to  wear  it  on  occasion  of  some  public 
solemnity.  But  while  he  was  wearing  it,  carbuncles 
broke  out  on  his  head,  and  at  the  same  time  he  was 
seized  with  a  violent  fever,  which  soon  put  an  end  to 
his  life. —  (Theoph.  ad  Ann.  Leon.  5.  Misnil.  Cedren. 
nbi  supra.)  I  will  not  quarrel  with  B.ironius  or 
Maimbourg  about  the  truth  of  this  account,  (though 
many  things  of  this  nature  have  been  related  and  cre- 
dited by  the  cnntempor;iry  credulous  liistoriaiis,  that 
exceed  all  belieO  but  think,  that  considering  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  emperor's  death,  we  need  not  recur 
with  them,  to  supernatural  causes  to  account  for  it. 
Natural  causes  are  but  too  obvious,  though  entirely , 


and  had  by  her,  in  771,  a  son  named  Constan- 
tine, who  succeeded  him  in  780,  his  mother 
governing,  as  he  was  under  age,  in  his 
name.  But  in  the  very  beginning  of  her 
regency,  Theophanes  says  lorly  days  after 
the  death  of  the  emperor,  someof  the  sena- 
tors and  great  oflicers  of  state,  scorning  to 
be  governed  by  a  woman,  formed  a  design 
of  driving  out  both  her  and  her  son,  and 
placing  Nicephorus  one  of  the  late  empe- 
ror's brothers  on  the  throne.  But  Irene, 
being  timely  informed  of  their  design,  caused 
all,  who  were  concerned  in  it,  to  be  appre- 
hended, to  be  publicly  whipped,  and  con- 
fined to  different  islands.'  The  emperor 
iiad  three  other  brothers,  who  had  been  all 
honored  by  him  with  the  title  of  Ca;sarsand 
Nobilissimi;  and  these,  to  put  them  out  of 
a  condition  of  ever  affecting  the  imperial 
crown,  the  empress  commanded  to  be 
shaved,  to  take  holy  orders,  and  to  ad- 
minister the  sacrament  to   the  people  on 


dissembled  by  Baronius,  and  hinted  at  only  by  Maim- 
bourg as  groundless  conjectures.  That  Leo  was  poi- 
soned, and  poisoned  by  his  wife,  I  will  not  say  is  a 
thing  past  all  doubt,  as  some  have  done  ;  but  neither 
is  it  a  groundless  conjecture.  She  was,  as  all  authors 
agree,  one  of  the  most  ambitious  women  we  read  of 
in  history;  and  scrujiled  no  crime  how  unnatural  so- 
ever and  heinous  to  gratify  her  ambition,  as  will  ap- 
pear in  the  secjuel.  But  by  disobliging  the  emperor  in 
the  manner  we  have  seen,  and  thereby  forfeiting  his 
favor,  and  with  his  favor  the  power  she  had  enjoyed 
to  that  time,  she  found  herself  reduced  to  the  condi- 
tion of  a  private  person;  and  in  that  state  she  was 
likely  to  continue,  as  the  emperor  appeared  irrecon- 
cilable, so  long  as  he  lived.  But  upon  his  death  she 
knew  that,  her  son  being  yet  a  child,  the  whole  power 
must  devolve  upon  her,  and  that,  during  his  minority 
at  least,  she  should  govern  uncontrolled  both  him  and 
the  empire.  It  is  not  theretore  at  alia  groundless 
conjecture,  that  a  woman  of  her  unbounded  ambition 
and  spirit,  and  so  abandonedly  wicked,  should  have 
been  tempted  to  remove  the  only  person  out  of  the 
way,  that  stood  between  her  and  the  power  she 
aspired  to,  and  that  being  checked  by  no  motives  of 
religion,  conscience  or  honor,  but  rather  spurred  on 
by  the  desire  of  gratifying  her  revenge  as  well  as  her 
ambition,  she  should  have  yielded  to  the  temptation. 
It  is  certain  at  least,  if  the  above-mentioned  writers 
are  to  be  credited,  that  the  emperor,  who  was  then  in 
the  flower  of  his  age,  and  had  ever  enjoyed  most  per- 
fect health,  died  soon  after  her  disgrace,  and  that 
upon  his  death  she  was  immediately  acknowledged 
by  her  friends  at  court,  with  whom  she  privately  cor- 
responded, and  whom  she  had  perhaps  en]ployed  aa 
the  instruments  of  her  revenge  and  ambition,  for  re- 
gent of  the  empire.  As  for  the  fever,  of  which  the 
emperor  died,  and  the  carbuncles  attending  it,  which 
Maimbourg  describes  as  minutely  as  if  he  had  seen, 
examined  and  counted  them,  they  might  have  been 
the  effects  of  the  poison,  that  was  administered  to 
him  ;  to  that  at  least  they  may  be  more  properly 
ascribed  than  to  the  vengeance  of  heaven  upon  the 
unhappy  prince  for  wearing  a  crown  oi:!y  a  few  hours, 
that  was  given  to  the  church;  or  for  punishing  those, 
who  were  assisting  to  his  wife  in  her  superstitious 
practices  and  the  breach  of  her  oath.  But  in  the 
deaths  of  all  the  princes,  who  have  opposed  the 
worship  of  images,  or  indeed  any  other  favorite 
tenet  of  the  Romish  chtirch,  in  what  manner  soever 
they  died,  the  writers  of  that  church  have  discovered 
something  very  extraordinary  and  quite  unaccount- 
able, that  they  might  construe  it  into  judgments 
and  the  vengeance  of  heaven.  And  with  as  much 
reason  might  the  protestants  construe  into  judgments 
the  death  of  Henry  II.,  of  Charles  IX.,  of  Henry  HI., 
of  France,  of  Philip  11.,  of  Spain,  and,  not  to  mention 
others,  of  queen  Mary  of  England,  who  was  cut  off  in 
the  flower  of  her  age  at  so  seasonable  a  juncture  for 
our  great  queen  Elizabeth  and  the  protesiant  cause. 
■  Theoph.  ad  Ann.  Leon.  1.  Miscell.  I.  23. 


140 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Hadrian. 


Irene's  chosen  ministers.  She  defeats  the  Saracens  and  concludes  an  advantageous  peace  with  them.  She 
proposes  a  marriage  between  the  emperor,  her  son,  and  the  daugiiter  of  Charlemagne  ; — [Year  of  Christ, 
782.]  Her  view  therein.  The  treaty  broken  off  and  the  young  emperor  obliged,  by  his  mother,  to  marry  an 
Armenian.     She  iindertakes  to  re-establish  the  worship  of  images. 


Christmas  day  in  the  church  of  St.  Sophia, 
that  all  might  know  they  were  shaved 
and  ordained,  and  consequently  rendered 
forever  incapable  of  the  imperial  dignity. 
On  that  occasion  the  empress  assisted  at 
divine  service  with  her  son,  attended  by  the 
great  officers  of  state  and  all  the  nobility,  to 
honor,  with  her  presence,  the  first  ecclesias- 
tical function  of  the  degraded  Caesars. i 

Irene's  next  care  was  to  choose  proper 
ministers,  that  is,  ministers  ready  to  fall  in 
with  her  in  all  her  views  and  designs.  And 
she  chose  accordingly  the  patrician  Staura- 
cius  for  her  prime  mmister,  a  man  of  un- 
common abilities,  a  good  commander,  and 
one  entirely  devoted  to  her;  and  filled  all 
the  other  great  offices  with  persons,  on  whose 
fidelity  and  attachment  to  her  person  and 
interest  she  knew  she  could  safely  rely.  At 
the  same  time  she  made  it  her  study  to  oblige 
the  army  with  largesses,  and  to  gain  the  af- 
fections of  the  people  and  clergy  with  an 
extraordinary  show  of  religion  and  piety. 
Swayed  by  her  unbounded  ambition  she 
could  not  think  of  ever  parting  with  her 
present  power  and  authority ;  and  to  main- 
tain the  one  and  the  other  so  long  as  she 
lived,  she  began  early  to  pursue  such  mea- 
sures as  appeared  to  her  the  best  calculated 
to  answer  that  purpose. 

In  the  meantime  the  Saracens,  hearing 
the  emperor  was  dead,  and  the  empire  go- 
verned by  a  woman,  laid  hold  of  that  oppor- 
tunity to  break  into  the  eastern  provinces, 
and  surprise  there  some  cities  and  strong- 
holds. But  Irene  immediately  dispatched 
one  of  her  generals  against  them,  who, 
coming  up  with  them  in  Asia  gave  them  a 
total  overthrow,  and  obliged  them  not  only 
to  retire  with  great  loss,  but  to  conclude  a 
peace  upon  terms  very  advantageous  to  the 
empire."  This  success  greatly  recommended 
Irene  to  the  esteem  and  good  will  of  the 
people,  and  even  reconciled  her  to  many, 
who  had  not  hitherto  approved  of  her  mea- 
sures. 

And  now  she  had  nothing,  at  present,  to 
fear  from  the  enemies  of  the  empire  in  the 
east.  But  her  jealousy  was  roused  by  the 
fame  of  Charlemagne's  exploits,  and  the 
rapidity  of  his  conquests  in  the  west;  the 
more,  as  she  was  informed  that  he  was  at 
this  time  in  Rome,  and  pressed  by  the  pope 
to  invade  the  dukedom  of  Naples,  and  seize 
on  the  small  remains  of  the  empire  in  Italy. 
This  she  was  sensible  he  might  easily  ac- 
complish ;  and  therefore  to  divert  him  from 
attempting  it,  she  resolved,  as  she  never 
wanted  resources,  to  amuse  him  with  the 
proposal  of  a  marriage  between  his  daughter 
Rotrude,'  and  the  young  emperor  Constan- 


»  Theoph.  ad  Ann.  Leon.  1.  Miscell.  1.  23. 
'Theoph.  ad  Ann.  2.  Constantin. 
•  Rotrude  was  Charlemagne's  eldest  daughter,  born 
in  773.    Theophanes    calls  her  Herytrus  from  the 


tine ;  and  she  sent  accordingly  a  very  solemn 
embassy  to  Charlemagne,  at  the  head  of 
which  was  Constanline,  high  treasurer  of 
the  empire,  to  propose  that  match  as  a  bond 
of  eternal  friendship  and  amity  between  the 
two  great  Christian  powers.  Charlemagne, 
flattering  himself  that  the  court  of  Constan- 
tinople would,  upon  such  an  alliance,  quite 
abandon  Adalgisus,  or  at  least  not  encourage 
or  support  him  in  his  pretensions  to  the 
kingdom  of  the  Lombards,  which  would 
prevent  any  further  disturbances  in  Italy, 
hearkened  with  great  pleasure  to  the  propo- 
sal, and  the  marriage  articles  were  settled 
and  agreed  to  on  the  one  side  and  the  other. 
But  as  the  emperor  was,  at  this  time,  only 
eleven  years  old,  and  Rotrude  only  nine, 
she  was  left  in  France,  and  an  eunuch  of 
the  imperial  palace,  named  Eliseus,  was  left 
with  her  to  teach  her  the  language,  and  the 
manners  of  the  Greeks.'  But  this  marriage 
never  took  place;  nor  indeed  did  Irene  de- 
sign it  ever  should.  She  apprehended,  that 
should  her  son  marry  the  daughter  of  so  re- 
nowned and  powerful  a  prince,  he  would 
probably  be  governed  by  his  councils  rather 
than  by  hers,  and  might,  depending  upon 
his  protection,  shake  off  the  yoke,  and  go- 
vern either  by  himself,  or  as  his  father-in- 
law,  who  would  not  fail  to  espouse  his 
cause,  should  direct  him.  The  proposal 
served  to  divert  Charlemagne  from  attempt- 
ing, at  the  instigation  of  the  pope,  the  con- 
quest of  Italy.  But  Irene,  when  no  longer 
threatened  with  that  danger,  started  so  many 
difficulties,  that  in  the  end  Charlemagne 
himself  thought  it  advisable,  which  was  all 
the  crafty  woman  wanted,  to  break  off  the 
treaty.  It  was  no  sooner  broken  oflT  than 
the  unnatural  mother  forced  her  son,  though 
extremely  desirous  of  an  alliance  with  Char- 
lemagne, to  marry  an  Armenian  named 
Mary,  of  an  obscure  parentage,  and  a  very 
mean  education.  The  young  emperor  was 
utterly  averse  to  that  match,  and  earnestly 
begged  his  mother  Avould  not  insist  upon  his 
taking  to  his  bed,  and  his  companion  for  life, 
one,  to  use  the  expression  of  Zonares,  whom 
he  utterly  abhorred.  But  she  was  deaf  to 
his  prayers  and  entreaties,  and  apprehending 
her  power  to  be  in  no  danger  from  an  obscure 
Armenian,  or  from  her  friends  and  relations, 
regardless  of  the  happiness  of  her  son,  she 
obliged  him,  in  the  end,  to  consent  to  the 
match." 

However,  she  continued  to  amuse  Charle- 
magne with  the  match  between  his  daughter 
and  her  son,  till  she  had  put  the  grand  de- 
sign in  execution,  which  she  had  formed  in 

Greek  word  ipuB^of,  signifying  red;  no  doubt  thinking 
that  the  word  Rotrude  had  the  same  signification 
among  the  Franks. 

>  Theoph.  Miscell.  Zonar.  Cedren. 

"  Theoph.  ad  Ann.  Const.  13.  Eginhard.  in  vit.  Carol. 
Zonar.  &c. 


Hadrian.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME 


141 


Irene  grants  liberty  of  conscience,  and  recalls  the  banished  monks  ;—[Yearof  Christ,  783.]  Paul,  the  patriarch, 
resigns.   The  account  given  by  the  fathers  of  Nice  and  Theophanes  of  his  resignation,  evidently  fabulous. 


the  very  beginning  of  her  regency,  that  of 
restoring,  throughout  the  empire,  the  use 
and  the  worship  of  images.  She  had  bound 
herself,  as  has  been  related  above,  by  a  most 
solemn  oath^,  never  to  worship  images  her- 
self, or  sufTe'r  them  to  be  worshiped  by  others. 
But,  unmindful  of  that  oath,  and  perhaps 
thinking  it  even  meritorious  to  break  it,  if  a 
woman  of  her  character  could  have  any  no- 
tion of  merit  or  virtue,  she  no  sooner  found 
herself  vested  with  power,  than  she  under- 
took to  establish  what  she  had  so  solemnly 
promised  to  abolish.  However,  she  pro- 
ceeded at  first  with  great  caution,  revoked 
none  of  the  edicts  of  the  preceding  emperors 
against  images,  but  only  connived  at  their 
being  set  up  in  some  churches,  and  would 
take  no  notice  of  the  worship,  that  was  given 
them  by  some  of  the  populace.  Soon  after, 
under  color  of  granting  to  all  an  entire  liberty 
of  conscience,  she  declared  it  lawful  for 
every  one  to  hold,  and  publicly  to  maintain 
the  opinion  with  respect  to  images,  that 
should  appear  to  them  the  best  grounded, 
and  at  the  same  time  recalled  the  monks, 
who  in  the  preceding  reign  had  lain  conceal- 
ed in  the  deserts,  and  whom  she  knew  to  be 
all  most  zealous  promoters  of  the  Avorship 
of  images.  Thus  were  two  of  Constantine's 
edicts  revoked,  both  issued  after  the  worship, 
as  well  as  the  use  of  images,  had  been  con- 
demned at  Constantinople  by  three  hundred 
and  thirty-eight  bishops.  By  the  one  all 
were  forbidden,  under  the  severest  penalties, 
to  defend,  practise,  or  maintain  a  worship 
condemned  by  a  general  council.  By  the 
other  the  subjects  of  the  empire  were  re- 
strained from  leading  idle  and  indolent  lives 
in  monasteries  under  color  of  devotion,  or 
distinguishing  themselves  from  their  fellow 
subjects  by  any  particular  dress.' 

An  event  is  said  to  have  happened  at  this 
time,  which  greatly  served  to  forward  the 
design  of  Irene,  and  encourage  her  to  pursue 
it.  It  is  thus  related  by  Theophanes.  Paul, 
patriarch  of  the  imperial  city,  a  prelate  of 
extraordinary  learning  and  piety,  finding 
himself  indisposed,  quitted  thereupon  the 
patriarchal  throne,  and  withdrawing  to  a 
monastery,  took  the  monastic  habit,  without 
imparting  his  design,  either  to  the  emperor, 
or  to  the  regent  his  mother.  Irene  no  less 
surprised  at  the  sudden  retreat,  than  con- 
cerned for  the  loss  of  so  worthy  a  prelate, 
repaired  with  her  son,  as  soon  as  she  heard 
of  it,  to  the  monastery  to  learn  from  the  pa- 
triarch himself  the  true  cause  of  so  unex- 
pected a  resolution.  But  he,  bursting  into 
tears  as  soon  as  she  entered  his  cell,  cried 
out  aloud  before  she  could  utter  one  word, 
"O  that  I  had  never  accepted  the  episcopal 
dignity  in  a  church,  that  \vas  kept  in  slavery, 
and  cut  off  from,  as  well  as  anathematized 
by,  all  the  other  patriarchal  churches  on  ac- 

'  Concil.  Nic.  2.  act.  2. 


count  of  her  heresy."'    The  fathers  of  Nice 
add,  that  the  patriarch,  who  lay  then  at  the 
point  of  death,  owned,  that  being  an  enemy 
to  images,  he  should  have  undergone  the 
fate  of  all  other  heretics,  and  been  condemn- 
ed with  the  devil  to  everlasting  darkness, 
had  he  not  repented  of  his  error,  and  re- 
tracted  it  in  the  most  public  manner   he 
could.2  Irene,  continuesTheophanes, greatly 
affected  with  the  words  of  the  dying  patri- 
arch, sent  in  great  haste,  apprehending  his 
end  to  be  near,  for  the  chief  patricians  and 
senators,  to  whom  the  holy  prelate,  upon 
their  entering   his  cell,  addressed    himself 
thus:  you  have  all  erred,  you  continue  to 
err,  and  there  is  no  salvation  for  you,  unless 
a  general  council  be  convened,  and  the  error 
removed  that  prevails  among  you.     If  so, 
replied  the  patricians  and  senators,  why  did 
you,  atyour  consecration,  solemnly  renounce 
the  worship  of  images,  and  sign  the  decree 
condemning  that  worship  ?    That  is  the  very 
crime,  replied   the   patriarch,  the   heinous 
crime,  that  now  afflicts  and  torments  me ; 
that  is  the  crime  1  now  strive,  by  a  sincere 
repentance,  to  atone  for,  which  I  hope  God 
will  accept,  and  not  punish  me  as  I  deserve, 
for  having  been  hitherto  silent,  and  declined 
preaching  the  truth,  as  it  was  my  indispen- 
sable duty  to  do,  lest  I  should  thereby  forfeit 
your  favor.    These  were  his  last  words ;  and 
he  had  scarce  uttered  them  when  he  expired, 
greatly  lamented  by  all,  by  the  good  men  as 
well  as  the  bad,  by  the  pious  as  well  as  the 
impious;  that  is  by  men  of  both  parties, 
by  the  pious,  who  held  the  lawfulness  of 
image  worship,  as  well  as  by  the  impious, 
who  denied  it.     For  he  was  a  most  holy 
man,  generous  to  the  poor  beyond  measure, 
worthy  of  the  highest  respect  and  esteem, 
and  one,  in  whom  an  entire  confidence  was 
placed  both  by  the  republic  and  the  empire.^ 
Thus  Theophanes. 

Thus  Theophanes;  and  in  this  account 
the  popish  writers  triumph,  especially  Ba- 
ronius  and  Maimbourg,  as  if  they  had  carried 
their  cause.  But  should  we  even  allow  the 
account  to  be  true,  I  should  be  glad  to  know 
what  can  be  inferred  from  it  in  favor  of 
images.  Is  the  authority  of  one  man,  how 
learned  soever  and  Avise,  of  a  man  at  the 
point  of  death,  when  the  understanding  is 
commonly  impaired,  of  weight  enough  to 
counterbalance  that  of  all  the  primitive 
fathers,  of  all  the  learned  and  wise  men  of 
the  catholic  church  from  the  times  of  the  apos- 
tles downtotheeighthcentury,''  of  three  hun- 
dred and  thirty-eight  bishops  assembled  in  a 
general  council?  I  said,  should  we  allow 
the  account  to  be  true.  But  that  it  is  not 
true;  thai,  at  least,  it  is  highly  improbable, 
ihougii  related  by  contemporary  writers  may 
be  easily  shown.     Paul  was  raised  to  the  pa- 


»  Thcoph.  ad  Ann.  Const.  9. 
»  Tljeoph.  ubi  supra. 


«  Concil.  Nic.  2.  act.  3. 
*  See  p.  43. 


142 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Hadrian. 


Tarasius  appointed  patriarch  in  the  room  of  Paul ;— [Year  of  Christ,  784.]     The  craft  and  address  of  Irene  and 

Tarasius  on  that  occasion. 


triarchal  dignity,  according  to  all  the  histo- 
rians, and  Theophanes  himself,'  by  the  em- 
peror Leo,  in  780,  the  last  year  of  his  reign 
and  his  life;  so  that  Paul,  who  died  in  784, 
must  have  presided  in  that  church  four  years 
under  Irene.  Now  as  he  could  not  but  know 
that  she  had  nothing  so  much  at  heart  as  to 
establish  tlie  use  and  the  worship  of  images, 
and  was  pursuing  all  the  measures,  that  ap- 
peared to  her  the  best  calculated  for  that 
purpose,  it  is  highly  improbable,  or  rather 
altogether  incredible,  that  he  should  have 
realiy  beheved  the  doctrine  of  image  wor- 
ship to  be  the  true  catholic  doctrine,  nay, 
and  been  even  persuaded,  that  there  was  no 
salvation  for  those,  who  did  not  hold  and 
profess  it,  and  nevertheless  have  continued, 
to  the  time  of  his  death,  to  profess  the  oppo- 
site doctrine;  and  that,  when  he  knew,  that 
he  could  by  no  other  means  more  effectually 
recommend  himself  to  the  favor  of  Irene,  in 
whom  centered  all  power,  than  by  re- 
nouncing the  one,  in  comphance  with  the 
dictates  of  his  conscience,  and  embracing 
the  other.  Had  he  renounced,  under  Leo, 
the  worship  of  images  merely  to  qualify 
himself  for  the  patriarchal  dignity,  as  is 
affirmed  by  Theophanes,  he  would,  without 
doubt,  have  declared  for  that  worship,  as 
soon  as  the  power  devolved  on  Irene,  and 
not  continued  to  oppose  it,  as  he  is  said  to 
have  done,  against  his  interest  as  well  as  his 
conscience.  As  he  therefore  continued  to 
oppose  it,  and  to  oppose  it  with  great  zeal,  as 
appears  from  Theophanes,  to  the  time  of 
his  resignation,  it  is  not  at  all  to  be  doubted, 
but  that  he  acted  therein  agreeably  to  his 
opinion  and  conscience,  and  that  finding 
Irene  was  determined  to  restore  the  con- 
demned superstition,  he  chose  rather  to  re- 
sign than  contend  with  her,  or  be  any  ways 
accessory  to  so  wicked  a  design.  As  for  his 
pretended  conversion,  repentance  and  re- 
traction, the  whole  was  probably  invented 
either  by  Irene  herself,  or  by  the  good 
fathers  of  Nice ;  as  were  many  other  con- 
versions, apparitions,  miracles,  prophecies, 
which,  with  the  assistance  of  the  monks, 
they  obtruded  on  the  credulous  populace  at 
a  time  when  none  dared  to  disprove  them.2 


«  Theoph.  ad  Ann.  5.  Leon. 

»  Among  the  other  strange  events,  that  are  said  to 
have  happened  at  this  time,  all  well  calculated  to  pro- 
mote the  design  of  Irene,  and  recommend  it  to  the 
ignorant  multitude,  the  following  is  worthy  of  notice, 
being  gravely  related  by  Theophanes,  Cedrenus,  the 
author  of  the  Miscella,  Zonaras,  Gregoras,  and,  we 
may  be  sure,  not  passed  over  in  silence  by  Baronius 
and  his  transcriber  Maimbourg.  In  the  first  year  of 
Constantine's  or  rather  of  Irene's  reign,  near  the  long 
wall  of  Thrace,  the  wall,  that  was  built  about  forty 
miles  from  Constantinople  to  protect  that  province 
against  the  sudden  irruptions  of  the  barbarians,  was 
discovered  by  a  peasant  digging  there  the  body  of 
a  man  in  a  stone  coffin  with  the  following  inscrip- 
tion in  Greek  :  "  Christ  is  to  be  born  of  the  virgin 
Mary:  I  believe  in  him.  O  sun,  thou  shalt  see  me 
again  under  Constantine  and  Irene." — (Theoph.  ad 
Ann.  Constantin.  4.)  This  pretended  discovery  and 
prediction,  as  no  deceit  was  then  suspected,  which 
plainly  shows  the  ignorance  of  the  age,  greatly  served 


Paul  being  dead,  Irene's  chief  care  and 
concern  was  to  find  a  fit  person  to  substitute 
in  his  room,  that  is,  a  person  both  willing 
and  able  to  promote  her  design  :  and  as  these 
were  the  only  qualifications  she  required  ia 
the  new  patriarch,  she  was  not  long  at  a  loss, 
whom  she  should  choose  for  that  dignity. 
Her  secretary,  named  Tarasius,  a  name 
famous  in  the  history  of  those  times,  was  a 
man  of  uncommon  abilities  and  address, 
descended  from  an  illustrious  and  consular 
family,  as  zealous  a  friend  to  images  as  the 
empress  herself,  privy  to  her  design,  and  as 
ready  to  pursue  as  able  to  contrive  the  most 
proper  means  of  putting  it  in  execution. 
Upon  him,  therefore,  she  fixed  ;  but  appre- 
hending that,  as  he  was  still  a  layman,  and 
it  was  strictly  forbidden  by  the  canons  to 
raise  a  layman  to  the  episcopal  dignity,  his 
election  might  not  be  approved  by  the  peo- 
ple, whose  concurrence  she  wanted,  she 
undertook  to  gain  their  approbation  and  con- 
sent, before  they  could  be  acquainted  with 
the  choice  she  had  made ;  nay,  and  to  make 
the  nomination  of  Tarasius,  which  required 
great  craft  and  address,  to  come  first  from 
them.  With  that  view  she  assembled  the  peo- 
ple in  the  great  hall  of  the  imperial  palace  of 
Blachernae,  and  there  pretending  the  greatest 
concern  for  the  loss  of  the  late  patriarch, 
who  she  knew  was  by  all  greatly  beloved, 
she  told  them,  that  since  he  had  been 
snatched  from  them  by  death,  neither  the 
emperor  nor  she  would  take  upon  them  to 
appoint  him  a  successor,  without  consulting 
them,  who  were  to  be  directed  by  him,  in 
all  spiritual  matters,  the  only  matters  of  mo- 
ment, as  well  as  they  ;  that  the  emperor  had 
called  them  together  for  that  purpose,  and 
did  not  at  all  doubt,  but  that, laying  aside  all 
partiality,  all  private  affection,  they  would 
regard,  in  so  important  a  choice,  merit  alone. 
She  added,  that  indeed  Tarasius  was  of  all 
men  in  the  empire  the  best  qualified,  in  every 
respect,  for  so  important  a  trust ;  that  he 
was  a  person  of  too  extraordinary  a  merit  to 
be  overlooked  on  such  an  occasion ;  that  both 
she  and  the  emperor  had  first  of  all  cast 
their  eyes  upon  him.  At  these  words  the 
whole  multitude  cried  out  with  one  voice, 
" Tarasius  shall  be  our  bishop;  we  choose 
Tarasius  ;  he  shall  govern  us  and  no  other." 
Irene,  who  had,  in  all  hkelihood,  privately 
engaged  before  hand  some  of  the  heads  of 
the  people,  finding  her  design  succeeded  so 
well,  resumed  her  discourse,  and  addressing 


to  recommend  Irene  to  the  respect  and  esteem  of  the 
people,  and  were,  no  doubt,  invented  for  that  pur- 
pose. With  such  seasonable  discoveries  and  predic- 
tions history  abounds  both  sacred  and  profane  :  and  I 
see  no  reason  why  we  should  give  more  credit  to  this 
prediction,  than  to  that,  which  was  disovered  en- 
graved on  a  plate  of  brass  a  little  time  before  the  bat- 
tle of  Granicus,  fortelling  the  imminent  destruction  of 
the  Persian  empire  by  the  Macedonians,  (Plut.  in 
Alexand.)  or  to  many  other  predictions  of  the  like  na- 
ture seasonably  invented  to  serve  some  present  pur- 
pose. 


Hadrian.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OP  ROME. 


143 


Irene  acquaints  the  pope  with  the  promotion  of  Tarasiiis  and  her  design  to  assemble  a  general  council,  and 
invites  the  pope  and  the  other  three  patriarchs  to  it. 


the  multituiJe,  congratulated  them  on  the 
choice  they  had  made,  extolled  the  merit  of 
Tarasius  ;  "  but  you  must  know,"  she  added, 
"that  he,  though  thus  unanimously  chosen 
both  by  you  and  by  us,  declines  accepting  a 
dignity,  which  is  so  ambitiously  sought  for 
by -others,  and  will  not  acquiesce  in  our 
choice."  Here  the  people  cried  out  again, 
"  we  choose  him,  and  he  must  acquiesce; 
we  will  choose  no  other  ;  Tarasius  is  our 
bishop,  our  father,  our  pastor."  Here  Ta- 
rasius, who  had  attended  the  emperor  to  the 
assembly,  rising  up,  returned,  in  the  first 
place,  thanks  to  the  emperor  and  empress, 
styling  them  the  guardians  of  the  Christian 
faith,  as  well  as  to  the  people,  for  the  good 
opinion  they  entertained  of  him,  and  the 
honor  they  had  done  him  ;  then  after  a  long 
descant  on  the  importance  of  the  trust,  to 
which  he  was  called  ;  on  his  want  of  abili- 
ties to  discharge  it  as  he  ought ;  on  the  un- 
happy divisions,  that  reigned  in  the  church  ; 
on  the  deplorable  condition  of  the  church  of 
Constantinople  in  particular,  which,  he  said, 
was  anathematized  by  all  the  other  patri- 
archal churches,  nay,  and  by  all  the  churches 
both  in  the  east  and  the  west ;'  and  lastly  on 
the  necessity  of  redressing  such  evils,  and 
uniting  in  one  and  the  same  faith  all  Chris- 
tian churches,  since  they  were  all  founded  on 
one  and  the  same  rock,  Christ  Jesus  (not 
St.  Peter,)  and  all  acknowledged  him  for 
their  author,  after,  I  say,  a  long  descant 
on  these  subjects,  he  told  the  assembly,  as 
had,  no  doubt,  been  before  hand  agreed 
between  him  and  Irene,  that  the  only  means 
of  removing  the  evils  he  so  justly  com- 
plained of  was,  to  have  the  points,  that  di- 
vided them  from  all  other  churches,  impar- 
tially examined,  and  finally  determined  by  a 
general  council ;  that  if  they  consented  to  the 
assembling  of  one,  he  should  think  himself 
bound  in  conscience  to  acquiesce  in  their 
choice ;  but  if  they  did  not  consent  he  was 


'Tarasiuswas,  it  seems,  very  little  acquainted  with  the 
state  of  the  church  at  this  time  either  in  the  east  or  the 
west.  In  the  west  all  the  churches,  the  Roman  alone 
excepted,  agreed  with  that  of  Constantinople  in  con- 
demning (he  worship  of  images  ;  and  as  to  the  use  of 
pictures  and  images,  they  looked  upon  it  as  a  thing  in 
itself  quite  indifferent,  as  will  be  shown  hereafter  ; 
and  therefore  could  not  excommunicate  and  anathe- 
matize the  church  of  Constantinople  for  not  using 
them  in  her  worship,  or  not  allowing  them  to  he  used. 
In  the  east,  the  use  as  well  as  the  worship  of  images 
had  been  condemned  but  thirty  years  before,  and  con- 
sequently in  Tarasius'  memory,  by  a  council  of 
thice  hundred  and  thirty-eight  bisliops  ;  and  the  decree 
condemning  the  one  and  the  other  continued  in  full 
force  till  it  was  tacitly  revoked  by  Irene,  as  has  been 
related  above.  Hadrian  seems  to  have  been  better  ac- 
quainted with  the  stale  of  the  eastern  church  than  the 
new  patriarch;  for  in  his  letter  to  Constant  ine  a  ml  Irene 
he  tells  them,  "  that  all  the  people  in  the  east  had  erred 
about  imaces  till  it  pleased  Providence  to  place  them 
on  the  throne,"  which  is  as  much  as  to  say,  that  all 
the  churches  in  the  east  condemned  the  use  and  the 
worship  of  images,  as  well  as  the  church  of  Constan- 
tinople, which  therefore  could  not,  as  was  assorted  hy 
Tarasius,  he  anathematized  on  that  account  by  all  the 
other  churches.  Hut  Tarasius  knew  that  he  mifht 
impose  on  bis  audience,  the  ignorant  multitude,  the 
most  palpable  falsehoods. 


unalterably  determined  to  concern  himself, 
upon  no  consideration  whatever,  with  the  go- 
vernment of  a  schismatical  church,  that  was 
determined  to  continue  in  her  schism,  and 
rejected  the  only  means  of  ever  removing 
it.  He  had  not  yet  done  speaking  when  the 
whole  assembly,  declaring  with  repeated 
shouts  their  assent  to  the  calling  of  a  council, 
proclaimed  Tarasius  their  pastor  and  pa- 
triarch ;  and  he  was  accordingly  ordained  on 
Christmas  day  of  the  present  year  784.' 

Irene,  having  thus  engaged  the  people  on 
her  side,  and  with  them  some  of  the  leading 
men  in  the  senate,  dispatched  Constantine 
bishop  of  Leontium  in  Sicily,  and  Doro- 
theus  bishop  of  Naples  in  Campania,  to  Rome 
with  a  letter  to  the  pope,  in  the  emperor's 
name  and  her  own,  to  acquaint  his  holiness 
with  the  promotion  of  Tarasius,  and  the  re- 
solution, which  the  emperor  and  she  had 
taken  jointly  with  him,  to  restore  the  vene- 
rable images,  to  re-establish  the  practice,  that 
had  obtained  in  the  church  ever  since  the 
times  of  the  apostles,  and  to  assemble  for 
that  purpose  a  general  council  in  the  impe- 
rial city.  In  the  letter  they  most  earnestly 
entreated  the  pope  to  repair  to  Constantino- 
ple in  person,  assuring  him,  that,  agreeably 
to  the  orders  they  had  transmitted  to  the  go- 
vernor of  Sicily,  he  should  be  everywhere  re- 
ceived and  entertained,  on  his  journey  from* 
Rome  to  Constantinople  as  Avell  as  on  his 
return  from  Constantinople  to  Rome,  in  a 
manner  suitable  to  his  dignity.  They  added, 
that  if  he  did  not  choose  to  come  in  person, 
which  his  known  zeal  for  the  true  catholic 
faith  would  not  allow  them  to  suppose,  they 
did  not  doubt  but  he  would  send  two  legates, 
men  of  probity  and  learning,  to  assist,  in  his 
name  at  the  council.  The  direction  of  the 
letter  was,  "  to  the  most  holy  and  blessed 
Hadrian,  pope  of  old  Rome."  But  in  the 
letter  he  is  styled  "  the  first  bishop,  the  bi- 
shop, who  presides  in  the  room  and  chair 
of  St.  Peter. "2  At  the  same  time  the  new 
patriarch  dispatched  to  Rome  one  of  his 
presbyters,  named  Leo,  with  an  account  of 
his  promotion,  and  a  confession  of  his  faith. 
But  the  letter  he  wrote  to  the  pope  on  that 
occasion  has  not  reached  the  present  time. 
Constantine,  Dorotheus,  and  Leo  set  out  to- 
gether from  Constantinople ;  but  on  their 
arrival  in  Sicily,  Constantine  and  Dorotheus 
were  by  the  governor  of  that  island  sent 
back  to  Constantinople,  pursuant  to  an  order 
he  had  received  from  court,  and  Theodorus 
bishop  of  Catanea,  and  Epiphanius,  legate 
of  the  archbishop  of  Sardinia,  were  appoint- 
ed in  thoir  room  :  wbich  has  led  Baronius 
into  a  mistake,^  as  if  tvi'o  solemn  embassies 
had  been  sent  to  Hadrian  on  this  occasion. 

Tarasius  wrote  at  the  same  time  to  the 


'  Theoph.  ad  Ann.  Constant.  9. 
2  Idem  ad  Ann.  Const.  10. 

'  liar,  ad  Ann.  785.  p.  3C9.  Vide  Pari  ad  eund.  Ann. 
p.  37i. 


144 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Hadrian. 

The  pope  applauds  the  design  of  the  patriarchs,  and  in  hig  answer,  undertakes  to  prove  the  lawfulness  of 
image  worship.    The  tale  of  Constantine'a  baptism. 

Other  three  patriarchs,  namely,  of  Alexan- 
dria, Antioch,  and  Jerusalem,  to  acquaint 
them  with  his  promotion,  and  invite  them 
to  the  general  council,  that  would  soon  meet, 
by  the  appointment  of  their  most  religious 
emperors  to  heal  the  divisions,  that  had 
reigned  so  long  in  the  church.  His  letter 
contains  an  ample  confession  of  his  faith, 
wherein  he  condemns  and  anathematizes, 
by  name,  all  the  heresiarchs,  that  had  been 
condemned  and  anathematized  by  the  church 
from  the  times  of  the  apostles  to  his,  and 
among  these  pope  Honorius,  "as  a  vine  of 
Sodom,  and  of  the  fields  of  Gomorrah,  whose 
grapes  are  grapes  of  gall,  and  clusters  bit- 
ter."' He  admits  the  invocation  as  well  as 
the  intercession  of  saints  and  approves  of 
the  picture  of  our  Savior  represented  in  the 
figure  of  a  lamb.^ 


that  the  holy  apostles  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul, 
appearing  to  him,  advised  him  to  send  for 
pope  Silvester,  who,  they  said,  lay  concealed 
in  mount  Soracte  to  avoid  the  persecution, 
but  would  come,  if  sent  for,  and  show  hiia 
a  fish-pond,  in  which,  if  he  washed  three 
times,  he  should  be  clean.  Constantine  no 
sooner  awaked  than  he  sent  for  Silvester, 
and  having  acquainted  him  with  his  dream, 
asked  him  what  gods  Peter  and  Paul  were, 
and  whether  he  could  show  him  their  pic- 
tures. The  pope  answered,  they  were  no 
gods,  but  the  apostles  of  God,  and  sent  im- 
mediately one  of  his  deacous  for  iheir  pic- 
tures, which  the  emperor  no  sooner  saw 
than  he  cried  out,  these  are  the  very  persons, 
who  appeared  to  me,  show  me  the  pond. 
Silvester  showed  it ;  the  emperor  washed  in 
it;  was  cleaned,  and  baptized  soon  after." 
In  the  meantime  Theodorus,  Epiphanius,  I  Behold,  concludes  Hadrian,  from  the  very 
and  Leo  arrived  at  Rome,  and  were  received  beginning  of  our  religion  all  Christians  had 
there  with  extraordinary  marks  of  joy.  The  images.     As  not  the  least  mention  is  made 


pope  sent  for  them  as  soon  as  he  heard  of 
their  arrival,  and  understanding  from  the 
emperors'  letter,  that  they  were  resolved  to 
restore  the  sacred  and  venerable  images,  and 
assemble  for  that  purpose  a  general  council, 
he  returned  thanks  to  the  Almighty  for  in- 
spiring them  wilh  so  godly  a  resolution. 
Some  days  after  he  answered  the  letter  he 
a  had  received  from  the  emperors  by  another 
of  an  extraordinary  length,  calculated  to 
confirm  and  encourage  thern  in  the  resolu- 
tion they  had  taken,  fie  begins  with  com- 
mending, and  in  a  very  high  strain,  the  true 
catholic  zeal  of  Constantine  and  Irene  in 
undertaking  to  re-establish  the  ancient  prac- 
tice of  the  church,  a  practice,  that  had  ob- 
tained ever  since  the  times  of  the  apostles  ; 
and  compares  them,  on  that  account,  to  Con- 
stantine the  Great  and  to  Helena,  by  whom 
the  Christian  religion  was  first  established 
in  the  empire.  He  tells  them  that  no  human 
tongue  can  express  the  joy  their  letter  has 
given  him ;  congratulates  them  on  their  be 


by  Eusebius,  who  wrote  the  life  of  Constan- 
tine, or  by  any  other  contemporary  historian, 
of  that  emperor's  having  ever  persecuted  the 
Christians,  or  his  having  been  affected  with, 
and  miraculously  cured  of  a  leprosy,  and 
besides  it  is  certain,  (if  Eusebius,  Socrates, 
Sozomen,  Jerom,  Ambrose,  Athanasius,  and 
the  three  hundred  and  fifty-nine  bishops  of 
the  council  of  Rimini  held  under  Constan- 
tius,  the  son  of  Constantine,  are  to  be  cred- 
ited,) that  he  was  not  baptized  at  Rome, 
but  at  Nicomedia  a  little  before  his  death.  I 
should  not  have  thought  so  absurd  and  im- 
probable a  tale,  though  gravely  related  by  a 
great  pope,  worthy  of  a  place  here,  had  it 
not  been  to  show  how  utterly  unacquainted 
men  were,  at  least  the  advocates  for  images 
were,  in  those  days  with  the  history  of  past 
times,  and  how  distressed  for  want  of  proofs 
from  true  history  to  support  their  cause,  since 
they  were  obliged  to  recur  for  that  purpose 
to  such  fables  and  fabulous  legends,  as  even 
they  are  now  ashamed  of,  who  maintain  the 


ing  chosen  by  heaven  for  so  meritorious  and  same  cause.  Had  Hadrian  been  but  the  least 
so  great  an  undertaking,  and  to  confirm  them  j  acquainted  with  the  history  of  his  own 
in  what  he  calls  the  true  catholic  doctrine  church,  he  would  have  known,  that  Con- 


concerning  the  use  and  the  worship  of  im 
ages,  he  undertakes  to  prove  the  lawfulness 
of  the  one  and  the  other ;  nay,  and  to  show 
that  both  had,  ever  since  the  apostles'  times, 
prevailed  in,  and  been  approved  of  by  the 
church. 
To  show  that  the  use  of  images  had  been 


stantine  embraced  the  Christian  religion  in 
the  time  of  pope  iVlelchiades,  the  predecessor 
of  Silvester,  and  that  he  appointed  him  one 
of  the  judges  in  the  famous  controversy  be- 
tween Csecilianus  of  Carthage  and  the  Do- 
nalists.'  But  should  we  even  allow  the 
story  as  told  by  Hadrian  to  be  true,  it  would 


received  and  approved  by  the  church  ever,  not  follow  from  thence,  that  both  the  use 
since  the  times  of  the  apostles,  he  begins  and  the  worship  of  images  had  obtained  in 


with  the  reign  of  Constantine  the  Great, 
who  came  to  the  crown  in  the  fourth  cen- 
tury, and  gravely  relates,  from  the  fabulous 
acts  of  pope  Silvester,  the  following  story. 
"  Constantine,"  says  he,  "  being  grievously 
afflicted  with  the  leprosy,  dreamt  otie  night 


»  Deut.  32 :  32. 

»  Apud  Bar.  ad  Ann.  785.  &  Concil.  Nic.  2.  Act.  2. 


the  church,  and  obtained  ever  since  the  times 
of  the  apostles,  but  only  that  the  use  had  ob- 
tained, and  not  even  that  till  the  fourth  cen- 
tury. 

Hadrian  having  made  it  appear,  in  the 
manner  we  have  seen,  that  the  use  of  im- 
ages prevailed  among  Christians  from  the 


See  vol.  I.  p.  42,  &c. 


Hadrian.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


145 


Hadrian's  arguments  for  Betting  up  images  in  churches.  The  instanceof  the  cherubims  and  the  brazen  serpent 
quite  foreign  to  his  purpose,  and  likewise  his  passages  from  Scripture. 

very  beginning  of  the  Christian  religion,  abi  cherubims,  over  the  mercy-seat;  and  though 
ipsis  sanctae  tidei  nostrae  rudimeniis,  (for  that  those  images  were  not  worshiped,  nor  so 
is  the  consequence  he  draws  from  the  tale  much  as  seen  by  the  people,  he  concludes, 
related  above,)  undertakes  in  the  next  place  that  it  is  not  only  lawful   for  Christians  to 


to  prove  that  such  a  practice  was  pleasing 
to  God ;  and  argues  thus  :  all  things,  that 
are  appointed  by  human  discretion  for  the 
honor  of  God,  are  pleasing  to  him  ;  thus 
Abel  in  honor  of  God  offered   up  the  first 
fruits,  and  God  was  pleased  with  his  offer- 
ing ;  Noah  in  honor  of  God  built  an  altar, 
upon  that  altar  offered  sacrifice,  which  was 
acceptable  to  God  ;  Jacob  in  honor  of  God 
erected  a  pillar,  and  God  approved  what  he 
had  done.     Now  images  were  appointed  by 
human  discretion  for  the  honor  of  God  ;  for 
in  them  we  do  not  honor  the  gold,  the  brass, 
the  marble,  the  colors,  but  the  servants  of 
God,   the   virgin   Mary,   the   apostles,   the 
martyrs,  whom  they  represent;  and  the  hon- 
or we  give  to  the  servants  of  God  terminates 
in    God.     Excellent  divinity !     And  might 
not  the  pagan  philosophers,  upon  the  same 
principle,  and  by  the  same  method  of  argu- 
ing have  justified,  against  the  fathers,  the 
)ise  of  images  among  them  as  well  as  the 
honor  of  worship  they  gave  them?     Their 
images  too  were  appointed  by  human  dis- 
cretion lor  the  honor  of  God  ;  for  it  was  not 
the  gold,  the  brass,  the  marble,  or  the  colors 
they  honored,  but  the  true  God,  or  the  ser- 
vants of  the  true  God  represented  to  them 
in  their  images,  as  has  been  demonstrated 
elsewhere.'     In  like  manner  the  golden  calf 
was  appointed  by  human  discretion  for  the 
honor  of  God,  and  so  were  the  calves  set  up 
by  Jeroboam  at  Dan  and  Bethel ;  for  in  them 
the  Jews  worshiped  the  God  of  Israel,  who 
brought  them  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt; 


make  images,  but  to  worship  them.     In  like 
manner  from  God's  commanding  Moses  to 
make  the  brazen  serpent,  and  set  it  up  for  a 
sign,  he  concludes  with  an  exclamation,  "  O 
the  madness  of  those,  who  will  not  worship 
images!  the  images  of  our  Savior,  of  his 
mother,  of  the  saints,  by  whose  virtue  the 
world  subsists,  and  mankind  are  saved !  shall 
we,  who  believe,  that  the    Israelites    were 
healed    by    beholding   the    brazen   serpent, 
doubt  of  our  being  saved  by  beholding  and 
worshiping   the  images  of  Christ   and  the 
saints?"      Had   the   pope   recollected   that 
though  the  brazen  serpent  was  made   by 
God's  own  command,  which  can  be  said  of 
none  of  his  images,  and  wrought  far  greater 
miracles   than  the  most  miraculous  of  his 
images,  yet  king  Hezekiah  broke  it  in  pieces, 
when  he  found  the  people  worshiped  it,  and 
was  said  to  have  done  therein  "  that  which 
was  right  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord,"'  his  holi- 
ness would  have  taken  care  not  to  bring  in 
or  mention  the  brazen  serpent  on  this  occa- 
sion.    But  he  was,  it  seems,  better  acquaint- 
ed with  the  monkish  legends  than  he  was 
with  his  Bible.     However  he  alledgcs  several 
passages  out  of  the  Bible  to  show  that  the 
use  of  images  and  the  worship  are  there  ap- 
proved and  recommended  ;  but  to  find  out 
what  relation  those  passages  have  either  to 
the  use  or  the  worship  of  images,  or  indeed 
to  images  at  all,  is  no  easy  task;  and  I  shall 
leave  it  to  the  reader.     The  passages  are; 
"  Honor  and  majesty  are  in  his  presence  f 
thy  face  will  I  seek;"  the  rich  among  the 


and  we  cannot  suppose  them  to  have  been;  people  shall  entreat  thy  face;''  Lord  lift  up 


all  so  entirely  destitute  of  common  sense  as 
really  to  believe,  that  the  images,  which  they 
had  just  seen  made,  had  brought  them  out 
of  the  land  of  Egypt.     Those  images  there- 


the  light  of  thy  countenance  upon  us;^  in 
that  day  there  shall  be  an  altar  to  the 
Lord  in  the  midst  of  the  land  of  Egpyt,  and 
a  pillar  at  the  border  thereof  to  the  Lord  f 


fore  were  appointed  by  human  discretion  honor  and  majesty  are  before  him  ;  strength 
only  as  symbols  of  God,  in  which  and  by  j  and  beauty  are  in  his  sanctuary  ;^  Lord,  I 
which  he  was  to  be  honored  ;  and  yet  they  have  loved  the  habitation  of  thy  house,  and 
were  not  pleasing,  but  highly  displeasing  to  the  tabernacle  of  thy  honor.^  In  all  the 
God.  I  might  add,  that,  if  whatever  is  ap-  New  Testament  the  pope  could  find  but  one 
pointed  by  human  discretion  for  the  honor  i  single  passage,  that  he  thought  could  any 
of  God,  is  pleasing  to  him,  the  casting  im-  ways  authorize  the  use  and  the  worship  of 


ages  out  of  the  churches,  and  destroying 
them  was  pleasing  to  him,  since  that  was 
appointed  to  be  done  for  the  honor  of  God, 
or  to  prevent  the  honor,  that  is  due  to  him 
alone,  being  given  to  others. 

The  other  proofs,  offered  by  the  pope  in 
favor  of  images,  are  taken  partly  from  Scrip 


images,  namely,  that  of  St.  Paul  to  the 
Hebrews,  by  faith  Jacob,  when  he  was  dying, 
blessed  both  the  sons  of  Joseph,  and  wor- 
shiped upon  the  top  of  his  staff.^  This 
passage  the  pope,  leaving  out  the  preposi- 
tion upon,  reads  thus:  and  worshiped  the 
top  of  his  staff.     That  staff  he  supposes  to 


ture,  and   partly  from  the  fathers,  but  all  i  have  been  the  staff  of  h'is  son  Joseph,  and  con- 


alike  quite  impertinent  and  foreign  to  the 
purpose.  From  Scripture  he  urges  the  com- 
mand given  to  Moses  by  God  himself  to 
make  two  cherubims,  or  the  images  of  two 

«  See  p.  34  note  (2).  &  p.  35.  note  (1) 
»  Exod.  32  :  V.  4.  1.  Kings  12 :  v.  28. 

Vol.  II.— 19 


eludes,  that  as  Jacob  gave  that  honor  and 
worship  to  the  staff  of  Joseph,  not  for  its 
own  sake,  but  for  the  sake  of  him,  who  bore 


I  2  Kings  18;  v.  3,  4. 
♦  Psal.  45:  12. 
'Psal.  96:  6. 


«  Psal.  96  : 
»  Psal.  4  :  ( 
»  Psal.  26 : 
N 


'  P.sal.  27  :  8. 
6  Isa.  10:  19. 
>ilcb.  11:21. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Hadrian. 


146 

The  passages  Hadrian  quotes  from  the  fathers  either  impertinent  or  corrupted.  Complains  of  the  uncanonical 
promotion  of  Tarasius ;  but  is  willing  to  approve  it  if  by  his  means  images  are  restored.  His  answer  to 
the  patriarch. 


it;  SO  may  we  honor  and  worship  the  images 
of  the  saints,  not  for  their  own  sake,  but  for 
the  sake  of  those,  whom  they  represent. 
But  the  meaning  of  the  apostle  is  obvious, 
and  one  would  think  that  no  child,  who  can 
read,  could  mistake  it,  namely,  that  Jacob, 
being  on  his  death-bed,  setup  leaning  on  the 
top  of  his  staff  to  support  his  weak  body, 
while  he  blessed  his  children,  and  worshiped. 

As  for  the  fathers,  I  shall  not  trouble  the 
reader  with  the  many  passages  the  pope 
alledges  out  of  their  writings  in  support  of 
his  cause,  but  only  observe,  I.  That  though 
in  the  beginning  of  his  letter  he  undertakes 
to  show  that  images  had  been  both  used  and 
worshiped  in  the  church  ever  since  the 
apostles'  times,  yet  for  so  ancient  a  practice 
he  quotes  not  a  single  father,  who  lived  be- 
fore the  fourth  century,  but  several,  who 
flourished  in  the  fifth,  in  the  sixth,  and  some, 
who  wrote  even  as  late  as  the  seventh. 
n.  That  the  passages,  he  alledges  out  of  the 
genuine  works  of  the  fathers,  prove  no  more 
than  that  images  were  used,  from  the  latter 
end  of  the  fourth  century  to  the  beginning 
of  the  seventh,  as  mere  ornaments,  as  helps 
to  memory,  as  books  for  such  as  could  not 
read.  III.  That  some  of  his  texts  are 
strangely  altered  and  corrupted,  and  some 
quoted  from  spurious  pieces.  Among  the 
spurious  pieces  we  may  well  reckon  the  epis- 
tle of  St.  Basil  to  the  emperor  Julian,  wherein 
that  saint  makes  the  worship  of  images 
an  article  of  his  creed,  and  inserts  it  next 
to  the  remission  of  sins  in  the  following 
words,  "  for  the  obtaining  of  which  I 
honor,  worship,  and  adore  the  images  of 
our  Savior,  of  the  virgin  Mary,  of  the 
apostles,  prophets,  and  martyrs,  agreeably 
to  the  apostolic  tradition  ;  and  such  a  prac- 
tice ought  not  to  be  forbidden."  This  is 
the  only  pertinent  text  the  pope  alledges  ; 
but  the  piece,  from  which  it  is  quoted,  is  now 
rejected  by  the  learned  of  all  persuasions  as 
unquestionably  spurious.'  And  this  is  all 
the  pope  had  to  offer  in  behalf  of  his  apos- 
tolic tradition  concerning  the  use  and  the 
worship  of  images. 

In  the  remaining  part  of  his  letter  Hadrian 
loudly  complains  of  the  promotion  of  Tara- 
sius, raised,  in  defiance  of  the  sacred  laws 
and  canons  of  the  church,  from  a  layman 
to  the  patriarchal  dignity,  and  appointed  to 
teach  what  he  himself  had  not  yet  learnt. 
He  thinks  it  no  less  absurd  and  preposterous 
that  a  layman  should  be  trusted  with  the 
care  and  the  direction  of  souls,  than  that  an 
ecclesiastic,  who  had  never  borne  arms,  and 
was  utterly  unacquainted  with  the  military 
art,  should  be  trusted  with  the  command  of 
an  army.  He  nevertheless  declares  himself 
ready  to  acquiesce  in  the  election  of  the  new 
patriarch,  however  uncanonical,  and  to  ac- 
knowledge him  for  his  fellow  bishop,  how- 


■  See  Cave's  Life  of  St.  Basil,  p.  223. 


ever  unequal  in  other  respects  to  so  great  a 
charge,  provided  he  zealously  concurred 
with  his  most  pious  and  catholic  sovereigns 
in  promoting  the  catholic  cause,  in  extirpa- 
ting the  heresy  that  had  so  long  prevailed, 
and  in  restoring  the  sacred  and  venerable 
images  to  the  honor  and  worship,  that  had 
ever  been  paid  them.  Zeal  for  images  was 
the  only  qualification  required  at  this  time 
in  a  bishop ;  and  indeed  the  bishops,  who 
assisted  at  the  council,  which  we  shall  soon 
have  occasion  to  speak  of,  seem  to  have  had 
no  other.  But  if  an  unexperienced  layman  is 
no  more  to  be  trusted  with  the  care  of  souls, 
than  an  unexperienced  ecclesiastic  is  to  be 
trusted  with  the  command  of  an  army,  zeal 
for  images  could  no  more  qualify  the  layman 
for  the  one  than  it  could  the  ecclesiastic  for 
the  other.  The  pope  closes  his  letter  with  en- 
treating the  emperor,  and  his  most  religious 
mother  Irene,  as  they  tendered  the  salvation 
of  their  souls,  to  cause  the  council,  that  had 
condemned  the  holy  images,  to  be  condemn- 
ed and  anathematized,  to  defend  and  main- 
tain the  primacy  of  the  Roman  church,  the 
head  of  all  Christian  churches ;  to  oblige  the 
bishop  of  their  imperial  city  to  quit  the  haugh- 
ty and  presumptuous  title  of  universal  pa- 
triarch, and  lastly  to  order  the  patrimonies  of 
St.  Peter,  which  their  predecessors  had  seized, 
to  be  forthwith  restored.  A  most  shameless 
demand  in  one,  who  possessed  so  many  rich 
cities  and  provinces,  of  which  his  predeces- 
sors had  robbed  the  emperors  and  the  em- 
pire.' 

At  the  same  time  the  pope  answered  the 
letter  he  had  received  from  the  new  patriarch. 
The  direction  was  "  Hadrian,  bishop  and 
servant  of  the  servants  of  God,  to  his  be- 
loved brother  the  patriarch  Tarasius."  He 
freely  tells  him  that  he  was  grieved  to  hear 
of  his  promotion,  but  that  he  is  entirely  sa- 
tisfied with  his  confession  of  faith,  wherein 
he  receives  the  six  general  councils,  and 
promises  to  worship  and  to  adore  the  holy 
images ;  that  nevertheless  he  dares  not  ap- 
prove of  his  consecration,  as  it  is  contrary 
to  the  known  laws  of  the  church,  but  upon 
condition  that  he  undertakes  to  restore  the 
ancient  practice  of  the  catholic  church.^ 

Constantine  and  Irene  had  pressed  the 
pope,  as  we  have  seen,  to  repair  in  person 
to  Constantinople,  and  flattered  themselves 
that  his  zeal  would  have  surmounted  all 
difficulties.  But  Hadrian,  recollecting  that 
he  had  employed  all  his  interest  with  Char- 
lemagne to  get  the  Greeks  driven  quite  out 
of  Italy ;  that  the  emperors  had  not  yet 
yielded,  but  still  continued  to  claim  as  their 
own  the  countries  he  possessed,  and  that 
they  must  consequently  look  upon  hira  not 
only  as  an  enemy,  but  as  an  usurper  and 
rebel,  and  might  treat  him  accordingly,  not- 


Concil.  Nic.  2.  Act.  2. 


'  Idem  ibid. 


Hadrian.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


147 


Hadrian  declines  assisting  at  the  council,  but  sends  legates  to  it.  No  other  bishops  from  the  west  invited  to 
it.  Three  eastern  patriarchs  not  present  either  in  person  or  by  their  deputies.  The  monks,  their  pretended 
deputies  not  sent  by  them,  nor  authorized  to  act  in  their  name.  The  letter  of  the  monks  of  Palestine  to 
Tarasius. 


•wilhstandirtg  the  zeal  they  pretended  for 
images,  he  thought  it  advisable  not  to  put 
it  in  their  power^  but  to  consult  in  tlie  first 
place  his  own  safety.  Excusing  himself, 
therefore,  on  account  of  his  age,  from  un- 
dertaking so  long  a  journey,  he  appointed  Pe- 
ter, archpriesl  of  the  Roman  church,  and  the 
abbot  of  the  monastery  of  St.  Sabas,  named 
likewise  Peter,  to  assist  at  the  council  with 
the  character  of  his  legates  in  his  room ; 
and  by  them  he  sent  his  answer  to  the  let- 
ters of  the  emperor  and  the  patriarch.' 

No  bishops  from  the  west,  besides  the 
pope,  were  invited  to  the  council  either  by 
the  empress  or  the  patriarch  ;  and  none  as- 
sisted at  it,  besides  the  pope,  either  in  per- 
son or  by  their  deputies.  It  therefore  en- 
tirely consisted,  though  styled  cpcumenical, 
of  the  pope's  legates  and  the  eastern  bishops ; 
nay,  and  of  such  only  of  the  eastern  bishops 
as  were  subjects  of  the  empire.  As  for  the 
three  patriarchs  of  Alexandria,  Antioch  and 
Jerusalem,  and  the  bishops  under  their  ju- 
risdiction, Tarasius,  it  is  true,  wrote  and 
sent  deputies  to  acquaint  them  with  the  de- 
sign of  his  most  religious  sovereigns,  of 
putting  an  end  to  the  unhappy  divisons  of 
the  church  by  a  general  council,  and  invite 
them  to  it ;  but  with  Avhat  success  the  reader 
may  learn  from  Baronius.  The  deputies, 
says  the  annalist,  sent  by  Tarasius  to  the 
three  patriarchs,  being  told,  on  their  arrival 
in  Palestine,  by  the  monks  there,  that  Theo- 
dore of  Jerusalem  was  dead;  that  the  Chris- 
tians were  most  cruelly  persecuted  in  Egypt 
and  in  Syria  by  the  new  caliph  Aaron ;  that 
their  journey  to  Alexandria  and  Antioch 
would  give  great  jealousy  to  the  Saracens, 
and  in  all  likelihood  prove  fatal  not  only  to 
them,  but  to  all  the  Christians  in  those  parts, 
they  laid  aside  all  thoughts  of  proceeding 
further.  However,  to  satisfy,  in  some  de- 
gree, the  empress  and  the  paliarch,  the 
monks,  assembling  in  the  desert,  chose  two 
of  their  body,  John  and  Thomas,  to  repre- 
sent the  patriarchs  of  Alexandria  and  An- 
tioch in  the  council,  and  testify  to  the  fathers 
their  orthodox  belief  with  respect  to  the 
point  in  dispute,  the  worship  of  images.^ 
From  this  account  of  Baronius,  and  it  is  en- 
tirely agreeable  to  what  we  read  in  Theo- 
phanes  and  all  the  other  contemporary 
•writers,  it  is  manifest,  that  none  of  the  above- 
mentioned  patriarchs  assisted  at  the  council 
either  in  person  orby  their  deputies  or  legates, 
the  patriarch  of  Jerusalem  being  then  dead, 
and  the  monks,  who  are  said  to  have  repre- 
sented the  other  two,  being  sent  by  their 
brethren  the  monks,  and  not  by  the  patriarchs, 
who  knew  nothing  of  them  or  the  council. 
And  yet  these  monks  are  styled,  throughout 
the  acts  of  the  council,  the  legates   of  the 

'  Concil.  Nic.  2.  Act.  2.  Anast.  In  Pref.  Concil. 
*  Baron,  ad  Ann.  786.  p.  383. 


eastern  patriarchs  ;  nay,  and  they  had  the 
assurance  to  subscribe  themselves  the  legates 
of  the  three  apostolic  sees,  Alexandria, 
Antioch,  and  Jerusalem ;  and  their  subscrip- 
tions are  commonly  produced  to  show  that 
the  patriarchs  were  all  unanimous  in  defining 
the  lawfulness  of  image  worship,  and  con- 
demning the  council,  that  had  declared  such 
a  worship  unlawful,  and  idolatrous. 

As  the  two  monks,  says  here  Maimbourg 
pretending  to  solve  a  difficulty,  which  he 
thinks  none  had  been  able  to  solve  before, 
as  the  two  monks,  John  and  Thomas,  were 
not  sent  by  the  patriarchs,  but  by  the  monks 
of  Palestine  without  their  knowledge,  some 
writers  have  concluded,  that  the  patriarchs 
were  no  w^ays  concerned  in  the  council. 
But  these  writers  were  not  aware,  that  the 
council  did  not  meet  till  a  year  and  more 
after  the  arrival  of  the  monks  at  Constanti- 
nople, and  that  the  patriarchs  had  time 
enough,  and  might,  during  that  interval, 
have  found  means  to  authorize  the  monks 
to  act  in  their  name,  and  to  vest  them  with 
the  necessary  powers  for  that  purpose  :  and 
that  they  did  so  is  very  certain."  And  that 
they  did  not  so  is  very  certain ;  for  by  no 
other  means  could  the  patriarchs  have  em- 
powered the  monks  to  act  in  their  name,  but 
either  by  letters;  and  the  letters  would  have 
been  read  in  the  council,  or  by  new  depu- 
ties ;  and  they  would  have  appeared  in  the 
council.  But  it  is  certain,  that  no  letters 
were  read  in  the  council  from  the  patriarchs, 
that  no  deputies  from  them  appeared  either 
at  Constantinople  or  at  Nice.  It  is  certain 
at  least,  that  no  mention  is  made  of  either 
in  the  acts  of  the  council,  or  by  any  of  the 
contemporary  writers,  not  even  by  Theo- 
phanes,  who  was  present,  and  has  omitted 
nothing,  that  could  any  ways  redound  to  the 
honor  of  an  assembly,  which  he  has  taken 
so  much  pains  to  recommend  to  posterity, 
and  but  too  often  at  the  expense  of  truth. 
Besides,  the  two  monks  themselves  declared 
in  the  council,  that  they,  though  ignorant 
inhabitants  of  the  desert,  though  unexpe- 
rienced, though  idiots,  had  been  chosen  by 
their  brethren  to  testify  the  orthodox  belief 
of  those,  who  dared  not  so  much  as  to  speak 
of  such  matters,  much  less  to  receive  or  to 
write  letters  concerning  them.^  An  incon- 
testable proof  that  the  patriarchs  neither  did 
nor  could  authorize  by  deputies  or  by  letters, 
the  two  monks  to  act  in  their  name,  during 
the  interval  between  their  arrival  at  Con- 
stantinople and  the  rneeting  of  the  council. 
And  thus  has  Maimbourg  solved  a  difficulty, 
which  no  man  had  been  able  to  solve  before 
him. 

The  two  monks  brought  with  them  a  letter 
from  their  brethren  in  the  desert,  to  Tarasius, 


»  Maimb.  Hist.  Icon.  I.  3.  p.  422,  423. 
'  Concil.  Nic.  2.  act.  3. 


148 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Hadrian. 


The  letter  of  the  patriarch  of  Jerusalem  to  the  patriarchs  of  Alexandria  and  Amioch,  a  mere  forgery, 
council  meets  at  Constantinople ; — [Year  of  Christ,  786.] 

wherein  they  recommend   to    his    holiness 
their  deputies,  who,  they  say,  will  inform 
him  of  the  orthodoxy  of  the  patriarchs ;  ac- 
quaint him  with  their  having  diverted  his 
legates  from  pursuing  their  journey  to  Alex- 
andria and  Antioch,  since  it  was  impossible 
for   them    to    reach  those  cities,  and  they 
would,  by  attempting  it,  not  only  expose 
their  own  lives  to  imminent  danger,  but  the 
lives  of  all  the  Christians  in  those  parts  ;' 
entreat  his  holiness  to  proceed  undaunted  in 
so  pious   and  meritorious  an  undertaking, 
that  of  restoring,  by  a  general  council,  the 
use  and  the  worship  of  images,  notwith- 
standing the  absence  of  the  three  patriarchs, 
which  did  not  prevent  the  sixth  council,  and 
would  not  prevent  the  seventh  from  being 
universally  received  as  oecumenical.     They 
conclude  with  declaring  for  the  use  and  the 
worship  of  images,  as  an  apostolical  tradi- 
tion, and  protesting,  that  they  receive  only 
six  general  councils,  and  condemn  that,  which 
was  held  under  Copronymus  against  images, 
and  is  by  some  styled  the  seventh.^    The  di- 
rection of  the  letter  Avas,  "  To  our  most  holy 
and  blessed   lord,  Tarasius,  archbishop  of 
Constantinople  and  universal  patriarch,  the 
high  priests  and  other  priests  in  the  east, 
greeting."     They  style  themselves  the  high 
priests,  and  other  priests  in  the  east,  per- 
sonating   therein    the    patriarchs,  and   the 
bishops  under  their  respective  jurisdictions. 
And  truly  Baronius,  in  exliibiting  their  letter, 
styles  it  in  the  margin,  the  letter  of  the  pa- 
triarchs to  Tarasius  f  and  as  such  it  was  re- 
ceived, read  and  applauded  in  the  council, 
though  it  is  said  in  the  letter  itself,  that  the 
patriarchs  neither  dared  to  write,  nor  to  re- 
ceive letters,  nor  even  to  utter  a  single  word 
concerning  such  subjects. 

The  deputies  of  the  monks  brought  an- 
other letter  with  them,  supposed  to  have 
been  written  by  Theodore  of  Jerusalem  to 
Cosmas  of  Alexandria,  and  Theodore  of 
Antioch,  on  occasion  of  his  promotion  to 
the  episcopal  dignity.  In  that  letter  Theo- 
dore in  the  first  place  professes  to  worship 
the  saints  and  their  images,  to  adore  and 
embrace  their  saving  relics,  especially  the 
bones  of  the  martyrs,  ascribes  to  them,  out 
of  a  spurious  piece  fathered  on  Athanasius, 
the  power  of  working  miracles  and  curing 
all  sorts  of  diseases,  but  derives  that  power 
frorn  Christ,  who,  according  to  him,  dwells 
in  those  bones.  II.  He  acknowledges  only 
six  general  councils,  and  anathematizes  that 

«  Christianus  Lupus,  one  would  think  had  never 
Been  this  letter,  though  in  the  acts  of  the  council,  nor 
so  much  as  heard  of  it.  For  he  supposes  the  legates 
of  Tarasius  to  have  got  to  the  patriarchs,  and  the  two 
monks  to  have  been  sent  by  the  patriarchs  them- 
selves as  their  legates  a  latere,  and  magnifies  the 
courage  and  zeal  of  the  legates  from  Constantinople, 
"for  venturing  through  a  thousand  deaths  to  get  to 
those  patriarchs,  (Lup.  not.  in  Canon.  Concil.  Sept. 
p.  1119.)  when  it  is  said  in  the  letter  itself,  that  it  was 
impossible  for  them  to  get  to  them,  and  that  they 
were  diverted  by  the  monks  from  attempting  it. 

»  Concil.  Nic.  2.  Act.  3.        »  Bar.  ad  Ann.  785.  p.  383. 


The 


which  condemned  images,  and  by  the  ene- 
mies of  images  is  called  the  seventh.     III. 
He  taxes  with  ignorance,  and  condemns  as 
heretics  all,  who  pretend  that  images  are 
not  to  be  worshiped  because  the  works  of 
men's  hands,  .since  the  cherubims,  the  ark, 
the  mercy  seat,  though  the  works  of  men's 
hands,  were  nevertheless  worshiped,  as  he 
takes  it  for  granted,  by  the  Israelites.'    This 
absurd  epistle  is  said  to  have  been  written 
by  Theodore  of  Jerusalem,  to  Theodore  of 
Antioch,  and  Cosmas  of  Alexandria,  upon 
his  being  promoted  to  the  patriarchal  dignity, 
and  is  therefore  styled  a  synodical  epistle, 
that  is,  an  epistle  written  by  a  new  bishop, 
and  in  a  full  synod,  to  his  fellow  bishops. 
But  Theodore  was  raised  to  the  patriarchal 
see  of  Jerusalem  in  735  j^  and  at  that  time 
neither  was  Theodore  patriarch  of  Antioch, 
nor  was  Cosmas  patriarch  of  Alexandria, 
the   former  having  been  vested  with  that 
dignity  in  752,  and  the  latter  in  742.^    The 
letter  therefore  could  not,  as  is  evident,  have 
been  written  to  either  of  them,  but  was  in 
all  likelihood  forged  by  the  monks,  unac- 
quainted with  the  state  of  those  churches  to 
impose  on  the  bishops  of  the  council,  and 
persuade  them,  that  the  three  patriarchs  (for 
they  pretended  to  have  the  answers  of  the  two 
patriarchs  entirely  agreeable  to  the  letter  of 
Theodore,)  held  and  professed  the  doctrine 
of  image  worship.     But  should  we   even 
allow  these  letters  to  be  genuine,  it  would 
not  follow  from  thence  that  the  said  doctrine 
was  held  by  the  present  patriarchs,  whose 
orthodoxy  the  monks  were  sent  to  testify 
before  the  council,  but  only  that  it  had  been 
held  and  professed  by  some  of  their  prede- 
cessors.    For  at  this  time  Theodore  of  Jeru- 
salem, Cosmas  of  Alexandria,  and  Theodore 
of  Antioch,  were  all   three  dead,  and  their 
sees,  if  not  vacant,  held  by  others.     I  say, 
if  not  vacant ;  for  they  are  marked  by  Theo- 
phanes  in  his  chronological  tables  as  vacant 
at  this  time.     In  the   acts  of  the  council 
Theodore  of  Jerusalem,  the  pretended  writer 
of  the  letter,  is  said  to  have  died  lately  f  but 
from  history  it  appears  that  he  was  dead 
fifteen  years  before,  Eusebius,  who  succeed- 
ed him,  being  possessed  of  his  see  in  the 
year  770.^ 

The  bishops  were  required  in  the  sum- 
mons, that  was  sent  them,  to  repair  with  all 
speed  to  Constantinople ;  and  the  legates  of 
the  pope,  as  well  as  the  pretended  legates 
of  the  three  other  patriarchs,  arriving  in  that 
city  about  the  latter  end  of  July,  786,  the 
council  was  appointed  to  meet  for  the  first 
time  on  the  17th  of  August,  and  the  spacious 
basilic  of  the  holy  apostles  was  chosen  for 
that  purpose.  There  they  met  at  the  time  ap- 
pointed; and  the  patriarch  Tarasius  having. 


1  Concil.  Nic.  2.  Act.  3. 

»  See  Pagi  Critic,  in  Annal.  Bar.  ad  Ann.  767. 

5  Theoph.  ad  Ann.  Const.  10.  Pagi  ad  Ann.  751.  742. 

*  Concil.  Nic.  2.  Act.  5.        »  See  Pagi  ad  Ann.  767. 


Hadrian.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


149 


The  council  obliged  by  the  soldiery  and  citizens  to  break  up.     Irene  pursues  her  design.    The  troops  that 

opposed  the  council  disbanded. 


according  to  custom,  opened  the  sessions 
with  an  harangue,  of  which  I  can  give  no 
account,  the  decree  forbidding  a  general 
council  to  meet  with  the  consent  of  the  pa- 
triarchs, was  ordered  to  be  read.  But  in  the 
mean  time  the  emperors  guards,  who  had 
served  under  Consiantine  Copronymus,  and 
■were  all,  the  officers  as  well  as  the  private 
men,  most  zealous  Iconoclasts,  hearing  that 
the  council  was  met,  not  to  examine,  but  to 
condemn  the  faith  of  that  emperor,  and  with 
his  faith,  his  council  and  memory,  flew  to 
arras,  surrounded  the  church,  and  crying 
out,  that  they  would  not  suffer  the  memory 
of  so  good  and  so  religious  a  prince  to  be 
thus  dishonored,  nor  the  idolatry  to  be 
brought  back,  which  he  had  so  happily  ba- 
nished, threatened  the  patriarch  and  the 
other  bishops  with  immediate  death,  if,  de- 
sisting from  so  wicked  a  purpose,  they  did 
not  that  instant  break  up  and  disperse.  The 
empress,  who  was  present  with  the  emperor, 
alarmed  at  so  sudden  a  tumult,  which  she 
had  neither  foreseen,  nor  in  the  least  appre- 
hended, sent  immediately  some  of  the  great 
officers  of  the  crown,  who  attended  her,  to 
appease  it.  But  the  soldiery,  instead  of 
obeying,  insulted  them  as  idolaters,  as  ene- 
mies to  God,  to  the  church,  to  the  empire. 
Hereupon  Irene,  observing  the  consternation 
and  panic  of  the  bishops  ready  to  vote,  but 
not  at  all  inclined  to  die  for  the  cause,  and 
satisfied  that  the  soldiery,  now  joined  by  a 
great  number  of  citizens,  were  not  to  be  re- 
claimed, gave  the  fathers  leave  to  retire  and 
yield  for  the  present;  which  they  did  very 
readily  without  being  hurt,  insulted,  or  any 
■ways  molested  by  their  furious  and  inhuman 
enemies,  as  Theophanes  is  pleased  to, call 
them.'  How  different  from  this  was  the 
treatment  the  imperial  officers  met  with,  and 
the  patriarch  himself  from  the  worshipers  of 
images,  even  from  the  women,  when  they 
first  attempted  to  pull  them  down?^ 

The  assembly  being  thus  dissolved,  the 
eastern  bishops  returned  all  to  their  respec- 
tive sees.  The  pope's  legates  too,  not  think- 
ing themselves  safe  amidst  the  Iconoclast 
soldiery,  were  for  quitting  Constantinople, 
and  returning  with  all  haste  to  Rome.  But 
theempress,  with  much  ado,  persuaded  them, 
and  likewise  the  two  monks,  who  were  to 
represent  the  eastern  patriarchs,  to  put  off 
their  journey  for  a  while,  assuring  them 
that  she  wanted  not  the  means  of  checking 
the  insolence  of  the  soldiery,  and  bringing 
the  design  she  had  formed,  jointly  with  the 
patriarch,  in  spite  of  them,  to  a  happy  issue. 
Accordingly,  with  that  view  she  appointed 
Stauratius,  in  whom  she  placed  an  entire 
confidence,  governor  of  Thrace,  and  at  the 
same  time  gave  him  the  command  of  the 
oriental  legions  quartered  in  that  province, 
charging  him  to  render  himself,  by  all  means, 

'  Tbeoph.  ad  Ann.  Const  7.         >  See  p.  55. 


acceptable  to  them,  and  having  once  gained 
their  affections,  to  dismiss  such  of  the  sol- 
diers and  their  officers  as  he  thought  might 
oppose  her  design,  and  appoint  others  in 
their  room,  who  would  promote  it,  acting 
therein  with  great  prudence  and  circumspec- 
tion. In  that  trust  Stauratius  acquitted  him- 
self so  well,  that  he  could,  in  little  more 
than  six  months  time,  assure  the  empress, 
that  in  the  whole  corps  there  was  not  a  single 
man,  who  would  not  concur  with  her,  and 
assist  her,  to  the  utmost  of  his  power,  in  the 
execution  of  her  design.  Upon  this  intelli- 
gence the  crafty  empress  immediately  gave 
out,  that  the  Saracens  had  unexpectedly 
broken  into  Asia ;  that  they  committed  there 
unheard-of  cruelties,  and  that  the  emperor 
was  determined  to  march  against  them  with- 
out delay,  in  person,  and  head  his  army. 
Orders  were  accordingly  issued  for  all  the 
troops  to  put  themselves  in  motion ;  the 
emperor's  equipage  was  conveyed  across  the 
straits  into  Bithynia,  and  the  guards  com- 
manded to  attend  it,  as  it  was  their  duty,  to 
the  pretended  place  of  the  general  rendez- 
vous, whither  they  were  told  the  empe- 
ror would  follow  them  with  all  possible 
speed.  But  no  sooner  had  they  left  the  city 
than  the  oriental  legions  entered  it,  on  their 
march,  as  was  supposed,  into  Asia.  But 
they  were  stopt  there  by  the  empress ;  and  the 
guards,  upon  their  landing  on  the  opposite 
shore,  received  an  order,  signed  both  by  the 
emperor  and  theempress,  acquainting  them 
that  they  had  no  further  occasion  for  their 
service,  and  commanding  them  to  deliver  up 
their  arms,  and  retire,  on  pain  of  being  treated 
as  rebels  and  traitors,  to  their  respective 
homes.  As  they  were  quite  destitute  of 
money  as  well  as  provisions,  and  sensible 
that  they  could  not  withstand  the  whole 
strength  of  the  empire,  which  they  knew 
would  be  employed  against  them,  they  obey- 
ed, delivered  up  their  arms,  and  disbanded  : 
and  Irene,  not  satisfied  with  thus  getting  rid 
of  them,  ordered  their  wives  and  children, 
with  all  who  were  any  ways  related  to,  or 
connected  with  them,  to  quit  the  city  forth- 
with, and  retire  to  the  countries  where 
they  were  born.'  These  brave  veterans  had 
served,  and  with  great  reputation,  under 
Constantine  Copronymus,  as  well  as  his  son 
Leo,  in  all  their  wars  ;  and  thus  were  their 
long  and  faithful  services  in  the  end  reward- 
ed. But  they,  as  true  to  God  as  to  their 
sovereigns,  would  worship  God  alone,  would 
suffer  no  other  objects  of  worship  to  be  set  up 
in  his  room,  and  were  therefore  left  in  their 
old  age  to  starve,  more  worthy  of  a  place 
amongst  martyrs  in  the  calendar,  than  any 
of  the  insolent  monks,  who  suffered  for  their 
disobedience  to  the  law  of  God,  and  laws  of 
the  empire. 

And  now  Irene,  trusting  in  her  new  guards, 

'  Theoph.  Ad  Ann.  Concil.  Nic.  2.  Act.  2. 

n2 


150 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Hadrian. 


The  council  meets  at  Nice  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  787.]    First  session.  Who  presided.    The  emperor's  letter  read. 


all  zealous  friends  to  images,  and  ready  to 
concur  with  her  in  all  her  measures,  began 
to  think  of  assembling  the  council  anew. 
But  apprehending  that  their  meeting  in  the 
metropolis,  where  the  Iconoclast  party  was 
still  very  strong,  might  be  attended  with 
fresh  disturbances,  she  thought  it  advisable 
to  transfer  it  to  some  other  place ;  and  the 
place,  that  appeared  to  her  the  most  proper, 
as  well  as  to  the  patriarch,  was  the  city  of 
Nice  in  Bithynia.  The  image-worshipers 
were  there  by  far  the  stronger  party  of  the 
two,  and  sure  to  prevail,  were  any  opposi- 
tion offered,  by  blows,  if  arguments  failed 
them.  Besides,  the  empress  flattered  her- 
self, that  the  very  name  of  Nice,  a  name  so 
famous  in  the  annals  of  the  church,  might 
recommend  a  council  held  there,  and  in 
some  degree  prejudice  people,  at  least  the 
undistinguishing  multitude,  in  its  favor. 
Fresh  orders  were  therefore  issued  by  Tara- 
sius,  and  sent  in  the  name  of  the  emperor 
and  the  empress  to  all  bishops  requiring 
them  to  repair  to  Nice,  and  there  pursue  the 
great  work,  which  they  had  begun,  but  the 
enemies  of  truth  had  interrupted,  at  Con- 
stantinople. At  the  same  time  messengers 
were  dispatched  after  the  legates  of  the  pope, 
who,  not  thinking  themselves  safe  at  Con- 
stantinople, and  suffering  their  fear  to  get 
the  better  of  their  zeal,  fiad  left  that  city  to 
return  to  Rome.  The  messengers  overtook 
them  in  Sicily ;  and  they^  upon  hearing  that 
the  mutinous  soldiery  were  disbanded  and 
dispersed;  that  others  were  substituted  in 
their  room,  on  whose  zeal  and  protection 
they  might  entirely  depend,  and  that  the 
council  was  to  meet,  not  at  Constantinople, 
but  at  Nice,  where  there  was  nothing  to  fear, 
consented  to  return.  By  the  time  they  reached 
Constantinople  the  bishops  had,  pursuant  to 
their  summons,  all  got  to  Nice  ;  and  thither 
Tarasius,  who  had  waited  for  the  legates  at 
Constantinople,  repaired,  soon  after  their  ar- 
rival, with  them,  with  the  great  officers  of 
the  empire,  who  were  to  assist  at  the  coun- 
cil in  the  emperor's  name,  and  the  two 
monks,  who  were  to  personate  the  three 
eastern  patriarchs,  and  had  been  entertained 
in  the  imperial  palace  ever  since  the  dissolu- 
tion of  the  council,  and  greatly  caressed  by 
the  empress. 

All  things  being  now  ready  for  the  open- 
ing of  the  council,  the  fathers  met  for  the 
first  time  in  the  great  church  of  St.  Sophia 
on  the  24th  of  September  of  the  present 
year.  At  this  assembly  were  present,  ac- 
cording to  some,  three  hundred  and  fifty  bi- 
shops, according  to  others  three  hundred  and 
sixty-seven,  and  three  hundred  and  seventy- 
seven  ;  a  number  sufficient  to  determine  any 
truth,  were  truth  to  be  determined  by  num- 
bers. The  council  was  opened  with  a  short 
speech  by  Tarasius,  wherein  he  exhorted  the 
holy  bishops,  assembled  in  the  Lord,  not  to 
examine  the  points  in  dispute  with  care  and 


attention,  and  impartially  decide  them,  but 
to  exert  themselves  manfully  agatnst  the  late 
heresy.  Here  F.  Pagi,  to  prevent  us  from 
falling  into  a  great  mistake,  and  concluding 
that  Tarasius  presided  at  the  council  because 
he  opened  it,  takes  care  to  inform  us,  that 
in  truth  the  pope's  legates  presided,  but  that 
as  Tarasius  was  a  man  of  great  address,  of 
consummate  experience  in  the  management 
of  affairs,  and  far  better  skilled  than  they  in 
the  Greek  tongue,  they  yielded  to  him  the 
whole  management  and  direction  of  the 
council.  Indeed  that  the  council  was  en- 
tirely managed  and  directed  by  Tarasius  is 
very  certain  ;  and  that  he  presided  at  it  either 
alone,  or  jointly  with  the  legates  of  the 
pope,  and  the  pretended  legates  of  the  eas- 
tern patriarchs  is  no  less  certain.  For  the 
patriarch  Photius,  in  his  book  of  the  Seven 
General  Councils,  says  in  express  terms, 
that  the  direction  and  presidency  of  this 
council  was  given  to  Tarasius,  to  the  pope's 
legates,  and  the  legates  of  the  three  other 
patriarchs.'  What  Photius  Avrites  is  con- 
firmed by  the  anonymous  author  of  the 
Liber  Synodicus  ;  for  that  writer  too  names 
Tarasius,  the  pope's  legates,  and  the  two 
monks,  as  all  presiding  at  the  council  ;2  and 
it  is  to  be  observed,  that  both  these  writers 
name  Tarasius  in  the  first  place,  and  con- 
sequently as  the  first  or  chief  president.  To 
the  testimony  of  these  two  writers  I  shall 
add  the  unexceptionable  testimony  of  Tara- 
sius himself,  who  speaking,  in  the  first  ses- 
sion, of  the  tumult,  that  happened  the  pre- 
ceding year  at  Constantinople,  tells  the  fa- 
thers that  it  happened  when  they  were  al- 
ready assembled,  while  he  presided,  prsesi- 
dentibus  nobis  in  venerabili  templo,  &c.  If 
he  presided  at  Constantinople,  it  is  not  to  be 
doubted  but  that  he  likewise  presided  at  Nice, 
the  council  of  Constantinople  and  that  of 
Nice  being  one  and  the  same  council,  only 
transferred  from  one  place  to  another.  I 
might  add,  that  he  probably  presided  alone, 
it  being  quite  improbable  that  had  the  pope's 
legates,  and  the  two  monks  shared  that 
honor  with  him,  he  would,  by  not  mention- 
ing them,  have  assumed  it  all  to  himself.'' 

When  Tarasius  had  ended  his  speech,  the 
imperial  commissioners  Petronius,  John,  and 
Nicephorus,  who  had  succeeded  Tarasius  in 
the  employment  of  first  secretary,  and  after- 
wards succeeded  him  in  the  patriarchal  dig- 
nity, produced  a  letter  from  Constaotine  and 
Irene  to  the  council,  and  desired  it  might  be 
read;  which  was  done  accordingly.  In  that 
letter  they  declared  that  they  had  assembled 
the  present  council  with  the  approbation  and 

'  Phot,  de  Sept.  Synod,  p.  57. 

«  Bibliothec.  Jur.  Canon,  p.  1210. 

'  Du  Pin  in  his  account  of  this  council  says  in  one 
place,  that  the  legates  of  the  pope  were  placed  the 
first,  and  Tarasius  ne.\t  to  them ;  and  in  another,  that 
the  legates  of  Hadrian  did  not  think  it  advisable  that 
certain  articles  of  his  holiness'  letter  should  be  read 
in  a  council,  at  which  Tarasius  presided. — (Du  Pin 
Biblioth.  eccles.  t.  6.  p.  138,  139.) 


Hadrian.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


151 


Some  bishops  abjure  their  former  doctrine,  and  are  allowed  to  sit  in  the  council. 


consent  of  all  the  patriarchs,  whereas  of  the 
five  patriarclis  three  knew  nothing  of  it,  as 
has  been  shown  above;'  that  the  resignation 
of  the  late  patriarch,  and  his  death-bed  re- 
pentance because  he  had  received  the  coun- 
cil, that  condemned  images,'^  having  made  a 
deep  impression  on  their  minds,  they  had 
thereupon  resolved  to  recall  the  banished 
faith,  and  with  that  view  raised  Tarasius  to 
the  patriarchal  dignity,  who  had  suggested 
to  them  the  assembling  of  a  general  council, 
as  the  most  effectual  means  of  obtaining  so 
desirable  an  end  ;  that  they  had  accordingly 
assembled  a  general  council  from  all  parts 
of  the  globe,  a  toto  terrarum  orbe  ;3  that  it 
was  incumbent  upon  them,  now  they  were 
assembled,  to  cut  off  all  errors  and  novelties 
in  the  practice  and  faith  of  the  church,  as 
the  prince  of  the  apostles  cut  off  the  ear  of 
the  perfidious  Jew ;  to  root  out  and  con- 
demn to  hell-fire  every  tree  bearing  fruit  of 
contention,  and  thus  put  an  end  to  the  un- 
happy disputes,  that  had  so  long  rent  into 
parties  and  factions  both  the  church  and  the 
empire.''  The  letter  was  received  by  the 
whole  assembly  with  loud  acclamations,  with 
repeated  wishes  of  long  life  and  prosperity 
to  their  most  religious  sovereigns,  who  de- 
served so  well  of  the  orthodox  faith,  of  the 
catholic  church,  of  all  true  Christians. 

In  the  next  place  several  bishops,  namely, 
Basilius  of  Ancyra,  Theodorus  of  Myra, 
Theodosius  of  Ammorium,  and  others,  who 
had  condemned  images,  or  received  the  coun- 
cil that  condemned  them,  presented  them- 
selves to  the  fathers,  begging  they  might  be 
allowed  to  abjure  that  heresy  and  take  their 
place  in  the  council.  For  in  this  mock  coun- 
cil none  were  allowed  to  sit,  who  had  ever 
condemned  images,  till  they  had  solem-nly 
abjured  that  opinion  as  a  heresy :  which 
was  declaring  it  heresy  not  to  worship  im- 
ages, when  they  had  not  yet  examined  whe- 
ther it  was  heresy  or  not,  nor  heard  a  single 
argument  or  reason  for  or  against  that  opi- 
nion. The  fathers  readily  complied  with 
the  request  of  the  penitent  bishops ;  and  Ba- 
silius of  Ancyra  abjured  his  opinion  the  first 
in  the  following  words  :  "  I  admit  the  inter- 
cession of  our  immaculate  lady  the  mother 
of  God,  of  the  holy  angels,  of  all  saints, 
and  beg  them  to  intercede  for  me ;  I  receive 
with  all  honor,  salute,  and  honorably  honor, 
honorabiliter  honoro,  their  holy  and  precious 
relics,  believing  I  shall  thus  partake  of  their 
holiness.  I  likewise  salute,  honor,  and  em- 
brace the  venerable  images  of  our  Savior, 
of  the  virgin  Mary,  of  the  apostles,  prophets. 


•  See  p.  147.  »  See  p.  141. 

»  At  this  council  assembled  from  all  parts  of  the 
globe  not  one  person  assisted,  besides  the  lefratos  of 
the  pope  from  Italy,  France,  Germany,  Spain,  Britain, 
or  Africa  ;  nay  not  one,  except, the  two  monks  and  the 
pope's  legates,  who  was  not  a  subject  of  the  empire  ; 
and  the  empire  was  confined,  at  this  time,  within  very 
narrow  bounds,  and  but  a  very  small  portion  of  the 
globe. 

«Concil.  Nic.  3.  Act.  1. 


martyrs,  and  of  all  the  saints.  I  condemn, 
abhor,  and  mostsincerely  renounce  the  false, 
wicked  and  abominable  synod,  that  con- 
demned images,  and  caused  them  to  be  taken 
down  and  cast  out  of  the  churches.  I  most 
sincerely  anathematize  all,  who  break  im- 
ages ;  who  apply  to  the  venerable  images 
what  is  said  in  Scripture  against  idols  ;  who 
call  them  idols,  or  say  that  we  approach 
them  as  gods,  who  reject  the  doctrine  of  the 
fathers,  and  the  tradition  of  the  church,  say- 
\n^  with  Arius,  Nestorius,  Eutyches  and 
Dioscorus,  that  they  receive  no  doctrine  but 
what  they  find  in  the  Old  or  New  Testament. " 
Basilius  ended  his  retractation,  and  his  ana- 
themas with  one  against  himself,  if  he  ever 
willingly  or  unwillingly  renounced  or  im- 
pugned the  doctrine,  which  he  now  pro- 
fessed.' The  retractation  of  Theodorus  of 
Myra  and  Theodosius  of  Ammorium  differ- 
ed but  very  little  from  that  of  Basilius;  only 
Theodosius  declared  that  he  received,  em- 
braced, and  adored  the  holy  and  adorable 
images ;  that  he  received,  embraced  and 
adored  the  relics  of  saints,  and  anathema- 
tized all,  who  did  not  teach  and  inculcate 
the  doctrine  of  image-worship.  The  retracta- 
tion of  these  three  bishops  was  received  with, 
great  applause  by  the  fathers,  and  as  it  was 
by  all  judged  sincere,  they  were  allowed  to 
sit  with  the  rest  in  the  council.  Seven  bi- 
shops more  presented  themselves  in  order  to 
recant,  and  be  thereupon  admitted  into  the 
council.  But  as  they  had  distinguished  them- 
selves by  their  zeal  against  images,  and  were 
supposed  to  have  been  the  authors  of  the 
disturbances,  that  obliged  the  council  to 
break  up  the  preceding  year  at  Constanti- 
nople, the  fathers  were  divided  in  their  opi- 
nions with  respect  to  them,  some  being  for 
degrading  them,  others  for  receiving  them 
by  a  new  imposition  of  hands,  and  some  for 
admitting  them  into  the  council,  without  any 
other  ceremony,  upon  their  owning  them- 
selves heretics,  and  renouncing  their  former 
wicked  sentiments  with  respect  to  images  as 
a  heresy :  and  this  opinion  prevailed  in  the 
end  ;  but  their  abjuration  and  reception  were 
put  off  to  the  next  session.  Thus  by  this 
very  numerous,  very  wise,  very  holy,  very 
learned  council,  as  Baronius,  Maimbourg, 
Natalis  style  it,  was  it  declared  a  wicked 
heresy,  and  abjured  as  a  wicked  heresy,  not 
to  worship  images,  when  they  had  not  yet 
examined,  nor  begun  to  examine  whether  it 
was  a  heresy,  or  not.  But  Irene  was  bent 
upon  having  the  holy  images  restored  ;  Ta- 
rasius, though  a  layman,  had  been  raised  by 
her  to  the  patriarchal  dignity,  because  a  zea- 
lous friend  to  the  holy  images ;  the  pope, 
offended  at  the  uncanonical  election  and  or- 
dination of  a  layman,  had  declared,  that  he 
approved  of  his  election  only  upon  condi- 
tion that  he  got  the  holy  images  restored  ;  so 
that  the  holy  images  were  to  be  restored  at 

>Concll.  Nic.  2.  Act.  I. 


152 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Hadrian. 

Second  session — Gregory  of  Neocssarea  recants.  Hadrian's  letter  read.  Third  session— Gregory  admitted  to 
the  council.  The  letter  of  Tarasius  to  the  eastern  patriarchs,  and  theirs  to  him,  read.  Fourth  session — 
Proofs  alledged  from  Scripture  by  Tarasius  in  favor  of  images,  and  by  the  pretended  vicar  of  the  eastern 
patriarchs. 


all  events :  and  the  most  effectual  means  of 
obtaining  that  end  was  to  declare  at  once  all 
enemies  to  images  heretics,  and  by  exclud- 
ing them  from  the  council  till  they  had  ab- 
jured their  wicked  heresy,  prevent  all  dan- 
gerous inquiries,  debates,  and  opposition. 

In  the  second  session,  held  two  days  after 
the  first,  that  is,  on  the  26ih  of  September, 
Gregory,  bishop  of  Neocaesarea  was  intro- 
duced by  the  imperial  commissioners  in 
order  to  abjure  his  heresy,  and  take  his 
place  in  the  council.  He  made  his  abjura- 
tion accordingly,  protesting,  that  he  received, 
honored  and  adored  the  venerable  images, 
and  unfeignedly  repented  as  a  most  wicked 
action  his  having  ever  opposed  them.  How- 
ever as  he  had  been  of  all  the  Iconoclasts 
the  most  active  in  pulling  them  down  and 
breaking  them,  and  besides  was  said  to  have 
cruelly  persecuted  all  under  his  jurisdiction, 
who  favored,  or  were  suspected  to  favor  that 
cause,  his  reception  was  put  off  till  his  case 
should  be  further  considered,  and  he  ordered  to 
present,  in  the  next  session,  a  confession  of 
his  faith  written  and  signed  by  himself.  Gre- 
gory being  dismissed,  Hadrian's  letter  in  an- 
swer to  the  emperor's  was  read,  approved 
and  received  with  all  the  misinterpretations 
of  Scripture,  all  the  false  or  impertinent  al- 
legations from  the  fathers,  and  the  legendary 
tales  it  contained.'  His  letter  to  Tarasius 
was  likewise  read  and  approved.  And  thus 
ended  the  second  session. 

The  council  met  again  on  the  29th  of 
September,  when  Gregory  of  Neocsesarea, 
having  presented  a  confession  of  his  new 
faith,  was,  after  repeated  submissions  and 
protestations,  confirmed  in  his  dignity,  and 
allowed,  with  the  seven  bishops  mentioned 
above,  all,  no  doubt,  sincere  converts  to  the 
worship  of  images,  to  take  his  place  in  the 
council.  In  the  next  place  was  read  the  let- 
ter of  Tarasius  to  the  eastern  patriarchs, ^  the 
answer  of  the  monks  of  Palestine  to  that  let- 
ter, which  passed  in  the  council  for  the  an- 
swer of  the  patriarchs  themselves,'  and  the 
supposed  letter  of  Theodore  of  Jerusalem 
to  the  two  patriarchs  of  Alexandria  and 
Antioch.*  These  letters  were  approved  by 
all,  and  received  as  containing  the  true 
catholic,  orthodox,  and  apostolic  faith  ;  and 
anathemas  were  thereupon  thundered  by  the 

Eope's  legates,  in  the  name  of  the  three 
undred  and  eighteen  bishops,  who  had  for- 
merly met  in  the  same  place,  that  is,  in  the 
name  of  the  three  hundred  and  eighteen  bi- 
shops of  the  first  council  of  Nice,  against 
all,  who  did  not  profess  the  same  doctrine, 
and  did  not  agree  with  the  most  holy  pope 
Hadrian,  with  the  holy  patriarch  of  new 
Rome,  and  the  other  holy  patriarchs  in  the 
adoration  of  images.     The  anathemas,  thun- 


'  See  p.  144. 
>  See  p.  147. 


«  See  p.  144. 
*  See  p.  148 


dered  by  the  legates,  were  approved  and 
confirmed  with  loud  and  repeated  acclama- 
tions by  all,  who  were  present,  and  thanks 
returned  to  the  Almighty  for  thus  uniting  the 
east  and  the  west,  the  south  and  the  north  in 
one  council  and  one  faith,  when  the  eastern 
patriarchs  knew  nothing  of  the  council,  as 
has  been  shown,'  and  the  western  bishops 
condemned  it  as  soon  as  they  heard  of  it,  as 
will  be  shown  hereafter. 

And  now  that  the  good  fathers  had  obliged 
several  bishops,  who  had  opposed  the  wor- 
ship of  images  as  unlawful,  to  abjure  that 
opinion  as  a  wicked  heresy,  and  had  ana- 
thematized all,  who  held  it,  as  heretics,  it 
was  high  time  for  them  to  examine  whether, 
it  was  a  heresy  or  not,  since  they  pretended 
to  have  met  for  that  purpose,  or,  at  least,  to 
prove  that  it  was.  And  this  they  attempted 
in  the  two  following  sessions,  but  with  what 
success  I  shall  leave  the  reader  to  judge. 
As  the  Iconoclasts  urged  the  Scripture  and 
the  divine  prohibition  "  thou  shalt  not,  make 
to  thyself  any  graven  images,"  &c.  against 
the  use  as  well  as  the  worship  of  images,  in 
the  fourth  session,  heldon  the  first  of  October, 
Tarasius  undertook  to  prove  from  Scripture 
the  lawfulness  of  the  one  and  the  other. 
But  the  only  passages  he  alleged  were  those, 
in  which  mention  is  made  of  the  cherubims 
shadowing  the  mercy-seat  f  and  from  them 
he  argued,  if  cherubims  shadowing  the 
mercy-seat,  were  allowed  under  the  law, 
may  not  we  nave  the  images  of  Christ,  of 
his  holy  mother,  of  the  saints  and  the 
martyrs  shadowing  our  altars  under  the  dis- 
pensation of  the  Gospel  ?  This  stale  argu- 
ment, if  it  deserves  the  name  of  an  argument, 
had  been  a  thousand  times  answered  by  the 
Iconoclasts  :  they  had  shown,  as  often  as  it 
was  urged  against  them,  a  wide  difference 
between  the  cherubims  and  the  images  they 
opposed,  namely,  that  the  cherubims  were 
made  by  God's  express  command,  which 
could  be  said  of  no  images  of  our  Savior  or  I 
the  saints  ;  that  the  cherubims  were  not  wor- 
shiped, and  therefore  could  not  be  alledged  to 
authorize  the  worshiping  of  images;  that 
they  were  not  even  seen  by  the  people,  but 
kept  concealed  from  their  sight  in  the  holy 
of  holies,  and  therefore  could  not  so  much 
as  authorize  the  use  of  images  in  the  places 
of  worship,  the  holy  of  holies,  where  they 
were  kept,  being  no  place  of  Avorship,  since 
none  were  allowed  to  worship  there,  nay 
nor  to  look  into  the  place.'  John,  the  pre- 
tended vicar  of  the  eastern  patriarchs,  added, 
that  Jacob  set  up  a  pillar,  and  that  he 
wrestled  with  an  angel  in  the  form  of  a  man, 
concluding  from  thence  that  Christians  may 
set  up  images,  as  if  there  were  no  difference 

'  See  p.  147. 

a  Num.  c.  7  :  V.  8,  9.  Exod.  c.25.  v.  17,  18.  Ezek.  C.  4!  : 
V.  18,  19.  Heb,  c.  9  :  v.  5. 
'Soe  p.  61.  note  (2). 


Hadrian.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


153 


Passages  of  Scripture  strangely  misinterpreted.     The  bishops  themselves  sensible  that  their  doctrine  was  not 
to  be  proved  from  Scripture.     Testimonies  from  the  fathers. 


between  a  pillar  and  an  image,  and  may  like- 
wise paint  angels  in  the  form  of  men  ;  which 
was  altogether  foreign  to  the  purpose,  the 
Iconoclasts  not  thinking  it  unlawful  to  paint 
angels  and  saints,  but  only  to  worship  either 
them  or  tiieir   pictures.    The  same  monk 
observed  that  the  agreement  between  Had- 
rian   and    Tarasius,   between   the    Roman 
church  and  the  empress  Irene  in  the  present 
dispute  about  images,  had  been  forseen  by 
king  David,  and  foretold  in  the  following 
words,  "  mercy  and  truth,"  that  is  Hadrian 
and  Tarasius,  "  are  met  together,  righteous- 
ness and  peace,"  that  is,  the  Roman  church 
and  Irene,  whose  name  in  Greek  imports 
peace,  "  have  kissed   each   other."'      The 
other  texts  they  allege  from  Scripture  are  no 
less   foreign   than   these,    that   is    altoghter 
foreign,  to  their  purpose,  namely,  "  Nathan 
bowed  himself  to  the  king  with  his  face  to 
the  ground.^    Abraham  bowed  himself  to  the 
people  of  the  land,  even  to  the  children  of 
Helh  ;^  show  me  thy  face,'' thy  face  will  I 
seek."5    From  the  first  two  passages  they 
argue ;  if  it  is  lawful  to  bow  to  men,  it  can- 
not be  unlawful  to  bow  to  images,  to  the 
holy  and  venerable  images  of  our  Savior,  of 
his  blessed   mother,  See;  that  is   in  other 
words,  if  we  may  lawfully  bow  down  to  men 
to  honor  them,  we  may  lawfully  bow  down 
to  images  to  worship  ihem  ;  which  is  arguing 
from  civil  honor  to  religious  worship  ;  from 
the  civil  honor  we  give,  and  are  no  where 
forbidden  in  Scripture  to  give  to  men,  to  the 
religious  worship,  which,  in  many  places  of 
Scripture  we  are  expressly  forbidden  to  give 
to  images.     Had  Nathan  bowed  to  David  to 
worship  him,  or  Abraham  to  the  children 
of  Heth  to  worship  them,  both  had  been 
guihy    of  idolatry.     As   bowing   is   lawful 
when  only  a  mark  of  civil  honor,  respect  or 
esteem  ;  so  is  kissing  when  only  a  mark  of 
friendship  and  kindness  ;  and  as  the  one  is 
unlawful  when  an  act  of  religious  worship, 
so  is  the  other:  of  this  distinction,  however 
obvious,  the  learned  fathers  or  the  council 
were  not  aware,  else  ihey  had  not  concluded 
from  its  being  lawful  for  parents  to  kiss  their 
children  and  the  images  of  their  children,  and 
for  children  to  kiss  their  parents  and  the  ima- 
gesof  their  parents,  that  it  was,  in  likemanner, 
lawful  for  Christians  to  kiss  the  images  of 
their  Savior  and  his  mother.    This  argument 
they  frequently  urge  in  the  present  and  fol- 
lowing sessions;  and  Leontius.  one  of  the 
bishops  of  the  council,  thought  it  of  such 
force  that  starting  up  when  he  first  heard  it, 
"now  tell  me,"  said  he,  insulting  the  Ico- 
noclasts and  improving  the  argument,  "tell 
me,  thou,  who  ihinkest  nothing,  that  is  made 
with  hands,  nothing  that  is  created,  is  to  be 
adored  ;    shall  thou   kiss  thy  wicked  wife, 
and  may  not  I  kiss  the  image  of  the  blessed 


«  Psal,  85 :  v.  20.  »  1  Kings  c.  1  :  v.  23. 

«  Gen.  c.  23  ;  v.  7.  *  Canticl.  »  Psal.  27  :  v.  8 

Vol.  II.— 20 


virgin?"  The  Iconoclast,  whom  he  thus 
addresses,  did  not,  I  suppose,  worship  his 
wife  when  he  kissed  her,  nor  kiss  her  by 
way  of  worship.  But  to  kiss  an  image  is  to 
worship  it  according  to  this  very  council, 
kissing  being  reckoned  by  them,  as  well  as 
bowing,  amongst  the  acts  of  worship  due  to 
images.  As  to  the  other  two  texts  of  Scrip- 
ture quoted  above,  by  the  word  face  in  those 
texts,  and  wherever  else  it  occurs  in  Scrip- 
ture, the  council  most  impertinently  under- 
stands the  image  of  Christ;  so  that  accord- 
ing to  them  "  show  me  thy  face"  is  as  much 
as  to  say  show  me  thy  image ;  "  thy  face 
will  I  seek,"  thy  image  Avill  I  seek;  "the 
rich  shall  entreat  thy  face,"  or  "pray  before 
thy  face,"  the  rich  shall  entreat  thy  image, 
or  pray  before  thy  image.  And  these  are 
the  only  passages  three  hundred  and  fifty  bi- 
shops could  find  in  holy  writ  to  satisfy  the 
world,  that  it  is  not  only  lawful  (o  use  im- 
ages, but  to  bow  down  to  them,  and  worship 
them,  notwithstanding  the  divine  prohibi- 
tion, "thou  shalt  not  bow  down  to  them, 
nor  worship  them." 

Their  obliging,  in  the  very  beginning  of  the 
first  session,  Basilius  of  Ancyra  to  anathe- 
matize all,  who  should  say  they  received  no 
doctrine  but  what  was  taught  in  the  Old  or 
New  Testament,  plainly  shows  that  they 
were  themselves  sensible  of  the  doctrine, 
which  they  wanted  to  define,  was  taught  in 
neither,  and  that  it  was  not  so  much  to  prove 
their  doctrine  from  Scripture  that  they  al- 
ledged  the  few  passages  quoted  above,  as 
that  they  might  not  be  thought  to  own,  as 
they  would  had  they  produced  none,  that  it 
could  not  be  proved  from  Scripture.  When 
arguments  from  Scripture  were  urged  against 
them  by  their  adversaries,  their  common  an- 
swer was,  that  all  heretics  and  patrons  of 
heresy  have  ever  founded  their  heresy  on  the 
Holy  Scriptures,  alledging  such  passages 
from  thence  as  are  capable  of  staggering  or 
misleading  the  unwary  and  the  ignorant. 
But  we  must  except  the  patrons  of  image 
worship,  and  do  them  the  justice  of  clearing 
them  from  that  imputation,  not  one  passage 
being  alledged  by  them  capable  of  misleading, 
or  staggering  in  the  least  even  the  most  igno- 
rant. 

The  Scripture  being  soon  laid  aside,  the 
voluminous  works  of  the  fathers  were 
brought  in  ;  and  of  testimonies  from  them 
the  good  bishops  were  as  prodigal  as  they 
had  been  sparing  of  testimonies  from  Scrip- 
ture. To  examine  them  all  would  be  an 
useless  as  well  as  a  troublesome  task;  and 
therefore  I  shall  only  observe  here,  I.  That 
not  one  father  or  Christian  writer  of  the  first 
three  centuries  was  quoted  by  the  council  to 
witness  their  apostolical  tradition, or  a  tradi- 
tion, that  came,  as  they  boasted,  from  the 
preaching  of  the  apostles.  Chrysostom, 
Gregory  Nazianzen,  Athanasius,  Asterius 
and  Basils  flourished  in  the  fourth  century  j 


154 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Hadrian. 


No  fathers  quoted  of  the  first  three  centuries.  Passages  from  the  fathers  of  the  subsequent  centuries  only 
prove  the  use  of  images  lawful.  To  kiss  and  adore  ditferent  things.  No  proof  from  the  councils  for  the 
worship  of  images. 


Cyril  of  Alexandria,  Antipaler  of  Boslra 
and  Nilus,  the  monk,  in  the  fifth  ;  Leontius, 
the  monk,  Joannes  Jejunator,  patriarch  of 
Constantinople,  and  Simeon  Stylites,  in  the 
sixth  ;  Sophronius  of  Jerusalem,  Anastasius, 
the  monk,  Anastasius,  patriarch  of  An- 
tioch,  and  Leontius  Cyprius,  in  the  seventh  ; 
Germanus  of  Constantinople,  Damascene, 
the  two  popes  Gregory  II.  and  III.,  in  the 
eighth.  And  these,  though  the  earliest 
among  them,  lived  near  three  hundred  years 
after  the  apostles,  are  the  only  evidences  they 
brought  in  to  witness  their  apostolical  tradi- 
tion, or  a  tradition,  that  had  obtained  in  the 
church  ever  since  the  times  of  the  apostles. 
Their  not  quoting  any  of  the  fathers  of  the 
first  three  centuries  is  a  plain  proof,  they 
could  find  nothing  in  them  that  seemed  in 
the  least  to  favor  their  opinion,  or  could  be 
so  misinterpreted  as  to  favor  it ;  and  they  had, 
as  was  observed  by  the  author  of  the  Caro- 
line books,  a  particular  talent  at  misinter- 
preting, mangling  and  corrupting  authors  to 
make  them  say  what  they  thought  they 
should  have  said.  As  they  could  therefore 
find  nothing  in  the  writings  of  the  apostles, 
of  their  immediate  successors,  or  of  those, 
who  succeeded  them  for  the  first  three  hun- 
dred years  of  the  Christian  religion,  that  fa- 
vored in  the  least  the  doctrine  of  image  wor- 
ship, they  would  have  argued  very  absurdly 
in  concluding  that  doctrine  to  have  been 
taught  by  the  apostles,  even  though  the 
fathers  of  the  fourth  and  the  following  cen- 
turies, that  is,  the  fathers,  whom  they  quote, 
had  all  taught  it  to  a  man. 

But  that  none  of  them  taught  it,  except- 
ing those  of  the  eighth  century,  when  that 
superstition  first  began  to  obtain  ;  that  in  the 
very  passages  quoted  out  of  the  fathers  there 
is  not  so  much  as  a  distant  hint  of  any  wor- 
ship given  to  images  by  those  fathers  or  by 
any  in  their  time,  will  undeniably  appear  to 
every  reader,  who  can  prevail  upon  himself 
to  peruse  the  tedious  acts  of  this  council. 
All  they  say  is,  that  pictures  are  pious  re- 
presentations ;  that  they  were  pleased  and 
affected  with  the  sight  of  them ;  that  they 
wept  in  beholding  the  picture  of  Christ's 
passion  ;  that  the  painters,  who  drew  such 
pieces,  were  piously  employed ;  that  they 
represent  to  us  the  battles  of  the  martyrs, 
put  us  in  mind  of  them,  and  stir  us  up  to 
tread  in  their  footsteps ;  that  the  walls  of 
churches  should  rather  be  painted  with  his- 
tories of  the  Old  and  New  Testament  than 
with  horses,  dogs  and  hares  ;  that  all  crea- 
tures have  a  natural  reverence  for  man  be- 
cause he  is  the  image  of  God.  No  protest- 
ant,  however  zealous  for  the  purity  of  the 
Christian  worship,  could,  I  believe,  scruple 
to  subscribe  these  propositions  ;  and  yet  the 
fathers  of  the  council  putting,  as  they  fre- 
quently do,  more  in  the  consequence  than 
was  in  the  premises,  conclude  from  them  that 


images  are  to  be  worshiped.  Gregory  Na- 
zianzen,  it  is  true,  speaking  of  an  image  be- 
stowed on  it,  as  the  council  observes,  the  epi- 
thet of  venerable.  But  unluckily  the  image, 
on  which  he  bestoAved  that  epithet,  was  not 
the  image  of  our  Savior,  of  the  virgin  Mary, 
of  any  martyr  or  saint,  but  of  Polemon  a  pa- 
gan ;  whence  it  evidently  follows,  that  by  the 
word  venerable,  Gregory  either  did  not  mean 
worthy  of  veneration  and  worship,  or  if  he 
did,  that  he  thought  the  image  of  a  pagan 
worthy  of  veneration  and  worship. 

But  Maximus,  say  they,  in  the  account 
he  gives  of  an  agreement  between  him  and 
Theodosius,  tells  us  that  the  book  of  the 
Gospels,  the  cross,  and  the  images  of  our 
Savior,  and  his  mother  being  brought  in, 
they  both  laid  their  hands   on   them,  and 
kissed  them  to  confirm  the  agreement  they 
had  made:  and  whatever  we  kiss,  that  we 
adore.     But  Maximus  lived  in  the  seventh 
century,  in  660,  according  to  Bellarmine,' 
and  therefore,  is  no  good  evidence  for  a  tra- 
dition pretended  to  be  derived  from  the  ajjos- 
iles.     Besides,  kissing  and  adoring  are  with 
all,  but  the  bishops  of  this  council,  two  very 
different  things  ;  and  those,  who  utterly  deny 
that  any  adoration  is  due  to  the  Gospels,  yet 
when  they  take  a  solemn  oath,  kiss  without 
scruple  the  book.    The  passages  they  quote 
from  Leontius  of  Cyprus,  is  the  most  favor- 
able of  all  to  their  cause.     But  he  too  lived 
as  late  as  the  seventh  century ,2  is  an  obscure 
author,  and  some  think  that  the  work,  they 
quote  and  ascribe  to  him,  was  never  heard 
of  before  the  time  of  this  council.     To  con- 
clude all   that   can   be   gathered    from   the 
passages  of  the  fathers  quoted  in  the  council 
is,  that  images  were  used  in  the  fourth  and 
the  following  centuries,  and  that  in  the  opi- 
nion of  those  fathers,  some  advantages  at- 
tended the  use  of  them.    This  is  evidently 
the    most  that   can  be  gathered  from   the 
passages  they  quoted  :  and  yet  Tarasius  and 
the  legates  of  the  pope  satisfied,  or  pretend- 
ing to  be  satisfied,  it  had  been  made  unde- 
niably to  appear  from  the  writings  of  the 
fathers,  that  not  only  the  use  but  the  wor- 
ship of  images  had  obtained  in  the  catholic 
church  ever  since  the  times  of  the  apostles, 
anathemas  were  thundered   by  the   whole 
assembly  against  all,  who  should  say  that  to 
worship  images  was  an  innovation,  or  was 
not   grounded   on    an    uninterrupted  tradi- 
tion (though  they  had  not  quoted  a  single 
father  of  the  first  three  centuries)  from  the 
earliest  ages  of  the  Christian  religion  to  the 
present. 

When  they  had  done  with  the  fathers,  the 
councils  were  brought  in,  which  they  boasted 
were  all  on  their  side,  but  nevertheless  con- 
tented themselves  with  only  alledging  the 


»  Bellar.  de  Script.  Eccles.  p.  113. 
>Idem  ibid.  p.  111. 


Hadrian.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


155 


Fabulous  legends  quoted  and  incredible  stories.     The  images  of  Berytus  and  Edessa. 
haunted  with  the  spirit  of  fornication. 


The  story  of  a  monk 


eighty-second  canon  of  the  quinisext  council, 
allowing  Christ,  who,  to  the  time  of  that 
council  had  been  painted  in  the  figure  of  a 
lamb,  to  be  thenceforth  represented  in  the 
form  of  a  man.  But  the  quinisext  council 
was  held  in  the  latter  end  of  the  seventh 
century,  in  691,  and  consequently  too  late 
to  evidence  an  apostolical  tradition.  Besides, 
by  that  canon,  Christ  was  allowed  to  be  re- 
presented in  his  humanity,  but  no  kind  of 
worship  was  there  allowed  to  be  given,  or 
said  to  be  due  to  that  representation;  nay, 
the  very  canon  they  quote  shows,  that  so 
late  as  the  end  of  the  seventh  century  even 
the  representing  of  Christ  in  his  humanity, 
or  in  the  form  of  a  man,  was  a  new  thing,  or 
what  had  never  before  been  allowed.  As  for 
the  preceding  councils,  it  was  owned  by  pope 
Gregory  II.  that  there  was  nothing  more  in 
them  of  images,  than  of  eating  and  drinking,' 
and  by  the  great  patron  of  images,  Ger- 
manus  of  Constantinople,  that  the  worship- 
ing them  was  a  point,  which  the  preceding 
councils  had  all  left  undiscussed  and  unde- 
termined :  and  truly  of  images  not  the  least 
mention  is  made  in  any  of  the  general  coun- 
cils, except  the  quinisext,  nor  indeed  in  any 
other  whatever,  except  that  of  Eliberis, 
which  condemned  even  the  use  of  images 
in  all  places  of  worship.^  But  the  worship 
of  images,  say  the  learned  prelates,  was  not 
forbidden  in  any  of  those  councils.  Neither 
was  the  worship  of  the  pagan  deities,  or  even 
of  the  devil,  forbidden  in  any  of  those  coun- 
cils ;  and  are  we  to  conclude  from  thence, 
that  they  approved  of  our  worshiping  them  ? 
The  reason,  why  none  of  them  forbid  the 
worship  of  images  is  obvious  ;  images  had 
not  begun  to  be  worshiped  in  the  time-even 
of  the  latest  of  those  councils,  as  has  been 
demonstrated  elsewhere  j^and  they  could  not 
forbid  what  was  not  yet  practised.  A  heresy 
must  be  broached  before  it  can  be  con- 
demned, and  a  practice  introduced  before  it 
can  be  forbidden. 

In  the  last  place  were  brought  in  the  lives 
of  the  saints,  with  heaps  of  monkish  legends 
to  corroborate  the  testimonies  alledged  from 
the  Scripture,  the  fathers,  and  the  coun- 
cils ;  and  out  of  those  fabulous  pieces  were 
read  miracles  without  number,  said  to  have 
been  wroui^ht  by  images.  The  story  of  our 
Savior's  image  crucified  at  Berytus  by  the 
Jews  was  believed  by  the  good  fathers,  and 
when  it  was  read  drew  tears  from  the  eyes 
of  the  whole  assembly.  Of  this  ridiculous 
tale  I  have  spoken  elsewhere,'*  but  cannot 
help  taking  notice  here  of  the  surprising 
ignorance  or  stupidity  of  these  good  fathers. 
On  the  one  hand  they  suppose  the  miracle 
wrought  by  that  image,  namely,  the  conver- 
sion of  the  Jews  upon  their  seeing  blood 
issue  from  it,  to  have  been  wrought  at  this 


«  See  p.  6.S. 
•  See  p.  2S.  Stc. 


»See.  p.  39. 

♦Seep.  129.  note  (1). 


time,  or  not  long  before  the  council,  and  call 
it  "a  new  miracle,  a  miracle  wrought  just 
now.'"  On  the  other  hand  they  will  have 
it  to  have  been  related  by  St.  Athana- 
sius,  who  died  three  hundred  years  before 
the  council,  and  father  upon  him  the  piece 
out  of  which  it  was  read.  The  image  of 
our  Savior,  supposed  to  have  been  sent  by 
our  Savior  himself  to  Abgarus,  king  of 
Edessa,^  was  not  forgotten  on  this  occasion  : 
and  the  miraculous  deliverance  of  that  city 
by  means  of  such  a  palladium,  when  Chos- 
roes  besieged  it,  was  read  as  it  is  related  by 
Evagrius,^  and  applauded  by  the  whole  as- 
sembly as  an  unquestionable  truth,  though 
of  the  supposed  miraculous  deliverance  not 
the  least  mention  is  made  by  Procopius,  who 
lived  in  those  days,  and  has  related  all  the 
remarkable  events  of  that  war,  nor  by  any 
other  writer  ^vhateve^.  The  image  indeed 
was  extant  in  the  time  of  the  council;  for 
Leo,  reader  of  the  church  of  Constantino- 
ple, assured  the  fathers  that  he  had  been  at 
Edessa,  and  had  seen  it  there  "  honored  and 
worshiped  by  the  faithful."  But  it  was  not 
extant  in  the  time  of  Eusebius,  who  was  at 
Edessa  three  hundred  years  before,  and 
there  saw  the  pretended  letters  from  Abga- 
rus to  our  Savior,  and  from  our  Savior  to 
Abgarus  ;•*  but  not  the  image,  else  he  would 
have  mentioned  the  image  as  well  as  the 
letters;  nay,  it  is  evident  from  his  thinking 
it  unlawful  to  paint  Christ,  as  we  have 
shown  he  did,^  that  he  either  never  had 
heard  of  that  image,  or  that  he  looked  upon 
all  that  was  said  of  it  as  a  mere  fable.  I 
should  quite  tire  the  reader  were  I  to  relate 
the  many  absurd,  childish,  and  ridiculous 
tales,  the  many  dreams  of  old  monks,  and 
old  womens'  stories,  that  were  read  out  of 
obscure  and  fabulous  writers,  or  gravely 
told  by  some  of  the  bishops  of  this  venerable 
assembly  to  convince  the  Iconoclasts,  that 
images  had  ever  been  worshiped  in  the  ca- 
tholic church,  and  that  God  had,  by  stu- 
pendous miracles,  approved  of  that  worship. 
To  some  of  them,  however,  I  must  allow  a 
place  here,  that  from  them  the  reader  may 
judge  of  the  rest,  as  well  as  of  the  sense, 
wisdom,  penetration  and  learning  of  those, 
Avho  not  only  were  not  ashamed  to  relate 
such  idle  and  incredible  stories,  or  hear  them 
related  in  such  an  assembly,  but  grounded 
chiefly  upon  them  a  definition  of  faith. 

Out  of  the  Pratum  Spirituale,  a  book  only 
fit  for  the  entertainment  of  children,  was 
read  the  following  story.  An  old  monk, 
who  had  been  haunted  with  the  spirit  of 
fornication  ever  since  his  youth,  finding  the 
unclean  spirit  continued  to  assault  him, 
without  intermission,  even  in  his  old  age, 
began  to  lament  his  hard  fate,  and  addressing 


'  Con.  Nic.  Sess.  4.  p.  231.    a  See  p.  29.  note  (2). 
'  Evagr.  I.  4.  c.  27.  »  See  p.  29.  note  (2) . 

t  See  p.  41.  note  (1). 


166 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Hadrian. 


Other  tales  no  less  absurd  than  that  of  the  monk,  approved  by  the  council. 

miraculously  cured  by  an  image. 


One  of  the  bishops  of  the  council 


the  devil,  "  how  long,"  said  he,  "  wilt  thou 
plague  and  torment  me?  Depart  from  me 
now ;  thou  hast  been  with  me  even  to  old 
age."  Hereupon  the  devil  appearing  to  him 
said,  "swear  to  me  that  thou  wilt  tell  no 
man  what  I  shall  say  to  thee,  and  I  will  as- 
sault the  no  more."  The  monk  swore  as 
the  devil  directed  him,  and  thereupon  the 
devil,  satisfied  he  should  compass  his  end, 
the  damnation  of  the  old  monk,  more  effec- 
tually by  diverting  him  from  the  worship  of 
images,  than  by  tempting  him  to  unclean- 
ness,  said  to  him,  "  worship  no  more  this 
image,"  the  image  of  the  virgin  Mary  with 
her  Son  in  her  arms,  "  and  I  will  tempt  thee 
no  more."  The  monk  desired  time  to  con- 
sider of  it,  and  discovered  the  next  day  to 
the  abbot  Theodore,  notwithstanding  the 
oath  he  had  taken,  all  that  had  passed  be- 
tween him  and  the  devil.  The  abbot  com- 
mended him  for  breaking  his  oath,  and  at 
the  same  time  assured  him,  that  "  he  had 
better  go  into  all  the  stews  in  the  city  than 
forbear  worshiping  Christ  and  his  mother  in 
their  images ;"'  that  is,  if  he  could  not  redeem 
himself  from  the  temptation  by  any  other 
means  but  by  either  renouncing  the  worship 
of  an  image,  or  satisfying  his  lust  with  all 
the  harlots  in  town,  he  ought  to  let  loose  the 
reins  to  his  lust.  The  answer  of  the  abbot, 
that  would  have  raised  the  indignation  of 
any  other  Christian  assembly,  and  would 
have  been  rejected  with  jhe  utmost  abhor- 
rence, as  uttered  by  the  devil  of  fornication 
himself  in  the  disguise  of  an  abbot,  was  re- 
ceived by  the  council,  by  a  council  of  three 
hundred  and  fifty  or  three  hundred  and  se- 
venty bishops,  with  general  applause  ;  nay, 
the  assembly  was  so  well  pleased  with  the 
whole  story,  that  they  ordered  it  to  be  read 
again  in  the  following  session. 

Out  of  the  same  book  were  read  two  other 
tales,  and  both  approved  and  applauded  by 
the  council.  John  the  anchoret,  a  very  great 
man,  as  he  is  called,  lived  in  a  cave  at 
Sochas  in  Palestine,  where  he  had  an  image 
of  the  virgin  Mary  with  Christ  in  her  arms. 
Before  that  image  the  holy  anchoret  kept  a 
candle  constantly  burning;  and  when  his 
devotion  prompted  him,  as  it  frequently  did, 
to  undertake  a  pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem,  to 
mount  Sinia,  or  to  any  other  more  distant 
sanctuary,  he  used  to  commit  the  care  of  his 
candle  to  the  virgin  Mary,  charging  her  not 
to  let  it  go  out,  lest  she  and  her  son  should 
be  left  in  the  dark.  The  virgin  acquitted 
herself  of  her  trust  with  great  fidehty ;  for 
though  the  holy  man  was  absent  sometimes 
two,  sometimes  four,  and  sometimes  six 
months,  he  found  the  candle  burning,  and 
not  wasted  in  the  least,  at  his  return.    The 

'"Expedit  autem  tibi  potius  ut  non  dimittas  in  ci- 
vitate  ista  Lupanar,  in  quod  non  introeas  quam  ut  re- 
cuses adorare  Dominum  nostrum  Jesum  Christum  cum 
propria  matre  in  sua  imagine,"  were  the  words  of  the 
abbot.— (Concil.  Nic.  2.  p.  269  ) 


other  story  was  of  a  woman,  who  having 
dug  a  deep  pit  to  find  water,  and  finding 
none,  was  ordered  in  her  sleep  to  lay  the 
image  of  the  abbot  Theodosius  at  the  bottom 
of  the  pit;  which  she  did,  and  the  pit  im- 
mediately filled  with  most  excellent  water. 
Of  this  miracle  the  fathers  thought  no  man 
could  doubt  but  a  Mahometan  or  a  Jew, 
since  the  person,  who  relates  it,  saw  the  well, 
and  drank  of  the  water.  The  true  criterion, 
or  mark  of  distinction  between  true  and  false 
miracles  is,  according  to  St.  Irenasus,'  that 
true  miracles  are  done  for  the  benefit  of 
mankind.  And  what  mighty  benefit  was  it 
to  mankind  that  a  pit  should  be  filled  with 
water  for  the  convenience  of  a  silly  woman, 
or  that  a  candle  should  be  kept  constantly 
burning  to  light  nobody  1 

When  these  and  many  other  no  less  ab- 
surd, ridiculous  and  incredible  stories  were 
read  out  of  the  different  legends  the  bishops 
had  called  for,  a  monk,  named  Stephen,  ac- 
quainted the  council  that  he  could  produce 
fifteen  volumes  more,  all  upon  images,  and 
all  filled  with  miracles  wrought  by  images 
to  confound  the  Iconoclasts,  and  confirm  the 
catholic  doctrine.  But  Tarasius,  perceiving 
the  fathers  grew  tired,  and  well  they  might, 
answered  the  monk,  that  the  catholic  doctrine 
wanted  no  further  confirmation.  However, 
Manzus,  one  of  the  bishops  of  the  council, 
rising  up,  begged  leave  to  add  to  the  many 
miracles  wrought  by  images  in  others,  one 
wrought  in  himself,  and  told  them,  that  he 
was  cured  of  a  very  dangerous  disease  by 
laying  an  image  of  our  Savior  on  the  part 
affected.  And  yet  Tarasius  had  owned  in 
this  very  session,  that  no  miracles  were 
wrought  by  images  in  their  days,  because 
miracles  Avere  signs  for  unbelievers,  and  not 
for  believers.  This  session  ended  with  a 
solemn  declaration  made  by  the  whole  coun- 
cil, that  they  honored,  worshiped,  and  adored 
the  holy  and  venerable  images.  Let  no  man 
be  offended,  said  Tarasius,  at  the  word 
"adoration  or  worship,"  or  urge  against  it 
the  command  quoted  by  our  Savior,  "  thou 
shalt  worship  the  Lord  thy  God,  and  him 
only  shalt  thou  serve :"  for  in  that  command 
the  word  only  is  applied  to  service,  and  not 
to  worship  ;  and  therefore,  though  we  may 
not  serve  images,  yet  we  may  worship  them. 
Had  the  devil  understood  the  Scripture  as 
well  as  Tarasius,  he  might  have  answered 
our  Savior,  by  the  command,  "thou  shalt 
worship,"  Slc,  you  are  not  required  to  wor- 
ship, but  to  serve  God  only,  and  therefore 
may,  whhout  Irangressing  it,  fall  down 
and  worship  me.  The  distinction  between 
service  and  worship  was  received  by  the 
council  with  an  uncommon  and  general  ap- 
plause, the  bishops  all  crying  out  aloud, 
"  we  worship  images,  but  do  not  serve 
them ;  we  may  worship  images,  though  we 

» Iren.  advers.  hseres.  11.  56. 


Hadrian.] OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. ^157 

Fifth  session— Iconoclasts  declared  worse  than  Jews,  Mahometans,  &c.     Conference  between  a  pagan  and  a 
saint  read  in  the  council,  and  a  dispute  between  a  Christian  and  a  Jew. 


may  not  serve  ihem,"  as  if  they  never  had 
heard  of  the  divine  prohibition,  "  thou  shalt 
not  make  to  thyself  any  graven  image  ;  thou 
shalt  not  bow  down  to  them,  nor  worship 
them."  They  closed  the  session  with  a  peal 
of  anathemas  against  all  in  general,  who  did 
not  salute,  honor,  worship,  and  adore  the 
holy  and  venerable  images,  and  against  the 
emperor  Leo  in  particular,  his  sen  Coprony- 
mus,  and  the  impious  assembly  of  judaizing 
bishops  convened  by  the  latter  for  the  de- 
struction of  images,  and  the  exaltation  of 
the  kingdom  of  satan. 

The  fifth  session,  held  on  the  4th  of  Octo- 
ber, was  opened  by  Tarasius  with  a  decla- 
mation, or  rather  invective,    wherein   the 
Iconoclasts  were  compared  to  the  Jews,  Sa- 
maritans, pagans,  Mahometans,  Manichees, 
&.C.,  when  he  had  done,  they  were  declared 
by  the  whole  assembly  worse  than  Jev/s, 
Samaritans,  or  Mahometans,  because  they 
destroyed  images  ignorantly,  being  strangers 
to   Christianity ;    whereas    the    Iconoclasts 
knew  the  will  of  their  Lord.     Here  they 
should  have  shown  where  the  will  of  their 
Lord,  that  images  should   be  set  up,  and 
should  be  worshiped,  was  revealed  to  them. 
In  the  Old  Testament  to  set  up  images,  or 
worship  them,  is  expressly  forbidden,  and 
that  prohibition  is  nowhere  revoked  in  the 
New  Testament.     The  Iconoclasts  therefore 
thought,  and  had  reason  to  think  so,  that  it 
was  the  will  of  their  Lord  they  should  destroy 
them,  at  least  when  they  began  to  be  wor- 
shiped, as  good  king  Hezekiah  was  com- 
mended   in    Scripture   for    destroying   the 
brazen  serpent,  though  made  by  God's  own 
command,  when  it  began  to  be  worshiped.' 
In  the  next  place  was  read  a  sermon  of 
John,  bishop  of  Thessalonica,  containing  an 
account  of  a  conference  between  a  pagan 
and  a  saint  that  is  a  worshiper  of  images. 
The  pagan   is   there    introduced   speaking 
thus:  "Do   not   you   Christians   paint,   in 
your  churches,  the  images  of  your  saints, 
nay  of  your  God,  and  worship  them?    And 
why  may  not  we  too  paint  the  images  of 
our  gods  and  worship  them?     We  do  not 
take  our  images  to  be  gods,  nor  do  we  wor- 
ship them  as  gods,  but  in  them  and  by  them 
we  worship  the  incorporeal  powers,  whom 
they  represent."     The  saint  answers,  "  We 
Christians  make  images  of  holy  men,  who 
had  real  bodies;  we  paint  our  God  in  the 
form  of  a  man,  the  form  in  which  he  ap- 
peared amongst  us;  but  you  make  corpo- 
real images  of  incorporeal  beings."     "And 
so  do  you  "  replies  the  pagan, "  for  you  paint 
angels,  who  are  intellectual  and  incorporeal 
beings."     "  You  pagans  indeed,"  answers 
the  saint,  "  teach  that  angels  are,  as  well  as 
our  souls,  incorporeal  and  invisible :   but  the 
catholic  church  teaches  us,  that  they  have 
bodies,  sublil  bodies  of  air  and  fire,  accord- 


'  Kings  c.  18.  V.  3.  4. 


ing  to  that,  '  he  makes  his  ministers  a  flame 
of  fire.'  They  are  indeed  said  to  be  incor- 
poreal, but  only  comparatively,  because  they 
have  not  such  gross  bodies  as  we  have." 
Thus  the  saint;  and  his  answers  were  all 
approved  by  the  council  as  containing  the 
true  doctrine  of  the  catholic  church.  In- 
deed we  need  not  wonder  at  their  fathering 
on  the  church  the  doctrine  of  image-worship, 
when  we  find  them  so  little  acquainted  with 
the  doctrine  of  the  church  as  to  father  upoQ 
her  that  of  the  materiality  of  souls  and  of 
angels. 

In  the  same  session  was  read  a  dispute 
between  a  Christian  and  a  Jew,  in  which 
the  Jew  is  introduced  upbraiding  the  Chris- 
tian with  a  breach  of  the  commandment 
expressly  forbidding  us  to  bow  down  to 
images,  or  to  worship  them.  The  Chris- 
tian answers,  "The images  you  see  are  made 
to  put  us  in  mind  of  the  benefits  of  Christ; 
the  images  of  the  saints  represent  to  us  their 
combats  and  victories.  We  do  not  worship 
them  as  Gods,  but  pray  God  to  save  us  by 
their  intercession.  We  do  not  worship  or 
adore  a  wooden  image  or  a  picture,  but  we 
glorify  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  O  Jew,  even 
Moses  made  two  cherubims,  and  a  brazen 
serpent."  When,  or  by  whom  this  piece 
was  written  we  know  not;  but  what  was 
quoted  out  of  it  makes  rather  against  the 
council  than  for  it,  since  the  Christian  there 
confines  the  use  of  images  to  their  putting 
us  in  mind  of  the  benefits  of  Christ,  and 
their  representing  to  us  the  combats  of  the 
martyrs,  and  expressly  declares  that  he  does 
not  worship  them.  "We  do  not  worship 
or  adore  a  wooden  image  or  a  picture," 
says  the  Christian  ;  "  we  salute,  honor, 
worship  and  adore  the  holy  images,"  says 
the  council.  The  use  of  images  for  memory 
or  instruction,  which  alone  the  Christian 
defends  in  that  dialogue  or  dispute,  is  in 
itself  innocent  and  lawful;  and  the  emperor 
Leo  would  no  more  have  destroyed  them, 
had  they  been  only  employed  for  those 
purposes,  than  good  king  Hezekiah  would 
have  destroyed  the  brazen  serpent,  had  it 
only  served  for  a  memorial  of  the  miracle, 
that  God  had  been  pleased  to  work  by  it. 
Cyril  of  Jerusalem  condemned  indeed,  as 
the  council  observes,  Nabucodonozor  for 
destroying  the  cherubims  in  the  temple. 
But  between  the  cherubims  and  the  images 
pleaded  for  by  the  council  there  was  this  no 
small  diflference,  which  the  learned  fathers 
were  not,  or  pretended  not  to  be,  aware  of; 
namely,  that  the  cherubims  were  made  by 
God's  express  command,  and  were  not  wor- 
shiped, nor  so  much  as  seen  by  the  people; 
whereas  their  images  were  not  made,  to  say 
no  more,  by  God's  command,  and  were 
both  seen  and  worshiped,  contrary  to  his 
command,  by  the  people.  Had  they  even 
been  made  as  well  as  the  cherubims,  by  aa 
O 


158 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Hadrian. 


Passages  from  the  fathers  against  images  how  answered  by  the  council,  and  how  the  passages  from  Scripture. 
Sixth  Session — An  image  brought  in  and  adored  by  the  council. 


express  command  of  God,  the  worship  that 
was  given  them,  would  have  justified  the 
breaking  them,  as  the  worship,  that  was 
given  to  the  brazen  serpent,  justified  the 
breaking  it,  though  it  was  made  by  God's 
own  command.  However  from  the  words 
of  the  Christian  in  the  above-mentioned 
dialogue,  and  those  of  Cyril  against  Nabu- 
codonozor,  it  was  concluded  by  the  whole 
assembly,  that  the  Iconoclasts  were  no  Chris- 
tians, but  Jews  or  Samaritans  (it  not  being, 
according  to  them,  faith  in  Christ,  but  the 
worship  of  images,  that  makes  a  Christian) 
guilty  of  the  same  crime,  for  which  the 
wicked  king  Nabucodonozor  was  condemned 
by  the  holy  bishop  of  Jerusalem. 

Lastly  Avere  read  in  this  session,  and  an- 
swered, as  was  pretended,  some  passages 
out  of  the  many,  that  might  have  been  al- 
ledged  from  the  fathers,  against  the  wor- 
ship of  images.  But  the  answers  were  for 
the  most  part,  the  very  same  with  those, 
that  are  given  in  our  days  by  the  Roman 
catholic  divines  to  elude  the  testimonies  of 
the  Scriptures  and  the  fathers,  namely,  that 
they  speak  only  of  the  images  of  the  hea- 
thens, or  of  the  worship  of  images  as  prac- 
tised by  the  heathens;  and  these  answers 
the  reader  will  find  fully  confuted  in  the 
foregoing  volume.'  To  the  plain  testimony 
of  St.  Epiphanius  forbidding  any  images  of 
saints,  (not  images  of  the  heathenish  deities) 
to  be  brought  into  the  churches  or  church- 
yards, lest  the  faithful  should  be  diverted 
from  their  devotions  by  gazing  upon  them, 
their  only  answer  was,  that  they  did  not  be- 
lieve Epiphanius  could  have  disapproved  of 
such  a  practice.  They  had  never  heard,  it 
seems,  of  his  letter  to  John  of  Jerusalem, 
wherein  he  gives  an  account  of  his  having 
found  in  a  church,  and  torn  to  pieces  a  vail, 
on  which  was  painted  the  image  of  Christ 
or  of  some  saint,  as  has  been  related  else- 
where f  nor  of  his  book  on  heresies,  where 
he  condemns  the  Carpocratians  for  having 
an  image  of  Jesus  and  worshiping  it.^  To  the 
testimony  of  Eusebius  holding  it  unlawful 
to  paint  Christ,  they  had  nothing  to  reply, 
but  that  Eusebius  was  a  heretic  and  an 
Arian  ;  though  in  the  very  passage,  that  was 
quoted,  he  acknowledged  the  divinity  of 
Christ  in  the  plainest  terms."*  But  had  he 
even  been  an  Arian,  his  authority  ought 
nevertheless  to  have  been  of  as  much  weight 
with  the  council,  as  the  authority  of  a  ca- 
tholic, the  Arians  being  as  orthodox  with 
respect  to  images  as  the  catholics  them- 
selves :  nay,  they  quote  him  themselves  for  an 
apostolic  tradition,^  either  forgetting  that  he 
was  an  Arian,  or  thinking  that  his  being  an 
Arian  did  not  iti  the  least  invalidate  his  au- 
thority in  a  point,  that  had  no  connection 
with  Arianism.     Had  an  impertinent  Icono- 


«  See  p.  34.  &c.  »  See  p.  39,  40. 

»  Epiph.  contr.  hteres.  1.  1.  hasr.  27. 
•See  p.  41.  note  (1).  '  Sess.  6. 


clast  asked  the  good  fathers,  why  in  one 
place  they  thought  the  authority  of  Euse- 
bius of  great  weight,  notwithstanding  his 
Arianism,  and  in  another  thought  it  of  no 
weight  on  account  of  his  Arianism?  They 
could  have  given  no  other  answer,  but  that 
in  the  one  place  he  was  for  them,  and  was 
against  them  in  the  other. 

When  the  second  commandment  was  al- 
ledged,  and  other  passages  out  of  the  Scrip- 
ture forbidding  the  worship  of  images,  they 
were  angry  that  words,  spoken  long  ago  to 
the  Jews,  should  be  applied  to  the  Chris- 
tians, as  if  the  precepts  of  the  decalogue 
were  not  binding  with  respect  to  the  Chris- 
tians, and  our  Saviour  had  come  to  destroy 
the  law,  and  not  to  fulfil  it.  And  now  the 
council  having  made  it  appear,  in  the  man- 
ner we  have  seen,  that  the  doctrine  of  image- 
worship  was  entirely  agreeable  to  the  Scrip- 
tures, the  fathers  and  the  councils  ;  that  it 
had  been  confirmed  by  innumerable  mira- 
cles, and  opposed  by  none,  since  the  times 
of  the  apostles  to  the  present,  but  by  Jews, 
Samaritans,  Saracens,  and  the  worst  of 
heretics,  Sabas,  abbot  of  Studium,  moved 
that  the  restoration  of  images  might  be  de- 
creed by  the  holy  and  oecumenical  council, 
and  the  pope's  legates  that  a  venerable  image 
should  be  brought  into  the  council,  and  an 
honorary  adoration  should  by  all  be  paid  to 
it.  The  council  agreed  to  both  motions : 
but  the  issuing  the  decree,  and  the  ceremony 
of  the  honorary  adoration  were  put  off  to 
the  next  day,  and  the  session  ended,  as 
usual,  with  a  peal  of  repeated  anathemas 
against  all,  who  refused  to  salute,  honor, 
worship  and  adore  the  holy  and  venerable 
images.' 

The  next  day,  the  fifth  of  October,  the 
fathers  met  again,  when  an  image  of  our 
Savior  being  brought  into  the  council,  agree- 
ably to  the  motion  of  the  legates,  the  whole 
assembly  paid  it  an  honorary  adoration,  as 
it  was  styled,  or  an  adoration  of  honor,  con- 
sisting in  all  the  outward  acts  of  adoration 
and  worship  they  would  have  given  to 
Christ  himself,  had  he  been  present.  This 
ceremony  was  attended  with  a  litany  of 
anathemas  against  all  who  did  not  salute 
the  holy  and  venerable  images,  who  broke 
them,  who  called  them  idols,  who  thought 
it  idolatry  to  worship  them,  or  did  not  curse 
the  impious  council  that  condemned  them, 
and  all  who  sat  in  it.  When  this  ceremony 
was  over,  they  undertook  to  answer  the 
reasons  and  arguments  alledged  against  im- 
ages by  the  council  of  Constantinople ;  with 
what  success  we  have  seen  elsewhere.^  The 
acts  of  the  council  of  Constantinople  were 
read  by  Gregory,  bishop  of  Neocaesarea, 
who  had  assisted  at  it,  and  the  answers  to 
them,  which  they  had  drawn  up  before- 
hand and  divided  into  six  tomes  or  sections. 


»  Concil.  Nic.  2.  sess.  5. 


3  See  p.  98,  &c. 


Hadrian.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


159 


Seventh  session— Their  decree  and  definition  of  faith.  The  decree  confirmed  by  the  etnprcss  and  the  emperor, 
and  images  set  up  anew.  The  council  of  Nice  no  general  council.  It  consisted  only  of  the  subjects  of  the 
empire  and  the  pope's  legates. 


by  the  two  deacons,  John  and  Epiphanius. 
The  answers,  however  absurd  and  imperti- 
nent, were  approved  and  applauded  by  all, 
and  the  wicked  council,  that  had  attempted 
to  banish  Christianity,  and  introduce  Juda- 
ism in  its  room,  anathematized  anew  all,  who 
did  not  condemn,  curse  and  reject  it. 

In  the  seventh  session,  held  on  the  13th 
of  October,  they  came  to  the  definition  of 
faith  ;  and  it  was  decreed,  that  images  not 
only  of  Christ,  but  of  the  virgin  Mary,  of 
the  holy  angels,  and  of  all  the  martyrs  and 
saints,  should  be  set  up  in  places  of  worship, 
on  the  highways,  and  in  private  houses;  that 
they  should  be  used  on  the  sacred  utensils  to 
put  us  in  mind  of  those,  whom  they  repre- 
sented ;  that  they  should  be  worshiped  and 
adored,  not  with  that  adoration  and  worship, 
that  was  due  to  God  alone,  but  with  an 
honorary  worship,  or  a  worship  of  honor,  and 
lastly  that  all,  who  disapproved  or  opposed 
such  a  worship  as  unlawful,  should  be  de- 
posed, if  ecclesiastics  or  bishops,  and  ex- 
communicated, if  monks  or  laymen.  The 
decree  was  signed  by  all  the  bishops  amidst 
repeated  wishes  of  long  life  and  happiness  to 
the  new  Constantine  and  the  new  Helena, 
and  repealed  anathemas  against  all,  who  did 
not  agree  to  the  definition  of  the  holy  oecu- 
menical council,  who  did  not  salute,  honor, 
worship  and  adore  the  holy  and  venerable 
images.  The  decree  being  signed,  letters 
were  written  by  Tarasius,  in  the  name  of  the 
council,  to  Constantine  and  Irene,  to  pope 
Hadrian,  and  to  all  the  bishops  of  the  catho- 
lic church,  with  a  copy  of  the  definition  of 
faith,  which  the  church  universal,  represent- 
ed by  them,  had  approved,  and  all  true 
Christians  were  bound  to  receive  as  dictSited 
by  him,  who  promised  to  be  with  his  church 
"even  unto  the  end  of  the  world."  At  the 
same  time  it  was  ordained,  that  the  day,  the 
13th  of  October,  on  which  the  decree  of 
faith  was  happily  issued,  should  be  for  ever 
kept  as  a  festival,  to  return  thanks  to  the 
Almighty  for  the  extirpation  of  the  worst  of 
heresies,  and  the  restoration  of  the  catholic 
faith  and  Christian  piety. 

In  the  meantime  Irene,  who  had  taken 
care  to  be  daily  informed  of  all  that  passed 
in  the  council,  thinking  it  would  add  no 
small  weight  and  authority  to  their  definition 
and  decrees,  were  they  confirmed  in  her  pre- 
sence and  the  presence  of  the  emperor,  sent 
an  order  to  the  patriarch,  upon  the  receipt 
of  his  letter,  enjoining  him  to  repair,  as  soon 


when  the  noisy  and  unbecoming  acclama- 
tions of  the  bishops  allowed  them  to  speak, 
they  desired  the  decree  of  faith  issued  by  the 
holy  oecumenical  council  might  be  read  so 
as  to  be  heard  by  all.  It  was  read  according- 
ly ;  and  the  empress  addressing  herself,  as 
soon  as  it  was  read,  to  the  bishops,  asked 
theni  whether  the  decree  they  had  heard  was 
issued  with  one  consent,  whether  they  all 
agreed  to  it,  and  had  freely  signed  it?  The 
bishops  answered,  "  we  all  agree  to  it;  we 
have  all  freely  signed  it ;  tiiis  is  the  faith  of 
the  apostles,  of  the  fathers,  of  the  catholic 
church ;  we  all  salute,  honor,  worship  and 
adore  the  holy  and  venerable  images;  be 
they  accursed,  who  do  not  honor,  worship 
and  adore  the  adorable  images.  Long 
live  the  new  Constantine,  long  live  the  new 
Helena."  When  the  noise  ceased,  Tarasius 
presented  the  decree  to  the  empress,  who 
having  signed  it,  and  made  her  son  sign  it, 
returned  it  to  the  patriarch  amidst  the  loud 
acclamations  of  the  bishops,  echoed  on  all 
sides  by  the  populace  in  the  avenues  to  the 
palace  and  in  the  streets.  Thus  ended  this 
famous  council ;  and  the  assembly  was  no 
sooner  dismissed,  than  by  an  order  from  the 
empress  images  were  set  up  anew,  not  only 
in  all  places  of  worship,  but  in  the  squares, 
in  the  streets,  and  over  the  gates  of  (he  im- 
perial palaces  and  the  city,  the  superstitious 
multitude  crowding  everywhere  about  them, 
and  paying  them  now  that  their  superstition 
was  authorized  by  a  general  council,  all  the 
external  acts  of  adoration  and  worship,  that 
ever  were  paid  by  the  grossest  idolaters  to 
their  idols.  And  thus  was  the  worship  of 
images,  which  the  three  preceding  emperors 
Leo  II.,  Constantine  IV.,  and  Leo  III.,  had 
taken  so  much  pains  to  extirpate,  restored 
by  a  woman,  who  had  bound  herself  by  a 
solemn  oath  never  to  worship  images,  nor 
suffer  them  to  be  worshiped  in  the  empire. 

Two  things  occur  to  be  examined  relating 
to  this  council  before  I  have  done  with  it. 
1.  Whether  it  may  truly  be  called  a  general 
council,  and  was  received  as  such  by  the 
catholic  church.  2.  What  kind  of  worship 
it  defined  to  be  given  to  images.  As  to  the 
first,  they  constantly  style  themselves  the 
holy  oecumenical  council ;  or,  as  if  that 
were  not  enough,  the  catholic  church.  But 
that  they  had  no  kind  of  right  to  either  of 
these  titles  may  be  easily  shown.  For  in 
the  first  place  the  assembly  entirely  consisted 
of  the  pope's  legates,  and  the  subjects  of  the 


as  he  conveniently  could,  with  all  the  bi-  empire,  not  one  bishop  from  Africa,  France, 
shops,  to  the  imperial  city.  The  order  was  Germany,  Spain  or  Britain,  having  been  so 
readily  complied  with  ;  and  the  bishops  much  as  invited  to  it,  or  known  anything 
meeting  on  the  23d  of  October  in  the  great ,  of  it,  till  they  heard,  with  the  greatest  sur- 
hall  of  the  imperial  palace  of  Blancherna;,  prise  and  astonishment,  of  the  decree  they 
the  emperor  and  the  empress  came  into  the  had  issued.  The  three  eastern  patriarchs 
assembly,  attended  by  their  guanls,  by  the    knew  no  more  of  it,  as  has  been  shown,* 

magistrates,  and  by  all  the  great  officers  of  j 

slate,  and  being  sealed  oa  a  high  throne,  |  '  See  p.  147. 


160 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Hadrian. 


The  council  of  Nice  not  free,  nor  received  in  the  west  as  a  general  council.  The  doctrine  it  established  re- 
pugnant to  Scripture.  What  worship  the  council  defined  to  be  given  to  images.  The  images  themselves  to 
be  worshiped. 


than  the  western  bishops,  nor  did  their  suf- 
fragans: and  no  council  can,  according  to 
Bellarmine  himself,'  be  truly  called  a  general 
council,  much  less  the  catholic  church,  un- 
less preceded  by  a  general  invitation,  and 
notified  before-hand  in  all  the  greater  Chris- 
tian provinces  ;  nay  this  very  council  would 
not  allow,  as  Bellarmine  observes,^  that  of 
Constantinople  against  images  to  be  called  a 
general  council  because  it  was  not  preceded 
by  a  general  invitation.  The  absence  of  the 
patriarchs  was  with  the  council  of  Nice  an- 
other exception  against  the  council  of  Con- 
stantinople. But  that  exception  too  was 
common  to  both,  unless  it  be  said  that  the 
presence  of  one  patriarch  does  not  entitle  a 
council  to  the  appellation  of  general,  but  the 
presence  of  two  does.  2.  No  assembly  can 
deserve  the  name  of  a  council,  of  which 
every  member  is  not  allowed  an  entire  free- 
dom to  speak  and  to  vote  according  to  the 
best  of  his  judgment.  Thus  had  the  present 
council,  instead  of  removing  to  Nice,  con- 
tinued at  Constantinople,  and  there  been 
forced  by  the  Iconoclast  soldiery  to  confirm 
the  council  against  images,  such  a  confirma- 
tion, as  it  was  not  free,  would  not  have  been 
received,  however  unanimously  agreed  to, 
as  the  decision  of  a  general  council.  Now 
the  Iconoclasts  were  no  more  free  at  Nice, 
than  the  Iconolaters  or  worshipers  of  images 
would  have  been  free  had  they  continued  at 
Constantinople.  The  empress,  the  pope, 
the  patriarch  had  conspired  to  restore  images 
at  all  events ;  Tarasius,  a  man  of  great  art, 
address,  and  experience  in  the  management 
of  affairs,  was,  in  defiance  of  the  canons, 
raised  to  the  patriarchal  dignity  as  the  most 
capable  of  carrying  that  design  into  execu- 
tion ;  the  pope  had  approved  of  his  unca- 
nonical  election  upon  condition  that  he  got 
the  holy  images  restored  ;  the  council  was 
assembled,  not  to  examine  whether  it  was 
lawful  or  not  to  use  images  and  to  worship 
them,  but  to  establish  the  use  and  the  wor- 
ship of  them ;  none  were  allowed  to  sit  in 
it,  who  did  not  hold  and  profess  the  doctrine 
of  image- worship,  or  if  they  had  at  anytime 
held  the  opposite  doctrine,  did  not  publicly 
abjure  it  as  a  wicked  heresy  ;  and  was  that 
a  free  council  ?  3.  It  was  not  received  as  a 
general  council  in  any  of  the  eastern  pa- 
triarchates besides  that  of  Constantinople, 
asBaronius  himself  ingenuously  owns,^  was 
condemned  in  the  west  as  a  false  synod  of 
the  Greeks  by  a  council  of  three  hundred 
bishops,  and  rejected  in  Britain  as  establish- 
ing "  a  doctrine,  that  was  contrary  to  the 
true  catholic  doctrine,  and  utterly  abhorred 
and  detested  by  the  catholic  church  j"-*  nay 
so  very  little  was  it  regarded  in  the  west, 
that  we  do  not  find  it  once  quoted  in  the 


«  Bellar.  de  Concil.  &  Eccles.  1.  2.  c.  17. 

» Idem.  ibid.  »  Bar.  ad  Ann.  863.  n.  6. 

*  M.  Westmonast.  ad  Ann.  793. 


disputes,  that  happened  in  the  succeeding 
centuries  about  images,  when  the  definition 
of  a  council,  acknowledged  for  a  general 
council,  would  have  proved  decisive.  Some 
of  the  more  ancient  schoolmen,  and  Aqui- 
nas, the  "angelic  doctor,"  among  the  rest,  far 
from  quoting  it  on  the  subject  of  images, 
have  determined  expressly  against  it ;  a  plain 
proof  that  they  either  knew  nothing  of  such 
a  council,  or  paid  it  no  kind  of  regard ;  and 
either  sufficiently  shows  that  it  was  not 
ranked  in  their  times  amongst  the  general 
councils.  4.  The  doctrine  the  council  es- 
tablished was  evidently  repugnant  to  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Scripture  and  the  primitive  fa- 
thers, and  only  grounded,  as  was  observed 
by  the  author  of  the  Caroline  books,  which 
I  shall  soon  have  occasion  to  speak  of,  on 
apocryphal  tales,  on  apparitions  and  visions, 
on  monkish  dreams,  and  old  womens'  sto- 
ries, more  fit  to  be  related  by  nurses  for  the 
entertainment  of  children,  than  by  bishops 
to  establish  a  dogma  of  faith.  Upon  the 
whole,  no  man  can  peruse,  with  the  least 
degree  of  attention,  the  acts  of  this  council 
without  being  tempted  to  question,  I  will 
not  say  the  infallibility,  but  even  the  com- 
mon sense  of  those,  who  composed  it.  It 
was  surely  an  assembly  of  the  most  igno- 
rant, superstitious,  and  credulous  men,  that 
ever  met;  and  I  most  sincerely  pity  the  hard 
fate  of  the  learned  men,  who,  in  these  en- 
lightened ages,  are  bound  to  defend,  and  ex- 
pose themselves  by  defending,  what  in  those 
dark  times,  ignorance,  superstition  and  cre- 
dulity produced. 

As  for  the  worship,  which  the  council  de- 
fined to  be  given  to  images ;  what  worship 
that  Avas;  what  we  are  to  understand  by  the 
ambiguous  terms  of  honorary  adoration,  or 
adoration  of  honor,  Ave  can  only  learn  from 
the  practice  of  the  church,  in  which  that 
definition  is  received  as  an  oracle  of  faith, 
or  from  the  sense,  in  which  those  terms 
have  been  understood  and  expounded  by  the 
most  eminent  divines  of  that  church.  Now 
standing  to  the  practice  of  the  church  and 
of  all  good  catholics,  by  honorary  adoration 
was  meant  that  we  should  uncover  our 
heads  to  images,  that  we  should  kiss  them, 
kneel  and  bow  down  to  them,  burn  lights 
and  incense  before  them,  and  in  short  give 
to  the  images,  not  only  of  our  Savior,  but 
of  every  canonized  saint,  all  outward  marks 
of  the  worship  and  adoration,  that  is  due  to  j 
God.  That  this  is  the  practice  of  the  church  1 
of  Rome  is  Avell  known  to  all,  Avho  have  ' 
but  ever  set  foot  in  a  popish  country,  and 
these  very  acts  of  worship  are  specified  by 
the  council  of  Trent  as  decreed  before  by 
the  council  of  Nice.' 

These  external  acts  of  worship  are,  by  the 
definition  or  decree  of  the  council,  to  be 
given  not  only  to  the  objects,  which  the  ina- 


«  Concil.  Trid.  sess.  25. 


Hadrian.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


161 


The  images  to  be  worshiped  with  true  anJ  real  worship.  Great  disagreement  amongst  the  popish  divines 
about  worsliip  given  to  images.  Whatever  worship  is  given  to  images,  those  who  give  it  guilty  of  idolatry 
in  the  opinion  oCsome  of  their  divines. 


ages  represent,  but  to  the  images  themselves, 
as  the  definition  of  the  council  has  been  un- 
derstood and  explained  by  their  greatest  di- 
vines. Some  of  them  indeed,  namely,  Du- 
randus,  Holcot,  Picus  Mirandula  and  a  few 
moie  have  taught,  that  by  the  definition  of 
the  council  images  are  to  be  worshiped,  but 
only  improperly  and  abusively,  as  they  put 
us  in  inind  of  the  objects  they  represent,  and 
we  thereupon  worship  those  objects  before 
them.  But  their  opinion  is  by  all  the  rest 
censured  as  repugnant  to  the  definition  of 
the  holy  oecumenical  council;  and  to  make 
good  their  censure  they  alledge  the  following, 
in  my  opinion,  unanswerable  reasons.  1. 
Improper  and  abusive  worship  is,  in  truth, 
no  worship  at  all ;  and  hence  it  follows,  that 
if  the  council  only  defined  an  improper  and 
abusive  worship  to  be  given  to  images,  the 
heretics,  whom  they  condemned  for  saying 
that  images  were  not  to  be  worshiped,  would 
have  spoken  more  properly  than  they,  and 
been  unjustly  condemned.  2.  As  we  can- 
not at  all  be  said  to  love  a  beautiful  creature, 
though  the  sight  of  it  puts  us  in  mind  of  the 
Creator,  and  excites  us  to  love  him,  unless 
our  love  terminates  upon  the  creature  as  well 
as  the  Creator;  so  neither  can  we  at  all  be 
said  to  worship  an  image,  though  it  puts  us 
in  mind  of  the  saint  it  represents,  and  ex- 
cites us  to  worship  him,  unless  our  worship 
terminates  upon  the  image  as  well  as  the 
saint.  3.  The  council  declared  that  images 
are  to  be  worshiped,  but  not  with  the  wor- 
ship of  Latria  :  Now  if  the  council  had 
meant  no  other  worship  but  that  of  the  ob- 
ject in  the  presence  of  the  image,  there  had 
been  no  occasion  to  accept  the  worship  of 
Latria,  since  the  most  perfect  Latria  may  be 
given  to  Christ  in  the  presence  of  his  image. 
4.  The  heretics,  whom  the  council  con- 
demned, namely,  the  Iconoclasts,  did  not 
hold  it  unlawful  to  worship  an  object  worthy 
of  worship  in  the  presence  of  an  image,  or 
when  we  were  put  in  mind  of  the  object, 
and  excited  to  worship  it  by  the  sight  of  an 
image,  but  to  worship  the  image  itself;  and 
it  was  not  to  prevent  the  people  from  wor- 
shiping in  the  presence  of  images,  but  to 
prevent  them  from  worshiping  the  images, 
that  they  broke  and  destroyed  them.  The 
council  therefore,  in  condemning  them  as 
heretics  declared  it  was  heresy  not  to  wor- 
ship the  images  themselves.  These  are  the 
reasons  alledged  by  the  most  eminent  divines 
of  the  church  of  Rome  to  show,  that  the 
worship,  which  the  council  defined  to  be 
given  to  images,  was  true  and  real  worship, 
and  consequently,  that  the  opinion  of  those, 
who  taught,  that  images  were  to  be  worshiped 
only  improperly  and  abusively,  was  repug- 
nant to  the  definition  of  the  council.  And 
now  whether  we  stand  to  the  practice  of  that 
church,  or  to  the  explanation  of  her  ablest 
divines,  it  must  be  owned  that  the  council 
Vol.  II.— 21 


by  the  terms  of  honorary  adoration,  or  ado- 
ration of  honor  meant  true  and  real  worship, 
and  defined  it  to  be  given  to  images,  anathe- 
matizing, that  is  cursing  and  damning,  all, 
who  dissented  from  them  either  in  practice 
or  in  doctrine.  And  hence  it  is  evident  that 
when  a  Roman  catholic  tells  us  they  do  not 
worship  images,  he  either  knows  not  the 
sense  of  his  church,  or  shamefully  prevari- 
cates, not  caring  that  the  prolesiants  should 
know  it.  Here  indeed  he  may  deny  they 
worship  images,  and  with  the  famous  bishop 
of  Meaux  explain  away  the  worship,  which 
the  council  defined  to  be  given  to  them,  till 
it  is  reduced  to  the  respect  or  the  reverence, 
which  the  protestants  show  to  the  sacred 
utensils  or  the  Bible,  thus  he  may,  I  say,  ex- 
plain away  that  worship  here  without  any 
other  danger  than  that  of  being  looked  upon 
as  grossly  prevaricating  to  palliate  a  doc- 
trine which  he  is  ashamed  to  own,  and  can- 
not defend.  But  let  him  take  care  to  alter 
his  language  in  Spain  and  in  Italy  lest  some- 
thing worse  should  befall  him. 

That  images  are  to  be  worshiped  with 
true  and  real  worship  is,  as  we  have  seen, 
the  received  and  avowed  doctrine  of  the 
church  of  Rome ;  but  with  wiiat  kind  of 
true  and  real  worship,  whether  with  Latria, 
Hyperdulia,  Dulia,  or  with  some  other  wor- 
ship, for  which  no  name  has  yet  been  coined, 
the  church  has  not  defined,  nor  can  her 
divines  well  determine.  Someare  of  opinion, 
that  the  imageis  to  be  worshiped  with  the  very 
same  worship,  that  is  given  to  the  prototype ; 
so  that,  according  to  them,  the  image  of  our 
Savior  is  to  be  worshiped  with  Latria,  the 
image  of  the  virgin  Mary  with  Hyperdulia, 
and  the  images  of  the  other  saints  with  Dulia. 
Others  will  not  allow  the  same  worship  to 
be  given  to  the  image,  that  is  given  to  the 
prototype,  but  stand  up  for  a  different  and 
distinct  worship,  though  none  of  them  can 
tell  what  that  worship  is.  I  shall  not  trou- 
ble the  reader  with  the  arguments,  if  we 
may  so  call  them,  that  are  alledged  by  either 
side  to  support  their  own  and  impugn  the 
opposite  opinion,  but  only  observe,  that 
choose  what  side  you  will,  you  are  arraigned 
by  the  other  of  idolatry.  To  worship  the 
image  with  a  worship  distinct  from  that, 
which  we  give  to  the  prototype,  is  to 
worship  the  image  as  separated  from 
the  prototype,  and  for  its  own  sake;  and 
that  is  rank  idolatry ;  say  they  of  the 
one  side.  To  worship  the  image  with 
the  same  worship  we  give  to  the  proto- 
type is  to  worship  the  image  of  our  Savior, 
or  of  the  Trinity  with  Latria  or  the  supreme 
worship,  that  is  due  to  God  alone;  and  that, 
say  those  of  the  other  side,  is  rank  idolatry. 
And  thus  they,  who  worship  images,  must 
necessarily  be  guilty  of  idolatry,  according  to 
some  of  their  own  divines,  whether  the  wor- 
ship they  give  them  be  the  satue  with,  or 
o2 


163 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Hadrian. 


Charlemasne  the  third  time  at  Rome  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  787.]  Ravages  the  dukedom  of  Benevento.  Is  per- 
suaded by  the  pope  to  yield  to  St.  Peter  the  places  taken  from  that  duke.  The  duke  dies,  and  his  son  suffered 
to  succeed  him  contrary  to  the  advice  of  the  pope  ;— [Year  of  Christ.  788.]     Places  yielded  to  St.  Peter. 


distinct  from,  that  which  they  give  to  the 
prototypes ;  and  it  must  be  the  one  or  the 
other.  As  we  can  therefore  by  no  other 
means  be,  in  the  opinion  of  all,  free  from  the 
heinous  sin  of  idolatry,  but  by  giving  no  kind 
of  worship  whatever  to  images,  he  must  be 
more  senseless  than  the  very  stocks  and  stones 
he  worships,  who  does  not  see  what  party 
he  is  to  take,  and  quite  regardless  of  his 
eternal  happiness,  if  he  does  not  take  it. 
Thus  far  of  the  second  council  of  Nice  ;  and 
I  have  dwelt  the  longer  upon  it,  which  I 
hope  the  protestant  reader  will  excuse,  as  I 
thoui<ht  it  necessary  he  should  be  rightly  in- 
formed of  the  whole  proceedings  of  that  as- 
sembly, which  some  writers  have  taken  so 
much  pains  to  disguise,  and  at  the  same 
time  should  know  upon  what  principles  the 
worship  of  images  which  has  occasioned 
such  disputes  and  divisions  in  the  church, 
was  first  established;  what  kind  of  worship 
was  established  to  be  given  to  them,  and 
who  were  the  men  that  established  it, 
making  it  damnation  not  to  worship  images, 
when  it  had  been,  for  the  space  of  seven 
hundred  years,  damnation  to  worship  them. 
While  the  bishops  were  all  thus  employ- 
ed in  new-modelling  the  Christian  worship 
in  the  east,  the  pope  was  wholly  intent  in 
the  west  on  enlarging  his  temporal  domi- 
nions, and  improving  the  generosity  of  his 
friend  and  great  benefactor  Charlemagne  to  the 
advantage  of  his  see.  That  prince  came  this 
year,  the  third  time,  to  Rome,  and  was 
there  received  and  entertained  with  great 
magnificence  by  the  pope.  That  journey 
he  undertook  to  surprise  Arichis,  duke  of 
Benevento,  who  had  conspired  with  the 
Greeks  to  drive  the  French  quite  out  of  Italy, 
and  was  soliciting  the  other  Lombard  princes 
to  join  in  the  undertaking.  But  as  the  de- 
sign was  not  yet  quite  ripe  for  execution,  no 
sooner  did  the  duke  hear  of  the  unexpected 
arrival  of  Charlemagne  at  Rome,  than  he 
sent  his  son  Romald  with  rich  presents  to 
excuse  it  in  the  best  manner  he  could,  and 
assure  the  king  that  he  should  thenceforth 
have  no  occasion  to  complain  of  his  conduct. 
Charlemagne  was  inclined  to  accept  his  sub- 
mission and  forgive  him;  but  being  diverted 
from  it  by  the  pope,  to  gratify  his  holiness 
he  entered  the  duke's  dominions  laying  them 
everywhere  waste  with  fire  and  sword,  took 
several  cities,  and  advancing  to  the  very 
gates  of  Benevento  would  have  made  him- 
self master  of  that  metropolis,  had  not  the 
bishops  interposed,  and  prevailed  upon  him 
to  set  bounds  to  his  revenge,  and  forgive  the 
duke  upon  his  renewing,  wiih  all  his  sub- 
jects, the  oath  of  allegiance  he  had  taken  to 
him,  and  delivering  up  to  him  his  son  Gri- 
moald  with  what  number  of  hostages  besides 
he  should  think  fit  to  require.  These  terms 
being  agreed  to  by  the  king,  he  withdrew  his 
troops,  and  returning  to  Rome  celebrated 


there  the  festival  of  Easter,  which  fell  this 
year,  787,  on  the  8th  of  April. •  During  his 
stay  in  that  city,  Hadrian,  who  let  no  op- 
portunity of  aggrandizing  his  see  pass  un- 
improved, persuaded  him  not  only  to  con- 
firm the  donation  of  his  father  Pepin,  but  to 
add  to  it  the  cities  he  had  taken,  in  this 
expedition,  from  the  duke  of  Benevento, 
namely,  Sora,  Arces,  Aquinum,  Arpinum, 
Theanum,  and  Capua  ;  nay,  from  the  letters 
of  Hadrian  it  appears  that  Charlemagne  be- 
fore he  left  Rome  yielded  several  other 
places  to  St.  Peter,  which  had  formerly  be- 
longed to  the  Tuscan  Lombards.  But  he 
was  no  sooner  gone  than  Arichis,  renewing 
his  alliance  with  the  Greeks,  began  to  con- 
cert measures,  in  conjunction  with  them,  not 
only  for  recovering  the  cities,  that  had  been 
lately  taken  from  him,  but  for  placing 
Adalgisus  on  the  throne  of  his  father  Deside- 
rius,  and  restoring  the  kingdom  of  the  Lom- 
bards. Of  this  the  pope  was  informed  by  a 
priest  of  Capua  named  Gregory;  and  he  im- 
mediately acquainted  Charlemagne  with'it.2 
But  in  the  meantime  the  death  of  Arichis 
put  an  end  to  all  his  designs ;  and  of  that 
event  too  the  pope  gave  immediate  notice  to 
Charlemagne,  assuring  him,  at  the  same 
time,  that  the  Beneventans  only  waited  the 
arrival  of  Grimoald,  son  of  the  late  duke, 
who  was  kept  as  an  hostage  in  France,  to 
begin  hostilities,  under  his  conduct,  and  ad- 
vising him  by  no  means  to  allow  him  to  re- 
turn, Avhich,  he  said,  would  alone  defeat  all 
their  measures."  Charlemagne  however, 
not  hearkening  to  the  suggestions  of  the 
pope,  no  sooner  heard  of  the  death  of  Arichis 
than  he  set  Grimoald  at  liberty,  and  gave 
him  leave  to  return  home  and  take  posses- 
sion of  the  dukedom  of  his  father,  upon  his 
promising  to  side,  on  all  occasions,  with  the 
French  against  the  Greeks ;  to  oblige  his 
Lombards  to  shave  after  the  French  manner ; 
to  put  in  the  public  writings  and  on  the 
money  the  name  of  Charles  in  the  first  place 
and  his  own  after  it,  and  to  dismantle  the 
cities  of  Salerno,  Acerenza,  and  Consa, 
which  his  father  had  fortified.  The  pope, 
finding  Charlemagne  had  acted  therein  con- 
trary to  his  advice,  wrote  to  him  to  assure 
him,  that  it  was  not  because  he  bore  any  ill 
will  to  Grimoald  that  he  had  given  it,  but 
because  he  apprehended  that  the  presence 
of  so  bold  and  enterprising  a  youth  might,  at 
this  critical  juncture,  prove  extremely  preju- 
dicial to  the  interest  both  of  the  French  and  _ 
St.  Peter.  From  the  same  letter  it  appears,  ■ 
that  the  pope  had  already  got  possession  of  ■ 
all  the  places  in  Tuscany  that  Charlemagne 
had  yielded  to  him  the  preceding  year,  ex- 
cept Populonia  and  Rosellae.  These  were 
Castellum  Felicitatis,  Urbevetum,  Balneum 
Regis,  Ferentum,  Viterbium,  Marta,  Tus- 


Annal.  Met.  &  Loisel.  &  Eginhard. 
1  Cod.  Carol,  ep.  88.  »  Idem.  p.  90. 


Hadrian.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


163 


The  Greeks  defeated  in  Italy  by  the  French.  The  treaty  of  marriage  between  the  young  emperor  and  the 
daughter  of  Charlemagne  broken  off.  The  council  of  Nice  confuted  by  Charlemagne  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  790.] 
The  Caroline  books. 


cania,  Populonia,  Soana,  and  Rosellae,  some 
of  them  cities  in  those  days  of  great  note. 
As  for  the  cities  in  Campania  mentioned 
above,  the  Beneventan  Lombards  had,  it 
seems,  retaken  them  all  or  most  of  them  ; 
and  Grimoald,thene\v  duke,  resided,  at  this 
very  time,  in  Capua  boasting,  says  the  pope, 
that  he  had  been  preferred  to  St.  Peter.'  He 
kept  nevertheless  with  great  fidelity  to  his 
engagements  with  France.  For  Adalgisus 
landing  this  year  in  Calabria  with  a  power- 
ful army  sent  by  Irene  to  drive  tlie  French 
quite  out  of  Italy,  Grimoald,  and  Hildebrand, 
duke  of  Spoleti,  joining  with  all  their  forces 
the  few  troops,  that  Winigise,  the  French 
general  had  brought  with  him  from  France, 
engaged  the  Greeks  and  gained  a  complete 
victory  over  them  with  very  little  loss  on 
their  side.  John,  the  Greek  general,  was 
taken  prisoner  and  put  to  a  cruel  death;  but 
Adalgisus  had  the  good  luck  to  make  his  es- 
cape, and  get  safe  to  Constantinople,  where, 
laying  aside  all  thoughts  of  any  further  at- 
tempts of  this  kind,  he  passed  in  peace  and  in 
quiet  the  remaining  part  of  his  life.^  This 
war  was  attended  with  an  open  rupture  be- 
tween Charlemagne  and  Irene,  and  the 
treaty  of  marriage  between  the  young  empe- 
ror Constantine  and  Rotrude,  the  daughter 
of  Charlemagne,  betrothed  to  that  prince 
ever  since  the  year  781,  being  thereby  entire- 
ly broken  off,  the  unnatural  mother  obliged 
her  son  to  marry  an  Armenian,  named  Mary, 
of  a  very  mean  birth  and  a  meaner  educa- 
tion, in  spite  of  his  warm  and  repeated  re- 
monstrances against  such  a  match.''  This 
violence  she  used  with  him,  and  the  despotic 
power  she  assumed  over  him  even  whexi  he 
was  of  age,  and  exercised  throughout  the 
empire,  obliged  him,  in  his  turn,  to  use 
violence  with  her ;  and  thence  arose  the  dis- 
turbances I  shall  soon  have  occasion  to  re- 
late. 

Charlemagne,  though  thus  engaged  in  war 
with  the  Greeks,  and  at  the  same  time  with 
several  other  nations,  did  not  suffer  his  at- 
tention to  be  so  engrossed  by  military  affairs 
as  to  neglect  those  of  religion ;  nay,  to  do 
him  justice,  he  took  no  less  pains  to  establish 
the  Christian  religion,  though  notalwaj's  by 
the  most  Christian  means,  in  the  countries 
he  conquered,  than  he  took  to  conquer 
them.  In  his  own  kingdom  he  made  it  his 
study,  as  appears  from  the  capitulars  he 
published  at  different  times,  to  reform  the 
abuses  that  had  crept  into  the  church,  to 
maintain  the  catholic  faith  in  its  greatest 
purity,  and  to  suppress  all  new  and  heretical 
doctrines  or  opinions.  Amongst  these  he 
reckoned  the  doctrine  of  image  worship,  es- 
tablished by  the  late  council  of  Nice ;  and 
therefore,  no  sooner  had  he  perused  the  acts 


«  Cod.  Carol,  ep.  86. 

9  Annal.  Loisel.  Eginhard.  in  Anna!,  ad  Ann.  788. 

»  Theoph.  ad  Ann.  788.  Eginhard.  in  Annal. 


of  that  council,  transmitted  to  him  perhaps 
by  the  pope,  than  equally  amazed  at  the  ig- 
norance of  the  Greeks,  and  shocked  at  their 
unaccountable  proceedings  in  making  the 
worship  of  images  an  article  of  the  Chris- 
tian faith,  and  damning  all  who  did  not  wor- 
ship them,  he  either  undertook  himself,  or 
encouraged  others  to  undertake  a  confuta- 
tion of  that  council  and  its  doctrine.  The 
work  contains  one  hundred  and  twenty  heads 
of  accusation  against  "  the  false  synod  of  the 
Greeks,"  or,  as  Hadrian  styles  them,  "  rep- 
rehensions," and  is  divided  into  four  books 
known  by  the  name  of  the  "  Caroline 
Books  ;"  for  whether  they  were  written  by 
Charlemagne  himself,  with  the  assistance  of 
the  famous  Alcuin,  who  was  formerly  his 
preceptor,  as  some  think,  or  at  his  desire,  by 
the  bishops  and  the  learned  men  of  France, 
which  is  the  opinion  of  Du  Pin,  and  seems 
to  be  insinuated  in  the  preface  prefixed  to  the 
work,  it  is  certain  that  he  adopted  that  per- 
formance, and  declared  himself  the  author  of 
it,  by  constantly  speaking  in  the  first  person 
as  if  he  himself  had  composed  it.  He  was,  as 
all  agree,  who  speak  of  him,  a  prince  of  un- 
common learning,  well  acquainted  both  with 
sacred  and  profane  history,  and  had  particu- 
larly applied  himself  to  the  study  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures,  a  study  at  this  time  gene- 
rally neglected ;  so  that  he  was,  at  least, 
equal  to  such  an  undertaking.  The  work 
was  begun  when  the  acts  of  the  council 
were  first  sent  into  France;  but  it  did  not 
appear  till  the  latter  end  of  the  present  year 
790 ;  so  that  three  years  were  spent  by 
Charlemagne,  or  by  those  whom  he  employ- 
ed, in  composing  it.  Indeed  Charlemagne 
passed  the  whole  year  790  at  Worms,  with- 
out engaging,  as  his  secretary  informs  us,' 
in  any  military  expedition,  perhaps  that  he 
might  be  at  leisure  to  put  the  last  hand  to 
that  work.  It  contains  a  full  confutation  of 
the  doctrine  established  by  the  Greek  synod, 
as  well  as  of  the  grounds  upon  which  they 
established  it,  with  many  very  severe  and  cut- 
ting reflections  on  the  empress,  on  Tarasius, 
on  other  particular  members,  and  on  the 
council  in  general,  for  introducing  a  practice 
evidently  repugnant  to  the  Scriptures,  to  the 
fathers,  to  the  tradition  of  the  church,  and 
blasphemously  fathering  such  a  practice  on 
the  holy  apostles,  and  their  immediate  suc- 
cessors, as  if  they  had  practised  and  taught 
what  it  is  plain  from  their  writings  they  ut- 
terly abhorred.  "The  acts  of  that  council," 
says  Charlemagne  in  the  preface,  for  he  is 
the  person  who  speaks,  *'  the  acts  of  that 
council,  destitute  of  eloquence,  nay,  and  all 
sense,  having  reached  us,  we  have  thought 
ourselves  bound  to  confute  the  many  gross 
errors  they  contain,  that  should  they  infect 
the  hands  into  which  they  may  fall,  or  the 
ears  that  may  hear  them,  this  our  treatise 


Eginhard.  in  Annal. 


164 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Hadrian. 


Charlemagne  finds  fault  with  the  councils  both  of  Constantinople  and  Nice.  Mistaken  with  .respect  to  the 
doctrine  of  the  council  of  Constantinople.  Confutes  one  by  one  the  arguments  of  the  fathers  of  Nice.  That 
council  confuted  at  the  same  time  by  Alcuin  in  the  name  of  the  bishops  of  England.  The  doctrine  of  the 
Adoptionarians. 


might  serve  as  an  antidote  against  so  dan- 
gerous an  infection." 

He  finds  fault  with  the  council,  that  was 
convened  by  Constantine,  as  well  as  with 
that  which  was  convened  by  Irene,  and  with 
respect  to    both    expresses   himself   thus; 
"  some  years  since  was  held  a  council  in 
Bithynia  destitute  of  all  discernment,  discre- 
tion and  prudence,  for  not  distinguishing  be- 
tween images  and  idols,  they  ordered  the 
images,  which  the  ancients  had  placed  in 
the  churches  by  way  of  ornament,  or  only 
for  instruction,  to  be  cast  out  and  destroyed 
as  so  many  idols,  applying  to  them  what  is 
said  in  the  Scriptures  of  idols,  and  impu- 
dently boasting  that  their  emperor  Constan- 
tine had  delivered  them  and  the  church  from 
idolatry.     Another  council  was  held  three 
years  ago,  likewise  in  Bithynia,  consisting 
partly  of  those  who  assisted  at  the  first,  and 
partly  of  their  successors.     But  though  the 
sentiments  of  the  latter  are  diametrically  op- 
posite to  those  of  the  former,  they  too  have 
grossly  erred.     The  second  council  anathe- 
matizes the  first,  and  obliges  us  to  adore  the 
images,  which  the  other  would  not  so  much 
as  allow  us  to  look  at.     Those  of  the  second, 
not    distinguishing     between    our    having 
images  and  our  worshiping  them,  ignorant- 
ly  argue  from  the  passages  in  the  Scriptures 
and  the  fathers,  where  images  are  only  men- 
tioned, that  we   must  worship  and   adore 
them.     We  avoid  both  extremes ;  neither  do 
we  worship  images,  nor  do  we  destroy  them. 
We  worship  God  alone,  and  have  due  ve- 
neration for  the  saints  according  to  the  an- 
cient tradition  of  the  church.     We  suffer 
their  images  in  our  churches  to  serve  as  or- 
naments and  helps  to  memory.     But  as  for 
the  absurd  synod,  that  commands  us  to  wor- 
ship them,  we  titterly   reject  it,  and  have 
undertaken  to  confute  it  article  by  article, 
where  it  is  intelligible,  and  not  too  absurd  to 
be  worthy  of  our  notice."     Thus  Charle- 
magne in  his  preface. 

But  he  had  not,  it  seems,  a  right  notion 
of  the  doctrine  of  the  council  of  Constanti- 
nople. For  the  fathers  of  that  assembly  did 
not  think  the  use  of  images  unlawful  in 
itself,  nor  did  they  confound  images,  in 
general,  with  idols.  But  finding  by  expe- 
rience, that  they  could  not  allow  images,  and 
prevent  the  multitude  from  turning  them 
into  idols  by  worshiping  them,  they  ordered 
them  on  that  consideration,  and  on  that  alone, 
to  be  cast  out  of  the  churches  and  destroy- 
ed. The  emperor  Leo  himself  was  not  at 
first  averse  to  the  use  of  images  as  orna 
ments,  or  even  as  helps  to  devotion  and  to 
memory.  For  at  the  same  time  that  he 
forbid  them  to  be  worshiped,  he  ordered 
them  to  be  placed  higher  in  the  churches, 
that,  as  men  were  divided  in  their  opinions 
about  them,  they  might  neither  be  worshiped 
nor  abused;  and  it  was  the  superstition  of 


the  people,  that  obliged  him  in  the  end,  against 
his  inclination,  to  destroy  them,  as  the  su- 
perstition of  the  Israelites  obliged  the  good 
king  Hezekiah  to  destroy  the  brazen  serpent, 
though  made  by  God's  command  ;'  so  that 
Charlemagne  and  Leo,  the  first  Iconoclast 
emperor,  differed  only  in  this,  that  the  one 
thought  images  should  rather  be  destroyed, 
than  the  people  be  exposed  to  the  danger  of 
idolatry ;  and  the  other,  that  the  people 
should  rather  be  exposed  to  the  danger  of 
idolatry  than  images  be  destroyed. 

In  the  treatise  itself,  Charlemagne  answers 
one  by  one,  and  indeed  with  a  great  deal  of 
erudition  and  learning,  the  arguments,  that 
were  alledged  by  those  of  Nice  in  favor  of 
image  worship  ;  shows  that  the  passages 
they  quoted  from  the  Scriptures  and  the 
fathers  were  all  either  falsified  and  corrupted, 
or  quite  foreign  to  their  purpose ;  ridicules,  as 
unworthy  of  any  other  answer,  the  many  ab- 
surd and  incredible  tales  they  gravely  related 
and  pretended  to  credit,  and  charges  them 
all  along  with  ignorance,  superstition  credu- 
lity, insincerity,  and  above  all,  with  pride 
and  presumption,  in  daring  to  impose  upon 
the  whole  church  definitions  and  decrees, 
when  they  were  but  one  part  of  the  church ; 
"  what  rage  and  madness  was  it,"  says  he, 
"  for  one  church  to  anathematize  all  the 
other  churches,  for  a  part  of  the  church 
(and  what  a  part?)  to  anathematise  the 
whole !  It  was  cursing  without  reason, 
anger  without  power,  damning  without  au- 
thority." He  leaves  no  argument,  no  au- 
thority, no  reason,  that  they  had  alledged, 
undiscussed  or  unanswered  ;  and  concludes 
that  whether  he  considers  the  persons,  who 
composed  that  assembly,  or  their  method  of 
proceeding,  the  doctrine  they  established, 
and  the  grounds,  on  which  they  established 
it,  he  cannot  help  looking  upon  them  as  the 
avowed  enemies  of  truth,  as  men,  who 
to  gratify  Irene  had  acted  contrary  to  the 
dictates  of  their  own  consciences,  and  con- 
spired with  her  to  abolish  Christianity,  and 
bring  in  anew  paganism  in  its  room. 

The  council  of  Nice  met  with  no  better 
reception  in  England  than  it  did  in  France. 
For  Oflfa,  king  of  the  Mercians,  having  com- 
municated a  copy  of  it  to  the  English  bishops, 
that  had  been  sent  him  by  Charlemagne, 
with  whom  he  lived,  at  this  time,  in  great 
friendship  ;  those  bishops,  not  satisfied  with 
declaring  the  doctrine  it  contained  contrary 
to  the  faith,  and  a  doctrine  to  be  abhorred 
by  the  cathohc  church,  engaged  Alcuin  to 
write  against  it,  and  owning  the  work  when  M 
it  was  finished,  caused  it  to  be  presented  by  I 
him  in  their  names,  to  Charlemagne.  Thus 
M.  Westminster,^  Hoveden,''  and  Dunel- 
mensis.*     "  This  Avork  of  Alcuin  confuting," 

»  See  p.  27.  »  M.  West,  ad  Ann.  793. 

'  Hoveden.  Annal.  apud   Spelman.   Concil.  t.  1.  p. 
305,  306.  *  Dunel.  decern  Script.  Col.  111. 


Hadrian.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


165 


The  AdopUonarian  doctrine  professed,  maintained  and  propagated  by  Felix  of  Urgeland  ElipanduB  of  Toledo. 
Arguments  for  and  against  lliat  doctrine. 


says  M.  Westminster,  "  the  doctrine  of 
image  worship  with  the  authority  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  has  not  reached  our  limes,  or  has 
not,  at  least,  yet  appeared  amongst  the  other 
works  of  that  learned  writer." 

The  zeal  of  the  English  bishops  and  the 
commendable  endeavors  of  Charlemagne  to 
prevent,  as  he  expresses  it,  the  contagion 
from  spreading,  that  is,  to  prevent  the  doc- 
trine of  image  worship,  defined  in  the  east, 
from  being  received  in  the  west,  were  at- 
tended with  the  wished   for  success.     For 
that  doctrine  was  not  only  rejected,  and  re- 
jected with  horror  and  detestation,  in  France 
and  in  England,  but  soon  after  condemned 
in  a  council,  that  had  a  much  better  claim 
to  the  title  of  a  general  council  than  that  of 
Nice,  I  mean  the  council  of  Frankfort.     But 
to  inform  the  reader  on  what  occasion  that 
council  was  assembled  (for  it  was  not  assem- 
bled to  decide  any  controversy  about  images, 
most  of  the  western  bishops  approving  the 
use,  and  all  condemning  the  worship  of  ima- 
ages)  we  must  return  back  to  the  year  783, 
when  the  question,  for  the  determining  of 
■which,  the  council  met,  was  first  moved,  or 
rather  was  revived  ;  and  it  was  revived  on  the 
foUowingoccasion.  Elipandus,  bishop  of  To- 
ledo, mispending  his  time  in  theological  spe- 
culations instead  of  employing  it  to  instruct  his 
flock  in  the  plain  and  practical  doctrines  of 
the  Gospel,  started  this  question  to  himself, 
"whether  Christ,  as  man,  should  be  called 
the  natural  or  the  adoptive  Son  of  God,  the 
Son  of  God  by  nature  or  by  adoption?"  And 
not  trusting  to  his  own  judgment,  he  wrote 
to  Feli.K,  bishop  of  Urgel  in  Catalonia,  who 
had  been  his  preceptor,  desiring  him  to  re- 
solve it.     Felix  answered,  "  that  Christ,  as 
God,  was  the  natural  Son  of  God,  or  the  Son 
of  God    by  nature,  but  as   man   was  and 
ought  to  be  called  the  adoptive  Son  of  God, 
or  the  Son  of  God  by  adoption."     Felix,  not 
satisfied  with  delivering  and  explaining  that 
doctrine  in  a  long  letter  to  Elipandus,  wrote 
afterwards  several  other  letters  to  confirm  it 
with  the  authority  of  the  Scriptures  and  the 
fathers ;  insomuch  that,  as  he  was  a  prelate 
of  a  most    unexceptionable    character,   he 
gained  in  a  short  lime  many,  and  some  of 
them  men  of  learning,  over  to  his  opinion. 
On  the  other  hand  Elipandus,  a  man  greatly 
respected   on   account  of  his  dignity,  being 
bishop  of  the  first  see  in  Spain,  and  no  less 
revered  by  all  for  his  eminent  sanctity  and 
the  austerity  of  his  life,  spared  no  pains  to 
propagate  the  same  doctrine,  as  if  no  man 
could  be  saved,  who  did  not  know  and  pro- 
fess it.   Thus  partly  by  their  writings,  partly 
by    preaching    and    disputing    they    daily 
brought  over  great  numbers  to  their  party, 
in   the   different  provinces   of  Spain,   and 
amongst  the  rest  Ascarius,  bishop  of  Bra- 
cara,  and  an  abbot,  named  Fidelis,  a  man  of 
great  learning  in  those  days. 


The  doctrine,  which  Felix  and  Elipandus, 
strove  with  so  much  zeal  to  propagate  and 
establish  as  a  catholic  truth,  was  with  no 
less  zeal  opposed  by  others,  in  Spain  chiefly 
by  Etherius  bishop  of  Uxama  and  Beatus 
presbyter,  as  rank  heresy,  the  very  same 
heresy,  that  had  been  condemned  in  Nesto- 
rius.    For  should  we  allow,  said  they,  Christ 
to  be,  as  God,  the  natural  Son  of  God,  and 
the   adoptive   Son  of  God,   as    man,   from 
thence  it  would  follow,  that  in  Christ  there 
are  two  Sons  of  God,  the  natural  and  the 
adoptive,    and   consequently    two    persons, 
whereas  in  Christ  there  is,  as  has  been  de- 
fined by  the  church  against  Nestorius,  but 
one  person,  the  person  of  the  Word,  the  Son 
of  God  by  nature,  and  at  the  same  time  God 
and  man  :  in  other  words,  one  person  can- 
not be  the  natural  and  adoptive  son  of  one 
and  the  same  father ;  and   therefore  if  we 
allow  Christ  to  be  the  natural  and  adoptive 
Son  of  God,  we  must,  in  opposition  to  the 
council  of  Ephesus,  acknowledge  in  him 
two  persons.     The  argument,  on  which  the 
Adoptionarians  (for  so  they  were  called,) 
laid  the  chief  stress,  was,  that  the  humanity 
of  Christ  was  not  begotten  of  the  substance 
of  the  Father,  and  consequently  that  Christ 
was  not,  nor  could  he  be  called,  as  man  or 
according  to  his  humanity,  the  natural  Son 
of  God.     The  Antiadoptionarians  answered, 
that  the  whole  person  of  Christ  was  begot- 
ten of  the  substance  of  the  Father,  and  con- 
sequently that  he  was,  and  ought  absolutely 
and  simply  to  be  called  the  natural  Son  of 
God,  though  the  whole  of  his  person,  com- 
prising his  humanity  as  well  as  his  divinity, 
was  not  begotten  of  the  substance  of  his  Fa- 
ther :  thus  amongst  us  mortals  the  whole 
man,  said  they,  is,  and  is  absolutely  and 
simply  called  the  Son  of  his  Father,  though 
the  soul,  and  consequently  the  whole  of  the 
man  is  not  of  the  seed  of  the  father.     That 
Christ  consisted  of  the  human  and  divine 
nature  ;  that  he  was  true  God  and  true  man  ; 
and  of  the  substance  of  the  Father,  according 
to  his  divinity,  but  not  according  to  his  hu- 
manity, both  parlies  allowed  ;  nay  the  Adop- 
tionarians anathematized  Nestorius  as  well 
as  their  adversaries,  striving  with  many  met- 
aphysical distinctions  and  subtleties  to  recon- 
cile their  doctrine  with  the  definition  of  Ephe- 
sus; so  that,  in  effect,  the  only  point  in  dis- 
pute was;  whether,  consistently  with  that 
definition,  Christ  might  be  called,  as  man, 
the  Son  of  God  by  adoption,  and,  as  God, 
the  Son  of  God  by  nature  ?     The  Adoption- 
arians maintained  the  affirmative,   and  the 
opposite  party  the  negative.     If  the  former 
argued  amiss,  as  I  think  they  did,  all,  that 
can  be  said  of  them,  is,  that  they  were  bad 
logicians,  but  yet  good  catholics,  since  they 
denied  no  one  article  of  the  catholic  faith. 
But  in  religious  disputes  we  constantly  find 
the  contending  parties  charging  each  other 


166 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Hadbiak. 


The  Adoptionariin  doctrine  examined  in  a  council  at  Ratisbon  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  792.]  Charlemagne  assembles 
a  council  at  Frankfort ;— [Year  of  Christ,  794.]  The  doctrine  of  the  Adoptionarians  condemned  in  it,  and 
likewise  the  council  of  Nice. 


with  all  the  absurd,  heretical  and  contradic- 
tory doctrines,  that  appear  to  them  any  ways 
deducible  from  the  opinions  they  impugn. 
In  the  present  dispute  the  Adoptionarians 
were  charged  by  their  adversaries  with  hold- 
ing the  doctrine  of  Nestorius,  and  acknow- 
ledging with  him  two  persons  in  Christ; 
and  their  adversaries  were  charged  by  them 
in  their  turn  with  holding  the  doctrine  of 
Eutyches,  and  confounding  with  him  the 
two  natures  in  Christ :  for  how  can  we, 
said  Elipandus,  call  Christ,  as  man,  the  Son 
of  God  by  nature,  unless  we  suppose  the 
human  nature  to  have  been  changed  into,  or 
absorbed  by  the  divine  ? 

As  the  Adoptionarians  gained  daily  new 
proselytes  in  spite  of  the  opposition  they 
met  with  from  Etherius  and  Beatus  men- 
tioned above,  Charlemagne  appointed  a  coun- 
cil to  meet  in  his  palace  at  Ratisbon,  in  792, 
and  commanded  Felix,  as  he  was  his  sub- 
ject, Catalonia  being  then  under  the  domi- 
nion of  France,  to  repair  to  that  place  and 
there  give  an  account  of  his  doctrine.  He 
obeyed  ;  but  instead  of  gaining  over  to  his 
opinion  any  of  the  bishops,  who  composed 
that  assembly,  as  he  had  flattered  himself  he 
should,  he  was  himself,  or  pretended  to  be, 
convinced  by  them  of  his  error,  and  abjured  it 
accordingly  in  their  presence,  and  in  the  pre- 
sence of  Charlemagne,  who  from  Ratisbon 
sent  him  to  Rome,  wher&  he  acknowledged 
and  publicly  retracted  his  error  anew  in  the 
jiresence  of  the  pope.'  As  his  conversion  was 
judged  sincere,  he  was  allowed  to  return  to 
his  see.  But  whether  it  was  sincere  or  not,  he 
was  soon  after  his  return  persuaded  by  Elipan- 
dus to  retract  his  former  retraction ;  and  he 
began  to  propagate  and  to  preach  with  more 
zeal  than  ever  the  doctrine  he  had  abjured 
at  Ratisbon  and  Rome.  As  for  Elipandus, 
he  was  so  entirely  satisfied  of  the  truth  of 
that  doctrine,  that  he  wrote  a  long  letter  to 
Charlemagne  to  convince  him  that  the  fa- 
thers, especially  his  holy  predecessors  in  the 
see  of  Toledo,  had  all  professed  it,  and  at  the 
same  time  to  beg  he  would  cause  it  to  be 
examined  by  the  bishops  and  the  divines, 
not  doubting  but,  if  they  could  divest  them- 
selves of  all  partiality  and  prepossession, 
they  would  all  approve  and  receive  what 
many  of  them  now  seemed  inclined  to  con- 
demn and  reject. 

This  letter  determined  Charlemagne  to 
assemble  a  great  council ;  and  he  according- 
ly appointed  a  council  to  meet,  in  the  sum- 
mer of  the  present  year  794,  at  Frankfort 
on  the  Main.  It  consisted  of  about  three 
hundred  bishops  from  France,  Italv,  Ger- 
many, and  probably  from  England ;  for  the 
English  bishops,  too  were  invited  to  it  by 
Charlemagne,  as  appears  from  the  letter  he 
wrote  to  Elipandus  after  the  council.^    The 


»  Alcuin.  adverse.  Elipand.  I.  1.  &  Eginhard.  in  An- 
nal.  a  Apud  Bar.  ad  Ann.  794. 


two  bishops  Theophylact  and  Stephen  as- 
sisted in  the  pope's  name  with  the  character 
of  his  legates.  For  though  Hadrian  had 
already  examined  and  condemned  the  doc- 
trine of  Elipandus  and  Felix  in  a  letter  he 
Avrote  to  the  bishops  of  Spain,  he  was  not 
against  its  being  examined  anew  by  a  coun- 
cil. The  bishops  met  in  the  royal  palace  at 
Frankfort;  and  Charlemagne  not  only  was 
present,  but  opened  the  council  himself  with 
a  speech  to  the  fathers,  giving  them  an  ac- 
count of  the  doctrine  they  were  met  to  ex- 
amine, and  exhorting  them  to  take  the  Scrip- 
ture for  their  guide  in  dehvering  their 
opinion  concerning  it.  When  he  had  done, 
the  letter,  which  Elipandus  had  sent  to  him, 
containing  the  authorities  and  reasons,  on 
which  he  grounded  his  opinion,  was  read, 
examined,  and  condemned  by  all  who  were 
present,  to  a  man,  as  plainly  reviving  the 
heresy  of  Nestorius,  which  the  church  had 
anathematized  in  the  council  of  Ephesus. 
Charlemagne  himself  acquainted  Elipandus 
with  this  sentence,  and  the  whole  proceed- 
ings of  the  council,  exhorting  him  with  great 
zeal  and  tenderness  to  acknowledge  his  error, 
to  submit  his  judgment  to  that  of  so  many 
bishops,  and  to  join  the  apostolic  see,  as 
well  as  the  churches  of  France,  Germany, 
and  Italy  in  the  confession  of  the  catholic 
faith.'  But  Elipandus,  paying  no  kind  of 
regard  to  the  authority  of  the  council,  or  the 
exhortations  of  Charlemagne,  continued  still 
to  maintain  the  same  doctrine ;  and  some 
years  passed  before  an  end  could  be  put  to 
the  present  dispute^  as  we  shall  see  in  the 
sequel. 

The  doctrine  of  the  Adoptionarians  being 
thus  condemned,  the  council  undertook,  in 
the  next  place,  to  examine  the  acts  of  the 
council  of  Nice;  and  having  carefully  ex- 
amined them,  they  unanimously  condemned 
the  worship,  that  was  there  decreed  to  be 
given  to  images.  This  we  learn  from  the 
second  canon  of  the  present  council,  the 
words  of  which  are ;  "  the  question  con-  J 
cerning  the  new  synod  of  the  Greeks,  that  .1 
was  held  at  Constantinople  about  worship- 
ing images,  was  then  debated;  in  that  coun- 
cil it  was  written  that  they  should  be  ana- 
thematized, who  did  not  pay  that  service  or 
adoration  to  the  images  of  the  saints,  which 
they  paid  to  the  Divine  Trinity ;  hereupon 
our  most  holy  fathers,  refusing  by  all  means 
to  pray  to  them,  or  pay  them  service,  de- 
spised and  unanimously  condemned  it."2 
Such  a  canon  or  decree  issued  by  a  council, 
that  was  lawfully  assembled,  that  consisted 
of  three  hundred  bishops,  and  at  which  as-  J 
sisted  the  legates  of  the  pope,  Aviih  whose  ■ 
approbation  it  was  convened,  has  greatly 
embarrassed  the  advocates  for  images,  and 
the  patrons  of  the  council  that  defined  it ; 


»  Alcuin.  &.  Paulin.  in  Lib.  advers.  Elipand. 
2  Concil.  t.  7.  p.  1057. 


Hadrian.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


167 


No  council  held  at  Constantinople  between  the  council  of  Nice  and  that  of  Frankfort.  Whether  the  council 
of  Frankfort  mistook  the  meaning  of  the  council  of  Nice.  They  understood  their  meaning  and  condemned 
their  doctrine. 


and  they  have  left  no  means  unattempted 
they  could  think  of  to  reconcile  the  one 
council  with  the  other,  and  thus  save  the 
authority  of  both.  As  the  council,  con- 
demned by  the  council  of  Frankfort,  is  called 
in  the  canon  that  condemns  it,  the  council 
of  Constantinople,  some,  and  among  the 
rest  Surius  and  Binius,  the  first  editors  of 
the  councils,  have  concluded  from  thence, 
that  the  fathers  of  Frankfort,  far  from  con- 
demning the  council  of  Nice,  confirmed  it, 
and  condemned  the  council  that  was  held  at 
Constantinople  under  Copronymus.  And 
from  them,  no  doubt,  was  borrowed  the  title, 
that  is  still  prefixed  to  the  council  of  Frank- 
fort in  the  Louvre  edition,  namely,  "  the 
council  of  Frankfort,  in  which  the  heresy  of 
Felix  was  condemned  the  third  time  by  the 
bishops  of  the  whole  kingdom  of  the  Franks, 
of  Italy,  Gaul  and  Germany,  in  the  pre- 
sence of  Charlemagne,  and  the  legates  of 
pope  Hadrian,  Theophylact  and  Stephen, 
and  the  acts  of  the  second  council  of  Nice 
about  images  were  confirmed  in  794.  But 
that  the  fathers  of  Frankfort  condemned  the 
worship  of  images  as  well  as  the  council 
establishing  that  worship,  and  consequently 
confirmed  the  council  of  Constantinople  un- 
der Copronymus,  so  far  as  it  condemned  the 
same  worship,  is  manifest  beyond  all  dispute 
from  the  words  of  the  canon  quoted  above, 
and  besides  is  attested  by  all  the  contempo- 
rary writers.'  They  called,  it  is  true,  the 
council  they  condemned,  the  council  of  Con- 
stantinople ;  and  the  reason  why  they  so 
styled  it  is  obvious:  it  was  begun  and  was 
ended  at  Constantinople,  as  has  been  related 
above.  Some,  to  screen  the  council  of  Nice, 
have  placed  another,  which  they  suppose  to 
have  been  held  at  Constantinople,  between 


'  "The  synod,"  says  E^inhard,  a  contemporary  wri- 
ter, "that  a  few  years  before  was  assembled  at  Con- 
stantinople under  Irene  and  her  son  Constantine,  and 
was  by  them  called  not  only  the  seventh,  but  a  gene- 
ral council,  was  rejected  by  all,"  (Eginhard.  Annal. 
ad  Ann.  724.)  namely,  by  all  the  western  bishops  as- 
sembled at  Frankfort.  Hincmar,  archbishop  of  Rheims, 
who  lived  in  the  ninth  century,  writes  thus  of  the 
council  of  Frankfort.  "In  the  time  of  Charlemagne 
by  order  of  the  apostolic  see,  and  the  summons  of  the 
emperor,  a  general  synod  was  called  in  France,  where, 
according  to  Scripture  and  the  tradition  of  the  an- 
cients, the  false  synod  of  the  Greeks  was  rejected  and 
utterly  made  void.  Thus  by  the  authority  of  this 
council  the  veneration  of  images  was  somewhat 
checked." — (Hincmar  Rhem.  contr.  Laud.  c.  20.  apod 
Goldast.)  "The  false  synod,"  says  Regino,  "which 
the  Greeks  had  convened  for  adoring  images,  was 
rejected  by  the  bishops  ;"  (Regin  Chron.  ad  Ann.  794.) 
and  Uspergensis,  "  tlie  synod,  which  was  assembled  a 
few  years  before  under  Irene  and  her  son  Constan- 
tine, and  which  they  called  the  seventh  and  a  general 
council,  was  rejected  by  all."— (Ah.  Ursperg.  Chron. 
ad  Ann.  793.)  "In  the  council  of  Frankfort,"  says 
Aventinus,  "under  Charles  the  Great,  the  decrees  of 
the  Greeks  for  adoring  images  were  reversed." — 
(Avent.  Annal.  Boiar.  I.  4.  p.  253.)  The  same  thing  is 
asserted  by  all  the  other  contemporary  historians  and 
annalists;  (Vide  Hist.  Franc.  Script,  torn.  I.  2,  &  3.) 
and  all  speak  of  the  council,  that  was  as^sembled  un- 
der Constantine  and  Irene,  that  is  of  the  second  coun- 
cil of  Nice,  though  styled  by  some  the  council  of  Con- 
stantinople. 


that  and  the  council  of  Frankfort ;  and  that, 
say  they,  was  the  council  of  Constantinople 
condemned  at  Frankfort,  it  having  been  there 
defined  that  the  same  worship  should  be 
given  to  images  that  was  due  to  the  Divine 
Trinity.'  But  that  council  is  a  mere  inven- 
tion of  their  own,  not  the  least  mention  being 
made  of  it  by  any  historian  whatever ;  and 
besides  it  is  evident  from  the  authors  I  have 
quoted,  that,  Avhether  any  council  was  held 
or  not  between  those  of  Nice  and  Frankfort, 
the  council  condemned  at  Frankfort  was 
that  of  Nice. 

Sirmond,  Petavius,  and  with  them  the 
more  modern  writers,  ashamed  to  recur  to 
such  poor  subterfuges,  ingenuously  own  the 
council  of  Nice  to  have  been  condemned  by 
that  of  Frankfort,  but  yet,  unwilling  to  give 
up  either,  stiffly  maintain  the  definition  of 
the  one  to  be  entirely  agreeable  to  that  of  the 
other.  To  make  good  this  paradox,  they 
tells  us  that  the  author  of  the  Caroline  books, 
as  well  as  the  council  of  Frankfort,  by  a 
mistake  in  matter  of  fact,  (for  neither  does 
the  infallibility  of  the  pope,  nor  that  of  a 
general  council  extend  to  matters  of  fact,) 
into  which  they  were  led  by  a  bad  transla- 
tion of  the  council  of  Nice,  ascribed  to  that 
council  a  doctrine,  which  they  neither  held 
nor  defined,  and  thereupon  condemned,  at 
the  same  time,  the  doctrine  and  the  council. 
The  doctrine  they  ascribed  to  them  was,  that 
"  Images  are  to  be  worshiped  with  the  very 
same  worship  we  give  to  the  Divine  Trini- 
ty." This  doctrine,  say  they,  shocked  Char- 
lemasne,  or  the  author  of  the  Caroline  books, 
as  well  as  the  fathers  of  Frankfort ;  and  they 
condemned  so  horrid  a  blasphemy,  together 
with  the  council  that  had,  as  they  took  it  for 
granted,  defined  it.  But  the  fathers  of  Nice, 
abhorring  that  doctrine  as  much  as  the  fathers 
of  Frankfort,  only  defined  a  "  relative,  infe- 
rior, and  honorary  worship"  to  be  given  to 
images  ;  and  that  kind  of  worship  the  council 
of  Frankfort  did  not  condemn,  and  may  be 
consequently  said  to  have  rather  approved. 
Thus  Sirmond,  Petavius,  De  Marca,  Natalis 
Alexander,  and  Maimbourg. 

But  in  the  first  place  the  author  of  the 
Caroline  books  could  not  possibly  mistake 
the  meaning  of  the  council,  nor  could  the 
fathers  of  Frankfort;  as  if  the  worship  of 
Latria  had  been  there  decreed  to  be  given  to 
images,  or  it  had  been  defined  that  the  same 
worship  should  be  given  to  images  that  was 
given  to  the  Trinity.  Indeed,  the  Nicene 
bishops  spoke  very  ambiguously  with  re- 
spect to  some  points,  but  always  distinguish- 
ed, and  in  such  terms  as  no  man  could  mis- 
understand or  misconstrue,  the  worship  they 
gave  to  images  from  that,  which  was  accord- 
ing to  them,  due  only  to  God,  declaring  in 
every  act,  "  that  they  did  not  look  upon  their 

'  Annal.  Eccl.  Franc,  ad  Ann.  794. 


168 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Hadrian. 


The  council  of  Frankfort  condemned  the  very  worship  that  was  defined  by  those  of  Nice,  and  all  kind  of 
worship.  Hadrian  supposes  the  worship  defined  by  the  one  council  to  have  been  condemned  by  the  other. 


images  as  gods;  that  they  did  not  worship 
them  as  the  pagans  worshiped  their  idols ; 
that  they  did  not  give  them  the  worship  that 
was  due  only  to  God,  but  an  inferior,  relative 
and  subordinate  worship."  Thus  in  their 
very  definition  they  all  protested,  that  "  by 
an  honorary  worship  they  did  not  mean  true 
Latria,  which  is  due  only  to  God;"'  and 
Tarasius,  in  hearing  the  pope's  letter  read, 
declared,  that  he  received  it  and  the  doctrine 
it  contained,  the  worship  of  images,  "re- 
serving faith  and  Latria  to  God  alone. "^  In 
like  manner  spoke  all  the  rest,  as  appears 
from  the  acts :  and  who  can  believe  that 
three  hundred  bishops,  after  perusing  those 
acts,  (for  we  may  well  suppose  they  pe- 
rused them,  and  with  some  degree  of  at- 
tention,) should  have  thought  that  "  true 
Latria,"  or  the  worship,  that  was  there  said 
to  be  due  only  to  God,  was  commanded  to 
be  given  to  images? 

But  the  Latin  translation,  say  the  ad- 
vocates for  the  council  of  Nice,  Avhich  Char- 
lemagne perused,  and  the  fathers  of  Frank- 
fort, was  very  different  from  the  Greek  origi- 
nal. In  the  Latin  translation,  for  instance, 
Constantine  bishop  of  Constantia  in  the  is- 
land of  Cyprus,  is  introduced  saying,  "  I  re- 
ceive and  embrace  with  honor  the  holy  and 
venerable  images,  and  pay  them  the  same 
service  of  adoration  I  pay  to  the  Trinity  ;" 
whereas  in  the  Greek  original  he  says  quite 
the  contrary,  "  1  embrace  with  honor  the 
holy  and  venerable  images,  but  give  the 
adoration  of  Latria  to  the  Trinity  alone."^ 
Now  from  the  words  of  Constantine,  as 
Charlemagne  and  the  fathers  of  Frankfort 
read  them  in  the  Latin  translation,  they  con- 
cluded that  he  thought  the  same  adoration 
should  be  given  to  images,  that  was  given  to 
the  Trinity,  and  that  the  rest  of  the  council, 
as  none^of  them  offered  to  contradict  him, 
all  consented  to  what  he  had  said.  And  it 
was  upon  that  mistake  that  the  council  of 
Frankfort  condemned  that  of  Nice.  This 
they  urge  as  an  irrefragible  proof,  or  rather 
demonstration  that  the  fathers  of  Frankfort 
mistook  the  meaning  of  the  fathers  of  Nice, 
and  condemned  not  the  worship  that  was, 
but  the  worship  that  was  not  decreed  at 
Nice,  to  be  given  to  images.  But  from  the 
very  passage  in  the  Caroline  books,  where 
notice  is  taken  of  what  was  supposed  to 
have  been  said  by  the  bishop  of  Cyprus,  it 
is  evident  that  the  author  of  those  books, 
and  consequently  the  fathers  of  Frankfort, 
well  knew  that  those  of  Nice  had  not  de- 
creed the  same  worship  to  be  given  to  images 
that  was,  according  to  them,  due  to  the  Tri- 
nity. For  in  that  very  place  the  author  of 
those  books  observes,  that  in  those  words 
Constantine  "contradicted  the  rest;"  that 
"  he  betrayed  unawares  what  the  rest  strove 
to  conceal,"  namely,  their  giving  to  images 


the  worship  that  was  due  to  the  Trinity ; 
that  "  in  words  indeed  they  denied  their 
giving  the  same  worship  to  images  and  to 
the  Divine  Trinity,  but  that  their  actions  be- 
lied their  words."'  From  these  words  it  is 
evident  beyond  all  dispute,  that  Charlemagne 
knew  the  fathers  of  Nice  had  not  defined  the 
same  worship  to  be  given  to  images  that 
was,  according  to  them,  due  to  the  Trinity, 
since  he  charges  the  bishop  of  Constantia, 
saying  he  gave  them  the  same  worship,  with 
contradicting  all  the  rest.  I  might  add,  that 
had  Charlemagne  and  the  western  bishops 
misunderstood  the  meaning  of  the  council, 
the  pope's  legates,  who  were  present,  and 
knew,  as  we  may  well  suppose,  what  kind 
of  worship  had  by  the  Nicene  synod  been 
commanded  to  be  given  to  images,  would 
have  taken  care  to  acquaint  them  with  it, 
and  not  suffered  them  to  condemn,  upon 
such  a  mistake,  a  council  approved  by  the 
pope. 

In  the  second  place  it  was  not  the  worship 
of  Latria  alone  with  respect  to  images,  that 
Charlemagne  and  the  western  bishops  re- 
jected and  condemned,  but  religious  worship 
in  general,  or  religious  worship  of  every  kind 
or  degree.  Of  this  no  man  can  doubt,  who 
has  ever  but  dipt  into  the  Caroline  books ; 
for  there  Charlemagne  condemns  "adoration, 
service,  veneration,  worship  of  all  kinds, 
omnimodum  cultnm,  particularly  praying, 
bowing,  kneeling  to  images,  burning  incense 
to  them,  or  lights  before  them;"^  he  calls  it 
temerity  to  compare  images  to  the  cherubims 
in  the  temple,  to  the  mercy  seat,  or  to  the 
ark  f  will  not  allow  the  same  honor  or  reve- 
rence to  be  due  to  them,  that  is  due  to  the 
sacred  utensils  or  to  the  Bible;*  styles  all 
kind  of  adoration,  that  is  given  to  images, 
"  superfluous,  vain,  superstitious,  highly  ab- 
surd, fummae  absurditatis,  sacrilegious ;5" 
will  have  all  to  conform  to  the  doctrine  of 
pope  Gregory  the  Great,  that  is,  to  "  retain 
images  as  helps  to  memory,  or  for  instruc- 
tion, but  to  avoid  by  all  means  giving  them 
any  kind  of  worship.^  Let  images,"  says 
he,  "  be  retained,  provided  all  adoration  be 
excluded  ;''  images  are  so  far  useful  as  they 
put  us  in  mind  of  the  objects  they  represent, 
but  God  alone  is  to  be  worshiped." 

Third ;  Hadrian,  in  his  answer  to  the  Ca- 
roline books,  of  which  I  shall  soon  have  oc- 
casion to  speak,  no  where  charges  the  author 
of  those  books,  or  the  fathers  of  Frankfort, 
with  mistaking  the  meaning  of  the  fathers 
of  Nice,  but  defends  the  worship  that  was 
defined  by  the  one  council,  as  condemned  by 
the  other.  Had  the  disagreement  between 
the  two  councils  been  only  owing  to  a 
mistake,  would  not  Hadrian  have  rectified 


»Concil.  Nic.  Sess.7.    2  Ibid.  Sess.  2.    3  Ibid.Sess.3. 


I 


>  Lib.  Carol.  1.  3. 
■>  Lib.  Carol.  I.  2. 
3  Ibid. 

slbid.  1.  2.  c.  21. 
•■Ibid.  c.  21. 


c.  21.  23,24,  25.  28,  29,  30. 

'  Ibid.  1.  2.  c.  29,  30. 
24,25.      6  Ibid.  c.  21.  23. 


Hadrian.]  OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. J69 

The  canon  of  Frankfort  not  grounded  on  a  mistake.     Charlemagne  not  prompted  by  revenge  to  condemn  the 
council  of  Nice.   The  worship  of  images  not  looked  upon  by  the  fathers  of  Frankfort  as  an  indifferent  thing. 


thai  mistake?  Would  he  not  have  inform- 
ed the  western  bishops  that  the  worship, 
which  they  rejected  and  condemned,  was 
not  the  worship,  which  the  Greeks  had  ap- 
proved and  defined?  Would  he  have  un- 
dertaken to  prove,  as  he  did  in  a  long  apo- 
logy, the  lawfulness  of  a  worship  inferior  to 
that  of  Latria,  had  he  thought  that  they, 
against  whom  he  undertook  to  prove  it,  con- 
demned no  other  worship  but  that  of  Latria? 
Fourth;  The  western  bishops  and  churches 
all  persisted  in  rejecting  the  council  of  Nice 
and  the  doctrine  it  had  defined,  as  will  ap- 
pear in  the  sequel,  even  after  Hadrian,  in 
.  his  answer  to  the  Caroline  books,  had  ex- 
plained that  doctrine  so  as  to  leave  no  room 
to  doubt  of  the  meaning  of  the  council :  a 
convincing  proof  or  rather  demonstration, 
that  it  was  not,  as  is  pretended,  because  the 
fathers  of  Frankfort  misunderstood  the  mean- 
ing of  those  of  Nice,  that  they  condemned 
their  council  and  doctrine. 

But  the  very  canon  of  Frankfort,  say  the 
writers  mentionedabove,  is  evidently  ground- 
ed on  a  mistake,  it  being  there  said,  that 
the  same  worship  was  commanded,  under 
an  anathema  to  be  given  to  images,  that  was 
given  to  the  divine  Trinity;  whereas  the  fa- 
thers of  Nice  declared  in  twenty  places,  that 
they  gave  to  images  only  an  honorary  ado- 
ration, reserving  true  Latria  to  God  alone. 
But,  I.  If  they  declared  in  twenty  places, 
that  they  reserved  true  Latria  to  God  alone, 
how  could  Charlemagne  and  three  hundred 
bishops  mistake  their  meaning,  and  think 
they  had  commanded  what  they  called  wor- 
ship of  Latria  to  be  given  to  images'?  2. 
From  the  Caroline  books,  which  Avere  re- 
ceived and  approved  by  the  fathers  of  Frajik- 
fort,  it  is  manifest,  that  they  did  not  admit 
the  distinctions  used  by  the  Nicene  synod 
of  Latria  and  Dulia,  of  relative  and  abso- 
lute, of  inferior  and  supreme  or  superior 
worship,  but  thought  religious  service,  ado- 
ration or  worship,  of  what  kind  soever  or 
degree,  was  due  to  God  or  was  worship  of 
Latria,  and  consequently  that  to  pay  any  ser- 
vice, adoration  or  worship  whatever  to  im- 
ages was  paying  to  them  that  service,  ado- 
ration, or  worship,  which  they  paid  to  the 
divine  Trinity. 

But  Ciiarlemagne,  says  Natalis  Alexan- 
der, was  highly  provoked  against  Irene  for 
breaking  off  the  match  between  her  son  and 
his  daughter;  and  it  is  highly  probable  that 
to  be  revenged  on  her  he  undertook  to  con- 
fute her  council,  and  assembled  a  council  in 
the  west  to  condemn  it;'  that  is  in  other 
words,  Charlemagne  did  not  really  think  the 
doctrine,  that  was  defined  at  Nice,  an  ab- 
surd, impious,  sacrilegious,  detestable  doc- 
trine, epithets,  which  he  bestows  on  it  in 
twenty  places  in  his  work,  but  nevertheless 
represented  and  confuted  it  as  such  to  be  re- 

'  Vide  Spanhem.  sect.  7.  p.  479. 

Vol.  II.— 22 


venged  on  Irene,  who  had  caused  it  to  be 
defined  ;  and  he  prevailed  on  the  western 
bishops  to  prostitute  their  consciences  to  his 
revenge  and  condemn  it.  And  it  is  highly 
probable,  that  Charlemagne,  whom  these 
very  writers  extol  on  all  other  occasions  as  a 
most  religious,  a  most  Christian  prince,  a 
most  zealous  defender  of  the  catholic  faith, 
should,  on  this  occasion,  have  acted  so  anti- 
christian  a  part?  That  the  western  bishops, 
blindly  concurring  with  him,  should  have 
all  sacrificed  to  his  peevish  humor  their  ho- 
nor, their  reputation,  their  conscience  ?  We 
must  think  very  meanly  both  of  him  and  of 
them  to  entertain  such  a  notion.  Had  the 
match  been  broken  off  by  Irene,  and  not  by 
Charlemagne  himself,  as  Eginhard  his  se- 
cretary tells  us  it  was,'  the  provoked  prince 
wanted  not  other  means  of  being  revenged 
on  her  more  effectually  than  by  villifying  the 
holy  images,  which  I  suppose  were  not 
against  the  match,  by  excluding  them  not 
only  from  all  worship,  but  even  from  the 
honor  or  reverence,  that  he  thought  due  to 
the  utensils  of  the  church,  and  degrading 
them  into  mere  ornaments.  He  might  at 
this  very  time  have  invaded  her  Italian  do- 
minions, and  seized  them  almost  without 
opposition  :  and  he  had  thus  more  effectual- 
ly been  revenged  on  the  perfidious  Irene  than 
if  he  had  even  turned  Iconoclast,  and  caused 
all  the  holy  images  to  be  broken  in  pieces 
and  cast  into  the  flames. 

Lastly,  The  patrons  of  image  worship  and 
of  the  council  of  Nice  urge  the  following 
words  out  of  the  last  chapter  of  the  Caroline 
books,  "  we  allow  images  to  be  made,  but 
oblige  BO  man  to  Avorship  them."  From 
these  words  they  conclude,  that  Charlemagne, 
and  consequently  the  fathers  of  Frankfort, 
looked  upon  the  worship  of  images  as  an 
indifferent  thing,  and  only  quarreled  with 
those  of  Nice  for  commanding  that  worship 
under  an  anathema,  and  thus  making  it  ne- 
cessary. But  first  that  one  council  should 
think  and  define  a  thing  necessary  to  salva- 
tion, and  another  think  and  define  it  an  in- 
different thing,  is  no  trifling  disagreement. 
2.  An  indifferent  thing  is  what  a  man  may 
lawfully  do  or  omit  as  he  pleases ;  and  could 
Charlemagne,  after  he  had  labored  through- 
out his  work  to  prove  the  worshiping  of  im- 
ages a  vain,  superstitious,  sacrilegious,  and 
idolatrous  practice,  repugnant  to  the  divine 
law,  close  it  with  declaring  he  looked  upon 
that  worship  as  an  indifferent  thing?  Thus 
he  had  undone  at  once  all  he  had  been  doing 
in  four  books.  As  that  passage  therefore 
evidently  contradicts  all  the  rest,  and  besides, 
is  not  to  be  found  in  the  first  edition  of  the 
work,  we  may  well  suppose,  with  the  learn- 
ed Spanheim  and  others,  that  it  has  been 
since  foisted  in. 

To  conclude;  from  what  has  been  hitherto 


«  Eginhard.  ad  Ann.  783. 
P 


170 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES. 


[Hadrian. 


The  council  and  doctrine  of  Nice  evidently  condemned  at  Frankfort.  Hadrian  undertakes  to  answer  the 
Caroline  books,  but  courts  with  ^reat  address  the  favor  of  Charlemagne.  Latria  now  given  to  images 
though  not  allowed  by  the  council  of  Nice. 

held  the  patrimonies  of  St.  Peter,  wliich  his 
Iconoclast  predecessors  had  unjustly  seized; 
that  he  would  therefore  write  to  him,  if  his 
royal  excellency  approved  of  it,  and  thank 
him  for  what  he  had  done  in  the  cause  of 
images,  but  at  the  same  time  insist  on  his 
restoring  the  patrimonies,  which  his  ances- 
tors had  usurped,  and  declare  him  a  heretic 
if  he  did  not  restore  them ;  that  is,  to  gratify 
Charlemagne  he  was  ready  to  declare  the 
emperor  a  heretic,  though  entirely  satisfied 
with  him  as  to  his  orthodoxy.  But  he  could 
no  more  prevail  on  the  king  with  his  com- 
plaisance, than  with  his  arguments,  to  change 
his  opinion.  Charlemagne  still  continued, 
and  so  did  the  w^estern  bishops,  to  reject  the 
doctrine  of  image  worship,  with  the  council 
that  had  defined  it;  and  neither  was  received 
in  the  west  till  several  ages  after,  as  will  ap- 
pear in  the  sequel. 

I  cannot  help  observing,  before  I  dismiss 
this  subject,  that  though  the  fathers  of  Nice 
declared  over  and  over  again,  that  they  re- 
served Latria  to  God  alone,  that  images  were 
not  to  be  worshiped  with  Latria,  but  with  aa 
inferior,  relative,  and  subordinate  worship; 
it  is  nevertheless  now  the  general  opinion  of 
the  divines  of  the  church  of  Rome,  that 
images  and  the  prototypes,  or  those  whom 
they  represent,  are  to  be  worshiped  with  the 
very  same  worship,  and  consequently  that 
the  cross,  the  images  of  the  Trinity,  (now 
allowed,  but  formerly  forbidden,')  and  those 
of  Christ  are  to  be  worshiped  with  Latria, 
that  is  with  the  very  same  supreme  Divine 
worship,  with  which  Christ  himself  and  the 
Trinity  are  worshiped.  This  opinion  they 
ground  on  the  practice  of  the  church  in  the 
worship  of  the  cross,'^  owning  thereby  that 
the  church  adores  the  cross  with  Latria,  and 
concluding  from  thence,  that  as  the  cross  is 
adored  with  Latria,  on  account  of  its  rela- 
tion to  Christ,  the  images  of  Christ  and  the 
Trinity  are,  on  the  same  account,  to  be 
adored  with  the  same  adoration.  Now,  if  it 
is  not  idolatry  to  give  the  same  supreme  di- 
vine worship  to  a  piece  of  wood,  or  a  paint- 
ed canvass,  that  we  give  to  God,  I  should 
be  glad  to  know  the  true  meaning  of  that 
word.  To  say,  that  they  only  are  guilty  of 
idolatry,  who  take  something  to  be  God  that 
is  not  God,  and  worship  it  as  such,  is  clear- 
ing from  that  guilt  all  the  wiser  pagans,  who 


said  it  is,  I  think,  evident  beyond  all  dispute, 
in  spite  of  the  cavils,  that  have  been  yet 
urged  to  the  contrary,  that  the  council  con- 
demned by  the  western  bishops  assembled  at 
Frankfort  was  the  second  council  of  Nice ; 
that  the  one  council  condemned  the  very 
same  doctrine,  which  the  other  had  defined, 
and  consequently  that  the  doctrine  of  image 
worship,  though  approved  and  zealously 
recommended  by  the  pope,  was  condemned 
by  a  council  that  had  as  good  a  claim,  to  say 
no  more,  to  the  title  of  a  general  council  as 
that,  which  defined  it. 

The  fathers  of  Frankfort  thought  it  ad- 
visable before  they  parted,  to  acquaint  the 
pope  with  their  proceedings ;  and  they  sent 
him  accordingly  their  definition,  and  with  it 
the  Caroline  books  as  containing  the  reasons, 
why  they  had  condemned  the  doctrine  of 
image  worship,  and  the  council  that  had  de- 
fined it.  As  Hadrian  had  received  that 
council,  he  thought  himself  bound  to  defend 
it;  and  that  task  he  undertook,  addressing 
his  defence  or  apology  to  Charlemagne, 
whom  he  frequently  commends,  and  treats 
throughout  the  work  with  the  greatest  regard 
and  esteem.  He  pretends  to  answer  one  by 
one  the  objections  urged  by  him  and  the 
western  bishops  against  those  of  Nice;  but 
that  his  answers,  far  from  being  satisfactory, 
"  contain  many  things  that  are  quite  absurd, 
many  that  are  incongruoDs,  and  many  that 
deserve  to  be  censured,"  was  the  judgment 
passed  upon  his  apology  by  the  Gallican 
bishops  in  the  council  of  Paris,  which  I 
shall  have  occasion  to  speak  of  hereafter ; 
and  the  learned  Du  Pin,  in  the  account  he 
gives  of  that  piece,  entirely  agrees  with  them. 

Hadrian  was,  it  seems,  under  some  ap- 
prehension that  from  his  defending  the  Greek 
synod,  Charlemagne  should  conclude  him  a 
friend  to  the  Greeks  and  the  emperor;  and 
therefore,  to  remove  any  suspicion  of  that 
kind,  he  took  care  to  declare  in  his  preface, 
that  it  was  not  to  support  the  interest  of  any 
person  whatever,  but  only  to  maintain  the  an- 
cient practice  and  tradition  of  the  holy  Roman 
church,  that  he  had  undertaken  the  defence 
of  the  Greek  synod.  He  even  excuses  to 
Charlemagne  his  having  received  it  at  all, 
telling  him,  that  as  by  that  synod  the  heresy 
of  the  Iconoclasts  was  condemned,  the 
Greeks  would  have  relapsed  into  their  here- 
sy, had  he  not  received  the  council  that  con- 
demned it;  which  was,  in  some  measure, 
declaring  that  he  received  it  for  what  it  had 
condemned,  rather  than  for  what  it  had  de- 
fined. He  adds,  that  though  he  received  the 
council,  he  had  yet  returned  no  answer  to 
the  letters  that  had  been  sent  him  seven 
years  since  from  Constantinople  concerning 
it ;  that  with  respect  to  the  article  of  images, 
he  was  entirely  satisfied  with  the  conduct  of 
the  emperor,  but  had,  in  other  respects,  great 
reasoa  to  complain  of  him,  as  he  still  with- 


«  See  p.  64. 

'  Especially  in  the  service  of  Good  Friday,  when  the 
whole  church  addresses  the  cross  thus,  "Behold  the 
wood  of  the  cross  ;  come  let  us  adore  it ;"  and  their 
actions  agreeing  with  their  expressions,  they  all  fall 
down  and  adore  it,  praying  to  it  in  the  most  express 
and  formal  terms  of  prayer:  "O  crux  ave  spes  unica, 
hoc  passionis  tempore,  piis  adauge  gratiaui,  reisque 
dona  veniam."  In  the  Roman  pontifical,  where  the 
rubric  determines  the  order  of  procession  at  the  recep- 
tion of  an  emperor,  it  is  said,  the  "legate's  cross 
shall  be  on  the  right  hand,  because  Latria  is  due  to  it, 
and  the  emperor's  sword  on  the  left :"  (Ponlific.  Rom. 
edit.  Rom.  p.  672.)  so  that  it  is  the  sense  of  the  churcli, 
that  the  cross  should  be  worshiped  with  Latria. 


Hadrian.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME, 


171 


Hadrian  dies  ;  — [Year  of  Christ,  795.]     His  character.    His  death  greatly  lamented  by  Charlemagne. 


did  not  take  their  images  for  gods,  as  has 
been  shown,'  and  restraining  it  to  mere  fools 
and  idiots,  since  none  but  mere  fools  and 
idiots  can  think,  as  was  observed  by  Celsus, 
that  the  wood  or  stone  of  an  image  made  and 
governs  the  world  ;  that  an  image  made  by 
a  smith  or  a  carpenter,  is  the  Creator  of  the 
world,  the  Maker  of  the  very  man  who  made 
it,  and  of  the  very  wood  or  metal  of  which 
it  was  made. 

Hadrian  did  not  live  to  see  what  reception 
his  answer  to  the  Caroline  books  met  with 
from  Charlemagne  and  the  western  bishops. 
He  died  soon  after  he  had  finished  it,  and 
his  death  happened  on  the  2.5lh  of  Decem- 
ber, 795,2  afier  he  had  presided  in  the  Ro- 
man see  twenty-three  years,  ten  months,  and 
seventeen  days.  He  was  a  man  of  very  un- 
common parts,  of  great  address,  of  an  extra- 
ordinary discernment  in  affairs  of  state,  and, 
in  short,  an  able  politician,  but  no  divine,  if 
we  may  judge  of  his  knowledge  in  divinity 
from  his  writings,  especially  from  his  answer 
to  the  Caroline  books,  and  his  letter  to  Con- 
stanline  and  Irene  concerning  the  worship 
of  images  f  two  pieces,  that  show  him  very 
little  conversant  in  history,  and  less  conver- 
sant in  Scripture.  As  the  temporal  grandeur 
of  the  papal  see  was  entirely  owing  to  the 
generosity  of  the  French  princes  and  nation, 
and  wholly  depended  on  the  conlinualion  of 
their  protection  and  favor,  Hadrian  made 
it  his  study,  during  the  whole  time  of  his 
long  pontificate,  to  gain  the  good  will  of  that 
nation,  and  of  the  great  prince,  who  was 
then  at  the  head  of  it,  espousing  his  interest 
with  great  zeal,  as  it  was  inseparable  from 
his  own,  against  their  common  enemies  the 
Greeks  and  the  Lombards.  Thus  by  his 
policy  and  address  he  not  only  maintained, 
but  considerably  extended,  as  has  been  re- 
lated, the  temporal  power  and  dominion, 
which  his  predecessors  had  acquired. 

His  death  was  greatly  lamented  by  the 
Romans  and  the  people  of  Italy,  but  by  none 
so  much  as  by  Charlemagne,  who  burst  into 
tears,  when  he  first  heard  of  it,  and  wept, 
says  Eginhard,  as  if  he  had  lost  a  brother, 
or  the  most  beloved  of  his  children.  Not 
satisfied  with  the  common  tribute  of  tears, 
he  caused  prayers  to  be  every  where  offered 
up  for  the  repose  of  his  soul,  distributing 
great  alms  for  that  purpose,  and  sending  con- 
siderable presents  even  to  the  cliief  churches 
of  England,  not  that  he  entertained  the  least 
doubt  of  the  happiness  of  that  blessed  soul,  as 
he  declared  in  his  letter  to  Offa  at  this  time 
king  of  Mercia,  but  to  show  his  faith,  and 
the  sincerity  of  his  affection  and  friendsliip 
for  one,  whom   he  so  tenderly  loved  ;*  nay. 


to  transmit  to  posterity  a  lasting  testimony 
of  that  sincere  affection  and  friendship,  he 


'  See  p.  34.  note  (2). 

''  The  French  annalists  all  place  the  de^th  of  Ha- 
drian on  tlie  25lh  of  December,  796:  but  witli  them 
Christmas  dny  was  the  first  day  of  the  new  year. 

»  See  p.  lit.  •  Eginhard.  in  vit.  Carol. 

'Malriies.  de  erst.  Reg.  Angl.  I.  Ic.  4. 

If  he  ontcrtaitii'd  not  the  least  doubt  of  the  happi- 
ness of  that  blessed  soul,  it  was  not  to  deliver  it  out 


of  the  torments  of  purgatory  that  he  distributed  alms, 
and  caused  piayers  to  be  otfered  up.  The  custom  of 
praying  for  the  dead  obtained  in  the  church  at  least  as 
early  as  the  time  of  TertuUian  ;  for  he,  I  think  is  the 
first  who  speaks  of  it. — (Tertull.  de  Coron.  Milit.  c.  3. 
&  de  Monogam.  c.  10.)  After  him  it  ii  particularly 
mentioned  by  Cyprian,  (Cyprian,  ep.  37.  vel  22.  ad 
Cler.  ep.  34.  vel  39.  &  66.  vel  1.)  Arnobius,  (Arnob. 
I.  4.  p.  181.)  the  author  upon  Job  under  the  name  of 
Origen,  (Orig.  in  Job.)  by  Origen  himself,  (Orig.  in 
Koman.  1.  9.  t.  2.)  by  Cyril  of  Jerusalem,  (Cyril  (Jaiech. 
Myst.  5.  n.  6.)  by  Epiphanius,  (Epiphan.  hires.  75.) 
and,  I  may  say,  by  all  the  ancient  fatliers.  But  that 
such  a  custom  was  not  grounded  on  the  belief  of  pur- 
gatory, as  if  the  souls,  for  which  they  prayed,  were 
detained  and  tormented  there  for  the  sins  they  had 
not  e.xpiated  in  their  life-time,  is  manifest  from  their 
praying  for  the  most  holy  men  and  the  greatest  saints, 
for  the  patriarchs,  the  prophets,  the  apostles,  the  mar- 
tyrs, the  confessors:  (Epiphan.  ha;res.  75.)  nay,  it  ap- 
pears from  the  ancient  liturgies  ascribed  to  Basil,  Chry- 
sostom,  Gregory  Nazianzen  and  Cyril,  that  they 
prayed  for  the  virgin  Mary  herself,  (Apud  Usher.  An- 
swer to  the  challenge,  p.  138.  &  Dallffum  de  Pa;nis  Sc 
Satisfac.  I.  5.  c.  8.)  whom  no  papist  will  allow  to  have 
ever  touched  at  purgatory.  In  the  Greek  liturgy  of 
Chrysostom  it  is  said:  "we  ofler  unto  thee  this  rea- 
sonable service  for  the  faithful  deceased,  our  fore- 
fathers, fathers,  patriarchs,  prophets,  and  apostles, 
evangelists,  martyrs,  confessors,  religious  persons, 
and  every  spirit  perfected  in  the  faith;  but  especially 
for  our  most  holy,  immaculate,  most  blessed  lady,  the 
mother  of  God,  and  ever  virgin  Mary.— (Chrysost. 
lilurg.  t.  4.  p.  614.)  We  must  therefore  either  allow 
that  praying  for  the  dead  does  not  infer  purgatory,  or 
that  the  greatest  saints,  the  prophets,  the  apostles, 
the  martyrs,  nay  and  the  virgin  Mary  herself,  went  all 
first  to  purgatory,  or  at  least  were  supposed  by  the 
church  to  be  in  purgatory,  since  she  prayed  indiffer- 
ently for  them  all. 

As  for  the  grounds  and  reasonsof  that  ancient  prac- 
tice, they  were  various  according  to  various  opinions, 
that  obtained  in  those  days.  Many  of  the  fathers  were 
of  opinion,  as  is  well  known,  that  the  souls  of  all  the 
just,  except  the  martyrs,  were  detained  in  some  place 
invisible  to  mortal  eye,  which  they  called  Hades,  Para- 
dise, Abraham's  bosom,  where  they  were  happy,  but 
expected  a  more  complete  happiness  at  the  end  of  all 
things.  They,  who  held  this  opinion,  may  be  supposed, 
in  praying  for  the  dead,  to  have  prayed  that  the  souls  of 
the  just,  thus  sequestered  for  a  time,  might  at  last  be  ad- 
mitted to  perfect  happiness  in  heaven.  Others  thought, 
that  by  the  prayers  of  the  church  tlie  glory  of  the  saints 
was  increased,  and  the  pains  of  the  damned,  in  some 
degree,  mitigated  and  lessened.  "The  prayers  of  the 
church,"  says  St.  Austin,  "serve  to  render  the  dam- 
nation of  the  wicked  more  tolerable." — (Aug.  En- 
chirid.  ad  Laurent,  c.  110.)  Of  the  same  opinion  were 
Prudentlus. —  (Pruden.  Cathem.  car.  5.  de  Cereo  Pas- 
cal.) Paulinus,  (Paulin.  ep.  19.)  the  author  of  the 
questions  to  Anliochus  under  the  name  of  Athanasius, 
(Athanas.  quKst.ad  Antioch.  qua^st.34.)  and  Chrysos- 
tom. (Chrvs.  horn.  3.  in  Phil.  horn.  21.  in  Act.  &.  horn. 
32.  in  Matii.)  who  advises  men  to  pray  for  the  dead, 
because  it  would  bring  some  comfort  to  them,  though 
but  little,  and  though  none  at  all.  yet  it  would  be  ac- 
cepted by  God.  as  a  pleasing  sacrifice  from  those,  who 
offered  it.  Many  other  reasons  occur  in  the  ancients, 
on  which  they  grounded  the  practice  of  the  church  in 
praying  for  "departed  souls;  they  prayed  that  God 
would  receive  tliem  to  himself;  that  he  would  deal 
with  them  according  to  his  mercy,  and  not  in  strict 
justice  according  to  their  merits;  that  as  the  soul  is 
but  in  an  imperfect  state  of  happiness  till  the  resurrec- 
tion, the  just  might  rise  the  last  day  to  an  endless 
state  of  consummate  happiness  ;  that  thus  they  mani- 
fested Iheir  faith  of  a  future  resurrection,  and  in  the 
mean  time  maintained  a  kind  of  communion  between 
the  members  of  Christ  yet  alive,  and  those,  that  were 
departed  only,  and  not  lost  by  death. —  (See  Bingham 
Anliquit.  of  the  Christian  church,  1.  15.  c.  3.  sect.  15, 
IG.)  There  is  not  among  the  many  reasons,  alledged 
by  the  fathers  to  justify  the  practice  of  the  church  in 
praying  for  the  dead,  the  least  intimation,  or  distant 
hint  of  purgatory,  or  of  a  place,  where  the  departed 
souls  are  confined  and  tormented,  till  they  have  paid 
the  utmost  farthing,  or  are  prayed  out  of  those  inex- 
pressible torments  by  their  friends.    And  who  can 


172 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Hadrian. 


Charlemagne  writes  Hadrian's  epitaph,  and  sends  it  to  Rome,    llis  public  works, 
of  Rome.     Wrote  numberless  letters. 


He  enriches  the  churches 


wrote  his  epitaph  himself,  setting  forth,  in 
Elegiac  verse,  all  the  good  qualities  with  all 
the  great  works  of  his  deceased  friend.' 
That  epitaph  he  caused  to  be  engraved  in 
gold  letters  upon  marble,  and  sent  it  to  Rome 
to  be  there  set  up  at  his  tomb  in  the  Vatican  ; 
and  to  this  day  it  is  to  be  seen  at  the  door  of 
that  church.  To  the  epitaph,  were  added 
in  prose,  the  time  of  his  pontificate,  and  the 
day  of  his  death  in  the  following  words: 
"  Pope  Hadrian  of  blessed  memory  sat 
twenty-three  years,  ten  months,  and  seven- 
teen days,  and  died  on  the  7th  of  the  kalends 
of  January,"  that  is  on  the  26th  of  Decem- 
ber; where  he  is  said  to  have  died  on  the 
day  on  which  he  was  buried.  For  that  he 
died  on  Christmas  day,  and  consequently  on 
the  25th,  and  not  the  26th  of  December,  is 
attested  by  all  the  historians  of  those  times. 
But  as  men  were  then  commonly  buried  the 
very  day  theydied,  (and  so  was  Charlemagne 
himself)  the  day  on  which  they  were  buried, 
is  often  called  the  day  of  their  death,  though 
they  happened  to  be  buried  one  or  two  days 
after  their  death ;  and  their  exequies  were 
scarce  ever  put  off  any  longer,  unless  some- 
thing intervened  to  prevent  them.^ 

What  we  read  in  Anastasius  of  the  gene- 
rosity of  Hadrian  to  the  poor,  of  his  mag- 
nificence in  repairing  and  embellishing  the 
churches  and  cemeteries  of  Rome,  in  re- 
building the  walls,  and  restoring  the  an- 
cient aqueducts  of  that  dty,  far  exceeds  any 
thing  we  read,  not  only  of  his  predecessors, 
but  of  the  greatest  princes  of  those  times. 
There  was  scarce  a  church,  a  monastery,  or 
an  oratory  in  Rome,  that  did  not  partake  of 
his  generosity.  On  the  ornaments  of  the 
Vatican  basilic  alone  he  is  said  to  have  em- 
ployed two  thousand  five  hundred  and 
eighty  pounds  weight  of  gold,  besides  an 
immense  quantity  of  silver  and  precious 
stones  of  all  sorts.  Among  the  other  pre- 
sents or  offerings  he  made  to  that  church 
was  a  chandelier  of  workmanship  capable 
of  holding  one  thousand  three  hundred  and 
seventy  candles.  It  hung  before  the  chan- 
cel ;  and  Hadrian  appointed  it  to  be  lighted 


believe,  that  if  such  a  doctrine  had  been  known,  the 
fathers  would  have  all  forgotten  to  alledge  it  as  a  rea- 
son of  their  praying  for  the  dead?  It  would  certainly 
have  better  justified  the  practice  of  the  church  than 
any  reason  they  alledged. 

»  Among  the  other  verses  are  the  following  more  ten- 
der than  elegant. 

"  Post  patrem  lacrymans  Carolus  hasc  carmina  scripsi ; 
Tu  mihi  dulcis  amor,  te  niodo  plango,  pater. 

Nomina  jungo  simul  titulis,  clarissime  nostra, 
Hadrianus,  Carolus,  rex  ego,  tuque  pater. 

2  Vide  Pagi  Critic.  Bar.  ad  Ann.  795.  n.  1. 


four  times  a  year,  namely,  on  the  festivals  of 
Christmas,  of  Easter,  of  the  holy  apostles, 
and  on  the  day  of  the  Roman  pontiff's  or- 
dination. He  expended,  in  repairing  the 
ruinous  walls  of  the  city,  one  thousand  one 
hundred  pounds  weight  of  gold,  and  larger 
sums  on  the  aqueducts  and  other  public  or- 
naments or  necessary  works  ;  insomuch  that 
Rome  is  said  to  have,  in  great  measure,  re- 
covered under  him  its  ancient  lustre  and 
grandeur.'  It  was  the  generosity  of  Char- 
lemagne that  enabled  Hadrian  to  perform 
such  extraordinary  works.  For  Eginhard 
tells  us,  that  on  the  church  of  St.  Peter, 
Charlemagne  heaped,  to  use  his  expression, 
immense  quantities  of  gold,  of  silver,  of 
precious  stones,  and  made  rich  presents  to 
the  popes  without  number,  having  nothing 
so  much  at  heart  as  to  see  the  city  of  Rome 
restored,  by  his  means,  to  its  ancient  autho- 
rity, and  the  church  of  St.  Peter  enriched 
with  his  wealth  above  all  other  churches.'^ 
This  wealth  was  the  plunder  of  the  different 
nations  Charlemagne  had  conquered,  espe- 
cially of  the  Saxons  and  the  wealthy  n&tion 
of  the  Huns,  whom  he  almost  entirely 
rooted  out ;  and  it  was  perhaps  to  atone  for 
his  cruelty  and  injustice  that  he  thus  shared 
the  booty  with  St.  Peter  and  the  pope. 

Hadrian  Avrote  a  great  number  of  letters 
to  different  persons,  and  on  different  subjects, 
which  have  been  carefully  collected  by  Lu- 
dovicus  Jacob  in  his  Bibliotheca  Pontificia; 
and  to  him  I  refer  the  reader. 

In  the  time  of  Hadrian.  Offa,  king  of 
Mercia,  having  treacherously  murdered 
Ethelbert,  king  of  the  East  Angles,  under- 
took a  pilgrimage  to  Rome  to  atone  for  that 
crime,  and  at  the  same  time  to  obtain  of  the 
pope  a  confirmation  of  the  privileges  he 
had  granted  to  the  monastery  of  St.  Alban, 
which  he  had  built  and  richly  endowed  upon 
the  pretended  miraculous  discovery  of  the 
body  of  that  saint,  after  it  had  lain  concealed 
five  hundred  years  and  upwards.  The  pope 
received  the  king  with  the  greatest  marks  of 
respect  and  esteem,  applauded  his  devotion 
to  the  proto-martyr  of  his  kingdom,  and 
readily  confirmed  all  the  privileges,  immu- 
nities and  exemptions  he  had  granted  to  the 
new  founded  monastery.''  That  he  did  not, 
as  is  pretended,  during  his  stay  at  Rome, 
make  his  kingdom  tributary  to  the  pope  and 
St.  Peter,  has  been  shown  elsewhere.'' 


»  Anast.  in  Hadrian.         ^  Eginhard.  in  vit.  Carol. 
'  Westmonast.  ad  Ann.  794.  &  M.  Paris  in  vit.  Off. 
p.  26.  *  See  p.  25. 


Leo  III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


173 


Leo  III.  chosen-  Acquaints  Charlemagne  with  bis  promotion.  To  whom  the  Romans  swear  allegiance.  The 
custom  of  sending  keys  to  princes.  Immense  treasures  sent  by  Charlemagne  to  Rome.  How  employed  by 
the  pope. 


LEO  III.,  NINETY-FIFTH  BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[CoNSTANTiNE,  Irene,  Nicephorus,  Miciiael  Rhangabe. — CharlemaGxNe,  Lewis  the 
Debonnaire,  Emperors  of  the  lVest.'\ 


[Year  of  Christ,  795.]  la  the  room  of 
Hadrian  was  raised  to  the  see  Leo,  the  third 
of  thai  name,  presbyter  of  the  Roman  church, 
a  native  of  Rome, and  the  son  of  one  Azup- 
pius.  He  was  chosen,  with  one  consent, 
by  the  nobility,  the  clergy,  and  the  people, 
the  day  afier  the  death  of  Hadrian,  the  2Clh 
of  December,  and  ordained  the  next  day,' 
which  in  795,  fell  on  a  Sunday. 

Leo  was  no  sooner  ordained  than  he  wrote 
to  Charlemagne,  to  acquaint  him  with  his 
piomotion,  sending  him  at  the  same  time, 
the  keys  of  the  confession  or  tomb  of  St. 
Peter,  the  standard  of  the  city  of  Rome, 
with  several  other  presents,  and  desiring  him 
to  appoint  some  lord  of  his  court  to  repair 
to  Rome  in  order  to  receive  of  the  Roman 
people,  in  his  natne,  their  oath  of  allegiance.^ 
Upon  the  receipt  of  this  letter  Charlemagne 
dispatched  the  abbot  Angilbert,  one  of  his 
chief  favorites,  with  a  letter  to  the  new  pope, 
wherein  he  expressed  great  satisfaction  at 
his  being  raised,  with  the  approbation  of  all, 
to  the  pontifical  dignity,  as  well  as  at  his  as- 
suring him  of  his  obedience  and  fidelity.  In 
the  same  letter  he  exhorted  his  holiness  to 
edify  the  church  by  his  good  example  and  a 
strict  observance  of  the  canons,  assuring 
him,  that  on  his  side,  he  was  resolved  to 
execute  the  treaties  he  had  made  with  his 
predecessor,  to  entertain  a  strict  union  with 
him,  and  ever  to  defend  as  Roman  patri- 
cian, the  holy  catholic  church  and  the  apos- 
tolic see  of  St.  Peter.''  From  these  letters 
we  may,  I  think,  well  conclude  with  De 
Marca,  that  the  Roman  people  acknow- 
ledged Charlemagne  for  their  liege  lord  and 
sovereign  ;  nay,  that  the  pope  himself  owned 
him  for  his  liege  lord  as  well  as  they,  since 
he  promised  him  obedience  and  fidelity,  and 
consequently  that  though  the  pope  received 
the  revenues,  though  he  appointed  the  ma- 
gistrates, the  judges,  and  other  odicers  in 
Rome  and  llie  other  cities  yielded  by  the 
kings  of  France  to  the  apostolic  see,  the  so- 
vereignty or  supreme  power  was  neverthe- 
less lodged  in  those  princes.  It  is  certain  at 
least,  that  ihey  exercised  a  sovereign  power 
in  Rome,  that  they  called  Rome  their  city, 
that  the  people  of  Rome  styled  them  their 
lords,  "  domini  nostri,"  and  that  the  popes 
themselves  acted  on  all  occasions  as  depending 
upon  them.  As  the  keys  of  heaven  were  sup- 
posed to  be  kept  by  St.  Peter,  who  was  there- 


>  Anast.  in  I.eon.  III. 

2  Eiiiiihard.  Annal.  ad  Ann.  796. 

'  Epist.  Carol.  Leon,  inter  Epist.  Alcuin.  ep.  84. 


fore  styled  the  door-keeper  of  heaven,  and 
the  key-bearing  apostle,  Claviger,  keys  were 
made  of  gold,  of  silver,  or  other  metal,  and 
being  laid  on  the  tomb  of  St.  Peter,  were 
sent  from  thence  to  all  princes  indifferently, 
who  had  in  any  manner  well  deserved  of 
the  church.  But  the  standard  of  Rome  was 
sent  only  to  the  Roman  patricians,  or  to 
those,  who  were  to  defend  the  church  against 
schismatics,  heretics,  and  infidels.  Thus  was 
it  sent  by  Stephen  II.  to  Pepin,  by  Gregory 
III.  to  Charles  Marlel,  by  Hadrian  to  Char- 
lemagne, and  by  the  succeeding  popes  to 
such  princes  as  engaged,  or  were  to  engage 
in  war  with  the  enemies  of  the  church. 

Charlemagne  sent  to  the  new  pope,  to- 
gether with  his  letter,  most  magnificent  pre- 
sents, the  spoils  of  the  Huns,  whose  rich 
metropolis,  named  Ringa,  Henry,  duke  of 
Friuli,  had  lately  taken  and  plundered.  As 
the  duke  was  sent  against  them  by  Charle- 
magne, whose  vassal  he  was,  to  him  he  de- 
livered up  the  whole  treasure;  and  Charle- 
magne, reserving  nothing  for  himself,  distri- 
buted part  of  it  amongst  his  officers  and 
those  of  his  court,  but  sent  the  far  greater 
share  to  the  pope  The  present  was  design- 
ed for  Hadrian  ;  but  the  king,  hearing  at  the 
same  time  of  his  death,  and  of  the  promo- 
tion of  Leo,  sent  it  to  the  new  pope  to  be 
employed  by  him  in  repairing  and  adorning 
the  churches  of  Rome,  especially  that  of  St. 
Peter.'  And  thus,  to  do  Leo  justice,  it  was 
by  him  employed  as  soon  as  he  received  it. 
For  he  caused  a  censer  of  gold  to  be  made 
for  the  church  of  St.  Peter  weighing  seven- 
teen pounds,  covered  the  shrine  of  the  apos- 
tle with  plate  of  gold,  weighing  forty-nine 
pounds,  and  enriched  with  a  great  number 
of  precious  stones,  added  to  several  other  less 
considerable  ornaments,  three  crowns  of  silver 
weighing  three  hundred  and  seven  pound.s, 
repaired  the  roof,  and  rebuilt  the  porches 
quite  gone  to  decay.  In  like  manner  he  re- 
built or  repaired  twenty  other  churches,  and 
enriched  most  of  them  witii  ornaments  and 
utens^ils  of  great  value.  To  the  church  of 
St.  Mary  ad  Prajsepe,  he  gave  a  ciborium 
of  silver,  that  is,  the  vessel,  in  which  the 
sacrament  was  kept,  weighing  six  hundred 
pounds,  and  three  crowns  of  silver  weighing 
one  hundred  and  fifty-five,  to  the  church  of 
St.  Laurence  without  the  walls  three  statues 
of  silver  weighing  fifty-four  pounds,  and  to 
that  of  St.  Susanna,  where  he  was  ordained. 


>  Eginhard.  in  Annal. 

p2 


174 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Leo  hi. 


The  pope's  Triclinium  in  tlie  Lateran  palace.    The  see  of  Canterbury  restored  by  Leo  to  its  ancient  jurisdic- 
tion ;— [Year  of  Christ,  797.] 


sacred  utensils  of  all  kinds,  enriching  it  be- 
sides with  pictures,  with  statues,  with  pre- 
cious stones,  with  crosses,  some  of  gold, 
some  of  silver,  and  other  ornaments  without 
number ;  so  that  it  became  at  once  one  of 
the  richest  and  most  magnificent  churches 
in  Rome.  Leo,  having  thus  whh  the  trea- 
sure sent  him  by  Charlemagne,  renewed, 
embellished,  and  enriched  most  of  the 
churches  of  Rome,  employed  the  remaining 
part  of  that  treasure  in  building  a  most  mag- 
nificent hail,  or  banqueting  room,  "  tricli- 
nium," in  the  Lateran  palace,  called  from  him 
"  aula  Leonina,"  and  "  basilica  Leonina."  It 
far  exceeded  in  grandeur  and  ornaments  all 
the  other  buildings  of  Rome.  Anastasius 
takes  particular  notice  of  the  pillars  of  por- 
phyry most  curiously  wrought,  of  the  many 
vases,  all  of  the  most  scarce  and  valuable 
marble,  of  the  walls  covered  from  top  to 
bottom  with  marble  of  difTerent  colors  and 
kinds,  and  of  several  representations  in  mo- 
saic work  of  an  elegant  taste.  Of  these  one 
is  to  be  seen  to  this  day,  in  which  St.  Peter 
is  represented  sitting  with  three  keys  lying 
on  his  knees.  On  his  right  hand  is  Leo,  and 
Charlemagne  on  his  left,  both  kneeling.  To 
Leo  he  gives  with  his  right  a  pall,  and  with 
his  left  the  standard  to  Charlemagne.  Over 
Leo  are  these  words  in  Latin,  "  our  most 
holy  lord  pope  Leo,"  and  the  following  over 
Charles,  "  to  our  lord  king  Charles,"  with 
these  under  both,  "St.*  Peter  grant  life  to 
pope  Leo,  and  victory  to  king  Charles." 
This  representation  was,  no  doubt,  designed 
by  the  pope  as  a  memorial  for  after  ages,  of 
his  sending  the  standard  to  Charlemagne, 
and  his  thereby  acknowledging  him  Roman 
patrician,  and  protector  of  the  city  of  Rome 
and  the  church.  Thus  did  Leo  employ  the 
first  year  of  his  pontificate ;  for  these  great 
works  are  related  by  Anastasius  as  begun 
soon  after  his  election,  and  completed  in  one 
year's  time.' 

The  same  year,  796,  Renulph,  king  of 
Mercia,  hearing  of  the  death  of  Hadrian,  and 
the  promotion  of  Leo,  dispatched  to  Rome 
an  abbot  named  Wada  to  congratulate  the 
new  pope  on  his  election,  and  at  the  same 
time  to  propose  to  him  the  restoring  of  the 
see  of  Canterbury  to  its  ancient  jurisdiction. 
For  Offa,  late  king  of  Mercia,  being  highly 
provoked  against  the  people  of  Canterbury, 
and  thinking  it  besides  inconsistent  with  the 
dignity  of  his  crown,  that  the  bishops  of  his 
kingdom  should  acknowledge  the  bishop  of 
any  other  for  their  metropolitan,  had  obliged 
them  to  withdraw  their  obedience  to  the 
archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  own  the 
bishop  of  Lichfield,  the  metropolis  of  the 
kingdom  of  Mercia,  for  their  metropolitan  ; 
nay,  he  had  even  obtained  of  pope  Hadrian 
a  pall  for  his  new  archbishop.  Thus  the 
bishops  of  Hereford,  Worcester,  Leicester 


*  Anast.  in  Leon.  IIL 


and  Sydnacester  in  the  kingdom  of  Mercia, 
and  the  bishops  of  Helmansted  and  Dun- 
moc  in  the  kingdom  of  the  east  Angles, 
which  OfTa  had  annexed  to  his  crown,  be- 
came suffragans  to  the  archbishop  of  Lich- 
field. But  as  this  occasioned  a  misunder- 
standing among  the  English  prelates,  which 
Kenulph  apprehended  might  end  in  a  schism, 
he  wrote  this  year  to  the  pope,  soon  after  his 
accession  to  the  crown  by  the  above-men- 
tioned abbot,  the  following  year  by  others, 
and  lastly  by  Athelard,  then  archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  entreating  his  holiness  to  sug- 
gest to  him  what  he  thought  most  proper  to 
be  done  on  the  present  occasion ;  but  at  the 
same  time  telling  him,  that  as  Austin,  of 
blessed  memory,  had  first  preached  the  Gos- 
pel to  the  Saxons  in  England,  as  he  died  at 
Canterbury,  and  his  body  lay  there,  that  city 
had,  whh  the  approbation  of  all,  been  dis- 
tinguished with  the  metropolitical  dignity; 
that  king  Offa  being  at  enmity  with  the  peo- 
ple of  Canterbury,  and  the  venerable  Lam- 
bert, then  archbishop  of  that  city,  had  cur- 
tailed the  jurisdiction  of  that  see,  and  divided 
the  diocese  into  two;  that  pope  Hadrian 
had,  at  the  request  of  the  king,  granted  a 
pall,  a  grant  quite  unprecedented,  to  the  bi- 
shop of  the  Mercians ;  that  he  indeed  blamed 
neither,  believing  both  now  reigned  in  hea- 
ven with  Christ  and  his  saints,  but  only  en- 
treated his  holiness  to  examine  impartially 
the  letter,  which  Athelard  had  written  to 
him,  in  an  assembly  of  his  brethren  concern- 
ing the  division  of  his  diocese.'  The  king's 
letter  is  filled  with  expressions  of  the  highest 
esteem  and  greatest  respect  for  the  pope; 
was  written  in  the  name  of  all  the  bishops 
and  nobility  of  his  kingdom,  as  well  as  his 
own,  and  accompanied  with  a  present  of 
one  hundred  and  twenty  mancusas,  a  coin 
about  a  mark  in  value.  With  this  letter  was 
dispatched  to  Rome,  Athelard  himself,  who 
prevailed  in  the  end  upon  the  pope,  as  he 
was  a  man  of  great  address  and  uncommon 
abilities,  to  restore  the  see  of  Canterbury  to 
its  ancient  jurisdiction.  The  pope's  letter  in 
favor  of  Athelard  and  his  see  is  dated  the 
15th  of  the  kalends  of  February,  or  the  18th 
of  January,  in  the  second  year  of  the  reign 
of  the  emperor  Charles,  and  in  the  tenth 
indiction,^  that  is,  in  the  year  of  Christ  802, 
those  chronological  marks  answering  that 
and  no  other  year.  The  learned  collector, 
therefore,  of  the  English  councils  was  cer- 
tainly mistaken  in  making  Adulph,  arch- 
bishop of  Lichfield,  sign,  as  a  private  bishop, 
the  council  of  Bacanceld,  held,  according  to 
him,  in  798,"  since  he  was  not  reduced  to  that 
condition  till  four  years  after,  when  the  juris- 
diction of  the  see  of  Canterbury  was  again 
extended  to  all  the  churches  of  England. 


»  Concil.  t.  7.  p.  1109.  De  Gest.  Angl.  continual.  1.  1. 
C.  12.  &  apud  Bar.  ad  Ann.  795. 
«  Malmes.  de  Pontif.  p.  210. 
»  Concil.  Brit.  vol.  I.  p.  317. 


Leo  m.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


175 


Felix  of  Urgel  and  Elipand  of  Toledo  condemned  in  a  council  at  Rome  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  799.]  Felix  appeals 
to  Charlemagne,  and  convinced  by  Alcuin  of  his  error  renounces  it  tlie  fourth  time,  but  embraces  it  anew 
and  dies  in  that  persuasion. 


In  the  latter  end  of  the  year  798,  or  more 
probably  in  the  beginning  of  the  year  799, 
Leo  assembled  a  council  in  the  church  of  St. 
Peter,  at  Rome,  on  the  following  occasion. 
Felix,  of  Urgel,  notwithstanding  he  had  re- 
nounced his  opinion  concerning  the  adoption 
of  Christ,  first  in  the  assembly  of  Ratisbon, 
and  afterwards  in  the  presence  of  pope  Ha- 
drian at  Rome,'  and  had  been  condemned 
by  all  the  western  bishops  in  the  council  of 
Frankfort,  had,  at  ihe  persuasion  of  Elipand 
of  Toledo,  retracted  his  former  retractations, 
and  begun  anew  to  preach  the  same  doc- 
trine. Hereupon  Charlemagne,  unwilling 
to  recur  to  violence  till  all  other  means  had 
proved  ineffectual,  charged  Alcuin,  the  most 
learned  man  of  his  time,  to  write  both  to  Felix 
and  Elipand,  and  try  to  convince  them  of  their 
error.  Alcuin  wrote  accordingly  but  his  letter 
was  answered  by  Felix,  not  with  the  brevity 
of  an  epistle,  to  use  his  expression,  but  with 
the  prolixity  of  a  book,  calculated  to  establish 
his  former  opinion,  as  entirely  agreeable  to 
the  doctrine  of  the  Scriptures  and  the  fathers. 
His  book,  or  epistle,  as  well  as  Alcuia's 
letter,  which  had  given  occasion  to  it,  and  a 
treatise  against  the  Adoptionarians  consist- 
ing of  three  books,  which  Paulinus,  patri- 
arch of  Aquilea,  had  lately  published,  were, 
at  the  desire  of  Alcuin,  sent  by  Charlemagne 
to  Rome,  to  be  examined  there  by  the  pope 
in  a  council.  A  council  was  accordingly 
convened  by  Leo  in  the  Vatican,  and  the 
letter  of  Felix  being  read  and  examined,  the 
doctrine  it  contained  was  condemned  by  the 
pope  and  the  fifty  seven  bishops,  who  com- 
posed that  assembly,  as  heretical  and  blas- 
phemous, and  Felix  anathematized,  if  li,e 
did  nut  sincerely  repent  and  retract  it. 

The  acts  of  the  council  were  immediately 
transmitted  to  Charlemagne,  who  thereupon 
ordered  Leidrate  of  Lions,  Nefrid  of  Nar- 
bonne,  with  several  other  bishops,  abbots, 
and  some  of  the  most  learned  men  of  his 
clergy,  to  repair  to  Urgel,  to  hold  a  council 
there,  and  summoning  Felix  to  appear  at  it, 
acquaint  him  with  the  sentence  lately  pro- 
nounced at  Rome  against  him,  and  depose 
him,  if  he  obstinately  persisted  in  his  error. 
The  bishops,  arriving  at  Urgel,  acquainted 
Felix  with  the  judgment  given  by  the  pope 
and  his  council,  as  well  as  with  the  order 
they  had  received  from  the  king,  threatening 
to  put  the  one  and  the  other,  without  delay, 
in  execution,  if  he  did  not,  in  their  presence, 
own  his  error,  and  publicly  abjure  it.  Felix 
begged  he  mioht  be  first  conducted  to  the 
king,  not  doubting,  he  said,  but  that  he 
should  appease  his  wrath,  and  entirely  sa- 
tisfy hiin,  however  prejudiced  against  him 
by  the  misrepresentations  of  his  enemies. 
The  bishops  granted  him  his  request;  and 
being  sent  to  Aix-la-Chapelle,  where  Char- 
lemagne then  was,  he  begged  he  might  be 

'  See  p.  1C6. 


heard  once  more,  and  allowed  to  alledge,  in 
his  presence,  and  in  the  presence  of  such 
bishops  and  men  of  learning,  as  he  should 
think  fit  to  name,  what  he  had  to  offer  in 
favor  of  his  opinion,  assuring  him,  that  truth 
was  the  only  object  he  had  in  his  view,  and 
that,  if  they  could  but  convince  him  of  the 
truth,  he  would  that  moment  own  and  em- 
brace it. 

Felix  had  already  thrice  renounced  his 
opinion,  and  as  often  embraced  it  anew. 
Charlemagne,  trusting  to  his  repeated  pro- 
testations, and  ascribing  his  obstinacy  chiefly 
to  ignorance,  resolved  to  comply  once  more 
with  his  request.  He  therefore  assembled 
the  neighboring  bishops,  and  at  the  same 
time  ordered  Alcuin,  of  whose  integrity, 
knowledge  and  learning  he  entertained,  and 
very  deservedly,  the  highest  opinion,  to  re- 
pair to  Aix,  and  attend  the  council,  which, 
at  the  request  of  Felix  he  had  appointed  to 
meet  in  that  city.  The  bishops  met  in  the 
royal  palace,  and  the  point  in  dispute, 
namely,  "whether  Christ,  as  man,  was  the 
Son  of  God  by  nature,  or  only  by  adoption," 
being  argued  for  five  whole  days  by  Felix 
and  Alcuin,  in  the  presence  of  the  bishops, 
of  the  king,  and  all  the  great  officers  of 
state,  and  passages  without  number  quoted 
on  both  sides  from  the  fathers  and  councils, 
Felix  yielded  in  the  end,  acknowledged  his 
error,  abjured  it  the  fourth  time,  and,  to  con- 
vince the  world  of  the  sincerity  of  his  con- 
version, published  a  confession  of  his  faith, 
declaring  therein  that  his  other  retractations 
were  all  only  pretended,  but  that  this  was, 
as  he  should  answer  it  the  last  day,  un- 
feigned and  sincere,  being  owing  to  no  other 
force  but  that  of  truth  and  conviction.  This 
confession  of  faith  he  addressed  to  the  clergy 
of  his  diocese,  exhorting  such  of  them,  as  he 
had  by  his  authority  or  his  writings  wickedly 
seduced  and  led  astray,  to  follow  his  exam- 
ple, and  return,  together  with  him,  to  the 
Unity  of  the  church.' 

But  this  conversion  either  was  not  more 
sincerce  than  the  three  other,  or  he  after- 
wards changed  his  mind,  and  was  thereupon 
deposed  and  banished  to  Lions,  where  he 
died  while  Agobard  was  bishop  of  that  city, 
leaving  a  Avriting  behind  him,  wherein  he 
endeavored  by  way  of  question  and  answer 
to  establish  the  opinion,  which  he  had  so 
often,  and  so  solemnly  abjured.  That  wri- 
ting Agobard  undertook  to  confute  with  the 
testimonies  of  the  fathers,^  for  both  parties 
pretended  to  have  the  fathers  plainly  on  their 
side.  But  the  authority  of  the  king  was 
with  many  of  far  greater  weight  than  that 
of  the  fathers ;  and  it  was  more  by  his  au- 
thority than  by  the  authority  of  the  fathers, 
that  the  sect  of  the  Adoptionarians  was,  in 


'  Alcuin.  advers.  Elipand.  I.  1.  Confess,  fidci  Felic. 
apud  Alcuin.  p.  9"JS.  Aiioiiyni.  in  vit.  Alcuin. 
^  Agobard.  lib.  contra  Fel.  Ado.  in  Chron. 


176 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Leo  hi. 


Character  of  Felix.  The  two  nephews  of  the  late  pope  conspire  against  Leo.  They  seize  him  and  use  him 
with  great  barbarity.  Is  rescued  by  the  duke  of  Spoleti.  His  eyes  and  tongue  falsely  said  to  have  been 
pulled  out  and  miraculously  restored. 


ihe  course  of  a  few  years,  utterly  suppressed. 
Felix  was  a  man  of  an  unblemished  charac- 
ter, and  generally  looked  upon  as  a  saint  till 
he  forfeited  the  good  opinion  that  the  world 
entertained  of  him,  by  obstinately  adhering 
to  his  own  opinion,  and  refusing  to  submit 
his  judgment  to  that  of  the  church.  Alcuin 
himself  speaks  of  him  as  a  man  of  learning :' 
but  with  all  his  learning  he  could  never  com- 
prehend how  Christ,  as  man,  could  be,  or 
be  called  the  Son  of  God  by  nature.  As  for 
Elipand,  of  Toledo,  he  is  said  to  have  ac- 
knowledged his  error  at  last,  and  sincerely 
abjured  it.^  His  conversion,  and  that  of 
most  of  his  followers  was  chiefly  owing  to 
the  zeal  and  labors  of  Alcuin,  who  wrote, 
at  the  request  of  Charlemagne,  first  seven 
books  against  the  Adoptionarians  addressed 
to  Felix,  and  afterwards  four  addressed  to 
Elipand. 

Peace  was  thus  restored  to  the  churches 
of  Spain  ;  but  that  of  Rome  was  in  the  mean 
time  disturbed  by  an  unheard  of  attempt. 
Hadrian  had  raised  his  two  nephews  Pas- 
chalis  and  Campulus,  to  the  two  chief 
employments  in  the  church,  (and  this  is  the 
first  instance  of  nepotism  that  occurs  in  the 
history  of  the  popes)  and  they  ruled,  during 
hispontificate,with  anabsolute  sway.  That 
extravagant  power,  which  they  probably 
used  no  better  than  most  of  the  popes'  ne- 
phews have  done  sinca  their  time,  Leo  un- 
dertook to  control,  though  it  is  not  to  be 
doubted  but  that  the  unanimity,  with  which 
he  was  chosen  the  very  day  after  the  decease 
of  his  predecessor,  was  owing  chiefly  to 
them,  who  were,  in  a  manner  masters  of 
the  suff'rages  of  the  people  as  well  as  the 
clergy.  They  had  flattered  themselves  that 
Leo  would,  out  of  gratitude,  allow  them  to 
enjoy  the  same  unlimited  power  under  him 
they  had  enjoyed  under  their  uncle,  nay, 
that  he  would  himself  be  governed  entirely 
by  their  councils.  Being  thus  disappointed, 
and  provoked  beyond  measure  at  their  dis- 
appointment, they  formed  the  wicked  design 
of  murdering  Leo,  and  getting  another 
chosen  in  his  room,  who  should  better  ac- 
knowledge his  obligations  to  them.  They 
chose  for  the  execution  of  their  design  the 
25th  of  April,  the  day  of  a  solemn  proces- 
sion, at  Avhich  the  popes  used  annually  to 
assist.  As  Leo  was  therefore  repairing  that 
day  from  the  Lateran  palace  to  the  place, 
where  the  procession  was  to  begin,  Paschalis 
met  him  on  his  way,  but  not  in  an  attire 
proper  for  the  occasion,  which  he  excused, 
pretending  to  be  indisposed,  and  not  in  a 
condition  to  attend  the  procession.  Soon  after 
came  Campulus,  and  both  attended  the  pope, 
the  one  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  other  on  the 
other,  entertaining  and  diverting  him  till  they 
came  to  the  monastery  of  St.  Stephen  and 


St.  Silvester,  where  a  great  number  of  armed 
men  rushing  out  with  a  heinous  noise  from 
the  neighboring  houses,  surrounded  the  pope, 
and,  after  beating  him  till  they  thought  him 
ready  to  expire,  held  him  wallowing  in  his 
blood  on  the  ground,  Avhile  Paschalis  and 
Campulus  endeavored  to  put  out  his  eyes, 
and  pluck  out  his  tongue.  The  conspirators 
spared  his  life,  being  moved  to  compassion, 
as  we  are  told,  in  seeing  him  reduced  to  so 
miserable  a  condition  ;  but  shut  him  up  ia 
the  monastery  mentioned  above,  and  from 
thence  conveyed  him  in  the  dead  of  the 
night  lest  his  friends  should  attempt  his  res- 
cue, to  the  monastery  of  St.  Erasmus,  where 
they  kept  him  closely  confined.  But  his 
firsi  chamberlain  Albin,  having  gained  the 
abbot  of  that  monastery,  privately  convey- 
ed him,  with  the  assistance  of  his  friends, 
over  the  walls  of  the  city  to  the  Vatican, 
where  he  was  received  and  entertained  with 
the  greatest  humanity  by  the  abbot  Wirad, 
who  resided  there  with  the  character  of  en- 
voy from  Charlemagne.  In  the  mean,  time, 
Winigisus,  duke  of  Spoleti,  informed  of 
what  had  happened,  hastened  to  Rome  at 
the  head  of  his  army,  and  delivering  the 
pope  out  of  all  danger,  carried  him,  in  a 
kind  of  triumph,  to  his  own  dominions. 

That  Leo's  tongue  and  eyes  were  really 
pufled  out,  and  miraculously  restored  to  him, 
as  he  afterwards  both  spoke  and  saw,  is  as- 
serted, not  only  by  Anastasius,  who  lived 
some  time  after,  but  by  several  writers,  who 
lived  at  that  very  time,  and  by  Alcuin  among 
the  rest,'  in  whose  authority  Pagi  would  have 
us  to  acquiesce  as  quite  decisive.^  But 
neither  diil  Alcuin,  nor  indeed  any  of  the 
writers  quoted  by  Pagi,  ever  see,  or  tell  us 
they  ever  saw  the  pope  without  his  tongue 
and  his  eyes :  so  that  it  was  only  by  report 
they  knew  that  both  were  pulled  out ;  and 
therefore  their  authority  can  by  no  means  be 
admitted  as  decisive,  no  more  than  the  re- 
port, upon  which  it  was  grounded.  They 
believed  it  indeed;  but  in  that  credulous  age 
miracles  were  become  common,  and  as  com- 
monly believed  even  by  men,  in  other  re- 
spects, of  the  greatest  sagacity,  as  any  daily 
event  or  occurrence  of  life.  Of  this  miracle 
Leo  himself  takes  no  kind  of  notice ;  and 
who  can  believe  that  had  so  stupendous  a 


«  Alcuin.  ep.  15.  ad  Carol. 

a  Taraayus  in  Catalog.  Episcop.  Toletan. 


'  Of  this  miracle  Alcuin  speaks  thus  in  a  poem  he 
wrote  on  the  journey,  which,  after  this  attempt,  Leo 
undertook  into  Germany,  to  acquaint  Charlemagne 
with  it  by  word  of  mouth.  Leo,  says  he,  at  their  first 
meeting. 

"  Verbera  commemorans,  extinctum  lumine  vultum 
Narrat,  &  abscisaam  liquido  de  gutture  linguam  : 
Nunc  medicante  Deo  sanatum  &  ab  omnibus  istis 
Esse  malis,"  &c. 
And  a  few  lines  after, 

"  Exquirit  Carolus  casus,  auditqne  laborum 
Diversos,  sceleris  pnpuli  impia  facta  siupescit: 
Miratur  geminas  jamdudum  luce  fenestras 
Extinctas,  &  nunc  reparatum  lumine  vultum, 
Truncatamque  loqui  miratur  forcipe  linguam; 
Alter  in  alterius  configunt  lumina  vultus." 
«  Pagi  Gest.  Pont.  Rom.  vol.  2.  p.  7. 


Leo  III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


177 


Leo  repairs  to  Charlemagne.  How  received  by  him.  Returns  to  Rome  and  is  well  received  by  the  Romans. 
His  trial.  The  chief  conspirators  seized  and  imprisoned.  Charlemagne  sets  out  for  Italy ;— [Year  of  Christ, 
800.]     His  reception  at  Rome.     He  assembles  a  council  to  try  the  pope. 


miracle  been  wrouajht  in  his  favor,  he  would 
noi  have  urged  it  as  an  incontestable  proof 
of  his  innocence  against  the  aspersions  of 
his  enemies  charging  him  with  many  enor- 
mous crimes,  and  pretending  it  was  their 
zeal  for  the  honor  of  the  see  of  St.  Peter  that 
prompted  them  to  attempt  on  his  life? 

From  Spoleti  the  pope  wrote  to  Char- 
lemagne to  acquaint  him  with  the  attempt, 
that  had  been  made  on  his  life,  and  the 
cruel  treatment  he  had  met  with  ;  and  soon 
after  set  out  for  France  to  implore  the  pro- 
lection  of  the  king  against  the  inveterate 
hatred  of  his  enemies,  whom  nothing  less 
would  satisfy  than  his  utter  ruin  and  de- 
struction.    But  being  informed,  on  his  jour- 


not  thought  fit  to  specify  •  but  not  being  able 
to  make  good  their  charge,  the  commission- 
ers, fully  satisfied  of  the  innocence  of  the 
pope,  and  the  malice  of  his  enemies,  after 
they  had  spent  a  whole  week  and  more  ia 
hearing  and  carefully  examining  every  com- 
plaint that  was  brought  against  him,  order- 
ed the  two  chief  conspirators,  Paschalis  and 
Campulus  to  be  seized,  and  sent  them  to 
prison.' 

In  the  mean  time  Charlemagne,  having 
quieted  the  Saxons  for  the  present,  and  held 
a  general  diet  of  the  states  at  Maience,  set 
out  from  thence,  at  the  request  of  the  pope, 
withthe  flower  of  his  army  for  Italy.  Be- 
ing arrived  at  Ancona,  he  detached  his  son 


ney,  that  the  king  was  then  encamped  at    Pepin  with  the  greater  part  of  the   array 


Paderborne,  he  repaired  thither,  and  was 
met,  as  he  approached  the  place,  first  by 
Hildivald,  the  king's  chaplain,  afterwards 
by  Pepin,  king  of  Italy,  and  lastly  by  Char- 
lemagne himself,  who  received  him,  both 
bursting  into  tears  at  their  first  meeting, 
with  all  possible  marks  of  respect,  venera- 
tion, and  friendship.  During  his  stay  at 
Paderborne,  he  gave  the  king  a  minute  ac- 
count of  the  conspiracy,  that  had  been 
formed  against  him,  of  the  wicked  designs 
of  his  enemies,  and  the  barbarous  treatment 
he  had  met  with  at  their  hands.  The  king  as- 
sured him  of  his  protection  ;  but  being  then 
upon  the  point  of  entering  Saxony,  (and  this 
was  the  twenty-eighth  year  of  the  Saxon 
war)  he  advised  him  for  the  present  to  re- 
turn to  Rome,  appointing  several  bishops, 
and  some  of  the  chief  lords  of  his  court  to 
attend  him  on  his  journey,  and  protect  him 
against  any  further  attempts  of  his  enemies. 
Leo,  thus  attended,  set  out  from  Paderboriie, 
was  received  and  entertained  in  all  the  cities, 
through  which  he  passed  as  Si.  Peter  him- 
self, and  being  met,  as  he  approached  Rome, 
by  the  whole  clergy,  the  senate,  the  militia, 
and  all  the  Roman  nobility,  he  was  conduct- 
ed by  them  amidst  the  loud  acclamations  of 
the  people  to  the  Vatican,  where  he  per- 
formed divine  service  with  great  solemnity, 
all,  who  were  present,  receiving  the  sacra- 
ment at  his  hands.  The  next  day,  the  29th 
of  November,  he  entered  the  city,  and  took 
possession  anew  of  the  Lateran  palace.' 

Some  days  after  the  bishops  and  lords, 
who  had  attended  him  from  France,  as- 
sembling in  the  great  hall,  which  Leo  had 
built  in  the  Lateran  palace,  summoned  t-he 
conspirators,  and  all,  who  had  any  thing  to 
lay  to  the  charge  of  Leo,  to  appear  before 
them,  being  commissioned  by  the  king  to 
hear  their  complaints,  and  do  them  justice, 
if  any  ways  injured  by  the  pope  or  his  min- 
isters. Some  appeared,  and  among  the  rest 
Paschalis  and  Campulus,  charging  the  pope 
■with  several  crimes,  which  historians  have 


«  Anast.  in  Leon.  IIL  Eglnhard.  ad  Ann.  799.  Ano- 
nymus  Lambec. 

Vol.  II.— 23 


against  Grimoald,  duke  of  Benevento,  who, 
as  he  was  informed,  had  privately  entered 
into  an  alliance  with  the  Greeks,  and  marched 
himself  with  the  rest  towards  Rome.  The 
pope,  attended  by  his  clergy  and  the  Roman 
nobility,  met  him  at  Nomentum  in  Sabina 
about  twelve  miles  from  Rome,  dined  with 
him  there,  and  having,  in  a  private  confer- 
ence, informed  him  of  the  present  situation 
of  affairs  in  the  city,  returned  the  same  day 
to  the  Lateran.  The  next  day,  the  24th  of 
November,  the  king  advanced  with  his  army 
to  Rome,  and  dismounting  from  his  horse  at 
the  Vatican,  was  received  by  the  pope,  who 
there  waited  his  arrival  with  all  the  Roman 
clergy,  and  introduced  by  him  into  the 
church,  the  clergy  singing,  as  he  entered 
the  basilic,  hymns  of  thanksgiving  for  his 
safe  arrival,  which  were  echoed  on  all  sides 
with  repeated  shouts  of  joy  by  the  people. 
He  spent  seven  whole  days  in  acquainting 
himself  with  the  state  of  Rome  as  well  as 
Avilh  the  situation  of  affairs  in  Italy,  in  ex- 
amining every  circumstance  of  the  attempt, 
that  had  been  made  on  the  life  of  the  pope, 
and  receiving  daily  new  informations  con- 
cerning that  attempt.  Having  thus  heard 
all  the  conspirators  could  alledge  against  the 
pope,  or  plead  in  their  own  defence,  he  ap- 
pointed all  the  archbishops,  bishops,  and  ab- 
bots then  in  Rome,  the  whole  body  of  the 
Roman  clergy,  and  all  the  Roman  nobility, 
as  well  as  the  great  officers  of  slate,  who 
attended  him,  to  assemble  in  the  church  of 
St.  Peter ;  and  there  sitting  on  the  same 
throne  with  the  pope,  told  the  assembly; 
that  the  wicked  attempt  made  on  the  life  of 
his  holiness,  and  the  unheard  of  cruelty  of 
his  enemies  had  filled  him  with  horror;  that 
it  was  chiefly  to  inform  himself  thoroughly 
of  so  horrid  and  unprecedented  an  attempt 
that  he  was  come  into  Italy ;  that  the  con- 
spirators, to  lessen  their  own  guilt,  charged 
the  pope  with  many  most  heinous  crimes, 
but  whether  justly  or  unjustly  it  was  incum- 
bent upon  them  to  inquire,  since  it  was  for 

<  Anast.  in  Leon.  HI.  Eginhard.  ad  Ann.  799.    Ano- 
nyniua  Lambec. 


178 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Leo  hi. 


The  clergy  decline  judging  Leo,  and  he  clears  himself  by  an  oath.  Charlemagne  raised  to  the  imperial  dignity. 
The  account  historians  give  of  that  event. 


that  purpose  he  had  called  them  together. 
At  these  words  the  archbishops,  bishops, 
and  abbots  "  cried  out,"  says  Anastasius, 
**  all  with  one  voice  ;  we  dare  not  judge  the 
apostolic  see,  the  head  of  all  churches:  by 
that  see  and  its  vicar  we  are  all  judged,  and 
they  by  none."  Hereupon  Leo,  addressing 
the  assembly,  told  them,  that  for  their  satis- 
faction he  was  willing  to  justify  himself, 
and  would  the  next  day,  in  the  manner  his 
predecessors  had  chosen  to  justify  them- 
selves on  the  like  occasion.  The  assembly 
therefore  being  met  the  next  day  in  the  same 
place,  the  pope,  holding  the  book  of  the 
Gospels  in  his  hand,  took,  in  the  presence 
of  all,  the  following  oath  ;  "  so  may  I,  on 
the  last  day,  partake  of  the  promises  made 
to  all  in  the  Gospels,  as  I  am  innocent  of 
the  crimes  laid  to  my  charge."  And  now 
the  king  declaring  himself,  as  well  as  the 
assembly,  entirely  satisfied  and  fully  con- 
vinced of  his  innocence,  the  hymn  Te  Deum, 
&c.,  was  sung  by  all  with  the  greatest  so 
lemnity  to  thank  the  Almighty  for  thus  re- 
storing their  much  injured  pastor  to  his  see, 
and  together  with  him  peace  and  tranquillity 
both  to  the  church  and  the  city.'  As  for 
Paschalis  and  Campulus,  the  chief  authors 
of  that  wicked  attempt,  they  were  by  the 
whole  assembly  sentenced  to  death.  But, 
at  the  earnest  desire  and  request  of  the 
pope,  their  lives  were  spared,  and  they  only 
banished,  with  all  their  accomplices,  to 
France.2 

What  happened,  soon  after  this  trial  in 
Rome,  is  the  most  remarkable  event  of 
Charlemagne's  life,  and  has  rendered  the 
memory  of  pope  Leo  IIL,  more  famous, 
than  that  of  all  other  popes,  in  the  annals 
of  France,  I  mean  the  promotion  of  Charle- 
magne to  the  imperial  dignity,  commonly 
called  the  translation  of  the  empire  to  the 
French,  but  very  improperly,  since  the  em- 
pire was  not  thereby  translated,  nor  taken 
from  the  Greeks  and  given  to  the  French, 
but  only  the  title  of  emperor,  extinct  ever 
since  the  time  of  Augustulus  in  the  west, 
was  revived  and  given  to  Charles.^  This 
great  event  is  thus  related,  and  very  concise- 
ly, by  the  contemporary  writers  ;  "  Charles 
passed  the  winter  at  Rome,  says  the  ano 
nymous  annalist  published  by  Lambecius, 
who  wrote  at  this  very  time,  and  as  there 


>  Anast.  in  Leon.  IIL  Eginhard.  in  Anna!.  Anony- 
mus  apud  Lambec.  Annal.  Laurisham.  Mossiac.  Mo- 
nach.  San  Gall,  I.  1.  c.  18.  a  Idem  ibid. 

3  Some  coins  or  medals  of  Charlemagne  are  still  to 
be  seen  with  this  legend,  "Renovatio  Imperii,"  "the 
revival  of  the  empire:"  and  so  it  is  called  by  Sigo- 
nius,  the  title  of  emperor  of  the  west,  says  that  writer, 
which  had  failed,  about  three  hundred  years  before,  in 
Momyllus  Augustulus,  was  revived  by  the  pope,  that 
the  Roman  church  might  have  a  defender,  or  guardian 
against  infidels,  heretics  and  seditious  men,  an  office, 
which  the  emperors  of  the  east  had  long  since  utterly 
neglected,  and  in  a  manner  resigned.^(Sigoii.  de  Reg. 
Ital.  1.  4.  ad  Ann.  801.)  As  no  prince  bore,  at  this  time, 
the  title  of  emperor  of  the  west,  that  title  might  well  be 
revived,  but  could  not  be  transferred. 


was  then  no  emperor,  the  empire  being  go- 
verned by  a  woman,  (namely,  by  Irene)  the 
pope,  the  other  bishops,  and  the  whole  peo- 
ple of  Rome  thought  it  proper  and  just  that 
Charles,  king  of  the  Franks,  who  held  Rome 
formerly  the  seat  of  the  emperors,  and   all 
the  other  places  in  Italy,  Gaul  and  Germany 
once  held  by  them,  should  be  distinguished 
with    the    same    title.     They    acquainted 
Charles  therewith ;  and  he  being,  at  their  re- 
quest and  desire,  consecrated  by  Leo  on  the 
festival  of  the  nativity  of  our   Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  took  upon  him  the  title  of  emperor."* 
Anastasius  only  tells  us,  that  the  same  as- 
sembly, the    assembly    mentioned    above, 
meeting  soon  after  again  in  the  basilic  of  St. 
Peter,  the  pope  placed  a  most  precious  crown 
on  the  king's  head ;  and  that  thereupon  the 
whole  Roman  people  crying  out  three  times 
aloud,  to  "  Charles  Augustus,  crowned  by 
the  hand  of  God,  great  and  pacific  emperor, 
life  and  victory,"  he  was  appointed  emperor 
of  the  Romans,  and  anointed,  together  with 
his  son,  by  the  holy  pontiff  on  Christmas- 
day  .2    In  the  same  manner,  and  almost  in 
the  very  same  words,  is  this  transaction  re- 
lated by  all  the  contemporary  historians  to  a 
man.     Some  of  them  only  add,  that  the  new 
emperor  being  placed,  after  he  had  received 
the  holy  unction,  on  a  throne,  the  pope  and 
the  Roman  people,  adoring  him,  or  pros- 
trating themselves  before  him,  thus  acknow- 
ledged him,  as  they  had  formerly  acknow- 
ledged the   other  emperors,  for   their  lord 
and  their  sovereign  ;  that  the  pope  having 
presented  him  with  the  imperial  robes,  he 
returned,  attired  as  emperor,  from  the  church 
to  his  palace,  amidst  the  loud  acclamations 
of  the  people  crowding  from  all  parts  to  see 
him,  and  that  thenceforth  laying  aside  the 
title  of  Roman  patrician,  he  constantly  styled 
himself  Augustus  and  emperor.''     Eginbard, 
who  was  Charlemagne's  secretary,  and  had 
probably  attended  him  to  Rome,  assures  us, 
that  he  was  no  ways  privy  to  the  design  of 
the  pope  and  the  Roman  people ;  nay,  and 
that  far  from  being  pleased  with,  or  proud 
of  his  new  dignity,  he  declared,  that  had  he 
foreseen,  or  in  the  least  suspected  what  had 
happened,  he  would  have  forborne  appear- 
ing at  church  even  on   so  solemn  a  day. 
However  that  be,  certain  it  is,  that  he  would 
never  afterwards  part  with  that  title;  but 
strove,  with  frequent  embassies  and  letters 
filled  with  the  kindest  expressions,  to  ap- 
pease the  emperors  of  the  east  complaining 
of  his  assuming  it  as  an  unsufferable  usurpa- 
tion ;  nay  in  the  very  letters  he  wrote  to 
them  on  that  subject  he  constantly  styled 
them  his  brothers,  as  being  equal  in  dignity 
to  them.'* 


>  Annal.  Anonym,  ad  Ann.  801. 

'  Anast.  in  Leon.  III. 

'  Annal.  Frac.  ad  Ann.  801.  Monach.  Engolis.  in  vit. 
Carol.  Almoin.  1.  5.  c.  6  Ado  in  Chron.  aetat.  6.  Gofrid, 
Viterb.  in  Chron.  Eginhard.  in  vit.  Carol. 

*  Eginhard.  ad  Ann.  801. 


Leo  m.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


179 


Charlemagne's  promotion,  no  argument  of  the  temporal  supremacy  of  the  pope.  The  pope  only  gave  him  the 
bare  title  of  emperor,  and  not  even  that  by  his  own  authority  alone.  In  what  sense  Charlemagne  may  be  said 
to  have  been  made  emperor  by  the  pope. 


The  translation, as  it  is  called,  of  the  em- 
pire from  the  Greeks  to  the  French  is  alledged 
by  the  two  great  champions  of  the  papacy 
Baronius  and  Bellarmine  as  an  indisputable 
instance  of  the  temporal  supremacy  of  the 
pope,  or  of  the  supreme  and  unlimited 
power  they  vest  in  the  pope  over  all  princes 
and  kingdoms :  and  in  that  instance  both 
authors  triumph,  as  if  Leo  had  really  ex- 
ercised such  a  power,  and  exercised  it  with 
the  approbation  of  all  Christian  princes, 
since  Charles  was  acknowledged  by  all  for 
true  and  lawful  emperor  upon  his  being 
raised  to  that  dignity  by  the  pope.^  But  to 
make  it  undeniably  appear  that  no  such 
power  was,  on  the  present  occasion,  exer- 
cised by  Leo,  I  need  only  observe,  that  in 
promoting  Charlemagne  to  the  imperial 
dignity  he  took  nothing  from  Irene,  who  then 
governed  the  empire,  gave  nothing  to  the  new 
emperor  but  the  bare  name  or  title  of  empe- 
ror. Had  he  deposed  Irene,  had  he  divest- 
ed her  of  her  dominions,  and  given  them  to 
Charles,  and  he  had  thereupon  been  acknow- 
ledged by  all  the  Christian  princes  for  law- 
ful emperor  both  of  the  east  and  the  west, 
he  would  indeed,  in  that  case,  have  exer- 
cised the  pretended  supremacy  ;  and  such  a 
translation  of  the  empire  might  well  be  al- 
ledged as  an  instance  of  the  power  they  vest 
in  him  of  disposing  at  his  pleasure  of  king- 
doms and  empires.  But  as  he  neither  de- 
posed Irene,  nor  took  any  dominions  from 
her,  or  gave  any  to  Charles,  but  only  re- 
vived in  him,  and  not  even  that  by  his  own 
authority  alone,  the  extinct  title  of  emperor 
of  the  west,  to  pretend  that  by  thus  trans- 
lating the  empire,  he  exercised  the  power  of 
disposing  of  kingdoms  and  empires,  is  pre- 
tending that  he  exercised  such  a  power, 
when  he  did  not  dispose  of  a  single  foot  of 
ground.  Charles  possessed  more  extensive 
dominions  before  he  was  raised  to  the  em- 
pire, than  had  been  possessed  by  any  empe- 
ror of  the  west  ever  since  the  division  of  the 
empire.  He  held,  by  right  of  succession  or 
by  conquest,  all  Gaul,  part  of  Spain,  all 
Italy,  from  the  Alps  to  Calabria,  Istria,  Dal- 
matia,  Pannonia  now  Hungary,  all  Dacia, 
comprising  Valachia,  Moldavia,  Transilva- 
nia,  and,  what  no  emperor  had  ever  held  be- 
fore him,  that  vast  tract  of  country  laying 
between  the  Rhine  and  the  Vistula,  between 
the  northern  ocean  and  the  Danube.  These 
extensive  dominions  he  possessed  when  he 
was  yet  only  styled  king;  and  it  is  not  even 
pretended,  that  he  acquired  a  single  foot  of 
ground  more,  or  right  to  a  single  foot  of 
ground  more,  by  being  styled  emperor.  Had 
Leo  therefore  given  him  that  title  by  his 
own  authority  alone,  it  would  not  follow 
from  thence  that  he  had,  or  that  he  exercised 

«  Bar.  ad  Ann.  800.  Bellar.  de  Transiat.  Rom.  Imper. 
1.  1.  c.  4. 


any  kind  of  power  over  the  temporal  do- 
minions of  princes. 

But  that  not  even  the  bare  title  of  empe- 
ror was  conferred  on  him  by  the  authority 
of  the  pope  alone,  but  by  the  authority  of 
the  Roman  people  as  well  as  by  that  of  the 
pope,  is  manifest  from  the  account  all  the 
contemporary  historians  give  us  of  that 
transaction.  The  pope,  says  the  anony- 
mous annalist,  quoted  above,  the  other 
bishops,  that  is  the  French  and  Italian 
bishops  then  in  Rome,  and  the  whole  Ro- 
man people  thought  it  proper  and  just,  that 
Charles  should  be  distinguished  with  the 
title  of  emperor ;  and  he  being,  at  their  re- 
quest and  desire,  consecrated  by  Leo,  took 
upon  him  the  title  of  emperor.  Anastasius 
writes,  that  the  pope  having  placed  a  crown 
on  his  head,  the  whole  people  of  Rome  cried 
out  three  times  to  Charles  Augustus,  life 
and  victory,  and  that  he  was  thereby  ap- 
pointed emperor  of  the  Romans  ;  so  that  it 
was  not  by  the  pope  alone,  according  to 
Anastasius,  that  the  title  of  emperor  was 
given  him,  or  that  he  was  appointed  empe- 
ror of  the  Romans,  but  by  the  pope  and  the 
people:  nay,  twenty  writers,  and  more, 
quoted  by  the  learned  Du  Pin,'  ascribe  the 
raising  of  Charlemagne  to  the  imperial  dig- 
nity, or  the  conferring  on  him  the  title  of 
emperor,  to  the  senate  and  the  people  of 
Rome,  without  so  much  as  ever  once  men- 
tioning the  pope. 

Some  Greek  writers  indeed,  quoted  by 
Bellarmine,^  tell  us,  that  Charles  was  made 
emperor  by  Leo ;  but  from  the  context  it  is 
plain  they  meant  no  more  than  that  he  was 
by  Leo  crowned,  and  anointed  emperor; 
which  are  but  mere  ceremonies,  that  may 
well  suppose,  but  never  can  give  any  kind 
of  title  or  right  without  the  previous  consent 
of  the  people.  Besides,  Leo  may  be  pro- 
perly said  to  have  preferred  Charlemagne  to 
the  empire,  though  he  did  not  prefer  him  by 
his  own  authority,  but  by  that  of  the  peo- 
ple, acting  in  their  name,  and  as  their  re- 
presentative. He  may  likewise  be  said  to 
have  made  him  emperor  as  they,  who  for- 
merly first  proposed  the  emperors,  and  made 
interest  in  their  behalf,  were  said  to  have  made 
them,  though  properly  speaking  they  were 
made  or  chosen  by  the  people,  or  soldiery. 
What  Bellarmine  adds,  namely,  that  Charle- 
magne did  not  acquire  the  empire,  is  true,  if 
by  the  empire  he  means  the  bare  title  of  em- 
peror ;  but  false,  if  he  means  such  dominions 
or  territories  as  gave  him  a  claim  to  that  title. 
These  he  acquired  ;  but  though  possessed  of 
dominions  far  more  extensive  than  those, 
that  composed  the  western  empire  even  in 
its  most  flourishing  state,  he  did  not  take 
upon  him  the  title  of  emperor  till  it  was 

«  Du  Pin.  de  Antiq.  Eccles.  Discip.  dissert.  7.  p.  521. 
3  Dollar,  ubi  supra. 


180 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Leo  m. 


Charlemagne  disposed  of  the  empire  or  imperial  dignity  without  the  consent  of  the  pope.  He  returns  to  France; 
[Year  of  Christ,  801.]  Constantine  resolves  to  divest  his  mother  of  her  usurped  power.  His  design  disco- 
vered and  all  concerned  in  it  severely  punished. 


given  him  by  the  people  of  Rome,  and  the 
pope  executing  their  will,  or  acting,  in  their 
name,  as  the  first,  and  chief  man  of  the 
city. 

But  Charlemagne,  says  Bellarmine,  hav- 
ing, by  his  last  will,  divided  the  empire 
amongst  his  children,  would  have  Leo  to 
confirm  it,  lest  he  should  seem  to  deliver, 
without  his  consent,  that  empire  to  others, 
for  which  he  was  indebted  to  him.  On  the 
other  hand  Baronius  pretends,  that  he  did 
not  dispose  of  the  empire  at  all,  thereby  to 
show  that  the  power  of  disposing  of  it  was 
not  vested  in  him,  but  in  the  pope.  But  that 
Charlemagne  was  not  indebted  to  the  pope 
alone  for  the  empire,  or  rather  for  the  title 
of  emperor,  has  been  shown  already ;  and 
that  he  disposed  of  it  some  months  before 
his  death,  taking  his  son  Lewis,  king  of 
Aquitaine,  for  his  partner  in  the  empire,  and 
causing  him  to  be  crowned  emperor,  is  at- 
tested by  Eginhard  and  Theganus,  who 
lived  both  at  that  very  time.'  He  consulted 
indeed,  on  that  occasion,  the  barons  of  his 
kingdom,  and  required  their  approbation  and 
consent,  having  assembled  them  for  that  pur- 
pose at  Aix-la-Chapelle  ;  but  it  does  not  ap- 
pear, that  he  consulted  the  pope,  or  so  much 
as  acquainted  him  with  his  design.  It  is 
true,  as  Baronius  observes,  that  Charlemagne 
did  not  dispose  of  the  empire,  or  of  the  im- 
perial dignity,  in  the  wiJI  he  made  in  806. 
But  it  was  not  because  he  thought  it  be- 
longed to  the  pope  to  dispose  of  it,  since  he 
afterwards  disposed  of  it  without  the  know- 
ledge of  the  pope ;  but  because  he  had 
not  yet  determined  with  himself,  whether 
he  should  bequeath  it  to  Pepin  as  king  of 
Italy,  or  to  Charles  as  the  eldest  of  his 
child  ren.2 

Charlemagne,  now  emperor,  passed  the 
remaining  part  of  the  winter  at  Rome,  regu- 
lating, says  the  Loiselian  annalist,"  the  af- 
fairs both  of  the  state  and  the  church ;  made 
many  rich  presents  to  most  of  the  churches, 
especially  to  those  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul, 
and  taking  leave  of  the  pope  on  the  25th  of 
April,  repaired  to  Spoleti,  from  thence  to 
Pavia,  and  from  Pavia  to  France.  At  Pa- 
via  he  added  several  laws  to  those  of  the 
Lombards,  who  had  been  hitherto  governed 
by  their  own  laws  only,  and,  in  imitation 
of  the  eastern  emperors,  began  to  mark  in 
all  his  laws,  diplomas  and  edicts,  the  years 
of  his  empire,  and  those  of  his  consulate. 


«  Eginhard.  ad  Ann.  813.  Thegan.  de  Gest.  Ludovic. 
Pii.  c.  6. 

2  It  is  to  be  observed,  that  though  the  promotion  of 
Charlemagne  to  the  imperial  dignity  happened  on 
the  25th  of  December  of  the  year  800,  it  is  generally 
placed  by  the  French  historians  under  the  year  801, 
the  25th  of  December,  or  Christmas-day,  being  with 
them  the  first  day  of  the  year.  For  the  same  reason, 
pope  Hadrian,  who  died  on  the  25th  of  December,  795, 
is  said  by  Marianns  .Scotus  to  have  died  in  796,  and  on 
the  first  day  of  that  year. 

'  Annitl.  Lois,  ad  Ann.  801. 


and  likewise  the  indiction  never  before  used 
by  him,  or  by  any  of  his  ancestors. 

While  the  empire  was  thus  revived  in  the 
west,  it  was  near  utterly  destroyed  in  the 
east  by  the  unbounded  ambition  of  the  wo- 
man, who  governed  it.  Irene,  a  most  zea- 
lous advocate  for  the  worship  of  images, 
but  with  all  her  zeal  and  devotion  the  most 
ambitious,  nay,  and  the  most  wicked  of  wo- 
men, had  ruled,  during  the  minority  of  her 
son  Constantine,  with  an  absolute  sway  ; 
and  with  the  same  sway  she  continued  to 
rule,  when  he  was  no  longer  a  minor,  taking 
the  first  place  in  all  public  ceremonies,  sign- 
ing all  public  acts  before  him,  making  war, 
concluding  treaties  of  peace,  disposing  of  all 
preferments  both  ecclesiastic  and  civil  with- 
out so  much  as  acquainting  him  therewith, 
as  if  he  still  were  a  minor  or  infant.  The 
young  emperor,  finding  himself  thus  ex- 
cluded from  all  share  in  the  government, 
and  consequently  leftonly  with  a  small  num- 
ber of  domestics,  while  the  levee  of  Stau- 
racius,  the  empress'  prime  minister, ,  was 
daily  crowded  with  persons  of  the  highest 
distinction, he  resolved  to  emancipate  himself, 
and  degrading  both  his  unnatural  mother  and 
her  favorite  minister,  take  the  reins  of  go- 
vernment into  his  own  hands.  This  resolu- 
tion he  imparted  to  some  of  the  officers  of 
his  court;  and  it  was  agreed  among  them, 
that  the  emperor  should  declare  in  full  se- 
nate, that  being  of  age,  he  was  resolved 
thenceforth  to  govern  of  himself,  and  as- 
sume that  power  which  others  had  engross- 
ed, though  he  alone  was  entitled  to  it  by  his 
birth  and  the  known  laws  of  the  empire,  and 
that  after  this  declaration  Irene  and  Stau- 
racius  should  both  be  arrested  and  confined 
for  life  to  the  island  of  Sicily. 

But  this  resolution  was  no  sooner  taken 
than  discovered,  most  of  the  emperor's  do- 
mestics being  retained  by  Stauracius,  and 
ready  to  earn  his  favor  at  the  expense  of 
their  master  and  sovereign.  The  plot,  or 
conspiracy,  as  it  was  called,  being  thus  dis- 
covered, all,  who  had  been  any  ways  con- 
cerned in  it,  or  privy  to  it,  were,  by  Irene's 
order,  apprehended,  most  cruelly  beaten, 
stript  of  all  their  effects,  and  banished  to  Si- 
cily, whither  they  proposed  banishing  her 
and  her  minister.  As  for  the  young  empe- 
ror, the  enraged  mother  reprimanded  him 
with  the  utmost  severity,  and  not  without 
blows,  treating  him  as  a  child,  and  confining 
him,  as  wanting  in  the  respect,  that  was  due 
to  her,  to  an  apartment  in  the  palace.  While 
he  was  thus  kept  closely  confined,  she  pre- 
vailed with  her  largesses  on  the  venal  sol- 
diery, and  their  more  venal  officers  to  take 
an  oath  of  allegiance  to  her,  by  which  they 
bound  themselves  to  maintain  her  in  the  full 
possession  of  the  power  she  had  enjoyed, 
during  the  minority  of  her  son,  to  obey  her 
in  all  things,  and  to  acknowledge  no  other 


Leo  III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


181 


Irene  deposed  and  Constantine  placed  on  the  throne.  Treats  his  mother  with  kindness  and  respect.  Recalls 
to  court  both  her  and  her  favorite  minister.  She  procures  the  disgrace  and  the  ruin  of  all  his  true  friends. 
Advises  him  to  divorce  his  lawful  wife  and  marry  one  of  her  maids. 


master  or  sovereiga  but  her.  That  oath  all 
took  but  the  troops  of  Armenia,  who  reject- 
ed it,  as  the  young  empress,  the  wife  of 
Constantine,  was  a  native  of  that  country, 
with  the  utmost  indignation,  declaring  that 
the  emperor  was  now  of  age,  and  he  alone 
their  lawful  sovereign ;  that  no  other  had  a 
right  to  command  them,  and  they  would 
obey  no  other,  much  less  a  woman.  Irene, 
apprehending  their  example  might  influence 
the  rest  of  the  army,  dispatched,  in  great 
haste,  an  oflicer  of  her  guards,  named  Alexis, 
with  large  sums  to  gain  them.  But  Alexis 
was  himself  gained  by  them;  nay,  and  put- 
ting himself  at  their  head  marched  straight 
to  Constantinople,  entered  the  city  without 
opposition,  the  troops  quartered  there  being 
ashamed  of  the  oath  they  had  taken,  set  the 
emperor  at  liberty,  and  placed  him  on  the 
throne  amidst  the  loud  acclamations  both  of 
the  people  and  the  soldiery. 

Constantine,  thus  placed  on  the  throne, 
began  his  government  with  banishing  Stau- 
racius,  his  mother's  prime  minister,  into  Ar- 
menia, and  causing  her  favorite  eunuchs  to 
be  publicly  beaten  with  rods,  and  confined 
to  the  most  inhospitable  places  of  the  em- 
pire. As  for  Irene,  he  led  her  himself,  with 
great  respect,  out  of  the  palace,  and  attend- 
ed her  in  person  to  a  house,  which  she  had 
built,  and  in  which  was  lodged  the  immense 
treasure  she  had  amassed,  during  her  long 
administration.  He  assured  her  that  no  in- 
jury should  ever  be  oflfered  her,  but  that  she 
should,  on  the  contrary,  be  always  treated 
with  the  greatest  respect,  as  empress,  and 
the  emperor's  mother.  In  the  mean  time 
the  Bulgarians  breaking  into  the  empire,  the 
emperor  marched  against  them  in  person, 
engaged  them,  but  was  entirely  defeated. 
He  was  soon  after  defeated  anew  by  the  Sa- 
racens, with  the  loss  of  all  his  best  officers, 
and  the  flower  of  his  army.  These  misfor- 
tunes the  friends  of  Irene  took  care  to  im- 
prove to  her  advantage,  extolling  her  wis- 
dom, her  abilities,  her  experience  in  public 
aff*airs,  and  entreating  the  emperor,  out  of  a 
pretended  friendship  for  him,  to  advise  with 
her  at  so  critical  a  juncture,  since  none  in 
the  whole  empire  was  capable  of  assisting 
him  with  belter  advice.  Constantine  fell 
into  the  snare.  For  he  was  not  only  recon- 
ciled to  her,  but  recalled  her  to  court,  re- 
stored her  to  her  former  authority,  caused 
her  to  be  proclaimed  empress  anew,  and 
even  sufi'ered  himself  to  be  persuaded  by  her 
to  recall  Stauracius,  and  admit  him  to  his 
confidence.  And  now  Irene,  having  one 
ready  to  second  her  in  all  her  ambitious  and 
wicked  designs,  made  it  her  study  to  deprive 
him  of  all  his  true  friends,  and  put  him 
upon  such  measures  as  she  well  knew  would 
render  him  odious  both  to  the  people  and 
soldiery.  Thus,  by  her  advice,  he  not  only 
caused  the  eyes  of  his  uncle  Nicephorus  to 


be  put  out  upon  his  being  told,  that  part  of 
the  army  had  formed  a  design  of  raising  hira 
to  the  throne,  but  commanded  the  tongues 
of  his  other  four  uncles,  Christopher,  Nice- 
tas,  Anthimus,  and  Euodicimus,  to  be  pluck- 
ed out,  though  none  of  them  was  any  way 
privy  to,  or  concerned  in  the  plot.  He  was 
indebted,  as  we  have  seen,  to  Alexis  and  the 
troops  of  Armenia  for  his  liberty,  and  the 
power  he  enjoyed.  They  were  entirely  de- 
voted to  him,  and  had  therefore  opposed  the 
restoration  of  Irene,  and  would  not  obey  her 
when  restored  by  him  to  her  former  au- 
thority. To  be  revenged  therefore  on  them, 
and  at  the  same  time  to  remove  out  of  the 
way  the  best,  if  not  the  only  true  friends  the 
unhappy  emperor  had  in  the  whole  empire, 
the  wicked  mother  found  means  to  persuade 
him,  that  Alexis  aff'ected  the  crown,  that  he 
had  already  formed  a  considerable  party,  and 
only  waited  for  a  favorable  opportunity  to 
put  in  execution  his  wicked  design.  Here- 
upon Alexis  was  immediately  seized,  and 
his  eyes  were  put  out,  neither  he  himself, 
nor  any  of  his  friends  being  allowed  to 
speak  a  single  word  in  defence  of  his  inno- 
cence. Such  barbarity,  such  crying  injus- 
tice, provoked  the  troops  of  Armenia  to  such 
a  degree,  that  openly  revolting,  not  from 
Constantine,  they  said,  but  from  Irene,  they 
refused  to  obey  the  officer,  whom  the  empe- 
ror had,  at  her  instigation,  appointed  to  com- 
mand them.  Irene,  glad  of  so  plausible  a 
pretence  to  wreak  her  vengeance  on  that 
loyal  corps,  persuaded  the  emperor  to  treat 
them  as  rebels ;  and  a  strong  detachment 
was  sent  against  them.  They  defended  them- 
selves with  great  resolution  and  bravery,  but 
being,  in  the  end  overpowered,  the  officers 
were  all  put  to  death,  and  the  soldiers  led  in 
chains  to  Constantinople,  and  conveyed  from 
thence  into  diflferent  islands. 

In  the  mean  time  Irene,  who  watched 
every  opportunity  of  exposing  the  emperor, 
observing  that  he  betrayed  a  violent  passion 
for  one  of  her  maids  named  Theodota,  re- 
solved to  improve  that  passion  to  her  advan- 
tage, and  persuade  the  unwary  prince  to 
divorce  his  lawful  wife,  and  take  Theodota 
to  his  bed  in  her  room.  This  she  knew  she 
could  easily  compass,  as  the  emperor  had  no 
kind  of  affection  for  the  present  empress, 
whom  she  herself  had  forced  him  to  marry 
against  his  inclination  ;  and  she  was,  on  the 
other  hand,  well  apprised  that  such  a  step 
would  occasion  no  small  scandal,  would  give 
no  small  ofi'ence  to  the  clergy  as  well  as  the 
people,  and  be,  in  the  end,  probably  attend- 
ed wiih  great  disturbances,  which  sheAvanted 
neither  skill  nor  address  to  improve.  Having 
therefore  one  day,  in  a  private  conversation 
with  the  emperor,  taken  notice  of  the  great 
regard  he  had  for  Theodota,  she  told  him 
that  his  affections  were  not  misplaced  ;  that 
Theodota  well  deserved,  not  so  much  on 


182 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES. 


[Leo  hi. 


The  patriarch  so  far  gained  as  not  to  oppose  that  adulterous  marriage  of  the  emperor.  Two  famous  monks 
separate  themselves  from  the  communion  of  the  patriarch  and  the  emperor,  and  are,  at  the  instigation  of 
Irene,  severely  punished  by  the  emperor.    Irene  gains  some  of  the  chief  officers  of  the  army. 


account  of  the  charms  of  her  person,  as  for 
her  many  other  good  qualities,  all  the  regard 
and  esteem  he  showed  for  her;   that  she 
heartily  repented  her  having  persuaded  him 
to  marry  one,  in  every  respect,  so  much  in- 
ferior to  her;  one  with  whom  she  was  now 
sensible  he  could  never  taste  the  happiness 
of  a  social  life,  the  greatest  happiness  hea- 
ven could  indulge  in  this  world.    She  added, 
that  the  evil  she  had  done  was  not,  however, 
without  a  remedy  ;  that  he  was  vested  with 
an  absolute  power;  that  none  dared  to  con- 
trol him,  and  he  therefore  might  drive  from, 
or  take  to  his  bed,  whom  he  pleased.    As 
this  wicked  suggestion  was  entirely  agree- 
able to  his  inchnation,  he  readily  complied 
with  it,  resolving  that  moment,  without  re- 
flecting on  the  consequences,  to  divorce  his 
lawful  wife,  and  marry  his  beloved  Theodota 
in  her  room.      However,  to  save  appear- 
ances, he  applied  to  the  patriarch  Tarasius, 
requiring  him  to  declare  his  former  marriage 
null,  to  perform  the  nuptial  ceremony  on 
occasion  of  his  new  marriage,  and  to  give 
the  veil  to  the  empress  Mary,  who,  to  save 
her  life,  had  consented  to  exchange  the  im- 
perial crown  for  a  veil,  the  emperor  pre- 
tending, without  the  least  foundation,  that 
she  had  attempted  to  poison  him,  and  threa- 
tening her  with  an  ignominious  death,  if 
she  did  not  retire  to  a  monastery.     The  pa- 
triarch remonstrated,  with  great  zeal,  against 
the  intended  marriage,  as  forbidden,  both  by 
the  laws  of  God  and  the  empire,  and  al- 
ledging  several  passages    of  Scripture   to 
prove  the  unlawfulness  of  it,  boldly  declared 
that  he  would  be  no  ways  accessory,  nor 
suffer  any  of  his  clergy  to  be  accessory  to  so 
wicked  an   action.     To  this   resolution  he 
kept  firm  and  inflexible  till  the  emperor,  re- 
collecting how  zealous  and  active  he  had 
been  in  restoring  the  holy  images,  threaten- 
ed to  turn  Iconoclast  if  he  did  not  comply  ; 
to  abrogate  the  acts  of  the  council  of  Nice, 
and  cause  the  images  which  he  had  taken 
so  much  pains  to  set  up,  to  be  all  pulled 
down,  to  be  cast  out  of  the  churches  and 
broken.     Here  the  firmness  and  constancy 
of  the  patriarch  failed    him,  and   he  was 
some  time  at  a  loss  what  party  to  take.    But 
concluding  in  the  end,  that  of  two  evils  he 
might  choose,  with  a  safe  conscience,  the 
least,  he  resolved  no  longer  to  oppose  the 
adulterous  marriage,  since  he  could  by  no 
other  means  rescue  the  holy  images,  and 
with  them  the  Christian  religion,  from  the 
danger  that  threatened  them.     Forbearing, 
therefore,  all  further  remonstrances,  he  al- 
lowed the  abbot  of  a  monastery  in  Constan- 
tinople to  perform  the  marriage  ceremony, 
and  his  own  catechist  to  give  the  veil  to  the 
empress  Mary;  nay,  and  admitted  the  empe- 
ror to  the  eucharist,  and  to  his  communion, 
though  living,  even  according  to  him,  in  the 
state  of  adultery. 


The    conduct    of   Tarasius    gave    great 
offence  to  many,  who,  though  no  less  de- 
sirous than  he  of  preserving  the  holy  images, 
thought  nevertheless  that  so  open  a  breach  of 
the  divine  law  should  not  have  been  even 
connived  at  to  preserve  them ;  that  it  was 
quite  as  criminal  in  the  patriarch  to  have 
allowed  any  of  his  clergy  to  marry  the  em- 
peror, and  veil  the  degraded  empress,  as  if 
he  had  performed  both  ceremonies  himself; 
that  to  admit  one  to  the  eucharist,  to  com- 
municate with  one,  who  lived  in  the  state 
of  adultery,  was  not  barely  conniving  at  his 
crime,  but  approving  it.     At  the  head  of 
those,  who  thus  complained  of  the  conduct 
of   the    patriarch,   were   the   two    famous 
monks,  Plato  and  Theodore,  both  reputed 
great  saints,  and  highly  revered  by  the  peo- 
ple.    They  not  satisfied  with  loudly  con- 
demning the  unlawful,  the  adulterous,  the 
wicked  and  scandalous  marriage  of  the  em- 
peror, openly  separated  themselves  from  his 
communion,  as  no  longer  a  member  of  the 
church,  and  from  the  communion  of  the 
patriarch  too,  as  no  less  guilty  than  he.   This 
occasioned  great  disturbances  in  the  church 
of  Constantinople,  Irene  stirring  up  the  em- 
peror secretly  against  the  monks,  and  at 
the  same  time  the  monks  against  the  empe- 
ror.    At  her  instigation  Constantine  ordered 
the  two  monks   to  be  seized,  caused  Theo- 
dore to  be  most  cruelly  beaten,  and  sent  both 
into  exile  with  all  the  monks,  who,  adhering 
to  them  did  not  approve  of  his  marriage. 
Irene,  though  the  chief  author  of  all  this 
severity,  was  the  first  to  complain  of  it,  tax- 
ing the  emperor  with  cruelty,  and  extolling 
the  virtue  of  the  holy  men,  whom  he  per- 
secuted with  so  much  barbarity  merely  on 
account  of  their  virtue.     As  the  two  monks 
were  revered  by  all  as  great  saints,  Irene, 
by  pretending  to  espouse  their  cause,  gained 
the  affections  of  the  people,  and  at  the  same 
time  estranged  them,  what  she  had  chiefly 
in  her  view,  from  the  emperor. 

Her  next  care  was  to  gain  the  soldiery ; 
and  in  order  to  that  she  laid  hold  of  the  fol- 
lowing opportunity.  The  new  empress  being 
delivered  of  a  son,  while  the  emperor  was 
using,  with  his  mother,  the  baths  of  Prusia 
in  Bithynia,  he  repassed  the  straits,  as  soon 
as  he  received  the  joyful  tidings,  with  a 
small  retinue,  leaving  his  mother  with  the 
rest  of  the  court  in  Bithynia.  In  his  ab- 
sence, Irene  privately  applied  to  such  of  the 
officers  of  the  army  as  seemed  to  her  the 
most  dissatisfied  with  the  conduct  of  the  em- 
peror, and  having  with  large  sums  and  great 
promises  gained  them,  and  by  their  means 
most  of  the  rest,  she  engaged  them  to  bind 
themselves  by  an  oath  to  depose  Constantine, 
and  place  her  on  the  imperial  throne  in  his 
room.  In  the  mean  time  news  being  brought 
that  the  Saracens  had  broken  into  the  empire, 
Constantine  marched  against  them  in  person 


Leo  III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


183 


The  emperor  robbed  by  the  chief  officers  of  a  victory  over  the  Saracens.  They  conspire  with  Irene  to  seize 
him,  but  are  disappointed  in  the  attempt.  His  guards  bribed  by  Irene  and  he  seized  by  them  and  brought  to 
Constantinople.     His  eyes  put  out  by  his  mother's  order,  and  he  dies  soon  after. 


at  the  head  of  twenty  thousand  chosen 
troops.  Under  him  commanded  Stauracius, 
who,  concluding  from  the  ardor  he  observed 
in  the  soldiery,  that  should  they  engage  the 
enemy,  nothing  could  prevent  their  gaining 
a  complete  victory,  resolved  to  deprive  the 
emperor,  by  some  means  or  other,  of  that 
glory.  Having  therefore  assembled  with 
that  view,  some  of  the  chief  officers  of  his 
party,  and  represented  to  them,  that  should 
they  engage  the  enemy,  a  complete  victory 
would  undoubtedly  be  the  issue  of  the  en- 
gagement ;  that  such  a  victory  would  recom- 
mend the  emperor  to  the  love  and  esteem  of 
the  people  as  well  as  the  soldiery,  and  con- 
sequently defeat  their  design,  it  was  re- 
solved, that  an  engagement  should  by  all 
means  be  prevented.  Pursuant  to  that  reso- 
lution, Stauracius  pretending  to  send  out 
scouts  to  reconnoitre  the  situation  and 
strength  of  the  enemy,  commanded  them  to 
report,  on  their  return,  that  the  Saracens, 
struck  with  a  panic,  at  the  approach  of  the 
emperor,  had  all  retired  in  confusion,  and 
that  not  one  of  them  was  any  where  to  be 
seen  in  the  field.  This  proved  a  great  dis- 
appointment to  the  emperor ;  and  he  returned 
under  the  greatest  concern  to  Constantinople, 
which  he  had  flattered  himself  he  should 
have  entered  in  triumph. 

On  his  return  he  met  with  a  very  cold  re- 
ception from  the  people.  To  amuse  ihem, 
therefore,  and  in  some  degree  reconcile  them 
to  him,  he  resolved  to  entertain  them  with 
public  shows,  and  the  day  being  appointed, 
on  which  they  were  to  be  exhibited,  the  17lh 
of  June,  797,  Irene  and  the  conspirators 
chose  that  very  day  for  the  execution  of  their 
design  ;  and  it  was  agreed,  that  they  should 
seize  the  emperor  as  he  returned  from  the 
circus.  But  he,  having  either  received  pri- 
vate intelligence  of  their  design,  or  suspect- 
ing it  from  their  attempting  to  surround  him 
on  all  sides,  snatched  himself  from  them, 
riding  full  speed,  as  he  was  on  horse-back, 
to  the  port,  where  he  threw  himself  into  a 
boat,  and  passing  the  straits  that  moment, 
arrived  safe  at  Pyla;  in  Bithynia,  where  some 
of  the  eastern  legions  were  quartered,  on 
whose  fidelity  he  knew  he  might  safely  rely. 
The  news  of  his  escape  threw  Irene,  and 
the  rest  of  the  conspirators  into  the  utmost 
confusion.  They  all  concluded  the  conspi- 
racy was  discovered ;  and  Irene,  looking 
upon  herself  as  lost,  began  to  think  of  ap- 
plying to  the  bishops,  who  all  adored  her  on 
account  of  her  zeal  for  images,  and  trying 
to  obtain,  by  their  means,  leave  to  retire 
from  the  world,  and  pass  undisturbed  the 
rest  of  her  life  in  a  monastery.  But  in  the 
mean  time  another  expedient,  more  agree- 
able to  her  inclination,  occurring  to  her,  she 
thought  it  advisable  to  delay  applying  to  the 
bishops  till  she  found  what  success  might 
attend  it.    This  was  to  persuade,  if  by  any 


means  she  could,  such  of  the  conspirators 
as  had  attended  the  emperor  in  his  flight, 
and  of  whom  he  entertained  not   the  least 
distrust,  to  attempt  the  execution  of  their  de- 
sign.    With  that  view  she  wrote  to  them 
by  one,  in  whom  she  could  confide,  threat- 
ening to  discover  the  whole  plot,  and  all  who 
were  concerned  in  it,  if  they  did  not,  as  she 
was  very  confidant  they  niight,  if  their  cou- 
rage did  not  fail  them,  seize  on  the  emperor, 
and  bring  him  prisoner  to  Constantinople. 
As   for   herself,  she   said   she  wanted   not 
friends  to  intercede  for  her,  to  whose  inter- 
cession   the   emperor,   however   provoked, 
could  not  but  pay  great  regard,  especially 
when  backed  with  fiUal  duty,  which  they 
would  take  care  to  revive.     But  as  for  them, 
death  must  be  their  lot,  and  a  most  cruel  and 
ignominious  death  ;  and  she  therefore  con- 
jured them,  as  they  were  reduced  to  the  al- 
ternative of  destroy  mg  the  emperor,  or  being 
destroyed  by  him,  to  summon  all  their  cou- 
rage, and  put  him  out  of  a  condition  of  hurt- 
ing them,  promising  to  reward  them,  if  they 
succeeded,  as  she  did  not  doubt  they  would, 
with  the  first  employments  and  dignities  of 
the  empire.    This  letter  made  a  deep  im- 
pression on  their  minds  ;  and  the  danger  they 
were  in  inspiring  them  with  courage,  they 
resolved,  at  a  private  meeting   to  bribe  the 
guards  at  any  rate,  and  entering  the  empe- 
rors's  bed-chamber  in  the  night,  to  seize  him, 
to  carry  him  on  board  a  vessel,  and  convey- 
ing him  to  Constantinople,  deliver  him  up, 
unhurt  by  them,  into  the  hands  of  Irene. 
Every  thing  succeeded  to  their  wish  :  the 
guards  were  easily  gained,  and  the  conspi- 
rators, entering  the  room,  seized  on  the  em- 
peror, whom  they  found  on  his  knees  at  his 
prayers,  and  carried  him  on  board  a  vessel 
prepared  for  that  purpose,  to  Constantinople. 
They   arrived   early   in    the  rriorning,   and 
having  immediately  acquainted  Irene  with 
their  arrival,  they  received  an  order  from  her 
to  shut  up  their  prisoner  in  the  apartment 
of  the  imperial  palace  called  porphyra,  that 
being  the  most  remote  from  the  street.     He 
had  been  there  but  a  few   hours  when  the 
barbarous  mother,  having  first  advised  with 
Stauracius  and  the  rest  of  the  conspirators, 
ordered  his  eyes  to  be  put  out ;  and  they 
were  accordingly  put  out  in  so  cruel  a  man- 
ner, that  he  died  soon  after  in  the  utmost 
agony.     Upon   his   death   Irene   was    pro- 
claimed empress  :  and  thus,  what  had  never 
before  happened,  did  the  empire  fall  to  the 
distaff. 

This  is  the  account  the  contemporary  his- 
torians all  give  us  of  the  usurpation  of  Irene,' 
a  woman,  if  such  an  apostate  from  nature 
deserves  the  name  of  a  woman,  famous  in 
history  for  aspiring,  by  an  ambition  unpre- 


'  Theoph.  in  Chron.  Theod.  Studit.   in  vit.  Taras. 
Micb.  in  vit.  Tbeod.  Studit.  Cedxeu,  &c. 


184 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES. 


[Leo  hi. 


Irene  is  commended  as  a  saint  by  the  holy  men  of  those  days.     Her  unnatural  cruelty  not  only  excused,  but 

justified  by  Baronius. 


cedented  in  her  sex,  to  the  empire,  but  far 
more  infamous  for  the  methods  she  pursued 
to  attain  it.  And  yet  this  monster  of  wicked- 
ness, as  she  was  a  zealous  promoter  of  the 
worship  of  images,  wanted  not  her  panegy- 
rists amongst  the  holy  men  of  those  days ; 
nordoes  she  want  her  advocates  amongst  the 
writers  of  later  times.  Theodorus  Studita,' 
the  greatest  saint  of  that  age,  styles  her  an 
excellent  princess,  a  woman  beloved  of  God, 
and  extols  her  as  the  most  religious,  as  the 
most  virtuous  of  women.^  The  monk  Michael 
in  his  life  of  that  saint  gives  us,  in  the  fol- 
lowing words,  an  account  of  the  present 
revolution.  Constantine,  says  he,  being  de- 
prived first  of  his  eye-sight,  which  he  had 
misused,  and  afterwards  of  the  empire,  his 
pious  mother  Irene  resumed  the  govern- 
ment;* and  Theophanes,  speaking  of  the 
revolution,  that  happened  soon  after,  when 
Irene  was  deposed,  and  Nicephorus  raised 
to  the  empire  in  her  room,  ascribes  the  de- 
posing of  the  most  pious  Irene  to  the  sins 
of  the  people  ;"*  nay  she  has  even  a  place,  in 
the  menology  of  the  Greeks,  amongst  the 
saints ;  and  the  13th  of  August  is  with  them 
the  anniversary  of  St.  Irene.  To  worship 
images,  to  promote  that  worship  was  with 
the  writers  of  those  days,  the  height  of  all 
perfection,  atoned  for  the  blackest  crimes, 
and  turned  the  greatest  monsters  of  wicked- 
ness into  saints.  On  the  contrary,  not  to 
worship  images,  to  oppose  that  worship, 
was  with  them  sacrilege,  heresy,  the  height 
of  all  wickedness,  and  turned  men,  in  all 
other  respects  of  unblemished  characters, 
into  monsters  of  iniquity. 

Amongst  the  modern  writers  Baronius 
undertakes  not  only  to  excuse,  but  to  justify 
the  cruelty  of  that  inhuman  monster  to  her 
son.  What  he  says  on  that  head  I  shall 
deliver  in  his  own  words.  "  Snares,"  says 
he  under  the  year  796,  "  were  laid  this  year 
for  the  emperor  Constantine  by  his  mother 
Irene,  which  he  fell  into  the  year  following, 
and  was  deprived  at  the  same  time  of  his 
eyes  and  his  life.  An  execrable  crime  in- 
deed, had  she  not  been  prompted  to  it  by  her 
zeal  for  justice.  On  that  consideration  she 
even  deserved  to  be  commended  for  what 
she  did.  But  it  was  not  by  her  command 
he  suffered  :  she  only  ordered  him  to  be  re- 
strained and  deprived  of  his  power,  which 
was  snatching  a  sword  out  of  the  hand  of  a 
madman.  Christ  has  taught  us  that  it  is 
great  piety  to  be,  on  such  an  occasion,  cruel 
to  a  son,  saying,  '  he  that  loveth  son  or 
daughter  more  than  me  is  not  worthy  of 
me,5  and,  think  not  that  I  came  to  send  peace 
on  earth  ;  I  came  not  to  send  peace,  but  a 


'  He  was  afterwards  appointed  abbot  of  the  famous 
monastery  founded  by  the  consul  Studius  in  the  su- 
burbs of  Constantinople  ;  and  from  thence  he  took  the 
name  of  Studita. 

«  Theod.  apud  Bar.  ad  Ann.  801. 

'  Mich,  in  vit.  Theod.  Studit. 

*  Theoph.  ad  Ann.  803.  s  Mat.  10  ;  v.  37. 


sword.''  In  more  ancient  times  the  hands 
of  parents  were  armed,  by  God's  command, 
against  their  children  worshiping  strange 
gods,  and  they,  who  killed  them,  were  com- 
mended by  Moses,  saying,  '  you  have  con- 
secrated today  your  hands  to  the  Lord,  even 
every  man  upon  his  son  and  his  father, 
(whom  they  killed)  that  he  may  bestow  upon 
you  a  blessing.'^  It  matters  much  with 
what  intention  a  person  acts.  Had  Irene, 
out  of  ambition  or  a  desire  of  reigning,  plot- 
ted against  her  son,  she  had  thereby  rendered 
herself  more  detestable  even  than  Agrippina, 
the  mother  of  Nero,  who  chose  her  son 
should  reign  even  at  the  expense  of  her  own 
life.  For,  being  foretold  by  a  soothsayer, 
that  if  he  ever  reigned,  he  would  kill  his 
mother,  she  is  said  to  have  answered,  let 
him  kill  her  on  condition  he  reigns,  '  occidat 
modo  imperet.'  But  as  Irene  was  supposed 
to  have  done  what  she  did,  (that  is,  to  have 
deposed  her  son,  who. alone  had  a  right  to 
reign,  and  murdered  him)  for  the  sake  of  re- 
ligion, and  love  of  justice,  she  was  still 
thought  by  the  eastern  writers,  who  were 
eye-witnesses  of  the  fact,  and  men  of  great 
sanctity,  worthy  of  praise  and  commenda- 
tion."" Thus  does  the  annalist  strive  to 
clear  that  monster  of  cruelty  and  wicked- 
ness, nay  and  blasphemously  to  justify  from 
the  Old  and  New  Testament,  and  the  doc- 
trine of  our  Savior,  one  of  the  most  horrid 
murders  we  read  of  in  history.  But  that 
Constantine  was  not  only  seized  and  con- 
fined, as  the  annalist  pretends,  but  deprived 
of  his  eyes  by  the  command  of  his  mother,  i» 
attested  by  Theophanes,  one  of  the  holy  men, 
whom  Baronius  supposes  to  have  been  eye- 
witnesses of  the  fact,  "  They  put  out  hii 
eyes,"  says  that  writer,  "  by  the  advice  of 
his  mother  and  her  counsellors,  with  so 
much  cruelty,  that  he  immediately  expired."-* 
He  adds,  that  the  sun  was  darkened  for 
seventeen  days,  heaven  punishing  with  so 
long  a  darkness  those,  who  had  for  ever  de- 
prived their  sovereign  of  the  comfort  of 
light.  To  suppose  with  the  holy  men  of 
those  days,  that  the  unnatural  mother  was 
prompted  by  her  love  of  justice,  and  zeal  for 
religion,  to  conspire  against  her  son  and  her 
sovereign,  to  depose  and  to  murder  him,  is 
supposing  she  was  prompted  by  her  love  of 
justice  to  commit  the  most  crying  injustice, 
and  by  her  zeal  for  religion  the  blackest  of 
crimes.  Her  love  of  justice,  her  zeal  for  re- 
ligion would  have  prompted  her,  had  she 
had  any,  to  divert  her  son  with  her  good 
advice  from  abusing  his  power,  whereas 
from  history  it  appears,  that  he  never  abused 
it,  that  in  no  instance  whatever  he  acted 
contrary  to  religion  or  to  justice  but  by  her 
advice  and  at  her  instigation.  Had  she  plot- 
ted against  her  son  out  of  a  desire  of  reijrning 


■  Mat.  10  :  V.  34.  a  Exod.  32 :  v.  27,  29. 

3  Bar.  ad  Ann.  796.  p.  4S2. 

«  Theoph.  ad  Ann.  Iren.  Iterum  Imper.  1. 


Leo  III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


185 


Upon  the  death  of  Constantine  several  aspire  to  the  empire.  Irene  recurs  to  Charlemagne.  Causes  a  marriage 
to  be  proposed  between  him  and  her. 


in  his  room,  she  had  been,  even  according 
toBaronius,  more  detestable  than  Agrippina: 
but  that  she  did  plot  against  him,  that  she 
deposed  and  murdered  him  out  of  a  desire 
of  reigning  in  his  room,  is  as  certain,  if  in 
history  there  is  any  certainty,  as  it  is  certain 
that  she  reigned  ;  and  consequently  that  she 
was  more  detestable  than  Agrippina.  In- 
deed I  see  not  why  the  annalist  should  have 
thought  of  comparing  at  all  Irene  to  Agrip- 
pina, or  Agrippina  to  Irene,  since  the  one 
sacrificed  her  own  life  to  the  desire  she  had 
that  her  son  should  reign;  which  might  have 
been  owing  to  an  unparallelled  fondness,  as 
well  as  to  ambition  ;  whereas  the  other  sacri- 
ficed the  life  of  her  son  to  the  desire  she  had 
of  reigning  herself,  which  can  only  be  as- 
cribed to  the  most  criminal  ambition,  and 
the  most  unnatural  cruelty.  As  to  the  pas- 
sages alledged  by  Baronius  out  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, to  pretend  by  them  to  excuse,  or  to 
justify  a  mother  murdering  her  son  is  wan- 
tonly abusing  the  Scriptures,  and  next  to 
blasphemy.  The  meaning  of  our  Savior's 
words  is  obvious,  namely,  that  we  are  not  to 
suffer  ourselves  to  be  diverted  from  his  ser- 
vice, or  from  following  him,  by  our  attach- 
ment to  our  parents  or  nearest  relations.  It 
was  by  the  express  command  of  God,  de- 
livered by  Moses,  that  the  parents  put  their 
children  to  death  worshiping  strange  gods, 
and  the  children  their  parents;  and  the  an- 
nalist, I  suppose,  does  not  pretend  that  the 
like  command  was  given  to  Irene.  But 
there  is  no  wickedness,  no  crime  however 
enormous,  that  he  had  not  rather  excuse  and 
even  sanctify,  than  allow  one,  who  deserved 
so  well  of  images,  and  the  worshipers  of 
images,  to  be  guilty  of  any. 

Irene,  having  seized  on  the  empire  in  the 
manner  we  have  seen,  made  it  her  study  to 
gain  the  affections  of  the  soldiery  and  the 
people  ;  of  the  soldiery  by  largesses,  of  the 
people  by  remitting  or  lessening  the  taxes, 
and  pretending  great  zeal  for  the  worship  of 
images.  But  as  the  royal  family  was  ex- 
tinct, Constantine  having,  at  the  instigation 
of  his  mother,  put  all  to  death,  who  had, 
from  their  birth,  any  claim  to  the  crown,  the 
nobility  were  all  underhand  busy  in  forming 
parties,  and  contriving  the  means  of  raising 
themselves  to  the  empire,  for  which  each  of 
them  thought  himself  better  qualified  than  a 
woman.  Stauracius,  Irene's  favorite  minis- 
ter, had  gained  great  part  of  the  army,  with 
a  design  of  deposing  her,  and  placing  him- 
self on  the  throne  in  her  room.  But  he 
dying  before  his  design  was  quite  ripe  for 
execution,  an  eunuch,  named  Aetius,  in 
whom  Irene  placed  an  entire  confidence,  and 
whom  she  had  raised  to  the  rank  of  patri- 
cian, undertook  to  get  his  brother  Leo  pre- 
ferred to  the  imperial  dignity,  being  excluded 
from  it  himself  as  an  eunuch.  He  had  pro- 
cured, with  that  view,  the  government  of 
Thrace  and  Macedon  for  his  brother,  as  well 

Vol.  II.— 24 


as  the  command  of  the  troops  quartered  in 
those  two  provinces,  and  engaged,  by  his 
generosity,  the  rest  of  the  army  to  second, 
when  an  opportunity  offered,  his  ambitious 
designs.  Depending  upon  them  he  began 
to  act  more  like  a  sovereign  than  a  subject, 
disposing  of  all  the  employments,  both  civil 
and  military,  to  his  friends,  without  consult- 
ing Irene,  or  so  much  as  acquainting  her 
with  it.  His  conduct  gave  her  great  um- 
brage; but  suspecting  all  about  her  alike, 
she  resolved  to  recur  to  Charlemagne,  who, 
she  was  informed,  had  been  lately  pro- 
claimed by  the  Romans  emperor  of  the  west ; 
to  conclude  upon  the  best  terms  she  could, 
a  treaty  of  alliance  and  friendship  with  that 
warlike  prince,  and  engage  him  by  that 
means  to  maintain  her  on  the  throne.  This 
resolution  she  took  the  more  readily,  as 
Charlemaene  was  then  making  great  military 
preparations,  with  a  design,  as  was  believed, 
to  invade  the  island  of  Sicily,  and  it  was  pub- 
licly said  at  Constantinople  that  so  important 
a  war  required  an  emperor.  The  person 
she  chose  to  employ  on  that  occasion,  and 
send  into  France  was  Leo,  captain  of  her 
guards;  and  as  in  him  she  placed  an  entire 
confidence,  she  privately  charged  him  to 
propose  a  marriage  between  her  and  Char- 
lemagne, not  that  she  intended  such  a  mar- 
riage should  ever  take  place,  but  hoping  she 
should  thus  not  only  divert  him  from  making 
war  on  the  empire,  which  she  was  sensible 
would  end  in  her  ruin,  but  engage  him  to 
espouse  her  cause,  and  undertake,  with  great 
zeal,  her  protection  against  all  her  enemies, 
both  domestic  and  foreign.  The  proposal 
was  quite  unexpected,  but  received,  as  we 
may  well  imagine,  by  Charlemagne,  with 
the  greatest  satisfaction.  To  marry  Irene 
was  uniting  at  once  both  empires  in  his  per- 
son, and  acquiring  more  extensive  domin- 
ions, without  striking  a  blow,  than  he  could 
promise  himself  from  a  long  war,  however 
successful.  He  therefore  not  only  consented 
to  so  advantageous  a  proposal,  but  impatient 
to  see  himself  vested  with  so  extensive  a 
power,  he  sent  back  with  the  ambassador, 
whom  he  had  entertained  for  some  time  with 
the  greatest  magnificence,  Jesse,  bishop  of 
Amiens,  and  a  count  named  Helingaude,  to 
remove  the  difficulties  that  might  be  started 
at  the  court  of  Constantinople  to  obstruct  the 
match,  and  put  the  last  hand,  in  his  name,  to 
the  treaty.  His  ambassadors  were  accompa- 
nied by  a  nuncio  from  the  pope,  who,  being 
acquainted  by  him  with  the  proposal  oflrene, 
was  no  less  impatient  than  he  to  see  it 
brought  to  a  happy  issue,  sensible  that  were 
Charlemagne  master  of  the  eastern  empire, 
he  should,  under  him,  hold  undisturbed  his 
temporal  dominions  in  Italy,  which  the 
Greeks  still  claimed,  and  at  the  same  time 
see  his  authority,  which  was  but  very  little 
regarded  in  the  east,  as  much  respected  there, 
even  by  his  haughty  rival  the  patriarch  of 
*2 


186 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Leo  hi. 

The  great  lords  of  the  empire,  alarmed  at  the  proposal,  resolves  to  depose   her  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  802.] 
Nicephorus  raised  to  the  throne  and  solemnly  crowned.    The  behavior  of  Irene  on  this  occasion. 


the  imperial  city,  as  it  was  respected  by  all 
in  the  west. 

The  ambassadors  were,  in  appearance, 
received  by  Irene  with  uncommon  marks  of 
joy;  and  without  loss  of  time  they  entered, 
in  conjunction  with  the  pope's  nuncio,  upon 
the  subject  of  their  embassy.  They  pro- 
posed a  marriage  between  the  empress  of 
the  east,  and  the  emperor  of  the  west,  and 
an  union  of  the  two  empires  as  highly  ad- 
vantageous to  both.  The  proposal  alarmed 
Aetius,  and  all  the  great  lords  of  the  court, 
well  apprised  that  such  a  marriage,  should 
it  ever  take  place,  as  they  apprehended  it 
might,  not  being  privy  to  the  true  design  of 
Irene,  would  defeat  all  their  measures  at 
once,  and  leave  them  no  hopes  of  raising 
themselves,  even  upon  her  demise,  to  the 
throne.  They  therefore  left  nothing  unat- 
tempted  they  could  think  of  to  divert  her 
from  hearkening  to  a  proposal,  which  they 
said  she  could  not  agree  to  without  exposing 
herself  to  the  danger  of  forfeiting  the  power 
she  at  present  enjoyed,  and  with  it  the 
crown ;  since  the  king  of  the  Franks,  accus- 
tomed to  govern  alone,  would  engross  the 
whole  power  himself,  and  the  Greeks,  how- 
ever pleased  with  her  administration,  would 
choose  rather  to  drive  her  from  the  throne, 
than  suffer  themselves  to  be  thus  excluded 
from  the  imperial  dignity,  and  governed  by 
a  stranger,  nay,  by  an  open  and  avowed 
enemy  both  to  them  and  the  empire.  But 
Irene  still  pretending,  chiefly  with  a  design 
to  awe  the  eunuch  Aetius,  who  ruled  with 
an  absolute  sway,  to  be  rather  inclined  than 
averse  to  the  proposed  marriage,  several  of 
the  nobility,  thinking  they  could  by  no  other 
means,  but  by  deposing  her,  prevent  their 
being  governed  either  by  a  stranger,  or  an 
eunuch,  resolved  to  depose  her  accordingly, 
and  to  raise  one  of  their  own  body  to  the 
empire  in  her  room. 

The  person  they  chose  was  the  patrician 
Nicephorus;  and  having  appointed  the  30th 
of  October  for  the  execution  of  their  design, 
they  repaired,  in  the  evening  of  that  day,  to 
the  great  palace,  pretending,  as  Irene  did  not 
reside  there,  that  they  came  from  her ;  that 
she,  no  longer  able  to  bear  with  the  inso- 
lent and  haughty  behavior  of  the  eunuch 
Aetius,  had  resolved,  in  the  end,  to  take  a 
partner  in  the  empire  capable  of  curbing  his 
insolence  ;  that  she  had  chosen  for  that  pur- 
pose the  patrician  Nicephorus,  and  charged 
them  to  place  him  on  the  throne.  As  they 
were  all  persons  of  the  greatest  distinction,  the 
soldiery,  who  guarded  the  palace,  suspecting 
no  deceit,  not  only  admitted  but  joined  them, 
proclaiming,  without  further  inquiry,  Nice- 
phorus emperor.  Hereupon  proper  persons 
were  immediately  dispatched  by  the  conspi- 
rators into  the  different  quarters  of  the  city 
with  the  news  of  the  election  of  Nicepho- 
rus; and  they  gave  every  where  out  that 
Irene  herself  had  chosen  him  for  her  partner 


in  the  empire.  Thus  was  Nicephorus,  be- 
fore midnis^ht,  acknowledged  emperor  by  the 
whole  city,  and  without  the  least  opposition, 
the  conspirators  having  taken  care  to  place 
guards  in  all  the  avenues  to  the  palace  of 
Eleutherius,  where  the  empress  resided,  to 
prevent  her  from  receiving  any  intelligence 
of  what  passed,  or  contradicting  what  they 
gave  out.  Early  next  morning  the  new  em- 
peror was  solemnly  crowned  in  the  church 
of  St.  Sophia,  a  strong  body  of  troops  being 
first  sent  to  surround  on  all  sides  the  palace 
of  the  empress,  with  a  strict  charge  to  suffer 
none  to  go  out,  or  to  enter  it.  Thus  she  was 
kept  closely  confined  that  whole  day  under 
the  painful  uncertainty  of  her  lot,  quite  igno- 
rant of  what  passed  it  the  city,  but  suspect- 
ing the  worst.  The  day  following,  the  new 
emperor,  having  caused  the  empress  to  be 
conveyed,  under  a  strong  guard,  to  the  great 
palace,  repaired  thither  attended  by  almost 
all  the  nobility,  and  entering  the  apartment 
to  which  he  had  confined  her,  he  addressed 
her  with  great  outward  respect,  telling  her, 
that  the  nobility  and  the  people,  thinking  the 
empire  should  be  governed  by  an  emperor, 
had  offered  it  to  him,  and  forced  him,  as 
those  who  attended  him  could  witness,  to 
accept  of  the  offer ;  that  he  appeared  before 
her  without  any  of  the  badges  of  his  new 
dignity,  and  would  not  assume  them  without 
her  consent,  and  therefore  begged  she  would 
consent  to  his  wearing  them,  and  at  the 
same  time  discover  to  him  the  treasures  of 
the  empire,  that  he  might  dispose  of  them 
according  to  the  exigency  of  the  state. 

She  answered  without  betraying  the  least 
concern  or  uneasiness,  that  she  ascribed  the 
present,  as  she  had  done  all  her  other  mis- 
fortunes, to  her  sins ;  that  since  God  had 
been  pleased,  in  his  infinite  justice  and  wis- 
dom, to  depose  her,  and  raise  him  to  the 
empire  in  her  room,  she  adored  his  provi- 
dence, and  readily  submitted  to  his  will ; 
that  she  begged  one  favor,  Avhich  she  flat- 
tered herself  he  would  not  refuse  her,  name- 
ly, thai  he  would  allow  her  to  spend  the  rest 
of  her  days,  as  a  private  person,  in  the 
palace  of  Eleutherius,  since  she  herself  had 
built  it,  and  that  upon  his  promising  to  comply 
with  that  request,  which  she  hoped  he  would 
not  think  unreasonable,  she  should  discover 
and  deliver  up  to  him,  without  concealing  or 
reserving  for  herself  the  smallest  sum,  the 
treasures  of  the  empire.  Nicephorus  bound 
himself  by  a  solemn  oath  to  grant  her,  upon 
that  condition,  her  request.  But  no  sooner 
had  she  put  him  in  possession  of  the  trea- 
sures, than  the  emperor  apprehending,  as 
he  was  well  acquainted  with  her  unbounded 
ambition,  her  craft  and  her  intriguing  genius, 
that  notwithstanding  her  pretended  resigna- 
tion to  the  will  of  God,  she  would  be  ever 
plotting  to  recover  her  former  dignity,  the 
rather,  as  the  friends  of  images  were  all  her 
friends,  that  is,  the  bulk  of  the  people  and 


Leo  III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


187 


Irene  is  banished  and  dies:— [Year  of  Christ,  803.]  A  solemn  embassy  sent  by  the  new  emperor  to  Charle- 
inasne,  and  peace  concluded  between  the  two  empires.  A  miraculous  sponge  discovered  at  Mantua.  Inter- 
view between  the  pope  and  Charlemagne.  The  king  of  Northumberland  driven  from  his  kingdom  ; — Year 
of  Christ,  609.]     He  ia  restored  by  the  pope. 


the  clergy,  and  the  whole  body  of  monks, 
to  prevent  the  disturbances  she  might  raise 
by  their  means,  he  banished  her  first  to  the 
Isle  of  Prince  not  far  from  Constantinople, 
and  soon  after  to  that  of  Lesbos,  where  she 
died  of  grief  the  following  year,  being  strict- 
ly guarded  day  and  night,  and  none  allowed 
to  approach  her,  or  afford  her  the  least  com- 
fort in  her  affliction.'  Irene  was,  it  must  be 
owned,  a  woman  of  most  extraordinary  parts, 
scarce  to  be  matched  for  her  abilities  and  ad- 
dress by  any  of  her  own  sex,  and  by  very 
few  of  ours ;  but  one,  who  stuck  at  nothing, 
committing,  without  remorse,  the  blackest 
crimes,  to  gratify  her  ambition.  Had  she 
with  as  much  zeal  opposed  as  she  promoted 
the  worship  of  images,  the  unparalleled 
wickedness  of  such  a  monster  would  have 
supplied  the  monkish  writers  with  ample 
matter  for  invectives,  and  she  would  have 
met  with  no  quarter  at  their  hands.  But  as 
she  promoted  that  superstition,  they  have 
not  only  spared  her,  but  filled  their  writings 
with  her  praises,  her  zeal  for  the  reigning 
superstition  counterbalancing  with  them,  and 
covering  the  multitude  of  her  crimes. 

This  unexpected  revolution  happened 
while  the  ambassadors,  sent  by  Charlemagne 
to  conclude  the  marriage  between  him  and 
Irene,  were  still  in  Constantinople;  and  it 
utterly  defeated  all  their  measures,  and  the 
ambitious  views  of  their  master.  However 
the  new  emperor  was  no  sooner  settled  on 
the  throne  than  he  sent  for  them,  and  re- 
ceiving them  in  a  most  obliging  manner,  as- 
sured them,  that  he  intended  ever  to  main- 
tain a  sincere  friendship  with  the  king  of  the 
Franks ;  and  not  satisfied  with  charging  th^m 
to  acquaint  their  master  with  his  pacific  dis- 
position, he  sent  with  them  on  their  return 
to  France,  a  bishop  and  three  abbots,  with 
the  character  of  his  ambassadors,  and  full 
power  to  conclude  a  lasting  peace  between 
the  two  nations.  The  ambassadors  were  well 
received  by  Charlemagne,  and  a  peace  was 
concluded  on  the  following  terms  :  I.  That 
the  Greeks  should  acknowledge  Charle- 
magne for  emperor  of  the  west,  and  allow 
him  that  title.  II.  That  they  should  afford 
no  kind  of  assistance  to  the  dukes  of  Bene- 
vento,  who  depending  upon  their  friendship 
;tnd  protection  were  ever  raising  new  dis- 
turbances in  Italy.  III.  That  the  western 
empire  siiould  not  extend  beyond  the  duke- 
dom of  Benevento,  and  consequently  that 
the  remaining  part  of  Italy,  lying  between 
that  dukedom  and  tlie  straits  of  Messina, 
with  the  island  of  Sicily,  should  belong  to 
the  eastern  empire,  and  be  peaceably  pos- 
sessed by  Nicephorus,  and  his  successors  in 
the  imperial  throne.^^ 


'  Theoph.  ad  .\nn.  Ir.  iter.  Iperalrir.  5.  &  Niceph.  1. 
"Eginhard.  in  vit.  Carol.  Mag.  &  Monach.  Sangal- 
ICDS.  de  rebus  btllicia  Carol.  Mug. 


Charlemagne  received  the  ambassadors  at 
Saltz  in  Alsace  ;  and  while  he  was  yet  there 
news  was  brought  him,  that  a  sponge  was 
discovered  at  Mantua,  steeped  in  the  blood 
of  our  Savior,  which  was  still  fresh,  and 
wrought  great  miracles.  It  was  supposed, 
upon  what  foundation  I  know  not,  to  have 
been  left  there  by  the  Roman  soldier,  who 
pierced  our  Savior's  side  with  a  spear,  and 
is  now  honored  in  the  church  of  Rome 
as  a  saint  under  the  name  of  Longinus. 
This  important  piece  of  intelligence  Charle- 
magne immediately  imparted  to  the  pope, 
desiring  him  to  repair  to  Mantua,  lo  inquire 
there,  into  the  truth  of  the  matter,  and  ac- 
quaint him  therewith.  In  compliance  with 
his  desire  the  pope  set  out  without  delay  for 
Mantua,  and  being  on  his  arrival  there,  fully 
satisfied  as  to  the  authenticity  of  the  relic, 
(for  he  himself  saw  both  the  blood  and 
the  sponge,  and  the  same  sponge  or  another 
like  it,  is  seen  and  worshiped  there  to  this 
day)  he  gave  notice  thereof  to  Charlemagne, 
expressing  at  the  same  time  a  desire  to  cele- 
brate with  him,  wherever  he  pleased,  the 
festival  of  the  nativity  of  our  Savior.  Char- 
lemagne chose  Gluiercy,  and  sending  his 
son  Charles,  king  of  Neustria,  as  far  as  St. 
Maurice  in  Valais,  to  meet  his  holiness,  he 
went  himself  from  Aix-la-Chapelle,  where 
he  then  was,  to  Reims,  received  the  pope  there 
with  extraordinary  marks  of  friendship  and 
esteem,  and  went  from  thence  together  with 
him  to  Q,uiercy .  There  they  kept  their  Christ- 
mas, and  both  repairing  from  thence  to  Aix, 
Charlemagne,  after  spending  eight  days  in 
that  place  Avith  the  pope,  dismissed  him 
loaded  with  rich  presents,  and  accompanied 
by  some  of  the  chief  nobility,  who  were  or- 
dered to  attend  him,  as  he  proposed  return- 
ing through  Bavaria,  as  far  as  Ravenna.' 

From  this  time  Ave  find  nothing  in  history 
of  Leo,  nothing  at  least  Avorthy  of  notice, 
till  the  year  808,  Avhen  he  is  said  to  have 
restored,  jointly  Avith  the  emperor  Charle- 
magne, Eardulph,  king  of  Northumberland, 
driven  out  by  his  subjects,  to  his  kingdom. 
Of  this  event  Eginhard  gives  us  the  follow- 
ing account :  "  In  the  mean  time,"  says  he, 
"the  king  of  the  Northumbrians,  by  name 
Eardulph,  being  driven  from  his  kingdom 
and  country,  came  tVom  the  island  of  Bri- 
tain to  the  emperor,  and  having  acquainted 
him  Avith  the  affair  he  came  upon,  he  goes  to 
Rome,  and  returning  from  thence  is  restored 
to  his  kingdom  by  the  legates  of  the  pope 
and  our  lord  tiie  emperor."^  Baronius  adds  : 
"the  king  Avas  restored  Avithoul  opposition, 
all  deemin?  it  a  crime  not  to  obey  the  Ro- 
man pontifi',  or  to  oppose  so  great  an  empe- 
ror. Here  you  have  seen,"  continues  the 
annalist,  addressing  his  reader,  "  the  autho- 
rity of  the  Roman  pontiff  expressed  in  deeds. 


■  Annal.  Metens. 


^  Eginhard.  in  Annal. 


188 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Leo  hi. 


The  question  concerning  the  procession  of  the  Holy  Ghost  revived,  and  decided  in  a  council  at  Aix-Ia-Chapelle  ; 

[Year  of  Christ,  809.] 


For  the  emperor,  sensible  of  his  own  want 
of  authority  to  restore  the  deposed  king,  and 
knowing  he  might  be  restored  by  the  autho- 
rity of  the  pope,  he  sent  him  to  Rome  to 
the  pope  to  be  restored  by  his  authority  to 
his  kingdom  and  dignity.     Here  you  have 
likewise  seen  what  great  regard  the  English 
paid   to   the   pope;    for   however    enraged 
against  their  king,  however  inflamed  with 
the  desire  of  reigning,  they  did  not  refuse  to 
receive  the  very  king,  whom  they  had  driven 
out,  but  immediately  obeyed.'"     Thus  Ba- 
ronius.     But  not  the  least  notice  is  taken  by 
any  of  our  historians  of  the  restoration  of 
Eardulph  ;  nay,  they  rather  seem  to  suppose, 
that  he  never  was  restored ;  for  they  tell  us, 
that  the  kingdom  of  Northumberland  con- 
tinued involved  in  the  utmost  confusion,  and 
in   a  state  of  anarchy,  from  the  death  of 
Ethelred,  murdered  in  794,  to  the  year  827, 
when  Egbert,  king  of  the  West  Saxons,  got 
possession  of  that  kingdom.^     In  the  chro- 
nicle of  Mailros,  notice  is  taken  of  the  ex- 
pulsion of  Eardulph,  and  it  is  said  there, 
that   upon    his  expulsion  the  kingdom  of 
Northumberland     continued     many     years 
without    a    king;3    and    M.    Westminster 
tells  us,  that  Alwold,  who  drove  Eardulph 
from  the  throne,  dying  after  a  reign  of  two 
years  only  was  succeeded  by  Eandred,  who 
reigned  thirty-two  years.''      Our  historians 
therefore  knew   nothing  of  the  restoration 
of  Eardulph,  but  suppose,  on  the  contrary, 
that  he  never  was  restored.     Some  foreign 
writers  indeed  tell  us  that  he  was  restored  ; 
but  they  either  ascribe  his  restoration  equally 
to  the  pope  and  the  emperor,  or  to  the  em- 
peror   alone.      "  He   was   restored,"   says 
Eginhard,  "  by  the  legates  of  the  pope  and 
,  our  lord  the  emperor. "^     "  The  deposed  and 
banished  king,"  say  Ado  and  Aventinus,^ 
"repaired    to   the   court    of  Charlemagne, 
went  from  thence  in  pilgrimage  to  Rome, 
and  on  his  return  from  that  city  was  attended 
by  the  ambassadors  of  the  pope  and  the  em- 
peror, into  Britain."     But  Sigebert,  taking 
no  notice  of  the  pope,  only  says,  "  that  the 
king  of  the  Northumbrians  was  restored  by 
the  emperor  Charlemagne  to  his  kingdom 
and  his  country. "^    Upon  the  whole,  there- 
fore, either  Eardulph  never  was  restored,  or 
if  he  was,  his  restoration  was  owing,  not  to 
the  authority,  but  to  the  interposition  and 
good  offices  of  the  pope  and  the  emperor,  or 
of  the  emperor  alone  ;  and  Baronius  might 
at  least,  as  well  have  alledged  his  restoration 
as  an  instance  of  the  sovereign  power  of  the 
emperor  over  the  kingdoms  and  princes  of 

1  Bar.  ad  Ann.  80S.  p.  549.  950. 

»Malmsb.  de  gest.  Reg.  Angl.  1.  1.  c.  3.  Vide  Harps- 
field  Hist.  Eccl.  secul.  8.  c.  21. 

3Rer.  Anglican.  Script,  apud  Gal.  vol.  2.  p.  141. 

*  M.  Westm.  Flor.  Hist.  Ang.  p.  152. 

'  Eginhard.  ubi  supra. 

'  Ado  Vien.  Chron.  ad  Ann.  809.  Aventin.  Annal. 
Boior.  I.  4.  p.  210. 

■>  Sigeb.  Chron.  ad  Ann.  808. 


England,  as  of  the  sovereign  power  of  the 
pope. 

About  this  time  was  moved,  or  rather  was 
revived  a  question  in   France,  that  in  the 
following  centuries  made  a  great  noise  in  the 
church ;  namely,  whether  the  Holy  Ghost 
proceeded  from  the  Father  and  the  Son,  or 
only  from  the  Father.     I  say  revived,  the 
same  question  having  been   proposed  and 
discussed  in  the  council  held  under  Pepin  at 
Gentilli  in  767,  as  has  been  related  above.' 
The  acts  of  that  council   have   been   long 
since  lost;  but  it  is  highly  probable  it  was 
there  declared,  that  the  Holy  Ghost  proceed- 
ed from  the  Father  and  the  Son ;  for  such 
was,  at  this  time,  the  doctrine  of  the  Galil- 
ean church.     The  lathers  of  the  first  four 
centuries  seem  to  have  all  held  the  same 
doctrine;  but  it  had  not  yet  been  defined  by 
any  general  council.     The  first  council  of 
Constantinople   had    indeed    added    to   the 
symbol  of  Nice,  that  the  Holy  Ghost  pro- 
ceeded from  the  Father,  but  did  not  determine 
whether  he  proceeded,  in  like  manner,  from 
the  Son.     However  in  the  fifth  and  sixth 
centuries  the  churches  of  Spain  added  to  the 
symbol    of    Nice    and    Constantinople   the 
words  "  and  from  the  Son."     Their  example 
was    followed    by    most   of   the   Galilean 
churches,  where  the  symbol  was  read  and 
sung   in   their   service   with   that   addition. 
But  a  monk  of  Palestine,  by  name  John, 
having,  at  this  time,  declared  for  the  opposite 
opinion,  and  gained  a  great  many  followers, 
the  question,  "  whether  the  Holy  Ghost  pro- 
ceeded only  from  the  Father?"  was  revived 
and  anew  debated  in  France.     Whether  the 
monk  came  himself  into  that  kingdom,  or 
only   some  of  his  disciples,  we  know  not ; 
but  certain  it  is,  that  several  there,  hearing 
the  arguments,  that  were  alledged  in  lavor 
of  his  opinion,  began  to  waver  and  question 
the  truth  of  the  doctrine,  which  they  had, 
till  then,  held  and  professed  .^     Charlemagne 
therefore  to   prevent  the  misunderstanding 
and  division,  that  might  be  thereby  occasion- 
ed amongst  the  bishops  and  clergy  of  his 
kingdom,  thought  it   advisable  to  have  the 
point  in  dispute  timely  decided  by  a  coun- 
cil;  and  he  assembled  one  accordingly  at 
Aix-la-Chapelle  in  the  month  of  November 
of  the  following  year  809.     As  none  assisted 
at  this  council  from  the  pope,  nor  indeed 
was  any  notice  given  him  of  its  meeting,  the 
point  in  dispute  was  fairly  debated,  and  the 
reasons  for  and  against   the  two   opposite 
opinions  patiently  heard,  and  impartially  ex- 
amined.     The  disturbances  and  disagree- 
ments we  read  of  amongst  the  bishops,  in 
most  other  councils,  were  owing  to  the  in- 
trigues of  the  legates  of  the  popes,  their  holi- 
nesses  having  before-hand  decided  the  point 
in  controversy  at  Rome,  and  charged  their 
legates  to  get  their  decision  by  all  means  ap- 


>  See  p.  111.       ^  Eginhard  in  Annal.  Ado  in  Chroo. 


Leo  III.] 


OR  BISHOPB  OF  ROME. 


189 


Conference  between  the  pope  and  the  envoys  of  Charlemagne.    The  pope  will  not  allow  the  words  "and  from 
the  Son"  to  be  added  to  the  symbol. 


proved  by  ihe  council,  oral  least  to  approve 
DO  other.  For  it  was  not  only  to  the  coun- 
cil of  Trent,  but  to  most  other  councils,  that 
the  pope's  legates  carried  the  Holy  Ghost  in 
their  cloak-bags. 

What  was  the  decision   of  the   present 
council,  history  does  not  inform  us.     But  as 
Charlemagne  wrote,  on  that  occasion,  a  long 
letter  to  the  pope,  filled  with  an  infinite  num- 
ber  of  passages   from   the   Old   and   New 
Testaments,  as  well  as  from  the  Fathers, 
showing,  or   calculated  to  show,  that  the 
Holy  Ghost  proceeded  from  the  Father  and 
the  Son,  there  is  no  room  to  doubt  but  that 
was  the  doctrine   defined   by   the  council. 
With  that  letter  the  emperor  dispatched  to 
Rome,  Bernard  or  Bernair  bishop  of  Worms, 
and  Adelar  abbot  of  Corbie,  who  had  two 
long  conferences  with  the  pope;  and  both  turn- 
ed upon  these  two  points  ;  whether  it  was  an 
article  of  faith,  that  the  Holy  Ghost  proceed- 
ed from  the  Son  as  well  as  from  the  Father  ? 
And  whether  the  words  "  and  from  the  Son, 
tilioque,"  might  be  added  to  the  symbol,  and 
the  symbol  mightbe  read  in  the  public  service, 
or  sung,  with  that  addition,  as  was  practised, 
at  this  time,  by  the  Gallican  church?     In 
answer  to  the  first  question  the  pope,  having 
heard  with  great  attention,  "diligentissime 
auditis,"  the  authorities  the  envoys  produced 
to  satisfy  him  that  the  doctrine  of  the  Gallican 
church  was  entirely  agreeable  to  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Scriptures  and  the  fathers,  allow- 
ed it  to  be  an  article  of  faith  that  the  Holy 
Ghost  proceeded  from  the  Son  as  well  as 
from  the  Father,  and  at  the  same  time  de- 
clared   that   he  would    communicate   with 
none,  who  held  or  professed  the  opposite 
opinion.     Since  you  allow  it  to  be  an  article 
of  faith,   replied  the  envoys,  are   we  not 
bound  publicly  to  teach  it,  that  they,  who 
are  ignorant  of  it,  may  know  it,  and  they  be 
confirmed    in  it,  who  know  it?    You  are 
bound  to  teach  it,  answered  the  pope.     But 
can   one   be   saved,  said   the  envoys,  who 
either  does  not  know  this  doctrine,  or  does 
not  believe  it?     Whoever  has  heard  it,  re- 
plied the  pope,  and  has  penetration  enough 
to  understand  it,  but  yet  will  not  believe  it, 
cannot  be  saved.     In  our  holy  faith  there  are 
many  profound  mysteries,  which  some  do, 
and  some  do  not  understand  for  want  of  age 
or  capacity;  and  I  therefore  say,  that  who- 
ever understands  that  doctrine,  but  will  not 
believe  it,  cannot  be  saved.     Leo  was,  as  is 
manifest  from  this  answer,  of  opinion  that 
no  man  is  bound  to  bniieve  what  he  cannot 
understand.     But  by  his  successors  men  are 
daily  damned  for  not   believing  mysteries, 
•which  they  themselves  own  to  be  incom- 
prehensible,   that    is,    quite    unintelligible. 
Since  we  are  bound  to   teach  the  present 
doctrine,  answered  the  envoys,  have  we,  or 
have  we  not  done  amiss  in  adding  it  to  the 
symbol,  and  causing  it  to  be  read  and  sung 


there  in  our  service  ?     We  know  that  the 
words  "  and  from  the  Son"  were  not  put  into 
the  symbol  by  the  council,  that  composed  it, 
and  are  not  ignorant  that  the  following  coun- 
cils forbad  any  neAv  symbol  to  be  made,  or 
any  thing  to  be  added  to,  to  be  struck  out  of, 
or   to  be  changed    in   the  present  symbol. 
But  had  they  added  the  above  mentioned 
words,  we  should,  in  that  case,  be  allowed 
both  to  read  and  to  sing  them  in  our  service. 
And  are  they  not  to  blame  for  not  addingthem, 
since  by  the  addition  of  four  syllables  only 
"  filioque,  and  from  the  Son,"  they  would 
have  made  known  to  all  future  ages  so  im- 
portant a  mystery  ?     Had  they  added  them, 
replied  the  pope,  they  might  both  be  read 
and  sung  in  the  service :  but  as  I  dare  not 
say  they  would  have  done  amiss  had  they 
added  them,  neither  dare    I   say   they    did 
amiss  in  omitting  them,  and  forbidding  them, 
or  any  other  words  whatever  to  be  added  to 
their  symbol.     They  were  guided  and  direct- 
ed not  by  human  wisdom,  but  by  wisdom 
from  above.     But  you  seem  to  entertain  a 
mighty  opinion  of  yourselves.     As  for  me, 
far  from  preferring  myself  to  them,  I  should 
think  it  the  height  of  presumption  to  put  my- 
self upon  the  level  with  them.     Far  be  it 
from  us,  said  the  envoys  here  to  think  other- 
wise of  ourselves  :  we  mean  no  more  than  to 
be  useful  to  our  brethren  ;  and  as  many  have 
learnt  that  mystery  by  hearing  it  read  and 
sung  in  the  symbol,  who  otherwise  never 
would  have  known  it,  we  think  it  should 
rather  be  added  to  the  symbol,  than  so  many 
thousands  be  left  in  their  ignorance.     Here 
the  pope  asked  them,  whether  they  were  for 
adding  to  the  symbol  all  the  articles  of  the 
catholic  faith,  that  were  not  contained  in  it? 
And  upon  their  answering  that  they  were  not 
all  alike  necessary  to  salvation,  he  maintain- 
ed that  some  however  were,  but  being  press- 
ed by  the  envoys  to  point  them  out,  he  de- 
sired time  to  recollect  them,   that  nothing 
might  be  advanced  rashly  on  so  important  a 
subject.     And  thus  ended    the   first  day's 
conference. 

The  next  day  the  conference  was  resumed, 
when  the  pope,  to  prove  by  instances  the 
truth  of  what  he  had  advanced  the  day  before, 
asked  the  envoys  whether  they  thought  it 
more  necessary  to  believe,  or  more  dangerous 
not  to  believe,  that  the  Holy  Ghost  proceeded 
from  the  Son  as  well  as  from  the  Father, 
than  that  the  Son  was  the  Wisdom  begotten 
of  the  Wisdom,  was  the  Truth  begotten  of  the 
Truth,  and  yet  that  the  Father  and  the  Son 
were  by  nature  but  one  Wisdom,  one  Truth. 
They  could  not,  he  said,  think  it  more  ne- 
cessary to  believe,  or  more  dangerous  to  dis- 
believe the  one  article  than  tlie  other ;  and 
yet  they  were  not,  as  he  supposed,  for  ad- 
ding the  one  article  to  the  symbol  as  well  as 
the  other,  else  they  must  add  many  others 
no    less  important,   that  would  swell   the 


190 


THE  fflSTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Leo  III. 


The  emperor  Nicephorus  killed  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  811.]    Michael  Rhangabe  raised  to  the  throne, 
arch  Nicephorus  writes  to  the  pope  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  812.] 


The  patri- 


symbol  to  an  immoderate  length.  The  en- 
voys pleaded  the  practice  of  their  churches; 
adding,  that  were  they  now  to  strike  it  out 
of  the  symbol,  the  rule  of  their  faith,  the 
people  would  no  longer  deem  it  an  article 
of  faith,  but  rather  conclude  the  opposite 
doctrine  to  be  the  belief  and  the  doctrine  of 
the  church.  To  remedy  that  evil  the  pope 
proposed  the  following  expedient,  namely, 
not  to  strike  out  of  the  symbol  the  words 
"and  from  the  Son"  every  where  at  once, 
which  he  said  might  give  offence,  and  make 
a  great  noise ;  but  only  to  forbear  reading  it 
■with  that  addition  in  the  king's  chapel,  since 
a  practice,  once  established  there,  would 
soon  become  general,  and  be  readily  adopted 
by  all  other  churches.'  Whether  the  Galil- 
ean church  continued  to  keep  those  words 
in,  or  struck  them  out  of  the  symbol  agree- 
ably to  the  practice  of  the  Roman  church, 
and  the  advice  of  the  pope,  we  know  not. 
But  as  for  the  pope  himself,  to  show  that 
he  did  not  approve  of  that  addition,  he  caused 
two  tables  of  silver  to  be  set  up  at  the  tomb 
of  St.  Peter,  and  the  symbol  to  be  engraved 
in  Greek  on  the  one,  and  on  the  other  in 
Latin,  without  the  words  "  and  from  the 
Son,"2  which,  however,  were  by  his  suc- 
cessors afterwards  added  to  the  symbol,  on 
what  occasion  we  shall  see  in  the  sequel. 

In  the  mean  time  in  the  east  was  killed  in 
battle  by  the  Bulgarians^  the  emperor  Nice- 
phorus; and  Avith  him  was  cut  off  almost 
the  whole  army,  and  the  flower  of  the  no- 
bility of  the  empire.  His  body  being  found 
among  the  slain,  the  king  of  the  Bulgarians, 
having  caused  his  head  to  be  cut  off,  and 
kept  it  some  time  exposed  to  the  view  and 
the  insults  of  his  soldiery,  enclosed  the  skull 
in  silver,  and  used  it  thus  inclosed  instead 
of  a  cup.  Nicephorus  is  said  to  have  be- 
friended the  Manichees  and  the  Athingani,^ 
and  to  have  exceeded  all  the  princes  who 
reigned  before  him,  in  lewdness,  cruelty  and 
avarice.  But  it  is  to  be  observed,  that  he 
favored  the  Iconoclasts;  that  he  taxed  the 
clergy  as  well  as  the  laity ;  that  he  took  the 
vessels  of  silver  and  gold  from  the  churches 
to  defray  the  expenses  of  the  wars  he  waged 
with  the  enemies  of  the  Christian  religion 
and  the  empire ;  that  pursuant  to  the  decree 
of  a  council  held  at  Constantinople  he  ba- 
nished several  monks,  and  among  the  rest 


'  Concil.  t.  7.  1194.    Bar.  ad  Ann.  609,  p.  566. 

»  Anast.  in  Leon.  3. 

'  The  Athingani  were  a  race  of  people  who,  wan- 
dering from  their  native  country,  Phrygia  and  Lycao- 
nia,  first  into  Egypt,  and  from  thence  into  most  other 
countries,  lived  by  soothsaying  and  telling  of  fortunes. 
From  the  word  Athingani,  Goarus  derives  the  Italian 
word  Zingari,  in  English  gypsies,  and  pretends  the  pil- 
fering stragglers,  whom  tbe  Italians  call  Zingari,  and 
we  call  gypsies,  or  Egyptians,  to  come  originally  from 
them. — (Goar.  in  not.  ad  hunc  locum.)  The  Athin- 
gani were  baptized,  but  conformed  in  every  thing  else 
to  the  law  of  Mnses  and  the  ceremonies  of  the  Jews. 
The  emperor  Michael,  surnamed  Balbus,  is  said  to 
have  been  of  that  sect. —  (Constantin.  Porphyrogen, 
1.  2.  n.  3  ) 


the  two  great  saints  Theodore  Studiia  and 
Plato,  for  raising  disturbances  in  the  church, 
and  lastly,  that  he  drove  from  the  throne  the 
great  patroness  of  images  St.  Irene,  deprived 
her  of  the  power  she  had  acquired  by  the 
murder  of  her  son,  and  sent  her  into  exile. 
Nicephorus  being  dead,  Michael,  surnamed 
Rhangabe,  (the  name  of  his  grandfather) 
who  had  married  Procopia,  the  late  empe- 
ror's daughter,  was  by  the  senate,  and  the 
few  officers,  who  had  escaped  the  general 
slaughter,  proclaimed  emperor  in  his  room, 
and  on  the  5lh  of  October  of  the  present 
year  solemnly  crowned  by  the  patriarch.' 
He  enriched  with  magnificent  presents  the 
churches  and  monasteries;  recalled  from 
exile,  and  set  at  liberty  the  monks,  whom 
his  predecessor  had  banished  or  confined ; 
issued  an  edict  commanding  the  Manichees 
to  be  put  to  the  sword  throughout  the  em- 
pire, and  moved  with  divine  zeal,  spared 
none,  who  opposed  the  worship  of  images, 
or  refused  to  worship  them ;  caused  a  her- 
mit, who  had  impiously  presumed  to,  take 
down  an  image  of  the  virgin  Mary,  to  be 
apprehended,  and  his  tongue  to  be  plucked 
out,  which  was  attended  with  the  death  both 
of  his  body  and  his  soul ;  alloAved  no  liberty 
of  conscience,  but  obliged  all  to  profess  the 
same  faith,  shewing  no  mercy  to  those  who 
dissented  from  the  church,  and  was  there- 
fore a  prince,  or  is  represented  by  the  wri- 
ters of  those  times  as  a  prince,  in  whom 
centered  all  virtues,  without  the  allay  of  one 
single  vice. 

He  was  no  sooner  raised  to  the  throne 
than  Nicephorus,  who  had  succeeded  Tara- 
sius  in  the  see  of  Constantinople  ever  since 
the  year  806,  but  had  not  been  allowed  by 
the  late  emperor  to  keep  any  correspondence 
with  Rome,  wrote  a  long  letter  to  the  pope 
to  acquaint  him  with  his  promotion,  to  give 
him  an  account  of  his  faith,  which  he  said 
was  entirely  agreeable  to  that  of  the  Roman 
church,  the  mother  of  all  churches,  and  to 
beg  his  communion.  From  his  letter  it  ap- 
pears, that  he  had  succeeded  Tarasius  in  the 
office  of  secretary  to  Constantine  and  Irene, 
and  that  tired  of  the  world,  he  had  resigned 
his  employment  and  retired  to  the  desert, 
but  upon  the  death  of  Tarasius  had  been 
recalled  by  the  emperor  Nicephorus  to  Con- 
stantinople, and  obliged,  though  yet  a  lay- 
man, to  accept  of  the  patriarchal  dignity .^ 
He  pleaded  for  his  not  writing  sooner,  as  he 
ought  to  have  done,  and  would  have  done 
with  great  pleasure,  the  prohibition  of  the 
emperor  jealous  of  any  intercourse  between 
the  two  sees  ;  and  with  his  letter  he  sent,  as 
a  present  to  his  fellow  bishop,  a  rich  "encol- 
pium,"  that  is,  a  reliquary  in  the  form  of  a 
cross  containing  a  piece  of  the  true  cross,  or 
the  reliques  of  some  saint.^    These  "encol- 


•  Theoph.  ad  Ann.  Mich.  1. 
3  Ep.  Niceph.  apud  Bar.  ad  Ann.  811.  p.  582. 
3  Vide  Ducang.  ad  Alexiad.  Anme  Comneni,  p.  247. 
&.  eeq. 


Leo  III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


191 


Michael  resigns  the  empire  to   Leo,  the  Armenian  ; — 

Christ 

piums"  bishops  used  to  wear  in  those  days 
hanging  from  their  necks.  The  patriarch 
takes  care  to  declare,  with  great  zeal,  for  the 
worship  of  images  as  a  practice  coeval  with 
the  Christian  religion,  and  does  not  at  all 
doubt  but  that  he  shall  soon  have  the  satis- 
faction of  seeing  it  universally  established 
by  the  vigilant  care,  and  indefatigable  zeal 
of  the  most  religious  emperor,  who  seems 
to  have  been  sent  down  for  that  purpose 
from  heaven. 

But  that  satisfaction  the  good  patriarch 
never  enjoyed,  the  most  religious  emperor 
resigning  the  empire,  when  he  had  held  it 
scarce  two  years,  and  another,  as  zealous  an 
enemy  to  images  as  he  was  a  friend,  being 
raised  to  the  throne  in  his  room.  For  Mi- 
chael being  most  shamefully  defeated  by  the 
Bulgarians,  with  the  loss  of  almost  his 
whole  army,  he  was  affected  with  that  mis- 
fortune to  such  a  degree,  that  he  resolved  to 
quit  the  empire,  and  resign  it  to  one  more 
capable  of  defending  it  than  himself.  The 
person  he  chose  was  Leo,  surnamed  from  his 
country  the  Armenian,  who  had  distinguish- 
ed himself  on  all  occasions  by  his  courage 
and  conduct,  and  was  deemed  at  that  time  the 
best  commander  in  the  whole  empire.  But 
Leo  opposed  his  choice ;  and  he  was  the  only 
person  in  the  empire  who  opposed  it ;  nor 
could  he  be  prevailed  upon  to  yield  to  the 
earnest  entreaties  of  the  senate,  the  patri- 
arch, and  the  soldiery,  till  news  was  brought 
him,  that  the  king  of  the  Bulgarians,  elated 
with  his  late  success,  was  advancing  with 
long  marches  to  the  imperial  city.  He  then 
accepted  the  empire  to  save  it,  and  was  so- 
lemnly crowned  by  the  patriarch  amidst  the 
loud  acclamations  of  the  people;  which.Mi- 
chael  no  sooner  understood,  than  he  retired 
with  his  wife  and  his  children  to  the  monas- 
tery of  Pharus,  and  there  they  all  took  the 
monastic  habit,  lest  living  in  the  world  they 
should  give  occasion  of  jealousy  to  the  new 
emperor.  In  the  mean  time  the  king  of  the 
Bulgarians  advancing  to  the  very  gates  of 
the  imperial  city,  Leo  marched  out  against 
him  with  the  few  troops,  that  had  escaped 
the  late  slaughter,  and  obliged  him  to  retire. 
He  withdrew  to  Adrianople,and  having  close- 
ly besieged  that  city,  he  reduced  it  at  last.' 


'  Theoph.  ad  Ann.  Tncar.  secund.  Alexandrin.  805. 

Thus  Theophancs,  who  lived  at  this  time  in  Con- 
stantinople, and  was  an  eye-witness  of  what  he  wrote. 
But  the  emperor  Constantine  Porphyrogoiinetus,  who 
relijned  in  the  heu'inning  of  the  followinp;  century, 
gives  us  a  very  ditTerent  account  of  the  promotion  of 
Leo.  For  he  tells  us,  that  the  emperor  had  tlie  advan- 
tage in  the  engagement  with  the  Bulgarians  till  Leo, 
who  aspired  to  the  empire,  and  was  sensible  he  could 
never  attain  it,  should  Michael  return  victorious  to 
Constantinople,  drew  off  the  forces  under  his  com- 
mand ;  which  so  disheartened  the  imperial  troops, 
that  they  immediately  betook. themselves  to  a  disor- 
derly flight,  and  left' the  Dulgarians  masters  of  the 
field.  He  adds,  that  the  emperor  from  the  field  of 
battle  fled  to  Constantinople,  and  that  Leo,  by  inveigh- 
ing against  him,  in  his  absence,  as  a  weak,  etfeminate 
and  cowardly  prince,  prevailed  on  the  soldiery  to  offer 
the   empire    to   him.     Thus    Porphyrogennetus.   and 


[Year  of  Christ,  813.]     Charlemagne  dies  ;— [Year  of 
,814.] 

With  these  words  Theophanes  closes  his 
chronography  begun  with  the  first  year  of 
the  reign  of  Dioclesian.'  Of  the  zeal  of  the 
new  emperor  for  the  purity  of  the  Christian 
religion,  and  his  indefatigable  endeavors  to 
banish  from  the  church,  and  the  empire,  the 
worship  of  images,  which  he  thought  in- 
consistent with  that  purity,  I  shall  have  oc- 
casion to  speak  in  the  sequel.  To  return  in 
the  mean  time  to  the  west. 

The  following  year,  814,  died  at  Aix-la- 
Chapelle,  the  great  friend  of  the  popes,  and 
the  chief  author  of  their  temporal  grandeur 
the  emperor  Charlemagne  f  and  no  sooner 
was  the  news  of  his  death  brought  to  Rome, 
than  the  relations  of  the  late  pope  Hadrian, 
and  their  partisans,  who  had  used  the  pre- 
sent pope  with  so  much  barbarity  in  the  be- 
after  him  Cedrenus  with  the  whole  tribe  of  the  more 
modern  writers  both  Greek  and  Latin,  all  prejudiced 
to  such  a  degree  against  Leo,  on  account  of  his  aver- 
sion to  images,  as  to  prefer  tiie  authority  of  an  histo- 
rian, who  lived  an  hundred  years  after  those  times, 
and  was  no  less  biassed  than  they,  to  that  of  one,  who 
lived  at  that  very  time,  who  was  an  eye-witness  of 
what  he  wrote,  and  whose  testimony  on  all  other  oc- 
casions they  quote  as  decisive.  Porphyrogennetus 
himself  owns  ttial  according  to  some  writers,  the  em- 
peror's guards  and  those  about  him,  were  the  first, 
who  fled;  that  Leo  fought  valiantly,  and  that  the  em- 
peror, in  retiring  from  the  army,  left  Leo  behind  him 
as  a  bulwark  to  awe  the  barbarians,  and  restrain  them 
from  ravaging  the  country  and  destroying  the  inha- 
bitants.—(Porpliyr.  ad  Ann.  1.  Leon.) 

'  The  chronography  of  Theophanes  was  continued 
by  the  following  writers,  namely,  Leo,  surnamed  the 
Grammarian,  was  contemporary  with  those,  whose 
actions  he  relates;  an  anonymous  author,  who  wrote 
the  most  remarkable  events  of  the  reign  of  the  present 
emperor  Leo  the  Armenian,  and  is  supposed  to  have 
flourished  in  his  time  ;  the  emperor  Constantine  Por- 
phyrogennetus, who  was  raised  to  the  empire  in  the 
beginning  of  the  tenth  century;  Simeon  Metaphras- 
tes,  and  a  monk  named  George.  But,  with  respect  to 
these  writers,  it  is  to  be  observed,  that  they  were  all 
no  less  zealous  advocates  for  the  worship  of  images 
than  Theophanes  himself,  and  consequently  no  Ies3 
biassed  in  favor  of  those,  who  promoted  that  worship, 
than  prejudiced  against  all,  who  opposed  it.  Hence 
we  siiall  frequently  find  the  best  of  men,  who  were 
enemies  to  images,  painted  by  them,  without  any  re- 
gard to  truth  or  to  conscience,  as  the  worst,  and  the 
worst,  who  were  or  pretended  to  be,  friends  to  images, 
represented  and  e.xtolled  as  the  best. 

^  He  died  on  the  28th  of  January,  and  was  buried  the 
same  day.  Indeed  that  custom  obtained,  generally 
speaking,  during  the  eight  first  ages  of  the  church; 
and  hence  the  day,  on  which  even  those  popes  were 
buried,  who  were  not  buried,  as  it  happened  to  some, 
till  three  or  four  days  after  their  death,  is  marked  in 
some  pontificals  as  the  day  of  their  death.  Over  the 
tomb  of  the  deceased  emperor  was  raised  a  kind  of 
triumphal  arch  with  the  following  epitaph  :  "  Sub  hoc 
conditoiiositum  est  corpus  Karoli,  magni  atque  ortho- 
doxi  imperatoris,  qui  regnum  Francorum  nobiliter 
ampliavit,  &  per  annos  XLVII.  feliclter  tenuit.  De- 
cessit  septuagenarius  anno  ab  incarnatione  Domini 
DCCC.XIV.  indictione  VIL  V  kalend.  Februarias. 
It  is  to  be  observed  that  in  his  epitaph  he  is  not  sur- 
named the  Great,  but  styled  Charles,  great  emperor  ; 
and  thus  he  styled  himself,  in  imitation  of  the  Greek 
emperors,  in  all  his  diplomas,  that  are  known  to  be 
authentic.  Those  therefore,  in  which  he  is  called 
Charlemagne  or  "Charles'the  Great,"  may  be  justly 
looked  upon  as  supposititious.  Charlemagne  was,  as 
we  have  seen,  no  less  averse  to  the  worship  of  images 
than  the  emperor  Leo  or  his  son  Constantine ;  but  yet 
as  he  was  a  friend  to  the  popes,  as  ho  made  it  his 
study  to  aggrandize  and  enrich  them,  his  heresy  was 
by  them  overlooked,  and  he  extolled  as  a  most  pious, 
a  most  religious,  a  most  Christian  prince  at  the  same 
lime  that  they  inveighed  against  Leo  and  Constantine, 
though  guilty  of  no  other  heresy,  as  the  worst  of 
heretics. 


192 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Stephen  IV. 


Conspiracy  against  the  pope,  who  puts  all  to  death  concerned  in  it; — [Year  of  Christ,  815.]  Leo  dies; — 
[Year  of  Christ,  816.]  In  Leo's  time,  the  right  hand  first  deemed  the  most  honorable.  Stephen  chosen. 
He  obliges  the  Romans  to  take  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  Lewis. 


ginning  of  iiis  pontificate,  conspired  against 
him  anew  with  a  design,  not  only  to  depose 
but  to  murder  him.  But  the  plot  being  dis- 
covered before  it  was  ripe  for  execution,  the 
pope  caused  all  who  were  concerned  in  it  to 
be  apprehended,  and  put  to  death  without 
mercy.  This  severity  was  not  at  all  pleasing 
to  the  new  emperor  Lewis,  surnamed  the 
Debonnaire,  who  had  succeeded  his  father 
Charlemagne  in  the  empire  of  the  west ; 
and  he  was  no  sooner  informed  of  it,  than 
he  commanded  his  nephew  Bernard,  king 
of  Italy,  10  repair  forthwith  to  Rome,  in 
order  to  take  cognizance  of  the  whole  affair 
upon  the  spot.  The  king,  having  spent 
some  time  at  Rome  in  examining  the  ene- 
mies, as  well  as  the  friends  of  the  pope, 
and  receiving  the  depositions  of  men  of  both 
parties,  dispatched  count  Gerholt  with  an 
account  of  the  whole  into  France.  At  the 
same  time  the  pope  sent  .Tohn,  bishop,  Theo- 
dore, nomenclator,  and  duke  Sergius,  with 
the  character  of  his  legates,  to  justify  his 
conduct  to  the  emperor,  and  clear  him  from 
the  crimes  that  were  laid  to  his  charge; 
which  they  are  said  to  have  done  to  the  en- 
tire satisfaction  of  Lewis.'  But  the  pope 
being,  in  the  mean  time,  seized  with  a  dan- 
gerous malady,  the  people  rose  in  a  tumul- 
tuous manner,  burnt  or  pulled  down  all  the 
farm  houses  he  had  built  in  the  country, 
plundered  the  farms,  td  recover,  they  said, 
what  had  been  unjustly  taken  from  them, 
and  would  have  committed  great  disorders 
in  Rome  itself,  had  they  not  been  prevented 
by  Winigisus,  duke  of  Spoleti,  sent  by  Ber- 
nard, king  of  Italy,  with  a  body  of  troops 
to  quell  and  disperse  the  riotous  multitude.^ 
The  pope  was  taken  ill  in  the  beginning 
of  the  year  816 ;  and  he  died  of  that  illness 
on  the  eleventh  of  June,  having  borne  it  the 
whole  time  with  great  resignation  and  ex- 
emplary patience.  He  had  governed  the 
Roman  church  twenty  years,  five  months, 
and  sixteen  days ;  and  being  himself  en- 
riched by  the  unparalleled  generosity  of 


Charlemagne,  he  more  enriched  the  churches 
of  Rome  with  costly  and  valuable  ornaments 
than  all  his  predecessors  together.  He  was 
buried  in  the  Vatican  ;  and  in  process  of 
time  an  altar  was  built  over  his  tomb,  and 
under  the  altar  were  deposited  together  with 
his,  the  bodies  of  Leo  I.  II.  and  IV.  as  ap- 
pears from  the  stone  that  was  placed  over 
their  bodies  by  pope  Paschal  II.  in  the  close 
of  the  eleventh  century,  with  the  following 
epitaph  :  "  Under  this  altar  lie  the  bodies  of 
the  holy  pontifls  and  confessors,  Leo  I.  II. 
III.  and  IV.'"  In  the  year  1608,  the  bodies 
of  these  four  popes  were  translated  by  Paul 
V.  from  the  old  to  the  new  church  of  St. 
Peter;  and  there  they  are  all  four  worshiped 
to  this  day  ,2  though  Leo  III.  has  not  yet  been 
honored  with  a  place  in  the  calendar.  Of 
this  pope  we  are  told,  that  he  used  to  say 
seven  masses,  and  said  sometimes  nine  on 
one  day.''  Indeed  it  was  no  unusual  thing 
for  a  priest  to  say  what  number  of  masses 
he  pleased  till  the  time  of  pope  Alexander 
II.,  who  about  the  year  1070,  restrained  all 
priests  to  two  masses  only,  the  one  for  the 
living,  and  the  other  for  the  dead.  They 
were  afterwards  confined  by  Innocent  III. 
and  Honorius  III.,  to  one  mass  a  day,  the 
festival  of  our  Savior's  nativity  excepted, 
when  all  are  still  allowed  to  say  three.* 

It  is  observable,  that  in  the  time  of  Leo 
III.,  the  right  hand  began  first  to  be  deemed 
the  most  honorable,  St.  Paul  being  constantly 
placed  on  the  right  hand  of  St.  Peter  in  all 
the  mosaic  pieces  or  pictures  of  those  two 
apostles,  that  were  done  before  his  time,  and 
as  constantly  on  his  left  in  all,  that  were 
done  in  his  time.  However,  upon  his  death 
the  ancient  custom  took  place  anew,  and 
the  two  apostles  were  represented  in  the 
same  manner  after  his  time  as  before  it,  till 
the  pontificate  of  Nicholas  IV.  raised  to  the 
see  in  1288,  when  the  right  hand  was  deemed 
again  the  most  honorable ;  and  so  it  has 
continued  to  be  deemed  from  that  time  to  the 
present.^ 


STEPHEN  IV.,  NINETY-SIXTH  BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[Leo  ARmEavs,  Emperor  of  the  East. — Lewis  the  DEBONtiAiRE,  Emperor  of  the  West.} 


[Year  of  Christ,  816.]  In  the  room  of 
Leo  was  chosen,  after  a  vacancy  of  ten 
days,  Stephen,  the  fourth  of  that  name.  He 
was  a  native  of  Rome,  of  an  illustrious 
family,  had  been  educated  in  the  Lateran 
under  pope  Hadrian,  and  ordained  first  sub- 
deacon,  and  afterwards  deacon  by  Leo,  who 
entertained,  as  well  as  the  people,  and  the 

'  Anast.  in  Leon.  III.  Eginhard.  in  Annal.  ad  Ann. 
815.  -  Astron.  in  vit.  Ludovic.  Pii. 


rest  of  the  clergy,  a  mighty  opinion  of  his 
virtue  and  learning. 

He  was  no  sooner  ordained  than  he  re- 
quired the  whole  people  of  Rome  to  take  the 
same  oath  of   allegiance   to   the   emperor 

1  Vide  Aleman.  in  Pariet.  Lateran.  c.  10. 
a  Henschen  ad  diem  xi.  April. 
3  Walfrid.  Strabo  de  reb  Ecclesiast.  c.  21. 
'  Vide  Card.  Bona  rer.  Liturgic.  1. 1.  c.  18.  Sc  Marten 
de  Antiquis  Eccles.  ritib.  1.  1.  c.  3. 
5  Vide  Paperbroc.  in  Conatu.  Chron.  Hist. 


Paschal.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


193 


Stephen  goe3  into  France.     Crowns  the  emperor.     Returns  to  Rome.     Stephen  dies ;— [Year  of  Christ,  817.] 
Paschal  chosen.     Sends  legates  to  acquaint  the  emperor  with  his  promotion. 


Lewis,  which  they  had  taken,  under  his 
predecessors,  to  his  father  Charlemagne.  At 
the  same  lime  he  dispatched  legates  into 
France  to  acquaint  the  emperor  with  his 
promotion,  and  signify  to  him  his  earnest 
desire  of  conferring  with  him  in  person  in 
what  place  soever  he  should  think  fit  to  ap- 
point.' The  emperor  readily  complied  with 
liis  desire,  ordered  his  nephew  Bernard, 
king  of  Italy,  to  attend  him  on  his  journey, 
and  having  appointed  the  city  of  Reims  for 
the  place  of  their  meeting,  he  repaired 
thither,  in  person,  as  soon  as  he  heard  of 
his  arrival  in  France.  When  the  pope  was 
yet  at  some  distance  from  the  city,  he  sent 
out  Hildebald,  his  first  chaplain,  Theodulph, 
bishop  of  Orleans,  and  John,  archbishop  of 
Aries,  attended  by  a  great  number  of  other 
ecclesiastics,  all  in  their  sacerdotal  attire,  to 
meet  him,  and  went  in  person,  as  he  ap- 
proached the  city,  with  all  the  great  lords 
of  the  court  to  receive  him.  He  waited  his 
arrival  on  horse-back  at  the  monastery  of 
St.  Remigius,  a  little  way  out  of  the  city, 
and  dismounting  as  his  holiness  approached, 
he  fell  three  times  prostrate  on  the  ground, 
welcoming  him  with  the  words  of  the  Scrip- 
ture, "  blessed  is  he,  who  cometh  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord."  The  pope  dismounted 
at  the  same  time,  and  raising  the  emperor 
from  the  ground  returned  thanks  to  the  Al- 
mighty for  granting  him  the  wished  for  sa- 
tisfaction of  seeing  a  second  king  David. 
They  then  embraced  each  other  with  great 
affection  and  tenderness,  and  walking  to- 
gether, with  all  their  attendants,  to  the 
church,  assisted  at  the  Te  Deum,  which 
was  sung  with  the  utmost  solemnity.  After 
the  Te  Deum  they  prayed  in  silence  till  the 
pope  rising  up  sung  a  hymn  with  his  clergy 
in  praise  of  the  emperor,  which  ended  with 
a  prayer  for  his  health  and  his  welfare. 
From  the  church  the  pope  withdrew  with 
the  emperor  into  the  monastery,  and  there 
acquainted  him  with  themotivesof  his  jour- 
ney, laying  before  him  the  slate  of  the  church 
and  the  city  of  Rome.  As  the  pope  was 
not  a  little  fatigued  with  his  journey,  the 


emperor  leaving  him  after  a  very  short  con- 
ference, returned  to  the  city.' 

The  next  day  the  emperor  made  a  grand 
entertainment  lor  the  pope;  and  the  day  fol- 
lowing the  pope  made  the  like  entertainment 
for  the  emperor.  One  of  the  chief  motives 
of  the  popes  journey  into  France  was,  it 
seems,  to  have  the  satisfaction  of  conse- 
crating and  crowning  the  emperor;  and  that 
ceremony  he  performed,  with  great  solemnity 
the  first  Sunday  after  his  arrival  at  Reims. 
He  crowned  both  the  emperor,  and  his  wife 
Hermenegard,  whom  he  styled  empress, 
with  crowns  of  gold,  enriched  with  a  great 
number  of  precious  stones,  which  he  had 
brought  with  him  for  that  purpose  fromRome. 
He  is  said  to  have  made  many  other  valuable 
presents  to  the  emperor,  and  to  have  received 
presents  from  him  in  return  three  times  their 
value.2  Anastasius  tells  us  that  the  emperor 
even  gave  a  village  to  St.  Peter,  on  the  borders 
of  France,  to  be  forever  possessed  by  him  and 
his  successors.3  The  pope  having  spent  two 
months  in  France,  frequently  conferring 
with  the  emperor  about  the  state  of  the 
church  and  the  government  of  Rome,  set 
out  from  Reims  in  the  beginning  of  October 
on  his  return  to  Italy,  accompanied  by  some 
of  the  great  lords  of  the  Court,  whom  the 
emperor  had  appointed  to  attend  him  to 
Rome.  Before  he  left  France  he  gave  the 
pall  to  Theodulph,  bishop  of  Orleans;  and 
thenceforth  we  find  that  prelate  constantly 
distinguished  with  the  title  of  archbishop; 
though  instances  are  not  wanting  of  bishops, 
after,  as  well  as  before  the  time  of  Theodulph, 
who,  though  distinguished  with  the  pall, 
were  not  distinguished  with  that  title. 

Of  this  pope  we  hear  no  more  till  the 
time  of  his  death,  which  happened  on  the 
24th  of  January,  817,  about  three  months 
after  his  return  to  Rome,  and  seven  after  his 
promotion.  He  died,  it  seems,  suddenly,  a 
rescript  being  still  to  be  seen,  that  was  signed 
by  him  the  day  preceding  his  death.''  He  is 
said  in  the  copies  of  Anastasius  by  a  gross 
mistake,  no  doubt  of  the  transcribers,  to  have 
held  the  see  seven  years  and  as  many  months. 


PASCHAL,  NINETY-SEVENTH  BISHOP  OF  KOME. 

[Leo  Armenus,  Michael  Balbus,  Emperors  of  the  East. — Lewis  the  Debonnaire,  and 
LoTHARius,  Emperors  of  the  West.'\ 


[Year  of  Christ  817.]  Stephen  was 
buried  on  the  25th  of  January,  the  next  day 
after  his  death,  and  on  the  same  day  the 
senate,  the  clergy  and  the  people  chose  wilh 
one  voice  Paschal  in  his  room.  He  was 
by  birth  a  Roman,  the  son  of  Bonosus,  and 


Vol.  II.— 25 


Tbegan.  c.  16. 


at  the  time  of  his  election  abbot  of  the  mo- 
nastery of  the  protomartyr  St.  Stephen.* 

The  first  care  of  the  new  pope  was  to  ac- 
quaint the  emperor  Lewis  with  his  promo- 

<  Eginhard.  in  Annat.  Thegan.  Auctor.  vit.  Ludovic. 
Pii 
"  Thegan.  »  Anast.  in  Steph.  IV. 

*  Apud  Ducbesn.  t.  3.  p.  655.    <  Anast  in  Pasch. 

R 


194 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Paschal. 


The  emperor  confirms  the  donations  of  his  father  and  grandfather,  but  adds  nothing  to   them.     Theodore 
Studita  implores  the  protection  of  the  pope  against  the  Iconoclasts; — [Year  of  Christ,  818.] 


tion,  and  he  dispatched  accordingly,  as  soon 
as  he  was  ordained,  his  nomenclator  Theodore 
for  that  purpose  into  France.     He  was,  it 
seems,  cliarged  by  some  with  having  raised 
himself,  by  unlawful  means,  to  the  chair ; 
in  the  letter  he  wrote, after  his  ordination,  to 
the  emperor,  he  takes  great  pains  to  satisfy 
him,  that  far  from  aspiring  to  the  pontifical 
dignity,  he  had  declined  it  till  the  people 
forced  him,  and  much  against  his  will,  to 
acquiesce  in  the  choice  they  had  unanimously 
made.     As  that  letter  is  by  a  contemporary 
historian  styled   an  apology,'  Platina   and 
after  him  Ciaconius  suppose  it  to  have  been 
written   by  the   pope  to  apologize  for   his 
having  suffered  himself  to  be  ordained  before 
his  election  was  approved  by  the  emperor. 
But  there  was  no  decree  at  this  time  either 
of  the  pope  or  the  emperor  of  the  west  for- 
bidding the  pope  to  be  ordained  till  his  elec- 
tion was  notified  to  and  approved  by  the  em- 
peror.    I  say  of  the  emperor  of  the  west;  for 
that  custom  had  indeed  obtained  while  the 
emperors  of  the  east  were  masters  of  Italy  ; 
and  they  took  care,  as  we   have   seen,  to 
have  it  strictly  complied  with  till  the  popes, 
shaking  off  all  dependence  upon  them,  be- 
came their  own  masters.     From  that  time, 
that  is,  from  the  time  of  pope  Zachary  raised 
to  the  see  in  741,  they  continued  to  be  or- 
dained, without  the  approbation  of  the  em- 
peror either  of  the  east  or  the  west,  till  the 
year  825,  the  second  o(  pope  Eugene  II., 
who  revived  the  ancient  custom  in  favor  of 
the  emperor  Lotharius  and  his  successors  in 
the  empire,  as  I  shall  relate  in  the  sequel. 

The  emperor  received  Theodore  with  ex- 
traordinary marks  of  respect  and  esteem, 
honoring  in  him  the  vicar  of  St.  Peter,  whom 
he  represented,  and  in  the  vicar  of  St.  Peter 
the  apostle  himself;  assured  him  of  his  in- 
violable attachment  to  the  apostolic  see,  and 
declared  himself  unalterably  determined  to 
maintain,  if  necessary,  with  the  whole 
strength  of  his  kingdoms,  the  prince  of  the 
apostles  and  his  successors,  in  the  quiet  pos 
session  of  all  his  father  and  grandfather  had 
by  their  religion  and  piety  been  prompted  to 
give  them.2  Lewis  is  said  to  have  not  only 
confirmed  on  this  occasion  but  enlarged  their 
donations,  adding  by  the  famous  decree  Ego 
Ludovicus  the  islands  of  Corsica,  Sardinia, 
and  Sicily  to  the  domains  given  to  St.  Peter 
by  Pepin  and  Charlemagne.''  But  that  the 
donation  of  Lewis  yielding  those  islands  to 
St.  Peter  is  quite  of  a  piece  with  the  dona- 
tion of  Constantine  the  Great  yielding  all 
Italy  to  St.  Peter  may  be  easily  demonstrated. 
I.  For  the  donations  of  Pepin  and  Charle- 
magne are  frequently  mentioned  by  the 
popes,  but  by  none  of  them  ever  is  made  the 
least  mention  of  the  pretended  donation  of 


^  Auct.  vit.  Ludovic.  Pii. 

2  Eginhard.    in   Annal.  Auctor.  vit.    Ludovic.  Pii, 
Anast.  in  Eugen. 

3  Apud  Gtatian.  Dist.  63. 


Lewis  ;  and  he  is  only  commended  by  them 
for  generously  confirming  the  donations  of 
his  father  and  grandfather.     II.  The  empe- 
rors Otho  I.,  and  Henry  I.,  enumerate  all 
the  countries  and  places  in  particular,  that 
were  given  by  Pepin  and  Charlemagne  to 
St.  Peter  and  his  church,  and  confirm  their 
donations  ;  but  knew  of  none,  at  least  take 
notice  of  none,  that  were  given  to  St.  Peter 
or  his  church  by  the  emperor  Lewis.'     III. 
Lewis  is  supposed  by  his  donation  to  have 
yielded  to  the  apostolic  see  the  islands  of 
Corsica,  Sardinia  and  Sicily.     But  he  never 
was  master  of  Sicily,  nor  indeed  was  any  of 
that  race,  the  island  of  Sicily  having  been 
possessed  by  the  emperors  of  the  east  till 
the  year  827,  when  it  was  betrayed  to  the 
Saracens.     IV.  Lewis  in  the  instrument  of 
his  supposed  donation  is  made  to  decree,  that 
the  pope  lawfully  chosen  shall  thenceforth  be 
ordained  without  delay,  and  that  after  his 
ordination  he  shall  send  legates  to  acquaint 
therewith  the  emperor  and  his  successors  in 
the  empire.     But  it  is  very  certain,  that  by 
pope  Eugene  II.,  the  immediate  successor 
of  the  present  pope,  a  decree  was  issued  at 
the  request,  not  to  say  the  command,  of  Lo- 
tharius, the  son  and  colleague  of  Lewis  in 
the  empire,  forbidding  the  new  pope,  how 
lawfully  soever  chosen,  to  be  ordained  till  his 
election  was  approved  by  the  emperor,  or  the 
deputies  he  should  appoint  to  assist  at  his  ordi- 
nation.    Had  Lewis,  out  of  his  great  regard 
for  the  apostolic  see,  enacted  the  above-men- 
tioned decree,  he  would  not  have  suffered  it 
to  be  thus  in  a  few  years  reversed  and  an- 
nulled.    The  decree  of  pope  Eugene  was 
observed  with  the  greatest  strictness,  during 
the  whole  ninth  century ;  and  I  do  not  find, 
that  the  Roman  clergy,  though  they  fre- 
quently and  loudly  complained  of  it,  ever 
pleaded  the  decree  of  the  emperor  Lewis  to 
exempt  themselves  from  complying  with  it, 
which  they  certainly  would  have  done,  had 
they  known  of  any  such  decree.     Upon  the 
whole,  the  donation  of  Lewis  was  as  evi- 
dently forged  as  that  of  Constantine,  and 
probably  forged  in  the  latter  end  of  the  ele- 
venth century,  Leo  Ostensis,  who  died  in 
the  beginning  of  the  twelfth,  being  the  first 
who  mentions  it,  telUng  us,  that  it  was  made 
to  St.  Peter  and  his  vicar  pope  Paschal,  in 
the  palace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  in  the  year 
817.2 

The  election  of  Paschal  was  no  sooner 
known  in  the  east  than  the  famous  monk 
Theodore  Studita,  abbot  of  the  monastery 
of  Studius  in  the  suburbs  of  Constantino- 
ple, wrote  to  him  in  his  own  name,  and  in 
the  name  of  four  other  abbots,  to  acquaint 
him  with  the  cruel  persecution  the  orthodox, 
that  is,  the  worshipers  of  images,  suffered 
under  the  Iconoclast  emperor  Leo,  and  im- 


1  Vide  Baron,  ad  Annos  62.  &  1014. 
3  Leo  Ostiens.  Chron.  Cassin,  1. 1.  c.  18. 


Paschal.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  Rome; 


idg 


The  emperor's  opinion  of  image  worship. 


plore  his  protection.'     In  his  letter  he  ex- 
horts the  pope  to  exert  all  his  zeal  on  so 

'  Of  this  persecution,  as  they  call  it,  the  writers  of 
those  days  give  us  the  following  account.  Leo,  hav- 
ing by  a  reniarkuble  victory  over  the  Bulgarians, 
whose  numerous  arniy  he  entirely  cut  off,  established 
himself  firmly  on  the  throne,  undertook  to  reform 
the  abuses,  lliat  prevailed  in  the  church,  and  what  to 
liim  seemed  most  of  all  to  stand  in  need  of  a  reforma- 
tion, the  worship  of  images.  For  whether  he  had 
been  always  in  his  heart  an  enemy  to  images,  as  some 
write,  or  was  but  lately  seduced,  as  others  will  have 
it,  by  a  monk  named  Sabbatius,  and  persuaded  that 
God  alone  was  to  be  worshiped,  certain  it  is,  that  in 
the  year  814,  the  second  of  his  reign,  he  first  showed 
himself  olTended  at  the  worship,  that  wag  given  to 
images,  and  strongly  inclined  to  banish  it,  as  repug- 
nant, in  his  opinion,  to  the  law  of  God,  from  the 
church  and  the  empire.  However,  not  to  trust  to  his 
own  judgment  alone,  though  he  had,  it  seems,  perused, 
and  with  great  attention,  the  acts  of  tlie  two  preced- 
ing councils,  of  the  council  of  Constantinople  under 
Copronymus  against  images,  and  of  Nice  under  Irene 
in  their  favor,  tie  would  take  no  step  in  a  matter  of 
such  importance  till  he  had  consulted  the  patriarch,  as 
well  as  the  bishops  and  all  the  men  of  character  at  tliat 
time  in  the  imperial  city,  and  heard  the  point  fairly 
debated,  in  his  presence,  by  the  learned  of  both  par- 
ties. Having  therefore  assembled,  in  the  imperial 
palace,  a  great  number  of  bishops  with  the  patriarch, 
the  senate,  the  chief  of  the  clergy,  and  the  abbots  of 
all  the  monasteries  in  Constantinople,  and  its  neigh- 
borhood, lie  is  said,  but  very  improbably,  to  have 
taken  an  image  of  our  Savior  out  of  his  bosom,  and 
kissing  it,  to  have  addressed  them  thus  :  "  I  agree,  as 
you  see,  in   opinion  with  you.     But  some  there  are. 


urgent  an  occasion,  to  assemble  a  council, 
and  to  anathematize,  together  with  the  other 

pel,  or  doctrine,  than  what  we  have  received.  The 
holy  synod,  assembled  at  Nice  by  the  pious  emperors 
Constantine  and  Irene,  condemned  those,  who  first 
taught  that  images  were  not  to  be  worshiped;  and 
that  synod  the  Son  of  God  signed  with  his  own  hand. 
If  any  man  therefore  shall  pesunie  to  contradict  or  to 
alter  it,  let  him  be  accursed.  That  the  practice  of 
setting  up  images  in  churches,  or  places  of  worship, 
was  not  introduced  till  the  latter  end  of  the  fourth 
century,  nor  the  practice  of  worshiping  them  till  the 
latter  end  of  the  seventh,  or  the  beginning  of  the  eighth 
has  been  shown  in  the  present  volume  ;  (See  p.  40. 
43.)  and  consequently  that  neither  was  a  practice  de- 
rived from  the  apostles,  or  the  primitive  martyrs  and 
fathers.  Theodore  Studita,  the  famous  champion  of 
images,  pretended,  that  the  emperor  was  not  at  all  to 
concern  himself  with  the  church,  or  the  affairs  of  the 
church,  "God,"  said  he  with  the  words  of  the  apostle, 
"having  set  some  in  the  church,  first  apostles,  second- 
arily prophets,  thirdly  teachers,"  made  no  mention  of 
kings,  who  were  therefore  to  govern  the  state,  but 
leave  the  church  to  be  governed  by  its  pastors  and 
doctors.  Theodore  added,  that  if  the  emperor  was 
nevertheless  determined,  right  or  wrong,  to  meddle 
with  ecclesiastical  matters,  hi  must  let  him  know, 
that  he  would  not  even  hearken  to  an  angel  from 
heaven,  should  he  preach  any  other  doctrine  than 
that  he  had  received,  much  less  would  he  hearken  to 
him, —  (Michael  &  Theosterict.  ubi  supra.) 

But  by  God  himself,  replied  the  emperor,  we  are  ex- 
pressly forbidden  to  make  any  graven  images,  to  bow 
down  to  them,  or  to  worship  them.  The  Jews  were  for- 
bidden, answered  Theodore :  but  the  law,  given  to  them, 
is  not  binding  with  respect  to  us  Christians ;  else  why 
who  maintain  the  contrary  opinion,  and  condemn  ours  :  I  should  not  we  be  circumcised  as  well  as  the  Jevi'sl 
and  I  have  called  together  both  you  and  them  to  hear  1  Where  he  ignorantly  confounds  the  ceremonial  law 
what  you  have  to  offer  in  support  of  your  opinion,  and  j  with  the  decalogue.  But  he  had,  it  seems,  perused 
what  they  have  to  offer  in  support  of  theirs.  Kyou  i  the  acts  of  the  second  council  of  Nice,  and  read  there 
show  that  they  teach  a  new  doctrine,  your  opinion    of  a  learned  bishop  wondering  at  the  ignorance  of  the 


shall  henceforth  prevail  ;  and  theirs,  if  they  show  that 
you  teach  a  new  doctrine.  Had  an  affair  of  ever  so 
little  moment  been  referred  to  me,  I  ought  not  to  have 
left  it  undetermined  ;  much  less  am  I  to  leave  unde- 
termined an  affair  of  infinite  moment. —  (Michael  in 
vil.  Theodor.  Studit.  &.  Theosterict.  in  vit.  Nicet.) 

Thus  the  emperor  :  but  by  no  means  could  he  pre- 
vail on  the  advocates  for  images  to  enter  the  lists  with 
their  adversaries.     Some  excused  themselves  on  ac- 
count of  the  place,  saying  that  matters  of  religion,  that 
points  of  faith  were  to  be  canvassed  and  determined  in 
the  church,  and  not  in  the  imperial  palace.     By  others 
was  alledged  the  obstinacy  of  heretics,  whom  th^y  said 
it  was  lost  labor  to  attempt  to  convince  ;  their  obsti- 
nacy being  proof  against  demonstration  itself.     Some 
taxing  the  emperor  to  his  face  with  insincerity,  hypo- 
crisy, partiality,  had  the  assurance  to  tell  him,  that  he 
was  too  much  prepossessed  and  prejudiced  in  favor  of 
error  to  be  capable  of  distinguishing  truth  from  false- 
hood, or   falsehood   from  truth;  and   they  therefore 
could   not,  nor  would  they  stand  to  his  judgment  in 
proving  the  one,  or  confuting  the  other.     All  this  the 
emperor  bore  with  creat  temper  and  patience,  only 
reminding  them  of  the  respect,  that  was  due  to  the 
imperial  dignity,  and  telling  them  that  every  Chris- 
tian, much  more  a  bishop  and  teacher  of  the  Christian 
religion,  oucht  to   be   ready,   whenever   he  is  called 
upon,   to   give   an   account   of  his  religion,  and  that 
from    their    backwardness,  their    antagonists   would 
conclude,  that  they  distrusted  their  cause,  or  wanted 
arguments    to   support   it.      "  We    have    abundance 
of    arguments,"    replied    Theophylactus,    bishop  of 
Nicomedia;    "hut  our    antagonists    have    ears   and 
hear  not,  and  it  would  therefore  be  to  no  purpose  to 
produce   them."     "Our    adversaries,"   added   Peter, 
bishop  of  Nice,  "are  patronized  and  protected  by  you  ; 
and  even  a  Manichee  would  prove,  under  your  pro- 
tection, too  powerful  for  us.     Here  Euthymins,  bishop 
of  Sardis,  addressing  the  emperor,  "Christ,"  said  he, 
"from  the  time  he  first  appeared  upon  the  earth  to  the 
present,  that  is  for  the  space  of  eight  hundred  years 
and   upwards,  has  been  painted  in  all  the  churches 
throughout   the    world,  and  adored   in  his   pictures 
And  who  dares  impugn,  alter  or  condemn  a  practice 
handed  down  to  us  and  approved  by  the  apostles,  the 
martyrs  and  all  the  holy  fathers  1     The  apostle  Paul 
exhorts  us  to  stand  fast,  and  hold  the  traditions,  which 
we  have  been  taught,  whether  by  word,  or  his  epistle, 
and  will  have  us  to  anathematize  and  curse  even  an 
angel  from  heaven,  should  be  preach  any  other  Goa- 


Iconoclast  heretics  in  allcdging  against  the  Christians, 
words  spoken  so  long  ago  to  the  Jews. — (See  p.  158.) 
The  emperor  maintained  that  the  law  given  to  Moses 
was  binding  with  respect  to  the  Christians  as  well  as 
the  Jews,  our  Savior  having  declared,  that  he  canve 
not  to  destroy,  but  to  fulfil  the  law;  and  consequently 
if  it  was  idolatry  in  a  Jew  to  bow  down  to  images 
and  worship  them,  it  was  likewise  idolatry  in  a  Chris- 
tian. In  answer  to  that  was  urged  by  Theodore  the 
example  of  our  Savior  himself,  who  had  sent  his  pic- 
ture to  Abgarus  king  of  Edessa  ;  (See  p.  29.)  the  ex- 
ample of  St.  Luke,  (See  p.  30.)  and  many  others,  who 
had  painted  him  in  the  earliest  times,  and  whose  pic- 
tures were  still  to  be  seen,  and  still  were  worshiped 
by  the  faithful  ;  the  many  advantages  attending  the 
use  as  well  as  the  worship  of  images,  and  the  uninter- 
rupted practice  of  the  church  from  the  times  of  Christ 
and  his  apostles  to  the  present.  The  emperor  an- 
swered, that  the  use,  as  well  as  the  worship  of  images, 
was  of  a  much  later  date  than  he  pretended,  as  some, 
who  were  present,  would  convince  him,  if  he  and  his 
brethren  would  agree  to  hear  them.  For  to  this  confer- 
ence the  emperor  had  invited  some  of  the  most  zealous 
and  learned  Iconoclasts,  and  amongthem  Anthony,  me- 
tropolitan of  Syla-um  in  Pamphylia,  a  prelate,  perhaps, 
better  acquainted  than  any  of  his  time  with  the  Scrip- 
tures, the  writings  of  the  fathers,  and  the  history  of 
the  church.  But  Theodore  declaring,  in  the  name  of 
the  rest,  that  far  from  hearing  condemned  and  ac- 
cursed heretics,  they  would  not  so  much  as  see  them, 
nor  meet  them,  could  they  avoid  it,  in  the  public 
streets,  and  at  the  same  time  inveighing,  without  any 
regard  to  the  imperial  dignity,  against  the  emperor 
himself  as  a  heretic,  as  an  abettor  of  heretics,  as  one, 
who  had  impiously  undertaken,  as  was  ai)parent 
from  his  conduct,  to  disturb  the  peace  of  the  church, 
and  banish  the  true  religion  from  the  empire,  Leo 
thought  it  advisable  to  dismiss  the  as.senibly  :  and 
he  dismissed  it  accordingly,  having  first  reprimanded 
the  insolent  monk  for  treating  him,  he  said,  not  as 
an  emperor,  hut  as  the  meanest  of  the  populace. 
The  monk  Michael,  who  lived  at  this  time,  tells 
us,  that  the  emperor,  transported  with  rage,  drove 
the  holy  man  with  dreadful  menaces  and  oppro- 
brious language  from  his  presence. —  (Michael,  in  vit. 
Theodor.  Studit.)  But  Theosterictus,  who  likewise 
lived  at  this  time,  writes  tluit  Leo  patiently  heard  him 
without  ever  betraying  the  least  resentment  or  anger : 
(Theosterict.  in  vit.  Nicet.)  and  Theosterictus  was  as 
much  prejudiced  against  Leo  as  Michael. 


196 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Paschal. 


Image  worship  condemned  by  the  council  of  Constantinople. 


bishops  in  the  west,  the  wicked  heresy  that  it.     The  direction  of  his  letter  was  to  "  Pas- 
prevailed  in  the  east,  and  ail  who  professed  chal,  pope  of  Rome,  the  great  hght,  the  first 


The  next  day  the  patriarch,  by  the  advice  of  Theo- 
dore, assembled  in  the  great  church  the  bishops  and 
abbots,  who  the  day  before  had  been  present  at  the 
conference,  in  order  to  deliberate,  together  with  them, 
about  the  means  of  maintaining  the  catholic  faith,  that 
is,  the  worship  of  images,  in  opposition  to  the  emperor, 
should  he  attempt  to  banish  it,  and  introduce  the  so 
often    condemned  and  anathematized  heresy   in  its 
room.     But  the  emperor  no  sooner  heard  of  their  thus 
caballing  than  he  sent  them  an  order  by  the  governor 
of  the  city,  commanding  them  to  retire  forthwith  to 
their  respective  habitations,  and  forbear   assembling 
again  without  his  permission  or  knowledge.    Here- 
upon the  monks  spreading  themselves,  at  the  instiga- 
tion of  Theodore,  all  over  the  city,  began  to  exhort 
the  populace  to  continue  steadfast  in  the  religion  of 
their  ancestors,  to  avoid  all  communication  with  here- 
tics, especially  with  the  accursed  Iconoclasts,  and  to 
defend,  even  at  the  expence  of  their  lives,  the  holy 
images  of  our  Savior  and  his  saints,  should  any  pre- 
sume to  remove  or  insult  them,  as  they  would  defend 
our  Savior  himself  or  his  saints,  since  the  insults  of- 
fered to  their  images,  were  offered  to  them.     The  se- 
ditious conduct  of  tlie  monks  obliged   the   emperor, 
apprehensive  of  the  consequences  that  might  attend 
it,  to  confine  them  all  to  their  monasteries.    At  the 
same  time  he  let  the  patriarch  know,  as  well  as  the 
bishops  of  his  party,  that  though  he  would  not  concern 
himself  with  their  private  opinion,  yet  he  could  not 
allow  them  to   preach  a  doctrine  to  the  ignorant  and 
undistinguishing  multitude,  which  the  most  learned 
amongst  them  had  not  been  able,  or  at  least  had  de 
clined  to  maintain  against  those,  who  held  and  were 
ready   to   maintain   the    opposite    doctrine.     And  he 
therefore  ordered  them  to  observe  thenceforth  a  strict 
silence  concerning  images  and  the  worship  of  images. 
This  order  he  sent,  by  the  governor  of  the  city,  to  the 
patriarch,  to  the  bishops,  to  the  abbots  ;  and  all,  ex- 
cept Theodore,  promised  in  compliance  with  it,  and 
promised  in  writing,  as  was  required  by  the  emperor, 
thenceforth  to  forbear  all  mention,  in  public,  of  images 
or  the  worship  of  images.     But  Theodore,  addressing 
the   governor   with  the   words   of  the   two   apostles, 
"  whether  it  be  right  in  the  S<ght  of  God  to  hearken 
unto  you  more  than  unto  God,  judge  ye,"  (Acts  4:  19.) 
told  him,  that  he  would  rather  suffer  his  tongue  to  be 
cut   out  than  observe  the  enjoined  silence  only  one 
hour:  nay,  no  sooner  did   he  hear  that  the  patriarch 
had  promised  to  observe  it,  than  quitting  his  monas- 
tery, though  confined  to  it  by  an  express  order  from 
the   emperor,   and   Hying  to  the  episcopal  palace,  he 
prevailed  on  the  weak  prelate  not  only  to  recall  his 
promise,  but  to  assemble,  in  defiance  of  the  emperor's 
iate   prohibition,   all  the  bishops,  abbots  and  leading 
men  of  the  clergy,  and  extort  from  them  a  promise  in 
writing,  which  they  all  signed  with  a  cross,  binding 
themselves  to  defend,  if  necessary,  the  holy  and  vene- 
rable images  at  the  expence  of  their  lives.     The  as- 
sembly was  scarce  dismissed  when  the  emperor,  in- 
formed of  all  that  had  passed,  sent  one  of  the  chief 
lords  of  his  court  to  reproach  the  patriarch,  in  his  name, 
with  the  breach  of  his  promise,  and  at  the  same  time 
to  let  him  know,  that  to  prevent  the  disturbances  fac- 
tious men  might  raise  in  the  city,  when  encouraged  by 
him,  he  must  either  comply  with  the  will  of  his  sove- 
reign, or  resign  his  dignity.     The  patriarch  answered, 
with  great  resolution  and  firmness,  that  the  promise 
he  made  had  given  great  offence  to  all  good  Christians, 
that  he  therefore  repented  his  ever  having  made  it, 
and   was  determined  rather  to  die  a  thousand  times 
than  betray,  by  observing  it,  so  good  a  cause.    This 
answer  determined  the  emperor  to  remove  him;  and 
he  sent  accordingly  an  officer  to  acquaint  him  with  this 
his  determination,  and  convey  him  to  a  monastery  on 
the  other  side  the  Bosphorus,  which  he  himself  had 
built.     In  his  room  was  raised  to  the  patriarchal  dig- 
nity, Theodotus  of  Melissa,  whom  even  his  avowed 
enemies  allow  to  have  been  a  person  of  a  noble  ex- 
traction, of  a  mild  temper,  of  an  engaging  behavior, 
nay,  and  to  have  been  universally  reputed  a  man  of 
great  probity,  though  his  probity,  say  they,  was  only 
affected,   being   himself  an   irreconcilable   enemy  to 
Christ  and  his  saints  in  their  images,  and  sparing  no 
pains  to  gain  over  others  to  his  detestable  heresy. — 
(Continuat.  Anonym.  Theoph.  Ignat.  in  vit.  Niceph.) 
The  new  patriarch  was  no  sooner  consecrated  than 
he  appointed,  in  the  emperor's  name,  all  the  bishops, 
abbots,  and  other  ecclesiastics  in  the  city  and  neigh- 
borhood of  Constantinople,  to  meet  in  the  church  of 


St.  Sophia,  and  there  to  examine  anew,  since  the  con- 
troversy about  images  was  revived,  and  many  were 
offended  at  the  worship,  that  was  given  them,  whether 
that  worship  was  agreeable  or  repugnant  to  the  doc- 
trine of  the  apostles  and  the  fathers.  The  patriarch 
ingenuously  owned  in  the  letter  be  wrote  on  this  occa- 
sion, that  as  for  himself,  he  was  of  opinion,  that  such 
a  worship  could  not  be  excused  from  idolatry,  since  in 
the  Old  Testament  it  was  expressly  forbidden  as  ido- 
latrous, and  was  no-where  recommended  or  allowed 
in  the  New.  However  he  was  willing,  he  said,  and 
so  was  the  emperor,  to  hear  what  they,  who  were  of  a 
different  opinion,  had  to  offer  in  support  of  it,  and 
both  were  ready  to  receive  the  doctrine,  that  should 
appear  to  them  the  best  grounded.  He  added,  that 
the  question  had  indeed  been  already  examined,  nay, 
and  had  been  decided  by  two  different  councils, 
namely,  those  of  Constantinople  and  Nice,  but  as 
their  decisions  were  diametrically  opposite  to  each 
other,  it  might  still  be  looked  upon  as  quite  undecided; 
and  he  therefore  flattered  himself  that  none  would  ob- 
ject to  its  being  examined  anew.  In  compliance  with 
the  desire  of  the  emperor  and  the  patriarch  the  bishops 
assembled  at  the  time  appointed,  and  with  them  a 
great  number  of  other  ecclesiastics,  and  some  abbots 
and  monks.  But  the  greater  part  of  the  abbots  were 
diverted  by  Theodore  from  attending  the  council,  on 
pretence  that  it  was  not  lawful  to  re-examine  a  doctrine, 
that  had  been  already  examined  and  defined  by  a  ge- 
neral council ;  the  insolent  monk  had  even  the  assur- 
ance to  write  to  the  council  in  the  name  of  all  the  ab- 
bots, styling  them  heretics,  and  declaring,  that  if 
Peter  and  Paul  were  to  come  down  from  heaven,  and 
preach  another  gospel  (besides  that,  which  teaches 
the  worship  of  images)  they  would  not  receive  them 
into  their  communion. — (Michael,  in  vit.  Theodor.) 

As  the  acts  of  this  council  have  not  been  suffered  to 
reach  our  times,  nor  indeed  any  writings  whatever 
against  images,  all  we  know  of  it  is,  that  the  council 
of  Constantinople,  forbidding  the  worship  of  images, 
was  approved  and  confirmed,  and  the  council  of  Nice 
commanding  that  worship,  anathematized  and  con- 
demned ;  that  many  bishops  as  well  as  other  ecclesi- 
astics, and  even  some  monks,  solemnly  renounced  the 
worship  of  images  (not  convinced,  say  Michael  and 
Theosterictus,  by  reasons  or  arguments,  but  gained  by 
rich  presents  or  promises  of  greater  preferments,)  and 
that  those,  who  on  this  occasion  changed  their  opinion, 
showed  themselves  ever  after  the  most  of  all  averse  to 
images,  and  the  worship  of  images. —  (Mich.  &  Theos- 
terict.  ibid.)  Theosterictus  tell  us,  that  such  of  the 
bishops  as  dissented  from  the  rest,  and  would  not  to- 
gether with  them,  condemn  the  ancient  doctrine  of 
the  church,  were  by  them  cruelly  beaten,  and  trod 
under  foot  in  the  council.  But  of  that  unwarrant- 
able conduct  no  mention  is  made  by  any  other  con- 
temporary writer ;  and  it  is  quite  inconsistent  with 
the  mild  temper  of  the  patriarch,  and  the  character  of 
the  emperor,  who  bore  so  long,  and  with  an  unparal- 
leled patience,  the  opposition  and  insults  he  met  with 
from  the  enthusiastic  monks,  especially  from  the  au- 
thor of  all  the  disturbances,  Theodore  Studita. 

"  The  council  was  no  sooner  dismissed  than  an  edict 
was  issued  by  the  emperor,  wonderfully  calculated," 
says  Theosterictus,  "to  extirpate  the  catholic  faith, 
and  establish  the  worst  of  heresies  in  its  room  :  for  by 
that  edict  he  ordered  all  the  holy  images,  even  the 
images  of  our  Savior  himself,  to  be  pulled  down,  to 
be  cast  out  of  the  churches  and  broken,  calling  them 
idols,  and  blasphemously  ascribing  all  the  calamities, 
that  had  befallen  the  empire  ever  since  they  were  re- 
stored by  the  most  religious  empress  Irene,  to  the  ven- 
geance of  heaven  justly  provoked  at  the  idolatrous 
worship,  that  was  given  them.  The  populace  were 
not,  it  seems,  at  this  time,  so  zealously  attached  to 
their  images,  as  they  were  in  the  time  of  Leo  the  Isau- 
rian,  the  first  emperor,  who  undertook  to  control  that 
superstition;  for  I  do  not  find  that  the  imperial  offi- 
cers, who  were  charged  with  the  execution  of  the 
present  edict,  met  with  any  opposition  from  them, 
though  they  spared  no  images,  but  pulled  down,  ef- 
faced, or  broke  them  all  in  the  sight  of  the  people, 
even  those,  that  were  most  revered  and  resorted  to 
for  the  miracles  they  were  said  to  work.  They  ques- 
tioned perhaps  the  truth  of  the  miracles,  that  were 
said  to  have  been  wrought  by  them  to  save  others, 
since  they  could  work  none  to  save  themselves. 
However  that  be,  images  were  once  more  destroyed 
throughout  the  empire,  or  at  least  removed,  and  re~ 


Paschal.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


197 


Theodore  Studia  writes  to  the  other  three  patriarchs. 


prince  of"  bishops,  and  his  apostolic  lord." 
At  the  same  time  he  wrote  to  the  other  three 

moved  without  the  least  disturbance,  out  of  the 
churches  and  all  other  public  places,  and  the  Chris- 
tian worship  once  more  restored  to  its  primitive  pu- 
rity. This  Theodore  could  not  bear;  and  he  under- 
took to  maintain,  in  spite  of  the  emperor  and  in  defi- 
ance of  his  edict,  the  condemned  superstition.  With 
that  view  he  ordered  his  monks  to  take  each  of  them 
an  image,  and  walking  round  the  monastery,  in  pro- 
cession, with  their  images  in  their  hands,  to  sing  aloud 
a  hymn,  that  began  with  these  words,  'we  adore  thy 
immaculate  image.'  The  seditious  monk  flattered 
himself,  that  he  should  thus  raise  the  multitude,  and, 
being  backed  by  them,  oblige  the  emperor  to  repeal  his 
edict,  or  at  least  to  connive  at  a  practice,  which  he 
could  not  abolish  without  exposing  himself  to  the  dan- 
ger of  losing  his  crown,  and  perhaps  his  life.  But,  to 
his  great  mortification,  not  one  person  joined  in  the 
procession,  or  betrayed  the  least  inclination  of  rising 
for  the  sake  of  images,  against  a  prince,  who  had  but 
very  lately,  by  a  most  glorious  victory  over  the  barba- 
rians, delivered  the  empire,  and  the  imperial  city, 
from  impending  ruin  and  destruction.  Some,  how- 
ever, apprehending  the  disturbances  the  monk  might 
raise  in  the  end,  were  he  suffered  thus  to  insult  both 
the  emperor  and  the  council,  and  stir  up  the  populace, 
with  impunity,  to  sedition  and  rebellion,  loudly  com- 
plained of  him  to  Leo,  advising  him,  as  he  tendered 
the  peace  and  tranquillity  of  the  church  and  the  em- 
pire, to  remove  out  of  the  way,  by  some  means  or 
other,  the  only  man,  who  was  capable  of  disturbing 
them,  and  made  it  his  study  to  disturb  them.  But  the 
tyrant,  as  he  is  here  styled  by  the  monk  Michael,  in- 
stead of  hearkening  to  them,  and  causing  the  refrac- 
tory and  rebellious  abbot  to  be  immediately  appre- 
hended, confined  and  even  put  to  death,  as  they  ad- 
vised him,  and  he  might  have  done  without  the  least 
imputation  of  injustice  or  of  cruelty,  contented  himself, 
by  an  instance  of  clemency  and  good-nature  scarce  to 
be  matched  in  history,  with  putting  him  in  mind  of 
his  duty,  with  exhorting  him  to  forbear  such  treason- 
able practices,  and  threatening,  if  he  did  not,  to  let  jus- 
tice thenceforth  take  place  of  mercy." — (Mich,  in  vit. 
Theodor.)  "But  the  holy  man,"  says  the  historian,  "de- 
spising alike  the  caresses  and  the  menaces  of  the  ty- 
rant, continued,  in  spite  of  both,  the  same  practices 
with  more  zeal  than  ever,  preaching  the  catholic  faith, 
that  is,  the  worship  of  images,  in  public  and  in  private, 
and  exhorting  all  to  defend,  if  necessary,  at  the  ex- 
pence  of  their  lives,  the  religion  they  had  received 
from  their  ancestors,  and  their  ancestors  from  the 
apostles,  and  Christ  himself,  who  had  sent  his  image 
to  the  king  of  Edcssa  to  he  worshiped  by  him  and.  his 
people.  Hereupon  the  tyrant,"  continues  the  histo- 
rian, "  quite  at  a  loss  what  measures  to  take,  and  no 
longer  able  to  bear  the  liberty  and  firmness  of  the 
holy  abbot,  ordered  him  first  to  depart  the  city,  and 
soon  after  sent  him,  (no  doubt  upon  some  new  provo- 
cation) into  exile,  and  confined  him  to  a  castle." 
And  who  but  a  prince  of  I.eo's  good  nature  and  cle- 
mency would  have  bore  so  long  his  unparalleled  pre- 
Bumpiion,  and,  when  it  was  past  all  bearing,  contented 
himself  with  inflicting  so  slight  a  punishment  on  such 
an  incendiary'?  We  need  no  other  proof  of  this  excel- 
lent prince's  humane  disposition  and  merciful  temper, 
than  the  very  facts,  that  gave  occasion  to  the  writers 
of  those  limes,  all  bigoted  monks,  to  style  him  a  ty- 
rant. With  Theodore  were  banished  several  bishops, 
and  most  of  the  abbots  of  the  monasteries  in  Constan- 
tinople, who,  encouraged  by  that  turbulent  monk,  not 
only  refused  to  comply  with  th(;  imperial  edict,  but 
publicly  inveighed  against  the  emperor  as  a  heretic 
for  issuing  it.  Among  the  abbots  was  the  famous 
chronologer  Theophanes,  and  Nicetas,  whose  life  writ- 
ten by  the  monk  Theosterictus,  and  filled  with  invec- 
tives against  Leo,  has  reached  our  times,  Nicetas 
was  nearly  related  to  the  empress  Irene,  had  been  go- 
vernor of  Sicily,  and  honored  with  some  of  llie  fir.-Jt 
employments  of  the  empire,  but  having  afterwards 
embraced  a  monastic  life  under  Theodore,  he  rivalled 
even  Theodore  himself  in  his  z.eal  for  images  and  the 
worship  of  images,  publicly  opposing,  and  stirring  up 
the  people  tooppose  the  execution  of  the  imjierial  edict. 
—  (Theosterict.  in  vit.  Nicet.)  He  wasthereibre  banish- 
ed with  the  rest,  after  the  emperor,  mindful  of  his  former 
services,  had  done  all  that  lay  in  his  power  to  divert  him 
from  opposing  his  edict,  if  he  could  not  corfiply  with  it. 
The  banished  monks  were  confined  to  "different 
islands ;  but  scarce  had  they  began  to  feel  the  hard- 


patriarchs,  bestowing  on  them  as  pompous 
and  hisrh  sounding  titles  as  he  bestowed  on 


ships  of  their  exile,  when  the  good-natured  emperor, 
pitying  their  condition,  recalled  them  all  but  Theo- 
dore, the  chief  author  of  all  the  disturbances,  and  re- 
stored them  to  their  monasteries.  Upon  their  return 
to  Constantinople  the  emperor  sent  for  them  to  the 
imperial  palace,  and  thereafter  reproaching  them,  in  a 
friendly  manner,  with  striving  to  maintain,  by  sedi- 
tious practices,  a  superstition,  whicli  they  had  declined 
to  maintain  with  reasons  and  with  arguments,  he  told 
them,  that  he  would  not  thenceforth  concern  himself 
with  their  private  opinions,  nor  even  prevent  them 
from  worshiping  their  images,  ]>rovided  tliey  contented 
themselves  to  worship  them  within  the  walls  of  their 
monasteries,  and,  to  avoid  divisions  and  a  schism  in 
the  church,  communicated  hut  once  with  the  patriarch. 
To  these  terms  all  readily  agreed,  and  were  there- 
upon allowed  quietly  to  live  and  to  worship  undis- 
turbed what  images  they  pleased  in  their  monasteries. 
At  the  same  time  were  recalled  most  of  the  banished 
bishops,  and  such  of  them  restored  to  their  sees  as 
agreed  to  communicate  with  the  patriarch,  and  not  to 
oppose,  nor  stir  up  the  people  to  oppose  the  e.\ecution 
of  the  imperial  edict.  Of  this  agreement  Theodore 
was  soon  informed  ;  and  fired  with  zeal  he  undertook 
to  divert  his  brethren  from  standing  to  it,  or  suffering 
themselves  to  be  restrained,  by  any  agreement  what- 
ever, from  opposing  the  wicked  laws  of  the  tyrant  and 
his  antichristian  edicts.  Of  the  letters  he  wrote  from 
his  prison  on  this  occasion  to  the  monks,  to  the  nuns, 
to  the  bishops,  and  to  all  true  Christians  in  general, 
near  two  hundred  have  reached  our  times,  all  calcu- 
lated to  stir  them  up  to  sedition  and  rebellion,  and  en- 
courage them  to  maintain,  and  publicly  to  profess,  in 
defiance  of  the  tyrant,  the  faith  and  religion,  which 
our  Savior  himself  had  taught,  that  is  the  worship  of 
images,  and  all  true  Christians  had  held  and  professed, 
ever  since  his  time  to  the  present.  The  emperor  how- 
ever, sparing  his  life,  by  an  excess  of  good  nature,  con- 
tented himself  with  ordering  him  to  be  whipped,  to 
be  removed  farther  from  Constantinople,  and  to  be 
more  closely  confined.  But  as  he  still  found  means  to 
write  and  convey  letters  to  his  brethren  in  Constanti- 
nople, most  of  them  filled  with  bitter  invectives  against 
the  emperor,  calling  him  a  tyrant,  an  apostate,  a  here- 
tic, an  "  Ammorhite,  the  great  dragon,  tlie  croolced  ser- 
pent, a  vessel  of  wrath,"  an  avowed  enemy  to  Christ 
and  his  saints,  tc,  and  comparing  him  to  Og,  king  of 
Basan,  to  Ahab,  to  Julian,  Leo  resolved  at  last  to  let 
justice  take  place  of  mercy,  and  order  him,  since  he 
could  by  no  other  means  overcome  his  obstinacy,  to  be 
publicly  executed.  But  his  good  nature  still  prevail- 
ing over  his  resentment,  he  soon  changed  his  mind, 
and  ordered  him  only  to  lie  conveyed  to  Smyrna,  and 
delivered  up  to  the  bishop  of  that  place,  a  prelate  of 
great  learning,  and  no  less  remarkable  for  his  zeal  in 
promoting  the  worship  of  God  alone  than  Theodore 
was  in  promoting  the  worship  of  images.  By  him  the 
monk  was  kept  closely  confined,  and  used,  if  the  au- 
thor of  his  life  is  to  be  credited,  with  the  utmost  bar- 
barity till  the  death  of  the  emperor,  that  is  for  the 
space  of  two  years. —  (Mich,  in  vit.  Theodor.)  As  for 
the  other  monks,  many  of  them,  standing  to  the  agree- 
ment they  had  made,  contented  themselves,  without 
hearkening  to  the  suggestions  of  Theodore,  with  the 
liberty  the  emperor  allowed  them  of  worshiping  their 
images  within  the  walls  of  their  monasteries;  and  to 
them  no  kind  of  violence  was  offered.  But  those,  who 
still  continued,  in  defiance  of  the  emperor  and  the  im- 
perial edict,  publicly  to  preach  and  recommend  to  the 
populace  the  forbidden  superstition,  were  all  either 
closely  confined,  or  sent  into  exile.  And  it  is  observ- 
able, that  in  this  cruel  and  bloody  persecution,  as  it  is 
styled  and  described  by  the  later  Greek  writers,  and 
after  them  by  Baronius  and  Maimbourg,  one  person 
only  suffered  death,  a  monk  named  Thadtpus,  whom 
Bardas,  one  of  the  emperor's  oflicers,  provoked  at  his 
obstinacy,  caused  to  be  whipped  with  so  much  se- 
verity, that  he  expired  on  the  spot.  Indeed  whipping, 
confiiieinent,  and  ejile  were  the  only  punishments  the 
emperor  allowed  to  be  inflfcted  even  on  those,  who, 
not  satisfied  with  transgressing  his  edict,  had  the  as- 
surance publicly  to  revile  and  insult  him  as  an  apos- 
tate from  the  faith,  as  a  heretic,  as  an  enemy  to  God 
and  his  saints.  And  yet  the  reader  will  find  this  ex- 
cellent and  most  humane  prince  painted  by  Maim- 
bourg as  a  blood-thirsty  tyrant,  as  one,  who  delighted 
in  nothing  60  much  as  in  acts  of  the  most  barbarous 
cruelty,  as  a  Nero  or  a  Dioclesian.    But  whether  Leo 

r2 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES 


[Paschal. 


198  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES.  [Paschal. 

The  pope's  answer  to  Theodore's  letter.  He  repairs,  rebuilds,  and  enriches  many  churches.  Crowns  Lotha- 
rius  emperor  and  king  of  Italy ;— [Year  of  Christ,  823.]  The  emperors  not  made  sovereigns  of  Kome  by  the 
pope^ ^ 


the  pope.    The  patriarch  of  Alexandria  he 
styles,  "  the  most  holy  father  of  fathers,  the 
light  of  lights,  and  the  most  blessed  pope." 
The  very  same  letter  he  sent  with  the  very 
same  titles,  to  the  patriarch  of  Alexandria  ; 
and  as  to  the  patriarch  of  Jerusalem,  he 
calls  him  "  the  first  of  all  the  patriarchs, 
though  only  reckoned  the  fifth."     He  ad- 
dresses them  all  with  the  greatest  submis- 
sion, prostrates  himself  at  their  feet,  and 
declares  himself  unworthy  of  their  notice, 
but  hopes  that  as  our  Savior  condescended 
to  receive  a  letter  from  Abgarus,  nay,  and 
to  answer  it,  they  will  condescend  to  receive 
one  from  him.   From  these  letters  it  appears, 
ihat  images  were  every  where  cast  out  of 
the  churches,  and  either  broken  in  pieces,  or 
publicly  burnt;  that  none  were  suffered  even 
on  the  sacred  utensils;  that  all,  who  had 
any  images,  pictures,  or  books  recommend- 
ing either  the  use  or  the  worship  of  them, 
were  ordered  to  deliver  them  up  to  the  pa- 
triarch or  the  imperial  officers;  that  those, 
in  whose  custody  such  books,  images,  or 
pictures  were  found,  were  whipped,  impri- 
soned, or  sent  into  exile ;  that  a  great  many 
monks,  and  all  the  bishops  but  those  of  Thes- 
salonica,   Ephesus,  Nice,  and  Nicomedia, 
readily  complied  with  the  decree  of  the  em- 
peror, and  that  thus  was  the  worship,  as 
well  as  the  use  of  images,  which  had  given 
occasion  lo  that  worship,  a  second  time  ut- 
terly suppressed    thro*ughout    the   empire. 
The  pope  was  greatly  affected  with  the  suf- 
ferings of  the  monks,  and  the  other  wor- 
shipers of  images,  as  described,  and  indeed 
exaggerated  beyond  all  measure  by  Theo- 
dore: but  unable  to  afford  them  the  least  re- 
lief, he  contented  himself  with  comforting 
them  by  letters,  assuring  them,  that  to  suffer 
for  images  was  to  suffer  for  Christ ;  that  the 
martyrs  of  images  were  martyrs  of  Christ, 
and  that  the  same  reward  was  reserved  in 
heaven  for  those,  who  suffered  under  the 
Iconoclast  emperors  for  the  sake  of  images, 
that  was  given  to  those,  who  suffered  under 
the  pagan  emperors  for  the  sake  of  Christ. 
The  four  following  years  were  spent  by 
Paschal  in  rebuilding,  repairing,  or  embel- 
lishing with  many  costly  ornaments  several 
churches  and  monasteries  in  Rome,  as  is  re- 
lated at  length  by  Anastasius',  and  out  of 
him  by  Baronius.    As  Rome  swarmed  at 
this  time  with  Greek  monks,  who  had  fled 
from  Constantinople,  and  the  other  cities  in 
the  east  the  pope  built,  amongst  his  other 
public  works,  a  spacious  monastery  for  their 
reception,  and  richly  endowed  it,  that  those, 
who  had  chosen  to  quit  their  country  rather 


or  his  grand  monarch  best  deserved  the  name  of  ty- 
rant, I  shall  leave  every  man  to  judge,  who  compares 
the  treatment,  that  the  worshipers  of  images  met  with 
from  the  former,  after  they  had  provoked  him  in  the 
manner  we  have  seen,  with  the  treatment  those,  who 
refused  to  worship  images,  met  with  from  the  latter, 
whom  they  had  noways  provoked. 
>  Anast.  in  Pascb. 


than  renounce  the  faith,  that  is  the  use  and 
the  worship  of  images,  might  there,  as  in  a 
safe  port,  be  comfortably  maintained  till  it 
pleased  God  to  lay  the  storm. 

In  the  year  823  Paschal  had  the  satisfac- 
tion of  receiving  at  Rome  Lotharius,  the 
eldest  son  of  the  emperor  Louis,  and  crown- 
ing him  emperor  and  king  of  Italy.     Lotha- 
rius had  been  taken  by  his  father  in  817  for 
his  partner  in  the  empire;  had  been  appoint- 
ed King  of  Italy  in  822,  and  was  sent  in  823 
to  take  upon  him  the  government  of  his  new 
kingdom.     Paschal  no  sooner  heard  of  his 
arrival  than  he  invited  him  by  his  legates 
to  Rome,  received  him  there  with  all  possi- 
ble marks  of  respect  and  distinction,  and  on 
easter-day  crowned  him,  with  the  greatest 
solemnity,  at  the  tomb  of  St.  Peter,  giving 
him  at  the  same  time  the  title  of  Augustus.' 
In  many  of  this  prince's  diplomas  the  years 
of  his  empire  are  reckoned  from  the  time  of 
his  coronation,  that  is,  from  the  5th  of  April, 
for  in  823  Easter  fell  on  that  day.     In  the 
supplement  to  the  history  of  Paulus  Diaco- 
nus  it  is  said,  that  on  this  occasion  the  apos- 
tolic pope  Paschal  vested  the  emperor  Lo- 
tharius  with   the    same    power    over    the 
Romans  and  the  city  of  Rome,  that  had 
been  vested  in  the  ancient  emperors,  that  is, 
he  yielded  to  him  the  sovereignty  of  Rome : 
and  thus  were  the  emperors  of  the  west, 
says  F.  Pagi,  made  by  the  pope  sovereigns 
of  Rome,  they  being  better  able  than  he  to 
curb  the  insolence  of  the  unruly  and  muti- 
nous  Romans.2     But  what  acts   of  sove- 
reignty or  sovereign  power  were  exercised 
by  the  emperors  in  Rome  after  the  pontifi- 
cate of  Paschal,  that  were  not  exercised  be- 
fore it  by  Charlemagne?    He  coined  money 
in  Rome,  and  sent  thither  commissioners 
from  time  to  time  to  administer  justice,  to 
judge  causes,  to  try  criminals,  and  absolve 
or  condemn  them,  nay  and  to  try  the  pope 
himself.^    It  was   not  therefore   from   the 
pope  Lotharius  received  the  sovereignty  of 
Rome,  but  from  his  father  Charlemagne, 
who  yielded  indeed  to  the  pope  the  domi- 
nium utile,  or  the  revenues  of  the  city  and 
dukedom  of  Rome,  but  kept  the  sovereignty 
to  himself.     The  popes,  it  is  true,  coined 
money  in   Rome  in   Charlemagne's  time; 
but  their  coining  money  is  no  proof  of  their 
sovereign  power,  since  they  coined  money 
after  Paschal's  time,  that  is  when  the  sove- 
reign power  was,  according  to  all,  lodged  ia 
the  emperors,  and  not  in  them.''    That  pri- 


'  Eginhard.  in  Annal.  ad  Ann.  823. 

2  Pagi  in  Annal.  Bar.  ad  Ann.  823.  3  gee  p.  177. 

••  No  papal  money  is  to  be  met  with,  that  was  coined 
before  Charlemagne's  time,  and  very  few,  that  were 
coined  after  it  till  the  pontificate  of  Leo  IX.,  raised  to 
the  see  in  1049.  On  some  of  their  coins  are  only  the 
names  of  the  popes,  in  whose  time  they  were  coined, 
and  on  others  the  names  both  of  the  popes  and  the 
emperors.  Thus  on  some  silver  coins  of  Leo  IX.,  that 
have  reached  our  times,  is  his  name  only.  But  on  one 
of  Benedict  111.  chosen  in  855,  is  the  figure  of  St.  Peter 
1  in  his  pontifical  attire  with  the  letters  S.  P.  over  it, 


Paschal.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


199 


Two  persons  of  rank  murdered  in  the  pope's  palace.  The  pope  Bends  legates  on  that  occasion  into  France, 
and  clears  himself  by  an  oath.  Paschal  dies ; — [Year  of  Christ,  624.]  Ebbo  of  Reims  preaches  the  Gospel  to 
the  Danes. 


vilege  was  granted  by  the  emperors,  and  by 
the  emperors  the  same  privilege  was  granted 
to  the  dukes  of  Benevento,  who  acknow- 
ledged the  emperors  for  their  liege  lords  and 
sovereigns'. 

From  Rome  Lotharius   returned   to   his 
father  then  in  France.     But  scarce  Avas  he 
arrived  there  wlien  word  was  brought  him 
by  a  messenger  sent  from  Rome,  that  two 
of  the  chief  officers  of  the  Roman  church, 
Theodore,  priraicerius,  and  Leo  the  nomen- 
clator,  had  been  apprehended  after  his  de- 
parture, had  been  carried  to  the  Lateran  pa- 
lace, and  had  there  had  their  eyes  first  cruelly 
put  out,  and  their  heads  afterwards  struck 
off.     The  messenger  charged  the  pope  with 
that  barbarous  execution,  pretending  those 
unhappy  men  had  been  by  him  so  cruelly 
used  merely  on  account  of  their  inviolable 
attachment  to  the  emperors,  and  their  known 
zeal  for  the  interests  of  France.     The  em- 
peror Lewis,  shocked  at  such  barbarity,  dis- 
patched  immediately   to  Rome  Adalunge, 
abbot  of  St.  Vast,  and  Hunfrid,  count  or 
governor  of  Coire,  to  inquire  into  the  fact 
upon  the  spot.    But  they  were  not  yet  gone, 
when  John,  bishop  of  the  White  Forest,  a 
bishopric  united  since  to  that  of  Porto,  and 
Benedict,  archdeacon  of  the  Roman  church, 
arrived  with  the  character  of  the  pope's  le- 
gates, being  sent  by  him  to  assure  the  empe- 
rors, that  he  was  no  ways  concerned  in,  or 
accessory  to  the  death  of  Theodore  and  Leo, 
and  beg  they  would  not  suffer  themselves  to 
be  prepossessed  against  him  by  the  mali- 
cious and  false  reports  of  his  enemies.    The 
commissioners,  however,  were  ordered  to 
repair  to  Rome:  and  thither  they  repaired 
accordingly,  but  found  the  depositions  of-the 
many  witnesses  they  examined  so  different, 
and  so  contradictory,  that  after  all  the  pains 
they  had  taken,  they  could  not  in  the  end, 
with  any  certainty,  declare  the  pope  inno- 
cent of  the  murder,  nor  guilty.     They  were 
therefore  obliged,  upon  his  offering  to  clear 
himself  by  an  oath,  as  his  predecessor  pope 
Leo  had  done,'^  to  acquiesce  in  the  offer; 
and  he  solemnly  declared  upon  oath,  in  their 
presence,  and  in  the  presence  of  thirty-four 
bishops,  that  he  was  no  ways  accessory,  or 
privy  to   the  murder,  which  his   enemies 
had  maliciously  laid  to  his   charge.      He 
could  not,  however,  be  prevailed   upon  to 
deliver  up  the  persons  by  whom  the  murder 
was  committed,  alledging  that  they  were  of 
the  family  of  St.  Peter,  that  is,  his  own  ser- 
vants, and  guilty  of  no  crime  or  injustice, 
since  those  whom  they  put  to  death,  had 


and  the  name  of  the  pope  round  it,  namely,  Benedict 
P.  On  the  reverse  is  a  hand  between  the  two  letters 
RO.,  that  is  Roma,  and  the  emperor's  name  Lndovicus 
Imp.  round  it,  Louis,  the  third  Son  of  Louis  the  Debon- 
naire,  being  then  emperor. 

•  On  one  of  their  coins  is  to  be  seen  the  figure  of 
duke  Orimoldi  with  his  name  round  it,  and  on  the  re- 
verse Dons  Carlus  R.,  that  is  Dominus  Carolus  Rex, 
for  he  was  contemporary  with  Charlemagne. 

»  See  p.  178. 


long  deserved,  by  their  treasonable  practices, 
the  doom,  that  in  the  end  overtook  them. 
Here  Baronius,  to   prevent  his  injudicious 
and  undistinguishing  readers  from  conclu- 
ding, biassed  by  these  circumstances,  that 
his  holiness  was  privy  to  the  murder,  and 
consequently  guilty  of  perjury,  tells  us  of 
his  miraculously  stopping  soon  after,  with 
his  presence  alone,  a  dreadful  conflagration, 
that  threatened  the  Vatican  itself  with  de- 
struction.    And  by  him  heaven  would  never 
have  wrought  such  a  miracle,  as  the  anna- 
list well  observes,  had  he  been  guilty  of 
murder  and  perjury.'     But  the  judicious 
and  distinguishing  reader  will  perhaps  be 
rather  inclined  to  question  the  miracle,  thaa 
allow  two  persons  of  the  first  rank  in  Rome 
to  have  been  put  to  death  in  the  pope's  own 
palace,  and  by  his  own  servants,  without  his 
consent  or  privity;  and  the  rather  as  he  ap- 
proved of  the  murder,  not  only  refusing  to 
deliver  up  the  assassins,  but  pretending  they 
were  guilty,  in  what  they  had  done,  of  no 
crime  or  injustice.    The  imperial  commis- 
sioners were  accompanied,  on  their  return 
from   Rome,  by  the   bishop  of  the  White 
Forest,  and  three  other  legates  sent  by  the 
pope  to  satisfy  the  emperor  of  his  innocence. 
The  emperor  heard  them  all  with  great  at- 
tention and  patience,  but  being,  after  he  had 
heard  them,  quite  at  a  loss  what  judgment 
to  give,  he  thought  it  advisable  to  forbear  all 
further  inquiries,  and  acquiesce,  as  his  father 
had  done  on  the  like  occasion,  in  the  oath 
of  the  pope.     He  did  not,  however,  declare 
him  innocent,  but  only  dismissed  his  legates, 
as  Eginhard  informs  us,  with  a  proper  an- 
swer, "  dato  convenienti  response. "^ 

The  legates,  on  their  return  to  Rome,  found 
the  pope  dangerously  ill ;  and  he  died  a  few 
days  after  their  arrival,  that  is,  on  the  10th 
of  February,  824,  having  held  the  see  seven 
years  and  seventeen  days.^  The  Romans, 
believing  him  guilty,  notwithstanding  the 
oath  he  had  taken,  of  the  murder  of  Leo 
and  Theodore,  would  not  allow  him  to  be 
buried  in  the  Vatican ;  and  he  remained  un- 
buried  till  his  successor,  chosen  after  a  va- 
cancy of  four  days,  caused  his  remains  to 
be  deposited  in  the  church  of  St.  Praxedes, 
which  the  deceased  pope  had  entirely  re- 
built.'' The  Romans  knew  nothing,  it  seems, 
of  his  miraculously  saving  the  Vatican,  else 
they  had  thought  him  as  Avorthy  of  a  place 
there  after  his  death  as  any  of  his  predeces- 
sors. 

In  Paschal's  time,  and  with  his  approba- 
tion, Ebbo,  archbishop  of  Reims,  was  sent 
by  the  emperor  Lewis  to  preach  the  Gospel 
to  the  Danes.  The  emperor  named  him  for 
that  mission ;  and  the  pope,  upon  his  coming 


'  Bar.  ad  Ann.  823.  p.  727. 

a  Eginhard.  ad  Ann.  823.    Thegan.  de  gest.  Ludovic. 
c.  30.  Astronom.  ad  Ann.  823. 
>  Martin.  Polon.  &.  Honor.  Augusto  donena. 
♦  Theganus,  n.  30. 


200 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Paschax. 


The  emperor  Leo  barbarously  murdered.    His  character. 


to  Rome,  granted  him  full  power  to  preach 
to  the  northern  nations,  especially  to  the 
Nordalbingi,  or  the  Danes ;  appointed  Ha- 
lidgarius,  afterwards  bishop  of  Cambray,  to 
assist  him  as  a  companion  in  that  under- 
taking; and  furnished  him  with  letters  of 
recommendation  addressed  to  the  bishops, 
presbyters,  princes,  dukes,  counts,  and  all 
Christians  in  those  parts.'  The  conversion 
of  the  Danes  was  first  attempted  by  Willi- 
brardus,  as  has  been  related  above,  and  after- 
wards by  the  presbyter  Heridagus,  sent  for 
that  purpose  by  Charlemagne  into  Nordal- 
bingia,  or  Denmark j^  but  both  were  attend- 
ed with  little  success.  Ebbo  is  said  to  have 
converted  great  numbers;^  but  the  glory  of 
completing  the  conversion  both  of  the  Danes 
and  the  Swedes,  was  reserved  for  Anscha- 
rius,  who  employed  thirty-eight  years  in  that 
great  work. 

In  the  fourth  year  of  Paschal's  pontificate, 
the  emperor  Leo  was  barbarously  murdered; 
and  Michael,  surnamed  Balbus,  or  the  Stam- 
merer, was  raised  to  the  imperial  throne  in 
his  room.  Of  this  revolution  historians  give 
us  the  following  account :  Michael  had 
served  from  his  youth  in  the  army,  had  dis- 
tinguished himself,  on  all  occasions,  by  the 
prudence  of  his  conduct,  as  well  as  his  cou- 
rage, and  had  been  therefore  preferred  by 
the  emperor  to  the  chief  command  of  all  the 
forces  of  the  empire;  but,  not  satisfied  with 
that  station,  he  began  to  think  of  raising 
himself,  as  he  was  gi^atly  beloved  by  the 
soldiery,  to  the  imperial  dignity.  He  was 
therein  encouraged  by  his  friends;  but  the 
plot  being  discovered  before  it  was  ripe  for 
execution,  he  was  seized,  tried,  and  sen- 
tenced by  his  judges  to  die  in  the  flames. 
The  sentence  was  to  have  been  executed  on 
Christmas  eve;  but  the  empress  Theodosia 
having  prevailed  on  her  husband  to  put  off 
the  execution  till  after  that  festival,  the  cri- 
minal found  means,  during  that  interval,  to 
write  to  his  accomplices,  threatening  to  dis- 
cover them  to  the  emperor,  if  they  did  not 
attempt,  without  loss  of  time,  his  release. 
His  letter  was  conveyed  to  them  by  some 
religious  persons,  who  had  been  admitted  to 
him  with  the  permission  of  the  emperor; 
and  they  no  sooner  received  it,  than  alarmed 
at  the  danger  that  threatened  them,  they  re- 
solved to  deliver  themselves  from  it  by  the 
death  of  the  emperor.  As  Leo  was  there- 
fore to  assist  very  early  the  next  day,  the 
festival  of  our  Savior's  nativity,  at  divine 
service  in  the  chapel  of  the  imperial  palace, 
the  conspirators  chose  that  time  as  the  most 
proper  for  the  execution  of  their  design;  and 
being  accordingly  admitted  by  the  papias,  or 
the  door-keeper  of  the  palace,  whom  they  had 
gained,  amongst  the  ecclesiastics  who  were 
to  officiate,  they  lay  concealed  till  the  erape- 


«  Annal.  Fuld.  Flodoart.  1.  ii.  c.  12.  Holland,  ad  diem 
3  Februarii. 
a  Rembart.  in  vit.  Anscharii,  c.  5. 
'  Flodoart.  ubi  supra. 


ror,  who  took  particular  delight  in  singing 
psalms  and  hymns,  began  the  first,  according 
to  custom,  to  sing  aloud  a  hymn  commencing 
thus,  "  AH  things  have  they  despised  for  the 
love  of  the  Lord."  As  that  was  the  signal 
agreed  on,  they  started  up  that  moment,  and 
making  altogether,  with  their  drawn  swords, 
towards  the  emperor,  they  first  fell,  in  that 
hurry  and  confusion,  as  it  was  not  yet  day- 
light, on  one  of  the  ecclesiastics,  who  greatly 
resembled  him  in  size  and  in  stature,  and 
dangerously  wounded  him.  In  the  mean 
time  the  emperor,  apprised  of  their  design, 
flew  to  the  altar,  as  to  a  safe  and  inviolable 
asylum;  but  the  conspirators,  pursuing  him 
as  soon  as  they  were  aware  of  their  mistake, 
furiously  attacked  him  on  all  sides,  striving, 
without  any  regard  to  the  sacredness  of  the 
place,  who  should  have  the  glory  and  the 
merit  of  putting  an  end  to  his  life.  How- 
ever, the  brave  prince,  as  he  was  quite  un- 
armed, laying  hold  of  the  chain  of  the  incen- 
sory with  the  one  hand,  and  snatching  with 
the  other  the  cross  from  the  altar,  defended 
himself  with  great  resolution  and  courage, 
Avarding  off  the  blows  with  the  cross,  and 
returning  them  with  the  incensory,  till  one 
of  the  conspirators,  who  in  strength  sur- 
passed all  the  rest,  cut  off,  at  one  blow,  his 
hand,  and  with  it  the  cross  in  two  pieces. 
He  then  fell  to  the  ground,  pierced  with 
numberless  wounds,  and  covered  with  his 
blood;  and  one  of  the  assassins  cut  off  his 
head,  while  the  rest  continued  barbarously 
mangling  his  body  even  after  his  death.' 

Such  was  the  unhappy  and  undeserved 
end  of  the  emperor  Leo,  surnamed  the  Ar- 
menian, after  he  had  reigned  seven  years, 
five  months,  and  fifteen  days.  In  him  no- 
thing was  wanting,  if  his  avowed  enemies 
are  to  be  credited,  but  zeal  for  the  true  faith, 
that  is,  for  the  worship  of  images,  to  com- 
plete the  character  of  a  great  and  excellent 
prince;  for  he  was,  even  according  to  them, 
the  best  general,  and  ablest  statesman,  of  his 
time;  brave,  vigilant,  industrious,  an  enemy 
to  pleasure,  and  a  friend  to  virtue.  He  de- 
spised wealth,  had  nothing  so  much  at  heart, 
and  ever  in  the  first  place,  consulted  the 
welfare  of  the  state,  and  the  safety  of  the 
subject,  sparing  no  pains,  declining  no  dan- 
ger, to  procure  the  one  and  the  other.  He 
undertook  nothing  rashly,  pursued  steadily, 
but  with  discretion  and  prudence,  and  hap- 
pily accomplished  whatever  he  undertook. 
He  utterly  abhorred  all  sort  of  corruption, 
had  regard,  in  bestowing  his  favors,  to  merit 
alone;  and  never  was  known  to  have  pre- 
ferred any  but  the  most  deserving  and  wor- 
thy in  the  state  or  the  army.  Not  satisfied 
with  appointing  men  of  the  greatest  integri- 
ty to  administer  justice  to  his  subjects,  he 
administered  it  himself,  hearing  causes  two 
days  in  the  week  in  one  of  the  great  halls  of 


•  Ignat.  in  Tarag.  Theodor.  Studit.  ep.  61.  Leo  Gram- 
mat,  in  Lon.  Cedren.  in  Michael. 


Paschal.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


301 


Remarkable  instance  of  Leo's  love  of  justice.     His  death  lamented  by  all  but  the  monks. 

and  crowned. 


Michael  proclaimed 


the  palace,  and  deciding  them  with  the 
greatest  exactness  and  equity.  He  was  at  j 
ail  times  ready  to  hear  the  complaints  and 
redress  the  grievances  of  the  meanest  of  his 
subjects;  and  of  this  Cedrenus  gives  us  the  ' 
following  instance:  As  he  was  one  day  , 
coming  out  of  the  palace,  a  person  of  a  mean 
condition  accosting  him,  begged  he  would 
stop  for  a  moment  and  hear  him.  The  em- 
peror stopped  and  heard  him  with  patience : 
He  complained  of  a  senator,  who,  he  said, 
had  by  force  taken  his  wife  from  him,  and 
detained  her:  adding,  that  he  had  applied  to 
the  prefect  or  governor  of  the  city,  but  ap- 
plied to  no  purpose  for  justice.  Hereupon 
the  emperor,  returning  to  his  apartment,  sent 
immediately  both  for  the  senator  and  the 
prefect,  and  finding  the  one  and  the  other 
guilty  of  the  charge,  he  dismissed  the  prefect 
that  moment  from  his  employment,  and  or- 
dered the  senator  to  be  punished,  as  con- 
victed of  adultery,  according  to  the  rigor  of 
the  law.  Such  is  the  character  Theophanes, 
the  author  of  the  Miscella,  Anastasius,  and 
the  patriarch  Nicephorus,  gives  us  of  Leo 
the  Armenian,  though  all  his  avowed  ene- 
mies, on  account  of  his  enmity  to  images; 
nay,  the  patriarch  Nicephorus,  though  dri- 
ven by  him  from  his  see,  and  sent  into  exile, 
did  him  the  justice  to  own  that  they  had  in- 
deed lost  a  great,  though  not  a  good  prince, 
(a  good  prince  would  never  have  opposed 
the  worship  of  images!)  who  had  truly  at 
heart  the  welfare  of  the  state  and  his  sub- 
jects.' His  death  was  lamented  by  all  but 
the  monks,  and  such  of  the  monks  only,  as, 
not  satisfied  with  the  liberty  the  good-na- 
tured emperor  had  granted  them  of  worship- 
ing what  images  they  pleased  within  the 
walls  of  their  monasteries,  obstinately  con- 
tinued, in  open  defiance  of  his  edicts,  to  re- 
commend that  worship  to  the  ignorant  mul- 
titude. Amongst  these,  the  mad  enthusiast 
Theodore,  far  from  showing  any  kind  of 
concern  or  compassion  at  the  melancholy 
account  of  the  emperor's  death,  transmitted 
to  him  by  one  of  his  monks  named  Navera- 
tius,  could  not  forbear  expressing  his  joy, 
nay,  and  blasphemously  inviting  heaven 
and  earth,  men  and  angels,  to  rejoice  with 
him  at  so  barbarous  a  murder  and  parricide. 
To  the  many  good  qualities  which  even  the 
enemies  of  this  excellent  prince  have  allowed 
him,  we  may  add  his  zeal  for  the  purity  of 


'  Cedren.  in  Leon.  p.   490.  Continual.   Constantin. 
Porphyrogen 


the  Christian  worship,'  the  extraordinary  re- 
gard he  paid  to  religion,  and  to  men  truly 
religious,  his  great  moderation  in  the  use  of 
the  power  with  which  he  was  trusted,  and 
his  unparalleled  good  nature  in  bearing  so 
long,  and  punishing  in  the  end  with  .so 
much  lenity,  the  unparalleled  insolence  of 
the  monks,  and  reckon  him  not  only  amongst 
the  greatest,  but  amongst  the  most  religious, 
the  most  humane,  and  best  natured  princes 
we  read  of  in  history.  As  for  the  many  ab- 
surd, ridiculous,  and  improbable  stories  in- 
vented by  the  later  Greek  writers  to  blacken 
his  character,  and  from  them  copied  by 
Maimbourg  in  no  fewer  than  ninety-eight 
pages,^  they  are  only  worthy  of  a  place  in 
the  lying  legends  of  the  monks  who  invented 
them,  or  in  such  fabulous  pieces  as  Maim- 
bourg's  History  of  the  Iconoclasts. 

The  conspirators,  not  satisfied  with  mur- 
dering the  emperor  in  the  barbarous  manner 
we  have  seen,  dragged  his  body  through  the 
public  streets  to  the  hippodrome,  and  leaving 
it  there  exposed  to  public  view,  that  all  might 
know  he  was  dead,  they  carried  Michael  in 
triumph  from  his  prison  to  the  great  hall  of 
the  imperial  palace,  and  there  placed  him, 
loaded  as  he  still  was  with  his  irons,  the 
keys  of  them  being  no  where  found,  with 
loud  acclamations  on  the  throne.  The  same 
day  he  repaired,  as  soon  as  his  irons  could 
be  got  off,  to  the  church  of  St.  Sophia,  at- 
tended and  guarded  by  all  the  conspirators, 
and  was  there  solemnly  crowned  by  the  pa- 
triarch. The  new  emperor  issued  an  edict 
the  third  day  after  his  promotion,  to  set  at 
liberty,  and  recal  from  exile,  all  who  had 
been  confined  or  banished  by  Leo  for  the 
worship  of  images ;  Avhich  gave  occasion  to 
the  monk  Theodore,  Avho  was  released  with 
the  rest,  to  style  him,  in  the  famous  letter  he 
wrote  to  him,  a  new  David,  a  new  Josiah, 
a  true  follower  of  Christ.^  But  he  soon 
changed  his  style,  and  had  good  reason  to 
change  it,  as  will  appear  in  the  sequel. 


'  Cedrentis,  and  after  him  Baronius  and  Maimbourg, 
tell  us,  that  it  was  not  out  of  any  zeal  for  religion  that 
he  undertook  the  destruction  of  images,  but  because  he 
was  foretold  by  an  Iconoclast  hermit  and  impostor,  that, 
unless  he  destroyed  all  idols,  and  banished  idolatry, 
he  would  soon  lose  liin  life  and  the  empire.  But  Leo 
was  a  man  of  too  much  penetration  and  sense  to  give 
any  credit  to  such  a  prediction.  He  thought  the  wor- 
ship of  images  inconsistent  with  the  worship  of  God 
as  commanded  in  Scripture  ;  found  the  advocates  for 
that  worship  declined  maintaining  it  against  their  an- 
tagonists, and  therefore  proscribed  it. 

>  Hist,  de  r  Heres.  des  Iconoclast,  part.  ii.  a  p.  131. 
ad  p.  229. 

'  Apud  Bar.  ad  Ann.  821.  p.  712,  713. 


Vol,  II.— 26 


202 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Eugene  H. 


Eugene  chosen,  and  at  the  same  time  another.  Lotharius  sent  by  his  father  into  Italy.  Reforms  the  govern- 
ment of  Rome.  Revives  the  ancient  custom,  tliat  the  pope  should  not  be  ordained,  till  his  election  H^as 
approved  by  the  emperor. 


EUGENE  II.,  NINETY-EIGHTH  BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[Michael  Balbus,  and  his  son  TheophiijVS,  Emperors  of  the  East. — Lewis  the  Debon- 
NAiRE,  AND  HIS  SON  LoTiiARius,  Emperors  of  the  West."] 


[Year  of  Christ,  824.]  In  the  room  of 
Paschal  was  chosen  and  ordained,  after  a 
vacancy  of  four  days,  and  consequently  on 
the  14lh  of  February,  which,  in  824,  fell  on 
a  Sunday,  Eugene,  the  second  of  that  name, 
a  native  of  Rome,  the  son  of  one  Boemund, 
and,  at  the  time  of  his  election,  archpriest 
of  St.  Sabina.^  He  was  not  chosen  without 
opposition  ;  but  at  the  same  time  was  chosen 
another,  whom  Onuphrius,  and  after  him 
Ciaconius,  call  Zinzinus,^  though  named  by 
no  author  I  know  of  who  wrote  before  them. 
This  double  election  occasioned  such  distur- 
bances in  Rome,  Eugene  being  supported 
by  the  nobility,  and  his  competitor  by  the 
people,  that  the  emperor  Lewis,  being  in- 
formed of  it  by  the  subdeacon,  Q,uirinus, 
Avhom  Eugene  had  sent  to  acquaint  him 
with  his  promotion,  and  implore  his  pro- 
tection, thought  it  necessary  to  send  his  son 
Lotharius  into  Italy  to  restore  peace  to  the 
city.  Lotharius  set  out  for  Rome  after  the 
middle  of  August ;  and  finding,  on  his  arrival 
there,  that  the  party  of  Eugene  had  pre- 
vailed in  the  end,  he  undertook  to  reform 
the  government  of  the  city,  and  correct  the 
many  abuses  that  had  crept  into  it.  He 
loudly  complained  to  the  new  pope  of  the 
disorders  that  had  happened  under  his  pre- 
decessors in  Rome  ;  of  the  little  regard  that 
was  shown  by  the  Romans  to  the  French, 
and  the  emperor  himself;  of  their  having 
put  to  death,  without  consulting  him,  per- 
sons entirely  devoted  to  his  service  ;  of  their 
deriding,  insulting,  and  abusing  such  as  were 
known  to  be  his  friends ;  and  for  no  other 
reason,  but  because  they  were  his  friends  ;  of 
the  many  cryingacts  of  injustice  and  violence, 
that  had  been  committed  with  impunity, 
through  the  ignorance  and  indolence  of  the 
popes,  and  theinsatiableavariceofthejudges. 
These  evils,  he  told  the  pope,  he  was  deter- 
mined to  redress ;  and  he  redressed  them  ac- 
cordingly, revising  several  causes,  and  or- 
dering the  estates  that  had  been  unjustly 
seized  and  confiscated,  to  be  restored  to  the 
lawful  owners.  At  the  same  time  he  issued 
a  constitution,  calculated  to  prevent  such 
disorders  for  the  future,  and  caused  it,  that 
none  might  plead  ignorance,  to  be  published 
in  the  Vatican.  Of  the  ten  articles  or  heads 
it  contained,  the  four  following  are  the  most 
worthy  of  notice  :  I.  That  none  but  Romans 
should  have  a  vote  in  the  election  of  the 
pope.     II,  That  proper  persons  should  be 

'  Anast.  in  Eugen.  II. 

5  Onuph.  &  Ciacon,  in  Eugen.  II. 


appointed,  both  by  the  pope  and  the  empe- 
ror, to  inform  them  yearly  how  justice  was 
administered  ;  and  that  all  complaints  should 
be  first  brought  to  the  pope,  who  might 
either  redress  the  grievances  complained  of 
himself,  or,  acquainting  the  emperor  with 
them,  leave  the  care  of  redressing  them  to 
him.  III.  That  the  Romans,  and  the  peo- 
ple as  well  as  the.  Senate,  should  be  asked 
according  to  what  law  they  chose  to  live 
(the  Roman,  the  Lombard,  or  the  French) 
that  they  may  be  judged,  and  condemned  or 
absolved,  by  the  law,  according  to  which 
they  have  chosen  to  live.  IV.  That  all 
dukes,  judges,  and  other  persons  in  autho- 
rity, should  attend  the  emperor,  when  he  is 
in  Rome,  that  he  may  know  both  their  num- 
ber and  their  names,  and  put  them  in  mind 
of  their  duty.  By  the  other  articles,  the 
emperor  inculcates  due  submission  and  obe- 
dience to  the  pope  and  his  officers;  forbids, 
and  on  pain  of  death,  any  violence  to  be  offer- 
ed to  such  as  are  under  his  immediate  protec- 
tion, or  the  immediate  protection  of  the  pope ; 
commands  the  goods  of  the  church,  that 
some  had  seized  and  retained,  pretending 
they  had  been  granted  to  them  by  the  pope, 
to  be  forthwith  restored.  Lastly,  he  forbids 
all  plunder  and  rapine  at  the  death  of  the 
pope,  or  in  his  life  time.'  The  Romans,  es- 
pecially the  Roman  nobility,  paid,  it  seems, 
very  little  regard  to  the  authority  of  the 
pope  ;  which  obliged  the  emperors  frequent- 
ly to  exert  the  supreme  power  with  which 
they  were  vested  both  over  them  and  the 
popes.  They  were  awed  by  the  emperors 
alone,  and  kept  in  subjection ;  and  thence 
arose  that  aversion  in  them  to  the  French, 
which  Lotharius  complained  of  to  the  pope. 
The  author  of  the  life  of  the  emperor  Lewis, 
who  wrote  at  this  time,  tells  us,  that  Lotha- 
rius, reviving  while  he  was  at  Rome  an  an- 
cient custom,  decreed,  that  commissioners 
should,  from  time  to  time,  be  sent  by  the 
emperor  to  Rome,  to  hear  the  complaints 
of  the  people,  to  see  that  justice  was  duly 
administered,  and  to  administer  it,  in  cases 
of  greater  importance,  themselves.^ 

Lotharius  revived,  before  he  left  Rome, 
another  ancient  custom  ;  namely,  that  the 
new  pope  should  not  be  ordained  till  his 
election  was  approved  by  the  emperor  him- 
self, or  by  the  deputies  he  should  appoint  to 
assist  at  his  ordination.  This  custom  was 
first  introduced  in  483,  by  Odoacer,  then 


»  Sigon.  de  regno  Ital.  1.  iv.  &  Holsten.  Collect.  Rom. 
Part.  jj.  p.  242.  a  Auct.  vit.  Luodvi.  PJi. 


Eugene  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


203 


A  solemn  embassy  sent  by  the  emperors  of  the  East  to  the  emperor  Lewis.  The  patrons  of  images  refuse  to 
assist  at  a  council.  The  emperor  enjoins  silence  with  respect  to  the  worship  of  images,  and  punishes  such 
as  do  not  comply  with  that  injunction. 


master  of  Italy,'  was  adopted  by  the  Gothic 
kings  his  successors  in  the  kingdom  of  Italy, 
and  likewise  by  the  emperors,  upon  their  re- 
covering that  country  from  the  Goths,  and 
re-uniting  it  to  the  empire ;  and  it  was 
punctually  complied  with  by  the  popes  till 
the  year  741,  when  the  power  of  the  empe- 
rors being  at  a  very  low  ebb  in  the  west, 
pope  Zachary  caused  himself  to  be  ordained 
without  waiting  for  the  approbation  of  the 
emperor,  or  asking  it.^  Tiiis  usurped  in- 
dependence the  popes  enjoyed  from  the  time 
of  Zachary  to  the  present  year  824,  when 
Lotharius,  claiming  all  the  rights  the  empe- 
rors of  the  east  had  enjoyed  while  lords  of 
Rome,  revived  the  ancient  custom.  I  do 
not  find  that  the  pope  offered  to  dispute  his 
right,  or  any  ways  to  oppose  such  a  regula- 
tion ;  nay,  as  parties  and  factions  ran  at  this 
time  very  high  in  Rome,  the  great  families 
all  striving,  upon  the  decease  of  the  pope, 
to  raise  one  of  their  friends,  relations,  or 
dependents  to  the  chair,  which,  at  every 
vacancy,  gave  rise  to  endless  disturbances, 
Eugene  is  said  to  have,  on  this  occasion, 
readily  concurred  with  the  emperor,  and  to 
have  himself  drawn  up  an  oath,  calculated 
to  re-establish  the  ancient  custom,  and 
obliged  all  his  clergy  to  take  it.  The  form 
of  the  oalh  was ;  I  I  L  L  (these  letters  stood 
formerly  for  the  name  of  the  person,  as  the 
letter  N  does  now)  "  promise  by  the  Omni- 
potent God,  by  the  four  holy  Gospels,  by 
this  cross  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  by 
the  body  of  the  blessed  St.  Peter,  prince  of 
the  apostles,  that,  from  this  time  forward,  I 
shall  be  unfeignedly  faithful  to  our  lords  the 
emperors  Lewis  and  Lotharius,  saving  the 
faith  I  have  promised  to  the  apostolic  lord; 
that  I  shall  consent  to  no  election  of  a  pon- 
tiff for  this  see  that  is  not  canonical;  and 
that  he,  who  shall  be  chosen,  shall  not  be 
consecrated,  with  my  consent,  till  he  has 
taken,  in  the  presence  of  the  emperor's  de- 
puty, and  the  people,  such  an  oath  as  pope 
Eugene  prescribed,  of  his  own  accord,  for 
the  safety  and  welfare  of  all."* 

Lotharius  had  not  yet  left  Rome,  when 
ambassadors  from  the  emperors  Michael, 
and  his  son  Theophilus,  whom  Michael  had 
taken  for  his  collegue  in  the  empire  arrived 
in  France,  having  been  sent  by  those  princes 
to  confirm  the  treaties  of  friendship  and 
peace  concluded  between  Ciiarlemagne  and 
their  predecessors  in  the  empire,  and  at  the 
same  lime  to  engage  the  most  powerful  king 
of  the  Franks,  and,  by  his  interposition,  the 
most  holy  patriarch  of  Rome,  to  concur  with 


»  See  p.  76. 
&.  in  Libel,  de  Episcop. 


«  See  vol.  L  p.  272. 

'  Supjilement.  Longbartic. 
Meters. 

'  Of  this  oath  no  notice  is  taken  by  Baronius,  bv 
Natalis  Alexander,  or  by  Papebrake,  in  speakine  of 
pope  Eugene,  probably  because  they  looked  upon  it  as 
supposititiou.o.  Rut  it  is  to  be  found,  and  almost  ver- 
batim, in  the  diplomas  of  the  emperors  Oiho  I.,  and 
Henry  L,  lodged  in  the  castle  St.  Angelo  at  Uonie. 


them  in  healing  the  divisions,  that  the  dis- 
pute about  images  ha4  occasioned,  and  still 
kept  alive  in  the  church.  Michael  was  him- 
self quite  averse  to  the  worship  of  images ; 
but,  having  nothing  so  much  at  heart  as  to 
see  peace  restored  in  his  days  to  the  church, 
he  had  left  nothing  unattempted  he  could 
think  of  to  reconcile  the  two  parties,  and 
thus  put  an  end  to  the  unhappy  dispute. 
With  that  view  he  had  issued  an  edict, 
when  he  was  yet  scarce  warm  on  his  throne, 
to  release  and  recal  all  the  bishops  and 
monks,  whom  his  predecessor  had  confined, 
or  sent  into  exile,  for  obstinately  maintaining, 
in  defiance  of  his  edicts,  and  recommending 
to  the  populace,  the  worship  of  images.  He 
had  flattered  himself  that  he  should  thus 
have  engaged  them  to  hearken  at  least  to  an 
accommodation  ;  and  he  appointed  accord- 
ingly a  synod  to  meet  soon  after  their  return, 
inviting  to  it  the  leading  men  of  both  parties, 
not  to  dispute,  but  to  consult,  in  an  amicable 
manner,  about  the  means  of  bringing  to  a 
happy  issue  the  intended  reconciliation. 
But  at  that  synod  the  patrons  of  images,  to 
the  great  disappointment  of  the  emperor, 
obstinately  refused  to  assist  or  appear,  alledg- 
ing  that  it  was  not  lawful  for  tliem  to  form 
one  council  with  heretics  ;  nay,  on  this  oc- 
casion they  wrote,  at  the  instigation  of  the 
monk  Theodore,  a  letter  to  the  emperor,  sup- 
posed to  be  penned  by  that  incendiary,  to 
tell  him,  that  he  was  not  to  concern  himself 
with  religious  affairs;  that  points  of  faith 
and  religion  were  only  to  be  discussed  and 
determined  by  the  successors  of  the  apostles, 
the  five  patriarchs ;  and,  if  they  could  not  be 
conveniently  assembled,  recourse  was  to  be 
had  to  the  first  patriarch,  the  successor  of 
St.  Peter,  and  all  were  to  stand  to  his  judg- 
ment and  decision.  This  insolent  conduct 
the  emperor  bore  with  incredible  patience ; 
nay,  instead  of  resenting  it,  and  sending  them 
that  instant  all  back  to  the  places  of  their 
confinement  and  exile,  he  granted  them  an 
audience,  upon  their  desiring  to  be  heard  by 
themselves,  as  they  could  have  no  com- 
munication Avith  heretics,  received  them  in  a 
most  obligin£r  manner,  and  having  heard  all 
they  could  offer  in  defence  of  themselves  and 
their  images,  told  them,  that  he  never  had 
worshiped  images  himself,  and  was  not  yet 
convinced  that  they  were  to  be  worshiped  ; 
but  nevertheless,  as  he  was  not  for  offering 
violence  to  any  man's  conscience,  he  grant- 
ed them  full  liberty  to  set  up  and  to  worship 
what  images  they  pleased  ;  but  upon  the  fol- 
lowing conditions  :  I.  That  as  he  worshiped 
none,  none  should  be  set  up  in  the  imperial 
city.  II.  That,  to  prevent  the  superstitious 
practices  of  the  ignorant  multitude,  they 
should  be  placed  in  all  churches  and  oratories 
out  of  their  reach.  III.  That,  to  put  an  end  to 
so  long  and  so  fatal  a  dispute,  an  entire  silence 
should  be  observed  by  men  of  both  parties  con- 
cerning the  lawfulness  or  unlawfulness  of  set- 


204 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Eugene  H. 


Michael  and  Theophilus  write  to  the  emperor  Lewis.     Abuses  introduced  by  the  worshipers  of  images 


ting  up  images,  or  worshiping  them,  as  if  no 
such  controversy  had  ever  been  heard  of  in 
the  church.  That  silence  he  strictly  enjoin- 
ed by  an  edict,  declaring,  that  he  did  not 
take  upon  him  to  determine  so  important  a 
question  ;  but  thought  it  his  duty,  as  he  was 
trusted  with  the  care  of  the  church  as  well 
as  the  state,  to  procure  the  peace  and  tran- 
quillity of  the  one  as  well  as  the  other,  and 
had,  with  that  view  alone,  imposed  silence 
on  both  parties  indifferently,  since  neither 
would  yield  to  the  other,  and  disputes  rather 
served  to  divide  them  still  more  than  to  unite 
them  in  one  mind.  With  that  edict,  hoAV 
just  soever  and  reasonable,  the  patrons  of 
images  refused  to  comply,  claiming,  with 
the  turbulent  monk  Theodore,  and  at  his 
instigation,  an  unrestrained  liberty  not  only 
of  professing  themselves,  but  of  preaching  to 
others,  the  true  catholic  faith,  and  reclaim- 
ing such  as  had  been  seduced  by  the  heretics 
to  their  impious  sect.  That  liberty  they  as- 
sumed, without  any  regard  to  the  express 
prohibition  of  the  emperor,  stirring  up  the 
populace  to  maintain  what  they  called  the 
apostolic  and  ancient  practice  of  the  church, 
and  damning  all  who  opposed  it,  as  enemies 
to  Christ  and  his  saints.  Their  conduct 
obliged  the  emperor  to  change  his ;  and  he 
now  resolved  to  proceed  against  them,  as 
they  were  not  to  be  gained  by  gentle  me- 
thods, with  the  same  severity  that  his  prede- 
cessor had  used.  The  prefect  of  the  imperial 
city  was  accordingly  otdered,  and  so  were 
the  governors  of  the  provinces,  to  cause  the 
imperial  edict,  enjoining  silence,  to  be  strict- 
ly complied  with  in  their  respective  jurisdic- 
tions, and  to  spare  none,  whether  ecclesias- 
tics or  laymen,  who  should  presume  to 
transgress  it.  Pursuant  to  that  order,  the 
monk  Theodore,  and  with  him  most  of  the 
monks  whom  the  emperor  had  lately  re- 
called, were  sent  back  into  exile ;  others 
were  publicly  whipped,  and,  to  prevent  the 
disturbances  they  might  raise,  shut  up  in 
dungeons,  or  confined  to  the  most  distant 
and  inhospitable  places  of  the  empire.' 

This  wholesome  severity  had  the  wished 
for  effect ;  the  zeal  of  the  monks  was  damped 
in  the  end ;  the  imperial  edict  was  strictly 
complied  with,  and  peace  by  that  means, 
for  the  present,  restored  throughout  the  em- 
pire to  the  church.  And  it  was  to  justify 
his  conduct  to  the  emperor  of  the  west,  as 
well  as  to  the  pope,  and  at  the  same  time  to 
engage  them  to  concur  with  him  in  pre- 
venting all  further  disputes,  and  uniting  the 
east  and  the  west  in  one  faith,  that  Michael 
sent  the  solemn  embassy,  mentioned  above, 
into  France.  The  ambassadors,  who  were 
all  persons  of  rank  and  distinction,  brought 
a  letter  from  the  two  emperors,  Michael  and 
his  son  Theophilus,  to  the  emperor  Lewis, 
with  the  following  direction ;  "  in  the  name 


'  Georg.  Monach.  in  Michael,  p.  510.  Theodor.  Studit. 
in  epist.  apud  Bar.  ad  Ann.  821.  Cedren.  ibid. 


of  the  Father,  of  the  Son,  and  the  Holy 
Ghost,  one  God,  Michael  and  Theophilus, 
emperors  of  the  Romans,  to  their  beloved 
and  honored  brother  Lewis,  the  renowned 
king  of  the  Franks  and  the  Lombards,  who 
styles  himself  their  emperor."  By  the  words 
"  who  styles  himself  their  emperor,"  they 
declared,  and  very  unseasonably,  that  they 
did  not  acknowledge  the  king  of  the  Franks 
for  lawful  emperor,  though  he  had  an  un- 
questionable right  to  that  title,  in  virtue  of 
several  treaties  between  Charlemagne  and 
the  preceding  emperors,  and  by  one  con- 
cluded a  few  years  before  between  Lewis 
himself  and  the  emperor  Leo,  the  immediate 
predecessor  of  Michael  in  the  empire.  In 
the  letter,  the  two  emperors  notify,  in  the 
first  place,  to  their  beloved  brother  the  king 
of  the  Franks,  their  accession  to  the  impe- 
rial throne,  and  at  the  same  time  excuse  their 
having  so  long  delayed  to  acquaint  him 
therewith,  and  to  sue  for  his  alliance  and 
friendship.  That  delay  they  ascribe  to  a 
war  kindled  in  the  bowels  of  the  empire  by 
an  usurper  and  impostor  named  Thomas, 
who,  pretending  to  be  Constantine,  the  son 
of  Irene,  had  thereby  seduced  such  numbers, 
both  of  the  people  and  the  soldiery,  as  had 
enabled  him  to  defeat  the  imperial  army,  to 
overrun  all  Syria  and  Asia,  to  reduce  many 
important  strong  holds,  and  at  last  to  lay 
siege  to  the  city  of  Constantinople  itself, 
and  keep  it  besieged  a  whole  year.  They 
add,  that,  by  the  particular  assistance  of  the 
Almighty,  they  had  prevailed  in  the  end, 
had  defeated  the  usurper,  had  obliged  him 
to  fly  for  refuge  to  the  city  of  Adrianople, 
which  city  they  had  reduced  after  a  five 
months  siege,  and  put  to  death  both  him  and 
his  son,  having  first  caused  their  hands  and 
their  feet  to  be  cut  off.  The  emperors  take 
no  notice  of  the  assistance  they  received 
from  the  king  of  the  Bulgarians,  who, 
marching  unasked  to  the  relief  of  Constan- 
tinople, gained  the  first  victory  over  the 
usurper;  and  to  the  first  the  other  victories 
were  all,  in  a  great  measure,  owing. 

In  the  next  place,  the  emperors,  to  justify 
their  conduct  with  respect  to  the  worshipers 
of  images,  give  an  account  of  the  many  su- 
perstitious abuses  that  had  begun  to  prevail 
in  that  worship,  and  of  the  methods  they 
had  employed  to  reform  them  ;  adding  a  con- 
fession of  their  faith,  to  confute  the  calum- 
nies of  the  monks,  who,  flying  from  Con- 
stantinople, and  the  other  cities  of  the  em- 
pire, to  Rome,  had  represented  them  there, 
not  only  as  heretics,  but  as  persecutors  of 
the  catholic  church,  and  enemies  to  Christ 
and  his  saints.  Of  the  many  abuses  that  had 
crept  into  the  worship  of  images,  and  were 
patronized  by  those  who  Avorshiped  them, 
they  take  notice  of  the  following,  namely, 
that  they  had  banished  the  cross  from  the 
churches,  and  set  up  images  in  its  room, 
giving  the  same  honor  to  them  they  gave  to 


Eugene  II.]  OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 205 

MTchael's  confession  of  faith.  Presents  brought  by  his  ambassadors  for  the  emperor  Lewis  and  the  pope. 
The  ambassadors  propose  the  assembling  a  council  in  France,  to  examine  the  doctrine  of  the  Greeks  in 
relation  to  images.    The  emperor  Lewis  agrees  to  the  proposal. 

the  cross ;  that  ihey  burnt  lights  and  incense 

before  them,  sung   hymns  in   their  honor, 

implored  their  assistance,  and  carrying  them 

to  the  sacred  I'oni,  made  them  godfathers  and 

godmothers   to  their   children ;    that  some 

priests,  scraping  off  the  colors  from  their 

pictures,  mixed  them  with  the  wine  of  the 

eucharist,  and  gave  the  wine  thus  mixed,  to 

the  people;  that  others,  putting  the  body  of 

our  Lord  into  the  hands  of  images,  obliged 

those  who  received  it,  to  receive  it  from 

them ;    that  the  sacred  mysteries  were  by 

many  celebrated  not  in  churches,  or  upon 

altars,  but  in  private  houses,  and  upon  pic- 
tures.    These,  and  many  like  superstitious 

practices,  the  orthodox  emperors,  say  ihey, 

whose   example  they   thought    themselves 

bound  to  follow,  had  undertaken  to  suppress, 

and  with  that  view  ordered,  after  advising 

with  the  most  learned  of  the  clergy,  assem- 
bled in  council,  such  images  to  be  removed 

out  of  the  churches  as  were  within  the  reach 
of  the  people,  but  allowed  those  to  remain 
that  were  not,  to  the  end  they,  who  beheld 
them,  might  be  put  in  mind  of  the  objects 
they  represented,  without  being  tempted  to 
kiss  them,  to  burn  lights  or  incense  before  them 
or  give  them  any  kind  of  worship  whatever. 
In  the  third  place,  the  emperors  give  an 
account  of  their  faith;  declaring,  that  they 
receive  the  six  general  councils;  that  they 
profess  the  doctrine  defined  by  those  coun- 
cils, and  hold  all  the  traditions  that  are  truly 
apostolical,  or  have   been  acknowledged  as 
such  by  the  fathers.     By  declaring  they  re- 
ceived the  six  general  councils,  they  tacitly 
rejected  the  council  of  Constantinople  under 
Copronymus,  commanding  images  to  be  cast 
out  of  the  churches  and  broken,  as  well  as 
the  council  of  Nice  under  Irene,  ordering 
them  to  be  worshiped ;  the  one  being  ac- 
knowledged by    the    Iconoclasts,   and    the 
other  by  the  patrons  of  images,  for  the  se- 
venth.    They  close   their    letter  with    the 
warmest  protestations  of  friendship  and  es- 
teem for  their  brother  the  king  of  the  Franks, 
earnestly  entreating  him,  as  ihey  had  charged 
their  ambassadors  to  return  by  Rome,  and 
there  to  negotiate  a  union  between  the  east 
and  the  west,  to  second  him  in  so  pious  an 
undertaking,  and  to  interpose  his  authority 
in  driving  from  Rome  the  wicked  incendia- 
ries, who,  flying  from  the  east,  had  taken 
refuge  in  that  city;  and,  misrepresenting  to 
the  pope  and  his  clergy  the  doctrine  of  the 
Greeks,  strove  by  that  means  to  obstruct  the 
union,  and  widen  the  breach  between  the 
two  churches.' 

The  ambassadors  brought  with  them  some 
valuable  presents  for  the  emperor  Lewis, 
among  which  were  the  works,  as  was  then 
supposed,  of  Dionysius  the  areopagite, 
never  before  seen  nor  heard  of  in  France  ;2 


and   some  for  the  pope;  namely,  the  book 
of  the  Gospels,  covered  with  gold,  a  chalice 
and  a  patten,  or  its  cover,  likewise  of  gold; 
and  all  three  enriched  with  precious  stones.' 
These  they  were,  on  their  arrival  at  Rome, 
to  offer  at  the  tomb  of  St.  Peter,  in  the  name 
of  the  two  emperors.    As  the  emperor  Lewis 
was  employed  in  reducing  the  rebels  of  Nor- 
mandy when  the   ambassadors   arrived   in 
France,  they  waited  his  return  at  Rouen; 
and  there  he  received  them  with  all  possible 
marks  of  honor  and  esteem,  accepted  their 
presents,  renewed  the  alliance  between  the 
two  empires,  and,  commending  the  zeal  of 
their  masters  in  striving  to  suppress  the  su- 
perstitious worship  of  images,  and  reunite 
the  east  and  the  west  in  one  and  the  same 
faith,  he  promised  to  assist  them  to  the  utmost 
of  his  power  in  so  meritorious  an  underta- 
king.    The  ambassadors,  encouraged  with 
the  reception  they  met  with,  suggested  to 
the  emperor,  pursuant  to  their  private  in- 
structions, the  assembling  of  a  council  ia 
France,  to  examine  the  doctrine  and  the 
practice  of  the  Greeks,  with  respect  to  the 
use  and  the  worship  of  images.     Michael 
well  knew,  that  the  emperor  Lewis,  and 
the  French  nation  in  general,  agreed  in  both 
with  him  and  the  Greeks;  that  they  allowed, 
agreeably  to  the  doctrine  of  the  council  of 
Frankfort,  and  the  Caroline  books,  the  use, 
but  condemned  the  worship  of  images,  and 
consequently  rejected,  with  him,  both  the 
council  of  Copronymus,  and  the  council  of 
Irene.     He  therefore  flattered  himself,  that 
the  Gallican  clergy,  finding  the  doctrine  of 
the  Greeks  entirely  agreeable  to  their  own, 
would  look  upon  their  cause  as  their  own, 
would  espouse  it  as  their  own,  and  prevail 
upon  the  pope  to  hearken  to  an  accommo- 
dation, or  at  least  restrain  him  from  anathe- 
matizing the  Greeks  as  heretics,  for  holding 
a  doctrine  that  was  common  to  them  and  the 
French. 

The  emperor  Lewis  readily  agreed  to  the 
assembling  of  a  council,  as  was  suggested 
by  the  ambassadors,  in  order  to  examine  the 
doctrine  of  the  Greeks  with  respect  to  the 
use  and  the  worship  of  images ;  but  ap- 
prehending that  the  pope  might  resent  the 
assembling  of  a  council,  without  his  know- 
ledge or  consent,  to  examine  a  doctrine  that 
his  predecessors  had  already  examined  and 
condemned,  and  be  thereupon  tempted  to 
reject  all  proposals  of  an  accommodation 
between  the  east  and  the  west,  he  resolved 
first  of  all  to  acquaint  his  holiness  with  the 
request  of  the  ambassadors,  and  obtain  his 


>  Epist.  Imp.  ad  Ludovic.  apud  Rar.  ad  Ann.  824. 
'  As  no  mention  is  made  by  Euscbius,  by  Jetom,  by 


Genuadlus,  or  by  any  other  writer,  till  after  the  fifth 
century,  of  any  books  written  by  Dionysius  the  areo- 
papite,  and,  in  some  of  those  that  are  ascribed  to  him, 
notice  is  taken  of  several  practices  that  were  not  in- 
troduced before  the  time  of  Constaniine  the  Great,  the 
books,  that  go  under  his  name,  are  now  universally 
supposed  to  have  been  written  by  another  Dionysius, 
who  flourished  long  after  the  areopagite. 
'  Epist.  Imp.  ad  Ludovic.  apud  liar,  ad  Ann.  834. 

s 


206 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Eugene  II. 


The  council  meets  at  Paris  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  825.]  They  declare  it  lawful  to  set  up  images,  but  unlawful  to 
worship  them.  Pope  Hadrian  severely  censured  by  the  council.  Decree  of  the  council.  Their  letter  to  the 
emperor  Lewis. 


consent  to  comply  with  it.  For  that  purpose 
Freculphus,  bishop  of  Lisieux,  and  Adega- 
rius,  were  sent  to  Rome ;  and  the  pope^ 
highly  pleased  with  so  remarkable  an  in- 
stance of  filial  submission  in  his  son  the 
emperor,  consented  at  once  to  his  gratifying 
the  ambassadors,  and  assembling,  with  that 
view,  the  clergy  of  his  kingdom.  The  em- 
peror therefore,  upon  the  return  of  the  de- 
puties, appointed,  without  loss  of  time,  the 
bishops,  and  most  learned  ecclesiastics  of 
his  kingdom,  to  meet,  and  examine  the  doc- 
trine of  images,  as  taught  by  the  churches 
of  Constantinople  and  Rome  ;  to  inquire  into 
the  subject  of  disagreement  and  dispute  be- 
tween the  two  churches  with  respect  to  that 
article,  and  suggest  to  him  the  means,  that, 
upon  mature  dehberation,  should  appear  to 
them  the  best  calculated  to  reconcile  and 
unite  them  in  one  faith.  The  council  met 
in  the  royal  palace  at  Paris,  on  the  1st  of 
November,  in  the  present  year,  825.  Of 
what  number  of  bishops  and  other  eccle- 
siastics it  consisted,  history  does  not  inform 
us ;  but  it  is  certain  that  most  of  the  bishops 
of  France  and  Germany  were  present,  and 
among  the  rest  Agobard,  the  famous  bishop 
of  Lions,  Jeremiah,  bishop  of  Sens,  Jonas, 
bishop  of  Orleans,  Haligarius,  bishop  of 
Cambray,  Amalarius,  bishop  of  Treves, 
Freculphus  and  Adegarius,  mentioned  above, 
Theodorair,  abbot  of  a  monastery  in  France 
of  one  hundred  and  forty  monks,  Dungalus, 
monk  of  the  monastery  of  St.  Dinis ;  all  per- 
sons of  unexceptionable  characters,  and  de- 
servedly reckoned,  as  appears  from  their 
writings,  amongst  the  most  learned  men  of 
the  age. 

The  council  being  met,  the  letter  of  pope 
Hadrian  to  the  emperors  Coustantine  and 
Irene,  in  favor  of  images,'  was  read  in  the 
first  place,  and  received  as  recommending 
the  use,  but  rejected  as  commanding  the  wor- 
ship of  images ;  it  being  lawful,  said  they, 
to  set  up  images,  but  unlawful  to  worship 
them,  "  cum  eas  erigere  licitum,  adorare 
vero  nefas  sit."  They  observe,  that,  in  the 
same  letter,  the  passages,  alledged  by  the 
pope  out  of  the  fathers  to  support  his  opinion, 
were  all  misapplied,  and  quite  foreign  to  his 
purpose;  "  valde  absona,  et  ad  rem,  de  qua 
agebatur,  minime  pertinentia."  Indeed  no 
man  can  peruse  that  letter,  and  not  acquiesce 
in  their  censure.  The  same  censure  they 
passed  on  the  second  council  of  Nice,  ex- 
pressing great  surprise  at  the  presumption 
and  ignorance  of  the  fathers  of  that  assem- 
bly in  commanding  images  to  be  worshiped, 
in  calling  them  holy,  and  thinking  that  holi- 
ness might  be  acquired  by  them.  At  the 
same  time,  they  found  great  fault  with  the 
council  of  Constantinople  under  Coprony- 
mus,  ordering  images,  that  put  us  in  mind 

«  See  p.  144, 145. 


of  the  objects  they  represented,  and  enli- 
vened by  that  means  our  devotion,  to  be  cast 
out  of  the  churches  and  broken. 

In  the  next  place,  the  council  caused  the 
confutation  of  the  council  of  Nice  by  Char- 
lemagne, known  by  the  name  of  the  Caro- 
line books,'  to  be  read,  and  pope  Hadrian's 
answer  to  that  confutation.  The  Caroline 
books  they  entirely  approved,  as  plainly  con- 
taining the  doctrine  of  the  primitive  church 
and  the  fathers.  But  of  Hadrian's  answer 
they  deliver  their  opinion  in  the  following 
terms  :  "  The  pope,"  say  they,  "  still  ap- 
proving the  acts  of  that  council  (the  council 
of  Nice)  in  spite  of  all  the  arguments  urged 
by  Charlemagne  against  it,  obstinately  con- 
tinued to  support  those  who  had  argued  so 
absurdly,  alledging  what  occurred  to  him,  but 
not  what  became  him,  to  excuse  them.  For 
in  his  answer  are  many  things  alike  repug- 
nant to  truth  and  authority.  However,  in 
the  end  of  his  apology,  he  declares,  that  as 
to  the  subject  in  dispute,  he  agrees  in  opi- 
nion with  the  holy  pope  Gregory,  (Gregory 
the  Great,  teaching  that  we  are  neither  to 
break  images,  nor  to  worship  them)  show- 
ing thereby,  thatil  was  notdesignedly,butig- 
norantly,  he  went  astray  from  the  right  path  ; 
and  that  he  would  have  fallen  into  the  abyss 
of  superstition,  had  he  not  been  withheld 
from  it  by  the  doctrine  of  that  holy  pope." 

Lastly,  the  fathers  of  the  council  ordered 
the  above-mentioned  letter  of  the  emperor 
Michael  to  the  emperor  Lewis,  to  be  read  ; 
and,  upon  the  whole,  concluded,  "that 
images  are  not  to  be  broken,  are  not  to  be 
cast  out  of  the  churches,  nor  even  removed 
in  the  places  of  worship  out  of  the  reach  of 
the  people  ;  but  though  they  are  to  be  pre- 
served for  the  sake  of  those  whom  they  re- 
present, we  are  by  no  means  to  serve,  wor- 
ship, nor  adore  them,  agreeably  to  the  doc- 
trine of  the  blessed  pope  Gregory  .^ 

The  council  being  ended,  the  bishops 
wrote  a  letter  in  common,  to  the  emperor 
Lewis,  to  acquaint  him  with  their  proceed- 
ings, and  the  judgment  they  had  given  of  the 
point  in  dispute  between  the  churches  of 
Constantinople  and  Rome ;  namely,  that 
both  churches  were  highly  to  blame,  the 
one  for  worshiping  images,  the  other  for 
breaking  them  ;  but  that  it  was  a  far  greater 
crime  to  worship  than  to  break  them.  In 
the  same  letter  they  tell  the  emperor,  that  the 
superstitious  worship  of  images  had  taken 
deep  root  at  Rome,  as  they  were  informed 
by  Freculphus  and  Adegarius,  lately  return- 
ed from  that  city;  that  it  was  countenanced 
there,  and  promoted  by  those,  whose  duty 
it  was  to  oppose  it,  meaning  the  popes,  and 
was  therefore  incumbent  on  so  Christian  a 
prince  to  remove  the  scandal  it  gave  to  all 

»  See  p.  163. 

oGoldast.  Constit.  Imper.  torn.  i.  p.  154,  155. 


Eugene  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


207 


The  emperor  Lewis  sends  two  bishops  lo  acquaint  the  pope  with  the  result  of  the  council.    Instructions  given 
them.     Lewis'  letter  to  the  pope.     The  doctrine  of  the  Gallican  church  at  this  time  concerning  images. 


good  men,  and  abolish  a  practice  that  igno- 
raace  had  introduced,  and  custom  establish- 
ed. They  added,  that,  in  so  nice  and  im- 
portant an  affair,  he  must  proceed  with  the 
utmost  caution  and  prudence,  not  openly 
disapproving  what  the  apostolic  see  had  ap- 
proved ;  but  only  expressing  an  earnest  de- 
sire of  seeing  peace  restored  to  the  church, 
and  begging  his  holiness  to  interpose  the 
authority  with  which  he  is  vested,  and  cause 
the  doctrine  to  be  universally  received,  that 
should  be  found,  upon  searching  the  Scrip- 
tures, and  the  writings  of  the  fathers,  the 
most  agreeable  to  both.  With  that  letter  the 
Gallican  bishops  sent  to  the  emperor  a  large 
collection  of  passages  out  of  the  fathers,  all 
calculated  to  prove,  that  images,  according 
to  them,  were  neither  to  be  worshiped,  nor 
cast  out  of  the  churches,  and  broken.  But 
against  destroying,  and  banishing  them  out 
of  the  churches,  not  one  father  is  quoted  of 
the  first  three  centuries  ;  and  the  testimonies 
alledged  out  of  those  of  the  following  ages, 
only  prove,  that  some  advantages  attend 
them,  and  that  they  might  be  consequently 
set  up  in  places  of  worship,  provided  care 
were  taken  that  no  kind  of  worship  was 
given  them.  As  the  emperor  was,  on  this 
occasion,  to  write  to  the  pope,  the  bi- 
shops of  the  council  drew  up,  and  sent 
him,  before  they  parted,  a  sketch  of  the  let- 
ter, they  thought,  he  should  write,  and  like- 
wise of  the  letter  they  wished  the  pope  could 
be  persuaded  to  write  to  the  two  empe- 
rors Michael  and  Theophilus.  Both  letters 
turned  upon  this,  that,  as  the  use  of  images 
is  neither  commanded  nor  forbidden  in  Scrip- 
ture, they,  who  choose  to  have  any,  be  al- 
lowed to  have  them,  but  not  to  worship 
ihem ;  and  they,  who  choose  to  have  no'ne, 
be  not  obliged  to  have  any  ;  and  that  neither 
presume  to  find  fault  with  the  other,  since 
neither  can  be  charged  with  practising  what 
is  forbidden,  or  not  practising  what  is  com- 
manded by  lawful  authority. 

The  proceedings  of  the  council,  and  the 
means  they  suggested  of  putting  an  end  to 
so  long  a  dispute,  were  highly  approved  by 
the  emperor;  and  he  immediately  despatched 
Jeremiah  of  Sens,  and  Jonas  of  Orleans,  to 
acquaint  his  holiness  with  them,  and  try  to 
divert  him,  if  by  any  means  they  could, 
from  countenancing  a  worship  that  gave  so 
great  offence  both  to  the  Greeks  and  the 
Gallican  bishops.  Their  private  instructions 
were,  to  use,  in  treating  with  the  pope,  the 
utmost  circumspection,  advancing  nothing 
rashly,  or  that  he  could  take  amiss;  to  read 
over  together,  with  the  greatest  care  and  at- 
tention, the  passages  the  council  had  col- 
lected from  the  Scriptures  and  the  fathers 
against  the  worshipingof  images,  and  choose 
out  of  them  those  that  were  most  to  the  pur- 
pose, and  such  as  neither  the  pope  nor  his 
council  could  reasonably  object  to;  to  affect. 


above  all  things,  great  moderation  in  their 
conferences  with  his  holiness,  not  openly 
contradicting  him,  but  striving  to  bring  him, 
by  their  complaisance  and  condescension,  to 
hearken  to  reason;  but  if  he  obstinately 
withstood  all  their  endeavors,  and  still  con- 
tinued deaf  both  to  reason  and  authority,  yet 
to  take  care  not  to  be  wanting  in  the  respect 
that  is  due  to  his  dignity,  but  modestly  re- 
presenting to  him  the  many  evils  that  attend 
the  present  disagreement  between  the  east 
and  the  west,  leave  his  holiness  to  find  out, 
and  employ  the  means  that  should  appear  to 
him,  in  his  great  prudence  and  discretion, 
the  best  calculated  to  redress  them. 

By  the  same  bishops  the  emperor  wrote  a 
most  obliging  letter  to  the  pope,  in  his  own 
name,  and  in  the  name  of  Lotharius,  his 
son  and  colleague  in  the  empire,  recom- 
mending to  him  the  Greek  ambassadors, 
sent  by  the  emperors  Michael  and  Thophi- 
lus,  to  negotiate  an  union  between  the  east 
and  the  west,  and  earnestly  entreating  him 
to  hearken  to  their  proposals,  to  pity  the 
distracted  state  of  the  church,  and  concur 
with  him  in  composing  the  differences  that 
had  so  long  subsisted  between  the  churches 
of  Constantinople  and  Rome.'  What  recep- 
tion the  two  bishops  met  with  from  the  pope 
no  writer  has  informed  us,  nor  what  was 
transacted  at  Rome  by  the  Greek  ambassa- 
dors, or  at  Constantinople  by  Haliigarius 
bishop  of  Cambria,  and  Hufridus,  abbot  of 
Nonantula,  whom  Lewis  sent  on  this  occa- 
sion with  the  character  of  his  ambassadors 
into  the  east.  All  we  know  for  certain,  is, 
that  the  pope  still  continued  to  defend  and 
promote  the  worship  of  images,  liiough  con- 
demned in  the  strongest  terms  by  the  Galli- 
can bishops;  that  he  would  hearken  to  no 
terms  of  agreement  excluding  that  worship, 
and  that  thereupon  some  of  the  most  emi- 
nent men  for  piety  and  learning  in  the 
Gallican  church,  siding  with  the  Greeks, 
undertook  to  impugn  it.  Amongst  these, 
Claudius,  bishop  of  Turin,  perhaps  the  most 
learned  man  of  that  age,  declared,  in  a  trea- 
tise he  wrote  on  this  occasion,  not  only 
against  the  worship,  but  against  the  use  of 
images  as  well  as  the  worship,  and  caused 
them  all,  nay,  and  with  them  the  cross,  to 
be  cast  out  of  the  churches  throughout  his 
diocese,  and  consigned  to  the  flames.  That 
treatise  was  anwered  by  Jonas,  of  Orleans, 
who,  though  no  less  averse  to  the  worship 
of  images  than  Claudius  himself,  was  yet 
for  retaining  them  as  books  for  the  ignorant, 
and  helps  to  devotion.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  Agobard  was. of  opinion,  and  that 
opinion  he  maintained  with  great  erudition 
and  learning,  that  images  rather  hinder  than 
help  true  devotion,  and  ought  therefore  to  be 
excluded,  as   they  were   by   the   primitive 


Qoldast.  p.  160—180. 


208 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Valentine. 


The  Gallican  bishops  did  not  believe  the  pope  incapable  of  erring.     The  pope  assembles  a  council  in  Rome. 
Eugene  dies;— [Year  of  Christ,  827.]     Valentine  chosen.     His  inthronation.    His  death. 


fathers,  from  all  places  of  worship  and  de- 
votion.' However,  that  they  were  neither 
to  be  broken,  nor  to  be  worshiped,  was,  it 
must  be  owned,  the  received  doctrine  of  the 
Gallican  church  at  this  time,  and  that  doc- 
trine they  continued  to  profess,  as  will  ap- 
pear in  the  sequel,  long  after  the  ninth  cen- 
tury, retaining  images  as  ornaments,  as 
books  for  the  ignorant,  as  helps  to  memory, 
but  giving  them  no  kind  of  worship,  and 
charging  those  with  idolatry  who  gave  them 
any. 

To  conclude :  From  what  has  been  said, 
it  is  manifest  beyond  all  dispute,  I.  That  the 
authority  of  the  pope  was  not  yet,  that  is,  so 
late  as  the  ninth  century,  thought  decisive 
by  the  Gallican  bishops,  nor  he  thought  in- 
fallible, or  incapable  of  erring,  since  they 
condemned,  and  condemned  with  one  voice, 
a  doctrine  as  erroneous  and  heretical,  which 
so  many  popes  had  taught  ex  cathedra,  and 
defined.  II.  That  those  bishops  did  not  be- 
lieve themselves  bound  to  receive  a  council  as 
oecumenical,  though  received  as  such  by  the 
pope;  nor  bound  to  submit  to  its  decisions, 
though  approved  and  confirmed  by  the  pope, 
but  thought  themselves  at  full  liberty  to  re- 


ceive or  reject  them.  III.  That  to  reject  a 
council,  and  the  definitions  of  a  council,  re- 
ceived by  the  pope  as  oscumenical,  was  not 
at  this  time  deemed  heresy,  since  the  pope 
did  not,  as  appears  from  history,  declare  the 
Gallican  bishops  heretics  on  that  account, 
or  exclude  them  from  the  communion  of  the 
apostolic  see. 

Of  pope  Eugene  we  hear  no  more  till  the 
years  826,  when  he  assembled  a  council  in 
Rome,  consisting  of  sixty-three  bishops, 
seventeen  presbyters,  and  some  deacons  ;  all 
from  the  Italian  provinces  subject  to  the  em- 
peror Lewis,  or  the  pope.  By  that  council 
were  issued  thirty-eight  canons ;  all  calculated 
to  restore  the  ecclesiastical  discipline,  and  en- 
courage learning  both  sacred  and  profane.' 

The  following  year  the  pope  died  ;  but,  as 
to  the  time  of  his  death,  we  only  know,  that 
it  happened  in  the  month  of  August,  827,  the 
contemporary  historians  all  telling  us  he 
died  in  that  month,  but  not  one  of  them 
mentioning  the  precise  day  on  which  he 
died.  As  he  was  ordained  on  the  14lh  of 
February,  824,  and  died  in  August,  827,  he 
must  have  held  the  see  at  least  three  years 
.  and  five  months. 


VALENTINE,  NINETY-NINTH  BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[Michael  and  Theophilus,  Emperors  of  the  East. — Lewis  the  Debonnaire,  and 
LoTHARius,  Emperors  of  the  West.'] 


[Year  of  Christ  827.]  Eugene  was  suc- 
ceeded by  Valentine,  chosen,  as  is  common- 
ly supposed,  after  a  few  days  vacancy.  He 
was  a  native  of  Rome,  the  son  of  one  Peter, 
and,  at  the  time  of  his  election,  archdeacon 
of  the  Roman  church.  He  was  greatly  es- 
teemed and  beloved  by  the  two  preceding 
popes  Paschal  and  Eugene,  especially  by 
the  latter,  who  is  said  to  have  cherished  him 
as  his  son,  and  to  have  kept  him  constantly 
with  him  in  the  palace.^ 

From  the  account  Anastasius  gives  of  the 
ordination  and  instalment,  or,  as  it  is  called, 
inthronation,  of  this  pope,  we  learn  the  par- 
ticulars of  both  these  ceremonies.  The  new 
pope  was,  according  to  that  account,  attend- 
ed by  the  Roman  clergy,  the  people,  and  the 
S€nate,  to  the  Vatican,  was  there  first  or- 
dained, then  placed  in  the  supposed  chair  of 
St.  Peter,  and  from  thence  conducted  in 
great  pomp,  after  he  had  performed  divine 
service,  to  the  Lateran  palace,  where  he 
was  enthroned,  or  set  upon  the  pontifical 
throne,  and  acknowledged  by  the  nobility 
and  the  senate  prostrating  themselves  be- 
fore him,  and  kissing  his  foot  amidst  the  ac- 
clamations of  the  people.     When  the  cere- 


«  Agobard.  p.  142,  143.  254—266. 
a  Anast.  in  Valentine. 


mony  was  ended,  the  pope  gave  a  great  en- 
tertainment to  the  chief  of  the  clergy,  and 
the  officers  of  state,  and  enriched,  to  use  the 
word  of  Anastasius,  with  many  gifts,  the 
clergy,  the  people,  and  the  senate.^ 

Valentine  enjoyed  his  new  dignity  but  a 
very  short  time,  according  to  some,  scarce 
one  month  f  according  to  others,  forty  days.'* 
He  must  therefore  have  died  on  the  latter 
end  of  September,  or  the  beginning  of  Octo- 
ber, of  the  same  year  in  which  he  was 
chosen.  Indeed,  from  this  time  to  the  mid- 
dle of  the  eleventh  century,  no  writer  I 
know  of,  besides  Anastasius,  has  been  so 
accurate  and  exact  as  to  mention  the  months 
or  the  days  that  each  pope  sat  above  the 
whole  years;  and  in  Anastasius  the  num- 
bers have  been  so  altered,  through  the  inac- 
curacy or  the  ignorance  of  the  transcribers, 
that,  with  respect  to  them,  no  two  copies 
agree.  We  must  therefore,  henceforth,  be 
satisfied  with  ascertaining  the  number  of  the 
years,  and  guessing,  where  we  can,  at  that 
of  the  months  and  the  days. 


»  Eginhard.  in  Annal.  Lab.  Concil.  c.  8.  Natal.  Alex. 
sect.  9.  part.  i.  art.  4. 

»  Anast.  in  Valent.  &  Mabill.  in  comment,  ad  Ord. 
Roman  n.  18. 

3  Eginhard.  in  Annal. 

*  Liber  Pont.  Luitprand.  Martin.  Felon.  &c. 


Gregory  IV.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


Gregory  elected. 


Quarrel  between  Lewis  the  Debonnaire  and  his  three  sons  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  833.]  Charge 
brought  against  the  empress  Judith,  who  is  shut  up  in  a  monastery. 


GREGORY  IV.,  THE  HUNDREDTH  BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[Theophilus,  Emperor  of  the  East. — Lewis  the  Debonnaire,  and  Lotharius,  Emperors 

of  the  West.] 


[Year  of  Christ  827.]  Valentine  being 
dead,  Gregory,  the  fourth  of  that  name,  by 
birth  a  Roman,  the  son  of  one  John,  and 
presbyter  of  the  Roman  church,  was  either 
immediately,  or  after  a  very  short  vacancy,  for 
we  read  of  no  opposition,  raised  to  the  see 
in  his  room.  However,  as  his  ordination 
was  delayed  till  the  emperor,  then  in  France, 
was  acquainted  with  his  election,  and  it  was 
examined  and  confirmed  by  deputies  from 
thence  sent  to  Rome,'  we  cannot  well  sup- 
pose him  to  have  been  ordained  till  the  latter 
end  of  the  present  year. 

Of  this  pope  nothing  occurs  in  history, 
worthy  of  notice,  till  the  year  833,  when  he 
interposed  in  the  quarrel  between  the  empe- 
ror Lewis  and  his  three  sons,  Lotharius, 
Pepin,  and  Lewis.  Of  that  quarrel,  of  the 
disturbances  attending  it,  of  the  part  the 
pope  acted  in  it,  the  contemporary  historians 
give  us  the  following  account:  the  emperor 
had,  ever  since  the  year  817,  divided  his  do- 
minions, after  the  example  of  his  father 
Charlemagne,  amongst  his  children.  Lo- 
tharius, his  eldest  son,  he  had  chosen  for 
his  successor  in  the  empire,  and  taken  him 
for  his  colleague  ;  to  Pepin,  his  second  son, 
he  had  given  the  kingdom  of  Aquitaine; 
and  to  Lewis,  the  youngest  of  the  three,  the 
kingdom  of  Bavaria.  This  division  was 
approved  by  the  general  assembly  of  the 
states  at  Aix-la-Chapelle  ;  the  three  princes 
were  crowned  there  with  great  solemnity  ; 
the  act  of  settlement  was  sent  to  the  pope  ; 
and  the  two  kings,  repairing,  as  soon  as  they 
were  crowned,  to  their  respective  kingdoms, 
were  everywhere  received  with  loud  accla- 
mations, and  by  all  acknowledged  for  their 
lawful  sovereigns.  But  the  empress  Her- 
mengard,  their  mother,  dying  the  following 
year,  818,  the  emperor  was  prevailed  upon 
by  his  nobles,  apprehending  him  inclined  to 
resign  the  crown,  and  lead  a  retired  life,  to 
marry  again  ;  and  he  married  Judith,  daugh- 
ter to  Duke  Welfo,  descended  from  a  very 
ancient  family,  and  at  that  time  one  of  the 
most  powerful  and  illustrious  in  Bavaria. 
In  823,  the  empress  was  delivered  of  a  son, 
who  was  called  Charles,  and  is  known  in 
history  by  the  name  of  Charles  the  Bald. 
His  birth  obliged  the  emperor  to  make  a  new 
division  of  his  dominions  in  favor  of  the 
young  prince,  born  after  the  former  division, 
and  consequently  left  entirely  to  the  mercy 
of  his  brothers.     He  published  accordingly 


«  Eginhard.  in  Annal.  Auctor  vit.  Lud.  Pii  Annalist. 
Lcrtin. 

Vol.  IL— 27 


an  edict  at  Worms,  in  829,  settling  on  prince 
Charles  the  country  of  the  Alemans,  or  the 
country  lying  between  the  Mein,  the  Rhine, 
the  Neckar,  and  the  Danube,  all  Rhetia,  now 
the  country  oftheGrisons,  and  that  part  of  the 
kingdom  of  Burgundy,  that  extends  beyond 
mount  Jura  ;  that  is,  the  country  of  the 
Swiss,  and  Geneva. 

As  the  share  given  to  Charles  was  taken 
out  of  the  largest  of  the  three,  or  out  of  that 
which  Lotharius  was  to  succeed  to  as  em- 
peror, he  loudly  complained  of  the  injustice, 
as  he  called  it,  done  him,  and  resolved  to 
leave  nothing  unattempted,that,  he  thought, 
could  prevent  the  new  division  from  taking 
place.  With  that  view  he  gave  out,  and  so 
did  all  his  friends  and  adherents,  who  were 
very  numerous,  that  the  empress  Judith,  a 
true  step-mother,  was  determined  to  raise 
her  son  to  the  imperial  throne,  and  pave  the 
way  for  him  to  it  by  the  destruction  of  the 
whole  imperial  family ;  that,  to  the  great 
disgrace  of  the  crown,  she  entertained  a  cri- 
minal commerce  with  count  Bernard,  her 
principal  minister ;  that  she  had,  in  conjunc- 
tion with  him,  banished  all  men  of  con- 
science and  honor  from  the  court,  and  was 
concerting  such  measures  as  must  end,  if 
not  timely  defeated,  in  the  ruin  of  the  empe- 
ror, and  all  his  true  friends.  These  reports, 
though  probably  destitute  of  all  foundation, 
alarmed  not  only  the  kings  of  Aquitaine  and 
Bavaria,  and  some  of  the  great  lords  of  the 
empire,  but  several  of  the  most  eminent 
men  in  the  church  for  probity,  wisdom,  and 
learning;  among  the  rest  Bernard,  bishop 
of  Vienne,  Agobard,  bishop  of  Lions,  Jesse, 
bishop  of  Amiens,  Hilduin,  abbot  of  St. 
Denys,  and  Wala,  abbot  of  Corbie,  reckon- 
ed the  greatest  saint  of  the  age.  These  holy- 
men,  giving  entire  credit  to  the  reports  they 
heard,  and  thereupon  declaring  all  enemies 
to  God  and  his  church,  who  did  not  con- 
cur with  them  in  reforming  the  court,  and 
efTectually  providing  for  the  safety  of  the 
imperial  family  against  the  wicked  attempts 
of  the  empress  and  her  favorite  minister, 
easily  prevailed,  first  on  the  king  of  Aqui- 
taine, and  afterwards  on  Lotharius,  and  the 
king  of  Bavaria,  to  join  them.  The  king  of 
Aquitaine,  drawing  together  his  troops  in 
great  haste,  surprised  the  cities  of  Orleans 
and  Laon;  and  finding  the  empress  in  the 
latter,  the  emperor  being  then  waging  war 
with  the  rebels  in  Britany,  after  reproaching 
her  with  her  scandalous  conduct,  and  the  evil 
designs  she  had  formed  against  him  and  his 

92 


210 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Gregory  IV. 


The  emperor  delivers  himself  up  to  his  son  Lotharius.  He  and  his  three  sons  reconciled.  His  son  Lotharius 
rebels  anew  and  persuades  the  pope  to  attend  him  into  France.  The  emperor  forbids  the  bishops  to  wait  on 
the  pope.     Conduct  of  Agobard,  bishop  of  Lions,  on  this  occasion. 


brothers,  he  obliged  her  to  take  the  religious 
veil  in  the  monastery  of  St.  Radegoude  of 
Poitiers. 

The  emperor  received,  at  the  same  time, 
the  news  of  this  revolt  and  the  captivity  of 
the  empress  ;  and  struck  with  astonishment 
at  so  bold  an  attempt,  he  left  Britany,  and 
marched  withoutdelay,  but  under  the  greatest 
concern,  against  his  son.  But  the  king  of 
Aquitaine  being,  in  the  mean  time,  joined 
by  his  brother  Lotharius,  at  the  head  of  a 
very  numerous  army,  and  the  emperor's 
troops,  officers  as  well  as  soldiers,  deserting 
to  them  daily  in  whole  bodies,  the  unhappy 
prince,  thus  left,  in  a  short  time  almost  alone, 
was  obliged  to  deliver  himself  up,  with  his  son 
Charles,  to  the  rebels.  Lotharius  treated 
him,  in  appearance,  with  great  respect;  but 
left  him  no  kind  of  power  or  authority, 
nothing  but  the  bare  title  of  emperor  ;  and 
of  that  title  too  he  flattered  himself  he  should 
prevail  on  the  states,  that  were  soon  to  meet, 
to  divest  him,  and  oblige  him  to  resign  the 
crown,  and  retire  to  a  monastery.  But,  in 
the  mean  time,  the  kings  of  Aquitaine  and 
Bavaria,  jealous  of  the  power,  and  offended 
at  the  arbitrary  and  despotic  conduct  of  their 
brother,  began  to  think  of  abandoning  him, 
and  being  reconciled  with  their  father.  They 
were  encouraged  in  that  thought  by  a  monk, 
named  Gombaud,  in  whom  they  placed 
great  confidence;  and  by  his  means,  as  he 
was  a  man  of  great  address,  the  reconcilia- 
tion was  soon  brought  about.  Lotharius, 
finding  himself  thus  abandoned  by  his 
brothers,  and  his  party  thereby  weakened, 
in  proportion  as  his  father's  was  strengthen- 
ed, thought  it  advisable  to  follow  their  ex- 
ample, lest,  by  his  obstinacy,  he  should  for- 
feit, in  the  end,  all  share  in  his  father's  do- 
minions, and  with  it  his  life,  or  his  liberty. 
As  he  was  the  first  and  chief  author  of  all 
the  disturbances,  and  his  submission  was 
forced,  and  not  voluntary,  the  emperor,  at 
the  same  time  that  he  added  some  cities  and 
territories  to  the  share  of  his  brothers,  di- 
vested him  of  the  imperial  dignity,  declared 
the  subjects  of  the  empire  absolved  from  the 
oath  of  allegiance  they  had  taken  to  him  as 
emperor,  and  leaving  him  only  the  title  of 
king  of  Italy,  strictly  enjoined  him  to  un- 
dertake, even  there,  nothing  of  moment 
without  his  consent.' 

Thus  was  peace  restored  to  the  empire ; 
but  it  was  short  lived  :  the  three  brothers  re- 
volted soon  after  anew,  and  were,  by  an  ex- 
cess of  goodness,  forgiven  anew  by  the  em- 
peror. His  matchless  indulgence  and  good 
nature  encouraged  the  king  of  Aquitaine  to 
revolt  the  third  time  ;  which  so  provoked  the 
emperor,  that  he  was  easily  prevailed  upon 
by  the  empress  (who  was  returned  to  court, 
her  profession,  as  it  was  forced,  having  been 

«  Thegan.  c.  35^10.  Vit.  Lud.  Pii,  ad  Ann.  829—832. 
Nitbard.  vit.  Wal.  Albat.  Eginhard.  &c. 


declared  null  by  the  pope  and  the  bishops) 
to  disinherit  Pepin,  and  give  the  kingdom  of 
Aquitaine  to  her  son,  prince  Charles.  Lotha- 
rius wanted  no  better  pretence  to  fly  to  arms, 
and  try  to  recover  his  forfeited  dignity.  He 
was  then  in  Italy  ;  and  being  sensible  that  he 
could  by  no  other  means  more  efiectually 
strengthen  his  party,  and  disguise  the  injus- 
tice of  his  cause,  than  by  engaging  the  pope 
to  espouse  it,  he  applied  to  Gregory ;  and 
pretending  he  had  nothing  in  view  but  to 
defeat  the  wicked  designs  of  the  empress, 
at  whose  instigation  the  emperor,  divesting 
himself  of  his  natural  tenderness,  had  de- 
graded him,  though  solemnly  crowned  by 
the  holy  pope  Paschal ;  had  disinherited 
his  brother  Pepin,  to  make  room  for  her 
son ;  and  was  pursuing  such  measures  as 
must  inevitably  kindle  a  civil  war  in  the 
bowels  of  the  kingdom;  he  begged  his  holiness 
to  second  him  in  an  undertaking,  that  would 
recommend  him  to  the  love  and  esteem  of 
all  good  men,  of  all  the  true  friends  of  the  em- 
peror, of  the  imperial  family,  and  the  empire. 

The  pope,  believing  all  he  said  to  be  true, 
readily  agreed  not  only  to  interpose  his  good 
offices  in  his  behalf,  but  to  attend  him  in 
person  into  France,  and  there  mediate  a  re- 
concihation  between  him  and  his  father. 
Lotharius  was  then  upon  the  point  of  setting 
out  for  France,  at  the  head  of  a  considerable 
army  he  had  raised  in  Italy,  not  with  a  de- 
sign, as  he  pretended  to  the  pope,  of  defeat- 
ing the  ambitious  and  wicked  designs  of  the 
empress,  but  to  drive  his  father  from  the 
throne,  and  seize  on  the  empire.  Having 
thus  gained,  or  rather  deceived,  the  pope,  he 
began  his  march,  attended  by  him,  and  some 
of  the  chief  men  of  his  clergy,  giving  every- 
where out,  as  he  entered  France,  that  his 
hoHness,  fully  satisfied  of  the  justice  of  his 
cause,  had  zealously  espoused  it,  and  was 
come  from  Italy  on  purpose  to  excommuni- 
cate the  emperor,  and  the  bishops  of  his 
party,  if  an  end  was  not  put  to  the  unjust 
persecution  of  his  innocent  children.  These 
reports,  industriously  spread  abroad  by  Lo- 
tharius and  his  friends,  had  the  wished  for 
effect;  and  men  flocked  to  him  from  all 
parts,  persuaded  he  had  justice  on  his  side, 
since  the  pope  had  declared  in  his  favor. 

In  the  mean  time  the  emperor,  hearing,  to 
his  inexpressible  surprise,  that  the  pope  was 
come  into  France  with  Lotharius,  and  taking 
it  for  granted  that  he  had  gained  him  over  to 
his  cause,  wrote  a  circulatory  letter  to  the 
bishops,  to  put  them  in  mind  of  their  alle- 
giance, and  forbid  their  waiting  on  the  pope, 
or  entertaining  any  kind  of  commerce  with 
him  so  long  as  he  continued  with  the  rebels ; 
nay,  he  charged  Agobard,  bishop  of  Lions, 
to  write  against  the  pope,  and  expose  his 
conduct,  at  the  present  juncture,  in  siding 
with  a  son,  who  had  set  up  the  standard  of 
rebellion    against    his    father.      Agobard, 


Gregory  IV.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


311 


Letter  from  the  bishops  of  the  emperor's  party  to  the  pope.     The  pope's  answer  to  their  letter. 


though  a  prelate  of  most  unexceptionable 
character,  and  one  of  the  most  learned  in 
France,  was  most  unaccountably  prejudiced 
against  the  empress  and  the  ministers ;  and 
therefore,  instead  of  writing  against  the 
pope,  or  blaming  his  conduct,  he  wrote 
a  letter  to  the  emperor,  entreating  him  not 
to  quarrel  with  his  holiness,  but  to  treat 
him  with  all  the  respect  that  was  due  to  his 
character.  "  Were  the  pope  come,"  said 
he,  "  to  raise  disturbances  in  the  kingdom, 
or  to  foment  those  that  have  already  been 
raised,  you  might,  and  ought,  in  that  case, 
to  drive  him  out  with  shame  and  disgrace ; 
but,  as  he  has  undertaken  this  journey  with 
no  other  view  but  to  re-establish  peace  and 
tranquillity,  by  removing  the  cause  of  all  the 
disturbances,  you  ought  not  only  to  receive, 
but  obey  him."  Agobard  pretended,  that 
the  disturbances  were  all  owing  to  the 
intrigues  of  bad  counsellors,  and  the  wicked 
measures  suggested  by  them  ;  that  the  em- 
peror could  not  in  conscience  annul  the  act 
of  settlement,  after  it  had  been  confirmed 
in  a  general  assembly  of  all  the  states  of  the 
empire,  and  approved  by  the  pope  ;  that  as 
the  empire  was,  by  that  act,  settled  on  Lo- 
tharius,  and  the  kingdoms  of  Aquitaine  and 
Bavaria  on  Pepin  and  Lewis,  he  could  not, 
without  the  greatest  injustice,  take  from 
them  what  he  himself,  and  with  him  the 
whole  nation,  had  given  them.  He  added, 
"  that  the  pope,  sensible  of  the  injury  that 
was  done  them,  and  well  apprised  of  the 
malice  and  craft  of  designing  and  evil- 
minded  men,  was  come  into  France  to  inter- 
pose his  good  offices  ;  nay,  and  to  exert,  if 
his  good  offices  proved  unsuccessful,-  all  his 
authority  in  behalf  of  their  oppressed  inno- 
cence." He  closed  his  letter  with  tejling 
the  emperor,  that  having  taken  an  oath  of 
allegiance  to  Lotharius  as  emperor,  he 
thought  himself  bound  by  that  oath  to  join 
and  support  him.' 

On  the  other  hand,  the  bishops  of  the  em- 
peror's party  hearing  that  the  pope  had  at- 
tended Lotharius  into  France,  with  a  design, 
as  was  given  out,  to  excommunicate  the 
emperor  and  his  friends,  agreed,  at  a  meet- 
ing they  had  on  that  occasion,  to  write  a 
letter  to  him  in  common,  and  try  to  divert 
him  from  so  rash  and  unprecedented  an  at- 
tempt. In  the  letter  they  tell  him  that  the 
news  of  his  arrival  in  France  had  given 
them  great  joy,  as  they  flattered  themselves 
he  was  come  with  no  other  view  or  design 
but  to  interpose  his  good  offices  and  mediate 
a  reconciliation  between  the  contending  and 
opposite  parties,  and  they  would  therefore 
have  gone  out  to  meet  him  had  they  not 
been  restrained  from  showing  him  that  mark 
of  regard  by  an  express  command  from  the 
emperor;  that  if  what  they  all  heard  was 
true,  namely,  that  his  holiness  was  come  to 
excommunicate  the  emperor  and  his  friends. 


>  Agobard.  de  comparat  utriusque  regimiD. 


it  could  not  be  expected  they  should  show 
him  any  kind  of  regard,  and  the  emperor 
had  done  well  in  forbidding  all  intercourse 
between  his  loyal  subjects  and  him ;  that  an 
excommunication  so  unjust,  so  contrary  to 
the  practice  and  canons  of  the  church, 
would  reflect  no  less  disgrace  on  the  ponti- 
ficial  authority,  that  would  thereby  be  brought 
into  contempt,  than  on  the  imperial  dignity; 
that  if  he  came  to  excommunicate  he  might 
return  excommunicated,  "si  excommunica- 
turus  veniret,  excommunicatus  abiret;"  that 
in  so  presumptuous  an  attempt,  he  would 
meet  with  a  more  vigorous  resistance  from 
the  German  and  Galilean  bishops  than  per- 
haps he  expected;  that  if  he  did  not  change 
his  mind  they  would  not  allow  his  authority 
to  be  acknowledged  in  F'rance  or  in  Germa- 
ny. In  the  close  of  their  letter,  they  put 
him  in  mind  of  the  oath  of  allegiance  he 
took  to  the  emperor  upon  his  promotion, 
and  even  threaten  to  depose  him  for  pre- 
suming to  come  into  France  with  the  empe- 
ror's enemies  and  without  his  permission. 
They  likewise  threaten  with  degradation  the 
bishops,  who,  unmindful  of  their  allegiance, 
had  joined  the  rebels,  adding,  that  should 
their  obstinacy  oblige  the  emperor  to  pro- 
ceed to  extremities  the  sentence  pronounced 
against  them  would  be  irreversible.' 

This  letter  alarmed  the  pope,  but  being 
encouraged  by  Wala,  abbot  of  Corbie,  and 
his  companion  Pascasius,  pretending  that 
the  vicar  of  St.  Peter  was  empowered  by 
God  to  determine  all  differences  whatever, 
and  that  all  men  were  to  be  judged  by  him, 
and  he  by  none,  he  answered  the  bishops  in 
a  style  that  gave  great  offence  both  to  them 
and  the  emperor,  and  left  no  room  to  doubt 
but  he  had  been  gained  over  to  the  party  of 
rebels.  He  begins  his  answer  with  upbraid- 
ing them  for  styling  him  at  the  same  time 
pope,  that  is,  father  and  brother,  titles  that 
he  thinks  incompatible,  and  tells  them,  that 
they  should  only  have  given  him  the  title  of 
father,  as  the  most  respectful  of  the  tAvo,  as 
if  it  were  presumption  in  the  Galilean  bish- 
ops to  call  him  their  brother,  though  no  title 
was  more  frequently  given  by  the  other 
bishops  to  the  pope,  nor  by  the  pope  to 
other  bishops,  as  might  be  shown  by  innu- 
merable instances.  They  styled  him  father 
and  brother  in  the  Lord ;  and  in  that  sense 
the  two  titles  are  not  incompatible.  In  the 
second  place  the  pope  finds  fault  with  the 
bishops  for  not  coming  out  to  meet  him,  but 
suffering  themselves  to  be  diverted,  by  the 
command  of  the  prince,  from  showing  him 
that  mark  of  respect  that  was  due  to  his  cha- 
racter, and  wonders  they  did  not  know  that 
the  spiritual  government  of  souls  ought  to 
take  place  of  the  temporal  government  of 
princes  and  kings;  that  is,  in  other  words, 
they  ought  to  obey  him  rather  than  the  em- 


>  Epist.  Greg.  IV.  ad  Episcopos  Francorum,  ic  Vita 
WalK. 


212 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Gregory  IV. 


The  pope  sent  by  the  rebels  to  the  eraperor.     How  received.   The  emperor  delivers  himself  up  to  the  rebels. 


peror,  and,  to  wait  on   him,  should  have 
disobeyed  an  express  command  of  their  liege 
lord  and  their  sovereign.     He  advises  them 
to  imitate  the  freedom  of  the  holy  pope  Gre- 
gory, who  was  not  afraid  to  tell  the  emperor 
that  he  loo  was  one  of  his  flock;  that  he 
ought  to  hearken  to  him,  and  to  act  agreea- 
bly to  his  directions.     But  the  freedom  taken 
by  pope  Gregory  was  only  with  respect  to 
matters  of  faith  and  religion,  as  is  plain  from 
his  words,  and  not  to  civil  matters,  as  in  the 
present  case,  and  merely  political,  that  have 
no  kind  of  connexion  with  faith  or  religion. 
The  bishops  had  put  the  pope  in  mind  of  his 
oath  of  allegiance,  and,  in  answer  to  that, 
he  tells  them,  that  by  his  oath  he  is  bound 
to  give  the  emperor  good  advice ;  to  acquaint 
him  with  his  own  faults  and  those  of  his 
ministers ;  to  rebuke  him  if  he  does  not  cor 
rect  them,  and  suggest  to  him  such  mea- 
sures as  seem  the  best  calculated  to  re-esta- 
blish peace  and  tranquillity  both  in  the  state 
and  the  church ;  that  for  these  purposes  alone 
he  is  come  into  France,  whereas,  they,  be- 
traying  their   trust,   and    prostituting   their 
honor  as  well  as  their  consciences,  to  the 
will  of  their  prince,  have,  by  a  breach  of 
their  oath,  encouraged  him  in  all  his  bad 
measures,  and  ought  therefore  to  be  charged 
with  the  evils  attending  them.   By  bad  mea- 
sures the  pope  means  the  emperor's  divest- 
ing Loiharius  of  the  imperial  dignity,  and 
Pepin  of  his  kingdom,  though  they  had  for- 
feited both  by  their  rebellion.     As  for  their 
threatening  to  excommunicate  him  or  have 
him  deposed,  he  bids  them  defiance,  as  they 
can  lay  no  heinous  crime  to  his  charge,  no 
theft,  no  murder,  or  sacrilege,  which  was 
tacitly  owning  that  he  might  be  excommu- 
nicated and  deposed  were  he  guilty  of  any 
such  crimes.     In  the  end  of  his  letter  he  de- 
livers  it   as   his  opinion,  gained  over,  no 
doubt,  by  Agobard  and  the  other  bishops  and 
monks  of  that  party,  that  the  emperor  ought 
to   stand  to  the  division  he  had  formerly 
made  of  his  dominions,  and  could  not,  in 
justice,  deprive  any  of  his  children  of  the 
share  allotted  them,  condemning  thereby  the 
conduct  of  the  father,  and  justifying  that  of 
the  children  in  rebelling  against  him.     And 
could  not  the  emperor,  who  made  the  divi- 
sion, for  just  reasons  alter  it?     Did  not  the 
birth  of  a  son  after  that  division,  fully  justify 
the  alteration  he  made?     Was  that  son  to 
be  left  to  the  mercy  of  his  brothers,  that  is, 
quite  destitute"?    What  the  pope  observes  in 
his  letter  is  true,  namely,  that  they  had  all 
taken  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  Lotharius  as 
emperor,  but  that  dignity  he  had  forfeited  by 
his  rebellion,  and,  under  a  less  merciful  pa- 
rent, would  have  forfeited  his  life  or  his  li- 
berty as  well   as   his   dignity.     The   oath, 
therefore,  they  had  taken  to  him  was  no 
longer  binding ;  but  as  that  was  still  binding 


they  had  taken  to   the  emperor,  it  was 
breach  of  his  oath  in  the  pope,  to  join  the 


rebels,  and  no  breach  of  their  oath  in  the 
bishops,  but  duty  and  loyalty,  to  stand  by 
the  emperor. 

The  pope's  letter  was  immediately  com- 
municated to  the  emperor ;  who  no  longer 
doubting  but  the  rebels  had  gained  him  to 
their  party,  and  at  the  same  time  sensible 
that  his  presence,  as  it  authorized,  in  a  man- 
ner, their  rebellion,  would  daily  draw  great 
numbers  of  ecclesiastics,  and,  by  their  means, 
men  of  all  ranks,  to  their  party,  thought  it 
adviseable  to  put  the  whole,  without  further 
delay,  to  the  issue  of  a  battle.     The  kings 
of  Aquitaine  and  Bavaria  had  joined  Lotha- 
rius when  he  first  entered  Frfince;  and  they 
were  all  three  encamped  between  Bale  and 
Strasbourg.     Against    them    the    emperor 
marched  at  the  head  of  his  army  ;  but  they, 
well  apprised  that  the  longer  they  delayed 
giving  battle,  the  more  sure  they  would  be 
of  the  victory,  as  many,  abandoning  the 
emperor,  came  daily  over  to  them,  bethought 
themselves  of  sending  the  pope  to  negotiate, 
as  they  pretended,  a  reconciliation  between 
them  and  their  father,  but,  in  truth,  with  no 
other  design  but  to  gain  time,  and  acquire 
new  strength,  as  they  daily  did.     The  pope, 
whom  they  used  on  this,  and   had  used  on 
all  other  occasions,  as  a  mere  tool,  proud  of 
his  commission,  immediately  repaired  to  the 
emperor's  camp,  that  was  but  a  small  dis- 
tance from  that  of  the  rebels.     The  emperor 
received  him  at  the  head  of  his  army,  with 
great  coldness,  treated  him  as  his  vassal,  and 
severely  rebuked  him  for  abusing  the  au- 
thority his  character  gave  him,  to  encourage 
children  in  an  unnatural  rebellion  against 
their  own  father;  for  presuming  to  come 
into  Prance  without  his  leave,  which  none 
of  his  predecessors  had  had  the  assurance  to 
do;  and  for  striving  to  seduce,  by  his  letters, 
the  bishops,  who,  in  compliance  with  their 
oaths  and  their  duty,  had  sided  with  him. 
The  pope  strove  to  appease  him  ;  assuring 
him,  that  he  was  come  into  France  with  no 
other  design  but  to  re-establish  concord  and 
peace   in  the   imperial  family.     Hereupon 
the  emperor,  willing  to  hearken  to  any  rea- 
sonable terms  of  an  accommodation,  ordered 
him  to  be  conveyed  to  his  quarters,  and  at 
the  same  time  dispatched  Bernard,  archbi- 
shop of  Vienne,  to  treat,  in  his  name,  with 
the  three  princes,  and  try  to  bring  them  to  a 
sense  of  their  duty.     The  pope  continued 
some  days  in  the  camp ;  and  having  had, 
during  that  time,  several  conferences  with 
the  emperor,  he  was  sent  back,  upon  his 
promising  to  employ  his  good  offices  with 
the  princes,  and  to  return  in  a  short  time  to 
acquaint  him  with  the  success  that   might 
attend  them.     But  the  night  after  he  left  the 
emperor's  camp,  and  he  left  it  on  St.  Peter's 
day,  he  was  followed  by  almost  the  whole 
army;  insomuch  that  the  unhappy  prince, 
finding  himself  abandoned  by  all,  and  at  the 
same  time  so  closely  besieged  by  the  rebels. 


Gregory  IV.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


213 


The  pope,  how  far  to  blame  in  this  affair.     The  emperor  restored.     The  pope  fortifies  Ostia  ;— [Year  of  Christ, 
834,  835.]     The  abbot  Adrebald  sent  by  the  emperor  to  Rome  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  836.] 


that  it  was  in  vain  for  him  to  attempt  an 
escape,  was  obliged  to  deliver  himself  up, 
with  the  empress,  and  his  son  Charles,  into 
the  hands  of  his  rebellious  children.  By 
them  he  was  deposed;  and  Lotharius  being 
proclaimed  emperor  in  his  room,  he  was 
confined  to  a  monastery,  obliged  to  own 
crimes  he  had  never  committed,  and  there- 
upon to  exchange,  as  really  guilty  of  those 
crimes,  the  imperial  robes  for  the  habit  of  a 
penitent.' 

Baronius,  undertaking  the  defence  of  the 
pope,  pretends,  that  his  holiness  never  de- 
clared  lor,  or  took  part  with,  the  rebels.^ 
But  the  letter  he  wrote  to  the  Gallican  bi- 
shops, quoted  above,  is  a  full  answer  to  all 
that  the  annalist  has  alledged,  or  that  can  be 
alledged,  to  clear  him  from  countenancing  so 
unnatural  and  so  wicked  a  rebellion.     How- 
ever, he  seems  to  have  borne  no  ill-will  to 
the  emperor,  but  to  have  been  imposed  upon 
by  those  of  the  opposite  party,  and  to  have 
gained  entire  credit  to  the  many  false  reports 
that  were  by  them  industriously  spread  abroad 
to  color  their  wicked  designs  ;  namely,  that 
the  empress  had  gained  an  absolute  ascendant 
over    the    emperor;    that    he   was   wholly 
governed  by  her  councils  ;  that  all  the  dis- 
orders in  the  state  and  the  church,  which 
they  exaggerated  beyond  all  measure,  were 
owing  to  her ;  that  she  aimed  at  nothing  less 
than  the  destruction  of  the  whole  imperial 
family  to  make  room  for  her  son ;  and  that  it 
was   not  against  the  emperor,  but  against 
her,  and  in  their  own  defence,  that  the  three 
princes  had  taken  up  arms.     These  reports 
the   pope   Too   rashly   believed ;    and   he   is 
therein  greatly  to  blame.     But   he  was,  it 
seems,  undeceived  by  the  emperor,  in  the 
interview  he  had  with  him  :  for  we  are  told 
by  a  contemporary  writer,  that,  being  sent 
back  after  that  interview  to  treat  with  the 
rebels,  he  was  for  returning  to  the  emperor's 
camp  ;  but  they  did  not  think  it  adviseable  to 
let  him  return.'    Theganus  bishop  of  Treves, 
who  was  probably  at  this  very  time  in  the 
field  with  the  emperor,  writes,  that  Lewis, 
after  having  conferred  with  the  pope,  sent 
him  many  valuable  presents  ;  which  it  is  not 
at  all  likely  he  would  have  done,  had  the 
pope  still  maintained  the  cause  of  the  rebels, 
and  justified  their  rebellion.     Some  writers, 
as  ready  to  charge  the  popes  with  crimes,  of 
which  they  were  innocent,  as  Baronius  is 
ready  to  clear  them  from  the  crimes  of  which 
they  are  guilty,  ascribe  to  the  intrigues  of 
Gregory  the  general  desertion  that  ensued  in 
the  imperial  camp  the  night  after  he  left  it, 
as  if  he  had  laid  hold  of  the  opportunity  he 
had,  while  in  the  camp,  to  debauch  and  gain 
them  over  to   the  rebels.     But  of  this  his 
pretended  treachery  not  the  least   hint   is 
given  by  the  writers  of  those  times ;  and  his 


proposmg  to  return  to  the  emperor,  clears 
him  sufficiently  from  that  imputation. 

The  emperor  did  not  long  continue  in  the 
deplorable  condition,  to  which  the  treachery 
of  his  subjects,  and  the  perfidy  of  his  child- 
ren, had  reduced  him.  The  barbarous 
usage  he  met  with  from  Lotharius,  softened 
the  other  two  princes ;  and  compassion  pre- 
vailing over  all  other  regards,  they  rescued 
him  the  very  next  year  out  of  his  hands, 
and  replaced  him,  to  the  great  satisfaction 
of  all  ranks  of  men,  on  the  throne.  But  as 
the  pope  was  no  ways  concerned  in  his  re- 
storation, I  shall  refer  the  reader,  for  the 
particulars  attending  it,  to  the  writers  of 
those  times. 

The  rebels,  having  no  further  occasion  for 
the  name  or  authority  of  the  pope,  when 
they  had  once  got  the  emperor  into  their 
power,  allowed  him  to  return  to  Rome  ;  and 
there  he  employed  himself  the  two  following 
years,  834,  835,  in  repairing  and  adorning 
the  churches  and  monasteries  of  that  city, 
and  in  rebuilding  and  fortifying  the  city  of 
Ostia  against  the  incursions  of  the  Saracens, 
who  began  to  infest  the  neighboring  coast. 
That  city  he  entirely  rebuilt,  surrounded  it 
with  a  very  high  wall,  and  a  deep  ditch,  forti- 
fied it  with  many  strong  towers,  and  placed 
a  great  number  of  warhke  engines  on  the 
towers  and  the  wall,  to  throw  stones,  and 
repulse  the  barbarians.  The  city,  thus  re- 
built and  fortified,  he  called,  from  his  own 
name,  as  Frodoard  informs  us,  Gregorio- 
polis  ;'  but  it  soon  resumed  its  ancient  name, 
and  by  that  name  it  is  known  to  this  day. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  emperor,  having 
settled  the  affairs  of  the  empire  to  his  entire 
satisfaction,  and  apprehending  no  further 
disturbances  from  his  subjects  or  his  child- 
ren, resolved  to  undertake  a  journey  to 
Rome,  to  visit  the  holy  places  there,  and 
confer  with  the  pope ;  but  being  diverted 
from  that  journey  by  a  sudden  irruption  of 
the  Normans  into  Friesland,  he  sent  the  ab- 
bot Adrebald  to  Rome,  to  advise  with  the 
pope,  in  his  name,  concerning  some  par- 
ticular affairs  not  mentioned  by  the  historian. 
The  pope  received  the  abbot  with  extraordi- 
nary marks  of  respect  and  esteem,  expressed 
great  joy  in  hearing  that  all  matters  were 
settled  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  emperor, 
and,  though  greatly  indisposed,  and  troubled 
with  a  bleeding  at  the  nose,  that  had  lasted 
some  time,  he  had  several  conferences  with 
the  envoy,  and  upon  his  departure,  appoint- 
ed two  bishops  to  attend  him  into  France, 
with  a  letter,  which  they  were  to  deliver 
into  the  emperor's  own  hands.  They  set 
out  together  from  Rome;  but,  on  their  ar- 
rival at  Bologna,  the  two  bishops  were 
stopped  by  an  order  from  Lotharius,  who 
was  then  at  Pavia,  and  commanded  to  pro- 


'  Vit.  Lud.  Pli.  Vit.  Walae.  Thegan.  &c. 

>  Bar.  ad  Ann.  833.  p.  823.       »  .\.uct.  vit.  Lud.  Pii. 


'  Frodoard.  in  frag,  de  Pont.  Rora.  apud  Mabill.  sect. 
3.  Benedict,  part.  2. 


214 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Gregorv  IV. 


Authority  of  the  imperial  judges  in  Rome.     Death  of  Gregory ; — [Year  of  Christ,  844.]     His  writings. 


ceed  no  farther.  They  complied  with  the 
order  ;  but  privately  delivered  the  letter  they 
were  charged  with  to  Adrebald,  who  got  it 
conveyed  by  one  of  his  domestics,  in  the  dis 
guise  of  a  beggar,  into  France  ;  and  there  it 
was  returned  to  him,  and  by  him  delivered 
to  the  emperor.i  Lotharius  had  lately  suf- 
fered his  men  to  pillage  some  lands  belong- 
ing to  the  church  of  St.  Peter  ;  and  he  pro- 
bably apprehended,  that  the  two  bishops 
were  sent  by  the  pope  to  complain  of  that 
outrage  to  the  emperor. 

In  the  pontificate  of  pope  Gregory,  in 
what  year  we  know  not,  occurs  a  remark- 
able instance  of  the  authority  exercised  by 
the  imperial  judges  in  Rome.  I  have  ob- 
served elsewhere,  that  the  emperors,  as 
supreme  lords  of  Rome,  used,  from  time  to 
time,  to  send  judges  to  administer  justice 
there ;  to  hear  the  complaints  of  the  people ; 
to  redress  their  grievances ;  and  finally  to 
determine  all  causes  both  civil  and  criminal. 
To  these  judges  Ingoald  applied,  then  ab- 
bot of  the  monastery  of  Farfa  in  the  duke- 
dom of  Spoleti,  complaining,  that  the  popes 
Hadrian  and  Leo  had  seized  by  force,  per 
fortiam,  on  five  possessions  or  farms  belong- 
ing to  the  above-mentioned  monastery ;  that 
the  monastery  had  reclaimed  those  posses- 
sions of  the  three  succeeding  popes,  Stephen, 
Paschal,  and  Eugene,  but  always  in  vain ; 
that,  instead  of  restoring  them,  they  had 
even  pretended,  that  they  had  always  be- 
longed to  the  apostolic. see,  and  had  never 
been  possessed  by  the  monastery.  The 
judges  hearkened  to  the  complaints  of  the 
abbot,  and  the  cause  was  tried  in  the  Late- 
ran  palace,  the  pope  himself  being  present, 
and  with  him  several  bishops,  and  other 
persons  of  rank  and  distinction.  The  abbot, 
to  make  good  his  claim,  produced  the  origi- 
nal instrument  of  the  donation  of  those  lands 
made  to  the  monastery,  and  likewise  the 
charter  of  Desiderius,  the  last  king  of  the 
Lombards,  and  of  Charlemagne,  who  suc- 
ceeded him  in  that  kingdom.  But  Gregory, 
the  pope's  counsel,  questioning  the  authenti- 
city both  of  the  instrument  and  the  charters, 
which,  if  allowed  to  be  authentic,  would  at 
once  have  put  an  end  to  the  dispute ;  the 
judge,  at  a  loss  what  to  determine,  declined 
coming  to  any  determination  that  day,  pro- 
bably that  the  instrument  and  the  charters 
might,  in  the  mean  time,  be  examined  by 
persons  skilled  in  such  matters  with  more 
care  and  attention.    But  the  next  day,  seve- 


'  Auct.  Tit.  Lud.  Pii. 


ral  persons  appearmg,  of  unexceptionable 
characters,  and  deposing,  upon  oath,  that, 
in  their  memory,  the  disputed  lands  had 
been  possessed  by  the  monastery,  and  quiet- 
ly possessed,  till  pope  Hadrian  seized  them, 
they  knew  not  upon  what  pretence ;  they 
were  adjudged  to  the  monastery,  and  a  de- 
cree was  issued,  ordering  them  to  be  forth- 
with restored.  The  pope,  one  should  think, . 
would  have  acquiesced  in  so  just  a  sentence, 
and  restored,  without  hesitation,  to  the  law- 
ful owners,  what  so  plainly  appeared  to 
have  been  unjustly  seized  by  his  predeces- 
sors. But  with  those  good  bishops  it  was 
a  maxim,  so  far  as  we  can  judge  from  their 
conduct,  to  part  with  nothing  they  had  once 
acquired,  by  what  means  soever  they  had 
acquired  it :  Gregory  therefore,  instead  of 
complying  with  the  sentence,  and  the  decree 
of  the  judges,  however  equitable,  appealed 
from  them  to  the  emperor ;  but  with  what 
success  we  know  not.' 

Of  this  pope  I  find  nothing  else  recorded 
that  is  worthy  of  notice  till  the  time  of  his 
death,  which  happened,  according  to  the 
most  probable  opinion,  on  the  25th  of  Jan- 
uary 844,  after  he  had  governed  the  Roman 
church  sixteen  years,  and  some  months  and 
days.2  He  is  said  by  some  to  have  died  on 
the  25th  of  January  843 ;  but  with  them 
Easter-day,  or  the  25th  of  March,  was  the 
first  day  of  the  new  year. 

Two  letters,  ascribed  to  Gregory,  have 
reached  our  times;  the  one  restoring  Ebbo, 
archbishop  of  Reims,  deposed  in  835,  as  one 
of  the  chief  authors  of  the  late  rebellion,  to 
his  former  dignity  and  his  see.*  But  as  from 
history  it  appears  that  Ebbo,  after  the  death 
of  Gregory,  applied  to  his  successor,  begging 
to  be  restored,  and  was  only  admitted  by  him 
to  lay  communion,  the  letter  of  Gregory,  to 
the  bishops  and  orthodox  Christians,  com- 
manding the  bishop  of  Reims  to  be  reinstated 
iu  his  dignity,  is  now  universally  looked 
upon  as  supposititious.''  By  the  other  letter, 
the  pope  appoints  Anscharius,  who  had  con- 
verted the  Swedes  and  Danes  to  the  Chris- 
tian faith,  legate  of  the  apostolic  see  to  all 
the  northern  nations  of  Germany,  approves 
the  erecting  the  city  of  Hambourg,  where 
Anscharius  was  to  reside,  into  an  archiepis- 
copal  see,  and  confirms  all  the  privileges 
granted  to  that  see  by  the  emperor. 


>  Chronic.  Farf.  apud  Mabill.  in  Museo  Italic,  t.  i. 
part  2.  p.  62. 

a  Sigibert.  Marian.  Sist.  Herman.  Contract.  Annal. 
Bertin.  Sigon.  Onuph.  &c. 

3  Concil.  t.  viii.  p.  1575. 

*  Vide  Sirmond.  in  Append,  ad  Concil.  Gall.  t.  Lii. 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


215 


Sergios  II.] 

6ergiu9  elected,  and  his  competitor  driven  from  the  see.  The  emperor  resents  his  being  ordained  before  his 
election  was  confirmed  by  him.  His  son  Lewis  lays  waste  the  Roman  territories.  He  is  crowned  by  the 
pope  king  of  Italy.     Complaints  against  the  pope. 


SERGIUS  II.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  FIRST  BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[Michael,  Emperor  of  the  East. — LornARics,  Emperor  of  the  West."] 


[Year  of  Christ  844.]  In  the  room  of 
Gregory,  was  chosen  and  ordained  on  the 
lOih  of  February,  which,  in  844  fell  on  a 
Sunday,  Sergius,  the  second  of  that  name, 
the  son  of  one  Sergius,  a  native  of  Rome, 
and  archpriest  of  the  Roman  church.'  He 
was  not  chosen  without  opposition ;  John, 
deacon  of  the  Roman  church,  supported  by 
the  populace,  took  possession,  by  force,  of 
the  Lateran  palace;  and  having  driven  Ser- 
gius from  thence,  was  placed  by  the  popu- 
lace in  the  pontifical  chair;  but  he  was  soon 
driven  out,  in  his  turn,  by  the  Roman  no- 
bility, who  would  have  put  him  to  death, 
had  not  Sergius  interposed  in  his  favor.^ 

As  the  new  pope  was  ordained  as  soon  as 
elected,  Lotharius,  who  had  succeeded  his 
father  in  the  imperial  dignity  ever  since  the 
year  840,  heard  at  the  same  time  of  his  elec- 
tion and  ordination;  and  highly  provoked  at 
his  having  been  ordained  before  his  election 
was  examined  and  confirmed,  according  to 
custom,  by  him  or  his  deputies,  he  des- 
patched his  eldest  son  Lewis,  whom  he  had 
appointed  king  of  the  Lombards,  with  a 
powerful  army  into  Italy,  to  take  possession 
of  his  kingdom,  and  at  the  same  time  to  ex- 
amine the  election  of  the  pope,  to  chastise 
the  Romans  for  their  presumption,  and  order 
matters  so  as  to  prevent  their  encroaching 
for  the  future  on  the  just  rights  of  his  crow;n. 
The  young  prince  was  attended  by  a  great 
many  bishops,  and  other  persons  of  dis- 
tinction, among  whom  was  his  uncle  Drogo, 
Bishop  of  Mets;  and,  upon  his  entering 
the  ecclesiastical  state,  he  committed  every 
where  the  most  dreadful  ravages,  put  great 
numbers  of  the  inhabitants  to  the  sword, 
burnt  their  habitations,  and  turned  the  whole 
country,  through  which  he  passed,  into  a 
desert.  However,  as  he  bent  his  march  to- 
wards Rome,  the  pope  sent  out  all  the  judges 
and  magistrates  to  meet  him,  while  yet  at 
the  distance  of  nine  miles  from  the  city.  He 
was  received,  when  one  mile  from  the  gate, 
by  all  the  Roman  militia,  by  the  nobility, 
and  part  of  the  clergy,  and  attended  by  them 
singing  his  praises,  and  by  the  people  wel- 
coming him  with  repeated  acclamations,  to 
the  Vatican.  There  the  pope,  with  the  rest 
of  the  clergy,  waited  his  arrival  on  the  top 
of  the  steps  leading  up  to  the  church,  which 
the  king  ascending,  he  embraced  the  pope, 
and  taking  hold  of  his  right  hand,  they  thus 
advanced  together  to  the  door  of  the  church ; 
but,  when  they  were  upon  the  point  of  en- 
tering the  basilic,  the  pope,  unexpectedly 


>  Anaet.  in  Serg.  II. 


>  Idem  ibid. 


Stopping,  ordered  all  the  doors  to  be  shut; 
and  then  turning  to  the  king, "  If  you  come," 
said  he,  "  as  a  friend,  and  for  the  good  of 
the  state,  and  this  church,  I  shall  order  the 
doors  to  be  opened ;  if  not,  they  shall  not  be 
opened  by  me,  nor  by  my  command."  The 
king,  not  a  little  surprised  at  the  resolution 
of  the  pope,  assured  him  that  he  was  come 
with  no  evil  intention,  which  he  had  no 
sooner  done,  than  the  doors  were  opened, 
and  the  king,  entering  the  church  with  the 
pope,  was  conducted  by  him  to  the  tomb  of 
St.  Peter,  the  clergy  singing  in  the  meantime, 
"  Blessed  is  he  who  cometh  in  the  name  of 
the  Lord."  There  thanks  were  returned, 
with  great  solemnity,  to  God,  and  his  apos- 
tle, for  the  safe  arrival  of  the  king,  who 
taking  leave  of  the  pope  when  prayers  were 
ended,  returned,  attended  by  all  the  Roman 
nobility,  to  his  camp.  He  had  signified  to 
the  pope  his  desire  of  being  crowned  and 
anointed  by  him  king  of  the  Lombards,  and 
that  ceremony  Sergius  performed  the  fol- 
lowing Sunday,  the  15th  of  June,  with  the 
greatest  pomp  and  magnificence.' 

Lewis,  though  well  pleased  with  the  re- 
ception he  met  with  at  Rome,  and  the  un- 
common regard  the  Roman  nobility  paid 
him ;  yet,  to  punish  them  for  suffering  the 
new  pope  to  be  ordained  before  his  election 
was  approved  by  the  emperor,  he  allowed 
his  army  to  pillage  their  farms,  to  lay  waste 
their  lands,  and  to  live  as  in  an  enemy's 
country.  The  city  would  in  all  likelihood 
have  fared  no  better  than  the  neighboring 
country,  had  not  the  pope,  apprehending  the 
danger,  ordered  all  the  gates  to  be  shut,  and 
the  walls  to  be  night  and  day  guarded  by  the 
Roman  militia.  In  the  mean  time  the  king's 
camp  was  filled  with  bishops  from  the  differ- 
ent provinces  of  Italy,  come,  upon  their  hear- 
ing that  the  king  and  the  pope  were  at  vari- 
ance, to  complain  of  the  daily  usurpations  of 
the  popes,  and  the  tyranny  they  exercised  over 
them  and  their  sees.  Amongst  these  were 
the  archbishops  of  Ravenna  and  Milan,  and 
no  fewer  than  thirteen  bishops  immediately 
subject  to  the  apostolic  see,  and  they  all 
greedily  laid  hold  of  the  present  opportunity, 
encouraged,  says  Anastasius,  by  the  arch- 
bishop of  Mets,  to  redeem  themselves  from 
so  gaUing  a  yoke.  The  king,  glad  of  any 
pretence  to  humble  the  pope,  not  only  hear- 
kened to  the  complaints  of  the  bishops,  but 
ordered  them  to  be  examined  by  the  bishops 
who  were  with  him,  and  likewise  by  the 
counts,  of  whom  Anastasius  names  seven. 


Anast.  in  Berg.  II. 


216 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Sergius  II. 


The  pope  and  the  Romans  take  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  emperor.  Sergius  appoints  Drogo  his  vicar  in 
France  and  Germany.  Drogo's  conduct  on  that  occasion.  Edict  forbidding  the  pope  to  be  ordained  till  his 
election  was  confirmed  by  the  emperor.     Sergius  dies ;— [Year  of  Christ,  847.] 


assembled  in  council,  and  summoned  the 
pope  to  appear  before  them  and  justify  the 
conduct  of  his  see.  That  council  Anastasius 
styles  a  "  cabal  against  the  universal  church, 
and  head  of  all  churches."  The  pope,  how- 
ever, obeyed  the  summons,  and,  if  we  may 
credit  that  writer,  answered  the  complaints 
of  his  adversaries  with  such  prudence  and 
wisdom  as  confounded  and  silenced  them 
all.'  The  king  was  probably  satisfied  with 
having  thus  humbled  and  mortified  the  pope 
for  suffering  himself  to  be  ordained  without 
the  knowledge  and  consent  of  the  emperor. 
Before  the  council  was  dismissed,  Drogo 
moved  that  an  oath  of  allegiance  might  be 
taken  to  king  Lewis  by  the  pope  and  the 
Roman  nobility  and  people.  But  this  mo- 
tion, though  seconded  by  all  the  Galilean 
bishops,  was  vigorously  opposed  by  the 
pope,  declaring  that  they  were  all  ready  to 
swear  allegiance  to  their  great  emperor  Lo- 
tharius,  but  that  he  neither  would  take  such 
an  oath  himself  nor  sufi'er  the  Romans  to 
take  it  to  the  king  of  the  Lombards.  The 
motion  was  therefore  dropped,  and  both 
Drogo  and  the  king  contented  themselves 
with  the  pope's  taking,  in  their  presence, 
together  with  the  Romans,  the  usual  oath 
of  allegiance  to  the  emperor.^  And  hence  it 
is  manifest  that  the  pope  and  the  Romans 
acknowledged  the  emperor  for  their  liege 
lord,  and  thai  the  king  of  Italy  could  exer- 
cise no  power  or  authority,  but  in  the  empe- 
ror's name,  over  them  or  the  city. 

As  great  confidence  was  reposed  in  Drogo 
by  the  emperor  as  well  as  the  king,  and  he 
bore  great  sway  in  both  courts,  the  pope,  to 
gain  so  powerful  a  protector,  appointed  him 
before  he  left  Rome,  his  vicar  in  France  and 
in  Germany,  with  a  power  over  all  those 
churches  and  bishops,  to  be  controlled  by 
none  but  the  pope  himself,  as  the  immediate 
vicar  of  St.  Peter.  In  the  letter  Sergius 
wrote  on  this  occasion  to  the  bishops  of 
France  and  Germany,  he  bestows  the  high- 
est encomiums  upon  Drogo,  acquaints  them 
with  his  having  preferred  him,  in  considera- 
tion of  his  high  birth  and  his  eminent  virtues 
to  the  dignity  of  his  vicar,  and  requires  them 
to  obey  him  in  all  things,  as  acting  in  his 
name,  and  by  the  authority  of  his  see.  But 
Drogo,  finding  upon  his  return  to  France, 
the  Galilean  bishops  too  jealous  of  their 
liberties,  and  too  much  upon  their  guard 
against  all  papal  encroachments,  to  acknow- 
ledge his  unbounded  authority,  he  wisely 
forbore   exercising    or    claiming  any   over 


them  or  their  churches;  and  he  is  on  that 
account  highly  commended  by  Hincmar,  as 
choosing  rather  to  forego  his  power  than  to 
maintain  it  at  the  expense  of  the  public 
peace  and  tranquillity.'  Happy  had  it  been 
for  the  church  had  all  bishops,  especially  the 
bishops  of  Rome,  been  actuated  by  such 
Christian  principles :  But  alas !  what  greater 
disturbances  have  been  raised  by  the  ambi- 
tion of  temporal  princes  in  the  state,  than  by 
the  ambition  of  these  spiritual  princes  in  the 
church?  And  what  else  is  the  history  of 
the  church,  to  the  great  disgrace  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion,  but  the  history  of  anti-christian 
disputes  and  quarrels  of  churchmen  about 
power  and  pre-eminence? 

The  king  renewed,  during  his  stay  at 
Rome,  the  imperial  edict,  forbidding  the 
pope,  how  canonically  soever  elected ,  to  be  or- 
dained, till  his  election  was  approved  and 
confirmed  by  the  emperor ;  severely  repri- 
manded the  pope,  as  well  as  the  people  and 
clergy,  for  having  presumed  to  transgress 
that  edict,  and  recommended  to  all  the  strict 
observance  of  it,  on  pain  of  incurring  the 
displeasure  of  the  emperor,  and  his.  He 
made  several  other  regulations,  in  the  empe- 
ror's name,  with  respect  to  the  government 
of  Rome,  and  the  better  administration  of 
justice;  and  then  quitting,  to  the  great  joy 
of  the  pope  and  the  Romans,  the  neighbor- 
hood of  the  city,  he  repaired  with  his  army 
to  Pavia,  the  residence  of  the  kings  of  Italy, 
or  the  kings  of  the  Lombards.'^ 

I  find  nothing  else  recorded  of  Sergius, 
besides  his  admitting  Siconulph,  duke  of 
Benevento,  to  kiss  his  precious  feet,  as 
Anastasius  expresses  it,  and  his  rebuilding, 
repairing,  and  embellishing  with  pictures 
and  other  ornaments,  the  churches  of  Rome, 
and  robbing  the  cemeteries  to  enrich  them 
with  relics."  Indeed  this  seems  to  have  been 
the  chief,  if  not  the  whole,  employment  of 
the  popes  at  this  time.  Sergius  died  on  the 
27th  of  January,  847  ;*  and  consequently, 
as  he  was  ordained  about  the  lOlh  of  Feb- 
ruary, 844,  he  must  have  held  the  see  three 
years,  wanting  some  days.  In  the  latter  end 
of  the  pontificate  of  Sergius,  the  Saracens, 
entering  with  a  numerous  fleet  of  small  ves- 
sels the  Tiber,  landed  at  Rome,  burnt  the 
suburbs,  plundered  the  churches  of  St.  Peter 
and  St.  Paul  without  the  walls,  and  retired, 
unmolested,  with  an  immense  booty,  and  a 
great  number  of  captives. 


»  Anast.  in  Serg.  II. 


*  Idem  ibid. 


«  Hincmar.  ep.  44.  &  1.  vii.  Concil.  p.  1799. 
a  Anast.  in  Serg.  II.  =■  Idem.  ibid. 

*  Annal.  Bertin. 


Leo  IV.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME; 


217 


Leo  chosen,  and  ordained,  before  his  election  was  confirmed  by  the  emperor.  Enriches  the  churches  of  St. 
Peler  and  St.  Paul,  and  undertakes  the  building  of  the  Leonine  city.  Fortifies  Rome;— [Year  of  Christ,  849.J 
The  fleet  of  the  Saracens  entirely  destroyed^ 


LEO  IV.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  SECOND  BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[Michael,  Emperor  of  the  East. — Lotharius  and  Lewis,  Emperors  of  t/te  West.'\ 


[Year  of  Christ,  844.]  Sergius  was  not 
yet  buried,  when  Leo,  the  fourth  of  that 
name,  a  native  of  Rome,  the  son  of  Ro- 
dulph,  and  presbyter  of  the  Roman  church, 
was  chosen  with  one  voice  in  his  room,  was 
carried  by  force  to  the  Lateran  palace,  and 
placed,  with  the  usual  ceremonies,  and  loud 
acclamations,  on  the  pontifical  throne.  How- 
ever, he  was  not  ordained  till  the  11th  of 
April,  that  is,  till  two  months  and  fifteen 
days  after  his  election  ;  and  the  cause  of  so 
long  a  delay  was,  that  the  new  pope,  not 
daring  to  suffer  himself  to  be  ordained  till 
his  election  was  confirmed  by  the  emperor, 
waited  ihe  arrival  of  his  deputies  to  examine 
and  confirm  it.  But  as  neither  the  deputies 
arrived,  nor  did  the  messengers  return,  whom 
the  pope  had  sent  to  acquaint  the  emperor 
with  his  promotion,  and  at  the  same  time 
the  Saracens  appeared  anew  on  the  neigh- 
boring coast,  the  Roman  Senate  were  of 
opinion  that  the  imperial  edict  might  be  dis- 
pensed with  at  so  critical  a  juncture,  and 
Leo  was  accordingly  ordained,  at  their  re- 
quest and  desire,  on  the  llth  of  April,  which, 
in  847,  fell  on  Easter  Monday.  On  this  oc- 
casion, however,  they  took  care  to  protest 
and  declare,  that,  in  causing  the  pope  to  be 
thus  ordained,  they  did  not  intend,  by  any 
means,  to  derogate  from  the  just  rights  of  the 
imperial  crown,  or  to  decline  complying  with 
the  ordinance  of  "their  liege  lord,  whom, 
next  to  God,  they  were  bound  to  obey.'" 

The  first  care  of  the  new  pope,  was  to 
restore  to  their  former  splendor  the  churches 
of  St.  Peler  and  St.  Paul,  which  the  Sara- 
cens had  stripped  of  all  their  valuable  orna- 
ments; and  the  quantity  of  gold,  of  silver, 
of  precious  stones,  he  is  said  by  Anastasius, 
to  have  employed  for  that  purpose,  almost 
exceeds  all  belief.  A  very  small  portion  of 
the  wealth  he  thus  wantonly  lavished  away, 
would  have  afforded  a  comfortable  mainte- 
nance to  all  the  poor  of  the  city. 

Leo's  next  care  was  to  secure  so  great  a 
treasure  against  any  new  attempts  of  the 
Saracens  ;  and  with  that  view  he  resolved  to 
execute  the  design  which  his  predecessor 
Leo  HI.  had  formed,  but  was  prevented  by 
death  from  putting  it  in  execution  ;  namely, 
to  build  a  new  city  on  the  Vatican,  and  in- 
close it,  as  well  as  the  church  of  St.  Peter, 
with  a  wall,  lest  so  much  wealth  should  be 
left  exposed  to  the  sacrilegious  avarice  of 
every  corsair.  That  resolution  he  imparted 
to  the  emperor,  who  not  only  approved  of 
it,  but  generously  contributed,  and  prevailed 

'  Anast.  in  Leon.  IV. 
Vol.  II.— 28 


on  his  two  brothers,  Charles,  king  of  Neus- 
tria,  and  Louis,  king  of  Bavaria,  to  contri- 
bute no  less  generously  than  himself,  towards 
carrying  on  so  great  and  so  necessary  a 
work.  The  Roman  nobility,  too,  applaud- 
ing the  design,  assisted  the  pope  with  large 
sums  to  undertake  the  execution  of  it  with- 
out delay.  Leo,  therefore,  being  thus  en- 
couraged to  begin,  and  enabled  to  pursue 
the  intended  work,  the  materials  were  ^ot 
ready,  artificers  and  workmen,  were,  with 
the  promise  of  extraordinary  wages,  enticed 
from  the  different  provinces  of  Italy  to  Rome, 
and  the  foundations  of  the  new  city  were 
laid  in  the  month  of  September,  of  the  pre- 
sent year,  with  the  greatest  solemnity.  The 
pope  took  upon  himself  the  ofTice  of  over- 
seer, spending  all  the  time  he  could  spare 
from  his  spiritual  functions  in  reviewing  the 
works,  which  he  is  said  to  have  done  every 
day,  and  in  all  kinds  of  weather,  in  encou- 
raging the  workmen,  and  examining  what 
progress  they  made  in  their  respective  tasks 
or  duties.' 

This  great  undertaking  the  pope,  how- 
ever, was  obliged  to  interrupt  for  some  time 
the  following  year,  being  certainly  informed 
that  the  Saracens  were  equipping  a  power- 
ful fleet  in  the  ports  of  Africa,  with  a  design 
to  make  a  second  attempt  upon  Rome.  This 
intelligence  occasioned  a  general  consterna- 
tion ;  and  Leo,  abandoning  for  the  present 
the  work  he  had  begun,  employed  all  his 
workmen  in  fortifying  the  city,  and  putting 
it  in  a  condition  to  withstand  any  sudden  at- 
tack or  surprise.  He  repaired  the  walls  in 
several  places,  gone  quite  to  decay,  rebuilt 
most  of  the  towers,  erected  several  new  ones, 
two  especially  of  great  strength,  on  the  op- 
posite banks  of  the  Tiber,  with  a  chain  drawn 
from  the  one  to  the  other,  to  prevent  any 
vessel  from  passing;  and,  to  defend  the  city 
still  more  effectually,  caused  a  great  many 
bodies  of  saints,  dug  up  in  the  cemeteries 
without  the  walls,  to  be  brought  into  it  with 
great  pomp  and  solemnity. 

In  the  meantime  the  Saracens,  having  as- 
sembled their  fleet  at  Tozar  in  Sardinia,  the 
place  of  their  general  rendezvous,  set  sail 
from  thence  for  Porto,  with  a  design  to  land 
part  of  their  forces  there,  and  convey  the  rest 
up  the  Tiber  to  the  very  gates  of  the  city. 
But  the  inhabitants  of  Naples,  of  Araalfi,  of 
Gaela,  and  the  other  maritime  places,  no 
sooner  heard  of  their  design,  than  appre- 
hending their  own  fate  depended  upon  that 
of  Rome,  they  assembled  in  great  haste  all 

'  Anaat.  in  Leon.  IV. 

T 


218 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Leo  IV. 


Lewis,  king  of  Italy,  crowned  emperor  at  Rome  ; — [Year  of  Clirist,  850.]     The  Leonine  city  consecrated  ; — 
[Year  of  Christ,  852.]    Council  assembled  at  Rome,  the  following  year. 

their  armed  vessels,  and  putting  to  sea,  sailed 
to  Porto,  resolved  to  guard  the  entrance  into 
the  river,  and  to  engage  the  barbarians, 
should  they  offer  to  enter  it,  or  to  land  any 
forces.  U[)on  their  arrival,  they  sent  some 
of  their  chief  officers  to  let  the  pope  know 
that  they  Avere  come  as  friends  (for  he  dis- 
trusted the  Greeks  and  the  Beneventan  Lom- 
bards, to  whom  those  cities  belonged)  and 
that  they  were  all  to  a  man  ready  to  venture 
their  lives  in  his  defence,  and  the  defence  of 
the  city.  Hereupon  the  pope,  transported 
with  joy,  fiew  to  Porto,  received  there  both 
the  soldiers  and  officers  with  extraordinary 
marks  of  esteem  and  affection,  admitted  them 
to  kiss  his  foot;  and,  upon  expressing  a 
great  desire  to  receive  the  sacrament  at  his 
hands,  he  went  with  them  in  procession  to 
the  church  of  St.  Aurea,  and  having  per- 
formed there  divine  service  with  great  so- 
lemnity, and  administered  the  sacrament  to 
them  all,  he  encouraged  them  to  fight  man- 
fully, having  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul,  whose 
sacred  bodies  they  defended,  to  fight  with 
them,  gave  them  his  blessing,  and  recom- 
mending them  to  the  protection  of  the  prince 
of  the  apostles,  returned  to  Rome.  The  very 
next  day,  the  fleet  of  the  Saracens  appeared 
off  Ostia;  and  the  Christian  fleet  putting 
thereupon  immediately  to  sea,  an  engage- 
ment ensued  ;  but  the  two  fleets  were  soon 
parted  by  a  violent  wind  that  arose  unex- 
pectedly, and  drove  most  of  the  enemy's 
ships  on  the  shore,  where  they  were  dashed 
to  pieces,  and  all  on  board  miserably  per- 
ished.    The  rest  were  dispersed,  and  either 


the  present  year.  As  Leo  had  been  ordained 
before  his  election  was  confirmed  by  the  em- 
peror, the  Romans  were  under  no  small  ap- 
prehensions of  the  king's  resenting  it,  as  he 
had  resented  but  a  few  years  before  their 
suffering  Sergius  to  be  thus  ordained.  But 
Lewis  was  entirely  satisfied  with  the  reasons 
they  alledged,  and  their  having  protested  oa 
that  occasion  that  they  did,  by  no  means,  in- 
tend to  withdraw  themselves  from  the  obe- 
dience they  owed  to  their  liege  lord  and 
sovereign. 

Leo,  in  the  mean  time,  pursued  with  in- 
credible ardor  the  great  work  he  had  begun 
in  the  second  year  of  his  pontificate;  and  he 
had  in  the  sixth  the  satisfaction  of  completing 
it,  and  seeing  the  basalic  of  the  prince  of  the 
apostles,  that  had  hitherto  stood  by  itself,  de- 
fended only  by  the  reverence  that  was  due 
to  so  sacred  a  place,  standing  now  in  the 
midst  of  a  city,  and  defended,  where  that 
reverence  should  be  wanting,  by  a  strong 
wall.  The  new  city  was,  from  the  name 
of  its  founder,  called  the  Leonine  city,  and 
the  pope  consecrated  it  with  great  solemnity 
on  the  27th  of  June.  He  walked  on  that 
occasion,  in  procession  with  several  bishops, 
and  all  the  Roman  clergy,  round  the  new 
wall  bare-foot,  sprinkled  it  with  holy  water, 
and  slopping  at  the  three  gates,  said  at  each 
of  them  a  different  prayer,  begging  the  Al- 
mighty, by  the  merits  of  his  holy  apostles 
St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul  (not  of  Christ)  to  pour 
down  his  blessings  on  the  city  which  he  had 
built,  and,  from  his  own  name,  called  the 
Leonine  city ;  to  grant  it  new  triumphs  over 
swallowed  up  by  the  sea,  or  shipwrecked  j  those  against  whom  it  was  built,  and  to  pre- 
against  the  rocks  and  the  islands,  and  very  serve  it  from  ever  falling  into  the  hands  of 
few  had  the  good  luck  to  reach  the  African  !  its  cruel  and  merciless  enemies.  When  the 
coast.  The  Saracens  were  almost  all  either  i  procession  was  ended,  the  pope  performed 
drowned,  starved  with  hunger  on  the  aban-   divine  service  in  the  church  of  St.  Peter,  at 


doned  islands  where  their  vessels  were  ship- 
wrecked, or  taken  prisoners,  and  carried  in 
triumph  to  Rome.  There,  and  all  along  the 
coast,  great  numbers  of  them  were  hanged, 
and  left  on  the  gibbets,  to  strike  terror  into 


which  assisted  the  whole  Roman  clergy  in 
a  body,  the  senate,  all  the  nobility,  and  a 
great  many  strangers  of  distinction,  come 
from  all  parts  to  see  the  new  city  and  be 
present  at  the  ceremony  of  its  consecration. 


their  countrymen,  and  the  rest  were  put  in  After  divine  service,  the  pope,  whose  trea- 
chains  by  the  pope,  and  employed  as  drudges  sure  was  not,  it  seems,  to  be  exhausted,  or- 
in  the  most  laborious  parts  of  his  new  ,  dered  considerable  sums  to  be  distributed 
works.'  This  victory  or  deliverance  was,  j  among  the  people,  and  presents  to  be  sent  to 
we  may  be  sure,  ascribed  to  the  miraculous  all  persons  of  distinction,  both  Roman  and 
interposition  of  the  saints,  especially  of  the  j  foreign  then  in  Rome.  Such  is  the  account 
two  princes  of  the  apostles.  By  them  the  ;  Anastasius  gives  us  of  the  building  and  con- 
storm  was  raised ;  and  by  them  alone  the  secrating  of  the  Leonine  city,  and  he  was  an 
fleet  of  the  Saracens  was  dispersed  and  de-  |eye  witness  of  what  he  relates.' 
stroyed.  |     Leo,  being  now  at  leisure  to  attend  to  ec- 

While  the  Romans  were  at  the  height  of  j  clesiastical  affairs,  and  discharge  the  duties 
their  rejoicings  for  so  remarkable  a  victory,  of  his  episcopal  office,  undertook  with  great 
Lewis,  king  of  Italy,  arrived  at  Rome,  sent ;  zeal,  to  reform  the  manners  of  the  clergy, 
thither  by  his  father,  who  had  lately  taken  \  and  redress  the  many  abuses  that  prevailed 
him  for  his  colleague  in  the  empire,  to  be   among  them  as  well  as  the  monks.     With 


crowned  emperor  by  the  pope.  Leo  received 
him  with  all  the  marks  of  distinction  due  to 
his  character,  and  crowned  him,  with  the 
usual  ceremonies,  on  the  2d  of  December  of 
<  AnaBt.  in  Leon.  IV. 


that  view  he  assembled,  in  the  month  of 
December,  853,  a  council  at  Rome,  consist- 
ing of  sixty-seven  bishops.  By  them  some 
new  canons  were  issued,  and  the  observance 


*  Anast.  in  Leon.  IV. 


Leo  IV.]  OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME.  219 

Anastasius  deposed  by  the  pope  and  the  council.  Alfred  sent  by  his  father  to  be  educated  at  Rome.  Colony 
of  Corsicans  settled  at  Porto,  and  the  city  of  Centumcellae  rebuilt ;— [Year  of  Christ,  854.]  The  emperor 
comes  to  Rome. 

of  Others,  that  had  been  formerly  made,  en- 
forced, on  pain  of  deposition,  excommunica- 
tion, &LC.,  all  calculated  to  restore  the  eccle- 
siastical discipline,  and  banish  the  many 
abuses  that  had  insensibly  crept  into  the 
church.  The  council  took  particular  care, 
as  most  other  councils  had  done,  though  to 
very  little  purpose,  to  prevent  the  bishops 
and  clerks  from  frequenting  the  company  of 
women,  from  admitting  them  into  their 
houses,  or  conversing  familiarly  with  them. 
By  the  same  council  divorces  were  forbidden 
in  all  cases,  but  in  that  of  adultery  ;  and 
married  persons  restrained  from  embracing 
a  monastic  life,  without  the  consent  of  the 
bishop,  who  was  charged  to  inquire,  with 
great  care,  whether  both  truly  agreed  to  it, 
and  if  they  did  not,  to  deny  his  consent. 

The  pope  and  the  bishops  of  the  assembly 
deposed,  before  they  parted,  and  deposed 
with  one  consent,  Anastasius,  cardinal  pres- 
byter of  the  church  of  St.  Marcellus,  in 
Rome.  He  had  been  five  years  absent,  and 
though  commanded  by  the  pope  to  return, 
and  even  excommunicated  for  paying  no  kind 
of  regard  to  his  repeated  commands,  he  still 
continued  to  live,  unconcerned,  in  the  diocese 


arms  to  repulse  the  Saracens,  should  they 
offer  to  attack  them.  He  likewise  rebuilt 
the  walls  of  Hortana  and  Amerina,  quite 
gone  to  ruin,  and  of  many  other  cities  on  the 
coast,  left  altogether  defenceless  to  the  mercy 
of  the  enemy.  The  inhabitants  of  Centum- 
cella;  had  abandoned  their  city,  chosing 
rather  to  wander  like  wild  beasts  in  the 
woods,  than  to  live  in  constant  fear  of  being 
either  massacred  by  the  Saracens,  or  carried 
by  them  into  captivity,  with  their  wives  and 
their  children.  The  pope  was  affected  with 
the  miseries  they  suffered  ;  and  he  deter- 
mined, notwithstanding  the  immense  sums 
he  had  already  expended,  to  build  them  a 
new  city.  He  went  accordingly  in  person 
to  look  out  for  a  convenient  place  to  build  it 
on;  but,  though  he  viewed,  and  narrowly 
examined,  every  spot  in  that  part  of  the 
country,  he  could  find  none  that  he  entirely 
approved  of.  But  heaven  interposed  ;  and  a 
most  convenient  situation  for  the  intended 
city  was  pointed  out  to  him  in  a  dream,  nay, 
and  the  plan  shown  him,  which  he  was  to 
conform  to  in  building  it.  The  plan  he 
copied  in  his  sleep,  found  it,  when  he 
awaked,  in  his  hand,  and  had,  in  a  very 
of  Aquiloa,  pretending  that  the  pope    had  \  short  time,  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  a  new 


there  no  sort  of  power  or  authority  over  him. 
He  was  therefore  solemnly  deposed,  and  the 
sentence,  declaring  him  divested  of  all  sacer- 
dotal and  ecclesiastical  dignity,  was  signed 
by  the  pope,  and  all  the  bishops,  presbyters, 
and  deacons  who  were  present.'  It  is  ob- 
servable that  this  council  is  said  to  have  been 
held  "in  the  seventh  year  of  the  pontificate 
of  the  most  holy  and  universal  pope  Leo 
IVth,"  and  this  is  the  first  instance  we  meet 
with  of  any  public  deeds  marked  with- the 
years  of  the  popes  or  of  their  pontificate. 

The  same  year  came  to  Rome  the  famous 
Alfred,  sent  by  his  father  ^thelwulf,  king 
of  the  West  Saxons,  to  be  educated  there, 
under  the  care  and  direction  of  the  pope, 
being  then  scarce  four  years  old,  for  he  was 
born  in  849.  Asserius,  who  lived  with  him, 
and  wrote  his  life,  tells  us,  that  Leo  con- 
firmed him  ;  that  he  adopted  him  for  his  son, 
and  anointed  him  king,^  but  of  what  king- 


city  raised  in  the  place,  and  in  every  part 
answering  the  plan  that  heaven  had  shown 
him.'  Thus  Anastasius;  and  he  probably 
learnt  the  story  he  relates  from  the  pope 
himself,  who  might  not  scruple  to  use  that 
pious  invention  or  fraud  to  get  his  design 
the  more  readily  approved,  and  the  more 
speedily  executed  :  for  who  would  not  ap- 
prove, who  would  not,  with  the  greatest 
ardor  and  eagerness,  concur  in  the  execution 
of  a  plan  or  design  sent  down  from  heaven'? 
The  pope  consecrated  the  new  city  with  the 
very  same  ceremonies,  pomp,  and  solemnity 
he  had  used  in  consecrating  the  Leonine 
city  ;  and,  from  his  own  name,  called  it  Leo- 
polis,  the  same  name  in  Greek  that  he  gave 
to  the  other  in  Latin.  I  leave  Anastasius  to 
reconcile  his  thus  transmitting  his  name  to 
posterity  with  the  utter  contempt  he  is  said 
by  that  writer  to  have  entertained  of  all  hu- 
man glory.     In  process  of  time,  the  inhabit- 


dom,  neither  that  writer  nor  any  other,  has  I  ants  of  the  new  city,  disliking  its  situation, 
informed  us.  As  for  the  kingdom  of  the  '  and  either  forgetting,  or  not  believing  it  had 
West  Saxons,  it  was  then  held  by  his  father,  j  been  pointed  out  by  heaven,  abandoned  it, 


and  he  had  three  other  sons,  who  were  all 
older  than  Alfred,  and  came  to  the  crown 
before  him. 

As  the  Saracens  continued,  notwithstand- 
ing their  late  disaster,  to  infest  the  coast,  the 
pope  fortified,  at  a  great  expense,  the  city 
of  Porto,  planted  there  a  colony  of  Corsi- 
cans, and  not  only  yielded  to  them  for  ever 
that  city,  and  its  territory,  upon  their  swear- 
ing allegiance  to  him  and  his  successors, 
but  generously  supplied  them  with  horses, 
with  oxen,  with  tools  of  agriculture,  and 


'  Anast.  in  Leon.  IV. 


»  Vit.  Alfred. 


and  returned  to  Centumcellae,  which  they 
called  Civita  Vecchia,  that  is,  the  ancient 
city  ;  and  so  it  is  called  to  this  day.^ 

Leo  had  scarce  finished  his  new  city, 
when  news  was  brought  him,  to  his  great 
surprise,  of  the  arrival  of  the  emperor  Lewis 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Rome.  As  he  came 
quite  unexpected,  at  the  head  of  a  numerous 
army,  and  no  one  knew  with  what  design, 
his  arrival  threw  the  whole  city  into  the  ut- 
most consternation.     He  was,  however,  met 

'  Anast.  Vit.  Alfred. 

»  Bruzen.  Martin.  Diet.  Geograph.  et  Crit. 


220 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


_^__ [Leo  IV. 

Gratian,  comniandflr  of  the  Roman  militia,  tried  and  acquitted.  Leo  dies,  and  is  sainted; — [Year  of  Christ, 
855.]  Miracle  wrought  by  him.  The  dispute  about  grace  and  free-will,  first  moved  in  Leo's  time.  His' 
homily. 


and  attended,  according  to  custom,  by  ihe 
Roman  magistrates,  the  clergy  and  nobility, 
to  the  Vatican,  and  there  received,  with 
the  usual  marks  of  distinction,  by  the  pope. 
It  does  not  appear  that  he  entered  the  church 
on  this  occasion,  or  visited  the  tomb  of  St. 
Peter.  He  only  acquainted  the  pope  with 
the  motive  of  his  journey,  which,  lie  said, 
was  to  punish  the  author  of  a  plot,  that  was 
privately  carried  on  against  him  and  the 
French  nation  in  general.  The  pope,  not  in 
the  least  daunted,  as  being  conscious  of  his 
own  innocence,  begged  he  would  name  the 
person,  and  appoint  a  day  for  his  trial,  since 
no  man  could  be  lawfully  punished  till  he 
was  heard,  and  convicted  of  the  crimes  laid 
to  his  charge.  The  emperor  named  Gratian, 
commander  of  the  Roman  militia,  one  of 
the  pope's  counsellors,  and  a  man  of  the  first 
rank  and  distinction  in  Rome;  and  charged 
him  with  having,  in  a  private  conversation, 
solicited  Daniel,  another  commander  of  the 
militia,  to  join  him  in  driving  out  the  French, 
and  calling  in  their  old  friends  the  Greeks  in 
their  room.  This  charge  Daniel,  said  the 
emperor,  is  ready  to  make  good  :  a  day  was 
therefore  appointed  for  the  trial ;  and  Gra- 
tain  was  accordingly  tried  in  the  presence  of 
the  pope,  of  the  emperor,  of  the  Roman 
senate,  and  all  the  French  nobility  who  at- 
tended the  emperor.  Before  that  assembly 
Daniel  renewed  the  accusation  with  great 
assurance  ;  but  Gratian,  m  the  course  of  the 
trial,  made  his  innocence  so  plainly  appear, 
and  convicted  the  informer  of  such  palpable 
contradictions,  that  he  was  obliged  in  the 
end  to  own,  that  the  whole  was  a  calumny, 
entirely  owing  to  malice  and  envy.  Here- 
upon Gratian  was  cleared,  and  Daniel  de- 
livered up  to  him,  agreeably  to  the  Roman 
law,  that  still  obtained  in  Rome,  to  be  dis- 
posed of  by  him  at  his  pleasure.  The  em- 
peror, however,  begged,  that  his  life  might 
be  spared  ;  and  Gratian  accordingly  spared  it.' 
The  emperor  left  Rome  as  soon  as  the  trial 
was  over,  entirely  satisfied  of  the  loyalty  of 
Gratian,  and  the  Romans  in  general;  and 
the  pope  died  soon  after  his  departure,  that 
is,  according  to  the  most  correct  copies  of 
Anastasius,  and  the  other  chronologist,  on 
the  17th  of  July,  855,  having  presided  in 
the  Roman  church  eight  years,  three  months, 
and  six  days. 2  In  this  pope  centered,  if 
Anastasius  is  to  be  credited,  all  moral  and 
Christian  virtues,  without  the  allay  of  one 
single  vice  or  defect;  and  it  is  not  to  be 
doubted  but  the  place  he  now  holds  amongst 
saints  in  the  calendar,  was  owing  to  the 


'  Anast.  in  Leo.  IV. 

»  Anast.  Herman.  Contract.  Orderii.  VitaL  Martin. 
Pelon  Slc. 


high  commendations  that  writer  bestows  on 
him,  and  the  miracles  he  is  by  him  said  to 
have  wrought.  Amongst  these,  the  follow- 
ing was  alone  sufficient  to  convince  the 
world  of  his  extraordinary  sanctity  :  a  basi- 
lisk of  an  immense  size  haunted  a  cave  in 
the  neighborhood  of  the  church  of  St.  Lucia 
in  Orphea,  and,  with  its  venomous  breath, 
killed  all  who  approached  the  mouth  of  the 
cave.  Thus  was  that  part  of  the  city  soon 
turned  into  a  desert,  all  flying  from  thence 
to  avoid  the  contagion.  But  Leo,  pitying 
their  condition,  undertook,  as  soon  as  he 
was  ordained,  to  deliver  them  from  so  trou- 
blesome a  neighbor.  In  order  to  that,  he 
went  in  procession,  after  a  general  fast,  with 
all  his  clergy,  to  the  church  of  St.  Mary  ad 
Praesepe,  and  from  thence  to  the  cave,  causing 
an  image  of  the  virgin  Mary  to  be  carried 
before  him.  As  he  approached  the  fatal 
place,  he  ordered  the  clergy  and  people 
to  stop,  and  boldly  advancing  alone  to  the 
very  mouth  of  the  cavern,  pronounced  some 
prayers  there,  returned  unhurt;  and  the  ba- 
silisk was  never  more  heard  of.'  Against 
this  miracle  might  be  objected  the  authority 
of  Pliny,  telling  us,  that  the  basilisk  is  no 
where  to  be  met  with,  but  in  the  province 
of  Cyrenaica  in  Africa.^  But  that  objection 
Baronius  has  answered,  by  letting  us  know, 
that  when  God  wants  to  punish  the  sins  of 
men,  every  country  produces  every  noxious 
creature.^ 

In  Leo's  time  was  first  moved  by  a  monk 
named  Gothescalque,  the  famous  dispute 
about  grace,  predestination,  and  free  Avill, 
that  divided  the  whole  GaUician  church,  into 
two  opposite  parties,  and  was  long  carried 
on,  with  great  warmth,  by  the  most  eminent 
men  of  that  church.  But  as  the  pope  never 
interfered  in  the  controversy,  nor  did  any 
of  either  party  ever  think  of  appealing  to 
him,  or  asking  his  opinion  (an  irrefragable 
proof  that  they  did  not  look  upon  him  as 
an  unerring  judge  in  religious  disputes,)  I 
shall  refer  the  reader,  for  an  account  of  that 
dispute,  to  the  contemporary  writers,  espe- 
cially to  Rabanus  of  Mentz,  to  Hincmar  of 
Reims,  and  Amolo  of  Lions,  who  were  the 
chief  actors  in  it,  and  distinguished  them- 
selves, above  the  rest,  by  their  erudition  and 
learning. 

Leo  wrote  a  homily,  calculated  to  instruct 
the  clergy  in  the  duties  of  their  office;  and 
ordered  it  to  be  read  by  the  bishops  in  the 
assemblies  of  the  clergy  of  their  respective 
dioceses.  It  has  reached  our  times,  and  is 
to  be  found  in  the  collection  of  the  councils.'* 

'  Anast.  Herman.  Contract.  Orderii.  Vital.  Martin. 
Pelon.  &c.  "  Plin.  Nat.  Hist.  1. 8.  c.  2L 

'  Bar.  ad  Ann.  847.  p.  52.  *  Concil.  1.  viii.  p.  33. 


Joan.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


221 


The  adventures  of  pope  Joan,  as  related  by  several  writers. 


POPE  JOAN. 


[Year  of  Christ,  855.]  After  Leo  IV. 
and  before  Benedict  III.  is  commonly  placed 
the  famous  pope  Joan,  by  those  who  believe 
that  such  a  pope  ever  e.xisted.  But  before  I 
inquire  whether  such  a  pope  ever  existed, 
or  not,  the  reader  will  expect  some  account 
of  the  birth,  of  the  education,  of  the  various 
adventures,  of  so  extraordinary  a  woman, 
before,  as  well  as  after,  she  attained  to  the 
pontifical  dignity,  as  it  has  been  delivered 
down  to  us  by  the  writers,  who  speak  of  her 
as  a  real,  and  not  as  a  fabulous  person. 
She  waSj  according  to  most  of  those  writers, 
the  daughter  of  an  English  missionary ;  who, 
leaving  his  own  country,  went  over  to 
Germany,  Avith  great  numbers  of  his  coun- 
trymen, to  instruct  the  Saxons,  whom  Char- 
lemagne had  converted  with  his  victorious 
army  to  the  Christian  religion.  The  mis- 
sionary carried  over  his  wife  with  him, 
which  obliged  him,  as  she  was  big  with 
child,  to  stop  at  Ingelheim;  and  there  she 
was  delivered  of  a  daughter,  whom  some 
call  Joan,  and  others  Agnes,  Gerbert,  Isabel, 
Marguerite,  Dorothy,  and  Jutt.  As  Joan 
(so  1  shall  call  her,  as  she  is  most  commonly 
known  by  that  name)  showed  from  her  in- 
fancy a  strong  inclination  to  the  study  of 
letters,  and  her  father,  who  Avas  a  man  of 
great  learning,  indulging  that  inclination, 
took  upon  him  to  instruct  her,  she  made 
under  him  such  astonishing  progress  in  the 
different  branches  of  literature,  that  she  was 
looked  upon  by  all  as  a  prodigy.  Her  pas- 
sion for  learning  did  not  render  her  ins^si- 
ble  to  a  passion  of  a  different  nature.  As 
she  was  no  less  famous  for  her  beauty  and 
address  than  for  her  genius  and  her  learning, 
a  young  monk,  of  the  monastery  of  Fuld  in 
Germany,  fell  violently  in  love  with  her; 
and  his  flame  kindling  one  no  less  violent  in 
her  breast,  it  was  agreed  between  them,  that, 
to  enjoy  more  freely  the  company  of  each 
other,  she  should  privately  withdraw  from 
her  father's  house,  should  disguise  her  sex, 
and,  in  that  disguise,  apply  to  the  abbot  to 
be  admitted  into  tlie  same  monastery.  She 
was  then  only  twelve  years  old  ;  but  her 
passion  inspiring  her  with  a  resolution  su- 
perior to  her  age  as  well  as  to  her  sex,  she 
forsook  her  parents  unaffected,  and  dissem- 
bling her  sex,  presented  herself  to  the  abbot, 
and  so  imposed  upon  him  by  an  assumed 
modesty  and  a  pretended  desire  of  conse- 
crating herself  from  her  tender  years  to  God, 
and  avoiding  the  temptations  of  the  world, 
that  might,  in  confederacy  with  her  passions 
when  they  grew  stronger,  rob  her  of  her  in- 
nocence, that  he  embraced  her  Avith  great 
joy,  and  received  her,  as  a  most  promising 
youth,  amongst  his  monks.     And   now  the 


two  lovers  had,  to  their  inexpressible  satis- 
faction, opportunities  every  day  of  seeing  one 
another,  of  conversing  familiarly  together, 
and  expressing  to  each  other  the  violence  of 
their  passion,  undisturbed  and  unsuspected. 
However,  they  are  said  to  have  kept,  not- 
withstanding the  violence  of  their  passion, 
within  bounds  in  indulging  it ;  but  within 
what  bounds  we  are  not  told  ;  and  to  keep 
any  bounds  in  indulging  a  violent  passion, 
is  a  task  to  Avhich  few,  if  any  at  all,  are 
equal.  The  lovers  did  not  long  continue  in 
that  happy  state  ;  but  eloping  together,  for 
what  reasons  we  are  not  informed,  from  the 
monastery,  they  came  privately  over  to 
England,  the  young  monk  being  a  native  of 
this  country.  Here  they  pursued  their  stu- 
dies together  with  uncommon  application. 
From  hence  they  went  to  France,  from 
France  to  Italy,  and  from  Italy  to  Greece ; 
stopping  wherever  they  found  masters  or 
professors  capable  of  improving  them  in  the 
knowledge  they  had  already  acquired.  In 
Greece  they  chose  Athens  for  the  place  of 
their  abode,  to  perfect  themselves  there  in 
the  knowledge  of  the  Greek  tongue.  They 
had  not  been  long  at  Athens,  when  the  monk 
was  taken  ill,  and  died  in  a  few  days,  in 
spite  of  all  the  care  that  could  possiby  be 
used  to  save  his  life.  How  deeply  the  sur- 
viving lover  was  affected  with  so  fatal  a  blow, 
no  words  can  express.  Not  able  to  bear  the 
sight  of  any  thing  or  place  she  had  ever 
seen  with  him,  she  resolved,  in  the  same 
disguise,  to  repair  to  Rome ;  not  to  visit  the 
holy  places  there,  but  to  divert  her  mind 
from  dwelling  too  intensely  upon  the  irre- 
parable loss  she  had  sustained,  and  alleviate 
her  grief  with  the  sight  of  so  many  great 
objects  as  would  offer  themselves  there  to 
her  view.  She  had  no  occasion  to  repent 
of  that  resolution :  her  extraordinary  talents 
made  her  soon  known  in  that  great  metro- 
polis ;  and  her  modesty,  her  address,  her  en- 
gaging behavior,  gained  her  the  esteem  as 
well  as  the  affection  of  all  who  kneAv  her. 
To  display  her  talents,  she  opened  a  school; 
and  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  it  frequent- 
ed by  persons  of  the  first  rank  and  distinc- 
tion, by  the  most  learned  men  at  that  time 
in  Rome;  nay.  and  by  the  public  professors 
themselvps,  not  ashamed,  nor  thinking  it  any 
sort  of  disparagement  for  them  to  become 
her  disciples.  Thus  she  continued  gaining 
daily  new  reputation'and  credit,  not  by  her 
knowledge  and  learning  alone,  but  by  a  con- 
duct, in  appearance,  quite  blameless,  and  an 
outward  show  of  extraordinary  sanctity, 
being  ever  the  foremost  in  all  public  exer- 
cises of  piety  and  devotion. 

In  the  meantime  died  pope  Leo  IV.  and 
t2 


222 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Joan. 


Joan  is  chosen  pope.     Is  delivered  of  a  son  in  the  public  street.     Her  adventures  unknown  to  Marianus. 


though  men  of  extraordinary  merit  were  not 
then  wanting  in  Rome,  yet  was  a  woman 
preferred  to  them  all,  and,  as  of  all  the  best 
qualified  for  so  high  a  station,  raised  with 
one  voice  by  the  people  and  clergy  to  the 
pontifical  throne.  Thus  did  the  world  behold 
a  woman  sitting  in  the  chair  of  St.  Peter, 
and  the  keys,  with  the  power  of  loosening 
and  binding,  fellen  to  the  distaflT.  How  long 
she  was  suffered  thus  to  impose  on  the 
Christian  world,  is  not  agreed  amongst  au- 
thors ;  but  in  this  all  agree,  that  neither  the 
people  nor  the  clergy  had  occasion,  till  she 
was  discovered,  to  repent  of  their  choice ; 
for  she  was  discovered  in  the  end,  and  the 
discovery  of  her  sex  was  owing  to  the  same 
passion  that  first  prompted  her  to  disguise  it. 
Had  she  been  as  chaste  as  many  other  wo- 
men, who  are  said  to  have  disguised  their 
sex  before  her  time,  as  well  as  after  it,  she 
might  have  continued  undiscovered,  as 
well  as  they,  to  the  hour  of  her  death; 
but  chastity  was  a  virtue  that  she  had  been 
an  utter  stranger  to  ever  since  her  infancy, 
and  opportunities  now  offering  daily  to  grati- 
fy an  inclination  that  she  never  had  the  re- 
solution to  withstand,  she  yielded  to  it  at  all 
adventures,  discovered  herself  to  one  of  her 
domestics,  on  whose  secrecy  she  knew  she 
could  rely,  and  disclosing  to  him  all  her 
secrets,  took  him  in  the  room  of  her  former 
lover.  He  was  true  to  his  trust ;  and  to 
none  was  their  intimacy  known  till  the  con- 
sequences, naturally  ati&nding  it,  betrayed  it 
to  the  world.  Her  holiness  proved  with 
child  ;  and  we  are  told,  that  having  pre- 
sumed, in  that  condition,  to  exorcise  a  de- 
moniac, and  command  the  devil  to  tell  her 
when  he  was  to  quit  the  body  he  possessed, 
the  evil  spirit  answered,  "  Tell  me  first,  you 
who  are  pope,  and  the  father  of  fathers, 
when  a  she  pope  is  to  be  brought  to  bed, 
and  I  will  then  tell  you  when  I  am  to  quit 
the  body  I  possess.'"  That  answer  was 
understood  by  those  who  heard  it  as  import- 
ing no  more,  than  that  the  devil  never 
would  depart  from  that  body  ;  and  no  notice 
was  therefore  taken  of  it. 

In  the  mean  time  her  holiness  advanced  in 
her  pregnancy  ;  but  not  thinking  herself  so 
near  her  time  as  she  really  was,  she  un- 
luckily ventured  to  assist  at  a  procession, 
the  annual  procession  of  the  rogation-week. 
In  that  week,  the  week  preceding  Whitsun- 
tide, extraordinary  devotions  were  performed 
to  preserve  the  fruits  of  the  earth  yet  tender 
and  liable  to  be  blasted ;  and  the  pope  walked, 
in  solemn  procession,  with  all  the  clergy, 
from  the  Vatican  basilic  to  the  Lateran. 
She  might  have  excused  herself;  and  a 
woman  of  her  art  and  address  could  not  be 
at  a  loss  to  find  pretences  to  excuse  herself 
from  attending  so  long  and  so  fatiguing  a 
ceremony  :  but  she  chose  to  attend  it,  not 

«  "Papa  Pater  Patrum  Papissse  pandito  partum: 
Et  tibi  tunc  edam  de  corpora  quando  recedam." 


apprehending  that  she  was  so  near  her  time, 
say  some  writers  ;  while  Others  gravely  tell 
us,  that,  touched  with  remorse,  she  sincere- 
ly repented  of  her  wickedness;  and  that  an 
angel  being  thereupon  sent  from  heaven  to 
offer  her  the  alternative,  to  be  either  eternal- 
ly damned  in  the  other  world,  or  endure  in 
this  the  confusion  that  was  due  to  her  sins, 
she  chose  of  the  two  evils  the  least.  .How- 
ever that  be,  she  set  out  in  procession  from 
the  Vatican,  attended,  according  to  custom, 
by  the  clergy  in  a  body,  by  tlie  senate,  and 
immensecrowdsof  people,  and  walked  with 
great  ease  till  she  came  to  the  street  between 
the  church  of  St.  Clement  and  the  amphi- 
theatre. There  she  was  suddenly  seized 
with  pains  incident  to  women  in  her  condi- 
tion ;  fell,  overcome  by  the  violence  of  those 
pains,  to  the  ground ;  and  while  all  about 
her  were  striving  to  help  her  up,  and  afford 
her  some  relief,  not  knowing  what  had  be- 
fallen her,  she  was,  in  the  public  street,  and 
in  the  presence  of  the  whole  multitude,  de- 
livered of  a  son,  or,  as  a  monkish  poet  ex- 
presses it,  of  a  little  pope.'  Some  say,  that 
both  the  mother  and  the  child  died  on  the 
spot ;  and  others,  that  the  child  died ;  but  that 
the  mother  was  preserved  by  a  kind  of 
miracle,  to  atone,  as  she  did  in  a  dungeon, 
for  her  wickedness.^  They  add,  that,  to  per- 
petuate the  memory  of  such  an  extraordi- 
nary adventure,  a  little  chapel  was  built,  and 
a  statue  erected,  in  the  place  where  it  hap- 
pened, both  to  the  mother  and  the  child  ;  and 
that,  in  detestation  of  the  fact,  the  popes  and 
the  Roman  clergy  have  ever  since,  in  their 
processions  from  the  Vatican  to  the  Lateran, 
turned  off  from  that  street,  choosing  rather  to 
go  a  good  way  about  than  to  pass  through 
so  infamous  a  place.  Not  satisfied  with  thus 
showing  their  detestation  and  abhorrence  of 
such  a  scandalous  imposition,  to  prevent 
their  being  thus  imposed  upon  for  the 
future,  they  introduced  the  immodest  custom 
of  placing  the  new  pope  on  a  perforated 
stool,  before  he  was  ordained,  and  obliging 
the  youngest  deacon  to  satisfy  himself  and 
them,  that  the  person,  whom  they  had 
chosen,  was  not  a  woman  ;  "  mas  est,"  cried 
the  deacon ;  and  the  clergy  answered,  "  deo 
gratias." 

Such  is  the  account  they  give  us  of  the 
birth,  education,  adventures,  and  unhappy 
end  of  the  celebrated  pope  Joan.  But  it 
is  to  be  observed,  that  of  none  of  the  various 
circumstances  and  incidents,  with  which 
they  have  embellished  her  story,  has  the 
least  notice  been  taken  by  Marianus  Scotus, 
who  flourished  two  hundred  years  after  her 
time,  and  is  supposed  to  have  been  the  first 

»  "  Papa  Pater  Patrum  peperit  Papissa  Papellum." 
'  She  is,  nevertheless,  represented  by  Mantuanus, 

hanging,  with  her  lover,  at  the  entry  into  hell  : 
"Hie  pendebat  adhuc,  sexum  mentita  virilem 
Fcemina,  cui  triplici  Phrygiam  diademate  mitram 
Suspendebat  apex;  et  pontificalis  adulter," 

says  that  poet. 


Joan.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


323 


Not  impossible  tliat  a  woman  should  have  been  raised  to  the  pontifical  dignity. 

raised  to  the  see  of  Constantinople. 


A  woman  said  to  have  been 


that  mentioned  her.  All  he  said  of  her,  if 
he  said  so  much,  was,  that  "  to  Leo  IV.,  suc- 
ceeded Joan,  a  woman,  who  held  the  see 
two  years,  five  months,  and  four  days." 
Whatever  else  we  read  of  her,  has  been 
added  by  writers  who  lived,  some  one,  some 
two,  some  three,  and  some  four  hundred 
years  after  Marianus,  and  may  consequent- 
ly be  looked  upon  as  fabulous.  However, 
as  a  fact,  true  in  itself,  may  be,  and  often  is, 
related  with  such  circumstances  as  render  it 
incredible,  I  shall  examine  here  the  fact  in 
question,  abstracting  from  the  circumstances 
with  which  later  writers  have  embellished 
it,  and  only  inquire,  whether  "  Leo  IV.,  was 
succeeded  by  Joan  a  woman  V 

And,  in  the  first  place,  I  cannot  at  all  agree 
with  Panvinius,  that  God  never  would  have 
suffered  the  see  of  St.  Peter,  founded  by 
Christ  himself,  to  be  sacrilegiously  profaned 
by  a  woman ;'  since  he  himself  is  forced  to 
allow,  and  so  is  Baronius,  the  see  of  St. 
Peter,  though  founded,  according  to  them, 
by  Christ  himself,  to  have  been  sacrilegiously 
profaned  by  the  most  wicked  of  men,  by 
monsters  of  iniquity,  by  the  lovers,  the  bul- 
lies, the  bastards  of  public  prostitutes,  pros- 
titutes governing  Rome  with  an  absolute 
sway,  and  raising  their  chief  favorites  to  the 
see  of  St.  Peter.  Neither  can  I  agree  with 
those,  who  think  it  impossible  that  a  woman 
should  have  disguised  her  sex  so  artfully,  as 
to  be  raised,  quite  unsuspected,  to  the  pon- 
tifical dignity  ;  fur  instances  are  not  wanting 
of  women,  who  have  disguised  their  sex  no 
less  successfully  than  Joan  is  said  to  have 
done,  and  have  lived,  quite  unsuspected,  till 
death  discovered  them,  or  they  discovered 
themselves.  Thus  did  Eugenia,  daug-hler 
to  Philip,  governor  of  Alexandria,  under  the 
emperor  Gallienus,  disguise  herself  so  as 
to  be  admitted  into  a  monastery  of  monks, 
nay,  and  to  be  made  abbot ;  and  she  would 
have  continued  undiscovered  to  the  hour  of 
her  death,  had  she  not  discovered  herself  lo 
save  her  reputation,  being  impeached  of  an 
intrigue  with  a  woman  of  ill  fame,  to  the 
great  scandal  of  all  the  monks.  The  fact  is 
related  by  Alcimus  Avitus,  who  was  arch- 
bishop of  Vienne  in  the  sixth  century,  in  his 
poem  upon  Virginity .^  In  like  manner  The- 
odora of  Alexandria,  having  committed  a 
fault  in  her  youth,  resolved  to  conceal  the 
sex  she  had  disgraced,  and  atone  for  it  in  a 
monastery.  She  was  accordingly  admitted 
by  the  abbot  in  the  disguise  of  a  man,  and, 
thus  disguised,  acted  her  part  so  well,  that 
one  of  her  own  sex  conceived  a  violent  pas- 
sion for  her;  and  being  slighted  by  her,  to 
revenge  that  slicfht,  gave  herself  up  to  one 
capable  of  gratifying  her  vicious  inclination, 
and  laid  to  Theodora  the  child  she  had  by 
him.    Theodora  might  have  easily  confuted 


the  calumny ;  but  she  chose  rather  to  be 
thought  guilty,  to  be  driven,  with  disgrace, 
out  of  the  monastery,  nay,  and  to  bring  up 
the  child  as  her  own,  rather  than  to  pull  off 
the  mask.  Nicephorus  Calistus,'  and  the 
author  of  the  "Golden  Legend,"  to  whom 
we  are  indebted  for  this  account,  add,  that 
Theodora  was  re-admitted,  after  some  years 
of  penance,  into  the  monastery  ;  that  she  led 
there,  quite  unsuspected,  a  penitent  and  ex- 
emplary life ;  and  that  the  secret  was  not 
discovered  till  after  her  death. 

Many  other  instances  occur  in  history  of 
women,  who  have  disguised  themselves  no 
less  successfully  than  pope  Joan  is  supposed 
to  have  done;  nay,  it  was  even  said,  and 
commonly  believed,  if  pope  Leo  IX.  is  to  be 
credited,  that  a  woman  had  introduced  her- 
self into  the  patriarchal  see  of  Constanti- 
nople. That  report,  indeed,  the  pope  did 
not  believe  ;  but  yet  thought  that  such  a 
thing  might  possibly  have  happened.  And, 
in  a  letter  he  wrote  to  Michael,  patriarch  of 
Constantinople,  he  expresses  himself  thus  : 
"  Far  be  it  from  us  to  believe  what  is  confi- 
dently reported  to  have  happened  to  the 
church  of  Constantinople;  namely,  that  by 
promoting,  as  she  does,  so  many  eunuchs 
to  the  patriarchal  see,  contrary  to  the  first 
canon  of  the  council  of  Nice,  she  had  once 
placed  a  woman  on  that  see.  The  enormity 
of  the  fact,  joined  to  our  fraternal  benevo- 
lence, does  not  allow  us  to  credit  that  report ; 
but  yet,  when  we  reflect  on  the  little  regard 
you  pay  to  the  canons,  and  the  custom,  that 
obtains  in  your  church,  of  admitting  eunuchs 
not  only  to  holy  orders,  but  even  to  the  pa- 
triarchal dignity,  we  cannot  help  thinking, 
that  such  a  thing  might  possibly  have  hap- 
pened."^ Now,  if  it  was  not  thought  by 
Leo  absurd  or  incredible,  that  God  should 
have  suffered  the  see  of  Constantinople, 
though  founded,  as  is  pretended,  by  the 
apostle  St.  Andrew,  to  be  profaned  by  a  wo- 
man, why  should  it  be  thought  absurd  or  in- 
credible that  God  should  have  suffered  the 
see  of  Rome,  though  founded,  as  is  pre- 
tended, by  the  apostle  St.  Peter,  to  be  pro- 
faned by  a  woman?  If  Leo  did  not  think  it 
impossible  for  a  woman  to  disguise  her  sex 
so  artfully  as  to  be  raised,  quite  unsuspected, 
to  the  see  of  Constantinople,  why  should  we 
think  it  impossible  for  a  woman  to  disguise 
her  sex  so  artfully  as  to  be  raised,  quite  un- 
suspected, to  the  see  of  Rome?  The  cus- 
tom that  prevailed  at  this  time  amongst  the 
western,  especially  the  Italian,  clergy,  of 
shaving  their  beards,  contributed  as  much 
as  the  condition  of  an  eunuch  towards  car- 
rying on  the  imposition  with  success;  nay, 
to  that  custom  Calcondilas  ascribes  the  rais- 
ing of  a  woman  to  the  apostolic  see.'  And 
Pierius  Valerianus,  in  an  harangue  he  ad- 


'  Onuph.  Panvin.  ad  Platin.  m  Johan.  VIII. 
^  Alcim.  Avit.  Poemat.  1.  vi. 


'  Niceph.  Calist.  Hist.  Kccles.  I.  xvi.  c.  5. 

»  Leo  IX.  ep.  1.     '  Calcond.  Hist.  Turc.  1.  vi.  p.  200- 


224 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Joan. 


Pope  Joan  never  existed.    The  female  pope  unknown  to  the  contemporary  Latin  and  Greek  writers. 


dressed  to  cardinal  Hippolilus  de  Medicis,  i  tween  them,  and  to  have  held  the  see  two 
tells  that  cardinal,  that  had  the  western  years  and  five  months,  as  the  female  pope 
clergy  never  adopted  the  effeminate  custom  |  is  said  to  have  done,  without  supposing  the 
of  shaving  their  beards,  the  world  would  envoys  to  have  been  two  years  and  five 
never  have  seen  a  woman  sitting  in  the  chair  ■  months  on  the  road  from  Reims  to  Rome; 
of  St.  Peter.'  I  which  no  man  can  suppose  or  believe.    The 

That  a  woman,  therefore,  should  have  other  contemporary  writers  were  all  as  little 
been  raised,  in  the  disguise  of  a  man,  to  the  acquainted  with  the  female  pope,  as  Anas- 
see  of  St.  Peter,  is  a  thing  neither  absolutely  tasius  and  Hincmar.  Thus  pope  Nicholas, 
impossible  in  itself,  nor  incredible.  But  yet,  ]  the  immediate  successor  of  Benedict,  in  a 
that  such  a  thing  never  did  happen,  that  no  letter  he  wrote  to  the  bishops  of  the  council 
woman  ever  did  sit  in  that  see,  and  conse-  of  Soissons,  eleven  years  after  the  death  of 
quently  that  the  famous  pope  Joan  isamere    Leo,speaksofBenedictasthe  immediate  sue 


chimera  or  phantom,  has  been  made  so  evi 
dently  appear  by  several  protestant  as  well 
as  Roman  catholic  writers,  that  I  can  scarce 
help  charging  those  with  want  of  candor, 
who  still  maintain  so  stale  and  so  groundless 
a  fable.  In  matters  of  fact,  we  are  to  stand 
to  the  testimony  of  (he  contemporary  writers, 
if  worthy  of  credit,  or  of  those  who  lived  the 
nearest  to  the  times  of  which  they  write; 
and  admit  or  reject  what  we  read  in  the  later 
writers,  as  it  is  consistent  or  inconsistent 
with  what  we  read  in  them.  Now,  what 
we  read  in  Anastasius,  who  lived  at  this 
very  time  in  Rome,  concerning  the  death  of 
pope  Leo  IV.  and  the  election  of  his  suc- 
cessor, at  which  he  was  probably  present,  is 
absolutely  inconsistent  with  what  we  read 
in  the  writers  who  flourished  some  ages 
after  his  time;  namely,  that  Leo  IV.  was 
succeeded  by  a  woman ;  for  the  bibliotheca- 
rian  tells  us,  in  expres?  terms,  that  the  peo- 
ple of  Rome,  the  clergy  and  nobility,  meet- 
ing as  soon  as  Leo  died  (mox)  to  choose  him 
a  successor,  all  agreed  to  a  man  to  confer 
that  honor  on  Benedict ;  that  they  went  there- 
upon immediately  in  a  body  to  the  church 
of  St.  Callistus ;  and,  having  found  him  there 
at  his  prayers,  they  carried  him  from  thence 
to  the  Lateran  palace,  placed  him  on  the 
pontifical  throne,  and  signing  the  decree  of 
his  election,  sent  it  to  the  emperors  Lotha- 
rius  and  Lewis.^  Leo  therefore  was,  ac- 
cording to  Anastasius  an  eye-witness  of 
what  he  writes,  immediately  succeeded  by 
Benedict,  and  not  by  a  woman. 

The  account  of  Anastasius  is  entirely 
agreeable  to  what  we  read  in  Hincmar,  at 
this  very  time  Archbishop  of  Reims,  who 
writes  thus  in  one  of  his  letters  to  pope 
Nicholas,  the  immediate  successor  of  Bene- 
dict III.:  "I  despatched,"  says  he,  "en- 
voys, with  letters  to  Rome,  who,  hearing  on 
the  road  that  Leo  was  dead,  pursued,  never- 
theless, their  journey,  and  arriving  at  Rome, 
obtained  of  Benedict  the  privilege  which 
they  were  sent  to  demand. "^  While  the 
envoys  were  on  the   road,  Leo  died,  and 


cessor  of  that  pope:  "Leo,  pontiff  of  the  apos- 
tolic see,"  says  he,  "  being  dead,  and  Bene- 
dict, of  holy  memory,  chosen  to  succeed  him, 
under  him  the  reverend  Hincmar  renews 
the  war.'  In  like  manner  Ado,  Archbishop 
of  Vienne,  who  flourished  at  this  very  time, 
and  died  in  875,  enumerating,  in  his  chroni- 
cle, the  popes  from  Gregory  IV.,  to  Nicho- 
las I.,  places  Benedict  III.  immediately  after 
Leo  IV.  "The  Roman  pontiff,  Gregory, 
dies,"  says  Ado,  "and  in  his  room  Sergius 
is  ordained ;  to  Sergius  succeeds  Leo;  and 
to  Leo  is  substituted  Benedict.  The  Berti- 
nian  annalist,  who  flourished  at  the  same 
time,  and  brought  his  annals  down  to  the 
year  882,  writes  thus  at  the  year  855,  "  Leo, 
bishop  of  the  apostolic  see,  dies ;  to  him  suc- 
ceeds Benedict;  to  Benedict,  Nicholas;  to 
Nicholas,  Hadrian  ;  and  to  Hadrian,  John."^ 
The  Greek  writers  of  the  ninth  century 
knew,  it  seems,  as  little  of  a  female  pope  as 
the  Latin  ;  for  the  famous  Phocius  of  Con- 
stantinople, and  Metrophanes  of  Smyrna, 
not  only  take  no  kind  of  notice  of  her, 
though  both  sworn  enemies  of  the  see  of 
Rome,  but  expressly  exclude  her.  placing 
Benedict  immediately  after  Leo,  Nicholas 
after  Benedict,  Hadrian  after  Nicholas,  and 
John  after  Hadrian  ;3  and  both  writers  were 
contemporary  with  these  popes.  The  writers 
I  have  quoted  all  lived,  and  wrote,  at  the 
very  time  when  the  female  pope  is  supposed 
to  have  been  chosen,  to  have  governed  the 
church  two  years  and  five  months,  and  to 
have  at  last  been  discovered  in  the  manner  we 
have  seen ;  and  yet  not  one  of  them  takes  the 
least  notice  of  such  an  extraordinary  event; 
not  one  of  them  mentions  the  she  pope,  but 
on  the  contrary,  all  absolutely  exclude  her, 
by  making  Benedict  the  immediate  successor 
of  Leo,  and  thus  leaving  no  room  for  any 
other.  Should  therefore  the  writers,  who 
lived  and  wrote  ever  so  little  a  time  after 
them,  all  to  a  man  relate  such  an  adventure ; 
should  they  all  perfectly  agree  in  every  cir- 
cumstance attending  it ;  their  evidence,  never- 
theless, ought  not  to  be  regarded  as  contra- 


Benedict  was  chosen,  as  appears  from  the  dieting  the  testimony  of  those,  whom  we 
words  of  the  letter:  we  cannot  therefore  must  suppose  to  have  been  better  informed 
suppose  any  other  to  have  been  chosen  be-   than  they.    But  even  the  earliest  writers. 


»  Johan.  Pier.  Valer.  pro  Sacerdot.  barb,  ad  Card. 
Med.  »  Anast.  in  Benedict.  Ill, 

'  Hincmar.  ep.  26.  torn.  ii.  Edit.  Sirmond.  p.  298. 


>  Nich.  ep.  46.  a  Annal.  Berlin,  ad  Ann.  855. 

3  Phot,  de  Process.  Spirit,  Sanct.  I.  i,  Metrophan.  de 
Spirit,  Sanct.  divinitat. 


Joan.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


235 

An  account  of  the  female  pope  foisted  into  some  copies  of  Anastasius.    By  whom  this  fable  was  invented. 
Her  statue  in  the  cathedral  at  Siena. 


upon  whom  the  account  of  a  female  pope 
has  been  fathered,  lived  two  hundred  years 
after  the  writers  1  have  quoted;  and  scarce 
two  of  them  agree  in  the  account  they  give 
of  her :  and  are  we  to  believe,  upon  the  testi- 
mony of  such  writers,  so  remarkable  an 
event,  though  utterly  unknown  to  all  the 
contemporary  historians,  nay,  and  incon- 
sistent with  what  they  have  writ?  Who 
could  inform  them  of  what  passed  in  former 
times,  if  tlie  writers  did  not  inform  them 
who  lived  in  those  times,  or,  at  least,  nearer 
them  than  they  ? 

I  am  well  apprised,  that,  in  some  manu- 
script copies  of  Anastasius,  an  account  is 
given  of  a  woman  pope  between  Leo  IV. 
and  Benedict  III.  But  as  that  account  is 
not  to  be  found  in  the  more  ancient  and  au- 
thentic copies  of  that  writer,  if  we  may  de- 
pend upon  the  testimony  of  many  learned 


with  Anastasius,  or  in  the  following,  it  is 
not  even  pretended,  that  by  any  of  them 
mention  ha.s  been  made  of  a  female  pope, 
and  therefore  it  matters  little  whether  she 
was  first  mentioned  by  Marianus  Scotus,  ia 
the  end  of  the  eleventh  century,  by  Sigebert, 
in  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth,  or  by  Mar- 
tinus  Polonus,  about  the  middle  of  the  thir- 
teenth; for  the  same  question  or  difficulty 
still  occurs,  how  came  they  to  know  what 
was  utterly  unknown  lo,  or,  at  least,  passed 
over  in  silence,  by  all  who  wrote  before 
them. 

Who  was  the  inventor  of  this  fable,  or  by 
whom  it  was  first  related,  is  uncertain,  it 
being  by  some  charged  upon  Marianus  Sco- 
tus, by  some  upon  Sigebert,  and  by  some 
upon  Vincentius  Bellovacensis,  or  Martinus 
Polonus ;  while  others  pretend  no  mention 
to  be  made  of  the  female  pope  in  the  more 


critics,  protesiants  as  Avell  as  Roman  catho-  ancient  manuscript  copies  of  these  writers. 
lies,  who  have  narrowly  examined  them,'  j  But  whoever  was  the  first  author  of  that 
and  as  it  evidently  contradicts  the  account  tale,  it  was,  in  process  of  time,  embellished 
given  by  Anastasius  himself,  and  all  the  I  with  many  circumstances  or  curious  anec- 
contemporary  writers,  of  the  election  of  Be- i  dotes  unknown  to  those  who  had  first  re- 


nedict,  it  is  now,  almost  universally,  looked 
upon  as  supposititious,  as  not  given  by 
Anastasius,  but  inserted,  in  later  times,  into 
his  work  by  some  injudicious  and  ignorant 
transcriber,  unwilling  that  such  an  extraor- 
dinary adventure,  whether  true  or  false, 
should  be  wanting  in  his  copy.     And  truly 


lated  it.  In  the  copies  of  Marianus,  where 
mention  is  made  of  pope  Joan,  no  more  is 
said  than  that  Joan,  a  woman,  succeeded 
pope  Leo  IV.  during  the  space  of  two  years, 
five  months  and  four  days ;  but  by  those  who 
wrote  after  him,  we  are  told,  as  has  been  ob- 
served above,  that  the  she  pope  was  delivered 


that  the  relation  of  this  tale  was  added  by  of  a  son  in  the  public  street,  between  the 
some  other  hand  to  the  manuscript  copies  church  of  St.  Clement  and  the  coliseo,  or  the 
of  Anastasius,  appears,  I  think,  undeniable,  amphitheatre  of  Titus;  that  thenceforth  the 
from  the  manner  in  which  the  relator  ex-  j  solemn  processions  have  ever  avoided  the 
presses  himself;  namely,  "it  is  said  that  Leo  J  same  street;  that  a  marble  statute  was  erect- 
was  succeeded  by  a  woman :"  For  can  any  ed  there  in  detestation  of  such  an  event;' 
man  think  that  Anastasius,  who  lived  in  !  and  that  the  perforated  chair,  was,  from  that 
Rome  at  that  very  time,  who  was  an  eye-  time  forward,  made  use  of,  to  prevent  the 
witness  of  what  he  wrote,  and  consequently  j  like  mistake  in  the  election  of  the  pope." 
must  have  known  for  certain  whether  or  no  But  it  does  not  appear  that  the  solemn  pro- 
Leo  was  succeeded  by  a  woman,  would  i  cessions  ever  passed  through  that  street; 
have  spoken  of  such  an  extraordinary  event  and,  if  they  did,  it  was  for  other  reasons, 
as  a  fact  that  was  said  to  have  happened,  j  perhaps  because  it  was  too  narrow,  that  they 
and  not  positively  asserted,  or  positively  de-  afterwards  took  another  way.  We  cannot 
nied  it?  Would  any  historian,  who  in  our ,  doubt  that  a  statute  was  to  be  seen  in  the 
days  should  write  the  history  of  Great  Bri-  i  place  where  Joan  was  supposed  to  have 
tain,  express  himself  thus  in  speaking  of  the  ,  been  delivered  of  her  son,  being  assured  by 
succession  of  our  kings,   "  it  is  said  that   Theodoric,  of  Neim,  who  passed   the  best 


George  I.  was  succeeded  by  George  II.  ?" 
This  is  one  of  the  many  reasons  that  inclined 
Mr.  Sarrau,  a  zealous  protestant,  and  very 


part  of  his  time  at  Rome,  and  was  secretary 
to  two  popes,  that  it  was  still  extant  at  the 
time  he  wrote,  that  is,  in  1413.     But  from 


able  writer,  to  conclude  the  above  mentioned  thence  we  cannot  conclude  the  story  to  be 
passage  to  have  been  added  to  the  manu-  j  true,  but  only  that  it  was  believed  when  the 
script  copies  of  Anastasius  by  one  who  '  statute  was  erected ,3  as  it  was  believed  when 
made  an  ill  use  of  his  leisure  hours  ;'2  and  j  the  statute  of  the  she  pope  was  placed  in  the 
this  reason  the  penetrating  Mr.  Bayle  looked  cathedral  of  Siena,  among  those  of  the  popes, 
upon  as  a  demonstration.*  As  for  the  wri-  ,  from  St.  Peter  to  Pius  II.  and  placed  be- 
ters  who  flourished   in  the  same  century   iween  Leo  IV.  and  Benedict  III.  with  this 


'  Onuph.  in  addit.  ad  Platin.  Blondel.  Eclairciss.  de 
la  quest.  Si  une  feinme,  &.c.  Serrau.  ep.  133,  146.  FIo- 
rimond  do  Uemond.  1.  i.  Antipapesse.' Bale,  art.  Pa- 
pesse.  Note  A. 

»Sarravins,  epist.  138. 

1  liayle  Diet.  Hiator.  Papesse  Jeanne. 
Vol.  II.— 29 


»  Theodoric.  NIem.  de  Priv.  et  Juribus  Imp. 

'  Guilleni.  Hrevin.  de  sept.  Romje  Eccles. 

'  It  was  more  probably  an  ancient  statue  ;  but  be- 
lieved by  Theoderic  of  Niom  to  bo  popo  .loan'.'*,  as  it 
represented  a  woman  and  her  child  ;  and  the  fable  of 
the  she  pope  universally  obtained  in  bis  time. 


226 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Joan. 


The  perforated  chair.    The  fable  of  the  female  pope  invented  by  the  Roman  catholics.  Conjectures  concerning 

the  origin  of  that  fable. 


inscription,  Joan  VIII.  an  English  woman. 
In  Baronius'  time  this  statute  was  still  to 
be  seen  in  the  cathedral  of  Siena ;  but  car- 
dinal Tarugi,  archbishop  of  that  city,  apply- 
ing to  the  grand  duke,  at  his  request  the 
features  were  altered  by  his  royal  highness, 
and  the  statue  of  pope  Joan  was  metamor- 
phosed into  that  of  pope  Zachary;  but  as  all 
knew  that  it  had  once  represented  the  fe- 
male pope,  it  was  broken  or  removed  before 
the  year  1677,  to  abolish  her  very  memory.' 
As  for  the  perforated  chair,  three  chairs 
were  formerly  made  use  of  in  the  installation 
of  the  pope:  The  first  was  of  white  mar- 
ble, stood  in  the  porch  of  the  Lateran 
church,  and  was  not  perforated;  the  other 
two  were  of  porphyry,  were  both  perforated, 
and  they  stood  before  the  chapel  of  St.  Sil- 
vester in  the  same  church.  In  the  first  of 
these  chairs  the  new  pope  was  placed,  after 

'  Pagi,  ad  Ann.  853.  n.  17. 

What  care  was  taken  at  Siena  to  abolish  all  re- 
membrance of  pope  Joan,  as  well  as  of  the  statue  with 
which  she  was  honored  in  the  stately  cathedral  of  that 
city,  will  appear  from  what  happened  to  the  very 
learned  father  Antonius  Pagi,  and  is  related  by  him- 
self: as  he  passed  through  Siena  in  1677,  and  was 
very  desirous  of  being  informed  upon  the  spot  of  every 
particular  relating  to  the  famous  statue  of  the  she 
pope  in  that  cathedral,  he  applied  for  information  to 
the  religious  of  his  own  order,  the  Minorites ;  but  they, 
to  his  great  surprize,  pretended  all  to  a  man  never  to 
have  heard  of  such  a  statue.  Hereupon  Pagi,  finding 
they  avoided,  he  knew  not  why,  entering  upon  the 
subject,  repaired  to  the  cathedral,  and  addressing  most 
of  the  prebendaries  as  they  came  out  of  the  choir  af- 
ter vespers,  told  them,  that  he*wanted  to  see  the  sta- 
tue of  pope  Joan,  and  l)egged  they  would  show  it  him, 
as  it  might  afford  him  some  new  light  to  confute  the 
fable,  and  confound  the  heretics;  but  they  all  walked 
off,  without  so  much  as  deigning  to  return  him  an  an- 
swer. When  they  were  all  gone,  a  man,  advanced  in 
years,  accosting  him,  told  him,  that  he  had  long  be- 
longed to  that  cathedral ;  and  that,  as  it  was  not  to  gra- 
tify his  curiosity,  but,  as  he  understood,  for  the  good 
of  the  church,  he  wanted  to  be  informed  concerning 
the  statue  of  pope  Joan,  he  would  give  him  what  infor- 
mation should  be  thought  necessary  for  so  good  a  pur- 
pose, provided  he  engaged  never  to  discover  the  per- 
son who  had  given  it.  With  this  condition  Pagi  very 
readily  complied  ;  and  thereupon  the  good  old  man 
answered  all  his  questions  to  his  full  satisfaction, 
showed  him  the  place  where  the  statue  had  stood,  told 
him  when  it  was  changed  into  that  of  Zachary,  when 
it  was  removed  ;  namely,  in  the  pontificate  of  Alexan- 
der VII.,  a  native  of  Siena,  &c. —  (Pagi.  ad  Ann.  853. 
n.  17.)  Thus  Pagi;  and  I  cannot  help  observing  here, 
that  the  promise  of  secrecy  insisted  on  by  the  old  man, 
the  clownish  behavior  of  the  dignitaries  of  the  church 
in  one  of  the  most  polite  cities  of  all  Italy,  and  the  shy- 
ness of  the  friars,  averse  to  enter  upon  the  topic  of 
the  female  pope  even  among  themselves,  and  with  a 
very  learned  man  of  their  own  order,  who  they  knew, 
vvould  make  a  good  use  of  the  information  they  should 
give  him,  plainly  show,  that  an  order  had  been  issued, 
no  doubt  by  the  inquisition,  commanding  all  the  in- 
habitants of  Siena  to  observe  a  strict  silence  with  re- 
spect to  pope  Joan  and  her  statue.  And  it  is  not  at  all 
to  be  doubted  but  the  like  order  has  been  lately  issued 
by  the  same  tribunal  in  another  city  of  Italy,  enjoining 
the  inhabitants  to  forbear  all  mention  of  one,  whom  they 
cruelly  tortured  and  racked  to  death.  In  compliance 
with  that  order,  they  must  all  pretend  never  to  have 
heard  of  such  a  man,  as  the  friars  of  Siena  pretended 
never  to  heard  of  the  famous  statue,  which  had  stood  so 
many  years  in  that  cathedral,  and  had  but  a  little  time 
before  been  removed.  But  an  honest  man,  I  trust,  will 
one  day,  be  found  at  Macerata,  as  well  as  at  Siena, 
who  will  speak  the  truth,  to  the  eternal  infamy  of  the 
ministers  of  that  hellish  court,  striving  to  conceal  with 
lying  certificates,  and  lying  attestations,  as  remarkable 
an  instance  of  their  cruelly  and  injustice  as  any  that 
occurs  in  history. 


he  had  been  acknowledged  by  the  cardinals, 
and  while  he  rose  from  it,  the  7th  and  8th 
verses  of  the  113th  psalm  were  sung  in 
Latin,  "Suscitatde  pulvere  egenum,  et  de 
stercore  erigit  pauperem,  &c.,"  and  from 
thence  that  chair  took  the  name  of  stercora- 
ria.  From  that  the  pope  was  attended  by 
the  cardinals  to  the  two  other  chairs;  was 
placed  in  both ;  and,  while  he  sat  in  the  one, 
the  keys  of  the  Lateran  church  were  delivered 
to  him  by  the  prior  of  St.  Laurence,  and  he 
returned  them  to  him  while  he  sat  in  the 
other.  The  reader  will  find  this  ceremony 
described  in  verse  by  a  cardinal,  in  a  poem 
he  wrote  on  the  coronation  of  Boniface  VIII.' 
At  what  time,  or  by  whom  the  use  of  these 
chairs  was  first  introduced,  we  know  not. 
Cencius,  who  wrote  in  the  twelfth  century, 
is  the  first  who  mentions  them,  but  it  is  not 
certain  that  notice  was  taken  by  any  writer 
i  before  the  fifteenth  century  of  the  use  that 
jwas  then  said  to  have  been  made  of  them; 
namely,  to  know  whether  the  person  they 
had  chosen  was  a  man  or  a  woman.  The 
chairs,  especially  the  two  perforated  ones, 
are  thought  by  learned  antiquaries  to  have 
been  used  by  the  Romans  (for  they  are  an- 
cient) in  their  hot  baths;  and  they  are  said 
to  have  been  discovered  in  the  ruins  of  those 
baths.  As  the  placing  of  the  new  chosen 
pope  in  them  confirmed  the  ignorant  people 
in  the  belief  of  the  fable  of  the  she  pope,  it 
was  thought  advisable  to  abolish  that  cere- 
mony, and  it  was  accordingly  abolished  in 
the  sixteenth  century.^ 

The  female  pope  owes  her  existence  and 
her  promotion  to  the  Roman  catholics  them- 
selves ;  for  by  them  that  fable  was  invented, 
was  published  to  the  world  by  their  priests 
:and  monks  before  the  reformation,  and  was 
credited,  upon  their  authority,  even  by  those 
who  were  most  zealously  attached  to  the 
holy  see,  and  among  the  rest  by  St.  Anto- 
ninus, archbishop  of  Florence ;  nor  did  they 
begin  to  confute  it  till  protestants  reproached 
them  with  it,  as  reflecting  great  dishonor  on 
the  see  of  St.  Peter,  .^neas  Silvius,  after- 
wards pope  Pius  II.,  in  the  fifteenth  century, 
was  the  first  that  questioned  the  truth  of  the 
fact,  saying,  "  that  the  story  was  not  cer- 
tain.'"' After  him  Aventinus,  who  was  a 
Lutheran  in  his  heart,  absolutely  denied  it, 
and  many  others  undertook  to  confute  it; 
but  none,  perhaps,  with  better  success  than 
the  two  protestant  writers,  Sarau  and  Blon- 
del,  who  have  alledged  such  reasons  against 
the  existence  of  the  she  pope  as  are  abso- 
lutely unanswerable:  and  indeed,  had  they 
not  been  convinced  themselves  of  the  falsity 
of  the  fact,  no  man  can  think,  that  two  such 
zealous  protestants  would  have  taken  so 
much  pains  to  convince  others. 

Various  conjectures  have  been  offered  by 

»  Cardin.  Jacob,  apud  Holland,  torn.  iv.  Maii,  p.  471. 
^  Mabil.  Mussum  Italic,  part.  i.  p.  159. 
»  Mb.  Sil.  ep.  130. 


Benedict  HI.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


227 


Benedict  chosen  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  855]    The  imperial  envoys  declare  for  Anastasius.    Benedict  is  stripped 

of  the  ensigns  of  his  dignity,  &c. 


those  who  have  thought  it  worth  their  while 
to  inquire  into  the  origin  of  this  fable  :  some 
say,  with  Baronius,  that  John  VIII.,  be- 
trayed so  much  cowardice  in  the  cause  of 
Photius,  as  I  shall  have  occasion  to  relate 
hereafter,  that  it  was  thought  he  should 
rather  be  called  a  woman  than  a  man.  Aven- 
tinus  will  have  the  fable  to  have  taken  its 
rise  from  the  election  of  pope  John  IX., 
raised  to  the  see  by  the  interest  of  Theodora, 
a  noble  and  imperious  courtezan.  Onu- 
phrius  Panvinius  is  of  opinion,  that  Joan 
Rainiere,  another  famous  courtezan,  who 
governed  John  XII.,  as  well  as  the  state. 


with  an  uncontrolled  power,  was  called  in 
raillery  the  she  pope.  Many  other  conjec- 
tures have  been  alledged  concerning  the 
origin  of  a  fable,  that  was  for  so  long  a  time 
and  so  universally  credited;'  but,  as  they 
are  only  conjectures,  I  shall  not  trouble  the 
reader  with  them,  the  story  of  a  female  pope 
being  now  generally,  not  to  say  universally, 
rejected  by  men  of  learning,  whether  pro- 
testants  or  papists,  as  an  event  first  men- 
tioned by  writers  who  flourished  two  hun- 
dred years  at  least  after  the  fact  in  question, 
and  absolutely  irreconcilable  with  indisput- 
able facts  related  by  cotemporary  historians. 


BENEDICT  III.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  THIRD  BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[LoTiiARius,  AND  Lewis  II.,  EmperoTs  of  the  Westt — Michael,  Emperor  of  the  East."] 


[Year  of  Christ,  855.]  In  the  room  of  Leo, 
the  Roman  people,  the  clergy,  and  the  no- 
bility, chose  immediately,  says  Anastasius,' 
and  with  one  consent,  Benedict,  the  third  of 
that  name,  a  native  of  Rome,  the  son  of  one 
Peter,  and  presbyter  of  the  title  of  St.  Callis- 
tus.  He  Avas  at  his  prayers  in  that  church 
when  news  was  brought  him  of  his  elec- 
tion ;  and  thinking  himself  unequal  to  so 
great  a  charge,  he  begged  with  many  tears 
they  would  leave  him  where  they  found  h  im. 
But  the  people,  paying  no  kind  of  regard  to 
his  tears  and  entreaties,  carried  him  in  tri- 
umph to  the  Lateran  church,  and  there 
placed  him,  Avith  loud  acclamations,  on  the 
pontifical  throne.  At  the  same  time  thede- 
cree  of  his  election  was  drawn  up,  was 
signed  by  the  clergy  and  the  nobility,  and 
sent,  in  compliance  with  the  ancient  custom, 
to  the  emperors  Lotharius  and  Lewis.^  But 
those  who  Avere  charged  with  it,  namely,  Ni- 
cholas bishop  of  Anagui,  and  Mercurius,  ma- 
gister  militiae,  being  gained  over  by  Arsenius 
bishop  of  Eugubio,  as  they  passed  through 
that  city,  promised  to  declare,  upon  their  re- 
turn to  Rome,  for  the  presbyter  Anastasius, 
who  had  been  deposed  in  a  council,  and  ex- 
communicated by  the  preceding  pope.'  The 
Roman  deputies,  returning  to  Rome,  were 
soon  followed  by  those  from  the  two  empe- 
rors, sent  to  assist  at  the  ordination  of  the  new 
pope.  But  the  latter  being  met  at  Horta, 
about  forty  miles  from  Rome,  by  the  bishops 
Arsenius,  Nicholas,  and  two  others  ;  name- 
ly, Rodoald  of  Porto,  and  Agatho  of  Todi, 
and  three  captains  of  the  militia,  they  were 
prevailed  upon  by  them  to  abandon  Bene- 
dict, and  side  with  Anastasius.  Of  this 
Benedict  was  no  sooner  informed,  than  he 
dispatched   the   two  bishops  Gregory   and 


'  Anast.  in  Benedict.  III. 
» See  p.  218. 


3  Idem  ibid. 


Maio,  with  letters  to  the  envoys.  But  they, 
paying  no  kind  of  regard  to  the  pope  or  his 
letters,  or  even  to  the  right  of  nations,  order- 
ed, no  doubt  at  the  instigation  of  Anastasius, 
the  two  venerable  prelates  to  be  bound,  and 
strictly  guarded.  Hereupon  Benedict  sent 
Hadrian,  secundicerius  of  the  apostolic  see, 
and  duke  Gregory,  to  meet  the  envoys ;  who, 
in  the  mean  time,  sent  an  order  to  Rome, 
requiring,  in  the  name  of  the  emperors,  the 
clergy,  the  people,  and  the  senate,  to  meet 
them  the  next  day  beyond  Ponte  Molle. 
They  complied  with  the  order;  and  the 
envoys,  attended  by  them,  entered  the 
Leoninecity,  where  Anastasius  pulled  down, 
and  either  burnt  or  broke  in  pieces  the  ima- 
ges that  Leo  had  set  up  there  in  the  church 
of  St.  Peter ;  among  the  rest  an  image  of 
our  Savior,  and  another  of  the  virgin  Mary  ; 
and  effaced  the  representation  of  a  council, 
perhaps  of  the  council  that  deposed  him, 
which  Leo  had  caused  to  be  painted  on  the 
gates  of  that  basilic.  From  the  Leonine  city, 
Anastasius,  advancing  through  Rome  to  the 
Lateran  palace,  and  placing  himself  in  the 
pontifical  throne,  ordered  Benedict  to  be 
stripped  of  the  ensigns  of  his  dignity,  to  be 
cruelly  beaten,  and  to  be  delivered  up  to  the 
two  presbyters  John  and  Hadrian,  whom 
pope  Leo  had  deposed  for  their  crimes.  This 
occasioned  a  general  grief  and  consternation 
among  all  ranks  of  men  :  the  clergy  and  the 
bishops,  who  were  then  in  Rome,  attended 
by  the  people,  repaired  to  the  ^'Emilian 
church,  to  implore  there  the  protection  of 
heaven  at  so  criticat  a  juncture;  but  they 
were  soon  interrupted  by  the  imperial  envoys, 
who,  breaking  into  the  church,  theatened 
them  with  present  death,  if  they  did  not 
acquiesce  in  the  election  of  Anastasius.  The 
bishops  answered  with  great  firmness  and 

>  See  Blondel.  Ecclaircissement.  p.  85,  Sec. 


228 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Benedict  III. 


The  bishops  refuse  to  consecrate  Anastasiiis.  He  is  abandoned  by  the  imperial  envoys,  and  Benedict  conse- 
crated. yEthelwulph,  king  of  the  West  Saxons,  with  his  son  Alfred,  at  Rome.  Presents  sent  by  the  emperor 
Micliael,  to  the  pope.  Letter  of  Lupus,  abbot  of  Ferrieres,  to  the  pope.  Benedict  dies; — [Year  of  Christ,  858.] 


intrepidity,  that  they  would  rather  suffer  a 
thousand  deaths  than  be  any  ways  accessory 
to  the  consecration  of  one  deposed  and  ana- 
thematized by  a  council.  The  envoys,  find- 
ing they  were  not  to  be  frightened  into  a 
compliance,  retired  to  a  room  in  the  basilic ; 
and  having  ordered  the  bishops  of  Ostia  and 
Albano  to  attend  them  there,  they  spared 
neither  threats  nor  promises  to  gain  them 
over  to  the  party  of  Anastasius,  and  prevail 
upon  them  to  perform  the  ceremony  of  his 
consecration.  But  the  two  prelates  not  only 
withstood  both  their  threats  and  their  pro- 
mises, but  had  resolution  enough  to  repri- 
mand the  envoys  for  thinking  them  capable 
of  so  enormous  a  crime  as  that  of  conse- 
crating one,  whom  a  council  had  deposed, 
and  tempting  them  to  it.  The  envoys,  now 
sensible  they  could  not  prevail,  began  to  re- 
lent; and  the  point  being  disputed  on  both 
sides  with  great  warmth,  in  a  conference 
they  had  with  the  bishops  and  the  clergy  in 
the  Lateran  palace,  they  yielded  in  the  end ; 
and,  driving  Anastasius  from  the  palace, 
ordered  Benedict  to  be  set  at  liberty,  and  he 
was,  three  days  after,  carried  in  triumph  to 
the  church  of  St.  Peter,  and  there  ordained 
in  the  presence  of  the  imperial  envoys,  of 
the  bishops,  and  of  the  Roman  people  and 
nobility,  and  acknowledged,  by  all,  even  by 
the  most  zealous  partizans  of  Anastasius,  for 
lawful  pope.  Thus  far  rtie  bibliothecarian  :' 
and,  in  his  account,  one  thing  occurs  worthy 
of  notice;  namely,  that  the  "ancient  cus- 
tom" still  obtained  of  sending  the  decree  of 
the  election  .of  the  new  pope  to  the  emperor, 
and  not  ordaining  him  till  the  emperor  con- 
firmed it,  and  sent  deputies  to  assist  at  his 
ordination;  for  Anastasius  tells  us,  that  it 
was  "  in  compliance  with  such  an  ancient 
custom  that  the  clergy  and  nobility  of  Rome 
signed  the  decree  of  the  election  of  Benedict, 
and  sent  it  to  the  most  invincible  emperors 
Lotharius  and  Lewis."  That  custom,  there- 
fore, was  not  yet  abrogated,  as  is  supposed 
by  Baronius,  pretending  that  the  emperors 
Lotharius  and  Lewis  yielded  to  Leo,  the  im- 
mediate predecessor  of  Benedict,  the  right 
they  claimed  of  confirming  the  election  of 
the  new  pope,  or  interfering  any  ways  in  it. 
Soon  after  the  election  of  Benedict,  ^thel- 
wulph,  king  of  the  west  Saxons,  came  to 
Rome  with  his  son  Alfred,  and  continued 
there  a  whole  year ;  during  which  time,  he 
made  rich  offerings  to  St.  Peter,  whereof 
the  reader  will  find  a  long  catalogue  in 
Anastasius,  and  presents  to  the  clergy,  the 
nobility,  and  the  people."  He  is  likewise  said 
to  have  rebuilt  the  English  school  at  Rome, 
that  had  been  consumed  long  before  by  fire,' 
and  to  have  granted  three  hundred  mancu- 
ses"*  a  year  to  the  bishops  of  Rome,  in  honor 


•  Anast.  in  Benedict.  IH.  »  Idem  ibid. 
»  Polyd.  Virg.  1.  v.  p.  96. 

*  The  Saxon  mancuse  is,  according  to  the  author  of 


of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul.'  As  he  passed 
through  France  on  his  return  to  his  own 
kingdom,  he  married  Judith,  the  daughter 
of  Charles  the  Bald,  and  brought  her  with 
him  into  England.  In  his  absence,  his 
eldest  son  ^thelbald  usurped  the  crown ; 
but  as  the  Danes  had  already  committed 
dreadful  ravages  in  his  dominions,  and 
threatened  them  with  a  new  invasion, 
iEthelwulph  chose  rather  to  compound  with 
the  usurper,  than  to  kindle  a  Avar,  at  so  criti- 
cal a  juncture,  rn  the  bowels  of  the  kingdom ; 
and  he  contented  himself  accordingly  with 
the  eastern  provinces,  that  is,  with  Kent, 
Sussex,  and  Surry,  and  left  his  son  in  the 
quiet  possession  of  the  rest.  yEthelwulph 
is  greatly  commended  by  the  monkish 
writers  for  his  piety,  that  is,  for  his  prodi- 
gahty  in  enriching  the  church  at  the  ex- 
pense of  his  subjects ;  but  he  would  have 
better  deserved  the  commendations  they  be- 
stowed on  him,  if,  instead  of  undertaking  so 
long  a  journey  to  visit  the  pretended  tombs 
of  the  apostles,  and  staying  so  long  abroad, 
he  had  not  stirred  from  home,  where  his 
presence  was  necessary  to  repulse  the 
Danes,  now  become  a  very  a  troublesome 
and  formidable  enemy,  but  employed  in  the 
defence  of  his  people  the  wealth  he  squander- 
ed away  upon  the  priests,  the  saints,  and 
holy  places  at  Rome. 

The  following  year  Michael,  emperor  of 
the  east,  hearing  of  the  election  of  Benedict, 
dispatched  to  Rome  one  Lazarus,  a  monk, 
and  skillful  painter,  to  congratulate,  in  his 
name,  the  new  pope  upon  his  promotion. 
By  this  monk  the  emperor  sent  many  valuable 
presents  to  St.  Peter,  and  among  the  rest  the 
book  of  the  Gospels  covered  with  pure 
gold,  and  a  golden  chalice,  both  enriched 
with  precious  stones  of  various  kinds.'^ 

The  same  year  the  pope  received  a  letter 
from  Lupus,  abbot  of  Ferrieres,  a  man  greatly 
esteemed  in  this  age,  recommending  to  his 
holiness  two  monks  of  his  monastery,  who 
had  undertaken  a  pilgrimage  to  the  tombs 
of  the  apostles,  and  begging  him  to  instruct 
thera  in  the  practices  and  customs  of  the 
Roman  church,  and  to  send  him  by  them, 
upon  their  return,  the  following  books — the 
commentaries  of  St.  Jerom  upon  Jeremiah, 
from  the  sixth  book  to  the  end  ;  Cicero  de 
Oraiore ;  the  twelve  books  of  (iuintilian's  In- 
stitutions ;  and  the  commentary  upon  Te- 
rence ;  which  books,  he  says,  he  cannot  pro- 
cure in  France,  and  will  send  back  to  his 
holiness  as  soon  as  transcribed.'' 

The  pope  died  the  8th  of  April,  858,  ha- 
ving governed  the  Roman  see  two  years, 
six  months  and  ten  days.  He  was  chosen, 
indeed,  a  few  days  after  the  death  of  Leo, 

the  Thesaurus  Septentrionalis,  equal  in  value  to  three 
half-crowns  of  our  money. 

>  Asser.  Annal.  ad  Ann.  855. 

a  Anast.  ibid.  a  Lupus,  ep.  103. 


Nicholas.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


229 


Benedict's  letters  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  858.]     Nicholas  chosen.     The  first  pope  that  was  crowned.  How  honored 
by  the  emperor  Lewis.  The  church  of  Bremen  subjected  to  that  of  Hamburg  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  859.] 

which  happened  on  the  17ih  of  July,  855,  in  person  before  the  apostolic  see,  on  pain 

but  he  was  not  ordained  till  the  29lh  of  Sep-  of  being  excluded  from  the  company  of  the 

tember,  of  the  same  year.     Of  this  pope  two  faithful.'     Two  other  letters  are  ascribed  to 

letters  have  reached  our  times;  the  one  to  this  pope;  the  one  confirming  the  privileges 

Hincmar,  of  Reims,  confirming  the  acts  of  of  the  abbey  of  Corbie,  and  the  other  those  of 

the  second  council  of  Soissons,  which  Leo,  the  abbey  of  St.  Denis:     But  some  questiou 

his  predecessor  had  refused  to  confirm,  as  the  genuineness  of  these  letters.     Benedict 

those  who  were  condemned  by  that  council  was  buried  in  the  Vatican,  whither  his  body, 

had  appealed  to  Rome;'  the  other  is  a  letter  attended  by  the  bishops,  and  all  the  clergy, 

to  the  bishops  of  the  kingdom  of  Charles  the  was  carried  by  the  deacons,  among  whom 

Bald,    wherein   he  enumerates    the    many  was  his  immediate  successor,  on  their  shoul- 

crimes  that  a  subdeacon,  named  Hubert,  the  ders,  and  placed  by  them  in  the  grave,  pur 

son  of  count  Boso,  was  accused  of;  namely,  suant  to  an  ancient  custom  which  he  had 

of  murder,  of  adultery,  of  fornication,  of  revived,  ordering  all  bishops,  presbyters,  and 

spending  his  whole  time  in  the  company  of  deacons,  to  assist  at  the  funerals,  and  pray 

actresses,  and  other  lewd  women,  of  seizing  for  the  souls  of  their  deceased  brethren.   He 

on  the  goods  of  the  monastery  of  St.  Mau-  enriched  the  churches  of  Rome  with  many 

rice,  in  defiance  of  the  privileges  granted  to  presents  of  great  value,  which  Anastasius 

that  monastery  by  the  apostolic  see;  of  vio-  has  taken  care  to  enumerate,  telling  us  that 

lently    breaking    into    another    monastery,  he  was  no  less  generous  to  the  poor,  to  the 

which  no  woman  had  ever  been  allowed  to  destitute  orphans  and  widows,  than  he  was 

set   foot  in,  and  rioting  there,  for  several  to  the  clergy  and  the  churches.     He  is  said 

days  together,  with    prostitutes.  Sec.     The  to  have  been  blessed  with  a  sweetness  of 

pope  requires  the  subdeacon,  by  virtue  of  temper  that  endeared  him  to  all ;  and  he  is 

his  apostolic  authority,  to  appear  at  Rome  commended  on  that  account  even  by  Photius 

within  the  space  of  thirty  days  after  the  re-  of  Constantinople,  though  a  sworn  enemy 

ceipt  of  his  letter,  in  order  to  plead  his  cause  ,  to  the  apostolic  see.^ 


NICHOLAS,  THE  HUNDKED  AND  EOURTH  BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[Michael  and  Basilius,  Emperors  of  the  East. — Lewis  H.  Emperor  of  the  West."] 


[Year  of  Christ  858.]  Benedict  was  suc- 
ceeded by  Nicholas,  a  native  of  Rome,  the 
son  of  Theodore,  and  deacon  of  the  Roman 
church.  The  clergy,  the  nobility,  and  the 
people,  chose  him,  with  one  consent,  a  few 
days  after  the  decease  of  his  predecessor,  and 
carrying  him,  by  force,  from  the  basilic  of 
St.  Peter,  where  he  had  concealed  himself 
to  avoid  being  chosen,  to  the  Lateran  palace, 
placed  him  there  on  the  apostolic  throne. 
The  emperor  Lewis  had  left  Rome  a  little 
time  before  the  death  of  Benedict ;  but  he  no 
sooner  heard  of  it,  than  he  returned  to  that 
city,  and  there  assisted  in  person  at  the  con- 
secration of  the  new  pope.  That  ceremony 
was  performed,  according  to  custom,  in  the 
basilic  of  St.  Peter,  on  the  24th  of  April,  8.58, 
after  the  see  had  been  vacant  fifteen  days; 
and  from  thence  the  pope  was  carried  back 
to  the  Lateran  church,  and  there  crowned, 
amidst  the  loud  acclamations  of  the  Roman 
people.*  The  ceremony  of  crowning  the 
pope  was,  it  seems,  first  introduced  at  this 
time  ;  no  notice,  at  least,  has  been  hitherto 
taken  of  it  by  Anastasius,  or  any  other  an- 
cient writer.  The  emperor,  having  enter- 
tained the  pope  at  dinner  the  third  day  after 
his  election,  retired  from  Rome  to  a  place  in 


>  Benedict.  IH.  ep.  1.  torn.  iii.  CodcU.  Gal. 
3  Anast.  in  Nichol.  I. 


the  neighborhood,  called  Q,uintus  ;  and  being 
informed  while  he  staid  there,  that  the  pope, 
attended  by  the  Roman  nobility,  was  coming 
to  visit  him,  he  not  only  went  out  to  meet 
him,  but,  dismounting  as  he  approached, 
took  hold  of  his  bridle,  and,  forgetful  of  his 
dignity,  led  his  horse  the  distance  of  a  bow- 
shot on  foot,  and  did  so  again  at  their  part- 
ing.3  The  state  that  the  popes  afterwards 
took  upon  them,  was  chiefly  owing  to  these 
and  such-like  marks  of  extraordinary  respect 
shown  them  by  superstitious  and  bigoted 
kings  and  emperors ;  for.  elated  therewith, 
they  began  to  look  upon  themselves  as  lords 
of  the  universe,  and  upon  the  princes  of  the 
earth  as  their  vassals. 

The  first  thing  I  find  recorded  of  this  pope 
is  his  confirming  the  union  of  the  churches 
of  Hamburgh  and  Bremen.  As  Hamburgh 
had  been  made  an  archiepiscopal  see  in  the 
time  of  Gregory  IV.,  but  had  no  suffragans, 
Lewis,  king  of  Germany,  thought  of  sub- 
jecting to  it  the  see  of  Bremen ;  and  he  did 
so  accordingly,  upon  the  death  of  Leuderic, 
the  third  bishop  of  that  city.  This  change 
met  at  first  with  no  opposition,  the  archie- 
piscopal see  of  Cologne,  to  which  that  of 

«  Benedict,  ep.  2.  torn.  iii.  Concil.  Gal. 
"  Phot,  de  Process.  Spirit.  Sancti. 
»  Anast.  in  Nichol.  I. 

u 


230 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Nicholas. 


The  empress  Theodora  confined  to  a  monastery.     Ignatius  of  Constantinople  driven  from  his  see,  and  sent 
into  exile.     Photius  raised  to  the  patriarchal  see  in  his  room. 

Bremen  was  suffragan,  being  then  vacant. 
But  Gunihier,  the  new  archbishop,  remon- 
strating against  it  as  soon  as  he  was  chosen, 
the  king,  and  the  bishops  of  his  kingdom  as- 
sembled in  council  at  Mentz,  applied  to  him 
for  his  approbation  and  consent.  Gunthier 
referred  the  whole  affair  to  the  pope ;  and 
his  holiness  not  only  confirmed  the  change 
of  jurisdiction,  but  appointed  Anscharius, 
then  archbishop  of  Hamburgh,  legate  of  the 
apostolic  see  to  the  Swedes,  the  Danes,  the 
Sclavi,  and  the  other  northern  nations.' 

The  deposition  of  Ignatius,  patriarch  of 
Constantinople,  and  intrusion  of  Photius 
that  happened  in  this  or  in  the  preceding 
year,  engaged,  above  all  things,  the  attention 
of  the  new  pope,  as  the  disturbances  that 
arose  from  thence,  and  divided  the  eastern 
bishops  into  two  opposite  parties,  gave  him 
an  opportunity  of  exerting  the  power  and 
authority  claimed  by  his  predecessors  over 
that  patriarchal  and  rival  see.  Ignatius,  ori- 
ginally, called  Nicetas,  was  the  third  son  of 
the  emperor  Michael,  surnamed  Rhangabe; 
but  being  obliged  by  Leo,  the  Armenian, 
when  he  drove  his  father  from  the  throne,  to 
take  the  monastic  habit,  he  exchanged  on 
that  occasion  the  name  of  Nicetas  for  that  of 
Ignatius,  and  lived  retired  in  the  islands  of 
Hyatros  and  Terebinthus,  which  he  is  said 
to  have  peopled  with  monks,  till  the  year 
846,  when  he  was  raised  to  the  patriarchal 
see  by  the  interest  of  Theodora,  guardian  to 
her  son  Michael,  the  present  emperor,  and 
sister  to  Bardas.^  This  man  Ignatius  had 
frequently  reprimanded,  with  the  liberty  be- 
coming a  person  of  his  character  and  station, 
for  divorcing  his  own  wife,  and  living  pub- 
licly with  his  brother's,  and  even  refused 
him  the  eucharist,  as  he  came  to  receive  it 
on  the  day  of  the  Epiphany  with  the  other 
officers  of  the  crown.  This  Bardas  highly 
resented ;  but  sensible  that  he  could  not 
wreak  his  vengeance  upon  the  patriarch  till 
Theodora,  his  great  friend  and  protectress, 
was  removed,  he  undertook,  in  the  first  place, 
to  estrange  the  mind  of  the  emperor  from 
her,  painting  her  to  him  as  a  woman  of  an 
unbounded  ambition  and  restless  temper  ;  as 
one  who  engrossed  the  whole  power  to  her- 
self, and  seemed  determined  never  to  part 
with  it.  He,  therefore,  advised  him  to  shake 
off  at  last  the  female  yoke,  to  take  the  reins 
of  the  government  into  his  own  hands,  and 
to  cause  his  imperious  mother  and  his  sis- 
ters, who  would  lay  hold  of  every  opportu- 
nity to  disturb  him  in  the  exercise  of  his  so- 
vereign authority,  to  be  shaved  and  veiled  in 
a  monastery.  The  emperor,  jealous  of  his 
power,  and  suspecting  no  evil  design  in 
Bardas,  hearkened  to  his  advice;  and  send- 
ing immediately  for  the  patriarch,  ordered 


»  Rembert.  vit.  Anschar.  c.  30.  36.  et  Annal.  Fuldens. 
ad  Ann.  857. 

^  Nicetas  in  vit.  Santi  Ignat.  torn.  viii.  Concil.  p. 
1180,  &  seq. 


[  him  to  consecrate  on  the  spot  his  mother  and 
:  his  sisters  to  a  religious  life  ;  it  being  his  will 
I  and  pleasure  that  they  should  spend  the  rest 
!  of  their  days  in  a  monastery.  The  patriarch, 
surprised  at  such  a  proposal,  remonstrated 
against  it  as  repugnant  to  the  canons,  for- 
bidding any  to  be  consecrated  to  a  religious 
life  against  their  will,  and  absolutely  refused 
to  perform  the  ceremony.  The  emperor, 
impatient  to  get  rid  of  his  mother  and  his 
sisters,  was  highly  provoked  at  the  refusal 
of  the  patriarch;  and  Bardas,  not  to  let  slip 
so  favorable  an  opportunity  of  compassing 
his  ruin,  took  care  to  incense  the  emperor 
still  more  against  him,  pretending  that  he 
had  encouraged  one  Gebus,  a  rebel,  who, 
giving  out  that  he  was  the  son  of  Theodora 
by  another  husband,  had  gained  by  that 
means  many  followers.  The  charge  was 
quhe  groundless ;  but  the  emperor  believing, 
or  pretending  to  believe  it,  ordered  the  pa- 
triarch to  be  forthwith  driven  from  the  patri- 
archal palace,  and  transported  to  the  island 
of  Terebinthus,  where  he  had  lived  before 
his  election.  He  had  not  been  three  days 
in  the  place  of  his  exile,  when  the  emperor 
sent  first  some  of  the  leading  men  among 
the  bishops,  and  a  few  days  after  some  of 
the  patrician  order,  and  the  chief  judges,  to 
persuade  him  to  resign  in  due  form  the  pa- 
triarchal dignity ;  but  though  they  could 
neither  by  threats  nor  by  promises  prevail 
upon  him  to  comply,  they  nevertheless  de- 
clared him  lawfully  deposed  ;  and  Photius, 
then  a  layman,  was  chosen  in  his  room.' 

Photius  was  descended  of  an  illustrious 
family ;  had  discharged  the  first  employ- 
ments of  the  empire  with  uncommon  ap- 
plause ;  was  universally  looked  upon  as  a 
man  of  extraordinary  abilities,  as  a  consum- 
mate statesman,  as  the  best  skilled  of  all  his 
contemporaries  in  grammar,  in  poetry,  in 
oratory,  in  philosophy,  nay,  and  in  physic; 
and  thought  to  rival  the  ancients  themselves 
in  every  branch  of  literature.  As  his  ambi- 
tion and  love  of  glory  knew  no  bounds,  he 
had  likewise  applied  himself  to  the  study  of 
ecclesiastical  matters,  aspiring  at,  and  not 
despairing  of  being  one  day  able  to  attain  to 
the  patriarchal  dignity  in  the  imperial  city. 
To  that  high  station  he  was  raised  by  the 
interest  of  Bardas;  who  now  had  none  to 
share  with  him  the  power,  and  the  empe- 
ror's favor,  Theodora  and  her  daughters 
having  been  veiled  by  one  of  the  bishops  of 
the  court,  and  shut  up  in  a  monastery.  As 
Photius  was  a  layman  at  the  time  of  his  elec- 
tion, and  the  canons  required  all  ecclesias- 
tics to  rise  by  degrees,  he  was  the  first  day 
made  a  monk;  the  second,  reader ;  the  third, 
subdeacon;  thefourth,  deacon;  the  fifth,  pres- 
byter, and  the  sixth,  he  was  consecrated  pa- 
triarch by  Gregory,  surnamed  Arbesta,  bi- 


1  Nicetas  in  vit.  Santi  Ignat.  tom.  viii.  Concil.  p. 
1180,  &.  seq. 


Nicholas.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


231 

-[Year  of  Christ,  860/] 


Ignatius  treated  witli  great  cruelty. 


He  is  excommunicated  and  deposed  in  a  council  ;- 
Fliotius  applies  to  the  pope. 


shop  of  Syracuse,  whom  the  patriarch  Igna- 
tius had  deposed  in  a  council  for  his  irregu- 
lar conduct.' 

The  expulsion  of  Ignatius,  and  intrusion 


dignity  ;  and  they  accordingly  excommuni- 
cated and  deposed  him.  This  council  was 
held  in  the  church  of  the  holy  apostles;  and 
in  that  of  Irene  was  held  another  at  the  same 


of  Photius,  occasioned  great  disturbances  in  j  time  by  the  bishops  of  the  party  of  Ignatius 


the  eastern  churches,  especially  in  the  patri 
archate  of  Constantinople,  some  of  tliose 
bishops  acknowledging  the  one,  and  some 
the  other.  They  who  acknowledged  Pho- 
tius insisted  upon  a  promise  from  him  in 
writing,  that  he  would  not  molest  or  perse- 
cute the  deposed  patriarch  ;  but,  on  the  con- 
trary, honor  and  lespect  him  as  his  father. 
But  he  was  scarce  warm  in  the  patriarchal 
chair,  when,  unmindful  of  his  promise,  he 
raised  a  most  furious  persecution  against  his 
rival,  and  the  bishops  who  adhered  to  him, 
as  well  as  liis  other  friends,  pretending  they 
had  conspired  against  the  state,  but,  in  truth, 
to  oblige  Ignatius  by  that  means  to  resign 
his  dignity.  Under  that  pretence,  his  friends 
were  seized,  were  cruelly  beaten,  and  con- 
fined to  the  most  inhospitable  places  of  the 
empire.  One  of  them,  by  name  Basilius, 
who  spoke  with  more  freedom  than  the  rest, 
had  his  tongue  cut  out,  and  was  otherwise 
used  with  the  utmost  barbarity.  Ignatius 
himself  met  with  no  better  treatment  than 
his  friends :  he  was  most  inhumanly  beaten, 
without  any  regard  to  his  character,  or  his 
high  birth,  was  loaded  with  irons  like  a  com- 
mon malefactor,  and  thus  carried  from  the 
island  of  Terebinthus,  where  he  lived  in  a 
most  magnificent  monastery  built  by  the 
emperor  his  father,  to  several  abandoned 
places,  and  lastly  to  Mitylene,  and  there 
strictly  guarded.^ 

In  the  mean  time,  such  of  the  metropoli- 
tans, and  other  bishops,  as  were  the  moet 
zealously  attached  to  Photius,  meeting  in  a 
council  at  Constantinople,  Ignatius  was  by 
them  declared  unworthy  of  the  patriarchal 


'  Nicetas   in  vit.   Santi   Ignat.  torn.  viii.  Concil.  p. 
IISO,  &  seq. 

Photinus  thought  he  should  thus  avoid  the  imputa- 
tion of  being  raised  to  the  episcopal  dignity,  without 
passing  through  the  inferior  orders  of  the  church,  as 
was  required  by  the  canons,  especially  by  the  tenth 
canon  of  the  council  of  Sardica.  And  this  is,  perhaps, 
the  first  instance  that  occurs  in  history  of  such  a  prac- 
tice; for,  in  the  preceding  ages,  when  a  layman  was, 
in  case  of  necessity,  or  on  account  of  his  extraordinary 
merit,  preferred  to  the  episcopacy,  he  did  not  receive 
one  order  one  day,  and  another  the  next,  &.C.,  but  was 
ordained  bishop  at  once.  Photius  really  passed  through 
all  the  inferior  degrees  to  the  episcopal  ordination  ;  hut 
nevertheless  pope  Nicholas  declared  his  ordination 
uncanonical,  as  his  passing  through  them  in  the  man- 
ner he  did,  no  ways  answered  the  end  of  the  canon, 
which  was,  that,  in  every  order,  a  man  should  give 
some  proof  of  his  faith  and  good  conversation.  How- 
ever, the  custom  introduced  by  Photius,  and  con- 
demned by  pope  Nicholas  and  for  a  long  time  by  his 
successors,  now  obtains  in  the  church  of  Rome  ;  for 
though  that  church,  to  avoid  a  breach  of  the  canons, 
never  confers  all  the  orders  at  once,  nor  on  so  many 
following  days,  lest  she  should  be  thought  to  have 
adopted  a  practice  brought  into  the  church  by  Photius, 
and  so  much  inveighed  against  by  one  of  the  greatest 
of  her  bishops;  yet  she  confers  them  on  so, many  fol- 
lowing Sundays,  by  as  manifest  a  breach  of  the  ca- 
nons, as  if  she  conferred  them  all  at  once,  or  on  so 
many  following  days. 
»  Nicet.  in  vit,  Santi  Ignat.  torn.  8.  Concil.  p.  1180,  &c. 


and  they,  in  theirturn, condemned  Photius  as 
an  intruder  into  the  patriarchal  see.'  Photius, 
finding  the  bishops  thus  divided,  resolved  to 
apply  to  the  pope,  and  get  his  election,  by 
some  means  or  other,  approved  by  him. 
With  this  view,  he  persuaded  the  emperor 
to  send  a  solemn  embassy  to  Rome,  and  en- 
treat his  holiness  to  dispatch  legates  into  the 
east,  in  order  to  restore  there,  jointly  with 
hiin,  the  decayed  discipline,  and  utterly 
extirpate  the  heresy  of  the  Iconoclasts,  that 
began  to  spring  up  anew.  This  embassy, 
he  knew,  would  be  acceptable  to  the  pope  ; 
and  he  flattered  himself  that  he  should  be 
able  to  prevail  on  the  legates  to  confirm  his 
election.  Photius  sent  at  the  same  time 
four  bishops,  in  his  own  name,  to  acquaint 
the  pope,  that  Ignatius  had  resigned  the 
patriarchal  dignity  on  account  of  his  age 
and  infirmities;  that,  upon  his  resignation, 
he  had  retired  to  a  monastery  in  an  island, 
where  the  greatest  respect  was  shown  him 
both  by  the  emperor  and  the  people ;  that  the 
clergy  and  the  metropolitans  had  unanimous- 
ly chosen  him  to  fill  the  vacant  see,  and 
forced  him,  jointly  with  the  emperor,  to  ac- 
cept of  a  charge,  to  which  he  knew  himself 
to  be  altogether  unequal.^  "  When  I  re- 
flect," says  he  in  his  letter,  "  on  the  great- 
ness of  the  episcopal  dignity,  on  the  weak- 
ness of  man,  and  my  own  in  particular,  and 
recollect,  that  to  me  it  had  always  been  mat- 
ter of  the  greatest  astonishment  that  any 
one,  liable  to  the  infirmities  of  human  nature, 
should  take  upon  him  so  tremendous  a 
charge,  I  cannot  express  the  concern  I  am 
under  at  my  being  obliged  to  take  that  very 
charge  upon  myself.  But  the  clergy,  the 
metropolitans,  and  the  emperor,  kind  to  all, 
and  cruel  to  me  alone,  have  laid  so  heavy  a 
burden  upon  me,  without  hearkening  to  my 
entreaties,  or  being  affected  with  my  tears." 
The  pope  received  the  imperial  ambassa- 
dors, of  whom  the  chief  was  Arsa  the  pro- 
tospatharius  who  brought  many  rich  pre- 
sents for  St.  Peter,^  and  likewise  the  Apro- 
crisarii  or  legates  of  Photius,  in  the  church 
of  St.  Mary  ad  Pra;sepe,  now  St.  Mary  the 
Greater;  and  being  informed  by  them  of  the 
deposition  of  Ignatius,  and  ordination  of 
Photius,  he  resolved,  with  the  advice  of  a 
council,  which  he  assembled  on  that  occa- 
sion, to  send  legates  to  Constantinople,  in 
compliance  with  the  request  of  the  emperor  ; 
and  the  two  bishops,  Rodoald  of  Porto,  and 
Zachary  of  Anagni,  were  named  for  that 
legation.  Their  instructions  were  to  con- 
form to  the  decree  of  the  seventh  council  in 


'  Epist,  Metroph.  apud  Baron,  ad  Ann.  870. 
'  Nicetas,  ubi  supra.  Anast,  in  hist.  Synod.  8.  Metro- 
pban.  ubi  sup.  '  Anast.  in  Nicol. 


232 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Nicholas. 


The  pope's  letter  to  the  emperor.     His  letter  to  Photius.     His  legates  ill  used  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  861.]     Ac- 
knowledges Photiua.     A  council  assembled,  and  Ignatius  summoned  to  it. 


what  they  should  determine  or  define  con-  '  present  year  860.  I  cannot  help  observing 
cerning  the  article  of  images  ;  but  as  the  here,  that  in  the  confession  of  faith,  which 
pope  had  not  heard  from  Ignatius  himself,  Pholius  sent  to  Rome,  and  the  pope  received 
they  Avere  ordered  only  to  procure  the  neces-  as  altogether  orthodox,  it  is  said,  that  the 
sary  informations  relating  to  his  affair,  and  sixth  council  rejected  or  condemned  pope 
10  refer  the  final  decision  to  the  judgment  of  I  Honorius,  and  all  who  held  and  taught  with 
the  apostolic  see.  1  him   the   impious   doctrine  of  one  will  in 

The  pope  wrote  by  the  legates  both  to  the  Christ,  and  one  operation  :  A  plain  proof 
emperor  and  to  Photius.  In  his  letter  to  the  that  it  was  not  yet  thought  heterodox  by  the 
emperor,  he  complains  of  their  having  de-    pope  himself  for  a  man  to  believe  him  capa- 


posed  Ignatius  without  consulting  the  aposto- 
lic see,  and  appointed  a  layman  in  his  room, 
in  defiance  of  the  canons  of  the  church,  and 
the  decrees  of  the  Roman  pontiffs ;  declares 
that  he  cannot  approve  of  the  ordination  of 
Photius,  till  his  legates  have  informed  him 
of  every  particular  concerning  it ;  will  have 
Ignatius  to  appear  in  person  before  his  le- 
gates and  the  whole  council,  that  they  may 
learn  from  himself  the  reason  why  he  has 
forsaken  his  flock,  and  at  the  same  time  in- 
quire, whether  his  deposition  has  been  in 
every  respect  agreeable  to  the  canons.  When 
a  true  and  faithful  report,  says  the  pope, 
shall  be  made  to  us  of  these,  and  other  cir- 
cumstances   attending    his    deposition,    we 
shall  thereupon  determine  what  shall  seem 
to  us  most  conducive  to  the  peace  and  tran- 
quillity of  your  church.     In  the  next  place, 
he  recommends  to  the  emperor  the  worship 
of  images  as  agreeable  to  Scripture  ;  entreats 
him  to  restore  the  patrimonies  of  the  Roman 
see  in  Sicily  and  Calabria,  which   his  pre- 
decessors had  seized,  and  with  them  the  au- 
thority and  jurisdiction  which  the  preceding 
popes  had  exercised,  by  the  bishop  of  Thes- 
salonica  their  vicar,  over  old  and  new  Epi- 
rus.  Illy  ricum,  Macedonia,  Thessaly.Achaia, 
both  Dacias,  Mysia,  Dardania,  and  Prseva- 
lis  ;  begs  he  will  allow  the  bishop  of  Syra- 
cuse to  be  thenceforth  ordained,  according  to 
ancient  custom,  by  the  Roman  pontiffs ;  and 
closes  his  letter  with  a  warm  recommenda- 
tion of  the  two  legates.'     The  direction  of 
the  letter  was,  "Nicholas,  bishop,  servant  of 
the  servants   of  God,   to   his   beloved  son 
Michael,  glorious  emperor  of  the  Greeks." 

The  pope,  in  his  letter  to  Photius,  owns 
his  belief  to  be  altogether  orthodox,  for  Pho- 
tius had  sent  him  a  confession  of  his  faith ; 
but  expresses  no  small  concern  at  the  irregu- 
larity of  his  ordination,  in  being  raised  from 
the  condition  of  a  layman  to  the  dignity  of  a 
patriarch,  by  a  manifest  breach  of  the  ca- 
nons, and  the  decrees  of  the  holy  Roman 
pontiffs  Leo,  Celestine,  and  Gelasius ;  and 
he  therefore  tells  him,  that  he  cannot  ap- 
prove of  his  ordination,  till  the  legates  he  is 
upon  the  point  of  sending  to  Constantinople 
have  informed  him  of  his  manners,  of  his 
behaviour,  and  his  attachment  to  the  doc 


ble  of  erring,  and  even  of  teaching  heretical 
doctrines. 

With  the  two  above  mentioned  letters  the 
legates  set  out  for  Constantinople,  not  doubt- 
ing but  they  should  meet  with  a  favorable 
reception  from  the   emperor,  at  whose  re- 
quest they  were  sent.  But  Michael  no  sooner 
understood  that  the  pope  had  not  acknow- 
ledged Photius,  and  that  the  legates  were  to 
communicate  with  him  only  as  a  layman, 
than  he  ordered  them  to  be   confined,  and 
carefully   kept  from    conversing,   or    even 
speaking,  with  any  but  their  own  people, 
lest  the  friends  of  Ignatius  should  inform 
them  of  the  true  state  of  affairs,  and  they  the 
pope.     When  they  had  been   thus  closely 
confined,  and  strictly  guarded,  for  the  space 
of  an  hundred  days,  the  emperor  sent  one 
to  let  them  know  that  he  was  determined,  if 
they  did  not  comply  and  acknowledge  Pho- 
tius, to  banish  them  to  the  most  abandoned 
and  barren  places  of  the  empire,  where  hun- 
ger would  oblige  them  to  feed  upon  their 
own   vermin.'     The  legates,  terrified  with 
these  menaces,  and  at  the  same  time  tempt- 
ed with  the  promise  of  great  rewards,  yield- 
ed in  the  end,  acknowledged  Photius,  and 
engaged  to  exert  all  their  interest  and  credit 
in  his  favor.     Hereupon  a  council  was  as- 
sembled, near  as  numerous  as  the  emperor 
boasted  in  one  of  his  letters  to   the  pope, 
as  the  great  council  of  Nice,  at  which  were 
present  three  hundred  and  eighteen  bishops. 
This  council  was  held  in  the  spacious  church 
of  the  holy  apostles,  at  Constantinople,  the 
emperor  assisting  at  it  in  person,  with  the 
pope's  legates,  and  all  the  great  officers  of 
the  crown.     When  they  were  all  met,  mes- 
sengers were  sent  to  summon  Ignatius,  who 
had  been   recalled   from   exile,   to   appear, 
without  delay,  before  the  great  and  holy 
synod,  and    answer    the    several    charges 
brought  against  him.     But  Ignatius  asking 
them  whether  he  was  to  appear  as  a  bishop, 
as  a  presbyter,  or  as  a  monk,  they  were  at 
a  loss  what  answer  to  return ;  and  therefore 
telling  him  that  they  should  let  him  know 
the  next  day,  they  went  back  to  those  who 
sent  them,  and  coming  again,  summoned 
him  a  second  time,  in  the  name  of  Zachary 
and  Rodoald,  the  pope's  legates,  to  appear 


trine  of  the  church.2     These  letters  are  bothj  before   the   council   in   the   habit    that    he 


dated  the  25th  of  September,  no  doubt  of  the 


<  Nicol.  ep.  2.  torn.  iii.  Epist.  Roman.  Pontif 
a  Ibid.  ep.  3 


thought  he  could  take  in  conscience.     At- 
tiring himself  therefore  as  patriarch,  he  ad- 

« Nichol.  ep.  R, 


Nicholas.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


233 


Ignatius'  behavior  in  the  council.    He  appeals  to  the  pope.    He  is  deposed  by  the  council,  and  treated  with 

great  barbarity  by  Pbotius. 


vanced,  thus  attired,  towards  the  place 
where  the  council  sat,  attended  by  some 
bishops  and  clerks,  and  a  great  number  of 
monks  and  laymen.  But  being  met  in  his 
way  by  a  patrician,  whom  the  emperor  had 
sent  to  threaten  him  with  death,  if  he  pre- 
sumed to  appear  in  any  other  habit  but  that 
of  a  monk,  he  quitted  the  patriarchal  robes, 
and  appeared  before  the  council  only  as  a 
monk.  Upon  his  entering  the  assembly,  he 
was  received  by  the  emperor  with  most  op- 
probrious language;  but,  taking  no  notice  of 
it,  he  begged  leave  to  speak  to  Zachary  and 
Rodoald ;  and  having  obtained  it,  asked  them 
who  they  were?  and  what  they  were  come 
for?  They  answered,  that  they  were  the  le- 
gates of  pope  Nicholas,  who  had  sent  them  to 
judge  his  cause.  He  then  desired  to  know 
whether  they  had  brought  letters  from  his 
holiness  to  him.  The  legates  answered  they 
had  not,  because  they  did  not  look  upon 
him  as  a  patriarch,  but  as  one  who  had  been 
deposed  by  the  synod  of  his  province,  and 
should  therefore  proceed  according  to  the 
canons.  If  so,  replied  Ignatius,  begin  with 
driving  out  the  adulterer:  If  you  cannot  do 
that  you  cannot  be  judges.  He  commands 
us,  the  legates  answered,  pointing  to  the 
emperor,  to  be  judges.  In  the  mean  time, 
the  metropolitans  who  adhered  to  Photius, 
jointly  with  the  ministers  of  state,  left  no- 
thing unattempted  to  extort  from  Ignatius  a 
resignation  of  his  dignity.  But,  as  he  with- 
stood both  their  threats  and  their  promises, 
declaring  with  great  firmness  and  intrepidity 
that  he  would  never  yield  to  another  the 
church  that  had  been  committed  to  his  care, 
the  council  was  adjourned. 

At  their  next  meeting  they  sent  two  mes- 
sengers to  Ignatius,  the  one  a  deacon,  the 
other  a  layman,  to  let  him  know  they  were 
met  again,  and  order  him,  in  the  name  of 
the  great  and  oecumenical  council,  to  appear 
before  them.  With  that  order  he  refused  to 
comply,  declaring  that  he  did  not  acknow- 
ledge those  for  his  judges,  meaning  the  le- 
gates, who,  instead  of  driving  out  the  intru- 
der, lived  in  great  intimacy  and  friendship 
with  him,  feasted  daily  at  his  table,  and  had 
not  even  been  ashamed  to  accept  of  his  pre- 
sents; that  he  therefore  appealed  to  the  pope 
and  submitted  to  his  judgment,  being  autho- 
rized therein  by  the  fourth  canon  of  the 
council  of  Sardica.  At  the  same  time  he 
told  the  messengers,  that  they  who  sent 
them  knew  not  the  laws  of  the  church;  that, 
by  those  laws,  an  accused  bishop  should  be 
summoned  by  two  bishops  to  appear  at  a 
synod,  and  not  by  a  deacon  and  a  layman. 
But,  in  answer  to  that,  they  urged  the  posi- 
tive order  they  had  received,  and  Ignatius, 
upon  their  threatening,  to  drag  him  with 
them,  if  he  did  not  go  of  his  own  accord, 
thought  it  advisable  to  yield.  He  therefore 
appeared  once  more  at  that  assembly ;  but  as 
he  continued,  in  spite  of  all  their  threats  and 

Vol.  II.— 30 


promises,  unalterable  in  his  resolution  not  to 
resign,  the  validity  of  his  ordination  was 
called  in  question;  and  no  fewer  than  seven- 
ty-two witnesses  were  produced  to  swear 
that  he  was  chosen  by  favor,  and  conse- 
quently that  his  election  and  ordination  were 
both  uncanonical.  They  then  ordered  the 
thirtieth  apostolic  canon  to  be  read,  where 
it  is  said,  "  If  a  bishop,  applying  to  worldly 
princes,  shall  obtain  a  church  by  their  favor, 
let  him  be  deposed."  It  is  added  in  the 
canon,  "  and  let  all  be  deposed  who  commu- 
nicate with  him;"  but  that  part  they  sup- 
pressed, as  they  had  all  communicated  with 
Ignatius.  He  excepted  against  the  witnesses 
as  evidently  suborned,  and  attesting  what  he 
could  prove  to  be  false ;  and,  as  to  the  apos- 
tolic canon,  he  urged  that  they  who  had 
communicated  with  him,  were,  by  that 
canon,  to  be  deposed  as  well  as  he;  and 
that,  if  he  was  no  patriarch,  they  were  no 
bishops,  since  they  had  been  all  ordained  by 
him.  But  his  deposition  was  resolved  on  ; 
and  the  sentence,  declaring  him  unworthy 
of  the  episcopal  dignity,  being  read  accord- 
ingly, he  was  first  clothed  with,  and  then, 
in  a  formal  manner,  stripped  of  the  patri- 
archal robes  by  a  subdeacon,  who  had  been 
degraded  by  him  for  his  wicked  life,  and 
was  therefore  chosen  by  Photius  and  the 
council  to  perform  the  ceremony.'  His  de- 
position was  approved  by  the  greater  part  of 
the  bishops  who  were  present  at  the  coun- 
cil, and  confirmed  by  the  legates.  How- 
ever, as  several  metropolitans  and  other 
bishops  still  adhered  to  him,  and  had  only 
through  fear  agreed  to  the  sentence  of  the 
council,  Photius,  who  knew  it,  apprehend- 
ing he  should  not  be  allowed  quietly  to  en- 
joy the  usurped  dignity,  till  Ignatius  had 
resigned  it,  caused  him,  as  soon  as  the  coun- 
cil was  dismissed,  to  be  shut  up  in  a  painful 
prison,  to  be  loaded  with  irons,  and  daily 
beaten  with  the  utmost  barbarity,  hoping, 
that  to  redeem  himself  from  the  miseries  he 
suflTered,  he  would  comply  in  the  end,  and 
resign.  But,  as  he  continued  unalterable  in 
his  resolution  to  suffer  all  the  torments  his 
enemies  could  inflict,  and  death  itself,  rather 
tlian  betray  his  trust,  he  was  one  day  most 
inhumanly  beaten  by  Theodore,  one  of  his 
keepers ;  who,  taking  hold  of  his  hand  while 
he  lay  quite  senseless  on  the  ground,  formed 
a  cross  with  it  on  a  blank  page,  and  carried 
the  page  thus  signed  to  Photius,  who  wrote 
upon  it  the  following  words  :  "  I,  Ignatius, . 
of  Constantinople,  own  myself  to  have  been 
chosen  against  the  canons,  and  to  have  go- 
verned the  church  as  an  usurper  and  a  ty- 
rant." Photius  now  pretended  to  be  satis- 
fied, as  if  Ignatius  had  really  owned  himself 
unworthy  of  the  patriarchal  dignity;  and  he 
was  thereupon  set  at  liberty,  and  allowed  to 
retire  to  a  palace  that  had  formerly  belonged 

*  Nicet.  in  Tit.  Ignat. 

u2 


234 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Nicholas. 


Ignatius  makes  his  escape.  Is  allowed  to  return  to  his  monastery, 
sends  the  acts  of  the  council  that  deposed  Ignatius  to  the  pope  ;- 
the  pope. 


His  appeal  to  the  pope.      The  emperor 
[Year  of  Christ,  662.]     Photius'  letter  to 


to  his  mother;  but  he  had  not  been  long 
there,  when  he  was  informed,  that  it  was 
agreed  between  Photius  and  the  emperor, 
that  he  should  be  made  publicly  to  own  he 
had  been  unlawfully  raised  to  the  epispocal 
dignity;  that  he  should  publicly  read,  in  the 
church  of  the  apostles,  the  act  of  his  resig- 
nation, nay,  and  even  anathematize  himself; 
and  that  afterwards  his  eyes  should  be  put 
out  and  his  right  hand  cut  off.  He  had 
scarce  received  this  intelligence,  when  his 
house  was  surrounded  by  a  numerous  body 
of  the  imperial  guards,  sent  to  apprehend 
him.  But  he,  in  the  disguise  of  a  porter 
carrying  two  baskets,  passed  undiscovered 
through  the  midst  of  them,  and  got  safe  to 
the  islands.  Photius,  transported  with  rage 
at  his  disappointment,  caused  all  the  monas- 
teries in  Constantinople  and  the  neighbor- 
hood to  be  narrowly  searched ;  and  messen- 
gers were  despatched  into  all  parts,  with 
orders  to  put  Ignatius  to  death  wherever 
they  found  him.  But,  by  constantly  flying 
from  one  place  to  another,  and  everywhere 
passing  for  a  common  beggar,  as  he  could 
support  himself  by  no  other  means,  he  had 
the  good  luck  to  escape  the  fury  of  those 
who  sought  his  destruction,  till  providence 
interposed  in  his  favor;  for  frequent  and 
dreadful  shocks  of  earthquake  happening  at 
Constantinople  in  the  month  of  August,  of 
the  present  year,  the  people  construing  them 
into  a  punishment  from  heaven  for  the  bar- 
barous treatment  of  their  innocent  patriarch, 
began  loudly  to  complain  of  the  cruelty  of 
his  persecutors,  as  drawing  down  upon  the 
whole  city  the  vengeance  of  heaven ;  inso- 
much that  the  emperor,  to  appease  them, 
and  prevent  a  general  insurrection,  was 
obliged  to  promise  upon  oath,  and  cause  it 
to  be  publicly  proclaimed,  that  Ignatius 
might  safely  discover  himself;  that  he  might 
safely  return  to  his  monastery;  that  he 
should  be  allowed  to  live  there  quite  undis- 
turbed; and  that  none  of  his  friends  should 
be  any  ways  molested,  not  even  those  who 
had  been  aiding  and  assisting  him  in  his 
flight,  or  had  concealed  him.  Hereupon 
Ignatius  discovering  himself,  and  appearing 
before  Bardas,  was  allowed  by  him  to  return 
to  his  monastery ;  and  the  earthquake  ceased, 
says  Nicetas,  after  it  had  shaken  the  city  in 
a.  most  dreadful  manner  for  the  space  of 
forty  days.' 

Ignatius  had,  before  his  flight,  caused  an 
appeal  to  the  pope  to  be  drawn  up  by  Theog- 
nostus,  formerly  exarch,  but  at  this  time 
monk,  and  abbot  of  a  monastery  in  Rome. 
It  was  addressed,  in  the  name  of  Ignatius, 
often  metropolitans,  of  several  bishops,  and 
an  infinite  number  of  presbyters,  "to  the 
most  holy  and  blessed  president  and  patriarch 
of  all  sees,  successor  to  the  prince  of  the 
apostles  and  universal  pope."  These,  and 
»  Nicet.  in  vit.  Ignat. 


such  like  titles,  flattered  the  vanity  and  am- 
bition of  the  popes ;  and  they  were  freely 
given  them  by  other  bishops  when  they 
wanted  their  assistance  and  protection.  Ig- 
natius, in  his  appeal,  gives  the  pope  a  mi- 
nute account  of  every  thing  that  passed  on 
occasion  of  his  expulsion,  and  the  intrusion 
of  Photius;  of  the  proceedings  of  the  coun- 
cil that  deposed  him  ;  of  the  prevarication 
and  corruption  of  the  apostolic  legates  ;  and 
of  the  barbarous  and  inhuman  treatment  he 
had  met  with  ;  begs  the  pope  to  undertake 
his  cause,  as  his  predecessor  Innocent  un- 
dertook that  of  Chrysostom,'  and,  treading 
in  the  footsteps  of  Fabian,  Julius,  Innocent, 
Leo,  &c.,  to  exert  himself,  as  they  had  done, 
in  the  defence  of  one  who  had  suffered  so 
much,  and  so  unjustly.^ 

With  this  appeal,  request,  or  memorial, 
Theognostus  set  out  for  Rome,  in  the  dis- 
guise of  a  layman  ;  but  the  two  legates,  Ro- 
doald  and  Zachary,  arriving  there  before 
him,  informed  the  pope,  by  word  of  mouth, 
that  Ignatius  had  been  deposed  and  the 
election  of  Photius  confirmed.''  They  took 
no  kind  of  notice  of  the  part  they  had 
acted  in  that  affair,  nor  of  the  violence 
that  was  used.  Two  days  after  arrived 
Leo,  secretary  to  the  emperor,  and  brought 
with  him  two  volumes,  which  he  delivered 
to  the  pope,  in  the  name  of  the  emperor ; 
the  one  containing  the  acts  of  the  council 
concerning  the  deposition  of  Ignatius ;  the 
other  the  acts  of  the  same  council  relating  to 
the  worship  of  images,  which  was  defined 
anew  by  that  assembly."*  The  emperor's 
letter  has  not  reached  our  times  ;  but  it  ap- 
pears, frond  the  pope's  answer  to  it,  to  have 
been  calculated  to  persuade  his  holiness, 
that  Ignatius  had  procured  the  patriarchal 
dignity  by  indirect  and  unlawful  means,  and 
prevail  upon  him,  on  that  account,  to  agree 
to  his  deposition,  and  the  ordination  of  Pho- 
tius in  his  room.  The  substance  of  Pho- 
tius' letter,  which  Avas  of  an  extraordinary 
length,  but  written  with  great  art,  is  as  fol- 
lows : 

"  Charity  is  the  first  of  all  virtues  ;  it  joins 
those  who  are  distant,  unites  those  who  are 
at  variance,  banishes  all  contention  and  dis- 
cord, reconciles  enemies,  and  strengthens 
the  bond  of  friendship  between  friends. 
Charity  endures  all  things  ;  and  it  is  charity 
that  makes  me  patiently  endure  the  severe 
reproaches  of  your  holiness,  and  ascribe 
them  not  to  passion,  to  enmity,  or  to  hatred, 
but  to  the  sincerity  of  your  f^riendship  for 
me,  and  your  zeal  for  the  honor  of  the  ec- 
clesiastic order.  As  I  am  fully  convinced 
of  the  uprightness  of  your  intentions,  your 
holiness  will  forgive  me,  if  I  open  my  mind 
to  you  with  that  freedom  which  brothers  use 


«  See  vol.  I.  p.  134. 

sApud  Baron,  ad  Ann.  861.  n.  28,  &  seq. 

2  Nicol.  ep.  10.  *  Nicol.  ep.  7. 


Nicholas.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


235 


Pbotius'  letter  continued. 


with  each  other,  and  children  with  their  pa-  ^ 
rents.  I  shall  speak  nothing  but  the  truth, 
and  speak  it  not  to  contradict  you,  but  only 
to  defend  myself.  It  behoved,  then,  one  of 
your  eminent  virtue  to  have  considered,  that 
this  heavy  burden  was  forced  upon  ine,  and, 
upon  that  consideration,  to  have  pitied,  and 
not  reproved  me,  to  have  condoled,  and  not 
found  fault  with  me.  God,  from  whom  no- 
thing is  concealed,  knows  what  violence  has 
been  oflered  me.  I  would  have  made  my 
escape,  but  was  detained  against  my  will, 
was  imprisoned,  and  guarded  like  a  common 
malefactor,  and  in  the  end  elected,  in  spite 
of  my  remonstrances,  of  my  sighs  and  my 
tears.  These  things  are  publicly  known,  as 
they  have  not  been  transacted  in  a  corner  of 
the  earth.  Should  not  I,  therefore,  rather 
be  comforted  than  upbraided?  I  have  for- 
feited the  undisturbed  peace  and  tranquillity 
I  enjoyed  in  the  company  of  my  friends,  to 
whom  I  was  dearer  than  their  own  relations. 
To  no  man  have  I  ever  given  just  cause  of 
complaint;  on  the  contrary,  I  have  made  it 
my  study  to  oblige  all  men;  and  they  never 
will,  I  hope,  have  reason  to  repent  of  the 
commendations  they  have  on  that  account 
bestowed  upon  me.  To  my  house  resorted 
daily  men  versed  in  all  the  branches  of  lite- 
rature; and  with  them  I  passed  my  time  in 
the  study  of  the  sciences,  human  and  di- 
vine. I  frequently  went  to  court,  and  ihey 
attended  me  thither,  grudged  the  time  I  spent 
there,  and  accompanied  me  back  to  my  house, 
where  we  resumed  our  studies.  Who  can 
bear  the  loss  of  such  a  life  ?  What  a  flood 
of  tears  has  it  cost  me?  1  knew,  though  I 
had  not  experienced  it,  what  cares  and  anx- 
ieties attend  the  situation  in  which  I  have 
been  placed.  I  was  no  stranger  to  the  ob- 
stinacy and  perverseness  of  the  multitude,  to 
their  seditious,  fickle,  and  restless  temper. 
If  you  refuse  them  what  they  ask,  they 
murmur ;  if  you  grant  it,  they  insult  you,  as 
if  you  durst  not  refuse.  All  think  them- 
selves qualified  to  govern,  and  to  dictate  to 
their  superiors  ;  but  what  will  become  of  the 
vessel  that  has  no  other  pilot  but  the  multi- 
tude ;  of  the  army  that  has  no  other  com- 
mander ?  The  vessel  will  inevitably  be  lost, 
and  the  army  utterly  destroyed.  They  who 
govern,  must  accommodate  themselves  to 
the  tempers  and  the  passions  of  those  whom 
they  govern  ;  they  must  pretend  to  be  cheer- 
ful when  they  are  sad,  and  to  be  sad  when 
they  are  cheerful ;  must  seem  to  be  angry 
when  free  from  all  anger,  and  thus  live 
under  a  perpetual  restraint.  But,  in  private 
life,  and  among  friends,  a  man  may  appear 
to  be  what  he  really  is.  I  must,  in  my  pre- 
sent situation,  chide  my  friends,  slight  my 
relations  agreeably  to  the  command,  show 
myself  reserved  with  offenders,  and  thus  in- 
cur hatred  on  all  sides.  This  I  foresaw, 
and  therefore  strove,  but  strove  in  vain,  to 
avoid  so  troublesome  a  charge.    If  what  I 


say  is  believed,  they  injure  me  who  believe 
it  and  do  not  pity  me;  if  it  is  not  believed, 
they  injure  me  who  do  not  believe  me  when 
I  speak  truth.  You  will  say  no  violence 
ought  to  have  been  oflTered  ;  and  in  that  in- 
deed we  agree.  But  they  are  to  blame  who 
offered  it,  and  not  I  to  whom  it  was  offered. 
But  it  is,  you  say,  a  breach  of  the  canons  to 
raise  a  layman  to  the  episcopal  dignity.  Be 
it  so;  they  are  guilty  of  that  breach  who 
forced  the  episcopal  dignity  upon  me,  and 
not  I  upon  whom  it  was  forced.  But  to 
those  canons  we  are  here  all  entire  strangers, 
as  they  have  never  obtained  in  the  church 
of  Constantinople.  However  that  be,  I  ani 
as  willing  to  resign  as  I  was  unwilling  to 
accept  so  toilsome  a  charge.  It  is  not  at  all 
commendable,  I  own,  to  commit  the  go- 
vernment of  the  church  to  laymen,  nor  do  I 
by  any  means  approve  of  such  a  practice, 
and  am  therefore  still  in  suspense;  nor  shall 
I  give  an  entire  consent  to  my  promotion 
till  the  return  of  the  apocrisarii  I  have  sent 
to  your  holiness." 

Photius  employs  the  remaining  part  of  his 
very  long  letter  to  show,  that  the  canon,  for- 
bidding laymen  to  be  ordained  bishops,  had 
never  been  received  by  the  church  of  Con- 
stantinople, nay,  that  such  a  canon  never 
had  been  heard  of  there ;  alledges  several  in- 
stances to  prove  it;  namely,  of  Nectarius; 
of  his  great-uncle  Tarasius  ;  of  Gregory  the 
father  of  the  divine;  of  Thalassius  of  Csesa- 
rea,  &.C.,  who  were  all  raised  to  the  episco- 
pal throne  while  they  still  were  laymen,  and 
cannot  be  supposed  to  have  been  guilty,  in 
consenting  thereunto,  of  the  breach  of  any 
canons  which  they  were  acquainted  with; 
observes,  that  the  canon  in  question  has 
been  dispensed  with  even  by  the  Latins ; 
that  Ambrose  was  preferred  to  the  see  of 
Milan  while  yet  a  layman;  nay,  that  Am- 
brose, and  Nectarius  whose  ordination  was 
confirmed  by  a  general  council,  were  not 
only  laymen,  but  catechumens,  when  raised 
to  the  episcopacy ;'  takes  notice  of  several 
laws  or  canons  that  are  observed  by  some, 
but  have  never  been  so  much  as  heard  of  by 
others;  and  among  them  he  reckons  the 
canon  forbidding  the  ordination  of  laymen 
received  at  Rome,  but  utterly  unknown  at 
Constantinople;  and  adds,  that  those  laws 
alone  are  universally  binding  that  are  univer- 
sally received  ;  and  that,  instead  of  blaming 
those  who  are  raised  from  the  stale  of  lay- 
men to  the  episcopal  dignity,  we  ought  to 
honor  and  commend  them  for  leading  such 
lives  as  rendered  them  more  worthy  of  that 
dignity  than  any  of  the  priesthood.     How- 


«  Nectarius  was  not  a  catechumen,  hut  a  neophite, 
or  newly  baptized,  when  he  was  chosen  to  succeed 
Greogory  Nazienzen  in  the  see  of  Constantinople  : 
for  Socrates  (Socral.  1.  v.  c.  8.)  and  Sozomcn  (Sozom. 
1.  vii.  c.  8.)  tell  us,  that,  at  the  time  of  his  election  he 
was  still  "clothed  with  his  mystical  garments,"  that 
is,  the  white  garments,  which  the  newly  baptized 
used  to  wear. 


236 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Nicholas. 


The  pope  protests  against  the  conduct  of  his  legates.     His  letter  to  the  emperor,  and  to  Photius. 


ever,  that  for  the  future  no  room  might  be  with  him  as  duly  elected,  and  lawful  patri- 
left  for  complaints  of  this  nature,  he  tells  the  arch.  In  order,  therefore,  to  show  to  all  the 
pope,  that,  in  the  council  lately  held  in  the  world,  and  in  the  most  public  manner,  his 
imperial  city,  he  had  consented  to  the  is-  disapprobation  of  their  conduct,  he  imme- 
suing  of  a  canon,  forbidding  any  monk  or  diately  assembled  the  whole  Roman  church, 
layman  to  be  thenceforth  ordained  bishop,  and  solemnly  declared,  in  the  presence  of 
without  passing  through  all  the  inferior  de- i  Leo,  the  imperial  embassador,  that  his  le- 
grees;  wishes  that  such  a  law  had  always  gates  had  acted  contrary  to  their  instructions  ; 
obtained  in  the  church  of  Constantinople,  that  they  were  not  authorized  to  confirm  the 
since  it  would  have  delivered  him  from  the  deposition  of  Ignatius,  and  the  election  of 
many  cares  and  difficulties  that  attend  his  I  Photius;  and  that  he  never  had  consented, 
present  situation,  in  which  it  is,  he  says,  in- 1  that  he  never  would  consent,  to  the  one  or 
cumbent  upon  him  to  instruct  the  ignorant,  the  other.' 

to  confirm  the  wavering,  to  animate  the  1  Upon  the  breaking  up  of  the  council,  the 
slothful,  to  inspire  the  avaricious  with  the '  pope  wrote  two  letters  in  answer  to  those 
contempt  of  riches,  the  proud  with  mean  he  had  received  from  the  emperor  and  from 
thoughts  of  themselves,  the  lewd  with  the  Photius,  and  delivered  them  to  Leo,  who 
love  of  purity,  to  check  the  impiety  of  those  was  upon  the  point  of  returning  to  Coa- 
who  insult  Christ  in  his  images,  who  con-  stantinople.     In  his  letter  to  the  emperor,  he 


found  or  deny  his  natures,  or  introduce  a 
new  one,  who  curse  the  fourth  council,  &c. 
As  the  legates  had  applied  to  him  for  the 
restoration  of  the  jurisdiction  formerly  en- 
joyed by  the  Roman  see  over  Epirus,  Illyri- 
cum,  &c.  he  tells  the  pope,  that  he  would 


protests  against  the  proceedings  of  his  legates, 
as  well  as  of  the  council  at  which  they  as- 
sisted ;  ascribes  their  prevarication  to  the 
cruel  treatment  they  met  with,  and  the  vio- 
lence that  was  offered  them  ;  and  wonders 
that  the  emperor  should  now  charge  Igna- 


with  great  joy,  restore  those  churches  to  |  tius  with  having  procured  the  patriarchal 
their  ancient  mother,  were  it  left  to  him,  |  dignity  by  unlawful  and  indirect  means, 
since  he  should  be  thereby  eased  of  part  of  j  when  he  has  in  his  hands  letters  from  him 
his  burden  ;  but  that  it  is  the  province  of  the  to   his   predecessor    Leo,   and    to   himself. 


civil  power,  and  not  his,  to  settle  the  li 
mits  of  countries,  and,  with  the  limits,  the 
jurisdiction  over  them.  On  this  occasion, 
he  does  not  forget  to  commend  the  legates, 
as  men  who  have  distinguished  themselves 
by  their  virtue,  their  prudence,  their  experi- 
ence, and  by  their  whole  conduct  have  done 
honor  to  him  who  sent  them.  His  holiness, 
he  says,  will  learn  of  them  many  things 
which  he  would  otherwise  have  written,  but 
has  not  thought  it  necessary,  as  they  can  in- 
form him  of  every  thing  by  word  of  mouth, 
and  are  more  worthy  of  credit  than  any  body 
else.  As  many  of  the  persecuted  patriarch's 
friends  had  privately  withdrawn  from  Con 


wherein  he  owns  him  to  have  been  regular- 
ly elected,  and  lawfully  ordained.  As  to 
his  council  having  been  composed  of  as 
many  bishops  as  was  that  of  Nice,  which 
the  emperor  had  boasted  of  in  his  letter,  the 
pope  tells  him,  that,  as  they  had  all  departed 
from  the  regulations  of  that  great  and  vener- 
able assembly,  it  matters  little  whether  they 
equalled,  or  even  exceeded  it  in  number; 
nay,  that  their  number  only  served  to  add  to 
their  guilt.2 

The  pope,  in  his  letter  to  Photius,  takes  it 
for  granted,  that,  by  the  words,  "thou  art 
Peter,"  &c.  the  primacy  was  conferred  upon 
St.  Peter,  and  upon  all  who  should  succeed 


stantinople  to  Rome,  Photius,  to  prejudice  him  in  the  see  he  had  founded  at  Rome; 

the  pope  against  them,  and  prevent  by  that  and  that  it  is  therefore  incumbent  upon  him, 

means  his  being  informed  of  the  true  state  as  the  successor  of  that  apostle,  as  presiding 

of  affairs  in  the  east,  closes  his  letter  with  in  the  church  that  is  the  first  and  the  head 


entreating  him  not  to  receive  any  who  shall 
come  from  thence  without  letters  of  recom- 
mendation, since  many,  under  color  of  piety 
and  religion,  resort  to  Rome,  only  to  avoid 
the  penance  or  the  punishment  that  is  due 
to  their  crimes.    The  direction  of  Photius's 


of  all  churches,  to  see  that  the  institutions 
of  the  fathers,  and  the  laws  they  have  wise- 
ly enacted,  be  punctually  complied  with  by 
all  other  churches,  as  well  as  his  own.  He 
then  comes  to  the  canon  forbidding  any  to 
be  raised  to  the  episcopal  throne,  who  have 


letter  was,  "  To  our  most  holy  brother  and  not  passed  through  the  inferior  degrees  of 
fellovy-minister  Nicholas,  pope  of  old  Rome,  the  church  ;3  reproaches  Photius  with  a 
Photius  bishop  of  Constantinople,  new  breach  of  that  canon,  in  presuming  to  take 
Rome.'"  I  upon  him  the  episcopal  dignity  while  yet  a 

By  these  letters,  and  still  more  by  the  acts  ,  layman.     And  in  answer  to  the  instances  he 


of  the  council,  the  pope  understood,  that  Ig- 
natius had  been  deposed,  and  Photius  sub- 
stituted in  his  room  ;  that  his  legates  had 


had  alledged  in  favor  of  his  ordination,  the 
pope  pretends  Nectarius  to  have  been  raised 
to  the  patriarchal  see  while  he  was  yet  a  lay- 


agreed  to  the  deposition  of  the  one,  and  the  man,  because  not  one  ecclesiastic  could  be 
intrusion  of  the  other ;  that  they  had  ac-  found  at  that  time  in  the  whole  body  of  the 
knowledged    Photius,   and    communicated 


<  Baron,  ad  Ann.  861.  n.  9,  &  seq. 


«  Nicol.  ep.  7.  20.  18.  a  Nicol.  ep.  5. 

»  Concil.  Sardic.  Can.  10. 


Nicholas.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


237 


The  pope's  letter  to  the  faithful  in  the  east.  Contrivance  of  Photius  to  compass  the  ruin  of  I^atius. 


Constaniinopolitan  clergy  quite  free  from  [  and  closes  his  letter  with  assuring  Photius, 
heresy;  and  adds,  that  in  such  cases,  cases  that  he  is  not  influenced  therein  by  envy, 
of  necessity,  the  canon  may  and  ought  to  be  i  hatred,  or  any  ill-will  he  bears  him,  but  only 
dispensed  with.  As  to  the  promotion  of  by  zeal  for  the  observance  of  the  canons, 
Tarasius,  he  quotes  the  words  of  his  prede- ,  of  the  traditions  of  the  fathers,  and  the  de- 
cessor  Hadrian,  disapproving  and  censuring  I  crees  of  the  apostolic  see.  The  pope,  to 
it  as  irregular ;  but  nevertheless  conniving  at  show  that  he  looked  upon  Phoiius  only  as  a 
it,  in  consideration  of  Tarasius's  known  zeal  ,  layman,  gave  him  no  other  title  in  the  direc- 


for  images.  The  election  of  Ambrose  he 
ascribes  to  a  miracle,  and  tells  the  following 
tale  ;  namely,  that  the  bees  swarmed  in  his 
mouth  while  he  was  an  infant,  and  asleep 
in  his  cradle;  that  from  the  cradle  they  flew  up 
into  the  air  quite  out  of  sight ;  that  from  thence 
his  father  prognosticated  the  child  would 
one  day  attain  to  some  very  high  dignity; 
and  that  he  was  accordingly  chosen,  many 
years  afterwards,  while  yet  a  catechumen, 
to  succeed  Auxenlius  the  Arian  bishop  in 
the  see  of  Milan,  and  miraculously  chosen, 
an  infant,  that  happened  to  be  present  at  the 
election,  crying  out  aloud,  while  the  people 
were  divided  in  their  suffrages,  "  Ambrose  is 
our  bishop,"  and  the  whole  multitude  joining 
in  the  cry  as  a  voice  from  heaven.'     Thus, 


tion  of  his  letter  but  that  of  a  most  prudent 
man  ;  "  Nicolaus  episcopus  servus  servorum 
dei  prudentissimo  viro  Photio.'" 

At  the  same  time,  the  pope  wrote  a  circu- 
latory letter  to  all  the  faithful  in  the  east,  to 
acquaint  them  with  the  deposition  of  Igna- 
tius, the  intrusion  of  Photius,  and  the  pre- 
varication of  his  legates  consenting  thereun- 
to, contrary  to  the  instructions  he  had  given 
them ;  and  addressing  himself,  in  the  close 
of  his  letter,  to  the  three  patriarchs  of  Alex- 
andria, Antioch,  and  Jerusalem,  to  the  me- 
tropolitans and  other  bishops  in  those  parts, 
he  declares,  that  it  is  the  fixed  resolution  of 
the  apostolic  see  to  reinstate  the  venerable 
patriarch  Ignatius  in  his  former  dignity,  and 
drive  out  the  most  wicked  Photius,  who  has 


says  the  pope,  were  Nectarius,  Tarasius,  and  usurped  it  in  defiance  of  the  canons  ;  and  he 
Ambrose,  preferred  from  the  state  of  laymen  enjoins  and  commands  them,  by  virtue  of 
to  the  episcopal  dignity.  But  what  can  you  his  apostolic  authority,  to  think  as  he  does 
plead  in  defence  of  your  promotion,  you  who  !  with  respect  to  the  expulsion  of  Photius,  and 
have  not  only  been  unlawfully  ordained,  but  ■  restoration  of  Ignatius,  and  to  cause  his  let- 


have  intruded  yourself  into  the  see  of  an- 
other still  living?  Photius  had  said  in  his 
letter,  that  the  canon  of  the  council  of  Sar- 
dica,  and  the  decrees  of  the  popes,  prohibit- 
ing the  ordination  of  laymen,  had  never  been 
received  by  the  church  of  Constantinople. 
In  answer  to  that,  the  pope  tells  him  in 
plain  terms,  that  he  cannot  believe  him,  as 
the  council  was  held  in  the  east,  and  is-re- 
ceived  by  the  whole  church,  as  well  as  the 


ter  to  be  published  in  their  respective  dio- 
ceses, that  it  may  be  known  to  all.2  This 
letter,  as  well  as  that  to  Photius,  is  dated  the 
]8th  of  March  of  the  present  year  862,  and 
the  letter  to  the  emperor  of  the  IQth  of  the 
same  month. 

About  this  time,  one  Eustratius  arriving 
at  Constantinople  in  the  habit  of  a  monk, 
went  straight  to  the  patriarchal  palace;  and 
giving  out  that  he  came  from  Rome,*'public- 


decrees  of  the  apostolic  see,  by  whose  au-  ly  delivered  two  letters  to  Phoiius,  the  one 
thority  all  councils  are  confirmed.  He  then  from  Ignatius,  as  he  pretended,  to  the  pope, 
reproaches  him  with  hi%  unprecedented  the  other  from  the  pope  to  Photius.  Igna- 
severity,  thatof  a  tyrant  rather  than  a  father,  tins,  in  the  letter  that  was  supposed  to  have 
in  persecuting  Ignatius,  and  arbitrarily  de-  been  written  by  him,  gave  the  pope  a  mi- 
posing  bishops  and  archbishops,  for  no  other  nute  acccount  of  the  persecution  he  had  suf- 
reason  but  because  they  adhered  to  him;  fered,  and  painted  the  emperor  in  the  black- 
complains  of  the  cruel  treatment  his  legates  est  colors.  That  letter,  Eustratius  said,  the 
had  met  with,  and  the  violence  that  was  of-  pope  would  not  receive,  and  he  had  there- 


fered  them  ;  declares  that  he  cannot,  and 
never  will,  acknowledge  any  other  for  law- 
ful bishop  of  Constantinople,  till  he  is  satis- 
fied that  Ignatius  has  been  lawfully  deposed  ; 

'  The  truth  of  it  is:  Ambrose  was  PriPtor  at  Milan 
when  the  hishnp  of  the  place  died;  and  the  whole  city 


fore  brought  it  back.  The  pope,  in  his  let- 
ter, was  made  to  apologize  for  the  misun- 
derstanding that  had  hitherto  subsisted  be- 
tween him  and  Photius,  and  to  express  an 
earnest  desire  not  only  of  communicating 
with  him,  but  establishing  a  lasting  peace 
beinc  in  an  uproar  on'account  of  the  disaareemont    and  harmony  between  the  two  sees.     These 

amons  ,ho  inhabitants  about  tl,e   election  of  a   "ew     j^^^^^^   p,^^^;^^   immediately    communicated 

to  the  emperor,  and  to  Bardas,  in  order  to 
incense  them  anew  against  Ignatius,  whom 
they  had  suffered,  ever  since  the  time  of  the 
earthquake,  to  live  undisturbed  in  a  monas- 
tery. He  was  accordingly  taken  into  cus- 
tody, and  strictly  guarded;  but  Eustratius 
pretending,  upon  his  examination,  the  letter 
for  the  pope  to  have  been  delivered  to  him 

i      «  Nicol.  ep.  6.  *  Nicol.  ep.  4. 


bishfip,  Ambrose,  on  whom  it  was  incumbent,  as  prtE- 
lor,  to  appease  the  tumult,  repairing  to  the  place  where 
the  electDrs  were  met,  exhorted  them  to  unity  and 
concnrd  with  so  elegant  and  so  affectinj;  a  speech,  that, 
layins;  aside  their  dispute,  they  all  cried  out  with  one 
voice,  "We  will  have  Ambrose  for  our  bishop."  This 
sudden  and  unexpected  acreement  the  emperor  looked 
upon  as  niiraciilons;  and  therefore  ordered  him  imme- 
diately to  be  baptized,  for  he  was  yet  a. catechumen, 
and  a  few  days  after  to  be  ordained  bishop.  Thus 
Pauliniis,  (I'aulin.  vit.  Aiiihros.)  RufTinus,  (Uuffin.  I. 
ii.  c.  11.)  Theodoret,  (Theod.  1.  iv.  c.  f)  )  Socrates, 
(Socrat.  1.  iv.  c.  30.)  and  Sozomcn,  (Sozom.  1.  vi. 
c.  24.) 


238 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Nicholas. 

Lotharius,  king  of  Lorraine,  charges  his  wife  Theutberga  with  incest.  She  is  cleared  and  recalled  to  court ; 
but  afterwards  forced  to  own  herself  guilty.  Lotharius  allowed  by  a  council  to  put  her  away  and  marry 
another.    The  king  acquaints  the  pope  with  the  decision  of  the  council. 


by  one  Cyprian,  a  disciple,  as  he  said,  of 
Ignatius,  and  no  such  person  being  any- 
where found  after  the  most  diligent  inqui- 
ries, the  imposture  was  discovered,  and  Eu- 
stratius  most  severely  whipped  by  an  order 
from  Bardas,  in  spite  of  the  most  pressing 
instances  of  Photius  in  his  favor.'  These 
letters  are  both  supposed  to  have  been  forged 
by  Photius  himself,  hoping  that  the  empe- 
ror, provoked  at  the  odious  picture  that  was 
drawn  of  him  in  the  letter  to  the  pope, 
would,  in  the  transport  of  his  wrath,  order 
the  supposed  writer  to  be  put  to  death  with- 
out further  inquiry.  But  so  wicked  an  at- 
tempt raised  in  all  men,  says  Nicetas,  the 
greatest  indignation  against  Photius,  and  a 
general  compassion  for  Ignatius. 

An  affair  of  far  greater  moment  in  the 
west  than  the  quarrel  between  Ignatius  and 
Photius  about  the  see  of  Constantinople  in 
the  east,  engaged  at  the  same  time  the  at- 
tention of  the  pope;  and  he  exerted  his  au- 
thority with  no  less  steadiness  in  the  one 
than  he  did  in  the  other  :  Lotharius  king  of 
Lorraine,  or  Austrasia,^  son  of  the  late  em- 
peror of  that  name,  and  brother  to  the  pre- 
sent emperor  Lewis,  had  married  Theut- 
berga, sister  to  Hubert  duke  of  Burgundy  ; 
but  wanting  to  divorce  her,  and  to  marry 
Waldrada  one  of  his  mistresses  in  her  room, 
he  accused  her  of  incest  with  her  brother. 
The  queen  denied  the  Charge  in  an  assem- 
bly of  bishops  and  all  the  chief  lords  of  the 
kingdom,  whom  the  king  had  called  together 
to  examine  into  that  affair ;  nay,  and  to  con- 
vince them  of  her  innocence,  underwent 
with  their  consent,  if  not  by  their  command, 
the  trial,  or,  as  it  is  called,  ordeal,  by  hot 
water.  She  was  excused,  in  consideration 
of  her  rank  and  her  sex,  from  undergoing 
that  trial  in  person ;  but  the  man,  whom  she 
chose  to  act  in  her  room,  received  not  the 
least  hurt  from  the  scalding  water ;  and  the 
queen  was  thereupon  declared  innocent  by 
the  whole  assembly,  was  by  the  king  re- 
called to  court  (for  he  had  caused  her  to  be 
shut  up  in  a  monastery,)  and  restored  to  all 
the  prerogatives  of  her  royal  dignity. ^  But, 
notwithstanding  so  convincing  a  proof  of 
the  queen's  innocence,  Waldrada  still  en- 
grossed the  king's  affection,  and  his  passion 
for  her  allowed  the  unhappy  Theutberga 
but  a  very  short  respite  from  her  troubles  ; 
for  Lotharius,  determined  at  all  events  to 
part  with  her,  in  order  to  make  room  for 
Waldrada,  appointed,  soon  after  the  above- 
mentioned  trial,  some  of  the  chief  bishops 
of  his  kingdom  to  meet  at  Aix-la-Chapelle ; 

'  Nicet.  in  vit.  Ignat. 

^  In  the  division  of  the  French  empire  made  by  the 
emperor  Lotharius  amongst  his  children,  the  ancient 
kingdom  of  Austrasia  was  allotted  to  Lotharius  his 
second  son,  with  the  addition  of  several  provinces; 
and  it  was  thenceforth  called  in  Latin  Lotharingia, 
from  its  new  king  Lotharius  ;  and  from  Lotharingia 
they  derive  the  name  of  Lorraine. 

3  Hincmar.  de  divort.  Loth.  &  Theutb.  Annal.  Berlin. 


and  there  arraigning  the  queen  anew  of  in- 
cest, prevailed  upon  them  to  declare,  that 
he  could  not  in  conscience  live  with  her  as 
his  wife,  though  not  a  single  evidence  was 
produced  in  support  of  the  charge.  This 
point  being  gained,  the  king  assembled  the 
same  year,  860,  another  council  in  the  same 
place  ;  and  having,  with  terrible  menaces, 
obliged  the  queen  to  own  herself,  in  their 
presence,  guilty  of  the  crime  she  was  charged 
with,  he  applied  to  the  bishops  for  leave  to 
marry  again,  since  they  had  declared,  that 
it  was  not  lawful  for  him  to  cohabit  with 
Theutberga  as  his  wife.'  I  do  not  find,  that, 
in  this  council,  the  bishops  came  to  any  de- 
termination with  respect  to  the  king's  re- 
quest :  they  only  ordained,  that  Theutberga, 
convicted  by  her  own  confession,  should  do 
public  penance  for  her  crime.  But  she 
escaped  into  France  to  her  brother  Hubert, 
who  had  taken  refuge  there,  and  was  well 
received  by  the  king,  Charles  the  Bald,  un- 
cle to  Lotharius.* 

Two  years  after,  that  is,  in  862,  a  third 
council  was  held  at  Aix-la-Chapelle,  at 
which  were  present  Gunthier  archbishop  of 
Cologne,  Teutgaud  archbishop  of  Treves, 
and  the  bishops  of  Metz,of  Verdun,  of  Ton- 
gres,  of  Utrecht,  and  Strasburgh ;  and  the 
time-serving  bishops  declared  all  to  a  man, 
that  the  king  might  lawfully  dismiss  Theut- 
berga, and  marry  another  in  her  room;  nay, 
and  alledged  several  passages  out  of  the 
fathers,  and  some  canons  of  the  church,  to 
justify  the  declaration  they  had  made.  We 
are  told,  that,  in  this  affair,  the  archbishop 
of  Treves,  and  the  other  bishops,  were  mis- 
led and  imposed  upon  by  the  archbishop 
of  Cologne,  a  man  of  great  authority  among 
them,  whose  niece  the  king  had  promised 
to  marry,  provided  he  could  get  his  marriage 
with  Theutbergf  declared  null  by  a  council.^ 
The  queen,  on  her  arrival  in  France,  had 
written  to  the  pope,  to  acquaint  him  with 
the  base  treatment  she  had  met  with  from 
the  king,  and  the  bishops  of  his  kingdom, 
and  at  the  same  time  to  implore  his  protec- 
tion. Of  this  the  bishops  were  aware,  and 
had  therefore  dispatched  Teutgaud  of  Treves, 
and  Hatto  of  Verdun,  to  entreat  the  pope,  in 
the  king's  name  and  their  own,  not  to  giveear 
to,  nor  suffer  himself  to  be  prejudiced  by,  the 
false  reports  and  misrepresentations  of  their 
enemies,  since,  in  the  affair  of  Theutberga, 
they  had  proceeded  upon  her  own  confession, 
and  had  hitherto  only  ordered  her  to  do  public 

Eenance  for  her  sin,  which  she  had  avoided 
y  quitting  the  kingdom,  and  flying  into 
France.  The  pope  had  heard  all  they  said 
with  great  attention  ;  but  returned  them  no 
other  answer  than  "  that  it  was  an  affair  of 
great  importance,  and  ought  to  be  thorough- 
ly examined  :"  the  king  therefore,  upon  the 
breaking  up  of  the  last  council,  sent  two 


Annal.  Berlin.       ^  Ibidem. 


"  Annal.  Metens. 


Nicholas.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


239 

The  king  marries  Waldrada.  Count  Boso  complains  to  the  pope  of  Lothariiis  for  harboring  his  wife  who  had 
eloped  from  him.  Letters  written  by  the  pope  on  that  occasion.  Council  appointed  to  meet  at  Melz,  to  de- 
termine the  affair  of  Lotharius.  The  pope  sends  legates  to  assist  at  it.  Letters  he  wrote  on  that  occasion. 

counts  to  Rome,  lo  acquaint  the  pope  with  I  These  letters  the  pope  delivered  to  the 
the  decision  of  that  assembly,  to  beg  his  count  himself;  and  taking  the  affair  of  Lo- 
holiness  to  confirm  it,  and  assure  him,  that  tharius  into  serious  consideration  upon  his 
he  should  wait  for,  and  acquiesce  in,  the  departure,  he  thought  it  a  mailer  of  too  great 
judgment  of  the  apostolic  see.  To  them  importance  to  be  finally  determined  by  the 
the  pope  returned  the  same  answer  he  had  bishops  of  the  kingdom  of  Lorraine  only, 
given  to  the  bishops  ;  adding,  that  he  should  Of  the  same  opinion  Avere  Ilincmar  and 
send  legates  to  inform  themselves  of  the  ■  Ado,  the  one  archbishop  of  Reims,  the  other 
whole  upon  the  spot;  and  entreating  the  j  of  Vienne;  and  the  proceedings  of  the  three 
king,  in  the  mean  time,  not  to  act  over-hasii-  councils  held  at  Aix-la-Chapelle  were  cen- 
ly  in  an  affair  of  such  moment  and  concern,  sured  by  the  other  Gallican  bishops,  as  re- 
Frorn  this  answer,  and  from  the  pope's  re-  pugnant  to  the  canons,  and  the  practice  of 
fusing  to  confirm  the  sentence  of  the  coun-  the  church,  and  only  calculated  lo  gratify 
oil,  the  king  concluded,  that  his  holiness  '  the  passion  of  their  sovereign,  which  it  was 
was  by  no  means  inclined  to  consent  to  his  '  their  duty  to  check  and  restrain.  The  pope 
marriage;  and  therefore,  suffering  his  pas- i  therefore,  paying  no  kind  of  regard  to  the 
sion  to  prevail  over  all  other  regards,  he  mar-  decisions  of  those  councils,  resolved  to  cause 
ried  Waldrada  publicly  soon  after  the  return  the  affair  to  be  examined  anew  in  an  as- 
of  the  two  counts  from  Rome,  gave  her  the  '  sembly  of  all  the  bishops  of  France  and  Ger- 
title  of  queen,  and  built  her  a  stately  palace  |  many,  and  to  send  legates,  since  both  parties 
for  her  habitation.'  j  had  appealed  to  him  as  an  arbiter,  to  assist 

In  the  mean  time  came  to  Rome  count  at  that  assembly  in  his  name.  The  city  of 
Boso,  to  complain  to  the  pope  of  Lotharius,  ,  Melz  was  the  place  appointed  for  the  meet- 
for  harboring  in  his  dominions  his  wife  In-  ing  of  the  council;  and  the  pope  chose 
geltrude,  the  daughter  of  count  Matfrid,  who,  '  Rodoald  bishop  of  Porto,  and  John  bishop 
eloping  from  him  with  her  adulterer,  had  of  Ficocla  in  Romania,  to  preside  at  it,  with 
taken  refuge  in  the  kingdom  of  Lorraine,  !  the  character  of  his  legates  a  latereJ  The 
and  there,  to  the  great  disgrace  of  her  own 
family  and  her  husband's,  led  the  life  of  a 
common  prostitute.  The  count  had,  for  the 
space  of  seven  years,  frequently  invited  her 
to  return  to  her  duty,  with  the  promise  of  an 
unlimited  pardon, and  a  kind  reception;  had 


pope  charged  them  with  letters  to  Lotharius, 
to  Lewis,  king  of  Germany,  to  Charles  king 
of  France,  his  uncles,  to  Charles,  king  of 
Provence,  his  brother,  desiring  them  to  send 
two  bishops  each  to  the  council,  with  a  cir- 
culatory letter  to  all  the  bishops  of  France 
applied  to  Lotharius,  entreating  him  not  to  j  and  Germany,  and  with  one  to  the  bishops 
countenance   her   in   her  lewdness,  but   to  {  who  should  be  present  at  the  council.^     In 
drive    her   from    his    dominions,    and    had  j  his  letter  to  Lotharius,  he  recommends  his 


omitted  nothing  in  his  power  to  reclaim  her 
But  finding  that  no  regard  was  paid  by -her 
to  his  offers,  nor  by  the  king  to  his  pressing 
and  repeated  insiances,  he  resolved  in  the 
end  to  apply  to  the  pope,  and  undertook  for 
that  purpose  a  journey  to  Rome.  The  pope, 
having  heard  his  complaint,  wrote,  before 
the  count  left  Rome,  to  the  French  bishops, 
to  the  kings,  and  to  Lotharius  himself.  In 
his  letter  to  the  bishops,  he  required  them  to 
excommunicate  Ingeltrude,  if  she  did  not 
forthwith  return  to  her  husband  :  in  his  let- 
ter to  the  kings,  namely,  Charles  king  of 
France,  Lewis  king  of  Germany,  and 
Charles  king  of  Provence,  he  exhorted  them 
to  interpose  their  good  offices  in  favor  of 
Boso,  and  prevail  upon  Lotharius,  if  by  any 
means  they  could,  to  banish  the  noble  pros- 
titute, as  the  pope  styles  her,  out  of  his  do- 
minions, and  not  to  admit  her  into  theirs, 
that  she  might  thus  be  obliged  to  throw  her- 
self at  her  husband's  feet,  who  was  ready  to 


legates  to  him  ;  tells  him,  that,  in  compliance 
with  his  desire,  he  would  have  sent  them 
sooner,  had  he  not  been  diverted  from  it  by 
affairs  of  the  utmost  importance ;  desires 
that  two  bishops  from  the  kingdom  of  Lewis 
king  of  Germany,  two  from  that  of  Charles 
king  of  France,  and  two  from  the  kingdom 
of  Charles  king  of  Provence,  may  be  allowed 
to  assist  at  the  council;  and  wishes,  that, 
upon  the  return  of  his  legates,  he  may  have 
occasion  to  rejoice,  to  return  thanks  to  the 
Almighty,  and  to  send  to  the  king  his  apos- 
tolic benediction.  The  pope,  in  his  letter  to 
the  bishops,  informs  them,  that  Theutberga, 
whom  Lotharius  had  put  away  to  marry 
another  in  her  room,  had  apphed  to  him, 
desiring  that  her  cause  might  be  judged  by 
the  apostolic  see  ;  and  that  he  had  thereupon 
sent  two  legates  to  judge  it,  jointly  with 
them,  in  a  council  that  was  to  meet  at  Metz  ; 
requires  them  to  repair  to  the  council,  ia 
order  to  assist  his  legates  with  their  advice ; 


receive  and  forgive  her.     In  his  letter  to  Lo- 1  tells  them,  that,  when  the  said  legates  were 
tharius,  he  threatened  him  with  the  censures 
of  the  church,  ifhe  continued  to  countenance 
Ingeltrude  in  her  wickedness,  or  suffered  her 


to  remain  any  longer  in  his  kingdom.^ 


«  Nicol.  pp.  38.  Annal.  Bertin. 
»  Apud  Baron,  ad  Ann.  802.  n.  : 


'  As  the  bishop  of  Porto  had  lately  betrayed  his  trust 
in  the  east,  it  is  not  a  little  surprising  that  the  pope 
should  have  employed  him  on  the  preseiil  occasion, 
since  he  could  no  longer  doubt  of  his  misconduct  there, 
though  he  had  not  yet  received  any  authentic  proofs 
of  it. 

a  Nicol.  cp.  17,  18,  19. 


240 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Nicholas. 


The  pope  mediates  a  reconciliation  between  Charles  of  France  and  Baldwin,  count  of  Flanders, 
given  to  the  legates  who  were  to  assist  at  the  council  of  Mctz. 


Instructions 


upon  the  point  of  setting  out  from  Rome,  he 
had  learned  that  Lotharius  had  dismissed 
Theutberga,  and  married  another  woman, 
without  waiting  for  the  judgment  of  the 
apostolic  see,  to  which  he  had  appealed, 
and  promised  to  submit;  and  he  therefore 
desires,  that  the  king  may  be  summoned  to 
appear,  and  plead  his  cause  in  person  before 
them  and  his  legates,  on  pain  of  being  cut 
off  by  the  apostolic  see  from  the  communion 
of  the  faithful.'  In  the  letter  that  was  ad- 
dressed to  the  bishops  of  the  council,  and 
was  to  be  read  to  them  at  their  first  meeting, 
the  pope  exhorted  them  to  judge  justly, 
without  respect  of  persons;  and  required 
them  to  transmit  to  him  the  acts  of  the  coun- 
cil, in  order  to  their  being  confirmed  by  the 
apostolic  see,  if  in  every  respect  agreeable, 
or  corrected,  if  any  way  repugnant  to  the 
laws  of  justice  and  the  rules  of  the  church.^ 
At  the  same  time  the  pope  wrote,  and 
sent  by  his  legates,  two  letters  concerning  a 
very  different  affair ;  the  one  to  Charles  the 
bald,  the  other  to  Hermentrude  his  queen : 
Judith,  their  daughter,  had  married  ^thel- 
wulph  king  of  the  west  Saxons,  as  has  been 
related  above ;^  and  she  married,  upon  his 
death,  ^thelbald,  the  deceased  king's  eldest 
son.  But  he  dying  soon  after  that  incest- 
uous marriage,  she  returned  to  France,  and, 
by  her  father's  appointment,  lived  at  Senlis, 
under  the  direction  of  thg  bishop  of  the  place, 
to  whose  care  the  king  had  recommended 
her,  as  she  was  yet  very  young.  During 
her  stay  there,  Baldwin,  count  of  Flanders, 
a  man  of  great  distinction,  but  the  king's 
vassal,  fell  passionately  in  love  with  her, 
and  she  with  him ;  but  being  both  sensible 
that  the  king  would  never  be  brought  to 
agree  to  their  marriage,  Baldwin,  with  her 
consent,  and  the  consent  of  her  brother 
Lewis,  duke  of  Maine,  carried  her  off;  and 
they  fled  for  refuge  to  the  kingdom  of  Lo- 
tharius. Charles,  highly  provoked  at  such 
an  insult  offered  him  by  one  of  his  own  sub- 
jects, had  recourse  to  the  bishops;  and  hav- 
ing assembled  those  of  his  kingdom,  he  pre- 
vailed upon  them  to  thunder  out  the  sen- 
tence of  excommunication  against  Judith,  as 
well  as  Baldwin,  agreeably  to  the  decree  of 
pope  Gregory  the  great,  excommunicating 
all  who  should  steal  widows,  and  all  who 
should  communicate  with  them.*  Baldwin, 
struck  with  terror  at  this  sentence,  undertook 
a  journey  to  Rome;  and  there,  throwing 
himself  at  the  pope's  feet,  owned  his  crime, 
begged  his  holiness  to  absolve  him  from  the 
excommunication,  and  to  interpose  his  good 
offices  with  the  king  in  his  behalf.  The 
pope  did  not  think  it  advisable  to  absolve 
him  from  the  excommunication  till  the  king 
was  reconciled  to  him,  but  readily  undertook 
to  mediate  a  reconciliation;  and  wrote  ac- 


«  Nicol.  ep.  22. 
»  See  p.  228. 


2  Nicol.  ep.  23. 
••  Annal.  Berlin. 


cordingly  the  above  mentioned  letters  to 
Charles  and  Hermentrude,  Avarmly  recom- 
mending to  both  the  penitent  count,  who,  he 
apprehended,  might  call  in  the  Normans,  if 
driven  to  despair,  and,  jointly  with  them, 
make  war  upon  France.  His  mediation  had 
the  wished-for  effect;  Baldwin  and  Judith 
were  received  by  the  king  into  favor;  the 
marriage  was  solemnized  in  due  form  at 
Auxerre;  and  the  count  reinstated  in  the 
government  of  Flanders,  with  the  title  of 
count  of  the  kingdom;  by  virtue  of  which 
he  was  to  defend  the  kingdom  of  France 
against  the  Normans,  or,  as  the  pope  calls 
them,  Northmans,  and  all  the  northern  bar- 
barians.' 

Besides  these  letters,  the  pope  delivered 
to  his  legates  their  instructions  in  writing, 
called,  in  the  language  of  those  days,  com- 
monilorium,  being  calculated  to  admonish 
or  put  them  in  mind  of  the  principal  heads 
of  their  charge.  As  Lotharius  pretended  to 
have  been  married  to  Waldrada,  by  the  late 
emperor  his  father,  while  he  was  yet  very 
young,  and  consequently  that  he  could  not, 
in  conscience,  cohabit  with  Theutberga  as 
his  wife,  the  legates  were  directed,  first  of 
all,  to  examine  with  great  care  into  the  truth 
of  the  fact;  to  cause  the  marriage  treaty  to 
be  produced,  as  well  as  the  witnesses  who 
were  present;  to  inquire  why  the  king  put 
her  away  to  marry  the  daughter  of  Boso, 
that  is,  Theutberga,  in  her  room ;  and  not  to 
proceed  till  these  points  were  all  cleared  up 
to  their  entire  satisfaction.  If,  upon  exami- 
nation, the  king's  marriage  with- Waldrada 
was  found  to  be  a  mere  invention  or  pre- 
tence, the  legates  were,  in  that  case,  to  come 
to  the  charge  brought  against  Theutberga. 
And  here  the  pope  informed  them,  that  she 
had  implored  three  different  times  the  pro- 
tection of  the  apostolic  see  against  the  vio- 
lence that  was  offered  her ;  that  she  had  in- 
deed confessed  the  crime  she  Avas  charged 
with  to  some  bishops  of  the  kingdom  of 
Lorraine;  but  had  sent  a  person  to  Rome 
before  she  made  that  confession,  to  complain 
of  the  violent  means  that  were  used  to  extort 
from  her  the  confession  of  a  crime  which 
she  had  never  committed,  and  at  the  same 
time  to  declare,  in  her  name,  that  if  she 
should  own  that,  or  any  other  crime,  it  was 
not  because  she  was  guilty,  but  to  save  her 
life,  that  she  owned  it.  The  pope  therefore 
charged  the  legates  to  call  Theutberga  to  the 
council,  that  she  might  plead  her  cause  in 
person  before  them;  and  to  reverse  the  sen- 
tence that  had  been  pronounced  against  her 
at  Aix-la-Chapelle,  if  she  retracted  the  con- 
fession that  had  given  occasion  to  it,  as  not 
voluntary,  but  extorted  by  force,  or  by 
menaces.^ 


«  Annal.  Berlin.  Flodoard.  1.  iii.  c.  12.  Meyer,  annal. 
Fland.  I.  ii.  Nicol.  ep.  20,  21. 

'^  Ivo.,  part.  8.  c.  334.  Gratian.  qusest.  2.  c.  Lotharius, 
apud  Baron,  ad  Ann.  862.  n.  61 — 65. 


Nicholas.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


241 


The  legate  Zachary  deposed  in  a  council  for  consenting  to  the  deposition  of  Ignatius ;— [Year  of  Christ,  863] 
Sentence  pronounced  in  that  council  against  Photius  and  Gregory  of  Syracuse. 

With  these  instructions  the  legates  set  out  with  them,  our  fellow-minister,  the  patriarch 
for  Metz,  where  the  council  was  to  meet;  Ignatius;  has,  in  defiance  of  the  law  of  na- 
and  in  the  mean  time  the  monk  Theognostus,  tions,  offered  violence  to  the  legates  of  the 
of  whom  I  have  spoken  above,  arrived  at  apostolic  see,  and  forced  them  to  act  conlra- 
Rome,  with  the  appeal  of  Ignatius,  contain-  ry  to  the  orders  they  had  received;  has  sent 
ing  an  account  of  his  deposition,  of  the  in-,  into  exile  the  bishops  who  would  not  com- 
trusion  of  Photius,  and  of  the  prevarication  J  municate  with  him,  and  appointed  such  only 
of  the  legates  Rodoald  and  Zachary.  Thej  in  their  room  as  were  partakers  with  him  in 
pope,  in  reading  it,  was  not  more  affected  his  wickedness;  has  persecuted,  and  con- 
with  the  sufferings  of  Ignatius,  which  were  tinues  to  persecute,  with  unheard  of  barba- 
there  minutely  described,  than  provoked  at  rity,the  holy  patriarch  Ignatius,  and  all  who 
the  conduct  of  his  legates,  who,  instead  of  stand  up  in  defence  of  his  innocence,  and 
complying  with,  had  acted  in  direct  opposi- 1  the  laws  of  the  church;  the  said  Photius 
tion  to  the  instructions  he  had  given  them,  guilty  of  these  and  such  like  enormities,  is, 
and  even  endeavored,  after  their  return,  to'  by  the  authority  of  Almighty  God,  of  the 
impose  upon  him,  by  misrepresenting  to  i  blessed  princes  of  the  apostles,  Peter  and 
him  the  whole  affair.  In  order  therefore  to  Paul,  of  all  the  saints,  of  the  six  general 
clear  the  apostolic  see  from  the  imputation^  councils,  and  the  judgment  which  the  Holy 
of  having  been  any  ways  accessory  to  such'  Ghost  pronounces  by  us,  divested  of  the 
irregular  and  unjust  proceedings,  and  at  the  priesthood,  and  all  sacerdotal  honors:  so 
same  time  to  afford  to  the  persecuted  patri-  that  if,  after  this  decree  (issued  by  the  coun- 
arch  all  the  comfort  and  relief  in  his  power,'  cil  with  one  consent,  and  dictated,  as  we  be- 
he  resolved  to  exert  his  whole  authority  inilieve,  by  the  Holy  Ghost)  comes  to  his 
his  defence,  and  to  punish,  in  a  most  exem-:  knowledge,  he  shall  attempt  to  preside  in  the 
plary  manner,  the  prevarication  of  the  le-  see  of  Constantinople,  or  shall  any  ways 
gates.  With  that  view  he  assembled,  soon;  disturb  Ignatius  in  the  government  of  the 
after  the  arrival  of  Theognostus,  a  numerous!  church  committed  to  his  care,  or  presume  to 
council  of  the  western  bishops,  in  Rome,  j  perform  any  function  of  the  sacred  ministry, 
who  met  first  in  the  Vatican,  but  Avere  soon;  he  shall  never  again  be  admitted  to  commu- 
obliged,  by  the  cold,  to  adjourn  from  thence  I  nion,  but  remain,  with  all  who  shall  com- 
to  tlie  Lateran.  In  this  council  were  read,  municate  with  him,  or  support  him,  anathe- 
in  the  first  place,  the  acts  of  that  which  Pho- ;  matized,  and  excluded  from  partaking  of  the 
tius  had  held  at  Constantinople,  the  empe-|body  and  blood  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
ror's  letters  to  the  pope,  and,  no  doubt,  the  except  at  the  point  of  death.'" 
act  of  the  deposed  patriarch's  appeal  to  the'     The  like  sentence  was  pronounced  against 


apostolic  see,  all  translated  from  the  Greek 
into  Latin.  In  the  next  place,  Zachary  was 
brought  before  the  council,  was  strictly  exa- 
mined, and  being   convicted,  by    his  awn 


Gregory  of  Syracuse,  for  having  presumed 
to  ordain  Photius,  and  perform  several  other 
functions  of  the  episcopal  office,  after  he  had 
been  divested  of  the  episcopal  dignity,  and 


confession,  of  having  consented  to  the  depo-  all  the  power  attending  it;  and  an  anathema 
sition  of  Ignatius,  and  acknowledging  Pho-  was  denounced  against  him,  if  he  thence- 
tius,  he  was  by  the  council  excommunicated  i  forth  took  upon  him  to  exercise  any  ecclesi- 
and  deposed.  The  judging  of  Rodoald,  his  astical  function  whatever,^  if  he  raised  new 
fellow-legate  and  accomplice,  sent  lately  disturbances  against  Ignatius,  or  attempted 
into  France,  was  put  off  till  his  return  to  to  divert  any  from  communicating  with  him 
Rome  and  the  meeting  of  another  council.'  as  their  lawful  bishop.  By  a  third  sentence, 
In  the  same  council,  the  following  sen-]  all  were  excommunicated  and  degraded, 
tence  was  pronounced  by  the  pope  against  whom  Photius,  the  Neophyte,  as  the  pope 
Photius,  with  the  unanimous  consent  of  all  calls  him  by  way  of  contempt,  and  usurper 


the  bishops  who  composed  it :  "  Whereas 
Photius,  raised  from  a  secular  and  military 
occupation  to  the  episcopal  dignity,  and  or- 


« That  the  pope's  excommunicating  and  deposing 
the  bishop  of  Constantinople,  or  any  other  bishop,  is 
no  argument  of  his  supremacy,  has  been  shown  else- 
dained  by  Gregory,  of  Syracuse,  long  since    where,  on  occasion  of  tlie  excommunication  and  depo- 
cnndemnpd     his    in  thp  lifp  timp  nf  niir  hrn-   '''•'°"  of  Acacius  of  Constantinople  by  pope  Felix,  the 

conuemnea,  n.is,  in  tne  me  time  oi  our  oro-,  ^^^^^^  ^f^^^^^  name.-(See  vol.  i.  p.  277,  ass.) 

ther  Ignatius,  patriarch   of  the   holy  church  ,     »  Excommunication  and  anathema  were  two  differ- 
of  Constantinople,  intruded  himself  into  his    entthinss-.  an  excommunicated  person  was  excluded 
_     1         .         1    .1.         1  r  ij  .    u       .1,       from  partaking  of  tlie  cucharist  and  the  prayers  of 

see,    and    entered  the   sheepfold   not    by   the    ,he  faithful,  and  besides  suspended,  if  an  ecclesiastic, 
door,  but  like  a  thief  and  a  robber  ;  has  com-    from  all  ecclesiastical  functions ;  but  he  still  continued 

raunicated  with  those  whom  pope  Benedict' %'"'':'"'^«^"f'''°'^''"^<=,'?' 'J".'' '"'fVassist at  the ser^^^^^ 

1                   L     J     """."  i^v^f^v^   ^              ,  of  the  catechumens,  that  is,  at  the   psalmodv,  at  the 

our    predecessor    had    excommunicated    and  reading  of  the  Scriptures,  and  the  sermons.     But  such 

deposed;  has  presumed  to  assemble  a  council  ««   "'ere   anathematized,    were    totally  expelled  the 

„f  u,„  f„lU,...^-„    „ll  ,1 J  _     1          J I  church,  and  debarred  from  all  communion  with  the 

of  his  followers,  all  deposed  and  condemned,  f.^n^,^■^^^  ^.^o  ^ere  not  even  allowed  to  receive  them 

excommunicated  and  anathematized,  and  to  into  their  houses,  to  eat  at  the  same  table,  or  converse 

condemn,  anathematize,  and  depose,  jointly ,  fi""''''i"-iy  with  theni.   From  them  no  oiferings  or  "bia- 

'  '  f^>j}i^  tions  were  received  ;  nor  were  they  buried,  though 


Vol.  II.— 31 


'  Jiicol.  ep.  7, 


absolved  before  death,  with  the  same  rites  as  all  other 
Christians  were. 


942 


Sentence  in  favor  of  Ignatius. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Nicholas. 


The  use  and  worship  of  images  confirmed,  and  the  Theopaschites  condemned. 
Lotharius  gains  over  the  pope's  legates. 


of  the  patriarchal  see  of  Constantinople,  had 
preferred  to  any  order  in  the  church.  The 
pope  then,  proceeding  to  the  restoration  of 
Ignatius,  pronounced  the  following  sentence, 
in  the  name  of  the  council  and  his  own : 

"As  our  most  reverend  and  most  holy 
brother  Ignatius,  patriarch  of  the  holy  church 
of  Constantinople,  has  been  driven  with  vio- 
lence from  his  see  by  the  emperor ;  has  been 
anathematized  by  the  usurper  Photius  and 
his  accomplices,  whom  Benedict  of  holy 
memory,  our  predecessor,  had  long  since 
excommunicated;  and  has  been  stripped  of 
the  ensigns  of  his  dignity  by  the  legates  of 
the  apostolic  see,  contrary  to  our  express 
orders;  we  declare,  by  the  authority  of  the 
supreme  judge  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  that 
he  has  never  been  anathematized  or  deposed ; 
since  they,  who  judged  and  condemned  him, 
had  received  no  such  power  from  the  apos- 
tolic see :  we  therefore,  by  virtue  of  the 
power  conferred  by  our  Lord  upon  us  in 
St.  Peter,  by  the  authority  of  the  canons, 
and  the  decrees  of  our  predecessors,  restore 
our  said  brother  Ignatius  to  his  former  dig- 
nity, to  his  see,  to  the  rank  of  patriarch,  and 
to  all  the  badges  of  his  office;  and  who- 
ever, after  the  publication  of  this  our  de- 
cree, shall  dare  to  molest  or  disturb  him  in 
the  exercise  of  his  ministry,  shall  separate 
himself  from  his  communion,  or  presume 
to  judge  him  anew,  without  the  previous 
consent  of  the  apostolic  s&e,  shall  be  deposed, 
if  he  is  a  clerk,  and  condemned,  with  the 
traitor  Judas,  to  eternal  punishment :  if  he 
is  a  layman  (be  who  he  will,)  he  shall  be 
excommunicated,  accursed,  and  sentenced 
by  the  eternal  judge,  unless  he  repents,  to 
the  same  punishment.  As  for  the  bishops 
and  clerks,  of  Avhat  order  soever,  or  degree, 
who  have  been  banished  or  deposed  on  oc- 
casion of  the  unjust  expulsion  of  Ignatius, 
we  command  them  to  be  recalled,  and  re- 
stored to  their  sees  and  respective  ranks ; 
and  anathematize  all  who  shall  presume  to 
oppose  the  execution  of  this  our  decree.  If 
any  crime  is  laid  to  their  charge,  let  them  be 
first  restored,  and  then  judged  ;  and  by  none 
will  we  suffer  them  to  be  judged  but  by  us, 
and  our  see,  being  authorized  therein  by  the 
canons."  Lastly,  a  decree  was  issued  by 
the  council,  confirming  what  had  been  de- 
creed by  the  popes,  and  other  councils,  con- 
cerning the  images  of  our  Savior,  of  the 
blessed  virgin  Mary,  of  all  the  saints,  whose 
life  and  conversation  had  been  pleasing  to 
God,  from  the  time  of  Abel  to  the  present;  and 
anathematizing  John  of  Constantinople,  with 
his  followers,  teaching  that  images  ought  to 
be  broken,  and  trampled  under  foot.^  To 
these  the  pope  added  two  decrees  of  a  coun- 
cil he  had  held  in  Rome  the  preceding  year; 
the  one  declaring  against  the  Theopaschites, 
whose  heresy  began,  it  seems,  to  spring  up 


>  Nicol.  ep.  7.  Libellus  Synodic. 


anew,  that  Christ  had  suffered  in  his  hu- 
manity, and  not  in  his  divinity,  as  they  pre- 
tended ;  the  other  anathematizing  all  who 
should  maintain,  teach,  or  propagate  the 
opposite  doctrine.'  How  the  pope's  thun- 
dering edicts  were  received  at  Constantino- 
ple, we  shall  see  in  the  sequel. 

This  council  was  held  in  the  month  of 
March  of  the  present  year,  as  is  said  by  the 
pope  in  a  letter  he  wrote  to  Ado,  archbishop 
of  Vienne,  when  he  sent  him  the  pall  f  and 
in  June  following-,  another  was  convened 
likewise  in  Rome,  to  examine  the  acts  of 
the  council  of  Metz  relating  to  the  divorce 
of  Lotharius  and  Theutberga,  an  affair  that 
engaged  the  attention  of  the  pope  no  less 
than  that  of  Ignatius.  He  had  appointed  a 
council  to  assemble  at  Metz,  which  was  to 
consist,  as  has  been  related  above,  not  of 
tlie  bishops  of  the  kingdom  of  Lorraine  only, 
who  were  justly  suspected  of  partiality  for 
their  prince,  but  of  all  the  bishops  of  France 
and  Germany  ;  and  both  parties,  Theutberga 
as  well  as  Lotharius,  were  to  plead  their 
cause  in  person  before  them  and  the  legates ; 
but  the  final  decision  of  the  point  in  dispute, 
the  lawfulness  of  the  divorce,  was  to  be  re- 
ferred to  the  judgment  of  the  apostolic  see. 
With  these  instructions  the  two  legates,  Ro- 
doald  and  John,  set  out  from  Rome ;  and 
repairing,  in  the  first  place,  in  compliance 
with  their  orders,  to  the  court  of  Lorraine, 
they  communicated  them  there  to  the  king. 
Lotharius  well  knew,  that  his  whole  con- 
duct in  this  affair  had  given  great  offence  to 
all  the  Gallican  bishops,  except  those  of  his 
own  kingdom;  that  they  all  loudly  exclaim- 
ed against  the  decision  of  the  council  of  Aix- 
la-Chapelle;  and  consequently  that  they 
would  oblige  him  to  dismiss  Waldrada,  and 
take  Theutberga  again  to  his  bed.  As  for 
his  former  marriage  with  Waldrada,  and  the 
crime  he  laid  to  the  charge  of  the  queen,  he 
was  sensible  that  neither  would  stand  the 
test  of  an  impartial  and  strict  examination: 
the  only  possible  means,  therefore,  that  oc- 
curred to  him  of  surmounting  all  difficulties, 
and  carrying  his  point,  was  to  prevent  any 
other  bishops  from  assisting  at  the  council 
but  his  own,  whose  complaisance  he  had 
already  experienced  in  three  different  coun- 
cils. He  applied  accordingly  to  the  legates, 
and,  with  rich  presents,  and  immense  sums 
of  money,  "immensis  opibus,"  (says  Re- 
gino)  prevailed  upon  them  to  suppress  the 
pope's  letters  to  the  French  kings,  desiring 
them  to  send  each  two  bishops  to  the  coun- 
cil ;  and  likewise  the  circulatory  letter  to  all 
the  Gallican  and  German  bishops :  so  that 
the  council  only  consisted  of  the  bishops  of 
Lorraine ;  and  they  indeed  were  all  present, 
except  Hungarius  of  Utrecht,  who  was  pre- 
vented by  sickness  from  attending  with  the 


>  Nicol.  ep.  7.  Libellus  Synodic. 
»  Bibl.  Floriac.  p.  53. 


Nicholas.]  OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 243 

Waldrada  declared  by  the  council  Lotliarius'  lawful  wife.  The  council  of  Metz  condemned  by  the  pope,  and 
the  archbishops  of  Cologne  and  Treves  deposed  ;  who  apply  to  the  emperor.  The  emperor  goes  to  Rome  ; 
[Vear  of  Christ,  664.] 


rest.  By  the  instructions  given  to  the  le- 
gates, the  queen  was  to  be  admitted  to  the 
council,  was  to  plead  her  cause  in  person 
before  them,  and  if  she  denied  the  crime  laid 
to  her  charge,  and  retracted  her  confession, 
they  were  to  revoke  the  sentence  pronounced 
by  former  councils  against  her.  But  the  le- 
gates, departing  in  every  thing  from  their 
instructions,  did  not  so  much  as  acquaint 
the  queen  with  the  meeting  of  the  council, 
nor  did  they  at  all  inquire,  as  they  were 
strictly  charged  to  do,  into  the  pretended 
marriage  of  Lotharius  and  Waldrada;  but 
having  heard  some  suborned  witnesses 
against  Theulberga,  and  caused  the  acts  of 
the  council  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  to  be  read  to 
them,  they  confirmed  those  acts,  and  declared 
Waldrada  to  be  "  the  lawful  wife  of  the  most 
glorious  and  religious  king  Lotharius."  One 
of  the  bishops,  whose  name  is  not  recorded, 
in  signing  that  decree,  added,  "  that  nothing 
ought  to  be  tiually  determined  till  it  was 
submitted  to  the  judgment  of  the  pope." 
But  these  words  were  cancelled  by  the  arch- 
bishop of  Cologne,  and  the  bishop's  name 
only  left,  as  if  he  had  subscribed  without 
any  restriction,  as  well  as  the  rest."' 

As  the  legates,  and  the  other  bishops  of 
the  council,  were  conscious  to  themselves 
of  the  irregularity  and  injustice  of  their  pro- 
ceedings, it  was  agreed  among  them,  that 
the  two  archbishops  should  repair  to  Rome 
in  person,  should  deliver  the  acts  of  the 
council  to  the  pope,  and  at  the  same  time 
represent  the  affair  to  his  holiness,  by  word 
of  mouth,  in  the  most  favorable  light.  This 
province  the  two  prelates  readily  undertook; 
and  being  admitted  to  the  pope's  presence 
as  soon  as  they  arrived  in  Rome,  they  deli- 
vered the  acts  into  his  hands,  telling  him, 
that  they  had  neither  done  more  nor  less 
than  what  was  there  contained.  As,  before 
their  arrival,  the  pope  had  been  informed  by 
several  persons  come  to  Rome,  as  well  as 
by  letters,  probably  from  the  Galilean  and 
German  bishops,  of  every  thing  that  had 
passed  at  Metz,  he  asked  them  whether 
they  would  stand  to  what  they  had  done  ? 
They  answered,  they  would  not  contradict 
with  their  lips  what  they  had  signed  with 
their  hands.  The  pope  said  no  more;  but, 
dismissing  them,  caused  the  acts  they  had 
brought  to  be  read  in  a  council  that  was 
then  sitting  in  the  Lateran  palace ;  and  they 
were  found  so  full  of  profane  and  unheard 
of  propositions,  says  the  Bibliothecarian, 
that  the  bishops  of  that  assembly  could  not 
help  looking  upon  those  of  Metz  as  men 
seized  with  a  kind  of  phrenzy.  The  judg- 
ment, therefore,  which  they  had  given,  was, 
with  one  consent,  annulled  by  the  pope,  and 
all  the  bishops  who  were  present,  as  only 
calculated  to  encourage  adultery  and  adul- 

»  Nicol.  ep.  58.  Annal.  Berlin. 


terers;  and  the  council  itself  was  stigmatized, 
with  the  name  of  a  brothel.  The  two  arch- 
bishops, Theutgaud  and  Gunlhier,  were 
deposed,  and  forbidden,  on  pain  of  excom- 
munication, to  exercise  any  sacerdotal  or 
episcopal  functions  whatever.  The  other 
bishops,  their  accomplices,  were  threatened 
with  the  like  sentence,  if  they  did  not  re- 
pent, ask  pardon,  and  repair  the  scandal 
they  had  given.  Ingeltrude,  the  wife  of 
count  Boso,  who  had  been  excommunicated 
by  the  pope,'  but  was  absolved  from  that 
excommunication  by  the  council  of  Metz, 
was  excommunicated  anew,  with  all  who 
should  favor  or  countenance  her,  or  commu- 
nicate with  her.  However,  she  was  pro- 
mised forgiveness,  if  she  returned  to  her 
husband,  or,  repenting  of  her  past  wicked- 
ness, applied  for  absolution  to  the  apostolic 
see.  Lastly,  all  were  anathematized  who 
did  not  pay  due  obedience  to  the  decrees  of 
the  apostolic  see  concerning  the  catholic 
faith,  the  ecclesiastic  discipline,  and  the  re- 
formation of  manners. 

The  two  prelates,  highly  provoked  at  the 
haughty  and  arbitrary  proceedings  of  the 
pope  and  his  bishops,  in  thus  condemning 
them  and  a  whole  council,  without  having 
first  heard  what  they  had  to  alledge  in  their 
defence,  left  Rome,  and  repairing  to  the  em- 
peror, who  was  then  at  Benevento,  com- 
plained to  him  of  the  unworthy  treatment 
they  met  with  as  an  affront  not  only  offered 
to  his  brother  the  king  of  Lorraine,  whose 
deputies  they  were,  but  to  himself,  and  the 
whole  royal  family  ;  represented  to  him  the 
deposing  a  metropolitan,  without  the  appro- 
bation of  the  prince,  and  the  consent  of  the 
other  metropolitans,  as  a  thing  never  before 
heard  of,  as  a  notorious  breach  of  the  funda- 
mental laws  of  the  church,  and  an  encroach- 
ing on  the  prerogatives  of  princes,  as  well 
as  on  the  rights  of  all  other  bishops;  and 
therefore  entreated  him  to  exert  his  authority 
to  restrain  the  growing  power  of  the  pope 
within  the  limits  prescribed  by  the  canons, 
and  oblige  him  to  restore  those  Avhcm  he 
had  so  unjustly  deposed,  to  their  former 
rank  and  degrees.  The  emperor  readily  in- 
terposed, and  wrote  to  the  pope  in  their 
favor ;  but  finding  him  unalterable,  and  being 
at  the  same  time,  animated  against  him  by 
the  archbishops,  he  resolved  to  let  him  know 
that  he  was  his  lord  and  his  master.  He  set 
out  accordingly  for  Rome,  with  the  empress, 
with  the  two  archbishops,  and  a  body  of 
troops,  determined  to  make  the  pope  pay 
dear  for  his  disobedience,  if  he  did  not,  in 
compliance  with  his  will,  reinstate  the  de- 
posed bishops  in  their  sees.  The  pope,  in- 
formed of  the  resolution  of  the  emperor,  or- 
dered a  public  fast,  with  public  prayers  and 
processions,  to   implore   the   protection   of 

<  See  p.  239. 


244 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Nicholas. 


The  pope  takes  refuge  in  the  church  of  St.  Peter.     The  emperor  reconciled  with  him.    Gunlhier's  letter  to 
the  bishops  of  Lorraine  and  the  pope. 


heaven,  and  beseech  the  Almighty,  in  whose 
hands  are  the  hearts  of  kings,  to  inspire  the 
prince  with  a  more  favorable  disposition  of 
mind  for  the  see  of  St.  Peter.  The  emperor 
took  up  his  abode  near  the  church  of  St. 
Peter;  and  the  people  coming  thither  in  pro- 
cession to  the  tomb  of  that  apostle,  his 
guards,  alarmed  upon  seeing  the  populace 
assembled  in  such  crowds,  fell  upon  them 
as  they  were  going  up  the  steps  to  the 
church,  threw  some  of  them  down,  beat 
others,  broke  their  crosses  and  banners,  and 
dispersed  the  whole  multitude.  The  pope, 
who  was  then  in  the  Lateran  palace,  being 
informed  of  what  had  passed,  and  at  the 
same  time  told  that  the  emperor  designed  to 
seize  on  his  person,  privately  withdrew  from 
thence,  and  embarking  on  the  Tyber,  took 
refuge  in  the  church  of  St.  Peter,  and  re- 
mained there  two  whole  days,  without  eat- 
ing or  drinking.  In  the  mean  time  the  em- 
peror was,  very  seasonably  for  the  pope, 
seized  with  a  fever;  and  it  was  given  out, 
that  one  died  suddenly,  who,  in  the  late  tu- 
mult, had  broken  a  cross,  which  St.  Helena, 
the  mother  of  Constantine  the  Great,  had 
formerly  given  to  the  Roman  church,  and 
in  which  was  inclosed  some  of  the  wood  of 
the  true  cross.  Whether  this  was  true,  or, 
what  is  more  probable,  a  mere  invention  of 
the  pope  or  his  friends,  we  know  not.  But 
it  had  the  wished  for  effe^ct;  for  the  emperor 
believing  it,  and  thereupon  suffering  super- 
stition to  prevail  over  his  good  sense,  sent 
the  empress  in  person  to  let  the  pope  know 
that  he  might  quit  his  asylum  with  great 
safety,  and  to  invite  him  to  a  conference. 
In  this  interview,  the  pope,  no  doubt,  in- 
formed the  emperor  of  the  true  state  of  the 
affair  of  his  brother  Lotharius,  and  the 
shocking  proceedings  of  the  council  of 
Metz:  and  the  result  was,  that  the  emperor, 
abandoning  the  protection  of  the  two  arch- 
bishops, ordered  them  back  into  France.  As 
the  emperor  came  to  Rome  full  of  wrath 
against  the  pope,  the  troops  he  had  with 
him  committed,  at  first,  most  dreadful  disor- 
ders; they  plundered  the  houses,  and  burned 
them ;  broke  into  the  churches,  and  stripped 
them  of  all  their  valuable  ornaments;  mur- 
dered the  men,  and  ravished  the  women, 
not  sparing  even  those  who  were  shut  up  in 
the  monasteries.'  But  if  the  emperor  came 
like  a  lion,  he  went  away  like  a  lamb;  and 
repairing  to  Ravenna,  he  there  kept  his 
Easter,  which,  in  the  present  year,  864,  fell 
on  the  2d  of  April. 

The  archbishop  of  Cologne,  finding  him- 
self forsaken  by  the  emperor,  and  thereupon 
despairing  of  being  ever  restored  to  his  see, 
drew  up,  in  the  name  of  the  archbishop  of 
Treves,  as  well  as  his  own,  a  kind  of  pro- 
test, or  rather  an  invective  against  the  pope, 
and  sent  it  to  the  bishops  of  the  kingdom  of 

Annal.  Berlin. 


Lorraine.  He  there  entreated  those  bishops 
not  to  credit  the  reports  they  might  hear  to 
his  prejudice  and  his  colleague's;  exhorted 
them  not  to  think  the  worse  of  either  for  any 
thing  Nicholas  had  done,  Nicholas,  said  he, 
who  is  called  pope,  but  affects  the  empire  of 
the  whole  world  ;  encouraged  them  to  con- 
tinue united  among  themselves,  to  visit  their 
king  frequently,  to  assist  him  with  their 
advice,  to  engage  as  many  as  they  could  in 
his  cause,  and,  above  all  things,  to  keep  his 
uncle  Lewis  king  of  Germany  steady  in  his 
interest.  Gunthier,  having  thus  far  directed 
his  speech  to  the  bishops  of  Lorraine,  ad- 
dresses himself  in  the  next  place  to  the  pope, 
in  the  following  words  :  "  we  were  deputed  i 
to  you  by  the  bishops  our  brethren  to  ac-  I 
quaint  you  with  the  j  udgment  we  had  given,  ' 
and  lay  before  you  the  authorities  and  rea- 
sons that  induced  us  to  give  it.  We  com- 
municated them  to  you  accordingly  in 
writing,  in  order  to  know  whether  you  ap- 
proved or  disapproved  of  what  we  had  done ; 
and  humbly  entreated  you  to  teach  and  in- 
struct us,  being  ready  to  embrace  what  should 
be  thought  best.  But  you,  after  keeping  us 
for  three  whole  weeks  in  suspense,  only  de- 
clared one  day  in  public,  that,  according  to 
what  was  set  forth  in  our  writing,  we  seem- 
ed innocent  and  excuseabie.  At  last  you 
sent  for  us ;  and  when  we  were  brought  into 
your  presence,  suspecting  no  ill  treatment, 
you  caused  the  doors  to  be  shut,  and  we 
were  first  set  upon  by  a  mixed  crowd  of 
clerks  and  laymen;  and  then,  without  any 
synod,  or  any  canonical  examination  ;  with- 
out accusers,  witnesses,  or  any  proofs  from 
authority  or  reason  to  convince  us  ;  without 
our  own  confession ;  without  the  concur- 
rence of  other  bishops  or  other  metropoli- 
tans; you  arbitrarily  condemned  us. out  of 
your  tyrannical  rage,  being  instigated  there- 
unto by  your  only  counsellor  Anastasius,  a 
condemned,  deposed,  and  anathematized 
priest:  we  do  not  therefore  submit  to  your 
wicked  sentence,  but  reject  and  despise  it  as 
a  curse  uttered  in  the  transport  of  your  fury, 
contrary  to  justice,  to  reason,  to  the  canons. 
And  satisfied  with  the  communion  of  the 
catholic  church,  which  you  arrogantly 
despise,  and  of  which  you  have  rendered 
yourself  unworthy  by  your  pride,  we  exclude 
you  from  our  communion,  as  an  abettor  of 
excommunicated  persons,  and  one  who  com- 
municates with  them.  You  have  anathe- 
matized yourself  in  anathematizing  those 
who  do  not  observe  the  apostolical  precepts, 
when  you  yourself  have  transgressed  them 
in  so  many  instances,  annulling,  so  far  as  in 
you  lies,  the  institutions  of  your  predeces- 
sors, and  with  them  the  divine  laws,  as  well 
as  the  laws  of  the  church.  It  is  not  to  re- 
venge the  injustice  you  have  done  to  us  in 
particular  that  we  thus  address  you,  but  to 
vindicate  the  dignity,  and  assert  the  rights 
of  our  ordefj  which  you  have  so  iniquitously 


Nicholas.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME.  245 

Gunlhier'B  letter  is  laid  on  the  tomb  of  St.  Peter.  The  archbishop  of  Treves  submits  to  his  sentence,  and  the 
otlier  bisliops  retract  the  judgment  they  had  given.  Letter  of  the  bishop  of  Metz  lo  the  pope.  The  pope's 
answer  to  the  bishop  of  Metz. 


invaded."  He  closes  his  letter  wiih  declar- 
ing, that,  notwithstanding  the  judgment 
given  by  pope  Nicholas  and  his  council, 
Waidrada  was,  by  the  laws  divine,  civil,  and 
canonical,  not  the  concubine,  but  the  lawful 
wife  of  the  king  of  Lorraine.'  The  direc- 
tion of  this  writing  was,  Gunthier  and  Theut- 
gaud  to  pope  Nicholas,  though  Theutgaud 
was  no  ways  concerned  in  it.  Gunthier 
sent  copies  of  it  lo  all  the  bishops  of  Lor- 
raine ;  one  he  transmitted  to  Photius,  desiring 
his  communion,  and  entering  into  a  kind  of 
alliance  with  him  against  the  pope  ;  and  one 
he  charged  his  brother  Hilduin  to  deliver 
into  the  pope's  own  hands,  and,  if  he  would 
not  receive  it,  to  lay  it  on  the  tomb  of  St. 
Peter.  Hilduin  went  accordingly,  attended 
by  a  troop  of  armed  men,  to  present  it  to  the 
pope  Avhile  he  was  in  the  church  of  St. 
Peter;  but  the  pope  refusing  to  receive  it, 
and  the  keepers  of  the  church  striving  at  the 
same  time  to  prevent  him  from  approaching 
the  tomb  of  St.  Peter,  his  men  fell  upon 
them  sword  in  hand,  killed  one  of  them, 
wounded  others,  and  thus  made  way  for 
Hilduin,  who  laid  the  writing  on  the  tomb 
of  the  apostle,  and  then  withdrew  to  his  bro- 
ther, who  was,  it  seems,  still  in  Rome  ;  but 
he  soon  after  returned  to  Cologne,  and  there 
said  mass  on  Maundy  Thursday,  consecrated 
the  chrism,  and  performed  every  other  func- 
tion of  the  episcopal  office.^ 

Of  all  the  bishops  who  had  assisted  at  the 
council  of  Metz,  Gunthier  alone  had  the 
courage  to  oppose  the  uncanonical  and 
arbitrary  proceedings  of  the  pope.  As  for 
the  archbishop  of  Treves,  he  acquiesced, 
from  the  beginning,  in  his  sentence,  and -ab- 
stained from  all  episcopal  functions  ;  and 
the  rest  of  the  bishops,  finding  themselves 
threatened  with  excommunication  and  de- 
position, if  they  did  not  retract  the  judgment 
they  had  given,  thought  it  adviseable  lo  sub- 
mit ;  and  they  wrote  accordingly  to  the  pope, 
owning  or  excusing  their  fault,  and  begging 
his  holiness  to  forgive  them.  Of  the  seve- 
ral letters  ihat,  on  this  occasion,  were  writ- 
ten to  the  pope  by  the  penitent  bishops,  that 
only  of  Adventius  of  Metz  has  been  trans- 
mitted to  us.  He  begins  it  with  extolling 
the  pope  for  the  inimitable  sanctity  of  his 
exemplary  life,  and  excusing  himself,  on  ac- 
count of  his  age,  of  the  gout,  and  other  in- 
firmiiips,  for  not  repairing  in  person  to  the 
thresholds  of  the  apostles,  and  his  most  de- 
sirable presence.  He  then  declares,  that  he 
no  longer  looks  upon  Gunthier  and  Theut- 
gaud as  bishops,  though  the  latter  submits  to 
his  sentence,  forbears  exercising  any  episco- 
pal functions,  confesses  his  fault,  and  owns 
himself  to  have  been  led  astray  by  the  per- 
verse obstinacy  of  the  other,  meaning  Gun- 
thier; and  on  him  he  lays  chiefly  the  blame. 


>  Annal.  Bertin. 


»  Idem. 


exaggerating  his  guilt  in  presuming  to  per- 
form the  functions  of  the  archiepiscopal 
office,  though  degraded  and  excommuni- 
cated by  the  authority  of  the  apostolic  see. 
As  for  himself,  he  protests  before  God,  be- 
fore the  angels  and  archangels,  that,  in  the 
affair  of  king  Lotharius,  he  verily  believed  the 
facts  that  were  related  in  the  council,  relying 
on  the  veracity  of  those  who  related  tiiem  ;' 
that,  agreeably  to  the  canons,  he  submitted 
his  judgment  to  that  of  the  metropolitans,  as 
it  did  not  become  him  to  oppose  them  and  so 
many  bishops,  all  his  seniors  in  the  episco- 
pacy; that  too  much  credulity,  and  a  blind 
deference  to  the  opinion  of  his  superiors  and 
his  brethren,  are  the  only  things  that  can  be 
laid  justly  to  his  charge;  that  he  was  no 
ways  concerned  in  the  absolution  of  Ingei- 
trude;  that  he  not  only  abstains  himself,  but 
exhorts  others  to  abstain,  from  the  commu- 
nion of  such  as  have  been  excommunicated 
by  the  vicar  of  St.  Peter,  if  they  presume  to 
perform  any  sacred  functions;  that  he  is 
guilty  of  no  sedition  or  conspiracy,  but  invi- 
olably attached  to  the  see  of  the  prime  apos- 
tle, whom  our  Savior  had  trusted  with  the 
keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  In  the  close 
of  his  letter,  he  excuses  his  delay  in  sending 
to  Rome  this  his  declaration;  ascribes  it  to 
his  having  first  endeavored  lo  persuade  the 
rest  of  his  brethren  to  act  in  concert  with 
him ;  and  beseeches  his  holiness  to  let  him 
know,  by  the  return  of  the  messenger,  that 
he  has  forgiven  him,  that,  as  he  is  near  his 
end,  he  may  have  the  satisfaction  of  dying  in 
his  communion.2  With  this  letter  Adventius 
sent  another,  written  at  his  request  to  the 
pope,  by  Charles  king  of  France ;  where- 
in that  prince  warmly  recommended  him 
to  his  holiness,  as  one  whom  his  uncle 
Dro^o,  the  immediate  predecessor  of  Ad- 
ventius in  the  see  of  Metz,  had  educated, 
and  thought  worthy  of  his  friendship,  and 
whom  he  himself  had  always  loved  and 
esteemed. 

The  pope  received  the  apology  of  Adven- 
tius, such  as  it  was,  and  so  he  did  that  of 
all  the  other  bishops,  upon  condition  that 
they  renounced  the  communion  of  Gunthier, 
and  encouraged  the  king,  as  was  incumbent 
upon  them,  to  repair  the  scandal  he  had 
given.  Adventius  has  said  in  his  letter,  that 
he  had  submitted  to  the  king  agreeably  to 
the  command  of  the  apostle,  "  Submit  your- 
self to  every  ordinance  of  man  for  the  Lord's 
sake,  whether  it  be  to  the  king  as  supreme, 
&c."3    In  answer  to  that,  the  pope,  in  his 


>  The  improbable  tale  that  Lotharius  married  Wai- 
drada by  the  command  of  the  emperor  Lotharius  his 
fatlif-r,  while  he  was  yet  very  young,  and  was  after- 
wards forced  by  count  Hubert,  surnamed  Acephale,  to 
marry  his  sister  Theutberga,  was  related  in  the  coun- 
cil of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  by  this  very  bi.shop,  an  a  fact  not 
to  he  questioned  ;  nay,  and  is  supposed  to  have  been 
invented  by  him,  to  gratify  the  king. 

>  Apud  Baron,  nd  Ann.  853.  n.  59,  &  seq. 
'St.  Peter,  c.  11:  v.  13. 

V2 


246 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Nicholas, 


Lotharius  abandons  the  archbishop  of  Cologne,  who  discloses  the  whole  to  the  pope  ;  but  is  not,  therefore, 
restored  to  his  see.     The  legate  Rodoald  excommunicated  and  deposed. 


letter,  approves  the  saying  of  the  apostle; 
but  adds,  "  See  whether  the  princes  and 
kings,  to  whom  you  submit,  be  really  princes 
and  kings  ;  whether  they  govern  themselves 
well,  and  likewise  their  subjects ;  for  to 
whom  will  he  be  good,  who  is  not  good  to 
himself?  See  whether  they  have  a  right  to 
the  title  of  princes,  otherwise  we  ought  to 
look  upon  them  as  tyrants  rather  than  princes 
or  kings,  and,  instead  of  submitting  to  them, 
resist  and  oppose  them;  since  we  cannot 
submit  to  them  without  favoring  their  vices. 
Submit,  therefore,  to  the  king  as  supreme, 
or  as  exceeding  all  by  his  virtues,  and  not 
by  his  vices;  and  submit  to  him  for  the 
Lord's  sake,  as  the  apostle  commands,  and 
not  against  the  Lord."  We  have  here  a 
notable  disagreement  between  the  two  popes, 
pope  Peter  and  pope  Nicholas.  Pope  Peter 
thought  obedience  was  due  to  princes,  be 
they  ever  so  bad;  for  Nero,  that  monster  of 
wickedness,  was  king  or  emperor  when  he 
commanded  the  faithful  to  submit  themselves 
to  every  ordinance  of  man,  whether  it  be  to 
the  king,  &c.  But  pope  Nicholas  teaches 
a  very  different  doctrine,  namely,  that  obe- 
dience is  not  due  to  bad  princes,  perverting 
for  that  purpose  the  Avords  of  his  pretended 
predecessor;  "  be  subject  to  the  king  as  ex- 
celling, that  is,"  says  he,  "  as  excelling  in 
virtues,  not  in  vices:"  whereas  the  apostle 
evidently  meant  an  eminency  in  power,  ab- 
stracting from  the  vices,  as  well  as  the  vir- 
tues, of  him  in  whom  it  was  vested.  Be- 
sides, the  pope  here  supposes  that  a  prince 
may  forfeit  his  crown  and  his  title  by  per- 
sonal vices  that  hurt  none  but  himself;  and 
that,  for  such  vices,  we  ought  to  look  upon 
him  as  a  tyrant,  and,  instead  of  submitting 
to  him,  resist  and  oppose  him :  a  most  sedi- 
tious and  impious  doctrine ! 

The  two  archbishops  were  not  so  much 
concerned  at  the  conduct  of  their  brethren 
on  the  present  occasion,  as  at  that  of  the 
king.  They  had  acted  in  this  whole  afifair 
as  he  had  directed  them,  and  it  was  to  gratify 
him  that  they  had  incurred  the  displeasure 
of  the  pope.  But  he,  instead  of  supporting 
them,  no  sooner  heard  of  the  sentence  pro- 
nounced against  them  at  Rome,  than  he 
withdrew  from  their  communion,  and  no 
longer  looking  upon  them  as  bishops,  would 
not  assist  at  the  mass  that  Gunthier,  his 
grand  chaplain,  said  upon  his  return  to  Co- 
logne. He  even  wrote  to  the  pope  by  Ra- 
bold,  bishop  of  Strasburgh,  highly  disap- 
proving the  refractory  behavior  of  the  arch- 
bishop of  Cologne,  and  at  the  same  time 
commending  the  opposite  conduct  of  his  col- 
league, the  archbishop  of  Treves,  in  submit- 
ting to  his  sentence,  and  abstaining  from  all 
the  functions  of  his  ofRce.  In  another  letter 
which  he  wrote  at  this  time  to  the  pope,  he 
referred  the  point  in  dispute  to  the  judgment 
of  the  apostolic  see ;  offered  to  go  to  Rome 
to  plead  his  cause  there  in  person ;  solemnly 


declared  that  it  was  against  his  will  the 
archbishop  of  Cologne  had  said  mass ;  and 
that,  far  from  countenancing  him  in  his  dis- 
obedience, he  had  advised  and  exhorted  him 
to  acquiesce,  as  the  other  had  done,  in  his 
sentence.  The  king  did  not  content  himself 
with  thus  only  disapproving  the  conduct  of 
Gunthier;  he  soon  after  entirely  forsook  him, 
confirmed  the  sentence  of  his  deposition,  and, 
to  recommend  himself  the  more  effectually 
lo  the  favor  of  the  pope,  appointed  him  a 
successor  in  the  see  of  Cologne,  namely, 
Hugh,  cousin-german  to  Charles  the  bald, 
and  nephew  to  the  late  empress  Judith,  who 
was  only  a  subdeacon,  and  led  a  life  un- 
worthy of  a  good  layman.  Gunthier,  highly 
provoked  at  the  ingratitude  of  Lotharius  in 
thus  acknowledging  his  services,  plundered 
the  treasury  of  his  church,  and,  repairing  to 
Rome  with  all  the  wealth  he  found  in  it, 
disclosed  to  the  pope,  without  reserve,  the 
various  artifices  and  inventions  that  had 
been  made  use  of  by  himself  and  the  king  in 
the  affair  of  Theutberga  and  Waldrada,  to 
impose  upon  the  other  bishops,  as  well  as 
the  apostolic  see.  He  flattered  himself,  and 
so  did  Theutgaud,  who  went  to  Rome  at  the 
same  time,  that  the  pope,  satisfied  with  their 
public  confession,  would  absolve  them  from 
the  excommunication,  and  perhaps  restore 
them  to  their  sees,  if  the  emperor,  to  whom 
they  designed  to  apply,  interposed  in  their 
favor.  But  Nicholas,  instead  of  revoking, 
confirmed,  in  a  council  assembled  in  the 
Lateran,  the  sentence  he  had  formerly  pro- 
nounced against  the  two  prelates,  and  ac- 
quainted therewith,  by  a  circulatory  letter, 
the  German  and  Gallican  bishops,  that  they 
might  not  plead  ignorance  in  treating  them 
thenceforth  as  bishops,  or  communicating 
with  them.' 

It  was  probably  in  this  council  that  the 
legate  Rodoald,  bishop  of  Porto,  whose  ava- 
rice and  scandalous  conduct  both  in  the  east 
and  the  west,  reflected  so  much  disgrace  on 
the  holy  see,  was  excommunicated  and  de- 
posed. Conscious  of  his  guilt,  he  had  ab- 
sconded after  the  council  of  Metz  ;  but  re- 
turning to  Rome  when  the  emperor  and  the 
two  archbishops  were  there,  he  unexpectedly 
appeared  before  the  pope  while  he  was  shut 
up,  and  surrounded  by  his  enemies,  in  the 
church  of  St.  Peter.  As  the  pope  could  not 
then  convene  a  council  to  judge  him,  he  or- 
dered him  to  remain  in  Rome  till  the  meet- 
ing of  one,  when  he  should  have  an  oppor- 
tunity of  justifying  his  conduct ;  assured  him, 
that,  in  the  meantime,  he  had  nothing  to 
fear;  but  threatened  him  with  excommuni- 
cation and  deposition,  if,  without  his  leave, 
he  withdrew,  and  absconded  anew.  Rodo- 
ald well  knew  what  would  be  the  conse- 
quence of  his  being  judged  by  the  pope  and 
a  council ;  and  therefore  leaving  Rome  pri- 


'  Annal.  Berlin. 


Nicholas.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


247 

Dispute  between  Hincmar  and  Rothade.    Rothade  is  suspended,  and  appeals  to  the  pope.     Hincmar  puts  a 
stop  to  his  journey  to  Rome.     Rothade  deposed  in  a  council,  and  itnprisoned. 

vately,  he  first  plundered  his  church,  that'mained  there,  to  Soissons,  summoned  him 


of  Porto,  and  then  fled  to  some  other  country, 
where  he  was  never  more  heard  of.  Here- 
upon the  pope,  looking  upon  his  flight  as  a 
confession  of  his  guilt,  excommunicated  and 
deposed  him ;  threatening  at  the  same  time 
to  anathematize  him,  if  he  communicated 
with  the  anathematized  Photius,  or  gave  any 
trouble  to  the  patriarch  Ignatius.'  The  pope, 
it  seems,  apprehended,  that  he  had  fled  into 
the  east,  to  put  himself  there  under  the  pro- 
tection of  his  friend  Photius. 

In  this  same  council,  or  in  one  held  about 
the  same  time,  was  determined  the  dispute 
between  Rothade,  bishop  of  Soissons,  and 
his  metropolitan,  the  celebrated  Hincmar, 
archbishop  of  Reims.  Rothade  had  deposed 
a  presbyter  of  his  diocese  guilty  of  fornica- 
tion. But  Hincmar,  to  whom  the  presbyter 
appealed  knowing  that  he  had  long  borne  a 
secret  grudge  to  the  bishop  of  Soissons,  or- 
dered him  to  be  restored  after  three  years ; 
and  excommunicating  in  the  meantime  the 


to  appear  before  them,  in  order  to  be  judged 
by  those  whom  he  himself  had  chosen  for 
his  judges,  and  from  whose  judgment  there 
lay  no  appeal,  agreeably  to  the  universally 
received  canon  of  the  council  of  Carthage, 
"  ab  electis  judicibus  appellare  non  licet," 
"  it  is  not  lawful  to  appeal  irom  judges  of 
one's  own  choosing."  Rothade  refused  to 
comply  with  the  summons,  solemnly  de- 
clared it  had  never  entered  into  his  thoughts 
to  choose  the  bishops  of  France  for  his 
judges,  taxed  Hincmar  with  unfair  dealing, 
in  intercepting  and  misinterpreting  a  letter 
he  had  written  to  a  friend,  and  renewed  his 
appeal  to  the  pope. 

in  the  mean  time  the  king  coming  to  Sois- 
sons to  assist  at  the  council,  Rothade  had 
an  interview  with  him,  and  was  graciously 
received  ;  but  he  could  not  prevail  upon  him 
to  agree  to  his  going  to  Rome,  without  the 
consent  of  his  metropolitan,  and  the  bishops 
of  the   council,  whose  province  it  was,  he 


presbyter,  whom  Rothade  had  appointed  in  i  said,  to  determine  that  point.  After  this  in- 
his  room,  insisted  on  his  being  forthwith  re-  terview,  he  was  summoned  the  third  time, 
moved  from  his  church,  and  shut  up  in  a    and,  upon  his  still  refusing  to  appear,  taken 


Erison.  As  the  judgment  given  by  Rothade 
ad  been  confirmed  by  no  fewer  than  thirty 
bishops,  he  refused  to  comply  with  that  of 
the  metropolitan,  who  having  thereupon  as- 
sembled a  council  in  the  suburbs  of  Soissons 
in  8G1,  suspended  him,  for  his  disobedience, 
from  episcopal  communion,  till  he  obeyed. 
The  following  year,  Charles  the  bald  having 
appointed  a  council  to  meet  at  Pistes,  now 
Poissi,  Rothade  repaired  thither,  to  assist  at  it 
with  the  rest  of  the  bishops;  but  finding  they 
would  not  admit  him,  alledging  that  he  had 


into  custody,  and  shut  up  in  a  cell,  to  wait 
there  for  his  sentence.  He  had  not  been 
thus  longconfined,  when  three  bishops  came 
to  acquaint  him,  in  the  name  of  the  council, 
that  he  Avas  deposed,  and  no  longer  a  bishop. 
From  this  sentence  Rothade  appealed  anew 
to  the  apostolic  see;  but  Hincmar,  paying  no 
kind  of  regard  to  his  appeal,  caused  him  to 
be  imprisoned,  and  even  ordained  another  in 
his  room.  He  offered  him,  however,  a  rich 
abbey,  upon  condition  that  he  withdrew  his 
appeal,   and    acquiesced    in    his   sentence. 


been  excluded  by  his  metropolitan  from  epis-  \  This  offer  Rothade  rejected  with  scorn  ;  and 


copal  communion,  he  appealed  to  the  apos 
tolic  see ;  and  his  appeal  was  allowed  by  the 
council.  He  therefore  returned  to  Soissons, 
in  order  to  prepare  for  his  journey  to  Rome ; 
but,  before  he  set  out,  he  wrote  to  the  king, 
and  to  Hincmar,  recommending  his  church 
to  their  care  in  his  absence;  and  likewise  to 
one  of  the  bishops,  his  particular  friend,  de- 
siring him  to  apply  to  the  other  bishops,  and 
implore,  in  his  name,  tlieir  assistance.  The 
bishop,  to  whom  this  letter  was  addressed, 
was  returned  to  his  diocese,  when  the  pres- 
byter, who  was  charged  with  it,  arrived  at 
Poissi.  But  Hincmar  and  the  king,  who 
were  still  there,  obliged  him  to  produce  it; 
and  Hincmar,  having  got  it  into  his  pos- 
session, laid  hold  of  what  was  said  in  it  to 
put  a  stop  to  Rothade's  journey  to  Rome. 
He  pretended  that  Rothade,  by  imploring 
the  protection  of  the  bishops  of  France,  had 
consented  to  his  being  judged  by  them,  and 
dropped  his  appeal  to  the  pope.  He  was 
therefore  ordered,  in  the  king's  name,  not  to 
stir  from  his  diocese;  and  Hincmar  repairing 
from  Poissi,  with  the  bishops  who  still  re- 


» Nlcol.  ep.  7. 


Hincnwr  in  the  mean  time,  having  caused 
the  fornicating  priest,  whom  he  had  deposed, 
to  be  made  an  eunuch  (perhaps  the  only  ef- 
fectual remedy  against  the  incontinence  of 
priests)  restored  him  to  his  church.  Thus 
Rothade  in  the  act  of  his  appeal  to  the  pope.' 
But  the  Bertinian  annalist,  who  lived  at  this 
time,  approves  of  his  deposition,  styles  him 
a  new  Pharaoh,  on  account  of  his  obstinacy 
in  not  submitting  to  his  sentence,  and  speaks 
of  him  as  "  a  man  changed  into  a  brute, 
homomutatus  in  belluam."-  However  that 
be,  he  was,  it  seems,  greatly  beloved  by  the 
people  of  his  diocese ;  for  when  the  legates, 
Rodoald  and  John,  came  to  Soissons  to  de- 
liver the  pope's  letter  in  favor  of  Baldwin  to 
the  king,3  they  crowded  from  all  parts,  de- 
manding, with  loud  cries,  the  liberty  and  re- 
storation of  their  bishop,  though  Hilmerade, 
bishop  of  Chalons,  commanded  them,  in  the 
name  of  the  king  and  the  archbishop,  to  de- 
sist, and  endeavored  to  disperse  them  with 
blows,  as  well  as  with  menaces.  I  cannot 
persuade  myself  that  he  would  have  been  so 

»  Apud  Baron,  ad  Ann.  863.  n.  81. 

a  Aniial.  Bertin.  ad  hunc.  et  Ann.  Nicol,  ep.  29. 

'  See  p.  240. 


248 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Nicholas. 


The  pope  orders  Hincmar  to  restore  Rothade  to  his  see.  Letters  from  Hincmar  to  the  pope,  and  from  the  pope 
to  Hincmar.    Kothade  released,  and  allowed  to  go  to  Rome. 


dear  lo  his  Hock,  had  he  answered  ihe  cha- 
racter that  Hincmar  and  the  Bertinian  an- 
nalist, perhaps  partial  to  Hincmar,  have 
given  him.  The  pope  speaks  of  him  very 
favorably;'  but  his  appealing  from  his  me- 
tropolitan and  a  national  council  to  the 
apostolic  see,  was  enough  to  recommend 
him  to  his  holiness'  favor. 

The  pope  was  soon  informed  by  several 
persons  of  what  had  passed  at  Soissons;  and 
he  no  sooner  received  that  information,  than 
looking  upon  the  deposition  of  Rothade  as 
contrary  to  the  canons,  and  derogatory  to 
the  privileges  of  the  apostolic  see,  he  wrote 
to  Hincmar,  ordering  him  to  restore  the  de- 
posed bishop  within  the  term  of  thirty  days 
after  the  receipt  of  his  letter,  to  grant  him 
leave  to  come  to  Rome,  and  either  to  come 
with  him,  or  to  send  a  deputy  to  act  in  his 
name,  on  pain  of  being  "  ipso  facto"  sus- 
pended from  saying  mass  ;  and  that  sentence 
he  extended  to  all  the  bishops  who  had  con- 
sented to  the  deposition  of  Rothade.  Upon 
the  receipt  of  this  letter,  Hincmar,  and  the 
other  bishops  of  the  council  of  Soissons,  dis- 
patched Odo,  bishop  of  Beauvais,  to  Rome, 
with  the  acts  of  that  council,  and  letters  to 
justify  their  conduct,  and  entreat  the  pope 
to  confirm  the  judgment  they  had  given. 
The  king  wrote  at  the  same  time,  and  so  did 
Hermentrude  the  queen,  at  his  request,  to 
beg  the  pope  not  to  patronize  or  protect  one 
whom  the  other  bishop?  had  judged  unwor- 
thy of  the  episcopal  dignity,  and  deposed  in  a 
council.  But  those  letters,  and  much  more, 
the  acts  of  the  council,  only  served  to  engage 
the  pope  more  warmly  in  the  defence  of  Ro- 
thade, or,  as  he  pretended,  of  the  violated 
privileges  of  his  se6 :  he  therefore  wrote  to 
Hincmar,  expressing  great  surprise  and  con- 
cern at  his  presuming  to  judge  and  depose 
one  who  had  appealed  to  the  apostolic  see, 
nay,  and  to  appoint  him  a  successor,  not- 
withstanding his  appeal,  in  defiance  of  the 
canons  received  by  the  whole  church.  This, 
he  tells  Hincmar,  he  cannot  bear,  nor  dis- 
semble being  determined  to  maintain,  to  his 
last  breath,  the  just  rights  of  his  see  ,•  ex- 
horts, or  rather  commands  him  to  set  Ro- 
thade forthwith  at  liberty,  and  no  longer  to 
obstruct  his  journey  to  Rome  under  any 
pretence  whatsoever,  since  he  should  think 
himself  obliged,  if  he  did  not  obey  after  the 
third  admonition  (and  this,  he  tells  him,  is 
the  second)  to  proceed  to  the  sentence  that 
his  disobedience  and  obstinacy  deserved.^ 
The  pope  wrote  at  the  same  time  a  letter, 
much  to  the  same  purpose,  in  answer  to  that 
of  the  bishops  of  the  council ;  for  he  there 
declared  the  sentence  they  had  pronounced 
to  be  repugnant  to  the  canons,  to  those  of 
Sardica  in  particular ;  to  be  inconsistent  with 
the  privileges  of  his  see,  and  consequently 
null;    ordered   them    to   send    Rothade  to 


Rome,  and  two  or  three  bishops  with  him, 
or,  at  least,  two  deputies,  in  order  to  his 
being  judged  anew,  and  either  condemned 
or  absolved,  according  to  the  canons ;  and 
concluded  with  threatening  to  treat  them  as 
they  had  treated  him,  if  they  did  not  obey 
within  the  space  of  thirty  days  after  the 
receipt  of  his  letter.'  In  this  letter,  the  pope 
lays  it  down  as  a  general  rule,  that  when  the 
canons  and  the  imperial  laws,  which  the  bi- 
shops had  alledged  against  appeals,  interfere 
with  one  another,  the  canons  ought  to  take 
place ;  which,  in  eifect,  was  not  only  es- 
tablishing one  empire  within  another, 
"imperium  in  imperio,"  but  subjecting  the 
secular  empire  to  the  ecclesiastic,  the  state  to 
the  church,  and  princes  and  emperors  to  the 
pope  and  the  clergy.  The  pope  wrote  at  the 
same  time  to  the  king,  Charles  the  Bald, 
desiring  him  to  grant  Rothade  liberty  to  come 
to  Rome  f  and  likewise  to  Rothade  himself, 
to  acquaint  him  with  what  he  had  written 
to  Hincmar  and  the  other  bishops,  and  en- 
courage him  to  pursue  in  spite  of  all  opposi- 
tion, his  appeal  to  the  see  of  St.  Peter.^ 

Upon  the  receipt  of  these  letters,  Hincmar, 
unwilling  to  quarrel  with  the  pope,  released 
Rothade  from  his  confinement ;  and  the  king, 
in  a  council  held  at  Verberie,  consented  in 
the  end  to  his  going  to  Rome.''  They  took 
care  to  acquaint  the  pope  immediately  there- 
with by  the  deacon  lindo,  whom  they  dis- 
patched to  Rome  for  that  purpose ;  and  by 
the  same  deacon,  on  his  return  to  France, 
the  pope  wrote  to  the  king,  to  the  queen, 
and  anew  to  Rothade.  In  his  letter  to  the 
king,  he  expressed  great  satisfaction  at  his 
having  granted  to  Rothade  the  so  long  wish- 
ed for  liberty  of  coming  to  Rome,  and  ex- 
horted him  to  supply  him  with  what  was 
necessary  for  his  journey  .^  He  excused  him- 
self, in  his  letter  to  the  queen,  for  not  com- 
plying with  her  request,  since  he  could  not 
abandon  one,  who,  thinking  himself  injured, 
had  appealed  to  him;^  and  encouraged  Ro- 
thade anew,  in  his  letter  to  him,  to  adhere 
to  his  appeal,  provided  he  was  conscious  to 
himself  of  his  innocence;  but,  if  he  was  not, 
to  acquiesce  in  his  sentence,  and  not  give 
himself  and  others  unnecessary  trouble.  ^ 

Hincmar,  finding  his  conduct  gave  great 
offence  at  Rome,  wrote  a  long  letter  to  the 
pope,  to  show  that  Rothade  had  no  reason 
to  complain  of  any  injustice  done  him  ;  but, 
on  the  contrary,  that  they  had  treated  him 
with  more  lenity  than  he  deserved,  and  had 
acted  agreeably  to  the  canons  both  in  judg- 
ing and  condemning  him.  The  only  charge 
brought  against  him  by  Hincmar  in  the 
council,  was  his  obstinately  refusing  to  re- 
store the  presbyter  whom  he  had  deposed, 
notwithstanding  the  express  command  of 


»  Nicol.  ep.  29. 


2  Idem  ep.  28. 


'  Nicol.  ep.  32. 
*  Annal.  Berlin. 
I     '  Epist.  37. 


3  Idem,  ep.  30. 
5  Epist.  35. 


^  Idem,  ep.  29. 
6  Epiat.  36. 


Nicholas.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


249 


Hincuiar's  letter  to  the  pope.     He  taxes  him  with  acting  contrary  to  the  canons.     Rothade  goes  to  Rome,  and 
is  reinstated  in  his  dignity,  and  restored  to  his  see  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  665.] 


his  metropolitan,  to  whom  he  owed  obedi- 
ence. But,  in  his  letter  to  the  pope,  he 
charges  him  besides  with  having  alienated 
and  squandered  away  the  revenues  of  his 
church,  with  having  disposed  of  many  rich 
offerings  made  by  his  predecessors,  and 
others,  for  the  redemption  of  their  souls ; 
with  having  pawned  a  golden  chalice  en- 
riched with  precious  stones,  without  the 
knowledge  of  the  other  bishops,  of  his  me- 
tropolitan, or  even  of  the  ccconomus,  or 
steward  of  the  church  ;  and,  lastly,  with 
having  lived,  in  spite  of  repeated  admoni- 
tions, in  a  manner  unworthy  of  any  ecclesi- 
astic, and  much  more  of  a  bishop,  to  the 
great  scandal  of  the  flock  committed  to  his 
care.  Hincmar,  in  the  next  place,  proceeds 
to  show,  that  Rothade  had  acted  contrary  to 
the  canons  in  appealing,  after  his  condem- 
nation, to  the  pope,  and  not  the  bishops  of 
the  council  in  rejecting  his  appeal,  and  not 
suffering  him  to  pursue  it  at  Rome.  But, 
to  prove  this,  he  takes  it  for  granted,  that 
Rothade  had  withdrawn  his  appeal,  and 
consented  to  be  judged  by  the  bishops  of  the 
same  province  ;  which  he  absolutely  denied, 
as  has  been  observed  above.  As  the  pope 
had,  in  all  his  letters,  reproached  Hincmar, 
as  well  as  the  other  bishops  of  the  council 
of  Soissons,  with  a  manifest  breach  of  the 
canons,  especially  of  the  canons  of  the  coun- 
cil of  Sardica,  in  not  permitting  Rothade  to 
go  to  Rome  after  his  appeal,  and  plead  his 
cause  in  person,  at  the  tribunal  to  which  he 
had  appealed;  Hincmar,  in  answer  to  that 
reproach,  allows  the  pope  to  have  been  em- 
powered by  the  council  of  Sardica  to  receive 
appeals  from  the  judgment  of  the  metropo- 
litans and  provincial  synods;  and  that,, by 
virtue  of  such  a  power,  he  may  order  the 
cause  to  be  judged  anew.  But  he  observes 
at  the  same  time,  and  very  justly,  that  this 
is  not  to  be  done  at  Rome,  but  in  the  pro- 
vince;  it  being  ordained  by  several  coun- 
cils, and  even  by  that  of  Sardica  itself,  that 
all  disputes  should  be  determined  in  the 
places  where  they  arose;  and  that  the  pope 
may  therefore  cause  the  judgment  to  be  re- 
newed in  the  province  where  it  was  given, 
and  send,  if  he  pleases,  a  legate  to  assist  at 
it  in  his  name;  but  is  not  authorized  by  the 
council  of  Sardica,  or  any  other  council,  to 
summon  the  deposed  bishop,  or  those  who 
deposed  him,  to  Rome.  He  adds,  that  never- 
theless, at  the  desire  of  his  holiness,  Rothade 
has  been  set  at  liberty,  and  may  undertake, 
when  he  pleases,  his  intended  journey  to 
Rome;  but  that  if  the  pope  should  reverse 
the  sentence  pronounced  against  him  by  his 
metropolitan  and  the  bishops  of  the  province, 
the  judgment  of  provincial  as  well  as  na- 
tional synods  would,  for  the  future,  be  quite 
disregarded;  that  the  greatest  offenders, 
when  condemned  by  them,  would  recur  to 
Rome  as  to  a  safe  asylum;  and  that,  as  for 
himself,  he  would  never  agaia  take  upon 
Vol.  II.— 32 


him  to  judge  any  other,  but  should  only  ad- 
monish them,  and,  if  they  did  not  hearkea 
to  his  admonitions,  refer  them  to  the  judg- 
ment of  the  apostolic  see.' 

As  the  pope  had,  in  all  his  letters  to  Hinc- 
mar and  the  other  bishops  of  the  council  of 
Soissons,  insisted  on  their  sending  deputies 
to  Rome,  to  maintain  the  judgment  they  had 
given,  they  yielded  at  last;  and  their  depu- 
ties set  out  accordingly,  together  with  Ro- 
thade, and  Robert,  bishop  of  Mans,  who 
was  charged  with  letters  from  the  king  to 
the  pope,  and  probably  with  the  letter  which 
I  have  just  mentioned  from  Hincmar.  But 
the  emperor  refusing  to  let  them  pass  through 
his  dominions,  they  slopped  at  Besan^on; 
and  from  thence  the  bishop  of  Mans  and  the 
deputies,  not  displeased  at  the  disappoint- 
ment, wrote  to  the  pope  to  acquaint  him 
with  it,  and  then  returned  to  France.  But 
Rothade,  pretending  sickness,  staid  at  Be- 
san9on,  till,  by  means  of  his  friends  at  the 
courts  of  Lotharius  and  Lewis  king  of  Ger- 
many, he  obtained  the  emperor's  permission 
to  pursue  his  journey  to  Rome,  where  he 
arrived  in  the  month  of  June,  8G4.  Some 
time  after,  deputies  arrived,  sent  by  Hinc- 
mar with  the  letter  mentioned  above,  and 
two  more  from  him  to  the  pope.^  But  as 
those  deputies  were  not  commissioned  to  ac- 
cuse or  prosecute  Rothade,  and  nobody  else 
appeared  against  him,  the  pope,  after  per- 
forming divine  service  on  Christmas  eve  in 
the  church  of  St.  Mary  the  Greater,  went  up 
into  the  reading  desk ;  and  having  from 
thence  related  and  explained  the  whole  af- 
fair of  that  bishop,  as  set  forth  by  him  in 
his  memorial,  and  observed  in  particular,, 
that  he  never  had  withdrawn  his  appeal  to 
the  apostolic  see,  as  was  falsely  and  mali- 
ciously asserted  by  Hincmar,  he  declared 
him  worthy  of  the  episcopal  ornaments,  and 
ordered  him  to  resume  them;  which  he  did 
accordingly,  with  the  consent  and  approba- 
tion of  the  bishops,  presbyters,  and  deacons, 
who  were  present,  and  the  whole  assembly, 
promising  to  answer  his  accusers  when  any 
should  appear  against  him.^  Thus  was 
Rothade  reinstated  in  his  dignity;  but  the 
pope,  waiting  for  his  accusers,  did  not  re- 
store him  to  his  see,  nor  allow  him  to  per- 
form any  episcopal  functions,  till  the  21st 
of  January,  the  festival  of  St.  Agnes,  when 
ofliciating  in  the  church  of  that  saint,  he  de- 
clared him,  in  a  most  solemn  manner,  to 
have  been  unjustly  deposed,  to  appear  inno- 
cent of  the  charge  hrought  against  him,, 
since  none  had  attempted  to  make  it  good 
during  the  long  stay  he  had  made  at  Rome, 
and  consequently  to  have  never  forfeited  the 
right  he  had  to  preside  in  the  see  of  Soissons. 
The  act  of  his  restoration  was  then  publicly 
read;   and   he  thereupon    said    mass   with 

'  Apud  Flodoard.  1.  iii.  c.  13.  &.  Baron,  ad  Ann.  865. 
n.  .15. 
»  Idem,  I.  xii.  c.  14.  '  Anast.  in  Nicol. 


250 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Nicholas. 


Arsenius  sent  info  France,  with  the  character  of  legate  a  latere,  to  determine  the  affair  of  Lotharius.  Charged 
with  several  letters.     He  repairs  to  the  courts  of  the  French  princes,  with  letters  in  favor  of  the  emperor. 


great  solemnity  in  the  neighboring  church 
of  St.  Constantia.' 

Soon  after  Rolhade  set  out  from  Rome  on 
his  return  to  France,  accompanied  by  Arse- 
nius, bishop  of  Orta,  in  Tuscany,  a  man  of 
a  most  haughty  and  imperious  temper, 
whom  the  pope  sent  with  him  to  see  him 
reinstated  in  his  see,  and  at  the  same  time  to 
determine  the  affair  of  Lotharius.  Arsenius 
was  charged  with  letters  from  the  pope  to 
Charles  the  Bald,  to  Hincmar,  and  to  the 
Galilean  bishops,  all  tending  to  ascertain  the 
right  he  claimed  of  receiving  appeals  from 
national  as  well  as  provincial  synods ;  of 
obliging  the  parties  to  plead  their  cause  at 
Rome;  and  of  confirming  or  annulling  the 
judgment  given  in  the  provinces,  as  it  should 
be  found  agreeable  or  repugnant  to  the  de- 
cisions of  the  councils,  or  the  decrees  of  the 
apostolic  see.  But  the  only  proofs  he  al- 
ledged  to  maintain  this  pretended  right,  were 
either  taken  from  the  canons  of  councils  fal- 
sified or  misunderstood,  or  from  such  de- 
cretals as  are  now  universally  allowed  to  be 
spurious.  However,  Nicholas  declared  them 
all  to  be  ancient,  genuine,  and  of  great  au- 
thority in  the  church ;  and  because  the 
greater  causes,  causae  majores,  were  said 
by  Gregory  the  Great  to  belong  to  the  first 
bishop,  or  the  bishop  of  Rome,  by  greater 
causes,  he  understood  the  causes  of  bishops; 
and  from  thence,  concluded  that  they  could 
be  finally  determined  onfy  at  Rome.  In  his 
letter  to  Hincmar,  he  acquaints  him  with 
the  judgment  given  in  favor  of  Rothade,  and 
commands  him,  by  virtue  of  his  apostolic 
authority,  either  to  come  in  person  to  accuse 
him,  or  to  acquiesce  in  that  judgment,  on 
pain  of  being  himself  degraded,  and  forever 
cut  off  from  the  communion  of  the  catholic 
church.-  He  tells  the  Gallican  bishops,  in 
his  letter  to  them,  that  Rothade  did  not 
Avithdraw  his  appeal,  that  he  could  not 
withdraw  it,  and  consent  to  his  being  judged 
by  them,  all  appeals  from  a  superior  to  an 
inferior  tribunal  being  in  themselves  void 
and  null.  He  adds,  that  they  are  still  free 
to  make  good,  if  they  can,  the  charge  brought 
against  him  at  the  tribunal  to  which  he  ap- 
pealed ;  but  insists  on  their  first  reinstating 
him  in  his  see,  and  restoring  him  to  his  for- 
mer condition  ;  which  was  requiring  them 
to  reverse  their  own  sentence.  To  this  the 
GaUican  bishops  would  not  agree;  and  there- 
fore, unwiUing  to  quarrel  with  the  pope,  the 
rather  as  they  apprehended  that  the  king, 
who,  at  this  juncture,  wanted  his  assistance, 
would  not  support  them,  they  suffered  Ro- 
thade to  take  undisturbed  possession  of  his 
see.3 

'  Anast.  in  Nicol.  a  Nicol.  ep.  41. 

3  From  the  letters  of  Hincmar,  and  the  whole  con- 
duct of  the  Gallican  bishops  on  this  occasion,  it  ap- 
pears. I.  That  they  knew  of  no  other  tribunal  for  the 
judging  of  bishops  but  the  council  of  the  province. 
II.  That  they  allowed  of  appeals  to  the  apostolic  see 
after,  but  not  before,  judgment  was  given  by  the 


The  restoration  of  Rothade  was  not  the 
only  commission  that  the  legate  Arsenius 
Avas  charged  with.  As  Charles,  king  of 
Provence,  brother  to  the  emperor  Lewis,  and 
to  Lotharius,  king  of  Lorraine,  died  at  this 
time  without  issue,  and  a  war  was  thereupon 
likely  to  ensue  about  his  dominions,  between 
the  two  brothers  of  the  deceased  prince  and 
the  two  uncles,  Lewis,  king  of  Germany, 
and  Charles,  king  of  France,  the  pope  inter- 
posed at  the  request  of  the  emperor;  and 
glad  of  an  opportunity  to  oblige  him,  as  he 
wanted  his  assistance  against  Lotharius,  he 
ordered  his  legate  to  repair  to  the  courts  of 
France  and  Germany,  and  exert  the  whole 
authority  of  his  see  in  diverting  those  princes 
from  any  attempts  upon  a  kingdom,  to  which 
the  emperor  had,  he  said,  an  hereditary  and 
unquestionable  right.  He  wrote  by  Arse- 
nius to  both  princes,  exhorting  them  to  peace 
and  concord  ;  and  likewise  to  the  bishops  of 
their  respective  kingdoms,  requiring  them  to 
promote,  to  the  utmost  of  their  power,  a 
friendly  correspondence  between  the  ,  two 
kings  and  the  emperor,  that  the  emperor 
might  not  be  obliged  to  turn  against  the 
faithful  the  sword  which  he  had  received 
from  the  vicar  of  the  prince  of  the  apostles 
to  be  employed  against  the  infidels,'  but 
might  be  allowed  to  govern,  with  piety  and 
justice,  the  kingdoms  which  had  devolved 
to  him  by  inheritance,  and  he  had  been  con- 
firmed in  by  the  sovereign  pontiff  placing 
the  crown  on  his  head.  He  closes  his  letter 
with  threatening  to  excommunicate,  and  ex- 
clude forever  from  the  church,  all  the  ene- 
mies of  his  son  the  emperor,  and  all  who 
shall  presume  to  make  war  upon  him,  or 
invade  his  dominions.^ 


bishops  of  the  province.  HI.  That  thpy  acknowledged 
no  power  in  the  pope,  when  appealed  to,  of  removing 
the  cause  to  Rome,  but  that  only  of  ordering  the  judg- 
ment to  be  renewed  in  the  province,  and  sending,  if 
he  pleased,  legates  to  assist  at  it  in  his  name.  And 
truly  no  other  power  was  granted  to  the  pope  by  the 
canons  of  Sardica;  nay,  by  those  canons,  the  pope 
was  not  empowered  to  re-examine  the  cause  upon  an 
appeal ;  but  only  to  determine  whether  it  should  or 
should  not  be  re-e.\amined.  If  he  found  that  it  should, 
because  it  had  not  been  sufficiently  discussed,  or  the 
judges  had  been  influenced  by  favor  or  hatred,  he 
was,  in  that  case,  to  order  the  judgment  to  be  renewed 
in  the  province,  either  by  the  same  bishops  only,  and 
his  legate  or  legates,  or  by  the  bishops  of  the  neigh- 
boring province  together  with  them.  Leo  the  Great 
was  the  first  who  claimed  a  power  of  summoning 
bishops  to  Rome,  and  judging  their  cause  anew  there. 
—  (See  vol.  I.  p.  194.  note  1.)  Hincmar  and  the  Gal- 
lican bishops  were  sensible,  that,  in  this  whole  affair, 
the  pope  had  acted  contrary  to  the  very  canons  he 
quoted  to  authorize  his  conduct.  Both  loth  to  break 
with  him,  which,  they  apprehended,  would  be  attend- 
ed, with  no  small  disturbances  in  the  state,  as  well  as 
the  church,  they  did  not  oppose  the  restoration  of  the 
deposed  bishop,  how  arbitrary  soever  and  uncanoni- 
cal,  the  rather  as  the  person  they  had  named  to  suc- 
ceed him  was  dead  ;  but  contented  themselves  with 
remonstrating,  in  all  their  letters,  against  it,  as  repug- 
nant to  the  canons,  as  tending  to  subvert  all  disci- 
pline, and  encourage  offenders  to  pay  no  sort  of 
regard  to  the  judgment  of  the  metropolitans  and  pro- 
vincial synods. 

>  The  pope  had  crowned  the  emperor;  and  he  alludes 
here  to  that  ceremony. 

a  Nice),  ep.  25. 


Nicholas.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


251 


Arseniua  is  well  received  by  the  king  of  Germany.  His  insolent  and  haughty  behavior  at  the  court  of  Lorraine 
His  negotiations  with  Charles  of  France.     Obliges  Lotharius  to  take  back  Theutberga. 


With  these  letters  Arsenius  repaired  first 
to  the  court  of  Lewis,  king  of  Germany, 
who  was  then  at  Frankfort ;  and  he  not  only 
received  him  with  extraordinary  marks  of 
honor  and  respect,  but  agreed,  at  his  request, 
to  meet  the  two  kings,  Charles  and  Lotha- 
rius at  Cologne,  and  there  to  renew,  jointly 
with  them,  the  treaty  of  peace,  which  they 
had  concluded  among  themselves  and  with 
the  emperor,  before  the  death  of  the  king  of 
Provence.'  The  legate,  at  the  same  time, 
engaged  the  king  to  concur  with  him  in  per- 
suading his  nephew,  the  king  of  Lorraine, 
to  dismiss  Waldrada,  and  to  be  reconciled  to 
his  lawful  wife  Theutberga.  As  it  was 
chiefly  to  determine  that  affair  Arsenius  had 
been  sent  into  France,  and  the  pope  had 
vested  him  for  that  purpose  with  all  his 
power  and  authority,  from  Frankfort  he 
pursued  his  journey  to  Lorraine,  where  he 
■was  no  less  honorably  received  by  Lotharius 
than  he  had  been  in  Germany  by  Lewis. 
The  king  granted  him  a  public  audience  the 
day  after  his  arrival,  attended  by  most  of  the 
bishops  and  the  great  lords  of  the  kingdom, 
received  him,  as  representing  the  vicar  of 
St.  Peter,  Avith  all  possible  marks  of  distinc- 
tion, and  declared  himself  ready  to  comply 
in  all  things  with  the  admonitions  and  direc- 
tions of  the  holy  pope  Nicholas.  In  return 
for  these  civilities,  the  haughty  legate  ab- 
ruptly told  him,  that  he  was  sent  by  the  so- 
vereign pontifT  to  remove  the  scandal  he  had 
given  by  putting  away  his  lawful  wife,  and 
marrying  a  prostitute  in  her  room  ;  and  that 
he  must  therefore  consent  to  dismiss  the  one, 
and  take  back  the  other,  or  he  would  that 
instant  pronounce  the  sentence  of  excom- 
munication against  him.  The  king  was'no 
less  provoked  than  surprised  at  the  boldness 
of  the  legate;  but  apprehending  that,  were 
he  excommunicated,  the  kings  of  France 
and  Germany  would  lay  hold  of  that  oppor- 
tunity to  invade  his  dominions,  he  thought 
it  advisable  to  yield.  But  the  legate,  not 
satisfied  with  his  promising  to  drive  Wal- 
drada from  his  bed,  obliged  him  to  swear 
that  he  would  never  recall  her;  that  he  would 
break  off  all  correspondence  with  her;  that 
lie  would  ever  thenceforth  treat  Theutberga 
as  his  lawful  wife,  and  marry  no  other  in 
her  life  time.  The  same  oath  was  taken, 
in  the  king's  name,  at  the  desire  of  the  le- 
gate, by  twelve  of  the  chief  counts  of  the 
kingdom.^ 

Arsenius,  proud  of  the  success  of  his  ne- 
gotiations at  the  court  of  Lorraine,  proceed- 
ed from  thence,  pursuant  to  his  instructions, 
to  that  of  Charles  of  France,  to  persuade 
that  prince,  as  he  had  done  Lewis,  of  Ger- 
many, to  renew  the  treaty  of  peace  witli  the 
emperor,  as  well  as  witlt  the  king  of  Lor- 
raine :    and  his  negotiations  were  attended 

'  Annal.  Fuld. 

'  Annul.  Benin,  tc  Mctens.  ad  ann.  665,  866.  Nicol. 
ep.  58. 


there  with  the  same  success  as  at  the  other 
two  courts;  for  Charles  not  only  confirmed 
the  peace,  but  agreed  to  an  interview  Avith 
his  nephew  Lotharius,  who  had  solicited  the 
legate  to  procure  it,  in  order  to  settle  some 
points  that  might  create  a  misunderstanding 
between  him  and  his  uncle,  and  establish  by 
that  means  a  perfect  harmony  between  the 
two  kingdoms.  Lotharius  no  sooner  heard 
of  the  peaceable  disposition  of  his  uncle, 
than  he  repaired  to  Attigni,  where  Charles 
then  was;  and  there,  by  the  interposition  of 
the  legate,  matters  were  settled  in  a  very 
short  time,  to  the  entire  satisfaction  of  the 
two  kings.  As  Theutberga  had  taken  refuge 
in  the  kingdom  of  Charles,  upon  the  death 
of  her  brother,  count  Hubert,  with  whom 
she  had  lived  in  the  territories  of  the  empe- 
ror, Arsenius  sent  privately  for  her  before 
Lotharius  left  Attigni,  and,  in  order  to  render 
the  reconciliation  more  authentic  and  so- 
lemn, presented  her  to  him  when  he  least 
expected  it,  in  the  presence  of  the  king  his 
uncle,  of  all  the  great  lords  of  his  court,  and 
of  a  great  many  bishops,  whom  he  had  as- 
sembled for  that  purpose,  telling  him  with 
an  air  of  authority,  that  he  presented  to  him 
his  lawful  wife,  in  the  name  of  the  prince 
of  the  apostles,  and  the  sovereign  pontiff  his 
vicar;  that  if,  unmindful  of  his  oath,  he  re- 
fused to  take  her  back,  if  he  ever  parted 
with  her  again,  or  persecuted  her  anew  as 
he  had  hitherto  done,  in  defiance  of  the  most 
sacred  laws,  human  and  divine,  he  declared 
him  excommunicated  in  this  world,  and 
eternally  damned  in  the  other.  Lotharius 
was,  as  we  may  well  imagine,  highly  pro- 
voked at  the  haughty  and  imperious  beha- 
vior of  the  legate;  but,  dissembling  the  in- 
dignation it  raised  in  his  breast,  as  he  knew 
that  the  king  his  uncle,  and  the  whole  court, 
favored  the  queen,  he  offered  her  his  hand 
with  a  cheerful  countenance,  declaring,  that 
he  was  ready  to  comply  in  all  things  with 
the  directions  of  the  holy  pope  Nicholas.' 

The  legate,  having  thus  happily  executed 
the  chief  commission  he  was  charged  with, 
published,  before  he  left  Attigni,  a  letter  from 
the  pope,  fraught  with  most  dreadful  curses, 
such,  says  the  Bertinian  annalist,  as  had 
never  before  been  heard  in  France,  against 
certain  persons,  who  had  robbed  the  legate 
of  a  considerable  sum  of  money  some  years 
before,  if  they  did  not  restore  it.  At  the 
same  time  he  thundered  out  anew,  in  the 
pope's  name,  the  sentence  of  excommuni- 
cation against  Ingellrude,  the  wife  of  count 
Boso,  who,  abandoning  her  husband,  as  has 
been  related  above,  hlid  taken  refuge,  with 
her  adulterer,  in  tiie  kingdom  of  Lorraine. 
The  legale,  availing  himself  of  the  great  re- 
gard shown  by  Charles  for  the  apostolic  see,, 
demanded,  and  obtained,  of  him,  the  restitu- 
tion of  certain  lands  that  Lewis  the  Debon- 


*  Annal.  Berlin.  &  Metens.  ad  ann.  809,  8C6.  Nicol. 
ep.  58. 


252 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Nicholas. 


Theulberga  reinstated  in  her  dignity.     The  legate  sets  out  with  Waldrada  on  his  return  to  Rome.    Ingeltrude 
joins  them  ;  but  soon  leaves  them  and  is  excommunicated  anew.     Waldrada  recalled  by  Lotharius. 


naire  had  formerly  granted  to  St.  Peter,  and 
a  count  named  Wido  had  possessed  for  many 
years.'  On  this  occasion  Arsenius  presented 
JRothade  to  the  king,  and  warmly  recom- 
mended him,  in  the  name  of  his  holiness, 
to  his  protection  and  favour;  and  he  govern- 
ed the  church  of  Soissons  in  peace  and  tran- 
quillity to  the  hour  of  his  death. 

From  Attigni  the  legate  set  out,  in  the 
month  of  August  of  the  present  year  865, 
with  the  king  of  Lorraine  and  queen  Theut- 
berga,  for  Gondreville,  a  royal  palace  be- 
longing to  that  prince  on  the  Moselle.  Upon 
their  arrival  there,  Arsenius,  encouraged  by 
the  success  that  had  hitherto  attended  him, 
and  more  by  the  dread  the  king  stood  in  of 
the  excommunication,  with  which  he  was 
threatened,  insisted  on  his  publicly  repairing 
the  scandal  he  had  publicly  given  by  putting 
away  his  lawful  wife,  and  marrying  another 
woman  in  her  room.  To  this  too  the  king 
consented,  much  against  his  will;  and  on 
the  15th  of  August,  the  festival  of  the  as- 
sumption of  the  virgin  Mary  ,2  the  legate 
said  mass  with  great  solemnity ;  and  the 
king  and  queen  assisted  at  it  in  their  royal 
habits  and  their  crowns,  attended  by  the 
bishops,  and  all  the  grandees  of  the  kingdom.^ 

The  legate  was  not  yet  satisfied ;  but  ap- 
prehending that  the  presence  of  Waldrada 
would  soon  rekindle  the  king's  passion,  and 
make  him  forget  all  his  gpod  resolutions,  he 
ordered  her  to  attend  him  to  Rome,  to  be 
there  absolved  by  the  pope  from  the  heinous 
sin  she  Avas  guilty  of  in  living  with  the  king 
as  his  wife.  Waldrada,  awed  by  the  an- 
athema with  which  the  legate  threatened 
her,  durst  not  disobey;  and  Lotharius  had 
the  mortification  to  see  her  set  out  with  the 
legate  on  her  journey  to  Rome.     Arsenius 


'  Annal.  Berlin.  &  Mentens.  ad  ann.  865,,866.  Nicol. 
cp.  ^8. 

2  The  assumption  of  the  virgin  Mary,  in  soul  and 
body,  into  heaven,  was  never  heard  of  till  the  eighth 
century,  abbot  Authpertus,  who  died  in  778,  being  the 
first  who  spoke  of  it,  and  used  the  word  assumption  : 
and  from  his  words  it  appears,  that,  in  his  time,  some 
believed  that  she  was  assumed  in  her  body,  and  some 
that  she  was  assumed  out  of  it,  "sive  in  corpore,"  says 
he,  "sive  e.\tra  corpus  assumptam  super  coelos  creda- 
mus." — (Vit.  S.  Ambros.  Authpert.  apud  Mabil.  sect, 
iii.  Benedict,  part,  ii.)  However,  that  she  was  as- 
sumed in  soul  and  body  into  heaven  is  now  generally 
believed  in  the  church  of  Rome  ;  and  woe  to  the  man 
who  should  assert  the  contrary  in  .Spain  or  in  Italy, 
though  It  has  not  the  least  foundation  in  the  sacred 
writings,  in  those  of  the  fathers  of  the  first  eight  cen- 
turies, or  in  history.  The  reader  will  find  in  Pellart, 
who  wrote  in  the  fifteenth  century,  and  dedicated  his 
book  to  pope  Si.xtus  IV.,  a  very  particular  and  curious 
account  of  the  death  of  the  virgin  Mary,  at  which  as- 
sisted all  the  apostles,  conveyed  on  wliite  clouds  to 
her  house  from  the  different  corners  of  the  earth;  of 
her  resurrection,  and  her  assumption  into  heaven  in 
soul  and  body.  As  she  was  thus  assumed,  we  have 
no  relics  of  her  besides  her  milk;  but  of  that  there  is 
such  a  quantity,  as  sufficiently  supplies  the  want  of 
all  other  relics.  As  to  the  passage  in  the  chronicle  of 
Eusebius,  and  the  pieces  ascribed  to  St.  Austin,  to  St. 
Jerom,  and  to  Dionysius  the  areopagite,  wherein  men- 
lion  is  made  of  the  assumption,  they  are  now  univer- 
sally allowed  to  be  spurious. 

3  Annal.  Berlin.  &  Metens.  ad  ann.  865,  866.  Nicol. 
ep.  58. 


passed,  in  his  return  to  Italy,  through  Ger- 
many and  Bavaria,  to  recover,  by  the  favor 
of  king  Lewis,  some  patrimonies  of  St.  Peter 
that  lay  in  those  countries.     He  found  the 
king  at  Worms;  and  there  Ingeltrude,  being 
driven   by  Lotharius  from   his   dominions, 
unexpectedly  presented  herself  before  him, 
in  order  to  go  with  him  to  Rome,  and  there 
obtain  of  the  pope,  by  his  mediation,  abso- 
lution  from  the   excommunication   he  had 
twice  thundered  out  against  her.    At  Worms 
she  took  the  following  oath,  in  the  presence 
of  the  legate,  and  probably  at  his  request: 
"  I,  Inseltrude,  daughter  of  the  late  count 
Mattefrid,  and  wife  of  count  Boso,  swear  to 
you  lord  Arsenius,  bishop,  envoy,  and  apo- 
crisarius  of  the  holy  catholic  and  apostolic 
see,  and  in  you  to  my  lord  Nicholas,  sove- 
reign pontiff  and  universal  pope;  I  swear,  I 
say,  by  the  Father,  by  the  Son,  by  the  Holy 
Ghost,  and  by  the  four  holy  Gospels,  which 
I  kiss  with  my  mouth,  and  touch  with  my 
hands,  that   I  shall  quit  the  wicked  life  I 
have  led  to  the  disgrace  of  the  above-men- 
tioned Boso,  my  husband;  shall  return,  like 
a  strayed  sheep,  to  the  fold  of  the  catholic 
church,  upon  such  terms  as  it  shall  please 
my  lord  Nicholas,  sovereign  pontiff  and  uni- 
versal pope,  to  prescribe;  shall  travel  into 
Italy,  either  before  you  or  with  you,  as  you 
shall  think  proper;  and  shall  comply  in  all 
things  with  the  injunctions  of  my  apostolic 
lord.'"     Arsenius  chose  she  should  go  with 
him,  flattering  himself  that  he  should  enter 
Rome  in  a  kind  of  triumph,  being  attended 
with   two  such    illustrious   penitents.     But 
his  vanity  was  disappointed;  Ingeltrude  at- 
tended him  no  farther  than  the  Danube;  for 
her  heart  failing  her  as  they  were  upon  the 
point  of  crossing  that  river,  she  forgot  her 
oath,  and,  under  color  of  visiting  a  relation 
in  that  neighborhood,  who,  she  said,  would 
furnish  her  with  horses  to  pursue  her  jour- 
ney, she  left  the  legate,  assuring  him  that 
she  would  meet  him  at  Augsburg.     But,  in- 
stead of  keeping  her  appointment,  she  re- 
turned to  France,  which  Arsenius  no  sooner 
knew,  than  he  wrote  to  all  the  bishops  of 
France  and  Germany  to  acquaint  them  with 
her  flight,  notwithstanding  the  oath  she  had 
taken,  and  require  them,  in  the  name  of  St. 
Peter,  and  of  the  sovereign  pontiff  and  uni- 
versal pope  Nicholas,  not  to  admit  her  into 
their  dioceses,  but  to  declare  her  excommu- 
nicated and  anathematized  for  the  breach  of 
her  oath,  as  well  as  for  her  other  crimes, 
till  she  appeared  in  person  before  the  pope, 
and  was  absolved  by  his  holiness  himself.^ 
What  became  of  her  afterwards  we  know 
not,  no  further  mention  being  made  of  her 
in  history. 

As  for  Waldrada,  the  other  penitent,  she 
pursued  her  journey  with  the  legate  as  far 
as  Lombardy.   But  when  she  was  there  upon 


»  Apud  Baron,  ad  ann.  865.  n.  63. 


a  Ibid. 


Nicholas.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


253 


Waldrada  excommunicated  by  the  pope.  Adventius  writes  to  the  pope  in  favor  of  Lotharius.  Lotharius  writes 
to  liim  at  the  same  time.  The  queen  writes  to  the  pope  for  leave  to  resign  her  dignity,  which  he  refuses ; — 
[Year  of  Christ,  867.]  


the  point  of  setting  out  from  Pavia  in  her 
way  to  Rome,  she  received  a  letter  from 
Lotharius,  ordering  her,  as  he  could  no 
longer  bear  her  absence,  to  return  with  all 
speed  to  his  dominions.  Upon  the  receipt 
of  that  letter,  which  the  messenger  privately 
delivered  to  her,  pursuant  to  his  instructions, 
her  good  resolutions  all  vanished  in  an  in- 
stant; and  leaving  the  legate  abruptly,  she 
hastened  back  to  Lorraine.  Arsenius,  thus 
disappointed  of  his  expected  triumph,  en- 
tered Rome  alone,  and  gave  an  account  of 
the  whole  to  the  pope;  who,  no  less  pro- 
voked than  he  at  the  behavior  of  the  two 
pretended  penitents,  immediately  confirmed 
the  excommunication  of  Ingeltrude,  and,  on 
the  2d  of  February,  866,  solemnly  excom- 
municated Waldrada,  and  transmitted  to  all 
the  bishops  of  Italy,  France,  and  Germany, 
the  sentence  he  had  pronounced  against  her, 
ordering  them  to  publish  it  in  their  respective 
dioceses.  He  tells  the  bishops,  in  his  letter, 
that  though  Lotharius  is  no  less  guilty  than 
Waldrada,  yet  he  has  not  excommunicated 
him,  for  just  reasons,  which  he  is  not  obliged 
to  communicate  to  them,  the  apostolic  see, 
that  is  trusted  with  the  care  of  all  churches, 
being  accountable  to  none  for  its  conduct.' 

Lotharius,  hearing  of  the  excommunica- 
tion of  Waldrada,  and  apprehending  that  the 
pope  might  be  brought  at  last,  by  his  ene- 
mies and  the  queen's  friends,  to  pronounce 
the  same  sentence  against  him,  got  Adven- 
tius, bishop  of  Metz,  to  write  to  his  holiness 
in  his  favor;  and  the  letter  the  aged  bishop 
wrote,  plainly  shows  him  to  have  been  as 
simple  a  man  as  any  of  his  time,  or  as  great 
a  sycophant;  for,  in  that  letter,  he  assured 
the  pope,  that  the  king  had  had  no  inter- 
course or  correspondence  with  Waldrada 
since  the  departure  of  Arsenius ;  that  he  ear- 
nestly and  constantly  exhorted  her  to  comply 
with  the  injunctions  of  his  holiness;  that  he 
treated  Theutberga  in  every  respect  as  his 
lawful  wife ;  that  he  assisted  with  her  at  di- 
vine service,  admitted  her,  as  he  ought,  to 
his  table  and  his  bed,  and  showed,  on  all  oc- 
casions, an  entire  submission  to  the  autho- 
rity of  the  apostolic  see.^  The  direction  of 
this  letter,  was,  "To  the  most  holy,  most 
blessed  and  angelic  lord  Nicholas,  sovereign 
pontiff,  and  universal  pope."  Lotharius 
himself  wrote,  and  sent  by  the  chancellor 
Gritnlandus,  a  very  submissive  letter  to  the 
pope,  more  submissive  than  was  consistent 
with  his  dignity;  for,  in  that  letter,  prostrate 
at  his  holiness'  feet,  he  professes  an  unre- 
served obedience  to  the  orders  of  the  apos- 
tolic see;  humbly  beseeches  the  pope  not  to 
raise  his  equals  above  him  (meaning,  as  ap- 
pears from  the  context,  not  to  excommuni- 
cate him,  which  would  afford  his  uncles  a 
pretence  to  invade  his  dominions;)  and  de- 

«  Nicol.  ep.  49. 

>  Apud  Baron,  ad  ann.  800.  n.  31,  &  seq. 


clares,  that  he  will  be  subject  to  none  but  to 
God,  to  St.  Peter,  and  to  his  holy  lord  and 
father,  pope  Nicholas.  As  for  Waldrada, 
he  solemnly  protests  that  he  has  never  been 
in  her  company,  nor  so  much  as  seen  her, 
since  the  departure  of  Arsenius,  and  her  re- 
turn from  Italy  ;  and  gives  the  lie  to  any 
wlio  shall  say  that  he  has.' 

Lotharius  flattered  himself  that  he  should 
thus  impose  upon  the  pope.  But  Nicholas 
was,  in  the  mean  time,  informed  by  several 
persons  worthy  of  credit,  that  the  king  met 
Waldrada  in  private;  that  he  persecuted  the 
queen  more  cruelly  than  he  had  ever  yet 
done;  and  that,  blinded  by  his  passion,  he 
seemed  determined  to  remove  her  out  of  the 
way  by  some  means  or  other,  and  make 
room  for  Waldrada,  pretending  that  she, 
and  not  Theutberga,  was  his  lawful  wife. 
Hereupon  the  queen,  apprehending  her  life 
to  be  in  danger,  wrote  to  the  pope  to  ac- 
quaint him  therewith,  and  at  the  same  time 
to  beg  leave,  as  she  saw  no  end  of  her  trou- 
bles, to  resign  her  dignity,  to  yield  her  place 
to  Waldrada,  and  spend  the  rest  of  her  days 
in  retirement.  To  induce  the  pope  to  com- 
ply with  her  request,  she  even  pretended  in 
her  letter,  that  the  king  had  married  Wal- 
drada before  he  married  her;  and  conse- 
quently that  he  could  not  live  with  her  as 
his  lawful  wife,  nor  she  with  him  as  her 
lawful  husband.  But  the  pope  well  knew, 
that  it  was  only  to  gratify  the  king,  and  pur- 
chase some  respite  from  her  troubles,  that 
she  wrote  thus,  and  turned  evidence  against 
herself:  He  therefore  told  her,  in  his  an- 
swer to  her  letter,  that  he  did  not  receive 
her  confession,  having  been  assured  by  se- 
veral persons  no  less  eminent  for  their  rank 
than  their  piety,  that  it  was  not  voluntary, 
but  extorted  by  menaces;  reproached  her 
with  want  of  courage  in  thus  yielding  to  her 
adverse  fortune,  in  betraying  her  own  cause, 
and  owning  herself  guilty  when  she  was 
conscious  of  her  innocence;  exhorted  her  to 
speak  the  truth  at  all  events,  since  she  had 
better  suffer  death  by  the  hand  of  another 
for  speaking  it,  than  kill  her  own  soul  by 
departing  from  it.  He  added,  that  were  he 
to  admit  her  confession,  and  declare  her 
marriage  null,  every  husband  who  disliked 
his  wife,  would  be  thereby  encouraged  to  use 
her  ill,  in  order  to  extort  from  her  by  that 
means  the  like  confession;  that  should  he 
even  grant  her  leave  to  quit  Lotharius,  their 
marriage  would  not  therefore  be  dissolved, 
nor  could  the  king  marry  Waldrada,  or  any 
other  woman,  in  her  life  time;  and  that  she 
must  not  think  of  living  in  a  married  state  as 
if  she  were  not  married,  unless  the  king  so- 
lemnly promised  to  live  so  too.  The  queen 
had  begged  the  pope's  leave  to  come  to 
Rome,  and  unburden  her  mind  in  person  to 
his  holiness.     But  he,  not  thinking  it  proper 

1  »  Apud  Baron,  ad  ann.  606.  n.  33,  &  seq. 

w 


254 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Nicholas. 


The  pope  writes  to  Charles  of  France,  to  Lotharius,  and  the  bishops  of  his  kingdom.  Adventius'  letter  to  [latto 
of  Verdun.  What  restrained  the  pope  from  excommunicating  Lotharius.  Lewis  of  Germany,  and  Charles 
of  France,  endeavor  to  reclaim  Lotharius. 


that  she  should  be  at  such  a  distance  from 
the  king  while  Waldrada  was  so  near  hira, 
would  not  allow  her  to  undertake  that  jour- 
ney unless  the  king  sent  Waldrada  to  Rome 
before  her.'  This  letter  is  dated  the  24th  of 
January,  867. 

The  pope  wrote  at  the  same  time  to  Charles 
of  France,  to  the  bishops  of  Lotharius' 
kingdom,  and  to  Lotharius  himself.  In  his 
letter  to  Charles,  he  commends  him  for  his 
generosity  in  taking  the  persecuted  queen 
into  his  protection,  and  exhorts  him  to  con- 
tinue to  her  the  same  protection,  till  it  shall 
please  God  to  put  an  end  to  so  cruel  and  so 
unjust  a  persecution.^  He  reproaches  the 
bishops,  in  his  letter  to  them,  with  an  un- 
pardonable neglect  of  their  duty  in  not 
seconding  him  in  his  endeavors  to  reclaim 
their  king  from  his  wickedness ;  assures 
them,  that  he  did  not  grant  Waldrada  leave 
to  return  to  France,  as  was,  it  seems,  report- 
ed ;  declares  her  excommunicated  for  the  third 
time;  and  threatens  to  pronounce  the  same 
sentence  against  them  as  abettors  of  adulte- 
ry, if  they  continued  to  connive,  as  they 
have  hitherto  done,  at  the  scandal  which  it 
was  their  indispensible  duty  to  remove.^ 
From  the  pope's  letter  to  Lotharius  it  ap- 
pears, that  the  king  laid  great  stress  on  the 
confession  of  the  queen  owning  that  Waldra- 
da was  his  first,  and  consequently  his  only 
lawful  wife.  But,  in  aflswer  to  that,  the 
pope  tells  him  in  his  letter,  that  all  France 
knew  Theutberga  Avas  his  first  and  only  law- 
ful wife ;  and  that  the  confession  she  had 
made  was  not  voluntary,  but  extorted  by 
force  and  by  menaces  ;  entreats  him  to  lay 
aside  all  thoughts  of  putting  her  away,  and 
marrying  any  other  in  her  room,  since  the 
apostolic  see,  he  might  depend  upon  it, 
never  would  consent  to  the  one  or  the  other; 
expresses  great  concern  at  the  king's  at- 
tempting thus  to  impose  upon  him,  and,  in 
the  end,  threatens  hira  with  excommunica- 
tion, if  he  did  not  break  off  all  correspondence 
with  Waldrada  as  an  excommunicated  per- 
son, and  repair  the  scandal  he  had  given.* 

Adventius  of  Metz,  hearing  that  the  pope 
had  threatened  the  king  with  excommunica- 
tion, and  being  at  the  same  time  informed, 
that  it  was  the  fixed  and  unalterable  resolu- 
tion of  the  apostolic  lord  Nicholas  to  exclude 
him  from  entering  into  the  church,  if  he  did 
not  dismiss  Waldrada  by  the  eve  of  the 
purification,  wrote,  under  the  greatest  con- 
cern, to  Hatto  of  Verdun,  his  intimate  friend. 


»  Nicol.  ep.  48.  a  Idem,  ep.  50.  Annal.  Benin. 

'  Idem,  ep.  49. 

What  opinion  must  we  entertain  of  the  bishops  of 
Lotharius'  kingdom,  among  whom  not  one  was  found, 
who  had  courage  or  zeal  enough  to  say  unto  the  king, 
with  the  words  of  the  Baptist,  "It  is  not  lawful  for 
thee  to  have  her ;"  nay,  not  one  who  did  not  prosti- 
tute his  sacred  character  to  his  lawless  lust,  and  coun- 
tenance him  in  a  crime  that  gave  such  offence  to  the 
honest  laity,  especially  to  the  princes  of  the  royal 
family. 

*  Nicol.  ep.  51. 


earnestly  entreating  him  to  repair  without 
delay  to  the  king,  to  apprise  him  of  his 
danger,  and  persuade  him  to  ask  pardon  for 
his  past  offences,  in  the  presence  of  at  least 
three  bishops,  with  a  firm  resolution  and  J 
promise  to  mend  his  life  in  time  to  come  :  I 
that,  being  thus  absolved,  he  might  enter  1 
the  church,  and  celebrate  the  festival,  with- 
out exposing,  as  he  otherwise  would,  him- 
self and  his  kingdom,  as  well  as  them,  to 
irretrievable  ruin.  He  desires  his  brother 
Hatto  to  tell  the  king,  that  as  for  his  sin 
against  God,  or  his  public  adultery,  he  has 
no  occasion  to  make  himself  uneasy  about 
it,  God  having  promised  by  his  prophet  to 
forgive  the  sinner  the  moment  he  repents  of 
his  sin.  The  good  bishop  seems  to  have 
thought  it  matter  of  more  importance  to  ob- 
tain of  the  pope  than  of  God  forgiveness  of 
his  sin.  He  tells  his  brother,  that  he  has 
thus  written  to  him  "  sub  sigillo  confessionis," 
under  the  seal  of  confession  ;  and  therefore 
conjures  him  to  show  his  letter  to  none  but 
the  king,  and  to  suggest  sxich  counsels  to 
him,  as  may  rescue  from  imminent  ruin 
both  him  and  them.'  Adventius  apprehend- 
ed, that,  if  the  king  was  excommunicated, 
his  uncles  would  be  thereby  encouraged  to 
invade  his  dominions,  which  would  involve 
the  whole  kingdom  in  the  utmost  confusion, 
and  end,  in  all  likelihood,  in  his  ruin. 

The  pope,  however,  did  not  think  it  ad- 
visable to  proceed  to  such  extremities,  the 
rather  as  a  perfect  harmony  subsisted  be- 
tween the  emperor  Lewis  and  Lotharius, 
though  Lewis  was  no  less  offended  than  his 
uncles  at  the  conduct  of  his  brother  in  the 
affair  of  Theutberga  and  Waldrada,  and  had 
frequently  pressed  him  to  dismiss  the  one, 
and  be  reconciled  to  the  other.  Nicholas, 
therefore,  unwilling  to  disoblige  the  emperor, 
contented  himself  with  writing  most  pressing 
letters  to  the  two  kings  LeAvis  and  Charles, 
entreating  them  to  interpose  their  good  of- 
fices anew  with  the  king  of  Lorraine,  to  em- 
ploy such  means  to  reclaim  him,  as  should 
appear  to  them  the  most  effectual,  and  in 
particular  to  assure  him  in  his  name,  that 
what  declarations  soever  he  might  force  from 
Theutberga,  he  would  ever  oppose  with  all 
the  authority  of  the  apostolic  see,  his  marry- 
ing any  olher.^ 

Upon  the  receipt  of  these  letters,  the  two 
kings  had  an  interview,  the  result  of  which, 
was,  that  Charles  should  go  and  communi- 
cate them  in  person  to  the  king  of  Lorraine; 
that  he  should  represent  to  him,  in  the 
strongest  terms,  the  obligation  he  was  under 
of  removing  the  scandal  his  treatment  of 
Theutberga  had  given  to  all  good  men,  and 
entreat  him,  in  the  name  of  both,  to  satisfy 
the  pope,  since  he  could  entertain  no  hopes 
of  ever  prevailing  upon  his  holiness  to  ap- 


»  Apud  Baron,  ad  ann.  867,  n.  121. 
a  Nicol.  ep.  53. 


Nicholas.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


255 


Lotharius  writes  most  submissive  letters  to  the  pope,  and  thus  wards  off  the  sentence  with  which  he  was 
threatened.  The  emperor  Michael  writes  to  the  pope  concerning  the  affair  of  Photius.  The  pope's  answer 
to  his  letter. 


prove  of,  or  even  to  connive  at,  a  conduct 
which  he  had  so  often  and  so  loudly  con- 
demned. Charles  and  Lotharius  met,  by 
appointment,  on  the  borders  of  their  respec- 
tive kingdoms,  the  former  being  attended  on 
that  occasion  by  a  bishop.  But  their  meet- 
ing had  not  the  wished  for  success;  Lotha- 
rius chiefly  insisted  on  the  declaration  of  the 
queen,  which  he  maintained  not  to  have 
been  forced,  as  had  been  represented  by  his 
enemies  to  the  pope,  but  quite  free  and  vo- 
luntary, as  she,  who  ought  to  be  credited 
before  them,  had  publicly  owned ;  com- 
plained as  much  of  the  unworthy  treatment 
he  had  met  with  from  the  pope,  as  the  pope 
complained  of  the  treatment  Theutberga  had 
met  with  from  him ;  protested,  that,  to  gratify 
his  holiness,  he  had  never  suffered  Waldra- 
da  to  approach  the  court ;  that  he  had  never 
seen  her  since  her  return  from  Italy.  He 
added,  that  his  enemies  made  it  their  busi- 
ness to  sow  the  seeds  of  discord  between  him 
and  the  other  princes  of  the  royal  family; 
that  they  had  misrepresented  the  whole  affair 
both  to  them  and  the  pope  :  but  that  he  was 
determined  to  go  to  Rome,  and  treat  with 
his  holiness  in  person,  not  doubting  but  he 
should  be  able  to  undeceive  him,  and  con- 
found his  enemies.'  With  this  his  intention 
he  acquainted  the  pope  by  a  most  submissive 
letter,  entreating  him,  in  the  mean  time,  not 
to  hearken  to  the  suggestions  of  those  who 
strove  to  estrange  his  holiness  from  him,  and 
raise,  by  that  means,  disturbances  in  his 
kingdom.  As  a  numerous  body  of  Saracens 
had  lately  landed  in  Italy,  and  committed 
dreadful  ravages  there,  he  offered,  in  the 
same  letter,  to  join  his  forces  to  those  of  the 
emperor  against  the  common  enemy,  to 
head  them  in  person,  and  defend,  if  neces- 
sary, even  at  the  expense  of  his  life,  the  pa- 
trimonies of  St.  Peter.-  But  the  pope  well 
knew,  that  he  wrote  thus  only  to  amuse  him ; 
that  he  still  continued  to  correspond  pri- 
vately with  Waldrada,  excommunicated  as 
she  was ;  that  she  governed  with  an  absolute 
sway  both  him  and  his  kingdom,  while 
Theutberga  had  but  the  empty  title  and  bare 
name  of  queen.  He  therefore  desired  the 
two  kings,  in  his  answer  to  their  letter,  to 
divert  by  all  means  the  king  of  Lorraine, 
their  nephew,  from  his  intended  journey  to 
Rome,  till  he  had  given  such  proofs  of  the 
sincerity  of  his  reformation,  as  left  no  room 
to  question  it,  lest  he  should  not  meet  with 
the  reception  he  expected.^  The  proofs  re- 
quired by  the  pope,  were,  that  he  should  not 
only  break  ofT  all  correspondence  with  Wal- 
drada. but  send  her  to  Rome;  that  he  should 
treat  Theutberga  so  as  to  satisfy  all  France 
that  he  looked  upon  her  as  his  lawful  wife; 
and  that,  to  leave  no  hopes  to  Gunthier  and 

•  Nicol.  ep.  55. 

'  Apud  Baron,  ad  nnn.  867.  n.  123,  Sl  seq. 

'  Nicol.  ep.  53. 


Theutgaud,  who  had  countenanced  him  in 
his  adultery,  of  being  ever  restored,  he 
should  cause  others  to  be  chosen  for  the 
still  vacant  sees  of  Treves  and  Cologne,  in 
their  room."  These  terms  seemed  too  hard 
to  Lotharius;  and  therefore,  laying  aside  all 
thoughts  of  his  journey  to  Rome,  he  con- 
tinued, during  the  short  time  pope  Nicholas 
lived,  to  ward  off,  with  most  submissive  and 
respectful  letters  and  protestations,  the  sen- 
tence of  excommunication  with  which  he 
was  threatened.  What  was  the  issue  of  this 
affair,  we  shall  see  in  the  pontiticate  of  the 
succeeding  pope. 

From  the  great  pains  the  pope  took  in  the 
affair  of  Lotharius,  and  the  numberless  let- 
ters he  wrote  relating  to  it,  one  would  con- 
clude that  it  had  engrossed  his  whole  at- 
tention ;  but  he  had  at  the  same  time  many 
other  matters  on  his  hands  that  required  no 
less  attention,  resolution,  and  address ;  and 
among  the  rest,  what  he  most  of  all  labored 
to  bring  about,  as  it  would  most  of  all  re- 
dound to  the  honor  of  his  see,  the  restoration 
of  the  patriarch  Ignatius.  Nicholas  had,  as 
we  have  seen,^  in  a  council  held  at  Rome  in 
8G3,  solemnly  excommunicated  Photius  as 
an  usurper,  with  all  his  adherents,  and  de- 
clared Ignatius  to  have  never  been  deposed, 
but  only  driven  with  violence  and  unjustly 
from  the  patriarchal  see.  With  this  sen- 
tence the  pope  designed  to  acquaint  the  em- 
peror Michael,  and  had  already  written  a 
letter  giving  him  an  account  of  the  proceed- 
ings of  that  council.  But,  in  the  meantime, 
the  emperor  was  by  others  informed  of  the 
whole ;  and,  before  the  legates  set  out  for 
Constantinople  with  the  pope's  letter  to  him, 
Michael  the  protospatharius  arrived  at  Rome 
with  one  from  him  to  the  pope,  fraught 
with  invectives,  reproaches,  and  menaces. 
The  pope  happened  to  be  greatly  indisposed 
when  he  received  the  emperor's  letter;  and 
the  protospatharius,  impatient  to  return  as 
the  winter  approached,  left  Rome,  without 
taking  leave,  soon  after  he  delivered  it,  inso- 
much that  the  pope  was  obliged,  ill  as  he 
was,  to  write  his  answer  in  great  haste,  and 
send  it  after  him  to  Ostia.  The  emperor's 
letter  has  not  been  suffered  to  reach  our 
times;  but  what  it  chiefly  turned  upon  we 
learn  from  the  very  long  letter  the  pope 
wrote  in  answer  to  it,  notwithstanding  his 
illness,  and  the  hurry  in  which  he  wrote  it. 
He  begins  it  with  an  address  to  heaven,  be- 
seeching the  Almighty,  in  whose  hand  is 
the  king's  heart,  to  suggest  to  him  what  may 
make  an  impression  op  the  mind  of  the  em- 
peror, and  at  the  same  time  to  dispose  his 


>  Hugh,  nearly  related  to  Charles  of  France,  had 
been  nominated  by  Lotharius  for  the  see  of  Cologtie, 
as  has  been  said  above  ;  but  that  nomination  did  not, 
it  seems,  take  place.  Indeed  the  sword  and  the  hel- 
met better  became  the  alibot  Hush,  as  he  is  commonly 
styled,  than  the  crosier  and  the  mitre. 

3  See  p.  241. 


256 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Nicholas. 


The  pope's  letter  continued. 


mind  to  receive  that  impression,  and  profit 
by  it.  He  then  proceeds  to  answer,  one  by 
one,  the  various  articles,  or,  as  he  styles 
them,  blasphemies  against  God  and  St.  Peter, 
contained  in  his  letter.  Michael  had,  it 
seems,  complained  of  the  treatment  he  had 
met  with  from  the  apostolic  see,  though  no 
emperor,  since  the  time  of  the  sixth  general 
council  had,  as  he  pretended,  honored  and 
respected  those  who  sat  in  it,  however  worth- 
less, more  than  he.  In  answer  to  that  com- 
plaint, the  pope  tells  him,  that  it  is  quite 
groundless ;  that  he  has  on  no  occasion  used 
him  ill,  but  only  admonished  and  rebuked 
him  for  the  welfare  of  his  soul,  which  it  was 
incumbent  upon  him  to  do,  as  well  as  upon 
every  other  bishop ;  and  that,  as  to  the  re- 
spect and  regard  he  had  shown  for  the  apos- 
tolic see,  some  of  his  predecessors,  ever 
since  the  sixth  council,  had  not  been  want- 
ing therein  no  more  than  he ;  but  that  most 
of  them  were  heretics,  with  whom  the  holy 
see  could  not  communicate,  nor  have  any 
intercourse.  The  emperor,  alluding  to  one 
of  his  former  letters  to  the  pope,  had  said, 
"  we  commanded  you,  &.c."  That  word 
was  grating  to  the  ears  of  the  haughty  pope 
Nicholas;  and,  in  his  answer,  he  pretends 
the  words  "  we  pray,  we  entreat,  we  ex 
hort,"  to  have  been  used  by  other  emperors 
in  writing  to  the  popes,  and  by  none  of  them 
the  imperious  expression  "  we  command;" 
nay,  he  maintains  the  words  "we  beg  and 
conjure,"  and  not  "we  command,"  to  have 
been  made  use  of  by  Michael  himself  in  the 
very  letter  he  quotes ;  and  concludes,  that 
he  either  does  not  know  what  he  wrote,  or 
repents  of  his  laudable  submission  and  hu- 
mility. The  emperor  had  called  the  Latin 
tongue  a  barbarous  and  Scythic  language, 
which  the  pope  highly  resented,  gravely  re- 
proaching him  Avilh  having  reviled,  in  the 
height  of  his  fury,  a  language  instituted  by 
God,  and  made  use  of  in  the  inscription  on 
the  cross.  He  adds,  that  if  he  despises,  be- 
cause he  does  not  understand  the  Latin 
tongue,  it  is  quite  absurd  and  ridiculous  that 
he  should  be  styled  emperor  of  the  Romans, 
who  is  utterly  ignorant  of  the  language  of 
the  Romans  ;  that  the  language  he  takes  the 
liberty  to  brand  with  the  epithets  of  bar- 
barous and  Scythic,  is  used  in  divine  service 
by  the  whole  Latin  church,  nay,  and  by  the 
Greek  church  too,  the  epistles  and  gospels 
being  read  in  Latin  in  the  stations  at  Con- 
stantinople,2  before  they  are  read  in  Greek. 


'  Baronius  himself  owns  the  words  "we  command" 
to  have  been  used  by  the  emperor  Mauritius  in  writ- 
ing to  the  pope ;  and  ascribes  all  the  misfortunes  that 
befel  him,  and  his  unhappy  end,  to  his  having  used  it. 
—  (Baron,  ad  ann.  865.  n.  83.) 

2  By  stations  are  meant  the  assemblies  of  the  faith- 
ful on  Wednesdays  and  Fridays  ;  for  these  two  days 
were  particularly  sanctified  from  the  earliest  times ; 
Wednesday,  because  on  that  day  the  Jews  conspired 
to  put  our  Savior  to  death ;  and  Friday,  because  he 
suffered  on  that  day. — (Tertul.  de  jejun.  c.  14.  Orig. 
hom.  10.  in  Levit.  Petr.  Alexandrin.  can.  15,  &c.)  On 
both  days  the  service  began  early,  and  did  not  end  till 


The  emperor  had  said,  that  it  was  not  to 
judge  Ignatius  anew,  but  to  determine  the 
dispute  about  images,  that  he  had  com- 
manded the  pope  to  send  legates  to  Constan- 
tinople. Nicholas  answers,  that  the  event 
proves  the  contrary ;  that  Ignatius  was  ac- 
tually judged  anew  in  the  presence  of  his 
legates;  and  that  it  was  for  that  purpose, 
but  under  color  of  the  dispute  about  images, 
that  he  was  desired  to  send  them  to  Con- 
stantinople. He  enlarges  here  on  the  unjust 
and  irregular  proceedings  of  the  council  that 
condemned  Ignatius ;  declares,  that  his  le- 
gates acted  contrary  to  their  instructions  ia 
consenting  to  his  condemnation  ;  and  main- 
tains, that  there  is  scarce  an  instance  of  a 
bishop  of  Constantinople  being  deposed,  un- 
less by  heretics  or  tyrants,  without  the  know- 
ledge, the  approbation,  and  the  concurrence 
of  the  Roman  pontiff.  In  answer  to  what 
the  emperor  had  advanced  against  the  pre- 
eminence, primacy,  and  privileges  of  the 
Roman  see,  the  pope  tells  him,  that  those 
privileges  have  not  been  granted  by  the 
councils,  but  by  Christ  himself  to  St.  I?eter, 
and  in  him  to  his  successors  in  the  Roman 
see;  that  the  councils  have  only  acknow- 
ledged and  revered  them  :'  that  they  are  per- 
petual, immutable,  and  will  remain,  in  spite 
of  all  human  efforts,  so  long  as  the  Christian 
name  shall  be  preached  in  the  world.  The 
emperor  wanted  the  pope  to  send  back  to 
Constantinople  the  monk  Theognostus,  and 
other  monks  friends  to  the  deposed  patriarch, 
who  had  taken  refuge  at  Rome.  But  the 
pope,  after  showing  the  unreasonableness  of 
such  a  demand,  assures  the  emperor,  that 
he  has  no  cause  to  complain  of  Theognostus, 
nor  of  the  other  monks,  who  have  told  him 
nothing  but  what  he  had  heard  before  from 
many  others  come  from  Alexandria,  from 
Jerusalem,  from  Constantinople,  &c.,  nay, 
and  from  his  own  ambassadors,  and  what 
all  the  world  knew  to  be  true.  As  to  the 
emperor's  menaces,  for  he  had  threatened 
the  city  of  Rome  with  utter  destruction,  if 
the  sentence  against  Photius  was  not  re- 
voked; the  pope  bids  him  defiance,  telling 
him,  that  the  angels  watch  over  the  safety 
of  Rome,  and  putting  him  in  mind  of  Sen- 
nacherib and  his  numerous  army.  As  the 
Saracens  had  lately  invaded  Crete,  had  ra- 
vaged Sicily,  had  made  themselves  masters 
of  several  provinces  belonging  to  the  Greeks, 
and  even  set  fire  to  the  suburbs  of  Constan- 
tinople ;  the  pope  takes  occasion  from  thence 
to  reproach  the  emperor  with  injustice  and 


three  in  the  afternoon;  and  from  the  length  of  the 
service  those  assemblies  were  called  stations,  and  the 
days,  on  which  they  were  held,  stationary  days. 

»  That  no  privileges  were  granted  to  St.  Peter,  but 
what  were  common  to  the  other  apostles  with  him; 
that  all  bishops  were  originally  alike  absolute  and  in- 
dependent in  their  own  churches;  and  that  the  privi- 
leges, prerogatives,  and  pre-eminence,  which,  in  after 
ages,  some  Ijishops  enjoyed  over  others,  were  granted 
to  them  by  the  councils,  or  were  a  free  gift  of  the  em- 
perors;  has  been  shown  in  manv  places  of  this  his- 
tory.—(See  vol.  I.  p.  221,  222,  225,  &  alibi  passim.) 


Nicholas.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


257 


Tbe  pope  proposes  the  sending  of  Ignatius  and  Photius  to  Rome. 

letters. 


He  sends  legates  into  the  east  with  several 


cowardice,  in  tamely  suffering  himself  to  be 
thu.s  insulted  by  the  enemies  of  the  Christian 
name,  and  threatening  to  wreak  his  ven- 
geance upon  him  and  the  unarmed  Romans, 
who  have  done  him  no  injury.  This,  says 
the  pope,  is  acting  like  the  Jews,  who  dis- 
charged the  murderer,  and  condemned  the 
Author  of  life — released  Barabbas,  and  put 
Jesus  to  death. 

Tlie  pope,  having  thus  answered  the  chief 
heads  of  the  emperor's  letter,  comes  to  the 
case  of  Ignatius,  which,  though  already  fully 
examined,  and  even  determined  by  the  un- 
biassed judgment  of  the  apostolic  see,  he 
declares  himself  willing  to  examine  anew, 
and  has  the  assurance  to  desire  the  emperor 
to  send  for  that  purpose  both  Ignatius  and 
Photius  to  Rome,  and,  together  with  them, 
the  bishops  who  adhered  to  the  one  and  the 
other.  In  the  close  of  his  letter,  he  exhorts 
the  emperor  to  tread  in  the  footsteps  of  his 
pious  predecessors  Constantine,  Constans, 
Theodosius  the  elder,  Valentinian,  &,c.,  who 
made  it  their  study  to  exalt,  honor,  and  en- 
rich the  Roman  church,  and  have  thereby 
acquired  immortal  fame ;  declares  that,  as 
he  has  been  trusted  with  the  care  of  all 
churches,  he  will  not  neglect  that  of  Con- 
stantinople ;  that  he  never  will  suffer  the 
patriarchal  see  of  the  imperial  city  to  be 
polluted  by  an  usurper;  that  no  menaces 
shall  ever  deter  him  from  complying  with 
his  duty;  and  that  he  is  determined  to  stand 
up,  to  his  last  breath,  in  defence  of  truth  and 
injured  innocence.  To  this  letter  he  adds 
the  following  postscript : — "  Whoever  shall 
read  this,  our  letter,  at  Constantinople,  and 
conceal  any  part  of  it  from  ovir  most  august 
son  Michael,  let  him  be  anathema :  whoever, 
in  translating  the  said  letter,  shall  alter  any 
thing  in  it,  shall  add  to  it,  or  take  any  thing 
from  it  besides  what  the  Greek  idiom  re- 
quires, unless  it  be  done  through  ignorance, 
let  him  be  anathema.'" 

This  letter  the  pope  consigned  to  the  pro- 
tospatharius  returning  to  Constantinople ;  but 
apprehending  that  it  might  be  either  entirely 
suppressed  or  falsified,  as  had  happened  to 
most  of  his  letters,  by  the  friends  of  Photius, 
he  resolved,  with  the  advice  of  the  neigh- 
boring bishops,  to  write  another,  and  send 
it  by  legates,  who  should  deliver  it  into  the 
emperor's  own  hands.  For  that  dangerous 
legation  Nicholas  chose  Donatus,  bishop  of 
Ostia,  Leo,  presbyter,  and  Marinus,  deacon 
of  the  Roman  church;  and  by  them  he 
wrote,  not  only  to  the  emperor,  but  to  the 
bishops  and  clergy  subject  to  the  see  of  Con- 
stantinople, to  Photius,  to  Bardas.-  to  Igna- 

»  Nicol.  ep.  8. 

^  Bardas  was  murdered  by  order  of  the  emperor 
Michael,  crown  jealous  of  his  power,  on  the  21st  of 
April  of  the  present  year,  asPorphyrogennctus  in- 
forms us. — (Porphyrogen.  n.41,)  But  the  news  of  nis 
death  had  not  reached  Rome  in  the  month  of  Novem- 
ber, when  the  pope  wrote  to  him.  The  death  of  Bar- 
das made  room  for  Basilius,  the  chief  author  of  it,  and 
at  that  time  great  chamberlain;  for  as  Michael  bad  an 

Vol.  II.— 33 


tins,  to  the  empresses  Theodora  and  Eu- 
doxia,  the  one  the  mother,  the  other  the 
wife  of  the  emperor,  and  to  such  of  the 
senate  as  befriended  Ignatius.'  These  eight 
letters  bear  all  the  same  date,  the  13th  of 
November,  866.  The  pope,  in  his  letter  to 
the  emperor,  warmly  recommends  the  legates 
to  his  protection,  as  representing  the  vicar 
of  St.  Peter,  and  in  him  St.  Peter  himself; 
maintains  the  ordination  of  Photius  by  Gre- 
gory of  Syracuse,  who  had  been  deposed, 
and  was  no  longer  a  bishop,  to  be  null; 
puts  him  in  mind  of  the  account  he  was  to 
give  on  the  last  day  for  supporting  an  usurper 
on  the  episcopal  throne,  who  has  no  power 
to  perforin  any  episcopal  functions  ;  declares 
his  unalterable  resolution  of  acknowledging 
Ignatius  for  lawful  patriarch,  till  the  aposto- 
lic see  shall  judge,  condemn,  and  depose 
him  ;  exhorts  the  emperor  to  disown  the 
blasphemous  letter  he  sent  him  by  his  am- 
bassador Michael,  and  order  it  to  be  publicly 
burnt,  otherwise  he  will  excommunicate  the 
authors  of  it  in  a  council  of  all  the  bishops 
ot  the  west,  and  cause  the  letter  itself,  as  he 
cannot  put  up  with  so  gross  an  affront  offered 
to  the  pontifical  dignity,  to  be  fixed  to  a  stake, 
and  thus  burnt,  to  his  shame  and  disgrace, 
in  sight  of  the  different  nations  that  flock 
from  all  parts  of  the  world  to  the  tomb  of  St. 
Peter.  The  pope,  in  his  letter  to  the  bishops 
under  the  see  of  Constantinople,  and  the 
clergy  of  that  city,  acquaints  them  with  the 
whole  proceedings  of  the  council  of  Rome 
in  the  affair  of  Ignatius  and  Photius,  and 
loudly  complains  of  the  practice  of  raising 
laymen  to  the  episcopal  dignity,  a  practice, 
he  says,  countenanced  by  princes,  as  laymen 
are  more  apt  to  connive  at  their  wicked  lives 
than  those  who  are  brought  up  in  the  disci- 
pline and  service  of  the  church.  He  re- 
proaches Photius,  in  his  letter  to  him,  with 
his  numerous  prevarications,  which  he  enu- 
merates, and  exhorts  him  to  atone  for  by  a 
sincere  and  timely  repentance.  He  tells 
Bardas,  that  he  is  said  to  have  been  the 
chief  author  of  the  expulsion  of  Ignatius, 
and  of  all  the  evils  attending  it;  expresses 
great  concern  at  his  not  answering  the  good 
opinion  he  had  entertained  of  him;  and  ex- 
horts him  to  repair  the  mischief  he  has  done 
by  espousing  the  cause  of  the  lawful  patri- 
arch, and  withdrawing  his  protection  from 
the  usurper  of  his  see.  Happy  Bardas,  says 
here  Baronius,  had  he  hearkened  to  the 
fatherly  exhortation  of  the  pope;  but  he  dis- 
regarded it,  and  therefore  vengeance  from 
heaven  soon  overtook  him.^  But  the  murder 


utter  aversion  to  all  manner  of  business,  and  spent  his 
whole  time  in  sports  and  banquets,  he  immediately 
committed  the  management  of  public  affairs  to  Basi- 
lius;  and  soon  after,  that  is,  on  the  festival  of  Whit- 
suntide, which,  in  86C,  fell  on  the  26th  of  May,  de- 
clared him  his  partner  in  the  empire. — (Porphyrogen. 
n.  42.) 

'  Nicol.  ep.  9,  10,  11,  12,  13,  11,  15,  10. 

3  Baron,  ad  ann.  666.  n.  14. 

w2 


258 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Nicholas. 


The  legates  not  admitted.     Photius  excommunicates  and  deposes  the  pope  in  a  council.    Photius  charges  the 
Roman  church  with  erroneous  doctrines  and  practices  condemned  by  the  canons. 


of  Bardas,  the  vengeance  from  heaven  which 
the  annalist  here  speaks  of,  happened,  as 
we  have  seen,  near  seven  months  before  the 
pope  wrote  his  exhortatory  letter.  The 
pope,  in  his  letter  to  Ignatius,  acquaints  him 
with  what  he  has  done  in  his  favor ;  assures 
him  that  he  never  will  forsake  him ;  and  en- 
courages him  to  bear  his  sufferings  with  the 
same  patience  and  resignation  as  he  has 
hitherto  done,  till  it  shall  please  God  to  re- 
lieve him.  He  comforts  the  empress  Theo- 
dora, confined,  as  has  been  said,  to  a  mo- 
nastery, telling  her,  that  the  time  is  come 
when  "children  shall  rise  up  against  their 
parents;"  but  that,  by  patiently  bearing  the 
loss  of  a  temporal  kingdom,  she  will  earn 
an  eternal  one  ;  recommends  his  legates  to 
the  empress  Eudoxia ;  and  repeats,  in  his 
letter  to  the  friends  of  Ignatius  in  the  senate, 
what  he  wrote  to  the  bishops  and  the  clergy 
subject  to  the  see  of  Constantinople. 

With  these  letters  the  three  above  men- 
tioned legates  set  out  for  Constantinople ; 
but  as  they  traveled  by  land,  in  company  with 
two  other  legates,  sent  at  the  same  time  into 
Bulgaria,  (of  which  legation  I  shall  speak  in 
the  sequel)  they  no  sooner  entered  the  territo- 
ries of  the  empire  bordering  upon  that  coun- 
try than  Theodore,  who  guarded  those  fron- 
tiers, meeting  them,  and  striking  the  heads  of 
their  horses,  an  affront  which  the  bibliothe- 
carian  cannot  digest,  told  them,  that  "  the 
emperor  did  not  want  •them,"  and  they 
might  therefore  return  home.  However, 
they  did  not  return  till  they  were  informed, 
and  they  waited  forty  days  for  that  purpose, 
that  they  were  stopped  by  the  emperor's  or- 
der. Indeed  it  happened  fortunately  for  them 
that  they  passed  through  Bulgaria;  for  the 
emperor  told  the  king  of  Bulgaria's  ambas- 
sadors, that,  if  they  had  not  come  through 
their  country,  they  should  never  have  seen 
him,  nor  Rome  again  so  long  as  they  lived.' 
Such  was  the  issue  of  this  second  legation  ; 
and  thus  was  all  intercourse  now  broken  ofT 
between  Constantinople  and  Rome. 

In  the  mean  time  Photius,  now  deter- 
mined to  keep  no  measures  with  the  pope, 
proposed  to  the  emperor  Michael  the  assem- 
bling a  council  at  Constantinople,  in  order 
to  judge,  depose,  and  excommunicate  Nicho- 
las with  the  same  solemnity  as  he  had  judged, 
deposed,  and  excommunicated  him  in  a 
council  at  Rome.  To  this  proposal  the  em- 
peror readily  agreed  ;  and  a  council  accord- 
ingly met  by  his  order,  consisting  of  several 
bishops  under  the  immediate  jurisdiction 
of  the  see  of  Constantinople,  and  some  ob- 
scure persons,  who  called  themselves  the 
legates  of  the  three  other  great  sees,  Alexan- 
dria, Antioch,  and  Jerusalem.  Before  this 
assembly  accusers  appeared,  who  arraign- 
ing pope  Nicholas  of  many  crimes,  and  de- 
ploring his  wickedness,  applied  to  the  holy 
oecumenical  council  for  justice.     Witnesses 


>  Anast.  in  Nicol. 


were  likewise  produced  to  attest  what  the 
accusers  had  laid  to  his  charge.  But  Pho- 
tius, pretending  to  take  the  pope's  part, 
urged  in  his  favor,  that  no  man  ought  to  be 
judged  while  he  is  absent.  But  his  reasons 
being  answered,  as  was  agreed  before-hand, 
by  the  bishops  of  his  party,  the  pope  was 
judged,  was  found  guilty  of  innumerable 
crimes,  was  solemnly  deposed  as  altogether 
unworthy  of  the  episcopal  dignity,  and  ex- 
communicated, with  all  who  should  com- 
municate with  him.  The  acts  of  this  coun- 
cil were  signed  by  a  very  small  number  of 
bishops,  and  the  pretended  legates  of  the 
three  above  mentioned  sees;  but  to  their 
signatures  Photius  added  those  of  both  em- 
perors, Michael  and  Basilius,  of  the  whole 
senate,  of  a  great  many  bishops  who  had 
never  heard  of  that  council,  of  almost  all  the 
abbots  in  the  east,  and  of  a  vast  number  of  ec- 
clesiastics of  all  ranks  and  degrees,  in  order  to 
send  the  acts  thus  signed  to  the  pope.'  In  the 
same  acts  he  caused  acclamations  to  be  in- 
serted in  honor  of  the  emperor  Lewis  and  his 
wife  Ingelberga;  and  in  those  acclamations  he 
gave  the  title  of  emperor  to  Lewis,  and  to  [n- 
gelberga  that  of  empress,  and  of  a  second  Pul-  ■ 
cheria,  flattering  himself,  that,  by  distinguish-  m 
ing  them  with  those  titles,  he  should  bias  ■ 
them  in  his  favor,  as  the  Greeks  had  hither- 
to looked  upon  the  emperors  of  the  west 
only  as  kings,  and  given  them  no  other  title. 
Photius,  not  satisfied  with  thus  condemn- 
ing, excommunicating,  and  deposing  the 
pope,  wrote  a  circulatory  letter  to  the  patri- 
arch of  Alexandria,  and  the  other  patriarchs 
and  bishops  of  the  east,  charging  the  Roman 
church  with  several  erroneous  doctrines,  and 
various  practices  countenanced  by  the  popes, 
but  repugnant  to  the  decrees  and  the  canons 
of  the  church  universal.  These  are,  I.  At 
Rome  they  fast  on  Saturdays,  by  a  manifest 
breach  of  the  sixty-fourth  canon  of-  the 
apostles,  deposing  such  clerks  as  should  fast 
on  Saturdays,  except  the  Saturday  before 
Easter-day,  or  on  Sundays,  and  excommuni- 
cating laymen  ;  and  likewise  of  the  fifty-fifth 
canon  of  the  sixth  oecumenical  council,  cen- 
suring the  Roman  church  for  fastingl  on 
Saturdays,  and  ordering  them  to  correct  that 
practice.2    II.  They  cut  off  the  first  week  of 

»  Metrophan.  in  liter,  ad  Michael.  Patric.  Auct.  lib, 
de  Synod.  Sinod.  150. 

a  The  words  of  the  canon  are:  "Whereas  we  un- 
derstand, that,  in  the  city  of  Rome,  the  Sabbath  in 
lent  is  kept  as  a  fast,  contrary  to  the  rule  and  custom 
of  the  church  ;  it  seemed  good  to  the  holy  synod,  that, 
in  the  Roman  church  also  the  ancient  canon  should  be 
revived  and  enforced,  which  says,  '  If  any  clergy- 
man be  found  to  fast  on  the  Lord's  day,  or  on  the 
Sabbath,  one  only  e.tcepted  (the  Saturday  before 
easter-day)  let  him  be  deposed  ;  if  a  layman,  let  him 
be  excommunicated.' "  Saturday,  or  the  Sabbath, 
was  observed  from  the  earliest  times,  by  all  the  east- 
ern churches,  as  a  festival,  with  the  same  religious 
ceremonies  as  Sunday,  or  the  Lord's  day.  There  was 
only  this  difference  between  these  two  great  festivals 
of  the  week,  as  they  were  called,  that  Christians  were 
not  required  to  rest  from  bodily  labor  on  the  Sabbath; 
nay,  they  who  did  so,  were  excommunicated  as  Juda- 
izers  by  the  twenty-ninth  canon  of  the  council  of 


Nicholas.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


259 


Different  modes  of  keeping  Lent. 


Lent,  indulging  themselves  in  that  week  in 
the  use  of  milk  and  cheese.'     III.  They  do 


Laodicea.  Tlie  observation  of  the  Sabbath  is  com- 
monly, and  most  probably,  thought  to  have  been  con- 
tinued by  the  (Christian  churches  to  gratify  in  this,  as 
they  did  in  many  other  different  things,  the  Jewish 
converts,  who  still  retained  a  great  veneration  for  the 
Mosaic  institutions. — (See  Cave,  Prim.  Christ.  1.  i. 
c.  7.)  Some  writers  are  of  opinion,  and  among  the 
rest  AlbaspioEus,  that  the  Sabbath  was  originally  ob- 
■  served  as  a  festival  by  the  Latin  churches,  as  well  as 
by  the  Greek,  even  by  that  of  Rome. —  (Albaspin.  Ob- 
servat.  I.  i.  c.  13. J  However  that  be,  it  was  certainly 
kept  very  early  by  the  Roman  church  as  a  fast,  and 
her  e.tample  was,  in  process  of  lime,  followed  by  all 
the  western  churches.  The  church  of  Milan,  though 
80  near  to  Rome,  was  one  of  the  last  that  turned  the 
festival  into  a  fast,  for  St.  Ambrose,  bishop  of  that 
city,  tells  us,  that,  in  his  time,  not  only  the  Lord's  day, 
but  every  Sabbath,  except  the  great  Sabbath  before 
Easter,  was  observed  there,  even  in  lent,  as  a  festival. 
—  (Ambros.  de  elcm.  Sc.  jejunio,  c.  10.)  He  did  not, 
however,  condemn  the  contrary  practice;  for  being 
consulted  by  St.  Austin  upon  this  particular  point,  he 
told  him,  that  he  could  give  him  no  better  advice  than 
to  do  as  he  himself  did;  "for  when  I  am  at  Rome," 
said  he,  "I  fast  on  Saturday  as  they  do  at  Rome; 
when  I  am  here,  I  do  not  fast." — (.\ugust.  ep.  86  & 
118.)  In  St.  Austin's  time,  some  pretended  tlie  cus- 
tom of  fastine  on  Saturdays  at  Rome  to  have  been  in- 
troduced by  St.  Peter,  who  being  to  contend  with  Si- 
mon the  sorcerer  on  a  Sunday,  fasted  the  preceding 
day;  and  having  overcome  him,  continued  ever  after- 
wards, with  the  Roman  church,  to  last  on  the  same 
day.  But  this  tradition  was,  as  St.  Austin  informs  us, 
looked  upon  in  his  time,  and  very  deservedly,  as  a 
mere  fable  by  some  of  the  Romans  themselves. —  (Aug. 
ep.  8G.)  However,  it  was  alledged  by  Ratramnus,  in 
his  answer  to  Photius's  letter,  to  justify  the  Roman 
practice.  But  neither  he,  nor  iEneas  bishop  of  Paris, 
take  any  notice,  in  their  answers,  of  the  apostolic 
canon,  or  of  that  of  the  sixth  council. 

'  There  was  anciently  great  variety  as  to  the  num- 
ber of  weeks  in  the  Lent  fast.  Some  churches  began 
it  six  weeks  before  Easter,  some  seven,  some  eight, 
some  nine,  and  some  even  ten  ;  and  yet  none  of  them 
hit  on  the  precise  number  of  forty  days.  The  churches 
that  kept  their  fast  six  weeks,  e.vcepted  all  Sundays 
out  of  it ;  and  such  as  kept  it  seven  weeks,  excepted 
all  Saturdays,  but  one,  as  well  as  Sundays.  Thus 
they  agreed  in  the  number  of  fasting  days,  namely, 
thirly-six,  while  they  disagreed  in  the  number  of 
weeks.  The  churches,  that  began  their  fast  eight, 
nine,  and  ten  weeks  before  Easter,  excepted  so  many 
days,  that  their  fasting  days  did  not  exceed  that  num- 
ber. Pope  Gregory  the  first,  or  as  others  will  have  it, 
the  second  of  that  name,  added  to  the  thirty-six  days 
of  the  six  weeks,  Wednesday,  and  the  three  following 
days  of  the  seventh,  to  make  them  completely  forty. 
Of  this  addition  notice  is  taken  by  Ratramnus  in  his 
answer  to  Photius ;  and  he  concludes  from  thence, 
that  the  quadragesimal  fast  is  observed  more  exactly 
in  the  Roman  church  than  it  is  in  that  of  Constantino- 
ple. I  cannot  help  observing  here,  that  neither  the 
Lent  fast,  nor  any  other,  anciently  consisted,  as  it  does 
now  in  the  church  of  Rome,  in  a  change  of  diet  from 
flesh  to  fish,  but  in  a  total  abstinence  from  food  till 
evening ;  and  they  then  thought  it  indifferent  whether 
they  refreshed  themselves  with  fish,  flesh,  or  any  other 
food.  Indeed  fasting,  as  it  is  commanded  by  the  church 
of  Rome,  is  mere  mockery ;  for,  according  to  their 
casuists,  no  drink  breaks  a  fast,  be  it  wine,  be  it  cho- 
colate ;  80  that  a  man  may  drink  as  much  chocolate  as 
he  pleases,  nay,  and  may  get  drunk  with  wine,  or  any 
other  liquor,  and  yet  fast  as  the  church  commands; 
since  he  would  in  that  case,  say  they,  break  the  com- 
mand of  God  against  drunkenness,  but  not  the  law  of 
the  church  about  fasting. — (Pasqualig.  Praxis  jejunii 
decis  116.  Escobar.  Lessius,  &.c.)  Pasqualigus,  who 
has  written  most  fully  on  this  subject,  adds,  that, 
"as  It  ia  not  wholesome  to  drink  without  eat- 
ing, you  may  eat  (two  ounces  of  bread,  says  Esco- 
bar) when  you  drink,  that  not  being  forbidden,  be- 
cause it  is  taken  by  way  of  medicine;"  and  for 
this  practice  he  quotes  a  great  number  of  casuists. 
—  (Pasciualig.  Praxis  jejunii  decis.  119.)  All  are  al- 
lowed a  collation  in  the  evening,  and  there  is  no  cer- 
tain rule,  says  Lessius,  for  the  quantity  df  it. —  (Less. 
Instruct.  Sacerdot.  1.  vi.  c.  2.)  In  short,  fasting  in 
the  church  of  Rome  consists  merely  in  a  change  of 
food,  or  in  an  abstinence  from  flesh,  and  every  thing 
that  comes  from  flesh :  so  that  a  papist  may  in  Lent, 


not  allow  their  priests  to  marry,  and  sepa- 
rate those  from  their  wives  who  were  mar- 
ried before  they  entered  into  orders ;  and  to 
this  practice,  adds  Photius,  it  is  owing  that 
we  see  so  many  children,  but  know  nothing 
of  their  fathers.'  IV.  They  anoint  anew 
with  the  holy  chrism  those  who  have  been 
already  anointed  by  presbyters,  pretending, 
tliat  bishops  alone  are  authorized  to  perform 
that  ceremony.2  V.  They  teach,  that  the 
Holy  Ghost  proceeds  not  from  the  Father 
alone,  but  from  the  Father  and  the  Son  ; 
and  thus  divide  the  undivided  Deity  into  two 
principles.  This,  says  Photius,  is  the  most 
horrid  blasphemy  that  ever  was,  or  ever  can 
be  uttered,  not  only  against  the  Holy  Ghost, 
but  the  whole  Trinity,  and  alone  deserves  a 
thousand  anathemas.^  VI.  They  raise  dea- 
cons to  the  episcopal  dignity,  without  con- 
ferring upon  them  the  order  of  priesthood. 
VII.  In  imitation  of  the  Jews,  they  con- 
secrate a  lamb  at  Easter,  and  offer  it  on  the 
altar  with  the  body  of  the  Lord,-*  VIII.  Their 
clergy  shave  their  beards.^ 


and  on  all  other  fasts,  riot  upon  salmon,  sturgeon,  and 
other  such  delicious  fish,  may  drink  the  richest  wines, 
and  yet  obey  the  command  of  his  church,  and  earn 
heaven  by  fasting.  But  should  he  taste  any  flesh, 
however  coarse,  or  the  liquor  it  was  boiled  in,  or  any 
laclicinia  or  milk-meats,  he  would  disobey  her  com- 
mand ;  and  her  commands  are  all  no  less  binding,  on 
pain  of  damnation,  than  those  of  the  decalogue. 

1  "It  were  to  be  wished,"  says  Alvarus  Pelagius, 
bishop  of  Silva  in  Portugal,  in  the  beginning  of  the 
fourteenth  century,  "that  the  clergy  had  never  vowed 
chastity,  especially  the  clergy  of  Spain,  where  the  sons 
of  the  laity  are  not  much  more  numerous  than  the  sons 
of  the  clergy.— (Alvar.  de  planctu  Eccles.  1.  ii.  art.  27.) 

2  AH  persons,  children  as  well  as  ihe  adult,  were 
anciently  anointed  with  the  holy  unction,  and  re- 
ceived the  imposition  of  hands,  as  soon  as  they  were 
baptized  ;  which  ceremony  we  now  call  confirmation. 
In  the  Roman  church,  several  unctions  were  used  on 
that  occasion,  namely,  of  the  forehead,  of  the  eyes, 
nose,  mouth,  and  ears.  That  of  the  forehead,  which 
was  always  attended  with  the  imposition  of  hands, 
was  reserved  to  the  bishop  as  his  peculiar  office;  but 
presbyters  were  allowed  to  perform  all  the  other  unc- 
tions, and,  in  most  of  the  eastern  churches,  even  that 
of  the  forehead,  and  the  imposition  of  liands,  with  the 
permission  of  the  bishop.  The  chrism,  used  in  these 
unctions,  was  a  mixture  of  oil  and  balsam,  which  the 
bishop  alone  was  allowed  to  consecrate,  and  it  was  al- 
ways consecrated  at  Easter.  When  this  ceremony, 
which  was  originally  but  one  of  the  parts  or  rites  of 
the  sacrament  of  baptism,  began  first  to  be  used,  is 
uncertain;  b\U  TertuUian  and  Origen,  who  flourished 
in  the  third  century,  are  the  first  who  speak  of  it. 
However,  in  the  chvirch  of  Rome  it  is  one  of  the  seven 
sacraments,  and  is  believed  to  be  of  divine  institution, 
ami  to  imprint  an  indelible  character.— (Concil.  Trid. 
de  Sacram.  can.  9.) 

=  This  point  is  the  subject  of  three  whole  books  out 
of  the  four  that  Ratramnus  wrote  in  answer  to  the  ob- 
jections of  Photius.  The  first  consists  of  passages 
from  Scripture,  and  the  other  two  of  passages  from  the 
fathers,  to  prove  the  procession  of  the  Holy  Ghost  from 
the  Father  and  the  Son. 

♦  That  such  a  gross  piece  of  superstition  as  that  of 
consecrating  a  lamb  at  Easter,  and  eating  the  flesh  of 
it,  once  prevailed  in  the  Roman  church,  appears  from 
Walafridus  Strabo,  who  severely  censures  it ;  (Stra- 
bo  de  rel).  Eccles.  c.  18.) -and  likewise  from  the  old 
Ordo  Romanus,  where  a  form  is  set  down  for  the  con- 
secration of  a  lamb  at  Easter.  But  as  Strabo  takes  no 
notice  of  their  offering  it  on  the  altar  with  the  eurha- 
rist,  that  was  probably  an  aggravation  of  the  thing, 
and  perhaps  putidum  mendacium,  as  cardinal  Bona 
calls  it. — (Bona  rer.  Liturg.  1.  ii.  c.  8. 

«  The  clergy  were  forbidden,  by  the  fourth  council  of 
Carthage,  to  let  their  hair  grow  long,  or  to  shave  their 
boards,  "Clericus  ncc  comam  nutriat,  nee  barbam  ra- 
dat."    As  the  contrary  custom,  with  respect  to  the 


260 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Nicholas. 


Photius  exhorts  the  Eastern  bishops  to  join  him  against  the  pope.  The  pope  recurs  to  the  Gallican  bishop  for 
an  answer  to  the  reproaches  of  Photius.  The  emperor  Michael  murdered.  Photius  deposed,  and  Ignatius 
restored. 


These  were  the  chief  articles  of  the  charge 
brought  by  Photius  against  the  Roman 
church,  in  his  letter  to  the  eastern  bishops ; 
and  in  the  same  letter,  he  exhorts  them  to 
concur  with  him  in  reforming  that  church, 
and  to  send  their  deputies  to  assist,  in  their 
name,  if  they  cannot  assist  in  person,  at  the 
oecumenical  council  that  is  appointed  to  meet 
for  that  purpose.  He  tells  them,  that  he  has 
received  a  synodical  letter  from  Italy,  filled 
with  unheard-of  complaints  from  all  ranks 
of  people  against  their  bishop,  whose  tyranny 
they  can  no  longer  bear ;  and  therefore  en- 
treat him  to  deliver  them  from  so  galling  a 
yoke.  In  the  close  of  his  letter,  he  exhorts 
the  patriarchs  and  bishops,  to  whom  it  was 
addressed,  to  receive  the  seventh  council, 
that  condemned,  under  his  uncle  Tarasius, 
the  heresy  of  the  Iconoclasts,  and  established 
the  opposite  doctrine.  In  his  letter,  he  takes 
notice  of  the  conversion  of  the  Bulgarians, 
and  likewise  of  the  Ruteni  or  Russians, 
styling  them  a  nation  that  exceeds  all  other 
nations  in  slaughters  and  cruelty.' 

The  pope  finding  the  Roman  church  and 
his  see  thus  attacked,  applied  to  Hincmar 
and  the  other  metropolitans  of  Charles's 
kingdom,  desiring  them  to  assemble  their 
respective  suffragans  to  examine  and  answer, 
jointly  with  them,  the  reproaches  of  Pho- 
tius, levelled  against  all  churches  that  used 
the  Latin  tongue,  as  we^  as  the  Roman,  and 
to  transmit  their  answers  to  him.^  The 
bishops  met,  in  compliance  with  the  desire 
of  the  pope;  and  having  examined,  w^ith 
their  Metropolitans,  the  points  in  dispute, 
answered  one  by  one  the  objections  of  Pho- 
tius. The  answers  of  the  bishop  of  the  pro- 
vince of  Sens,  collected  by  ^neas,  bishop 
of  Paris,  have  reached  our  times  ;  but  those 
of  the  bishops  of  the  province  of  Reims,  col- 
lected by  Odo  bishop  of  Beauvais,  are  lost. 


beard,  obtains  in  the  Latin  church,  and  they  will  not 
allow  any  of  their  pactices  to  be  contrary  to  the  an- 
cient canons,  but  will  have  them  all,  however  indif- 
ferent, to  be  pregnant  with  some  mystery,  Bellarmine 
pretends,  that  the  word  radat  should  be  left  out;  and 
he  reads  the  canon  thus  ;  "  Clericus  nee  comam  nu- 
triat,  nee  barbam,"  a  clergyman  shall  neither  let  his 
hair  grow  long  nor  his  beard. — (Bellarmin.  de  monach. 
1.  ii.  c.  40.)  But  that  the  other  is  the-true  reading  has 
been  unanswerably  proved  from  the  ancient  manu- 
scripts.—  (See  Savaro  not.  in  Sidoniura,  1.  iv.  ep.  24,  &, 
Spondan.  epit.  Baron,  ad  ann.  858.) 

'  In  the  year  861,  they  over-ran  many  provinces  of 
the  empire,  committing  every  where  most  dreadful 
ravages,  and  shocking  barbarities,  and  even  laid  siege 
to  Constantinople  itself;  but  not  succeeding  in  that 
undertaking,  wliich  Porphyrogennetus  ascribes  to  the 
prayers  of  Photius,  they  returned  home,  and,  upon 
their  return,  embraced  the  Christian  religion,  received 
a  bishop,  and  of  enemies  became  friends  and  allies  of 
the  empire.  To  what  so  sudden  a  change  was  owing 
in  so  cruel,  so  fierce,  so  inhuman  a  nation,  as  Porphy- 
rogennetus calls  them,  or  by  whose  means  it  was 
brought  about,  neither  he  nor  Photius  has  informed  us. 
But  they  relapsed  afterwards  into  idolatry;  for  St. 
Adelbertus,  who  was  sent  by  Otto  king  of  Germany, 
in  959,  to  preach  the  gospel  to  that  people,  found  no 
other  Christian  among  them  but  Helena  their  queen, 
who  had  been  baptized  at  Constantinople  in  954. — 
(Cedren.  p.  636.  Herbest.  rer.  Muscovit.  p.  3.  Curopa- 
lates,  Zonar.  &c.) 

a  Nicol.  ep.  70.  apud  Baron,  ad  ann.  867.  n.  46,  &c. 


Ratramnus,  one  of  the  most  learned  men  of 
his  age,  wrote  on  the  same  subject,  probably 
at  the  desire  of  the  bishops;  and  his  per- 
formance, which  is  still  extant,  far  exceeds 
that  of  ^neas. 

In  the  meantime  happened  in  the  east  an 
unexpected  change  of  affairs  both  in  the 
church  and  the  state  :  the  emperor  Michael 
was  murdered  by  his  guards,  either  at  the 
instigation  of  the  friends  of  Basilius,  or  by  a 
decree  of  the  Senate,  says  Porphyrogennetus, 
exculpating  his  grandfather  Basilius.  But 
the  other  Byzantine  historians,  and  among 
them  Leo  Grammaticus  and  Symeon  Logo- 
theta,  tell  us,  that  Basilius  being  informed, 
that  Michael  designed  to  remove  him  out  of 
the  way,  and  raise  a  patrician,  by  name 
Basiliscianus,  to  the  imperial  throne  in  his 
room,  he  resolved  to  save  his  own  life  at  the 
expense  of  the  emperor's ;  and  that,  entering 
accordingly  his  room  one  night  while  he 
was  drunk  and  asleep,  he  first  cut  oflT  both 
his  hands  as  he  held  them  up,  and  then  dis- 
patched him  with  innumerable  wounds, 
after  he  had  reigned  twenty-seven  years  and 
four  months.  Basilius,  now  sole  master  of 
the  empire,  ordered  Photius  the  very  next 
day  to  be  confined  to  a  Monastery;  and  hav- 
ing sent  for  Ignatius,  commanded  silence 
upon  his  appearing  before  him,  bestowed 
upon  him  the  highest  commendations,  and 
restored  him  to  his  see,  eleven  years  after 
he  had  been  driven  with  violence  from  it.' 
IVicetas  writes,  that  the  emperor  deposed 
Photius  in  a  council,  which  must  have  con- 
sisted of  such  bishops  only  as  happened  then 
to  be  at  Constantinople,  since  he  was  de- 
posed the  very  next  day  after  the  murder  of 
his  colleague  Michael.  Zonaras,  and,  long 
before  him,  Leo  Grammaticus,  Symeon  Lo- 
gotheta,  and  George  the  monk,  ascribe  the 
deposition  of  Photius  to  his  having  pushed 
back  Basilius  as  he  approached  the  altar  to 
receive  the  eucharist,  telling  him  that  he 
could  not  administer  it  to  him,  as  his  hands 
were  still  reeking  with  the  blood  of  his  bene- 
factor. But  of  that  no  notice  is  taken  by 
Porphyrogennetus,  more  ancient  than  any 
of  those  writers,  nor  by  Nicetas,  who  was 
an  eye-witness  of  what  he  relates,  and  would 
scarce  have  ventured,  how  prejudiced  soever 
against  Photius,  to  pass  so  remarkable  a  cir- 
cumstance over  in  silence.  And  truly  that 
Photius  was  a  man  to  flatter  princes  in  their 
wickedness,  rather  than  to  reprimand  them, 
sufficiently  appears  from  the  letter  he  wrote 
to  the  emperor  Michael  when  he  received 
the  news  of  the  death  of  Bardas,  murdered 
by  his  order;  for  though  he  owed,  as  we 
have  seen,  his  promotion  to  Bardas  alone, 
yet,  in  that  letter,  he  approved  of  his  murder, 
nay,  and  painted  his  deceased  friend  and 
benefactor  as  the  most  wicked  of  men,  and 
richly  deserving  the  fate  he  had  met  with. 


Nicet.  in  vit.  Ignat. 


Nicholas.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


261 


The  papers  of  Plintius  seized,  and  among  them  the  acts  of  his  pretended  council.  The  emperor  acquaints  the 
pope  with  the  restoration  of  Ignatius.  Contest  between  the  pope  and  the  Gallican  bishops,  concerning  the 
ordination  of  Wulfade,  and  other  clerks. 


Photius  being  driven  from  the  patriarchal  j 
palace,  the  emperor  sent  the  governor  Ba- 
hanes  to  him,  with  an  order  to  deliver  up  all 
the  writings  he  had  taken  with  him.  lie 
pretended  to  have  taken  none;  but,  in  the 
mean  time,  word  was  brought  to  Bahanes, 
that  his  domestics  were  just  gone  out  with 
seven  sacks  full  of  writings.  These  Bahanes 
immediately  ordered  to  be  siezed,  and  carried 
to  the  emperor;  who,  upon  opening  them, 
found  two  books  amongst  them  with  very 
rich  coverings,  the  one  containing  the  acts 
of  the  council  that  had  deposed  Ignatius,  the 
other  the  acts  of  that  which  had  deposed  the 
pope.  The  former  was  divided  into  seven 
sessions,  to  each  of  which  was  prefixed  some 
representation  of  Ignatius  done  by  Gregory 
of  Syracuse,  the  most  skilful  painter  in 
miniature  of  his  time.  Before  the  first  ses- 
sion, he  was  represented  dragged  to  the 
council,  and  beaten  by  those  who  dragged 
him,  with  the  word  "the  Devil"  over  his 
head.  Before  the  second  he  was  buffetted, 
spit  upon,  and  otherwise  insulted  by  his 
keepers ;  and  the  inscription  was,  "  the 
Beginning  of  Sin."  In  the  beginning  of  the 
third,  the  fourth,  and  the  fifth  sessions,  he 
was  seen  divested  of  his  patriarchal  robes, 
anathematized,  and  fettered  like  a  common 
malefactor,  with  the  mottoes,  "  the  Son  of 
Iniquity;"  "Simon  the  Sorcerer;  exalting 
himself  above  all  that  is  called  God."  Before 
the  sixth  and  the  seventh,  he  was  drawn  as 
condemned  to  death,  and  carried  to  the  place 
of  execution,  with  the  inscriptions, "  the  Abo- 
mination of  Desolation  ;"  "  the  Antichrist." 
The  other  book  contained  the  acts  of  the 
council  that  deposed  the  pope,  the  crimes 
that  were  laid  to  his  charge,  with  their  proofs, 
and  the  sentence  that  was  pronounced 
against  him,  with  the  forged  subscriptions 
mentioned  above.  Of  these  books  two  copies 
were  found,  Photius  intending  to  keep  one  for 
himself,  and  to  send  the  other  to  the  emperor 
Lewis,  with  many  rich  presents,  and  a  flat- 
tering letter,  which  fell  likewise  into  the 
emperor's  hands,  wherein  he  acquainted 
Lewis  and  his  wife  Ingelberga  with  the  de- 
position of  the  pope  by  an  CEcumenical  coun- 
cil, as  he  called  it,  and  at  the  same  time  en- 
treated them  to  drive  him  from  Rome,  in 
compliance  with  the  decree  of  that  council.' 
These  books  were,  to  the  unspeakable  mor- 
tification of  Photius  and  his  friends,  publicly 
shown  by  the  emperor  to  the  senate  and 
the  clergy  of  Constantinople,  and  afterwards 
consigned  to  the  flames  by  order  of  the 
eiglith  general  council. 

Photius  being  thus  driven  from  the  patri- 
archal see,  and  Ignatius  reinstated  in  his 
former  dignity,  the  emperor  dispatched  im- 
mediately Basilius  the  protospatharius  to 
acquaint  the  pope  therewith;  and  with  him 
John,  metropolitan  of  Sylaeum,  was  sent  by 

'  Nicet.  in  vit.  Ignat. 


Ignatius,  and  Peter,  metropolitan  of  Sardis, 
by  Photius,  the  emperor,  who  afl"ected  great 
impartiality,  allowing  him  to  send  one  to 
plead  his  cause  at  the  tribunal  of  the  apos- 
tolic see.  But  the  metropolitan  of  Sardis 
was  shipwrecked  in  the  gulf  of  Dalmatia ; 
and  pope  Nicholas  died  before  the  arrival 
of  the  other  two  at  Rome,  bereaved  by  death 
of  the  satisfaction  the  restoration  of  Ignatius, 
which  he  had  laboured,  during  the  whole 
time  of  his  pontificate,  to  bring  about,  would 
have  given  him.  The  envoys  therefore  deli- 
vered the  letters  they  were  charged  with  to 
his  successor,  who  strove,  as  we  shall  see  ia 
the  sequel,  with  no  less  zeal  than  his  prede- 
cessor had  done,  to  bring  this  aflair  to  a 
happy  issue. 

Besides  this  dispute  with  Photius  and  his 
partisans  in  the  east,  Nicholas  was  engaged, 
during  the  two  last  years  of  his  life,  in  a 
warm  contest  with  Hincmar  and  the  other 
Gallican  bishops  in  the  west,  on  the  fol- 
lowing occasion :  Ebbo,  archbishop  of 
Reims,  having  sided  with  the  children  of 
the  emperor  Lewis  the  Debonnaire  in  their 
rebellion  against  their  father,  was,  on  that 
account  deposed  in  a  council  held  at 
Thionville  in  835,  but,  on  the  death  of 
Lewis,  restored  to  his  see  by  the  emperor 
Lotharius,  in  a  council  convened  in  840  at 
Ingelheim  on  the  Rhine.  Upon  his  restora- 
tion, he  applied  to  pope  Sergius  II.,  desiring 
to  be  reconciled  to  the  church  by  the  autho- 
rity of  his  see.  But  the  pope  only  granted 
him  lay  communion,  declaring  him  un- 
worthy of  communicating  in  the  quality  of 
a  clergyman.  He  was,  however,  prevailed 
upon  by  the  emperor  Lotharius  to  order  his 
cause  to  be  examined  anew;  and  Guntbold 
archbishop  of  Rouen,  and  the  other  bishops 
of  Charles  the  Bald's  kingdom,  met  for  that 
purpose  at  Paris  in  846.  But  Ebbo  did  not 
appear  at  that  council ;  and  he  was  there- 
upon banished  the  diocese  of  Reims  till  his 
cause  was  finally  determined  in  a  general 
assembly.'  Being  thus  obliged  to  quit  his 
diocese,  he  withdrew  into  Germany,  where 
he  was  kindly  received  by  king  Lewis,  and 
appointed  bishop  of  Hildesheim  in  the 
country  of  the  Saxons,  that  see  happening 
to  be  then  vacant.  Ebbo  had  ordained  some 
clerks  after  his  deposition  in  835,  and  those, 
Hincmar,  who  succeeded  him  in  845  in  the 
see  of  Reims,  would  not  receive,  alledging 
their  ordination  to  be  null,  as  they  had  been 
ordained  by  one  who  was  divested  of  all 
episcopal  power  and  authority.  Hereupon 
the  clerks,  among  wUom  was  Wulfade,  who 
had  been  preceptor  to  Carloman  the  son  of 
Charles  the  Bald,  and  was  therefore  greatly 
favoured  by  that  king,  applied  to  a  council 
that  was  held  at  Soissons  in  853,  and  con- 
sisted of  the  bishops  of  five  provinces, 
I  Hincmar  presiding  at   it,   with   the  arch- 

i  >  Flodoard.  Hist.  Rcmens.  I.  iii.  c.  2. 


262 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Nicholas. 


Wulfade  appeals  to  the  pope.     Council  of  Troyes.    Letter  from  the  king  to  the  pope  in  favor  of  Wulfade. 


bishops  Venilo  of  Sens,  Paul  of  Rouen,  and 
Amauri  of  Tours.  But  by  that  council  a 
decree  was  issued,  declaring  the  ordination 
of  those  clerks  to  be  null ;  and  that  decree 
was,  at  the  request  of  Hincmar,  confirmed 
by  pope  Benedict,  the  immediate  successor 
of  pope  Nicholas. 

However,  Wulfade,  encouraged  by  Charles 
of  France,  who  wanted  to  prefer  him,  ap- 
pealed from  the  judgment  of  the  council  to 
that  of  the  apostolic  see;  and  Nicholas,  ever 
ready  to  countenance,  right  or  wrong,  all 
who  had  recourse  to  his  see,  not  only  re- 
ceived his  appeal,  but  having  caused  the 
papers  in  the  archives  of  the  Roman  church, 
relating  to  that  affair,  to  be  examined,  de- 
clared the  acts  of  the  council  of  Soissons  to 
be  uncanonical  and  null;  and,  at  the  same 
time,  wrote  to  Hincmar,  to  Herard  of  Tours, 
and  to  all  the  bishops  of  France  and  Neus- 
tria,  requiring  them  to  reinstate  Wulfade 
and  the  other  clerks  in  their  respective  de- 
grees, or  to  examine  their  cause  anew  in  a 
general  assembly.  He  appointed  the  time 
for  the  meeting  of  that  assembly,  namely, 
the  16th  of  August,  866;  and  added  in  his 
letter,  that  if  any  difficulties  arose,  or  the 
clerks  appealed  to  the  holy  see,  they  should 
grant  them  leave  to  come  to  Rome,  and 
either  come  with  them  in  person,  or  send 
deputies  to  act  in  their  names.  The  pope's 
design  in  this,  was,  either  to  make  the  Gal- 
ilean bishops  restore  Wulfade  and  the  other 
clerks  in  this  second  council,  and  thus  re- 
verse the  judgment  they  themselves  had  for- 
merly given,  or  to  have  the  cause,  if  they 
confirmed  their  first  judgment,  removed  to 
Rome,  as  he  did  not  doubt  but,  in  that  case, 
Wulfade,  supported  by  the  king,  would  ap- 
peal to  the  apostolic  see.  But  the  Gallican 
bishops,  apprised  of  his  design,  instead  of 
annulling,  confirmed  the  judgment  of  the 
former  council,  commended  Hincmar  for  not 
restoring  the  deposed  clerks  after  the  receipt 
of  the  pope's  letter,  as  they  had  been  deposed 
by  a  council;  but  added,  that,  by  way  of 
favor,  they  might  be  reinstated  in  their  for- 
mer degrees,  which  they  left,  they  said,  to 
the  pope,  out  of  their  great  regard  to  the  see 
of  St.  Peter.  This  they  notified  to  the  pope, 
assuring  him,  that  they  were  ready  to  exe- 
cute what  his  holiness  should  ordain;  but 
lest  he  should  think  that  they  had  revoked 
the  decree  of  the  other  council,  Herard  of 
Tours  declared,  in  the  name  of  all  the 
bishops  who  were  present,  that  they  did  not 
depart  from  the  judgment  they  had  given, 
but  only  consented,  by  a  merciful  charity,  to 
the  mitigation  of  a  sentence  which  they  had 
pronounced  according  to  therigor  of  justice, 
imitating  therein  the  fathers  of  Nice,  who 
had  received  in  like  manner  those  whom 
Melitius  had  ordained.'  Many  letters  passed, 
on  this  occasion,  between  the  pope  and  the 


«  Nicol.  ep.  58.  Concil.  t.  8.  p.  830.  833. 


Gallican  bishops.  The  pope  pretended  that 
Hincmar  had  misrepresented  the  proceed- 
ings of  the  first  council  of  Soissons  to  his 
predecessor  Benedict,  and  surrepthiously  ob- 
tained of  him  a  confirmation  of  the  said 
council;  complained  of  their  not  having 
transmitted  to  him  a  distinct  and  authentic 
account  of  the  deposition  of  Ebbo,  and  the 
controverted  ordination  of  Wulfade  and  the 
other  clerks;  and  required  them  to  meet 
again  and  inform  him  minutely  of  the  whole. 
They  met  accordingly  at  Troyes,  on  the  25th 
of  October,  867,  and,  in  compliance  with  the 
pope's  request,  acquainted  him,  in  their  sy- 
nodical  letter,  with  every  particular  relating 
to  the  deposition  of  Ebbo,  to  his  pretend- 
ed restoration,  and  the  ordination  of  Wul- 
fade and  the  other  clerks,  after  his  deposi- 
tion. Actard,  bishop  of  Nantes,  was  ap- 
pointed by  the  council  to  go  with  that  letter 
to  Rome,  and  deliver  it  into  the  pope's  own 
hands. 

But  the  king,  Charles  of  France,  obliged 
him  to  deliver  it  to  him ;  and  having  opened 
and  perused  it,  though  sealed  with  the, seals 
of  five  archbishops,  he  wrote  another  to  the 
pope  more  favorable  to  Ebbo  and  to  Wulf- 
ade, whom  he  had  already  named  to  the  va- 
cant see  of  Bourges ;  for,  in  that  letter,  he 
assured  his  holiness  that  Ebbo  had  been 
preferred  by  the  emperor  to  the  see  of  Reims 
merely  in  consideration  of  his  merit,  and 
that  the  people  had  received  him  with  joy ; 
that,  in  the  first  rebellion  of  the  children  of 
Lewis  the  Debonnaire,  his  conduct  was  that 
of  a  loyal  subject;  but,  being  unluckily  drawn 
into  the  second  by  the  faction  of  Lotharius, 
he  had  publicly  acknowledged  his  fault  in 
the  church  of  St.  Stephen  at  Metz  ;  that  the 
emperor  had  written  to  pope  Gregory,  de- 
siring him  to  confirm  his  deposition,  and  the 
pope  had  answered  his  letter ;  but,  as  the 
emperor  kept  the  contents  of  his  holiness' 
letter  secret,  and  did  not  name  another  to  the 
see  of  Reims,  it  was  highly  probable  that 
Gregory  did  not  approve  of  the  deposition 
of  Ebbo ;  that,  upon  the  death  of  the  empe- 
ror Lewis,  he  was  acknowledged  for  lawful 
bishop  of  Reims  by  all  the  bishops  subject 
to  that  see;  that  they  all  communicated  with 
him,  and  such  of  them  as  had  been  ordained 
in  his  absence,  received  from  him,  upon  his 
return,  the  ring  and  the  crosier.  From 
thence  the  king  concludes  Wulfade  and  the 
other  clerks  to  have  been  lawfully  ordained, 
because  ordained  by  a  metropolitan,  who 
was  acknowledged  as  such  by  all  his  suffra- 
gans. In  the  close  of  his  letter,  the  king 
excuses  his  having  caused  Wulfade  to  be 
consecrated  archbishop  of  Bourges  before  he 
received  his  holiness'  answer,  and  demands 
the  pall  for  him. 

As  the  pope  had  reproached  Hincmar,  in 
one  of  his  letters  to  him,  as  Avell  as  in  that 
to  the  bishops  of  the  council  of  Soissons, 
with  pride,  with  unfair  dealing,  and  want  of 


Nicholas.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


2C3 


Hincmar's  letter  to  the  pope.  Nicholas  dies.  Ilis  character.  His  charity,  munificence,  &c.     His  writings. 


the  respect  and  submission  that  was  due  to  1  Indeed,  that  he  was  received  into  heaven 
the  apostolic  see,  he  wrote,  by  Actard,  a  long  |  among  the  saints  of  the  first  class,  was  at- 


letter  to  clear  himself  from  those  reproaches, 
and  satisfy  his  holiness,  that,  in  this  whole 
affair,  his  conduct  had  been  entirely  agree- 
able to  the  canons  and  the  known  laws  of 
the  church.     With  these  letters  Actard  set 


tested  by  an  eye-witness,  namely,  by  John 
the  deacon,  to  whom  he  appeared  in  the  com- 
pany of  Gregory  the  Great,  surrounded  with 
the  same  glory  as  that  renowned  pontiff. 
Nicholas  is  commended  by  Anastasius  for 


out  for  Rome  in  the  beginning  of  November ; '  his  charity  to  the  poor,  of  whom  he  kept  a 
but  pope  Nicholas  dying  in  the  mean  time,!  list,  sending  a  daily  supply  of  provisions  to 
the   affair  was   finally   determined,  to   the' all  the  blind,  the  lame,  and  the  infirm,  in  the 


satisfaction  of  both  parties,  by  his  successor, 
as  we  shall  see  in  the  sequel. 

Nicholas  died  on  the  13th  of  November, 
8G7,  after  he  had  governed  the  Roman 
church  nine  years,  six  months,  and  twenty 
days.  He  was,  without  all  doubt,  a  man  of 
very  uncommon  parts,  and  has  by  some 
been  compared,  nay,  and  equalled  to  Leo 
and  to  Gregory,  as  no  less  worthy  of  the 
surname  of  Great  than  either  of  them.  His 
ambition,  at  least,  did  not  fall  short  of  theirs; 
and,  treading  in  their  footsteps,  he  made  it 
his  study,  during  the  whole  time  of  his 
pontificate,  to  engross  all  power  to  himself, 
to  enslave,  in  defiance  of  the  councils  and 
their  canons,  all  other  sees,  to  his  own,  and 
exalt  himself  above  all  that  is  called  God. 
He  paid  no  greater  regard  to  princes  than  to 
his  fellow-bishops,  "  commanding  princes," 
to  use  the  words  of  Regino,  "  as  if  he  were 
their  king ;  and  kings  as  if  he  were  the  sole 
monarch  of  the  universe."     Notice  is  like- 


different  quarters  of  the  city,  and  giving 
tickets  to  those  who  could  walk,  to  some  for 
one  day,  to  others  for  another  ;  so  that  they 
were  all,  in  their  turn,  plentifully  fed  by  him 
once  a  week.'  He  made  many  rich  pre- 
sents to  the  churches  of  Rome,  especially  to 
that  of  St.  Peter,  of  which  the  reader  will 
find  an  inventory  in  the  bibliothecarian.  As 
to  his  public  works,  he  repaired  an  aqueduct 
that  conveyed  water  to  the  Vatican  basilic, 
and  rebuilt  the  city  of  Ostia,  strengthening 
it  with  new  works  against  any  sudden  at- 
tack of  the  Saracens,  who  continued  to  in- 
fest that  coast.2 

Of  this  pope  we  have  near  an  hundred 
letters  ;  but  of  many  of  them  1  have  already 
given  the  contents  in  speaking  of  the  sub- 
jects to  which  they  related  ;  and  shall  only 
take  notice  here  of  such  of  the  rest  as  may 
serve  to  acquaint  us  with  the  doctrines,  the 
practices,  and  the  ecclesiastical  discipline  of 
those  times.  Amongstthese,the  most  remark- 


wise  taken,  by  the  Bertinian  annalist,  of  his'  able  is  that  which  Nicholas  wrote  in  866,  in 
writing  to  princes,  especially  to  the  French  j  answer  to  the  questions,  doubts,  or  consulta- 
kings,    "  in    a    haughty,    imperious,   and  -  .     _    .      . 

threatening  style,  and  not  with  the  submis- 
sion, deference,  and  respect  that  his  prede- 
cessors had  ever  shown  them.'  Of  this  we 
have  seen  several  instances,  to  which  I  shall 
add  one  more  from  Gratian,  quoting  the 'fol- 
lowing words  out  of  one  of  this  insolent  pope's 
letters  to  king  Lolharius  ;  "  we  command 
thee  by  apostolic  authority  not  to  suffer  any 
bishop  to  be  chosen  for  Treves  or  Cologne 
before  a  report  be  made  to  our  apostleship."^ 
Nicholas,  so  far  as  we  can  judge  from  his 
whole  conduct,  had  nothing  so  much  at 
heart  as  to  vihfy  and  depreciate  the  authority 
of  princes,  in  order  to  raise  his  own  above 
theirs,  and  the  church  above  the  state;  and 
it  was,  no  doubt,  with  that  view  that  he 
taught  the  infamous  doctrine,  that  "  sub- 
jection is  not  due  to  bad  princes,"  and  left 
every  bishop  to  judge  and  determine  whether 
the  prince  was  a  good  or  a  bad  one,  a  law- 
ful prince  or  a  tyrant;  a  doctrine  that,  should 
it  ever  prevail,  would  involve  all  kingdoms 
in  endless  rebellions,  and  fill  them  with 
blood  and  slaughter.  But  how  great  soever 
his  demerit  was  in  other  respects,  he  certain- 
ly deserved  well  of  the  apostolic  see ;  and  his 
successors  in  that  see  have  accordingly 
honored  him  with  the  greatest  mark  of  dis- 
tinction in  their  power,  that  of  saintship. 


>  Bertin.  Annal.  ad  ann.  865. 
3  Gratian.  distinct.  Ixiii.  c.  4. 


tions  of  the  Bulgarians,  converted  five  ypars 
before  to  the  Christian  religion.^   It  contains 

>  Anast.  in  Nicol.  «  Idem  ibid. 

3  The  Bulgarians,  a  fierce  and  warlike  nation,  came 
originally  from  the  country  bordHring  on  the  Palus 
MoBOtis,  were  converted  to  the  Christian  religion  in 
861,  on  the  following  occasion  :  in  an  irruption  they 
had  made  a  few  years  before  into  the  empire,  the  sister 
of  Bogoris  their  king  was  taken,  and  carried,  with  the 
other  captives,  to  Constantinople.  The  king,  who  ten- 
derly loved  her,  was  greatly  affected  with  her  un- 
happy fate:  but  it  proved,  in  the  end,  the  source  of 
the  greatest  happiness  that  could  befal  him  and  his 
people  :  for  the  princess,  having  embraced  the  Chris- 
tian religion  during  her  captivity,  and  being  soon  after 
e,\changed  for  one  Theodore  Cuphara,  said  to  have 
been  a  man  of  great  learning,  she  undertook,  upon  her 
return  home,  to  gain  over  tlie  king  her  brother  to  the 
same  faith,  representing  to  him,  on  all  occasions,  the 
greatness  and  the  power  of  the  God  of  the  Christians, 
as  well  as  the  vanity  of  his  idols,  and  e.xhorting  him 
to  banish  them,  and  adore  one  God,  the  maker  of 
heaven  and  earth,  and  the  only  true  God,  in  their  room. 
The  king  hearkened  to  her;  but  his  attachment  to  the 
religion  and  the  gods  of  his  ancestors  was  proof 
against  all  her  reasons,  remonstrances,  and  exhorta- 
tions, till  providence  interposed  in  a  special  manner: 
a  dreadful  famine  began  to  rage  all  over  the  land,  and 
was  soon  followed  by  a  more  dreadful  plague,  thai 
swept  off  daily  many  thousands.  These  calamities  the 
pious  princess  looked  upon  as  sent  by  heaven  to  se- 
cond her  endeavors;  and  therefore  renewing  her  ex- 
hortations with  more  zeal -than  ever,  she  prevailed  on 
the  king  at  last  to  apply  for  relief  to  the  God  of  the 
Christians.  He  soon  felt  the  good  effect  of  this  appli- 
cation ;  the  plague  ceased;  and  the  king,  sensible  to 
whom  he  was  indebted  for  so  quick  a  deliverance, 
dispatched  ambassadors  to  Constantinople  for  proper 
persons  to  instruct  and  baptize  him  and  his  people ; 
and  he  was  accordingly  Instructed  and  baptized,  with 
many  of  his  subjects,  by  missionaries  sent  from  thence. 
Such  is  the  account  Porphyrogennetus  gives  us  of  the 
[conversion  of  the  Bulgarians;  (Porphyr.  in  Vit.  Mi- 


364 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Nicholas. 


The  pope's  answer  to  the  consultations  of  the  Bulgarians.     Decisions  relating  to  several  points. 


no  fewer  than  105  articles,-  for  so  many 
were  the  questions  proposed  by  the  Bul- 
garians, or  rather  by  their  king ;  and  it  de- 
serves the  name  of  a  work  rather  than  a  let- 
ter. The  chief  questions,  and  the  answers 
to  them,  are  as  follows :  such  of  the  Bul- 


chael,)  and  his  account  has  been  copied  by  Zonaras, 
Curo|)alates,  and  Cedrenus.  But  Synieon  Logolheta, 
talcing  no  notice  of  the  king's  sister,  tells  us,  that  the 
emperor  Michael  having  made  great  preparations  by 
sea  and  land  to  fall  upon  the  Bulgarians,  Gibores,  their 
king  (for  so  he  calls  him)  alarmed  thereat,  as  he  was 
not  in  a  condition  to  withstand  so  great  a  force,  a 
dreadful  famine  raging  at  that  time  in  his  kingdom, 
sent  ambassadors  to  the  emperor,  to  let  him  know, 
that  he  and  his  people  were  desirous  to  embrace  the 
Christian  religion,  and  become  subjects  of  the  Roman 
empire  ;  that  Michael,  transported  with  joy  at  so  un- 
expected a  message,  invited  the  king  to  Constantino- 
ple ;  and  that  he  was  there  baptized,  taking  at  his 
baptism  the  name  of  the  emperor. — (Sym.  Logoth.  ad 
ann.  4  Mich.)  Bogoris,or,as  I  shall  henceforth  call  him, 
Michael  was,  it  seems,  baptized  by  Photius,  for  he  pos- 
sessed at  thist  time  the  see  of  Constantinople;  and  in 
a  letter  he  wrote  to  the  king  upon  the  duty  of  a  prince, 
the  completest  piece  of  the  kind  that  is  extant,  he 
sometimes  styles  him  his  beloved  son,  and  sometimes 
his  spiritual  son. —  (Phot.  ep.  1.) 

The  Bulgarians,  highly  provoked  at  their  king's  for- 
saking the  religion  of  his  ancestors,  rose  up  in  arms, 
with  a  design  to  drive  him  from  the  throne.  But  he, 
taking  the  cross  for  his  standard,  or  wearing  it,  as 
Logotheta  says,  on  his  breast,  marched  out  against 
them,  and  having,  with  a  small  number  of  men,  en- 
tirely defeated  the  numerous  army  of  the  rebels,  he 
resolved  to  bring  the  whole  nation  over  to  the  reli- 
gion he  professed.  The  emperor  sent  Constantine. 
surnamed  the  philosopher,  and  known  afterwards  by 
the  name  of  Cyrill,  to  instruct  them  ;  and  by  him  great 
numbers  were  baptized.  But  Constantine  being  in- 
vited by  Rassilaus,  prince  of  Moravia,  to  preach  the 
gospel  to  his  people,  the  king  of  the  Bulgarians  re- 
solved, upon  his  departure,  to  apply  to  the  pope  for 
proper  persons  to  instruct  thS  rest  of  the  nation.  For 
that  purpose  he  sent,  in  866,  his  own  son  to  Rome,  at- 
tended by  a  great  number  of  the  chief  lords  of  the 
kingdom,  with  many  rich  presents  for  St.  Peter,  among 
which  was  the  armor  he  wore  when  he  defeated  his 
rebellious  subjects.  The  ambassadors  were  ordered  to 
consult  the  pope  about  several  doubts  or  questions  re- 
lating to  religious  matters  ;  and  it  was  in  answer  to 
these  consultations  that  he  wrote  the  present  letter. 
Nicholas  was  overjoyed  at  the  news  of  the  conversion 
of  so  numerous  a  nation,  and,  perhaps,  more  at  their 
choosing  to  recur  to  him  rather  than  to  his  rival  the 
patriarch  of  Constantinople,  to  have  their  doubts 
solved,  and  missionaries  sent  to  instruct  them.  lie 
received,  therefore,  and  treated  the  ambassadors  with 
the  greatest  marks  of  kindness  and  distinction  ;  an- 
swered their  consultations  in  writing,  even  the  most 
trifling,  for  such  were  many  of  them;  and  sent  back 
with  them  the  bishops  Paul  of  Populonia,  and  Formo- 
sus  of  Porto,  both  renowned  for  their  sanctity. — (Auct. 
anonym,  vit.  SS.  Cyril.  &  Method.  Anast.  in  Nicol, 
Annal.  Bertin.  ad  ann.  861.)  The  king  applied  at  the 
same  time  to  Lewis  king  of  Germany,  witli  whom  he 
lived  in  peace  and  amity,  desiring  that  prince  to  send 
him  priests,  and  a  bishop  to  assist  and  direct  them. 
Lewis,  in  compliance  with  his  request,  appointed  Er- 
menric  bishop,  with  several  priests  and  deacons,  for 
that  mission  ;  but  left  his  brother  Charles  of  France 
to  supply  them  with  sacred  vessels,  books,  vestments, 
&fc.,  and  by  him  they  were  supplied  with  tliem  accord- 
ingly, but  at  the  e.\pence  of  the  bishops  of  his  king- 
dom, upon  whom  he  levied  a  considerable  sum  for  Ihat 
purpose. —  (Annal.  Bertin.  Fuldens.  Anast.  in  Nichol.) 
Ermenric  arrived  in  Bulgaria,  with  his  troop  of  mission- 
aries ;  but  finding  there  the  two  above  mentioned  bi- 
shops, and  other  missionaries  come  with  them  from 
Rome,  he  thought  it  adviseableto  return  home,  lest  he 
should  give  umbrage  to  them,  and  to  the  pope  who  had 
sent  them.  The  Bertinian  annalist  adds,  that  the  em- 
peror Lewis,  hearing  of  the  armor  and  other  rich  of- 
ferings made  by  the  king  of  the  Bulgarians  to  St.  Peter, 
sent  to  the  pope,  commanding  him,  jubemus,  to  transmit 
them  to  him ;  that  the  pope  thereupon  sent  him  part  of 
the  said  oflerinss  by  Arsenius,  and  begged  him  to  e.x- 
cuse  his  not  sending  the  rest.— (Annal.  Berlin,  ad  Ann. 
866.) 


garians  as  had  not  embraced  Christianity, 
provoked  at  the  king's  introducing  a  new  re- 
ligion among  them,  rose  in  rebellion  against 
him,  with  a  design  to  put  him  to  death,  and 
place  another  on  the  throne  in  his  room. 
But  the  king  having  gained  a  complete  vic- 
tory over  them,  and  put  to  death  all  the 
grandees,  as  well  as  their  innocent  children, 
but  pardoned  all  the  rest,  he  wanted  to  know, 
whether  he  had  been  therein  guilty  of  any 
sin.  The  pope  answered,  that  he  had  un- 
doubtedly sinned  in  putting  the  children  to 
death,  who  had  no  share  in  the  guilt  of  their 
fathers;  and  that  he  should  have  spared  all 
who  fell  not  in  the  battle ;  but,  as  he  had 
committed  those  murders  out  of  ignorance, 
or  zeal  for  religion,  he  might  obtain  pardon 
by  performing  penance.  To  murder  the  in- 
nocent out  of  zeal  for  religion,  was,  it  seems, 
in  the  opinion  of  pope  Nicholas,  an  allevia- 
tion of  that  crime ;  and  we  shall  see,  in  the 
course  of  this  history,  the  slaying  of  thou- 
sands and  ten  thousands,  the  extirpating  of 
whole  nations  commended,  nay,  and  com- 
manded, by  his  successors,  as  highly  meri- 
torious. Nicholas  himself  approved  and 
applauded  one  of  the  most  bloody  massacres 
we  read  of  in  history  :  for  what  encomiums 
does  he  not  bestow  in  one  of  his  letters  upon 
the  empress  Theodora,  mother  to  the  empe- 
ror Michael?'  He  extols  her  as  one  of  the 
most  pious,  most  religious,  and  truly  catho- 
lic princesses  that  ever  swayed  a  scepter. 
What  Theodora  had  done  to  deserve  such 
high  commendations,  Porphyrogennetus  in- 
forms us  in  the  following  words :  "  Theo- 
dora," says  he,  "  resolved  to  bring  the 
Paulicians  (a  sect  of  heretics)  to  the  true 
faith,  or  cut  them  all  off  root  and  branch." 
A  resolution  worthy  of  a  truly  catholic 
princess !  "  Pursuant  to  that  resolution,  she 
sent  some  noblemen  and  magistrates,"  not 
preachers  or  missionaries,  "into  the  different 
provinces  of  the  empire  ;  and  by  them  some 
of  those  unhappy  wretches  were  crucified, 
some  put  to  the  sword,  and  some  thrown 
into  the  sea,  and  drowned.  Thus  were  they 
slaughtered  to  the  number  of  one  hundred 
thousand,  and  their  goods  and  estates  con- 
fiscated."^  And  to  this  bloody  massacre  the 
pope  alluded  in  commending  Theodora  for 
the  "  manly  vigor  she  exerted,  the  Lord  co- 
operating," domino  cooperante,  as  he  blas- 
phemously adds,  "  against  obstinate  and  in- 
corrigible heretics."  Nicholas  adds  in  the 
same  letter,  that  the  heretics,  experiencing 
in  her  all  the  resolution  and  vigor  of  a  man, 
could  scarce  believe  her  to  be  a  woman.  In- 
deed zeal  for  religion  had  changed  in  her,  as 
it  did  in  our  queen  Mary,  the  tender  and 
compassionate  heart  of  a  woman  into  that 
of  a  merciless  and  blood-thirsty  tyrant.  And 
here  I  cannot  help  observing,  that,  from  the 
pope's  own  words,  it  appears,  that  the 
apostolic  see  had  its  share  in  the  glorious 


I  Nicol.  ep.  14. 


»  Porphyr.  in  vit.  Mich. 


Nicholas.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


265 


The  pope's  doctrine  concerning  the  administration  of  baptism.     How  apostates  to  be  dealt  with. 
&c.    His  letter  to  the  archbishop  of  Bourges  concerning  the  chorepiscopi. 


Of  suicides. 


exploit  spoken  of  above  ;  for  the  pope,  after 
telling  her,  that  the  heretics  dreaded,  and  at 
the  same  time  admired,  her  resolution  and 
steadiness  in  maintaining  the  purity  of  the 
catholic  faith,  adds,  "and  why  so,  but  be- 
cause you  followed  the  documents  of  the 
apostolic  see  ?" 

A  Greek,  pretending  to  be  a  priest,  had 
administered  to  many  the  sacrament  of  bap- 
tism ;  and  the  Bulgarians,  discovering  the 
imposition,  had  condemned  the  impostor  to 
have  his  nose  and  ears  cut  off,  to  be  publicly 
whipped,  and  had  banished  him  the  country. 
This  piece  of  cruelty  the  pope  did  not  ap- 
prove, and  therefore  told  the  Bulgarians, 
consulting  him  about  it,  that  their  zeal  was 
not  according  to  knowledge ;  that  banishment 
was  a  sufTicient  punishment;  that  the  va- 
lidity of  baptism  did  not  depend  upon  the 
virtue  of  the  minister;  and  consequently  thai 
they,  whom  the  Greek  had  baptized,  must 
not  be  re-baptized,  provided  he  had  adminis- 
tered that  sacrament  in  the  name  of  the 
Trinity.' 

As  some  of  the  Bulgarians,  after  em- 
bracing the  Christian  religion,  had  relapsed 
into  idolatry,  they  wanted  to  know  how  such 
apostates  should  be  dealt  with.  To  that 
question  the  pope  answered,  that  they  should 
first  be  admonished  by  their  godfathers ;  that, 
if  they  did  not  hear  them,  it  should  be  told 
to  the  church  ;  and,  if  they  neglected  to  hear 
the  church,  they  should  be  looked  upon  as 
heathens,  and,  besides,  be  punished  by  the 
secular  power.  However,  he  was  against 
their  using  any  violence  or  compulsion  with 
such  as  never  had  embraced  the  Christian 
faith  ;  a  principle  which,  had  it  been  adopted 
by  his  successors,  would  have  saved  ,the 
lives,  I  might  perhaps  say,  of  millions. 

As  self-murder  was  not,  it  seems,  an  un- 
common thing  amongst  the  Bulgarians,  the 
Pope  allowed  them  to  inter  such  as  were 
guilty  of  that  crime,  lest  the  uninterred 
bodies  should  produce  an  infection  ;  but  for- 


»  Pope  Nicholas  required  no  more.  But  the  council 
of  Trent  makes  the  intention  of  the  priest  necessary 
—  (Concil.  Trid.  sess.  7.  can.  11,) — in  the  administration 
of  sacraments ;  so  that,  unless  the  priest  intends  to 
baptize,  the  child  is  not  baptized,  nor  is  any  other 
sacred  office  performed,  as  1  have  observed  elsewhere. 
And  who  can  answer  for  the  intention  of  a  man,  whose 
thoughts  may  easily  wander  from  the  business  he  is 
engaged  in  1  The  pope  returned  the  same  answer  to 
the  Bulgarians,  consulting  him,  whether  they  should 
be  re-baptized  whom  a  .lew  had  baptized,  namely, 
that  they  should  not,  if  he  had  baptized  in  the  name 
of  the  Trinity  ;  and  he  could  not  suppose  the  Jew  to 
have  had  the  intention  required  by  the  council  of 
Trent,  that  of  administering  a  sacrament. — The  doc- 
trine here  defined  by  pope  Nicholas,  namely,  that  bap- 
tism administered  by  a  Jew,  and  consequently  by  a 
pagan  or  an  infidel,  is  valid,  and  ought  not  to  be  reit- 
erated, has  been,  ever  since  his  time,  the  received  doc- 
trine of  the  church  of  Rome.— (Ordo  Roman,  p.  15. 
Eugen.  decrct.  ad  Armenos.  Concil.  1.  xiii.  p.  035.) 
But.  among  the  Latins,  Jerom  looked  upon  it  as  a 
strange  paradox,  that  a  man  should  be  made  a  Chris- 
tian by  one,  who  was  himself  no  Christian;  (Hicr. 
dial.  adv.  Luciferianos,  c.  5;)  and  so  did  Nieephorus 
among  the  Greeks,  declaring,  that  no  man  can  baptize 
others,  who  is  not  first  baptized  himself.— (Niceph. 
Hist.  I.  xi.  c.  11.) 

Vol.  II.— 34 


bid  any  prayers  to  be  said,  or  any  oblations 
to  be  made  for  the  redemption  of  their  souls. 
It  is  observable,  that  the  council  of  Braga 
ordered  those  who  suffered  for  their  crimes, 
to  be  treated  in  the  same  manner,  as  being 
accessory  to  their  OAvn  death,'  and  in  that 
sense  suicides.  The  rest  of  the  pope's  letter 
relates  to  the  feasts  and  fasts  of  the  church, 
and  the  manner  of  observing  them;  to  the 
ceremonies  of  marriage;  to  several  supersti- 
tious practices  and  indilferent  customs  that 
obtained  among  them.  He  forbids  them  to 
eat  the  flesh  of  animals  killed  or  hunted  by 
the  pagans,  or  to  make  any  treaties  with 
them,  unless  it  be  to  gain  them  over  to  the 
true  faith  ;  to  swear  upon  their  swords,  or  in 
the  name  of  any  creature ;  to  take  from  the 
churches  such  criminals  as  have  fled  thither 
for  refuge;  to  wear  their  turbans  in  the 
church ;  to  have  any  commerce  with  their 
wives  during  lent,  or  on  Sundays,  or  while 
they  suckle,  &c.  The  pope  closes  his  letter 
with  exhorting  the  Bulgarians  and  their  king 
to  have  recourse,  in  all  their  doubts,  to  the 
Roman  church,  the  head  of  all  churches, 
that  has  never  deviated  from  the  true  faith, 
and  is  ever  ready  to  instruct  all  who  apply 
to  her  for  instruction. 

In  a  letter  he  wrote  to  Rodulph,  arch- 
bishop of  Bourges,  he  declares  the  chore- 
piscopi^  to  have  the  power  of  performing 
episcopal  functions,  as  they  were  created  ia 

»  Concil.  Bracar.  I.  c.  34. 

2  As  bishops  were  allowed,  when  disabled  by  age 
or  infirmities,  to  ordain  themselves  coadjutors,  so  were 
they  permitted,  in  e.\tensive  and  populous  dioceses,  to 
ordain  chorepiscopi,  that  is,  as  the  Creek  word  im- 
ports, country-bishops,  to  assist  them  in  the  country. 
The  chorepiscopi  were,  according  to  the  most  proba- 
ble opinion,  real  bishops  ;  and  it  was  their  province  to 
l)reside  over  the  country-clergy,  to  inspect  their  con- 
duct, and  acquaint  the  city  bishop  therewith.  As  they 
were  true  bishops,  they  were  vested  with  all  episcopal 
power  ;  but  limited  as  to  the  exercise  of  that  power. 
Thus,  though  they  might  confer  the  inferior  orders 
without  the  consent,  or  even  the  knowledge  of  the 
city  bishop,  they  were  not  authorized  to  ordain,  with- 
out his  leave,  either  priests  or  deacons.  Pope  Nicho- 
las, in  a  letter  to  Harduic  archbishop  of  Besangon,  tella 
him,  that  the  chorepiscopi  are  not  only  forbidden  to 
ordain  priests  or  deacons,  but  to  consecrate  churches, 
and  even  to  administer  confirmation  to  children. — 
(Dacheri  Spicileg.  1. 12.)  However  they  were  allowed 
to  sit  and  vote  in  councils ;  and  the  decrees  of  the  first 
council  of  Nice  were  signed  by  no  fpwer  than  fifteen 
of  that  order.  As  the  chorepiscopi  were  ordained  by 
one  bishop  only,  the  bishop  of  the  city  to  whose  juris- 
diction they  belonged,  the  validity  of  their  ordination 
began  in  after-ages  to  be  questioned  ;  and,  by  a  coun- 
cil held  at  Ilatisbon  in  803,  three  decrees  were  issued 
relating  to  them,  under  the  name  of  village  bishops, 
villanos  cpiscopos.  By  the  first  it  was  enacted,  that 
they  should  thenceforth  perform  no  episcopal  func- 
tions :  by  the  second,  that  no  chorepiscopi  should  be 
orrlained  in  lime  to  come  ;  and  by  the  third  their  acts 
were  all  declared  null,  and  they  placed  among  the  pres- 
bvters.  These  decrees  were  confirmed  by  pope  Leo 
lil.;  (Lall.  t.  7.  Concil.  p.  1152.)  but  nevcrlheless  that 
order  was  not  yet  entirely  suppressed  in  the  time  of 
pope  Nicholas,  as  appears  from  the  letter  of  that  pope 
now  before  us.  To  Baronius  and  Hellarmine  I  shall 
leave  the  task  of  reconciling  the  decrees  of  Ratisbon, 
placing  the  chorepiscopi  among  the  presbyters,  and  de- 
claring all  their  acts  to  be  null,  which  decrees  Leo 
eonfirmed,  with  the  decretal  of  pope  Nicholas,  defining 
the  same  chorepiscopi  to  be  vested  wilh  episcopal 
power,  and  the  ordination  even  of  priests  and  deacons 
by  tbem  to  be  valid. 


266 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Nicholas. 


Penance  enjoined  by  Nicholas  on  a  father,  who  had  murdered  his  three  children. 


imitation  of  the  seventy  disciples,  Avho  Avere 
vested  with  that  power;  and  consequently 
the  ordination  of  priests  and  deacons  made 
by  them  to  be  valid.  He  adds,  that  they  are 
forbidden  by  the  canons  to  perform  such 
functions ;  and  commands  those  canons  to 
be  observed  in  time  to  come.  In  the  same 
letter,  he  will  have  those  who  kill  their 
■wives,  if  they  are  not  taken  in  adultery,  to 
undergo  the  penance  imposed  by  the  church 
on  murderers. 

In  a  letter  to  a  bishop  named  Ronolard, 
he  acquaints  him  with  the  penance  he  had 
imposed  upon  a  father,  who,  having  mur- 
dered his  three  children,  came  to  Rome  to  be 
absolved  by  his  apostleship  from  so  heinous 
a  crime.  The  penance  he  enjoined  was, 
that,  for  the  first  three  years  (for  his  pen- 
ance was  to  last  twelve)  he  should  not  be 
admitted  into  the  church,  but  pray  at  the 
door;  that,  during  the  next  four,  he  should 
remain  amongst  the  hearers;  should  in  these 
seven  years  be  excluded  from  the  eucharist, 
should  drink  no  wine,  except  on  Sundays 
and  holidays,  and  abstain  from  flesh  so  long 
as  he  lived  ;  that  in  the  three  last  years  of 
his  penance,  he  should  drink  no  wine  three 
days  in  the  week,  should  go  bare-footed, 
and  never  bear  arms,  except  against  the  pa- 
gans. However,  the  pope  allowed  him  to 
eat  cheese,  to  keep  his  estate,  and  to  cohabit 
with  his  wife,  lest,  says  the  pope,  he  should 
fall  into  the  sin  of  adultery,  and  thus,  while 
he  atones  for  one  crirfie,  run  headlong  into 
a  greater!  gg  that  the  murder  of  three 
children  by  their  own  father  Avas,  in  the 
opinion  of  pope  Nicholas,  a  less  heinous 
crime  than  adultery.  Indeed,  the  civil  law 
makes  adultery  a  capital  crime  as  well  as 
murder;  and  as  such  it  was  punished  under 
the  pagan  emperors  as  well  as  the  Christian ; 
nay,  Constans,  the  son  of  Constantine,  ap- 
pointed the  same  punishment  to  be  inflicted 
upon  adulterers  as  upon  parricides;  and 
these  were  either  burnt  alive,  or  drowned 
in  a  sack,  with  a  snake,  an  ape,  a  cock,  and 
a  dog,  tied  up  with  them. 

I  shall  add  here  the  account  we  read  in 
Anastasius  of  the  quarrel  between  this  pope 
and  John,  archbishop  of  Ravenna,  as  we 
know  not  precisely  in  what  year  it  happen- 
ed :  John  acting,  according  to  the  bibliothe- 
carian,  more  like  a  lawless  tyrant  than  a 
bishop,  had  excommunicated  several  per- 
sons without  just  cause,  and  seized  on  their 
estates ;  had  possessed  himself  of  lands  be- 
longing to  the  Roman  see,  and  annexed  them 
to  his  own  ;  had  arbitrarily,  and  without  any 
regard  to  the  canons,  deposed,  imprisoned, 
and  confined  in  dungeons,  presbyters  and 
deacons,  not  only  of  his  own  diocese,  but 
of  the  province  of  Emilia,  under  the  im- 
mediate jurisdiction  of  the  apostolic  see; 
and,  what  was  still  worse,  diverted  devout 


>  Apud  Iron.  par.  10.  c.  33. 


people  from  taking  pilgrimages  to  the  tombs 
of  the  holy  apostles ;  nay,  and  pretended, 
that  the  pope  had  no  power  to  summon  him 
to  Rome.  This  Nicholas  could  not  bear ; 
and  therefore,  after  citing  him  three  times  to 
a  council,  which  he  had  appointed  to  meet 
at  Rome,  he  pronounced  in  that  council, 
upon  his  not  appearing,  the  sentence  of  ex- 
communication against  him.  But  the  arch- 
bishop, not  intimidated  in  the  least  at  that 
sentence,  resolved  to  maintain,  even  at  Rome, 
the  independency  of  his  see;  and  he  set  out 
accordingly  for  that  city,  in  company  of  se- 
veral persons  of  distinction,  whom  the  em- 
peror Lewis  had  appointed  to  attend  him  ia 
the  character  of  his  envoys,  and  countenance 
him  on  his  arrival  there.  But  the  pope 
having  gained  over  the  envoys,  and  at  the 
same  time  sent  an  order  to  the  archbishop 
to  appear  on  the  first  of  November  before 
the  council  that  had  excommunicated  him, 
and  there  give  an  account  of  his  conduct,  he 
left  Rome,  paying  no  kind  of  regard  to  that 
order,  and  returned  to  his  see.  His  return 
alarmed  the  inhabitants  of  Ravenna;  and 
persons  of  the  first  distinction  in  that  city, 
as  Avell  as  in  the  province  of  ^Emilia,  flew 
to  Rome,  attended  by  crowds  of  people,  to 
lay  their  grievances  before  the  pope :  they 
even  entreated  him  to  visit  that  unhappy  city 
and  diocese  in  person,  in  order  to  satisfy 
himself  that  the  calamities  they  complained 
of  were  not  exaggerated,  and  at  the  same 
time  to  redeem  them,  with  his  presence,  from 
the  insufferable  oppression  they  groaned  un- 
der. The  pope,  touched  with  compassion, 
complied  with  their  request ;  and  being  in- 
formed upon  the  spot  of  the  tyranny  and 
rapines  of  the  archbishop  and  his  brother 
Gregory,  he  restored  to  every  man  his  own, 
and  issued  a  decree  confirming  what  he  had 
done.  The  archbishop  did  not  wait  the  ar- 
rival of  the  pope ;  but,  hearing  of  his  ap- 
proach, fled  in  great  haste  to  Pavia,  to  im- 
plore the  protection  of  the  emperor,  Avho 
resided  there  ;  but,  to  his  great  mortification, 
Luithard,  bishop  of  that  city,  and  the  inhabi- 
tants, hearing  that  he  was  excommunicated, 
would  not  admit  him  into  their  houses, 
would  not  allow  any  thing  to  be  sold  to  him 
or  his  attendants,  nor  would  they  so  much 
as  speak  to  him,  or  to  them  ;  nay,  they  point- 
ed at  them  in  the  public  streets,  as  men 
whom  they  were  to  avoid  on  pain  of  being 
excommunicated,  and  shunned  by  all  as  well 
as  they.  The  treatment  the  archbishop  met 
with  from  the  emperor  was  not  less  mortify- 
ing ;  for  Lewis,  refusing  to  admit  him  to  his 
presence,  sent  him  the  following  message  j 
"  Let  him  go  and  humble  himself  before  so 
great  a  pope,  to  Avhom  we  and  the  whole 
church  submit ;  for  he  can  no  otherwise  ob- 
tain what  he  desires,"  meaning,  I  suppose, 
his  favor  and  protection.  How  the  emperor 
"  submitted  to  so  great  a  pope"  when  he 
disapproved  of  his  conduct,  or  when  the 


Hadrian  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


267 


The  see  of  Ravenna  entirely  subjected  to  that  of  Rome.     Hadrian  11.,  chosen  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  867.] 


pope  did  not  comply  with  his  demands,  we 
have  seen  above.'  The  archbishop,  finding 
himself  thus  abandoned  to  the  mercy  of  the 
pope,  resolved  in  the  end  to  satisfy  him,  in 
compliance  with  the  desire  of  the  emperor; 
and  with  that  view  he  set  out  for  Rome,  the 
emperor  having,  at  his  earnest  request,  ap- 
pointed envoys  to  attend  him  thither.  Tiie 
envoys  were  kindly  received  by  the  pope; 
but,  upon  their  recommending  the  arch- 
bishop to  him  in  their  master's  name,  he 
told  them,  that  if  his  beloved  son  the  empe- 
ror were  well  informed  of  his  whole  con- 
duct, far  from  recommending  or  screening 
him,  he  would  himself  have  sent  him  to  the 
apostolic  see  for  correction.  The  pope  paid 
more  regard  to  the  tears  and  prayers  of  the 
archbishop  than  to  the  intercession  of  the 
envoys ;  for  John  submitted  in  the  end, 
finding  himself  forsaken  by  all,  expressed 
great  contrition  for  his  past  oflences ;  and 
appearing  before  a  council  assembled  by  the 
pope  on  that  occasion,  he  there  wrote  the 
act  of  submission,  which  the  popes  exacted 
from  the  archbishops  of  Ravenna  at  the  time 
of  their  ordination  ;  but  both  he  and  his  pre- 
decessor Felix  had  falsified,  read  it  in  the 
hearing  of  the  whole  assembly,  and  swore, 
upon  the  cross  and  the  Gospel,  to  conform 
to  it  in  time  to  come.  The  next  day  John 
appeared  again  before  the  council,  and  having 
cleared  himself  from  the  crime  of  heresy, 
for  that  crime  too  was  laid  to  his  charge,  the 
pope  absolved  him  from  the  excommunica- 


tion, gave  him  leave  to  say  mass,  and  the 
third  day  allowed  him  to  take  his  seat  in  the 
council.  But  a  petition  being  presented  to 
the  council  by  the  bishops  of  .Emilia,  and 
the  inhabitants  of  Ravenna,  complaining  of 
John's  extortions  and  tyranny,  a  decree  was 
drawn  up  by  the  council,  in  the  pope's 
name,  to  restrain  him  from  thus  abusing  his 
authority,  and  addressed  to  him  in  the  fol- 
lowing words  :  "We  command  you,  arch- 
bishop John,  to  come  once  a  year  to  Rome, 
if  you  are  not  prevented  by  sickness,  or  ex- 
cused from  it  by  the  apostolic  see.  You 
shall  consecrate  no  bishops  in  the  province 
of  j33milia  till  they  have  been  elected  by  the 
duke,  the  clergy,  and  the  people,  and  you 
have  obtained  leave  to  consecrate  them  from 
him  who  shall  preside  in  the  holy  see;  nor 
shall  you  hinder  them  from  coming,  as  often 
as  they  shall  think  fit,  to  Rome.  You  shall 
exact  nothing  from  them  contrary  to  the 
authorized  custom,  to  the  canons,  or  to  the 
privileges  of  bishops.  You  shall  not  ap- 
propriate to  yourself  what  another  man  pos- 
sesses, till  it  has  been  legally  adjudged  to 
you  at  Ravenna,  in  our  presence,  or  in  the 
presence  of  our  deputies  and  yours."'  And 
thus  was  at  last  the  see  of  Ravenna  entirely 
subjected  to  that  of  Rome.^ 

Of  the  dispute  that  arose  in  the  time  of 
pope  Nicholas  about  the  presence  of  Christ 
in  the  sacrament,  and  the  manner  of  his 
being  present  there,  I  shall  speak,  when  the 
popes  begin  to  take  part  in  that  controversy. 


HADRIAN  II.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  FIFTH  BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[Basilius,  Emperor  of  the  East. — Lewis  II.  Emperor  of  the  West.'] 

[Year  of  Christ  867.1  Nicholas  being 
dead,  Hadrian,  the  second  of  that  name,  by 
birth  a  Roman,  the  son  of  Talarus,  of  the 
family  of  Stephen  III.  and  Sergius  II.  and 
presbyter  of  the  church  of  St.  Mark,  was 
chosen  to  succeed  him,  with  the  greatest 
unanimity  that  had  ever  y^t  been  seen  in  the 
election  of  a  pope  ;  all,  who  did  not  them- 
selves aspire  at  that  diirnity,  wishing  it 
might  be  conferred  upon  Hadrian.  He  had 
been  chosen  no  less  unanimously  upon  the 
death  of  Leo  IV.  and  Benedict  IIL  the  two 
immediate  predecessors  of  Nicholas.  But 
though  he  then  prevailed  upon  the  people  to 
acquiesce  in  the  reasons  he  alledged  against 
his  promotion,  he  could  not  persuade  them 
to  hearken  to  them  now,  though  in  the 
seventy-fifth  year  of  his  age;  antl  the  nobi- 
lity, the  clergy,  and  the  people  being  all  of 
one  mind,  they  carried  him  by  force  from 
the  church  of  St.  Mary  the  Greater,  where 
they  found  him  at  his  prayers,  to  the  Lateran 
>  See  p.  243.  ~~ 


palace,  and  there  placed  him  on  the  ponti- 
fical throne  amidst  the  loud  acclamations  of 

'  Anast.  in  Nicol. 

*  Of  this  quarrel  between  John  of  Ravenna  and  pope' 
Nicholas  we  read  a  very  different  account  in  an  ano- 
nymous author,  who  is  supposed  to  have  lived  in  or 
near  those  times  ;  for  he  tells  us,  tliat  the  pope,  jeal- 
ous of  the  archhishoi)'s  intimacy  with  the  emperor 
Lewis,  summoned  him  to  Rome,  to  give  an  account  of 
his  conduct,  which  some  had  impeached ;  that  the 
pope  having  excommunicated  him  upon  his  not  obey- 
ing the  summons,  the  emperor,  who  had  espoused  his 
cause,  highly  resented  it,  seized  on  the  patrimonies  of 
the  Roman  cliuich  in  Romagna  and  the  neighboring 
provinces,  and  even  went  in  person  with  the  arch- 
bishop to  Rome,  where  great  disorders  were  com- 
mitted by  his  followers,  &;r.,  and  that  the  pope  was  in 
the  end  obliged  lo  yield.  But  as  no  notice  is  taken  by 
the  other  contemporary  writers  of  any  disagreement 
on  this  occasion  between  the  pope  and  the  emperor, 
nor  of  the  emperor's  journey  to  Rome,  &c.,  nay,  a.s  the 
supposed  contemporary  author  contradicts,  in  many 
particulars,  the  historians,  who  undoubtedly  flourish- 
ed in  those  times,  we  may  well  conclude  the  piece 
ascribed  to  a  contemporary  writer  to  be  of  a  much 
later  date,  and  in  all  likelihood  supposititious. 

The  history  of  the  popes  by  Anastasius  the  biblio- 
tbocarian  end.s  at  the  death  of  this  [)ope.  The  life  of 
his  successor  Hadrian  H,  was  written  by  Gullielmus 
likewise  bibliothccarian,  and  that  too  of  Stephen  V.,or, 
as  others  will  have  it,  VI, 


268 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Hadrian  II, 


Hadrian  consecrated.    Rome  plundered  by  the  duke  of  Spoleti.     The  king  of  Lorraine  writes  to  the  new  pope ; 
[Year  of  Christ,  868.]     Hadrian  grants  him  leave  to  come  to  Rome. 


all  ranks  of  men.  The  envoys  of  the  em- 
peror Lewis,  who  were  then  in  Rome,  hear- 
ing of  the  election  of  Hadrian,  were  no  less 
pleased  with  it  than  the  Romans  themselves, 
but  complained  of  their  not  being  invited  to 
it  though  they  were  on  the  spot.  But  the 
Romans  pleading  the  eagerness  of  the  peo- 
ple, which  they  could  not  restrain,  and  at 
the  same  time  ingenuously  owning,  that,  as 
it  was  not  customary  for  the  emperor's  en- 
voys to  assist  at  the  election  of  the  new  pon- 
tiff, they  had  not  invited  them  to  it,  lest  it 
should  be  alledged  as  a  precedent  to  introduce 
such  a  custom,  the  envoys  acquiesced  and 
went  with  the  rest  to  pay  their  obeisance  to 
the  elect.'  The  decree  of  the  election  being 
sent  to  the  emperor,  and  confirmed  by  him 
(for  though  the  pope  might  be  chosen  he 
was  not  to  be  ordained  without  his  consent) 
Hadrian  was  solemnly  consecrated  in  the 
church  of  St.  Peter  on  the  1 3th  of  December, 
867.  That  ceremony  was  usually  performed 
by  the  bishops  of  Ostia,  of  Porto,  and  Alba- 
no;  but  the  bishop  of  Albano  being  dead, 
and  Formosus,  of  Porto  having  been  sent  by 
pope  Nicholas  to  preach  to  the  Bulgarians, 
Hadrian  was  consecrated  by  Donatus  of 
Ostia,  by  Peter  of  Cava,  then  an  episcopal 
see  under  the  archbishop  of  Salerno,  and  by 
Leo  of  the  White  Forest,  called  formerly 
the  Black  Forest,  a  city  of  Tuscany,  on  the 
Aurelian  Way.^ 

The  joy  of  the  Ronvtn  people  was  not  a 
little  damped  by  the  sudden  and  unexpected 
arrival  at  Rome  of  Lambert,  duke  of  Spoleti ; 
who,  entering  the  city  in  a  hostile  manner, 
while  the  ceremony  of  the  pope's  consecra- 
tion was  performing  in  the  Vatican,  gave  it 
up  to  be  plundered  by  his  followers  ;  and  no 
houses,  no  churches,  no  monasteries  were 
spared ;  men  were  forced  to  ransom  them- 
selves and  their  families  with  large  sums, 
and  women  of  the  first  rank  and  distinction 
•were  either  most  barbarously  used,  or  car- 
ried away.  Of  this  insult  Hadrian  com- 
plained to  the  emperor,  who  thereupon  de- 
prived Lambert  of  his  dukedom,  while  the 
pope,  on  his  side,  thundered  out  the  sentence 
of  excommunication  against  all  concerned 
in  it,  till  they  restored  what  they  had  taken 
away.  Being  returned  to  the  Lateran,  he 
ordered  all  the  presents,  that,  according  to 
custom,  were  sent  to  the  new  pope,  to  be 
sold,  such  only  excepted  as  were  destined 
for  divine  service,  and  the  price  to  be  distri- 
buted among  the  poor,  saying,  "let  us  give 
freely  what  we  have  received  freely,  accord- 
ing to  the  precept  of  our  Lord;  they  are 
given  to  us  for  the  sake  of  the  poor,  and  let 
the  poor  share  them  with  us."^ 

The  death  of  pope  Nicholas  was  no  un- 
welcome news  to  the  king  of  Lorraine.  He 
flattered  himself  that  the  new  pope  would 


1  Guil.  Bibliothecarius  in  Hadrian  II. 
3  Idem  ibid.  *  Idem  ibid. 


be  more  complaisant,  or  at  least  not  quite  so 
inflexible  as  his  predecessor,  with  respect  to 
the  affair  of  his  divorce  ;  and  he  therefore  no 
sooner  heard  of  the  election  of  Hadrian  than 
he  wrote  to  him  the  following  letter:  "  I 
have  received  the  disagreeable  news  of  the 
death  of  pope  Nicholas,  of  happy  memory, 
who,  I  doubt  not,  is  crowned  in  heaven 
with  the  saints.  The  whole  Christian  world, 
the  clergy  in  particular,  and,  above  all,  the 
holy  aposllic  church,  mother  of  all  churches, 
have  reason  to  mourn  for  so  great  a  loss.  I 
am  myself  sensibly  affected  with  it;  I  ap- 
pealed to  hi.s  justice  and  equity  against  the 
calumnies  of  my  enemies,  submitted  to  him 
or  rather  to  St.  Peter,  far  beyond  what  any 
of  my  predecessors  ever  had  done,  complied 
with  his  paternal  admonitions,  and  hear- 
kened to  the  exhortations  of  his  legates, 
even  to  the  disparagement  of  my  royal  dig- 
nity, and  the  power  that  I  hold  ofGod  alone. 
But  he,  suffering  himself  to  be  prejudiced 
against  me  by  the  sowers  of  strife  and  sedi- 
tion, would  never  allow  me  to  appear  before 
him  with  my  accusers,  agreeably  to  the 
laws  both  human  and  divine,  nor  to  visit 
that  church,  of  which  my  ancestors  were 
the  protectors.  It  gives  me  great  joy  to  hear 
that  the  Bulgarians  and  other  barbarians  are 
invited  to  the  tombs  of  the  apostles,  and  no 
less  concern  to  find  that  I  am  not  allowed  to 
approach  them.  But  waiving  that,  since  it 
has  pleased  the  Almighty  to  raise  you  to 
the  pontifical  dignity,  you  will  not,  I  hope, 
oppose  my  earnest  desire  of  paying  my  obe- 
dience to  your  holiness  in  person,  and  in- 
forming you,  on  that  occasion,  by  word  of 
mouth,  of  all  that  passed  between  vour  pre- 
decessor and  me.  This  I  shall  look  upon  as 
a  particular  mark  of  your  paternal  goodness 
to  one  who  professes  himself  a  most  obe- 
dient son  and  most  faithful  protector  of  your 
holy  see.'" 

In  answer  to  this  letter  the  pope  assured 
the  king  that  he  should  always  find  in  the 
successors  of  St.  Peter  all  the  justice  that 
was  enjoined  or  required  by  the  human 
laws  or  by  the  divine;  that  if  he  was  inno- 
cent of  what  was  laid  to  his  charge,  he  might 
come  to  Rome  without  fear;  and  even  if  he 
was  guilty,  provided  he  was  ready  to  ac- 
knowledge his  fault,  and  atone  for  it  by  an 
edifying  and  salutary  penance.-  This  con- 
descension in  the  pope  is  supposed  to  have 
been  owing  to  the  interposition  of  the  em- 
peror Lewis  in  favor  of  his  brother  Lotha- 
rius,  a  perfect  harmony  subsisting  between 
the  two  brothers,  as  they  were  both  alike 
jealous  of  their  two  uncles,  Lewis  of  Ger- 
many and  Charles  of  France,  ready  to  seize 
on  the  dominions  of  Lotharius  the  moment 
the  pope  pronounced  the  sentence  of  excom- 
munication against  him.  On  the  other  hand 
the  pope  could  refuse  nothing  to  the  empe- 

<  Begin,  ad  ann.  868.  ^  Idem  ibid. 


Hadrian  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


369 


The  pope  absolves  Waldrada,  excommunicated  by  his  predecessor.  Theutberga  goes  to  Rome  and  applies  in 
vain  to  the  pope  for  a  divorce.  The  pope  writes  in  her  favor  to  the  king ;  and  to  Hincmar  of  Reims.  Lo- 
tharius  goes  to  Italy.     Has  an  interview  with  the  pope  at  Monte  Cassino. 


peror,  who  was  then  employed  in  driving  ihe 
Saracens  out  of  Italy,  who  had  made  them- 
selves masters  of  several  cities  and  strong 
holds  in  the  southern  parts  of  that  country. 
At  his  request  he  even  absolved  Waldrada 
from  the  excommunication  that  his  prede- 
cessor had  thundered  out  against  her,  wrote 
to  her  himself  to  acquaint  her  therewith, 
and  at  the  same  time  to  the  bishops  of  Ger- 
many, to  let  them  know,  that  being  assured 
by  his  son,  the  emperor,  that  Waltirada  sin- 
cerely repented  of  her  past  wickedness,  and 
renouncing  all  commerce  with  Lotharius, 
was  determined  to  lead  thenceforth  the  life 
of  a  sincere  penitent,  he  had  thereupon  ab- 
solved her ;  and  they  might  therefore  permit 
her  to  enter  the  church,  might  speak  to  her, 
and  treat  her  in  every  respect  as  one  restored 
to  the  communion  of  the  faithful.'  Lotha- 
rius had,  it  seems,  informed  the  pope,  that 
the  kings  of  France  and  Germany  had  formed 
a  design  of  attacking  his  dominions,  should 
he  undertake  a  journey  to  Rome.  For  upon 
the  receipt  of  his  letter  Hadrian  wrote  to 
both  those  princes,  exhorting  them  to  live  in 
peace  with  their  nephew,  and  not  to  raise 
disturbances  in  his  dominions  or  invade  them 
while  he  was  absent  on  his  journey  to  Rome, 
since  the  emperor  looked  upon  his  cause  as 
his  own,  and  would  revenge  it  accordingly. 
He  added,  that  he  was  determined,  if  occa- 
sion required,  to  employ  the  powerful  arms 
that  God  had  put  into  his  hands,  with  those 
of  the  emperor.- 

This  complaisance  in  the  new  pope  en- 
couraged Lotharius  to  hope,  that  if  queen 
Theutberga  herself  owned  her  marriage  to 
be  null,  and  applied  to  the  pope  for  a  di- 
vorce, his  holiness  might  be  prevailed  tipon 
by  the  emperor  to  grant  it  without  further 
examination;  for  he  dreaded,  even  under 
Hadrian,  the  issue  of  a  formal  trial.  At  his 
request,  therefore,  and  with  the  pope's  per- 
mission, Theutberga  set  out  for  Rome,  and 
being  there  received  by  his  holiness  with 
extraordinary  marks  of  kindness,  she  pre- 
tended her  marriage  to  have  been  unlawfully 
contracted,  and  to  be  null  on  that  considera- 
tion as  well  as  on  account  of  some  bodily 
infirmities;  earnestly  entreated  him  to  dis- 
solve it;  and  begged  he  would  allow  her  to 
consecrate  herself  to  a  religious  life,  and  to 
spend  the  remainder  of  her  days  in  peace 
and  retirement.  The  pope  heard  her  with 
attention;  but  instead  of  complying  with  her 
request,  he  told  her,  that  the  affair  was  too 
momentous  to  be  decided  at  once;  that  he 
would  examine  it  more  maturely  with  his 
brethren  in  a  council,  and  in  the  meantime 
advised  her  to  return  to  France,  promising 
to  write  to  the  king  in  her  favor.  He  did 
so,  exhorting  the  king  to  receive  and  treat 
her  as  part   of  himself  till  the  affair  was 


»  Annal.  Berlin,  ad  ann.  SfiS. 

9  Uadr.  ep.  10.  torn.  3.  ConcU.  Gall. 


finally  determined  by  the  council  which  he 
intended  to  summon  for  that  purpose,  and 
to  let  her  enjoy  undisturbed,  till  the  meeting 
of  the  council,  the  revenues  of  the  abbies, 
which  he  had  allotted  her  for  her  support 
and  the  support  of  her  dignity.  The  pope 
closes  his  letter  to  Lotharius  with  the  fol- 
lowing words:  "Whoever  opposes  this  shall 
be  anathematized,  and  you  yourself  shall  be 
excommunicated,  if  it  is  done  by  your  com- 
mand, or  with  your  approbation  or  con- 
sent."' Hadrian  wrote  at  the  same  time  to 
Hincmar  of  Reims,  bestowing  upon  him  the 
highest  commendations,  and  empowering 
him,  as  his  vicar,  to  see  the  decrees  of  the 
apostolic  see,  relating  to  the  affair  of  Lotha- 
rius, put  in  execution,  and  to  keep  his  sove- 
reign, Charles  of  France,  steady  in  the  reso- 
lution of  protecting  the  persecuted  queen.^ 

Lotharius,  having  settled  the  affairs  of  his 
kingdom  in  the  best  manner  he  could,  set 
out  for  Rome  soon  after  the  return  of  the 
queen,  whom  he  ordered  to  undertake  that 
journey  again  and  follow  him  thither.  He 
proposed  in  the  first  place  to  have  an  inter- 
view with  his  brother,  the  emperor  Lewis, 
flattering  himself,  that  if  he  could  get  him  to 
undertake  his  cause,  the  pope  might,  by  that 
means,  be  prevailed  upon  to  annul  his  mar- 
riage with  Theutberga,  and  consent  to  his 
marrying  Waldrada.  Being  therefore  ad- 
vanced as  far  as  Ravenna,  he  despatched 
some  of  his  chief  lords  to  acquaint  the  em- 
peror with  his  arrival  in  his  dominions,  and 
to  beg  an  interview  with  him  before  he  ap- 
plied to  the  pope.  As  Lewis  was  then  in 
the  field,  carrying  on  the  war  with  great  suc- 
cess against  the  Saracens,  he  sent  deputies 
to  the  king  advising  him  not  to  proceed,  but 
rather  to  return,  for  the  present,  to  his  king- 
dom, and  defer  their  interview  to  a  more 
proper  season.  But  Lotharius,  impatient  to 
have  an  end  put  at  last  to  so  tedious  an  af- 
fair, instead  of  hearkening  to  his  advice,  pur- 
sued his  journey  to  Benevento,  where  he 
met  his  brother;  and  it  was  agreed,  that  the 
emperor  should  order  the  pope  to  repair  to 
the  Benedictine  monastery  on  Monte  Cas- 
sino ;  and  that  Lotharius,  attended  by  the 
empress  Ingelberga,  whom  he  had  gained 
with  many  rich  presents,  should  meet  his 
holiness  there. 

The  pope  readily  complied  with  the  em- 
peror's order,  and  received  Lotharius,  intro- 
duced by  the  empress,  and  warmly  recom- 
mended to  him  by  the  emperor,  with  all  pos- 
sible marks  of  respect  and  esteem,  but  neither 
by  entreaties  nor  presents  could  he  be  pre- 
vailed upon  to  give  his  consent  to  the  wished- 
for  divorce,  which,  he  said,  he  referred  to 
the  decision  of  a  council  to  be  held  in  his 
presence,  wherein  the  whole  affair  should 
be  examined  anew.     All  the  empress  could 

i  Iladr.  ep.  12.  torn.  8.  Concil.  Gall. 
»  Uadr.  ep.  4.  torn.  3.  Concil.  Gall. 

x2 


270 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Hadrian  H. 


Lotharius  is  admitted  to  mass  celebrated  by  tfie  pope  ;  and  receives  the  eucharist.  Gunthier  of  Cologne  ab- 
solved by  the  pope.  The  paper  read  on  that  occasion.  Lotharius  follows  the  pope  to  Rome.  Meets^with  a 
cold  reception  from  the  Romans,  but  is  well  received  by  the  pope.     The  pope's  presents  to  him. 


obtain  in  favor  of  Lotharius  was,  that  the 
pope,  to  show  that  he  did  not  look  upon  the 
king  as  an  excommunicated  person,  should 
say  solemn  mass,  should  permit  him  to  assist 
at  it,  and  even  administer  the  sacrament  to 
him,  and  to  all  in  his  retinue.  To  this 
Hadrian  agreed  upon  condition  the  king 
publicly  declared  before  he  received  the  sa- 
crament, that  he  had  had  no  commerce 
whatever  with  Waldrada,  not  even  verbal, 
since  the  time  of  her  being  excommunicated 
by  his  predecessor  pope  Nicholas.  The  un- 
happy prince  had  gone  too  far  to  recede,  and 
therefore  readily  agreed  to  make  the  decla- 
ration that  his  holiness  required,  though  con- 
scious to  himself  of  having  not  only  con- 
versed, but  carried  on  the  same  criminal 
commerce  with  Waldrada  after  she  was  ex- 
communicated as  he  had  done  before.  How- 
ever the  pope  was  satisfied,  and  the  next 
day,  when  mass  was  over,  which  he  said 
with  great  pomp  and  solemnity  in  the  pre- 
sence of  the  empress,  of  the  king,  and  their 
numerous  retinue,  taking  the  sacrament  in 
his  hand,  he  addressed  the  king  in  the  fol- 
lowing words :  "  If  you  know  yourself,  O 
king,  not  to  be  guilty  of  the  sin  of  adultery, 
which  Nicholas,  my  predecessor,  forbad  you 
to  commit,  and  are  fully  determined  to  ab- 
stain from  it  in  time  to  come,  approach 
without  fear,  and  receive  the  sacrament  of 
eternal  life  for  the  remission  of  your  sins. 
But  if  you  are  conscious  to  yourself  of  hav- 
ing committed  that  sin,  or  are  not  determined 
to  avoid  it  so  long  as  you  live,  presume  not 
to  receive  it,  lest  what  has  been  by  divine 
Providence  prepared  for  a  remedy  should 
prove  your  condemnation." 

The  king,  unawed  by  these  words,  re- 
ceived the  sacrament;  and  so  did  his  fol- 
lowers, some  few  excepted,  who  withdrew 
upon  the  pope's  saying  to  them  as  he  ad- 
ministered it,  "  If  you  have  been  no-Avays 
accessary,  nor  have  consented  to  the  sin  of 
your  lord  and  master  Lotharius  with  Wal- 
drada; if  you  have  not  communicated  with 
any  excommunicated  by  the  apostolic  see, 
may  the  body  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  pro- 
cure you  life  everlasting.'" 

Among  those  who  attended  Lotharius  on 
the  present  occasion,  was  Gunthier,  the  fa- 
mous archbishop  of  Cologne,  who  had  en- 
couraged the  king,  above  all  the  rest,  to 
dismiss  Theutberga  and  marry  Waldrada  in 
her  room,  and  had  been,  on  that  account, 
excommunicated  by  Nicholas,  as  has  been 
said  in  the  life  of  that  pope.2  Hadrian, 
however,  at  the  desire  of  the  emperor,  not 
only  absolved  him  from  the  excommunica- 
tion, but  admitted  him,  with  the  other  fol- 
lowers of  Lotharius,  to  lay  communion ; 
and  that,  upon  his  reading  aloud,  before  he 
received  it,  the  following  paper :  "  I,  Gun- 


«  Begin,  ad  ann.  869.  et  Annal.  Berlin.    »  See  p.  243. 


thier,  declare,  before  God  and  his  saints,  to 
you  my  lord  Hadrian,  sovereign  pontiff  and 
universal  pope,  to  all  the  venerable  bishops 
subject  to  you,  and  to  the  whole  assembly, 
that  I  do  not  complain  of  the  sentence  of  de- 
position pronounced  canonically  against  me 
by  my  lord  pope  Nicholas,  but  humbly  bear 
it;  that  I  shall  not  presume  to  perform  any 
functions  of  the  sacred  ministry,  unless  you 
out  of  pity  reinstate  me  in  my  ancient  dig- 
nity ;  and  that  I  will  never  give  any  cause 
of  offence  to  the  holy  Roman  church,  or  to 
the  pontiff,  who  presides  in  it,  but  shall  ever 
live  attached  and  obedient  to  both.  I,  Gun- 
thier, have  signed  this  declaration  on  the 
first  of  July,  second  indiction,  in  the  church 
of  St.  Savior  of  the  monastery  of  St.  Bene- 
dict on  Monte  Cassino."'  This  declaration 
Gunthier  read  so  as  to  be  heard  by  all  who 
were  present,  and  the  pope  thereupon  ad- 
ministered the  sacrament  to  him  among  the 
laity,  saying,  "And  I  grant  you  lay  com- 
munion, upon  condition  that  you  observe 
the  promise  you  have  made  so  long  as  you 
hve."^ 

Ingelberga  returned  after  this  ceremony  to 
the  emperor,  and  Hadrian  to  Rome,  whither 
he  was  soon  followed  by  Lotharius.  But 
the  king  met  not  there  with  the  reception  he 
expected.  No  one  came  out  to  receive  him ; 
none  of  the  clergy  appeared  upon  his  repair- 
ing to  the  church  of  St.  Peter  to  visit  the 
tomb  of  the  apostle,  and  he  went  attended 
only  by  those  of  his  own  retinue  to  the 
lodging  that  was  appointed  for  him  near 
that  church,  but  had  not  been  so  much  as 
swept.  He  sent  immediately  to  acquaint 
the  pope  with  his  arrival,  and  to  beg  that 
his  holiness  would  say  high  mass  the  next 
day,  being  Sunday,  and  allow  him  publicly 
to  assist  at  it  with  all  his  followers.  This 
the  pope  would  not  agree  to,  lest  he  should 
disoblige  the  Romans,  who  were  no  friends 
to  Lotharius,  and  held  the  memory  of  Ni- 
cholas, who  would  not  communicate  with 
him,  in  the  greatest  veneration.  However, 
the  king  entered  Rome  on  the  Monday  fol- 
lowing, was  well  received  by  the  pope, 
whom  he  presented  with  several  gold  and 
silver  vessels,  and  was  even  entertained  by 
his  holiness  at  dinner  in  the  Lateran  palace. 
Among  the  presents  that  the  pope  made  in 
his  turn  to  the  king,  were  a  royal  mantle, 
the  branch  of  a  palm-tree,  and  a  ferula  or 
pastoral  staff,  such  as  the  bishops  used  in 
those  days.  These  presents  from  the  pope 
were  looked  upon  by  the  king  and  those 
about  him  as  mysterious  or  emblematical. 


>  Regin.  Annal.  Meten.  et  Bertin. 

a  This  declaration,  made  by  Gunthier,  when  the  king 
and  his  followers  were  admitted  by  the  pope  to  the 
communion  of  the  church,  plainly  shows,  that  they 
were  admitted  to  it  in  the  church  of  the  above-men- 
tioned monastery,  as  we  read  in  the  Berlinian  Annal- 
ist, and  not  at  Rome,  as  is  supposed  by  Regino  and  the 
Annalist  of  Metz. 


Hadrian  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


271 


Death  of  Lotharius.   Envoys  from  Basilius,  emperor  of  the  East,  to  the  pope.    They  deliver  to  him  the  acts  of 
the  council  lield  by  Photius  against  pope  Nicholas  ;  which  are  condemned  in  a  council  at  Rome,  and  burnt. 


By  the  mantle  they  understood  Waldrada 
(and  they  might  as  well  have  understood 
any  body  else,  or  any  thing)  who,  they  said, 
would  be  restored  to  the  king;  the  branch 
of  the  palm-tree  they  interpreted  as  denoting 
victory,  namely,  that  the  king  would  carry 
his  point  in  spite  of  all  opposition ;  and  by 
the  ferula  was  meant,  as  they  understood  it, 
authority  over  the  bishops,  whom  the  king 
would  oblige  in  the  end  to  submit  to  his 
will,  and  agree  to  his  marrying  Waldrada. 

Lotharius  left  Rome  pleased  with  these 
thoughts;  but  those  of  the  pope  were  very 
different  from  his.  For  no  sooner  did  the 
king  set  out  on  his  return  to  Lorraine,  than 
the  pope  dispatched  Formosus  and  another 
bishop,  with  the  character  of  his  legates,  to 
examine  anew,  jointly  with  the  bishops  of 
Germany,  France,  and  Lorraine,  the  affair 
of  the  divorce  on  the  spot.  They  were  to 
decide  nothing,  but  only  to  inquire  into  all 
the  circumstances  of  that  affair,  and  make 
their  report  to  his  holiness,  who  appointed  a 
council  to  meet  on  the  first  of  March  of  the 
following  year  870 ;  and  the  decisive  sen- 
tence was  to  be  pronounced  by  that  council. 
But  the  pope  and  the  bishops  were  delivered 
from  that  trouble  in  a  manner,  that  was  lit- 
tle expected  either  by  them  or  the  king. 
For  Lotharius,  arriving  at  Lucca  on  his 
way  home,  was  there  seized  with  a  malig- 
nant fever  ;  and  he  died  of  it  at  Placentia, 
whither  he  had  caused  himself  to  be  carried. 
His  death  happened  on  the  eighth  of  August, 
869,  and  very  few  of  his  numerous  retinue 
outUved  him,  being  almost  all  carried  off  by 
the  same  distemper,  some  at  Lucca  and  the 
rest  at  Placentia.'  Thus  ended  an  affair, 
that  had  engaged  the  attention  ofpopeNieho 
las  ever  since  the  year  862,  and  would,  in 
all  likelihood,  if  it  had  not  thus  ended,  have 
given  a  great  deal  of  trouble  to  Hadrian. 

I  have  observed  in  page  261,  that  the  em- 
peror Basilius  having  driven  Photius  from 
the  patriarchal  see  of  Constantinople,  and 
restored  Ignatius,  dispatched  Basilius  the 
protospatharius  to  acquaint  pope  Nicholas 
therewith,  but  that  Nicholas  dying  before  his 
arrival  at  Rome,  the  letters,  which  he  was 
charged  with,  were  delivered  to  his  successor. 
The  protospatharius  and  John  metropolitan 
of  Syloeum,  sent  by  Ignatius,  arrived  at 
Rome  soon  after  the  election  of  Hadrian, 
and  were  received  not  only  by  him,  but  by 
the  whole  Roman  people,  with  extraordinary 
marks  of  distinction.  At  their  first  audience 
they  delivered  to  the  pope,  as  the  supreme 
head  of  the  church,  the  acts  of  the  council 
held  by  Photius  at  Constantinople  against 
pope  Nicholas,^  desiring  his  holiness  to 
cause  those  acts  to  be  examined,  and  to  con- 
demn what  should  be  found  in  them  repug- 
nant to  the  dignity  of  the  holy  Roman 
church,  or  what  he  thought  inconsistent 


with  the  true  catholic  doctrine.  We  are 
told,  that  the  metropolitan  of  Syla;um  threw 
the  book  containing  the  acts  of  that  council 
on  the  ground  when  he  presented  it  to  the 
pope,  saying,  "  thou  hast  been  cursed  at 
Constantinople,  be  cursed  again  at  Rome: 
Photius,  minister  of  the  devil,  and  a  new 
Simon  compiled  thee:  Nicholas,  minister  of 
Christ,  a  new  Peter  and  lover  of  truth  coa- 
demned  thee."  The  spathariiis  stamping 
upon  it,  and  striking  it  with  his  sword  is 
said  to  have  added  ;  '"  I  believe  that  the  devil 
dwells  in  this  work,  and  says  by  the  mouth 
of  Photius  his  accomplice  what  he  cannot 
say  himself."  He  assured  the  pope  at  the 
same  time  that  Photius  had  indeed  got  the 
emperor  Michael  to  sign  those  acts  one 
night  when  he  was  drunk,  but  that  the  sig- 
nature of  the  emperor  Basil  was  forged,  as 
were  the  signatures  of  many  bishops,  whose 
names  were  seen  there,  though  they  had 
never  so  much  as  heard  of  that  council.' 
The  pope  caused  the  book  to  be  carefully  ex- 
amined by  persons  well  skilled  in  the  Latin 
and  Greek  tongues,  and  upon  their  deliver- 
ing their  opinion  concerning  it,  he  assembled 
a  council  in  the  church  of  St.  Peter,  consist- 
ing of  twenty-nine  bishops,  nine  presbyters 
of  the  Roman  church,  and  five  deacons.  By 
that  assembly  the  following  decrees  were  is- 
sued in  the  presence  of  the  eastern  envoys. 
I.  That  the  acts  of  the  council  held  at  Con- 
stantinople by  Photius  and  the  emperor 
IMichael  his  protector,  against  the  authority 
of  the  Roman  church,  should  be  publicly 
consigned  to  the  flames,  and  likewise  the 
writings  that  either  had  published  against 
pope  Nicholas,  or  the  patriarch  Ignatius. 
By  the  second  decree  Photius  was  again  con- 
demned and  anathematized ;  but  to  that  de- 
cree was  added,  that  if  he  submitted  by 
word  of  mouth  and  in  writing  to  the  de- 
crees of  pope  Nicholas,  and  to  that  enacted 
by  the  present  council,  he  should  be  admitted 
to  lay  communion.  The  third  decree  grant- 
ed the  communion  of  the  church  to  all,  who, 
adhering  to  Photius,  had  approved  or  signed 
his  anathematized  council,  provided  they 
burnt  the  copies  they  had  of  that  council, 
conformed  to  the  ordinances  of  the  apostolic 
see,  and  communicated  with  Ignatius  as 
lawful  patriarch  of  the  imperial  city.  By 
the  fourth  they  were  excommunicated,  who 
did  not  communicate  with  Ignatius,  but  still 
continued  to  countenance  the  usurper  of  his 
see  in  his  unjust  usurpation.  Lastly,  all 
who,  instead  of  delivering  up  or  burning  the 
acts  of  Photius'  council,  should  thenceforth 
conceal  or  defend  th«m,  were  excommuni- 
cated if  laymen,  and  degraded  if  clerks.  By 
this  council,  and  all  the  bishops  who  com- 
posed it,  the  emperor  Basilius  was  cleared 
from  having  been  any  ways  concerned  in  the 
deposition  of  Ignatius,  his  signature   was 


<  Annal.  Berlin.  Metens.  et  Regino.       ^See  p.  258. 


>  Guil.  Bibliothec.  in  Hadrian. 


272 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Hadrian  H. 


Anastasius,  cardinal  presbyter,  excommunicated  by  Hadrian  in  a  council  at  Rome.  Hadrian  sends  legates 
into  the  east  for  the  assembling  of  a  general  council ; — [Year  of  Christ,  869.]  They  are  well  received  by 
the  emperor. 


pronounced  a  forgery,  and  he  declared  wor- 
thy of  a  place  among  the  orthodox  emperors. 
The  council  being  ended,  the  above  mention- 
ed book  was  laid  on  the  steps  at  the  church 
door,  was  trodden  under  foot  by  the  bishops, 
and  then,  in  their  presence,  thrown,  with 
many  anathemas  and  curses,  into  a  great 
fire  and  consumed.  Anastasius  adds,  that  a 
violent  shower  happened  at  the  time,  but 
that  instead  of  extinguishing,  it  served  to 
kindle  the  fire,  and  make  it  burn  with  more 
violence,  as  if  it  had  not  rained  water  but 
oil.' 

In  the  same  year  868  Hadrian  assembled 
another  council  at  Rome  against  Anastasius 
cardinal  presbyter  of  St.  Mark.  Anastasius 
had  been  excommunicated  by  Leo  IV.  as 
has  been  related  in  the  foregoing  volume,^ 
and  had  upon  his  death  not  only  usurped 
the  pontifical  dignity,  but  treated  Benedict, 
who  was  lawfully  chosen,  with  the  utmost 
barbarity.3  However  pope  Nicholas  re- 
stored him  to  his  dignity,  and  Hadrian  even 
appointed  him  librarian  of  the  Roman 
church.  But  he,  abusing  the  confidence  the 
pope  reposed  in  him,  pillaged  the  patriarchal 
palace,  and  privately  conveyed  away  the 
acts  of  the  council  that  had  condemned  him 
in  the  pontificate  of  Leo.  Besides  he  was  sus- 
pected of  having  been  accessory  to  the  murder 
of  Hadrian's  wife  and  his  daughter.  For 
Hadrian  was  married  tp  one  Stephania,  no 
doubt  before  his  ordination,  and  had  a 
daughter  by  her,  whom  Eleutherius,  brother 
to  Anastasius  carried  away  by  force,  and 
married,  though  betrothed  to  another.  This 
the  pope  highly  resented,  and  applying  to 
the  emperor,  in  whom  alone  the  civil  power 
was  still  lodged,  he  prevailed  upon  him  to 
appoint  commissioners  to  try  the  delinquent 
according  to  the  Roman  laws.^  Hereupon 
Eleutherius,  to  be  revenged  on  the  pope, 
murdered  both  his  own  wife,  the  pope's 
daughter,  and  her  mother.  These  murders, 
for  which  he  was  tried  by  the  imperial  com- 
missioners and  sentenced  to  death,  he  was 
said  to  have  committed  at  the  instigation  of 
his  brother  Anastasius,  whom  the  pope 
therefore  excluded  from  the  communion  of 
the  church  till  he  cleared  himself,  in  a  coun- 
cil, from  that  as  well  as  from  the  crimes 
mentioned  above.  At  the  same  time  sen- 
tence of  excommunication  Was  pronounced 
against  all  who  should  in  the  mean  while 
communicate  with  him,  or  so  much  as 
speak  to  him,  and  he  was  threatened  with  a 
perpetual  anathema  if  he  stirred  from  Rome 


I  Anast.  in  prefat.  ad  Concil.  viii.  Guil.  Bibliothec. 
in  Hadrian. 

a  See  p.  219.  3  ibid.  p.  227,  228. 

4  By  one  of  Constantine's  laws,  they,  who  ravished 
virgins,  or  stole  them,  even  with  their  consent,  against 
the  will  of  their  parents,  were  burnt  alive.— (Cod. 
Theodos.  1.  9.  tit.  24.  leg.  1.)  The  severity  of  this  law 
was  somewhat  mitigated  by  Conatantius,  but  he  still 
made  it  a  capital  offence.— (Cod.  Theodos.  1.  9.  tit.  34. 
leg.  2.) 


till  his  cause  was  determined.'  What  was 
the  issue  of  this  affair  history  does  not  in- 
form us.2 

Hadrian  not  satisfied  with  excommuni- 
cating Photius  and  condemning  the  acts  of 
his  council  at  Rome,  as  has  been  related 
above,  wrote  to  the  emperor,  as  soon  as  he 
had  despatched  the  affair  of  Anastasius,  de- 
siring him  to  assemble  a  general  council  at 
Constantinople,  as  the  most  effectual  means 
of  restoring  to  that  church  the  wished-for 
peace  and  tranquillity.   With  this  letter,  and 
another  to  the  patriarch  Ignatius,  were  sent 
into  the  east  Donatus  bishop  of  Ostia,  Ste- 
phen of  Nepi,  and   the  deacon  Marinus ; 
and  they  were  to  assist  as  the  pope's  legates 
at  the  general  council.     They  set  out  from 
Rome  with  the  envoys,  whom  the  emperor 
and  Ignatius  had  sent  thither  the  preceding 
year,  and  arriving  at  Thessalonica  were  re- 
ceived there  by  Eustatius,  spatharius,  sent 
by  the  emperor  to  rheet  them,  and  attended 
by  him  to  Sellambria.     At  Sellambria  ihey 
were  met  by  Sidinnius  protospatharius,  and 
furnished  with  forty  horses  out  of  the  em- 
peror's  own   stables,   with   plate   for  their 
table,  and  proper  persons  to  wait  on  them. 
Thus  attended  they  arrived  at  the  Round- 
casile,  and  the  next  day,  being  Sunday,  they 
made  their  public  entry  into  Constantinople, 
being  received  at  the  gate  by  all  the  great 
officers  of  the  crown  as  well  as  the  clergy 
in  their  copes,  and  conducted  by  them  in 
great  pomp  to  the  palace  of  Irene.     There 
they  were  received  by  John  the  imperial 
secretary  and  Strategius  the  spatharius  sent 
by  the  emperor  to  excuse  him  from  granting 
them  audience  the  next  day,  it  being  his 
birth-day.      The  day  following  they  were 
attended  to  the  imperial  palace  by  all  the 
chief  lords  of  the  court,  and  admitted  to  the 
presence  of  the  emperor,  who  rose  up  as 
soon  as  they  appeared,  received  the  pope's 
letter  with  his   own   hand,  kissed  it,  and 
having  inquired  after  the  state  of  the  Roman 
church   and  Hadrian's  health,   kissed   the 
legates,  and  sent  them  to  deliver  the  pope's 
letter  to  Ignatius.      In  that  letter  Hadrian 
congratulated  the  patriarch  upon  his  resto- 
ration, declared  that  he  adhered  in  all  things 
to  the  decrees  of  his  predecessor,  to  those 
especially  against  Photius  and  Gregory  of 
Syracuse;  recommended  to  Ignatius  those 
bishops,  who  had  suffered  persecution  on 
his  account ;  and  as  to  those,  who  had  been 
ordained  by  his  predecessor  or  by  him,  but 

«  Annal.  Bertin.  tom.  viii.  Concil.  p.  129. 

a  I  cannot  help  observing  here,  that  some  writers, 
not  aware  of  Anastasius  having  been  by  Hadrian  ap- 
pointed bibliothecarian  of  the  Roman  church,  and  his 
being  styled  "Anastasius  the  bibliothecarian,"  have, 
by  an  unaccountable  mistake,  understood  of  tiie  monk 
Anastasius,  who  succeeded  him  in  that  office  and 
wrote  the  lives  of  the  popes,  what  is  said  of  the  other, 
as  if  the  monk  had  been  deposed  and  excommunicated  ; 
whereas  it  is  certain  that  he  held  that  otiice  to  the 
hour  of  his  death. 


Hadrian  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


273 


A  general  council  appointed  to  meet  at  Constantinople.  Firat  session  of  the  council  of  Constantinople.  Second 
session.    Third  session.     Fourth  session.     Fifth  session. 


had  sided  with  Photius,  he  thought  they 
might  be  forgiven  upon  their  satisfying  his 
legates,  in  the  manner  that  he  had  pre- 
scribed.' 

The  next  day  they  waited  again  on  the 
emperor,  when  he  approved  the  assembly 
of  a  general  council  as  was  proposed  by  the 
pope,  told  the  legates,  that  the  patriarchs  of 
the  east,  the  metropolitans  and  bishops,  had 
waited  these  two  years  for  the  decision  of 
the  holy  Roman  church  their  mother,  and 
exhorted  them  to  spare  no  pains  in  settling 
the  distracted  state  of  that  church,  and  re- 
establishing a  perfect  harmony  among  them. 
The  legates  answered  that  they  were  sent 
for  that  purpose,  but  could  admit  no  orientals 
to  the  council  till  they  had  signed  a  formu- 
lary, which  they  had  brought  with  them 
from  Rome.  The  mention  of  a  formulary 
excluding  all  from  the  council  who  should 
refuse  to  sign  it,  surprised  the  emperor  as 
well  as  the  patriarch,  who  was,  it  seems, 
present  at  this  interview;  but  upon  its  being, 
at  their  request,  produced  by  the  legates,  and 
translated  into  Greek,  they  both  approved  of 
it,  and  the  council  was  thereupon  appointed 
to  meet  on  the  5th  of  October  of  the  pre- 
sent year  8G9;^  and  on  that  day  they  met 
accordingly  in  the  church  of  St.  Sophia. 

At  the  first  session  none  were  present  but 
the  pope's  three  legates,  the  patriarch  Igna- 
tius, the  deputies  of  the  patriarchs  of  An- 
tioch  and  Jerusalem,  twelve  bishops,  who 
had  steadily  adhered  to  Ignatius,  and  several 
patricians,  at  the  head  of  whom  was  Ba- 
hanes,  appointed  by  the  emperor  to  assist  at 
the  council  with  the  character  of  his  com- 
missioners. In  this  session  was  read  the 
pope's  letter  to  the  emperor,  Avherein-  he 
thanked  and  highly  commended  him  for 
driving  out  Photius,  and  restoring  the  lawful 
patriarch  to  his  see,  adding,  that  at  his  re- 
quest he  would  show  mercy  to  those  who 
had  sided  with  the  usurper,  but  that  as  they 
ought  to  be  treated  differently,  some  being 
more  and  some  less  guilty,  he  wished  a 
general  council  might  be  assembled,  and  his 
legates  allowed  to  preside  at  it,  in  order  to 
determine  who  were  to  be  treated  with  more 
severhy,  and  who  with  less.  In  the  same 
letter  he  desired  that  the  acts  of  Photius's 
council  might  be  condemned  to  the  flames, 
and  the  decrees  of  the  councils  held  by  him- 
self and  his  predecessor  against  him,  be  sign- 
ed by  all  the  bishops  who  should  compose 
the  general  council.  In  the  next  place  was 
read  the  formulary  mentioned  above,  import- 
ing, that  no  bishops,  presbyters,  clerks,  or 
monks  should  be  admitted  to  the  council, 
till  they  had  anathematized  all  heretics,  es- 
pecially the  Iconoclasts,  and  with  them  Pho- 
tius, till  they  had  condemned  his  council, 
approved,  signed,  and  received  the  councils 
held  by  Nicholas  and  Hadrian  against  him  ; 

'  Anast.  in  Pref.  ad  viii.  Synod. 
>  Guil.  nililioth.  in  Hadrian. 

Vol.  II.— 35 


so  that  none  but  the  avowed  enemies  of 
Photius  were  to  sit  in  this  council. 

In  the  second  session,  held  on  the  seventh 
of  the  same  month  of  October,  ten  bishops, 
and  several  presbyters,  deacons,  and  sub- 
deacons,  who  had  countenanced  Photius  in 
his  unjust  usurpation,  but  had  been  ordain- 
ed by  Ignatius  or  his  predecessor,  had  their 
ecclesiastical  ornaments  restored  to  them, 
and  were  allowed  to  sit  in  the  council  upon 
their  acknowledging  their  fault,  asking  par- 
don for  it,  and  signing  the  formulary.  Upon 
these  the  following  penance  was  imposed  by 
the  council,  namely,  that  such  of  them  as 
eat  meat  should  abstain  from  it,  and  likewise 
from  eggs  and  cheese;  that  they,  who  eat 
no  meat,  should  abstain  from  eggs,  from 
cheese,  and  even  from  fish,  on  Wednesdays 
and  Fridays,  and  only  feed  upon  legumes, 
that  is,  upon  roots  and  greens.  But  they 
were  allowed  the  use  of  oil,  and  a  little 
wine  ;  and  all  were  to  kneel  down  fifty  times 
a  day,  to  say  an  hundred  times  a  day,  "  I 
have  sinned.  Lord  have  mercy  upon  me," 
to  repeat  daily  the  sixth,  the  thirty-seventh, 
and  the  fiftieth  psalms,  and  forbear  all  eccle- 
siastical functions  till  Christmas,  when  they 
were  to  be  restored  to  their  respective  ranks. 

The  bishops  met  again  on  the  Uth  of  Oc- 
tober, when  Theodolus  and  Nicephorus, 
metropolitans  of  Ancyra  and  Nice,  who  had 
been  lawfully  ordained,  but  had  sided  with 
Photius,  were  summoned  to  sign  the  formu- 
lary sent  from  Rome,  and  take  their  place 
in  the  council.  But  with  that  summons  they 
refused  to  comply,  declaring  that  they  would 
sign  nothing  besides  the  confession  of  fahh, 
which  they  had  signed  at  their  ordination, 
and  were  ready  to  sign  anew  if  required. 
This  answer  did  not  satisfy  the  legates ;  and 
the  two  metropolitans  were  by  them,  pur- 
suant to  their  instructions,  excluded  from 
the  council.  In  the  same  session  were  read 
and  approved  the  letters  of  the  emperor  Ba- 
silius  and  the  patriarch  Ignatius  to  pope 
Nicholas,  and  with  them  Hadrian's  letter  to 
that  patriarch. 

In  the  fourth  session,  on  the  13th  of  Oc- 
tober, two  bishops,  Theophilus  and  Zacha- 
rias,  who  still  adhered  to  Photius,  were,  at 
their  desire,  introduced  and  heard  by  the 
council.  They  pretended,  that  pope  Nicho- 
las had  acknowledged  Photius,  and  commu- 
nicated with  him,  as  well  as  with  those 
whom  he  had  ordained.  But  the  contrary 
appearing  from  that  pope's  letters  to  the  em- 
peror Michael,  and  to  Photius  himself,  which 
were  publicly  read,  the  two  bishops,  upon 
their  refusing  to  sign  the  formulary,  or  even 
to  hear  it,  were  driven  out  of  the  council. 

The  fifth  session  was  held  on  the  20th  of 
October,  when  Photius  was  summoned  to 
appear  before  the  council,  and  upon  his  re- 
fusing to  obey  the  summons  was  brought 
thither  by  force,  pursuant  to  an  order  from 
the  emperor.    But  as  he  would  answer  no 


274 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Hadrian  H. 


Sixth  session  of  the  council  of  Constantinople.    Seventh  session — Photius  excommunicated.    Eighth  session. 

Ninth  session.    Last  session. 


questions,  nor  own  himself  guilty,  the  coun- 
cil dismissed  him,  after  causing  the  letters 
of  pope  Nicholas,  containing  his  condemna- 
tion, to  be  read  to  him,  and  allowing  him 
time  to  return  to  himself  and  repent. 

At  the  sixth  session,  on  the  25th  of  Octo- 
ber, the  emperor  assisted  in  person ;  and  the 
bishops  whom  Photius  had  ordained  being 
introduced  to  the  council,  the  letter  of  the 
late  pope  to  the  emperor  Michael,  declaring 
their  ordination  to  be  null,  was  read  to  them, 
and  approved  by  the  council.  But  the  bishops 
alledging  several  instances  of  episcopal  or- 
dinations rejected  as  null  by  the  pope,  and 
yet  admitted  by  other  bishops  as  valid  and 
lawful,  the  emperor  answered,  that  the  ordi- 
nation of  Photius  was  rejected  as  null  by 
the  other  patriarchal  see,  as  well  as  by  that 
of  Rome,  that  he  was  by  all  looked  upon  as 
an  usurper;  and  consequently  that  those, 
■whom  he  had  ordained,  could  be  no  bishops, 
as  he  was  no  bishop  himself.  This  session 
was  closed  with  a  pathetic  speech  addressed 
by  the  emperor  to  the  bishops,  whom  Pho- 
tius had  ordained,  and  read  in  his  name  by 
the  secretary  Constantine.  In  that  speech 
the  emperor  expressed  an  earnest  desire  to 
see  peace  and  unity  restored  to  the  church 
of  Constantinople,  exhorted  those  who  still 
acknowledged  Photius  for  lawful  bishop,  to 
acquiesce  in  the  judgment  of  the  council, 
and  allowed  them  seven  days  to  deliberate. 

The  council  met  again  on  the  29th  of  Octo- 
ber, and  the  emperor  being  present,  Photius, 
and  Gregory  of  Syracuse,  who  had  ordained 
him,  were,  by  his  order,  brought  in.  As 
Photius  appeared  leaning  on  a  staff,  the  dea- 
con Marinus,  one  of  the  legates,  ordered  it 
to  be  taken  from  him,  saying,  "  it  is  a  mark 
of  pastoral  dignity,  and  he  is  not  a  pastor, 
but  a  wolf."  He  was  then  asked  whether 
he  would  sign  the  formulary  in  order  to  his 
being  received  into  the  church  and  admitted 
to  lay  communion.  But  that  proposal,  as 
he  was  thereby  to  anathematize  himself,  he 
rejected  with  scorn,  and  so  did  the  bishops, 
all  to  a  man,  whom  he  had  ordained,  though 
earnestly  pressed  to  it  by  the  emperor  as 
well  as  the  council.  Hereupon  the  letters 
of  Nicholas  and  Hadrian  rejecting  the  ordi- 
nation of  Photius  as  repugnant  to  the  canons, 
and  likewise  the  acts  of  the  council  held 
lately  against  him  under  Hadrian  at  Rome 
being  read,  sentence  of  excommunication 
was  pronounced  against  him,  with  many 
anathemas,  and  signed  by  all  the  bishops  of 
the  council.  Nicetas  adds,  that  the  bishops 
in  signing  it,  dipt  their  pens,  not  in  ink,  but 
in  the  blood  of  our  Savior.'  But  of  this  no 
notice  is  taken  in  the  acts  of  the  council. 

The  eighth  session  was  held  on  the  8th 
of  November,  when  all  the  writings  of  Pho- 
tius against  pope  Nicholas  and  the  patriarch 
Ignatius,  and  with  them  the  acts    of  his 


»  Nicet.  in  vit.  Ignat.  torn.  viii.  Concil.  p.  1231. 


council,  were,  by  the  emperor's  order,  burnt 
in  the  presence  of  the  council.  In  the  next 
place  some  Iconoclasts  were  heard,  and  sen- 
tence of  excommunication  was  thundered 
out  anew  against  all  of  that  sect,  and  like- 
wise against  Photius  and  Gregory  of  Syra- 
cuse. 

At  the  ninth  session,  held  on  the  12th  of 
February,  870,  several  persons,  and  most  of 
them  men  of  the  first  rank  and  distinction, 
appearing  before  the  council,  owned,  that  at 
the  instigation  of  the  emperor  Mictiael  and 
Photius,  they  had  borne  false  witness  against 
the  patriarch  Ignatius,  asked  pardon  of  God 
and  the  holy  council,  and  declared  them- 
selves ready  to  undergo  what  penance  the 
holy  synod  should  think  fit  to  impose  on 
them.  The  fathers,  pleased  with  their  vo- 
luntary confession,  enjoined  them  the  fol- 
lowing penance,  namely,  that  for  the  space 
of  four  years  they  should  only  be  admitted 
to  the  service  of  the  catechumens,  and  stand, 
during  the  first  two  years,  at  the  church 
door,  that  for  four  years  they  should  abstain 
from  meat  and  from  wine,  Sundays  and  fes- 
tivals excepted,  and  during  the  term  of  three 
years  more  abstain  from  meat  and  from  wine, 
on  Mondays,  Wednesdays,  and  Fridays. 
However  the  patriarch  Ignatius  was  em- 
powered by  the  council  to  mitigate  the  rigor 
and  shorten  the  time  of  that  penance.  All, 
who  were  guilty  of  the  same  crime,  were 
excommunicated  till  they  confessed  it  and 
received  the  same  penance.  When  these 
were  dismissed  others  were  introduced,  who 
owned  that  by  the  emperor  Michael's  order 
and  for  his  diversion,  they  had,  in  the  attire 
of  the  patriarch,  said  prayers,  performed  the 
ceremony  of  ordination,  and  exercised  other 
sacred  functions  by  way  of  derision ;  and 
upon  them  a  three  years'  public  penance 
was  imposed,  and  sentence  of  excommuni- 
cation pronounced  against  all,  who  should 
thenceforth  countenance,  or  knowingly  suf- 
fer the  sacred  mysteries  of  our  holy  religion 
to  be  thus  exposed  to  ridicule  and  contempt. 
Lastly,  they  were  heard  in  this  session,  who 
had  personated,  in  the  council  of  Photius, 
the  deputies  of  the  patriarchs  of  Alexandria 
and  Antioch,  and  they  publicly  owned  that 
they  had  done  so  at  his  instigation,  and 
were  utterly  unknown  to  those  patriarchs. 
At  this  session  was  present  Joseph,  arch- 
deacon of  the  church  of  Alexandria,  and 
deputy  of  that  patriarch.  He  arrived  a  few 
days  before,  and  having  perused  the  transac- 
tions of  the  preceding  sessions,  he  presented 
a  writing  to  the  council,  declaring  that  he 
entirely  approved  all  they  had  done. 

In  the  tenth  and  last  session,  held  on  the 
last  day  of  February,  at  which  assisted  the 
emperor  in  person,  and  his  son  Constantine, 
whom  he  had  taken  the  year  before  for  his 
partner  in  the  empire,  was  read  and  by  all 
approved ;  the  definition  of  the  council,  con- 
taining the  condemnation  of  Photius,  of  all 


Hadrian  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


275 


The  writinga  which  the  bishops  of  the  council  had  signed  taken  from  the  legates  and  restored.     Conference 
concerning  Bulgaria  ;  which  is  adjudged  to  the  see  of  Constantinople. 


who  adhered  to  him,  and  of  all  heresies  and 
heretics,  that  had  been  condemned  by  the 
seven  preceding  councils;  the  ordination  of 
Photius  was  declared  null,  and  so  was  the 
ordination  of  those  whom  he  had  ordained. 
As  for  the  bishops,  who  had  been  ordained 
by  Ignatius  or  his  predecessor  in  the  patri- 
archal see  of  Constantinople,  but  still  con- 
tinued to  support  the  usurper,  they  were 
anathematized  and  excluded  forever,  should 
they  even  repent,  from  their  former  ranks  in 
tiie  church.  On  this  occasion  the  emperor 
made  a  long  speech  to  the  fathers  of  the 
council,  exhorting  them  to  instruct,  with 
great  care,  their  respective  flocks,  to  main- 
lain  concord  and  unity  amongst  themselves 
and  the  ecclesiastics  under  their  jurisdiction, 
and  to  conform,  in  all  things,  to  the  defini- 
tion of  the  council,  since  they  had  all  ap- 
proved of  it.  His  speech  was  received  by 
the  council  with  loud  acclamations,  and  he 
invited  by  the  pope's  legates  to  sign  the  de- 
finition in  the  first  place.  But  he  declined 
it,  and  would  only  sign  after  the  deputies  of 
the  five  patriarchs.  Thus  the  legates  signed 
in  the  first  place,  Ignatius  in  the  next,  then 
the  deputies  of  the  other  patriarchs,  and  after 
them  the  emperor  and  his  two  sons,  Con- 
stantine  and  Leo,  and  the  bishops,  in  all 
one  hundred  and  one.  At  this  session  were 
admitted  into  the  council  Anastasius  the 
bibliothecarian,  count  Suppo  and  Everard, 
sent  by  the  emperor  Lewis  to  propose  a 
match  between  Lewis'  daughter,  and  Con- 
stantine,  the  emperor  Basil's  eldest  son, 
which  however  did  not  take  place.'  The 
council  being  ended,  a  circulatory  letter  was 
drawn  up  in  the  name  of  the  bishops  who 
composed  it,  to  acquaint  the  whole  vuidd 
Avith  the  deposition  of  Photius,  and  restora- 
tion of  Ignatius ;  and  another  was  sent  in 
their  name  to  the  pope,  to  return  his  holi- 
ness thanks  for  so  steadily  maintaining  the 
cause  of  the  persecuted  patriarch,  and  resto- 
ring concord  and  unity  to  the  distracted 
church  of  the  imperial  city.  The  emperor 
wrote  to  the  pope,  and  so  did  the  patriarch 
Ignatius  much  to  the  same  purpose. 

Before  the  council  ended,  several  bishops 
of  the  patriarchate  of  Constantinople,  appre- 
hending that  by  signing  the  formulary  sent 
by  the  pope,  they  had,  in  a  manner,  sub- 
jected the  see  of  Constantinople  to  that  of 
Rome,  applied  privately  to  the  emperor  and 
Ignatius  to  have  the  writings  which  they 
had  signed  taken  from  the  legates  before 
ihey  left  the  imperial  city.  The  emperor 
complied  with  their  request,  and  by  his 
order  the  writings  were  secretly  conveyed 
away  by  those  whom  he  had  appointed  to 
attend  the  legates.  But  Anastasius,  and  the 
two  other  envoys  of  the  emperor  Lewis  in- 
terposing, they  were  in  the  end  all  restored 
to  them;  and  they  put  ihem  into  the  hands 


<  Anast.  In  Pref.  ad  viii.  Synod. 


of  the  envoys  in  order  to  their  being  con- 
veyed to  Italy  with  greater  safety.' 

The  council  being  ended  a  conference 
was  held,  at  which  were  present  the  em- 
peror, the  pope's  legates,  the  patriarch  Igna- 
tius, the  deputies  of  the  other  patriarchs, 
and  the  envoys  of  the  king  of  the  Bulga- 
rians, sent  to  inquire  of  the  deputies  of  the 
patriarchs,  what  church  they  ought  to  be 
subject  to,  whether  to  the  church  of  Con- 
stantinople, or  to  that  of  Rome.  The  pope's 
legates  pretended,  that  they  ought  to  be  sub- 
ject to  that  of  Rome,  since  the  king,  their 
master,  had  subjected  himself  and  his  people 
to  it,  and  received  from  pope  Nicholas  both 
priests  and  bishops.  This  the  envoys  owned 
to  be  true,  but  added,  that  they  wanted  to 
know,  which  of  the  two  sees  it  was  most 
reasonable  they  should  be  subject  to.  The 
legates  answered,  that  they  had  no  instruc- 
tions relative  to  that  affair,  and  therefore 
could  determine  nothing  concerning  it;  but 
that,  as  their  country  was  full  of  priests 
sent  from  Rome,  they  thought  it  ought  to 
belong  to  the  Roman  church.  Hereupon 
the  legates  of  the  other  patriarchs  asked  the 
envoys,  whom  their  country  belonged  to 
when  they  conquered  it,  and  whether  they 
found  in  it  Greek  or  Latin  priests.  The 
country,  answered  the  Bulgarians,  belonged 
to  the  Greeks  when  we  conquered  it,  and 
the  priests  we  found  in  it  were  Greeks.  This 
the  deputies  of  the  patriarchs  looked  upon 
as  a  plain  proof  of  their  being  ordained  by  the 
patriarch  of  Constantinople,  and  the  country 
being  under  the  jurisdiction  of  that  see. 
But  the  legates  answering,  that  many  natives 
of  Greece  received  their  ordination  at  Rome, 
and  were  sent  from  thence  into  different 
countries,  the  deputies  of  the  patriarchs  de- 
sired they  would  let  them  know  upon  what 
they  grounded  their  claim.  We  ground  it, 
replied  here  the  legates,  1st.  Upon  the  an- 
cient jurisdiction,  which  the  apostolic  see 
enjoyed,  as  appears  from  the  decretals  of 
the  popes,  over  old  and  new  Epirus,  Thes- 
saly,  and  Dardania,  the  country  that  is  now 
called  Bulgaria;  2d.  Upon  the  voluntary 
submission  of  the  Bulgarians,  who  have  ap- 
plied to  Rome  for  priests  and  bishops  ;  and 
lastly,  upon  the  conversion  of  that  nation 
brought  about  chiefly  by  priests  and  bishops 
from  Rome.  And  upon  which  of  these 
titles,  replied  the  deputies,  do  you  rest  your 
claim?  But  to  that  the  legates  returned  no 
other  answer  than  that  the  holy  see  had  not 
chosen  them,  who  were  its  inferiors,  for  its 
judges,  and  that  they  themselves  were  not 
empowered  to  determine  anything  concern- 
ing that  point.  However  the  deputies,  pay- 
ing no  kind  of  regard  to  their  remonstrances, 
pronounced  the  following  sentence :  It  is  not 
fit  that  you,  who  have  withdrawn  yourselves 
from  the  Greek  empire,  and  entered  into  an 

>  Anast.  in  Not.  ad  Libellum. 


276 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Hadrian  H. 


Ignatius  drives  the  Latins  out  of  Bulgaria.  The  legates  taken  on  their  return  by  pirates.  Charles  the  Bald 
acknowledged  king  of  Lorraine.  The  pope  declares  that  kingdom  to  belong  to  the  emperor  ;  but  no  regard  is 
had  to  his  declaration.    Letters  from  the  pope  to  Lewis  of  Germany,  and  to  Charles,  on  this  occasion. 


alliance  with  the  Franks,  should  have  a 
right  to  ordain  in  the  dominions  of  our 
prince;  and  we  therefore  declare,  that  the 
country  of  the  Bulgarians,  which  was  for- 
merly subject  to  the  Greeks,  and  had  Greek 
bishops  and  priests,  ought,  upon  its  return 
to  Christianity,  to  be  restored  to  the  church 
of  Constantinople,  from  which  it  was  sepa- 
rated by  paganism.  The  legates  loudly 
protested  against  that  sentence,  declaring  it 
null,  as  given  by  judges  whom  the  holy  see 
had  neither  chosen  nor  acknowledged.  At 
the  same  time  they  conjured  the  patriarch 
Ignatius,  presenting  him  a  letter  from  the 
pope,  not  to  concern  himself  with  Bulgaria, 
lest  the  Roman  church  should  by  his  means 
be  deprived  of  her  rights  after  laboring  long 
to  reinstate  him  in  his.  The  patriarch,  being 
"with  much  ado  prevailed  upon  by  the  legates 
to  read  the  pope's  letter,  declared  in  general 
terms,  that  as  he  was  not  young  enough  to 
be  imposed  upon,  nor  old  enough  to  dote 
and  do  what  he  censured  in  others,  he 
would  not  interfere  in  the  present  dispute. 
However  he  soon  began  to  exert,  agreeably 
to  the  judgment  given  by  the  deputies  of 
the  patriarchs,  his  patriarchal  authority  in 
the  country  of  the  Bulgarians,  drove  out  the 
Latin  missionaries,  sent  Greeks  in  their 
room,  and  ordained  Theophylactus  bishop 
of  Bulgaria. 

The  emperor  was  highly  provoked  at  the 
haughty  behavior  and  obstinacy  of  the  le- 
gates on  this  occasion.  However,  dissembling 
his  resentment,  he  entertained  them,  before 
their  departure,  at  his  table,  and  made  them 
rich  presents,  but  was  so  careless  of  their 
safety,  that  they  were  taken  by  the  Sclavo- 
nian  pirates,  who  stript  them  of  all  they  had, 
and  among  other  things  of  the  original  acts  of 
the  council,  and  carried  them  into  captivity. 
But  having  in  the  end  recovered  their  liberty 
at  the  pressing  instances  of  the  pope  and  the 
emperor,  they  arrived  at  Rome  on  the  twenty- 
second  of  December  of  the  present  year,  and 
gave  the  pope  a  minute  account  of  what  had 
passed  in  the  council  as  well  as  in  the  con- 
ference with  the  deputies  of  the  oriental 
patriarchs.  As  for  the  acts  of  the  council, 
Anastasius  the  bibliothecarian  had  procured 
a  copy  of  them,  which  he  brought  with  him 
to  Rome  and  presented  to  the  pope,  who 
ordered  him  to  translate  them  into  Latin, 
which  he  did  accordingly.'  It  is  to  be  ob- 
served, that  this  council  is  received  and 
acknowledged  by  the  Latin  church,  that  is, 
by  all  the  western  bishops,  for  the  eighth 
general  council,  but  is  rejected  by  all  the 
eastern  bishops,  except  the  few  who  com- 
municate with  Rome.  The  rest  receive  only 
seven  general  councils. 

While  Hadrian's  legates  were  exercising, 
with  the  connivance  of  the  emperor,  an  un- 

»  Anast.  in  Prsfal.  ad  viii.  Synod,  et  Guil.  Bibliothec. 
in  Hadrian. 


controlled  authority  over  the  bishops  in  the 
East,  he  was  himself  striving  to  exert  the 
like  authority  over  kings  and  princes  in  the 
West.  The  king  of  Lorraine  dying  at  Pla- 
centia,  without  lawful  issue,  as  has  been  re- 
lated above,  Charles  of  France  no  sooner 
heard  of  his  death,  than  leaving  Presles  on 
the  Seine,  where  he  then  was,  he  hastened 
into  Lorraine,  where  he  had  many  friends, 
to  take  possession  of  that  kingdom.  At 
Verdun  he  was  received  by  several  of  the 
chief  lords  of  Lorraine,  and  from  thence  at- 
tended by  them  to  Metz,  where  he  was,  ia 
a  general  assembly,  consisting  of  the  greater 
part  of  the  first  men  of  the  kingdom,  and  of 
seven  bishops,  acknowledged  for  lawful  heir 
to  his  deceased  nephew,  was  anointed  king 
of  Lorraine  by  Hincmar  of  Reims,  and 
crowned  with  great  solemnity.'  On  the 
other  hand,  the  pope,  espousing  with  great 
warmth  the  cause  of  the  emperor  Lewis, 
who  was  then  employed  in  driving  the  Sa- 
racens out  of  Italy,  despatched,  upon  the 
first  news  of  the  death  of  Lolharius-,  two 
bishops,  Paul  and  Leo,  into  France  with 
letters  to  Charles,  to  the  bishops  of  Lorraine, 
to  those  of  France,  to  the  lords  of  both  king- 
doms, and  one  to  Hincmar  of  Reims  in  par- 
ticular. In  those  letters  Hadrian  declared 
the  kingdom  of  Lorraine  to  belong  to  the  em- 
peror as  the  deceased  king's  brother;  ex- 
horted those  to  whom  they  were  directed,  to 
maintain  his  just  rights,  and  threatened  all 
with  excommunication  who  should  counte- 
nance or  assist  any  pretender  or  pretenders 
to  that  crown.  In  his  letter  to  Hincmar  he 
exhorted  that  prelate  to  support,  with  all  his 
authority,  the  just  claim  of  the  emperor,  and 
empowered  him  to  act  in  this  affair  as  his 
vicar.  With  the  pope's  legates  an  envoy, 
named  Boderad,  was  sent  by  the  emperor  to 
claim,  in  his  name,  the  dominions  of  the 
late  king  his  brother,  as  devolved  to  him  by 
his  death.  These  letters  were  all  dated  the 
fifth  of  September  869,  and  Charles  was,  on 
the  ninth  of  that  month,  acknowledged  by 
the  far  greater  part  of  the  clergy  and  nobility 
of  Lorraine  for  their  lawful  sovereign,  and 
crowned,  as  has  been  said,  with  great  so- 
lemnity ;  so  that  the  pope's  legates  and  the 
emperor's  envoy  found  him  in  the  quiet  pos- 
session of  that  kingdom.^  To  these  letters, 
therefore,  no  answer  was  returned  either 
by  the  clergy  or  the  nobility,  and  the  king 
only  told  the  legates  that  when  matters  were 
settled  he  would  write  to  the  pope,  and  did 
not  doubt  but  he  should  satisfy  his  holiness. 
The  pope,  being  informed  upon  the  re- 
turn of  his  legates,  that  Charles  had  taken 
possession  of  the  kingdom  of  Lotharius  be- 
fore their  arrival  in  France,  immediately 
despatched  new  legates  with  letters  to  the 
two  kings  Lewis  and  Charles,  to  the  lords 


»  Annal.  Bertin. 

3  Airaoj'a.  1.  V.  c.  34.  AnnaL  Bertin.  ad  ann.  869. 


Hadrian  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


277 


Hincinar's  answer  to  a  letter  he  received  from  the  pope. 


and  bishops  of  their  respective  kingdoms, 
and  a  second  to  Hincmar  in  particular,  all 
dated  the  twenty-seventh  of  June  870.  In 
his  letter  to  the  king  of  Germany,  he  com- 
mends him  for  not  offering  to  invade  the 
kingdom  of  his  deceased  nephew,  as  Charles 
had  done  in  defiance  of  all  the  lavps  of  jus- 
tice and  equity  ;  threatens  to  excommunicate 
that  prince,  if  he  does  not  restore  what  he 
has  so  unjustly  seized,  and  recommends  his 
legates,  who,  he  tells  the  king,  had  some- 
thing to  communicate  to  him  by  word  of 
mouth  which  he  did  not  choose  to  commit 
to  writing.  They  were  in  all  likelihood 
charged  to  propose  an  alliance  between  the 
king  and  the  emperor  against  Charles,  in 
order  to  drive  him  from  the  kingdom  of  Lor- 
raine. But  Charles,  dreading  a  war  with  the 
king  of  Germany  more  than  all  the  pope's 
anathemas,  had  already  yielded  to  him,  and 
he  actually  possessed,  a  considerable  part  of 
that  kingdom.  In  his  letter  to  Charles  he 
complains  of  the  little  regard  he  had  shown 
for  his  former  legates,  and  his  not  answering 
the  letter  he  had  written  to  him  ;  reproaches 
him  with  a  breach  of  the  solemn  promise  he 
had  made  and  confirmed  upon  oath,  not  to 
covet  or  usurp  the  dominions  of  his  brothers, 
or  their  descendants,  and  puts  him  in  mind 
of  what  he  himself  wrote  formerly  to  the 
holy  see,  when  his  brother  Lewis,  king  of 
Germany,  drove  him  from  his  kingdom, 
namely,  "  Have  pity  upon  me,  and  suffer 
not  a  breach  of  the  most  solemn  treaties  to 
pass  unpunished."  From  these  words  the 
pope  concludes,  that  as  Charles  was  guilty 
of  a  like  breach  of  the  most  solemn  treaties 
in  seizing  on  the  kingdom  of  Lorraine,  the 
apostolic  see  had,  even  according  to  him,  a 
right  to  punish  him  for  it,  and  certainly 
would,  if  he  did  not  restore  it  to  the  lawful 
heir.  He  closes  his  letter  with  admonishing, 
exhorting,  and  even  commanding  the  king 
to  relinquish  what  he  had  unjustly  and  ty- 
rannically usurped,  and  threatening  to  come 
in  person  into  France,  and  do  what  his  mi- 
nistry required  he  should,  if  the  king  did  not 
comply  with  this  third  admonition. •  In  his 
letter  to  the  bishops  and  to  Hincmar  he  com- 
plains of  their  want  of  respect  for  the  apos- 
tolic see  in  not  answering  the  letters,  which 
he  had  sent  them  by  his  former  legates; 
charges  Charles  with  a  breach  of  his  oath, 
with  perjury,  and  tyranny;  and  reproaches 
them  with  scandalously  betraying  their  mi- 
nistry in  not  dissuading  and  restraining  him, 
as  thev  ought,  from  invading  the  domin- 
ions of  the  emperor,  while  he  was  actually 
engaged  in  a  war  with  the  avowed  enemies 
of  the  Christian  name.  In  the  close  of  his 
letter  he  requires  Hincmar,  and  the  other 
bishops,  to  separate  themselves  from  the 
communion  of  Charles,  if  he  did  not  hearken 
to  their  admonitions,  else  he  would  separate 
them  from  his  communion.     Hadrian's  let- 


>  Hadrian,  ep.  23. 


ter  to  the  lords  of  Charles's  kingdom  was 
the  same,  word  for  word,  with  that  to  the 
bishops.' 

As  the  pope  had  written  two  letters  to 
Hincmar  in  particular,  Charles  allowed  that 
prelate  to  answer  them ;  and  he  answered 
them  accordingly  by  a  very  long  one,  worthy 
of  particular  notice,  as  it  shows  what  were 
the  sentiments  of  the  Galilean  bishops  in 
those  days  with  respect  to  the  power  claim- 
ed by  popes  over  kings  and  kingdoms.  For 
in  that  letter,  he  tells  the  pope  in  the  first 
place,  that  he  had  acquainted  the  king,  as 
well  as  the  lords  and  bishops  of  both  king- 
doms, namely,  of  France  and  Lorraine  with 
the  orders  which  he  had  received  from  the 
apostolic  see,  and  had  let  them  know  that 
his  holiness  had  declared  the  kingdom  of 
Lorraine  to  belong  to  the  emperor,  and  would, 
without  distinction  of  persons,  excommuni- 
cate any,  who  should  presume  to  invade  or 
usurp  it;  but  that  the  kings  of  France  and 
Germany  had  answered,  that  they  were  law- 
ful heirs  to  the  deceased  prince,  and  had,  as 
such,  an  undoubted  right  to  divide  his  king- 
dom between  them  in  order  to  avoid  a  civil 
war,  which  would  have  ended  in  the  utter 
ruin  of  both  kingdoms.  That  Charles  in 
particular  had  a  well  grounded  claim  to  the 
kingdom  of  Lorraine,  as  having  been  be- 
queathed to  him  by  his  father  Lewis  the 
Debonnaire,  and  confirmed  to  him  by  the 
emperor  Lotharius,  father  to  the  present  em- 
peror, who  signed  that  donation.  And  was 
I,  adds  Hincmar,  to  set  up  for  a  judge? 
Was  I  to  declare,  that  he  had  no  kind  of 
right  to  that  kingdom,  and  treat  him  as  an 
usurper  and  a  tyrant?  You  tell  me,  that  if 
the  king  does  not  comply  with  your  admoni- 
tions, I  must  renounce  his  communion,  or 
you  will  renounce  mine.  What  you  write 
I  have  communicated  to  many  ecclesiastics 
as  well  as  to  laymen,  and  they  all  tell  me, 
that  no  such  order  was  ever  sent  to  any  of 
my  predecessors  though  in  their  times  bro- 
thers made  war  upon  brothers,  nay,  and 
children  upon  their  fathers ;  that  the  conduct 
of  your  holiness  in  this  affair  is  quite  unpre- 
cedented ;  that  though  Lotharius  lived  in 
public  adultery,  your  predecessor  did  not 
command  any  bishop  to  separate  himself 
from  his  communion,  on  pain  of  being  him- 
self separated  from  that  of  the  holy  see  ;  that 
neither  the  popes  your  predecessors,  nor 
other  holy  bishops  have  avoided  the  com- 
pany even  of  heretical  or  schismatic  princes ; 
but  on  the  contrary  have  treated  them  with 
all  the  respect  that  was  due  to  their  rank, 
and  conversed  with  them  when  occasion  re- 
quired; with  such  as  Constantius  the  Arian, 
Julian  the  apostate,  and  the  tyrant  Maxi- 
mus ;  that  Charles  was  no  usurper,  no  ty- 
rant, names  which  your  holiness  is  pleased 
to  bestow  upon  him  ;  but  lawful  heir  to  the 
crown  of  the  deceased  king,  which  had  been 


'  Hadrian,  ep.  24,  2S,  26,  27 

Y 


278 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Hadrian  H. 


Insolent  behavior  of  the  pope's  legates  in  France.    The  pope  takes  Carloman  rebelling  against  his  father  into 

his  protection. 


therefore  offered  him  by  most  of  the  lords 
and  bishops  of  the  kingdom.  They  say  in 
France,  continues  Hincmar,  that  the  popes 
have  of  late  been  greatly  wanting  in  the  re- 
spect that  is  due  to  their  princes  ;  that  their 
conduct  towards  them  is  very  different  from 
what  it  was  in  the  times  of  Pepin  and  Charle- 
magne ;  that  Pepin,  espousing  the  cause  of 
pope  Stephea  against  Astulphus,  king  of 
the  Lombards,  overcame  that  prince,  not  by 
the  pope's  excommunication,  but  by  dint  of 
arms  :  that  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  are 
to  be  gained  not  by  excommunications,  but 
by  victories;  and  that  the  Lord  himself  has 
declared  that  kings  hold  their  kingdoms  of 
him ;  when  we  put  them  in  mind  of  the 
power  vested  in  the  popes,  as  the  successors 
of  St.  Peter,  and  in  the  other  bishops,  they 
answer,  exert  that  power  then  against  the 
Normans  and  other  enemies  of  the  state 
v/ithout  imploring  our  assistance.  But  if 
you  want  our  help  you  must  not  putitout  of 
our  power  to  help  you.  You  must  tell  the 
pope,  that  he  cannot  be  both  king  and  bi- 
shop ;  that  his  predecessors  contented  them- 
selves with  governing  the  church,  without 
meddling  with  affairs  of  state  ;  and  that  he 
must  not  think  of  obliging  us  to  receive  a 
king,  who  is  at  too  great  a  distance  to  de- 
fend us  against  the  sudden  and  frequent  ir- 
ruptions of  the  pagans ;  that  his  predecessors 
imposed  no  such  yoke  on  ours  ;  that  we  can- 
not and  will  not  bear  ity  being  authorized  by 
holy  writ  to  defend  our  liberties  and  our  in- 
heritance even  at  the  expense  of  our  lives. 
If  a  bishop  excommunicates  a  Christian  un- 
lawfully, he  thereby  forfeits  his  power;  and 
he  can  exclude  none  from  life  everlasting, 
who  is  not  excluded  from  it  by  his  sins.  It 
does  not  become  a  bishop  to  deprive  a  man 
of  the  name  of  Christian,  and  give  him  up 
to  the  devil,  if  he  is  not  incorrigible,  for  a 
temporal  kingdom.  If  his  holiness  there- 
fore means  to  procure  peace,  let  him  not 
concern  himself  with  state  affairs ;  for  he 
never  will  persuade  us,  that  we  shall  not 
attain  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  unless  we  ac- 
knowledge the  king  whom  he  shall  be 
pleased  to  give  us  upon  earth.  All  are 
greatly  shocked,  continues  Hincmar,  at  the 
terms  of  perjury  and  tyranny,  that  are  to  be 
met  with  in  your  letters,  and  say  what  it 
would  serve  no  purpose  to  let  you  know. 
But  I  must  inform  your  holiness,  that  the 
king  is  determined  to  maintain,  at  all  events, 
his  claim  to  the  kingdonti  of  Lorraine,  and 
that  no  censures  nor  excommunications  will 
divert  him  from  it." 

In  the  mean  time  new  legates  arrived  from 
Rome,  namely,  three  bishops,  John,  Peter, 
and  Wibod,  and  a  presbyter  of  the  Roman 
church  named  John,  with  envoys  from  the 
emperor.  The  legates  went  straight  to  St. 
Denys,  where  the  king  then  was,  and  en- 

'  Hincmar  Opuscul.  41.  torn.  ii.  p.  689.  et  apud  Baron, 
ad  ann.  870. 


tering  the  church  of  the  abbey  while  he  was 
attending  divine  service  there  on  the  festival 
of  that  saint,  they  ordered  him,  in  the  name 
of  the  sovereign  pontiff,  to  relinquish  the 
kingdom  of  Lorraine,  to  which,  they  said, 
the  emperor  alone  had  an  undoubted  right. 
The  king,  highly  provoked  at  their  insolent 
behavior,  ordered  them  immediately  to  with- 
draw, which  damped  their  courage  not  a 
little;  and  laying  aside  the  air  of  authority 
which  they  had  assumed,  they  became 
thenceforth  more  tractable.  The  king  had 
several  conferences  with  them,  treated  them 
with  great  civility,  and  soon  after  their  de- 
parture sent  the  abbot  Arsegesilus,  and  a 
layman  named  Lotharius  to  Rome,  with 
two  crowns  of  gold  enriched  with  precious 
stones  for  St.  Peter.'  What  reception  his 
ambassadors  met  with  from  the  pojie  history 
does  not  inform  us.  But  certain  it  is  that 
Hadrian,  finding  that  Charles  was  not  to  be 
intimidated  with  his  menaces,  gave  up  the 
point,  and  left  the  kings  of  France  and  Ger- 
many to  possess  undisturbed  their  respective 
shares  of  the  kingdom  of  Lorraine.  Charles 
kept  his  share;  but  the  king  of  Germany 
was  soon  after  prevailed  upon  by  the  em- 
press Ingelberga  to  yield  his  to  the  emperor. 
Charles  was  not  more  incensed  against 
the  pope  for  his  adjudging  the  kingdom  of 
Lorraine  to  the  emperor,  than  he  was  on 
account  of  his  taking  his  rebel  son  Carlo- 
man,  and  Hincmar  the  younger,  bishop  of 
Laon,  into  the  protection  of  the  holy  see. 
Carloman  had  rebelled  against  his  father ; 
but  being  taken  prisoner  by  the  king's  troops, 
he  was  kept  closely  confined  at  Senlis.  The 
pope's  legates,  on  their  arrival  in  France, 
interposed  in  his  favor ;  and  he  was  at  their 
pressing  instances  released  from  his  confine- 
ment, and  even  recalled  to  court.  But 
leaving  his  father,  soon  after  the  departure 
of  the  legates,  he  fled  into  Belgium,  and 
being  there  joined  by  great  numbers  of  out- 
laws and  vagabonds,  he  laid  waste  the  whole 
country  between  the  Meuse  and  the  Seine. 
The  bishops,  whose  dioceses  he  thus  plun- 
dered, thundered  out  excommunications 
against  his  followers  and  accomplices  ;  and 
Hincmar  of  Reims,  among  the  rest,  declared 
all  who  should  continue  with  him  after  the 
Uth  of  March,  cut  off  from  the  communion 
of  the  church.  No  sentence  was  pronounced 
by  Hincmar,  or  any  of  the  other  bishops, 
against  Carloman  himself,  the  king  having 
reserved  him  to  be  tried  by  the  bishops  of 
the  province  of  Sens,  as  he  was  a  clerk,  (for 
his  father  had  obliged  him  to  take  deacon's 
orders)  and  belonged  to  that  church.  The 
threats  of  the  bishops  made  no  impression 
upon  Carloman  or  his  followers  ;  and  they 
continued  their  ravages  till  they  were  obliged 
by  the  king's  forces  to  quit  the  country,  and 
retire  beyond  mount  Jura.     Carloman  being 


'  Aim.  1.  vi.  c.  24. 


Hadrian  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


279 


The  pope'3  letter  to  the  king  in  Carloman's  behalf,  and  to  the  lords  and  bishops.     No  reeard  paid  to  them. 
Hincmar  of  Laon  incurs  the  displeasure  of  the  Icing.     His  unwarrantable  proceedings. 


thus  driven  out  of  France,  and  not  doubting 
but  he  should  be  excommunicated  by  the 
bishops  of  his  province,  resolved  to  recur  to 
the  pope  ;  and  he  sent  accordingly  deputies 
to  implore  the  protection  of  the  apostolic  see 
against  the  undeserved  resentment  of  his 
father,  by  whom  he  was,  he  said,  as  cruelly 
as  unjustly  persecuted.  Hadrian  had  not 
yet  forgot  the  httle  regard  that  Charles  had 
paid  to  his  remonstrances,  exhortations,  and 
even  commands,  concerning  the  succession 
to  the  kingdom  of  Lorraine ;  and  therefore, 
laying  hold  of  this  opportunity  to  vent  his 
passion,  he  wrote  a  most  abusive  letter  to 
the  king,  telling  him,  that  not  satisfied  with 
usurping  a  kingdom,  to  which  he  had  no 
kind  of  right,  he  surpassed  in  cruelty  the 
brutes  themselves,  that  spared  their  young; 
whereas  he  treated  his  own  son  with  a  more 
than  brutal  barbarity,  not  only  depriving  him 
of  his  favor  and  protection,  but  driving  him 
out  of  his  kingdom,  and  moreover  impiously 
insisting  upon  his  being  excommunicated  by 
the  bishops.  This  the  pope  called  a  crying 
piece  of  cruelty  and  injustice  ;  and  therefore 
ordered  the  king,  in  the  name  of  St.  Peter, 
to  receive  Carloman  again  into  favor,  to  re- 
instate him  in  the  benefices  and  honors  he 
enjoyed  before,  and  cherish  him  as  his  son 
till  the  arrival  of  the  legates,  whom  he  should 
appoint  to  take  cognizance  of  the  affair,  and 
settle  it  agreeably  to  the  laws  of  justice.  At 
the  same  time  he  wrote  to  the  lords  of  both 
kingdoms,  forbidding  them  to  bear  arms 
against  Carloman  on  pain  of  excommuni- 
cation and  eternal  damnation;  and  likewise 
to  the  bishops,  declaring  all  their  excommu- 
nications null  till  the  affair  was  inquired  into 
by  his  legates  on  the  spot.'  But  to  these  let- 
ters not  the  least  regard  was  paid  by  the  king, 
the  lords,  or  the  bishops.  For  Carloman 
being  taken  some  lime  after,  he  was  first  de- 
graded by  the  bishops  of  the  province  of  Sens, 
and  then  sentenced  to  death  by  the  judges 
appointed  by  the  king  to  try  him.  This  sen- 
tence, however,  was  not  put  in  execution, 
the  king  contenting  himself  with  causing 
him  to  be  deprived  of  his  sight,  in  order  to 
prevent  him,  by  that  means,  from  raising 
new  disturbances  in  the  kingdom.^ 

The  interposition  of  the  pope  in  favor  of 
Hincmar  the  younger  was  attended  with  no 
better  success  than  his  menaces  in  favor  of 
Carloman.  Hincmar  the  younger  was  ne- 
phew to  Hincmar  of  Reims,  by  that  pre- 
late's sister,  and  had  been  preferred  in  859 
by  the  interest  his  uncle  had  at  court  to  the 
see  of  Laon,  subject  to  that  of  Reims.  He 
was  at  first  greatly  favored  by  the  kins,  who 
bestowed  upon  him  a  rich  abbey,  and  even 
honored  him  with  an  employment  in  his 
court;  but  in  the  year  868  he  forfeited  the 
king's  favor  on  the  following  occasion :  One 
Luido  had  enjoyed  a  benefice  in  the  diocese 

.» Hadrian,  ep.  38, 29.     »  Annal.  Berlin,  ad  auu.  873. 


of  Laon,  which  after  his  death  was  granted 
to  his  son  upon  his  paying  a  sum  of  money 
to  that  church.  This  benefice  the  bishop 
took  from  him  under  some,  pretence  or  other, 
and  appropriated  it  to  himself,  though  the 
king,  to  whom  the  son  of  Luido  applied  for 
redress,  had  desired  him  to  restore  it.  Here- 
upon the  king  ordered  the  cause  to  be  tried 
in  a  court  consisting  wholly  of  laymen,  sum- 
moned the  bishop  to  appear  before  them, 
and  upon  his  refusing  to  appear,  as  if  lay- 
men were  not  competent  judges  in  affairs 
where  the  church  was  concerned,  confis- 
cated the  revenues  of  his  bishopric,  deprived 
him  of  his  abbey,  and  dismissed  him  from 
the  employment  he  held  at  court.  How- 
ever, at  the  interposition  of  Hincmar,  of 
Reims,  matters  were  adjusted  for  the  pre- 
sent, the  king  was  appeased,  and  the  bishop 
of  Laon  allowed  to  enjoy  the  revenues  of  his 
church  till  such  time  as  the  affair  was  deter- 
mined by  proper  judges.  For  the  arch- 
bishop too  had  remonstrated,  in  a  long  letter 
to  the  king,  against  the  summoning  of  an 
ecclesiastic  before  lay  judges  only,  aliedging 
several  canons  to  show  that  the  bishop  was 
not  obliged  to  comply  with  the  summons, 
but  on  the  contrary,  that  he  would  have  be- 
trayed the  rights  of  the  church  had  he 
obeyed  it.' 

But  the  bishop  of  Laon  was  a  man  of  a 
most  restless  temper,  and  he  soon  after  quar- 
relled anew  with  the  king.  For  notwith- 
standing he  was  reinstated  in  the  possession 
of  his  revenues  till  the  affair  was  finally  de- 
termined by  unexceptionable  judges,  he 
wrote  to  the  pope,  without  the  knowledge 
either  of  his  uncle  or  of  any  other  of  the 
bishops,  complaining  of  the  king,  and  repre- 
senting him  as  an  usurper  of  the  lands  and 
estates  of  the  church.  This  step  was  highly 
resented  by  the  king,  as  well  as  by  Hincmar 
of  Reims,  and  all  the  other  bishops,  appre- 
hending that  it  might  occasion  a  breach  be- 
tween Charles  and  the  pope,  which  would 
involve  them,  and  perhaps  the  whole  king- 
dom in  endless  troubles.  But  they  were  not 
more  provoked  at  his  recurring  to  the  pope 
than  at  his  arbitrarily  depriving,  at  this  very 
time,  a  count  named  Nortman,  of  a  benefice 
he  enjoyed  in  his  diocese.  That  benefice 
the  king  had  granted  to  Nortman  at  the 
bishop's  own  request,  who  had  recommend- 
ed him  to  his  favor  as  a  person  of  great 
merit,  and  his  particular  friend.  But  soon 
after  wanting  to  recover  it,  he  ordered  Nort- 
man to  give  it  up,  and  upon  his  not  comply- 
ing, but  urging  that  it  was  granted  him  by 
the  king,  and  that  he  Jield  it  of  the  crown, 
he  wrote  to  the  pope,  complaining  of  Nort- 
man, as  if  he  had  unjustly  seized  and  re- 
fused to  restore  the  possessions  of  his  church. 
Upon  the  receipt  of  that  letter  Hadrian  wrote 
one  to  Hincmar  of  Reims,  ordering  him  to 

>  Hincmar,  ep.  29. 


THE  fflSTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Hadrian  II. 


The  bishop  of  Laon  is  tried  in  France,  notwithstanding  his  appeal  to  the  pope.    He  is  deposed  in  a  council  of 
the  Galilean  bishops ;— [Year  of  Christ,  871.] 


excommunicate  Nortman,  if  he  did  not  im- 
mediately restore  to  tiie  bishop  of  Laon  the 
lands  he  had  usurped  of  his  church.  Hinc- 
mar  knew  that  the  pope  was  misinformed 
as  to  the  fact^  and  therefore  very  wisely  took 
no  notice  of  the  order  that  was  sent  him. 
But  in  the  mean  time  the  bishop  of  Laon, 
breaking  into  Nortman's  house  with  a  troop 
of  armed  men,  seized  or  destroyed  whatever 
he  found  in  it,  drove  him  out,  and,  with 
the  utmost  barbarity,  his  wife  too,  though 
brought  to  bed  but  a  few  days  before,  and 
took  possession  both  of  the  house  and  the 
tenements.'  At  the  same  time  quarreling 
with  his  own  clergy  he  suspended  them  all, 
forbidding  them,  on  pain  of  excommunica- 
tion, to  perform  any  ecclesiastical  function 
whatever,  to  administer  baptism  to  children 
though  in  danger  of  death,  or  the  eucharist 
to  dying  persons,  and  even  to  bury  the  dead. 
Hincmar  of  Reims  no  sooner  heard  of  this 
interdict  than  he  wrote  to  his  nephew,  or 
dering  him,  as  his  metropolitan,  to  revoke  it 
immediately.  But  with  that  order  he  re 
fused  to  comply  ;  which  obliged  Hincmar  to 
declare  the  interdict  null,  and  command  the 
clergy  of  the  diocese  of  Laon  to  resume  their 
functions  without  any  regard  to  the  unjust 
and  uncanonical  sentence  of  their  bishop.^ 

The  king,  highly  provoked  at  the  violent 
proceedings  of  the  bishop,  appointed  a  coun- 
cil, consisting  of  all  the  bishops  of  his  king 
dom,  to  meet  at  Verberie,  and  summoned 
the  bishop  of  Laon  to  it  in  particular.  The 
bishops,  in  all  twenty-nine,  met,  pursuant 
to  the  king's  order,  at  the  place  appointed, 
on  the  24lh  of  April,  869,  and  Hincmar  of 
Laon  among  the  rest,  who  finding  the  bishops 
all  to  a  man,  and  even  his  uncle,  who  pre 
sided  at  the  council,  ready  to  condemn  him, 
appealed  to  the  pope,  and  begged  leave  of 
the  king,  who  was  present,  to  pursue  his 
appeal  at  Rome.  Charles,  far  from  granting 
him  his  request,  ordered  him  to  be  confined, 
but  released  him  from  his  confinement  soon 
after."  The  following  year,  870,  another 
council  was  held  at  Attigni,  consisting  of 
the  bishops  often  provinces;  and  in  that  as 
sembly  the  bishop  of  Laon  was  accused  by 
the  king  in  person  of  breach  of  his  alle 
glance,  by  his  uncle  of  disobedience  to  him 
as  his  metropolitan,  by  Nortman  of  the  vio- 
lence he  had  offered  him  and  the  inhuman 
treatment  of  his  wife,  by  the  clergy  of  his 
diocese  of  suspending  them  contrary  to  the 
canons,  and  by  several  bishops  of  excom 
municating  persons  of  their  dioceses,  over 
whom  he  had  no  kind  of  jurisdiction.  The 
bishop  appealed  again  to  the  pope;  but  no 
regard  was  had  by  the  king,  the  archbishop, 
or  the  other  bishops  to  that  appeal,  nor 
would  they  grant  him  leave  to  go  to  Rome. 
However  the  king  did  not  insist,  nor  did  the 


■  Acta  Synod.  Duziac.  par.  iii.  c.  15.  Hadrian,  ep.  11. 
Hinc.  Rem.  ep.  35. 
=  Hinc.  Opuscul.  c.  2.     "  Annal.  Bertin.  ad  ann.  869. 


archbishop,  upon  his  being  tried  according 
to  the  rigor  of  the  law  and  the  canons.  The 
king  was  satisfied  with  his  renewing  his 
oath  of  allegiance;  and  the  archbishop  with 
his  promising  to  obey  him,  for  the  future,  as 
his  metropolitan.  The  other  complaints, 
that  especially  of  Nortman  and  his  wife, 
were  referred  to  the  arbitration  of  three 
bishops,  namely,  Actard  of  Nantes,  Ragi- 
nelm  of  Noyon,  and  John  of  Carabray ;  and 
all  three,  after  examining  the  affair  of  Nort- 
man in  the  presence  of  the  king,  gave  sen- 
tence in  his  favor. 

But  in  the  mean  time  the  bishop  of  Laon, 
distrusting  his  cause,  withdrew  by  night 
from  Attigni,  though  he  had  promised  to  re- 
main there  till  the  complaints  against  him 
were  all  examined,  and  to  stand  to  the  deci- 
sion of  the  three  bishops.  The  king  sent 
him  an  order  to  return ;  but  with  that  order 
he  refused  to  comply,  pretending,  in  a  letter 
he  wrote  to  answer  it,  to  be  ill  of  a  fever, 
but  at  the  same  time  begging  leave  to  go  to 
Rome.  The  king  answered  the  messenger, 
who  brought  the  letter,  that  to  him  it  seem- 
ed somewhat  strange  the  bishop  should  not 
be  able,  for  his  illness,  to  come  to  him,  and 
yet  should  be  able  to  go  to  Rome.  He  added, 
that  he  would  readily  grant  him  his  request, 
provided  he  came  and  satisfied  him  that  it 
was  just  and  reasonable.  But  he  could  by 
no  means  be  prevailed  upon  either  to  return 
to  Attigni,  or  to  acquiesce  in  the  decision  of 
the  three  arbitrators ;  nay,  he  declared  in  a 
letter  to  the  archbishop,  that  if  the  king  took 
upon  himself  to  dispose  of  the  goods  of  his 
church,  he  would  not  obey  him,  but  excom- 
municate all,  without  distinction  of  persons, 
who  should  presume  to  seize  or  usurp  them, 
being  authorized  therein  by  the  canons. 
This  letter  the  archbishop  communicated  to 
the  king,  who,  more  exasperated  than  ever 
against  the  bishop  of  Laon,  for  threatening 
him  with  excommunication,  appointed  a 
council  to  meet  at  Douzi  in  the  month  of 
August,  871,  and  ordered  him  to  be  sum- 
moned to  it  to  answer  the  several  accusa- 
tions brought  against  him.  The  bishop  ap- 
peared upon  the  third  summons,  when  the 
king  charged  him  with  perjury,  sedition,  and 
rebellion;  with  calumniating  him  to  the 
pope ;  with  seizing  by  force  lands  that  did 
not  belong  to  him ;  with  the  barbarous  treat- 
ment of  Nortman  and  his  wife ;  with  dis- 
obedience to  his  metropolitan;  with  disposing 
of  the  goods  of  his  church,  especially  of  a 
golden  chalice  and  its  patten,  or  cover,  en- 
riched with  precious  stones,  which  the  king 
had  offered  to  St.  Mary  of  Laon  ;  with  ex- 
communicating or  suspending  the  clergy  of 
his  diocese  contrary  to  the  canons,  &c.  To 
these  complaints  the  bishop  returned  no  an- 
swer, but,  appealing  anew  to  the  pope,  in- 
sisted upon  his  being  judges  by  the  apostolic 
see.  But  Hincmar  of  Reims  making  it  ap- 
pear from  the  very  canons  of  Sardica,  v/hich 


Hadrian  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


281 


Letter  of  the  Gallican  bishops  to  the  pope.    The  pope  orders  the  bishop  of  Laon  to  be  sent  to  Rome. 
king's  letter  in  answer  to  the  pope's.     Tlie  letter  of  the  bishops  of  the  council  to  the  pope. 


the  Other  quoted  to  support  and  justify  his 
appeal,  that  he  was  not  to  appeal  to  the  holy 
see  before,  but  only  after  judgment  was  given 
by  the  bishops  of  the  province,  the  council 
voted,  all  to  a  man,  his  deposition,  "saving  in 
all  things  the  judgment  of  the  apostolic  see." 
The  sentence  was  pronounced  by  Hincmar, 
who  presided  at  the  council,  and  signed  by 
seven  metropolitans,  thirteen  bishops,  one 
chorepiscopus,  six  presbyters,  and  two  arch- 
deacons.' 

The  bishops  sent,  upon  the  breaking  up 
of  the  council,  Actard,  bishop  of  Nantes,  to 
Rome  with  the  acts  and  a  synodal  letter  to 
the  pope,  wherein  they  desired  his  holiness 
to  confirm  them,  or,  if  he  did  not  approve 
of  their  proceedings,  to  cause  the  bishop, 
whom  they  had  deposed,  to  be  judged  anew 
by  the  same  bishops,  or  by  those  of  the 
neighboring  provinces,  and  to  send,  if  he 
chose  it,  a  legale  to  assist  at  the  judgment  in 
his  name,  as  was  prescribed  by  the  canons 
of  Sardica.  Tiiey  added,  that  if  his  holiness 
should  reverse  their  sentence,  or  in  the  mean 
time  reinstate  the  bishop  in  his  dignity,  they 
would  avoid  his  communion,  and  give  them- 
selves no  further  trouble  about  him.  In  the 
close  of  their  lettei;  they  begged  the  pope  to 
confirm  the  election  of  Actard,  whom  the 
Britons  had  driven  from  the  see  of  Nantes, 
and  the  people  and  clergy  of  Tours  had 
unanimously  chosen  for  their  bishop.  This 
letter  is  dated  the  6th  of  September,  871. 
At  the  same  time  Hincmar  wrote  a  private 
letter  to  the  pope,  to  excuse  his  not  executing 
the  order  he  had  sent  him  to  excommuni- 
cate Nortman,  since  his  holiness  was  grossly 
imposed  upon  with  respect  to  that  affair.  This 
he  shows  in  his  letter,  and  wishes  that,,  if 
his  holiness  should  have  occasion  to  send 
him  any  such  orders  for  the  future,  he  would 
add  this  clause  to  them,  "provided  the  case 
be  as  it  has  been  represented  to  us."^  The 
pope,  in  his  answer  to  the  bishops  of  the 
council,  readily  agreed  to  the  promotion  of 
Actard  to  the  metropolitan  see  of  Tours. 
Bui  he  highly  disapproved  of  their  judging 
and  condemning  the  bishop  of  Laon  after  he 
had  appealed  to  the  apostolic  see.  "  How- 
ever, since  you  have  condemned  him,"  he 
added,  "  saving  the  judgment  of  the  holy 
see,  we  order  you  to  send  him  to  Rome  with 
one,  at  least,  of  his  accusers,  and  I'orbid  you 
to  appoint  another  bishop  in  his  room  till  his 
cause  has  been  re-examined,  and  judged 
anew  in  our  presence.'"  At  the  same  lime 
he  wrote  to  the  king,  complaining  of  his 
taking  in  ill  part  his  paternal  admonitions, 
and  exhorting  him  to  receive  his  corrections 
with  the  submission  that  became  an  obedient 
son  of  the  holy  see.  He  confirms  the  elec- 
tion of  Actard,  but  requires,  and  even  com- 
mands, the  king  to  send  the  bishop  of  Laon 


'  Annal.   Bertin.   ad    nnn.   870.   Hincmar  Opuscul. 
Flodo:ird.  1.  iii.  c.  22.  Aim.  I.  v.  c.  24. 
3  Hincmar  Opnsr.  41.  p.  C89.      »  Hadrian,  ep.  32. 

Vol.  II.— 36 


to  Rome,  declaring  that  he  never  would, 
upon  any  other  terms,  consent  to  his  depo- 
sition.' These  letters  are  both  dated  the  2Glh 
of  December,  871. 

Charles  was  highly  provoked  at  the  pope's 
commanding  him  to  send  a  bishop  of  his 
kingdom  to  be  judged  at  Rome,  when  he 
had  by  a  council  of  bishops  been  found 
guilty  of  many  crimes,  and  among  the  rest, 
of  open  disobedience  to  the  commands  of 
his  sovereign  ;  and  he  returned  the  following 
answer  to  Hadrian's  letter,  penned,  as  is 
supposed,  and  indeed  is  manifest  from  the 
style,  by  Hincmar  of  Reims,  "  In  your  letter 
concerning  Hincmar  of  Laon,"  says  the 
king,  "you  write  to  us  thus,  'we  will  and 
command,  by  our  apostolic  authority,  Hinc- 
mar of  Laon  to  be  sent  to  us.'  Did  any  of 
your  predecessors  ever  write  in  the  like  style 
to  any  of  ours?  Do  you  not  thereby  banish 
Christian  simplicity  and  humility  from  the 
church,  and  introduce  wordly  pride  and  am- 
bition in  their  room?  And  where  did  he, 
who  dictated  the  letter  that  bishop  Actard 
has  brought  to  us,  find  it  written,  that  a 
king,  who  is  by  the  laws,  both  civil  and  ec- 
clesiastic, the  avenger  of  crimes,  can  be 
commanded,  by  apostolic  authority,  to  send 
a  criminal  to  Rome,  who  has  been  legally 
convicted  and  condemned  1  I  wrote  to  you 
formerly,  and  now  write  to  you  again,  lest 
you  should  forget  it,  that  we  kings  of  the 
Franks  come  of  royal  race,  are  not  the  vice- 
gerents of  bishops,  but  lords  and  masters  of 
the  world."  Here  the  king  quotes  several 
passages  from  Scripture,  and  likewise  from 
the  letters  and  decrees  of  the  popes  them- 
selves, commanding  obedience  and  submis- 
sion to  kings  and  princes,  and  then  continues 
thus.  "And  where  is  the  law  to  be  found, 
that  subjects  kings  to  apostolic  authority, 
that  requires  them  to  send  delinquents  tried 
and  condemned  to  Rome,  in  order  to  their 
being  there  tried  and  judged  anew?  This 
law  hell  itself  has  vomited  forth  from  its 
dark  subterraneous  pits,  to  lead  us  astray 
from  the  path  pointed  out  to  us  in  holy  writ. 
We  therefore  entreat  you  never  more  to 
write  such  letters  to  us,  or  to  the  bishops  and 
lords  of  our  kingdom,  that  we  may  not  be 
obliged  to  treat  with  contempt  both  the  let- 
ters and  the  bearers.  We  are  willing  to  em- 
brace what  is  approved  by  the  holy  see, 
when  what  the  holy  see  approves  is  agree- 
able to  Scripture,  to  tradition,  and  to  the 
laws  of  the  church.  If  it  interferes  with 
them,  know  that  we  are  not  to  be  frightened 
into  it  with  menaces  of  excommunications 
and  anathemas."^  The  bishops  of  the  coun- 
cil answered  the  pope's  letter  to  them  much 
in  the  same  style,  telling  him,  that  they  had 
met  with  many  things  in  his  letter,  which 
they  should  not  have  believed  to  have  been 
written  by  him,  had  not  their  brother  Actard 


Hadrian,  ep.  33. 


3  Apud  Baron,  adann.  87 

t2 


282 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Hadrian  U. 


The  pope  writes  again  to  the  king  bnt  in  a  very  different  style  Letters  from  the  emperor  Basilius  and  the 
patriarch  Ignatius  to  the  pope.  The  pope's  answer  to  tlieir  letters.  Ignatius  disregarding  the  menaces  of 
the  pope,  keeps  Bulgaria.     Death  of  Hadrian  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  872.] 


I 


informed  them,  that  the  multiplicity  of  his 
occupations  had  not  allowed  his  holiness  the 
necessary  leisure  to  read  the  acts  of  the 
council  throughout,  or  to  mind  what  they 
had  writ  to  him.  As  to  the  affair  of  Hinc- 
mar  of  Laon,  they  maintained,  that,  accord- 
ing to  the  canons  of  Sardica,  which  they 
said  they  had  caused  to  be  read  to  them,  it 
ought  to  be  judged  upon  the  spot,  if  his 
holiness  chose  to  have  it  judged  anew,  and 
not  at  Rome.'  The  pope  found  by  these 
letters,  that  neither  the  king  nor  the  bishops 
were  to  be  intimidated  with  his  menaces,  and 
therefore  thinking  it  advisable  to  change  his 
style,  he  wrote  another  to  Charles,  wherein, 
after  apologizing  for  his  former  letters  as 
written  by  his  secretary  while  he  was  indis- 
posed, and  bestowing  the  highest  commen- 
dations upon  the  king,  he  promised  to  em- 
ploy all  his  interest  in  his  behalf,  if  they 
should  both  outlive  the  emperor,  who  had 
no  male  issue,  and  never  to  acknowledge 
any  other  emperor  than  him,  should  heaps 
of  gold  be  offered  him.  With  regard  to  the 
condemnation  of  Hincmar,  the  pope  men- 
tioned it  with  great  moderation,  desiring, 
and  not  commanding  him  to  be  sent  to 
Rome,  and  assuring  the  king,  that  he  should 
refer  the  final  decision  of  his  cause  back  to 
the  bishops  of  his  province.  BiU  the  king 
did  not,  nor  did  the  bishops,  think  it  advisable 
to  comply  with  his  hoUness'  desire.  On 
the  other  hand  the  pop'e  would  not  consent 
to  the  election  of  another  bishop  :  and  thus 
the  see  of  Laon  remained  vacant  till  the 
year  876,  when  the  affair  was  finally  deter- 
mined, as  we  shall  see  in  the  sequel.  The 
pope,  apprehending  that  the  promise  he  had 
made  would  give  umbrage  to  Lewis  of  Ger- 
many, begged  the  king  to  keep  this  letter 
secret,  or  at  least  to  communicate  the  con- 
tents to  none  but  his  most  faithful  servants.^ 
In  the  latter  end  of  the  present  year  871, 
the  abbot  Theognostus  arrived  at  Rome  with 
letters  from  the  emperor  Basilius  and  the 
patriarch  Ignatius  to  the  pope,  entreating 
him  to  allow  Paul,  keeper  of  the  charters 
of  the  church  of  Constantinople,  whom 
Photius  had  preferred  to  the  episcopal  dig- 
dity,  to  keep  his  rank,  and  restore  Theodore 
metropolitan  of  Curia  to  his,  as  he  had  been 
ordained  by  Ignatius,  and  had  suffered  much 
in  his  cause  before  he  could  be  brought  to 
side  with  the  usurper  of  his  see.  In  answer 
to  these  letters  the  pope  told  the  emperor 
and  the  patriarch,  that  it  was  not  customary 
for  the  Roman  pontiffs  to  act  contrary  to  the 
decrees  and  ordinances  of  their  predecessors, 
or  to  those  of  general  councils,  and  he  could 
not  therefore  grant  them  their  request.     In 

» Tom.  viii.  Concil.  Gall.  p.  1529. 
3  Hadrian,  ep.  29. 


his  letter  to  the  emperor  he  reproached  him 
with  having  entirely  neglected  the  safety  of 
the  apostolic  legates,  who,  returning  by  sea 
without  a  convoy,  had  been  taken  by  the 
pirates,  had  been  stript  of  everything  they 
had,  and  used  with  the  utmost  barbarity, 
which,  he  says,  had  never  happened  before 
to  any  legates  of  the  holy  see.  In  the  same 
letter  he  complained  of  Basilius  for  suffering 
the  patriarch  Ignatius  to  ordain  a  bishop  for 
Bulgaria,  threatening  the  patriarch  himself, 
as  well  as  the  bishop  whom  he  had  ordained, 
with  the  censures  of  the  apostohc  see,  if  they 
should  dare  to  concern  themselves  with  that 
country.'  Hadrian's  answer  to  Ignatius  has 
not  reached  our  times ;  but  in  the  fragment 
of  another  letter  in  the  Greek  copy  of  the 
eighth  council,  he  censures  the  conduct  of 
the  patriarch  in  very  sharp  terms,  charges 
him  with  acting,  in  many  instances,  contrary 
to  the  canons,  especially  in  promoting  lay- 
men, at  once,  to  deacon's  orders  in  defiance 
of  the  decrees  of  the  late  council,  and  bids 
him  remember,  that  this  was  the  first  step 
to  the  downfall  of  §liotius.  However,  as  the 
deputies  of  the  eastern  patriarch  had  declared, 
that  Bulgaria  ought  to  be  subject  to  the  see 
of  Constantinople,^  Ignatius  sent,  notwith- 
standing the  pope's  menaces,  the  bishop 
whom  he  had  ordained,  and  many  Greek 
priests  and  monks  with  him,  to  preach  the 
gospel  to  the  Bulgarians.  Upon  their  arrival 
the  Latin  missionaries  all  withdrew,  and 
leaving  Bulgaria  to  the  Greeks  returned  to 
Rome  with  bishop  Grimoald,  who  had  ac- 
quired immense  riches  by  his  apostolic  la- 
bors, during  his  stay  in  that  country .^ 

Hadrian  was  greatly  dissatisfied  with  the 
conduct  of  Grimoald,  but  death  prevented 
him  from  enquiring  into  it.  He  died,  ac- 
cording to  the  most  probable  opinion,  on  the 
twenty-sixth  day  of  November  872,  after  he 
had  held  the  see  four  years,  eleven  months, 
and  twelve  days,  and  was  buried  in  the  Va- 
tican. He  is  chiefly  commended  by  the 
writer  of  his  life  for  his  hospitality,  benefi- 
cence, and  generosity  to  the  poor,  which,  if 
we  beheve  that  author,  was  miraculously 
approved  by  heaven  multiplying,  in  his 
hands,  the  money  that  he  used  to  distribute 
among  them.-*  He  equalled  in  ambition, 
perhaps  in  parts  too,  his  predecessor  Nicho- 
las the  Great,  exercising,  through  the  mean- 
ness of  the  patriarch  Ignatius  and  by  the 
connivance  of  the  emperor,  a  kind  of  juris- 
diction over  the  rival  see  of  Constantinople; 
but  he  failed,  as  we  have  seen,  in  the  attempt 
of  disposing  of  kingdoms,  and  subjecting 
the  royal  to  the  apostolic  authority. 


»  Apud  Baron,  ad  ann.  871.  a  See  p.  276. 

3  Porphyr.  in  Basil,  et  Anast.  in  Hadrian. 

4  Guil.  Bibliothec.  in  Hadrian. 


John  VIII.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


283 


Election  of  .lohn  VIII.  The  emperor  besieged  in  a  tower,  by  the  duke  of  Benevento;— [Year  of  Christ,  873] 
The  emperor  capitulates,  but  is  absolved  by  the  pope  from  the  oath  he  took  on  that  occasion.  Council  of 
Ravenna  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  874.] 


JOHN  VIIL,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  SIXTH  BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[Basilius,  Emperor  of  the  East. — Lewis  II.,  Charles  the  Bald,  Emperors  of  the  Went.] 


[Year  of  Christ  872.]  In  the  room  of  Ha- 
drian Avas  chosen,  John,  the  eighth  of  that 
name,  by  birth  a  Roman,  the  son  of  one 
Gundo,  and  at  that  time  archdeacon  of  the 
Roman  church.  As  the  emperor  was  then 
in  Campania,  and  approved  of  the  election, 
his  deputies,  who  were,  according  to  custom, 
to  assist  at  the  consecration  of  the  new  pope, 
arrived  in  a  very  short  time  at  Rome;  and 
in  their  presence  John  was  consecrated  on 
the  ]  4th  of  December,  which  in  872  I'ell  on  a 
Sunday,  after  a  vacancy  of  eighteen  days.' 

The  emperor  came  to  Rome  soon  after  the 
consecration  of  the  pope,  and  held  there  an 
assembly  of  the  states  of  Italy  subject  to  the 
empire.  In  that  assembly  Lewis  applied  to 
the  pope,  who  assisted  at  it  in  person,  in 
order  to  be  absolved  by  him  from  an  oath  he 
had  taken  on  the  following  occasion.  Adal- 
gisus,  duke  of  Benevento,  provoked  at  the 
ravages  committed  by  the  imperial  troops  in 
his  territories,  and  much  more  at  the  haughty 
behavior  of  the  French  lords,  who  attended 
the  court,  resolved  to  be  revenged  on  the 
emperpr;  and  he  accordingly  surrounded 
and  attacked  in  the  night-time  the  palace, 
where  the  emperor  lodged  with  the  empress, 
with  his  daughter  and  a  small  number  of 
attendants,  during  his  stay  at  Benevento. 
The  emperor,  awaked  at  the  noise,  flew  to 
the  gate,  but  not  having  sufficient  force  with 
him  to  defend  it,  he  retired  with  his  family 
and  his  few  attendants  to  one  of  the  towers 
of  the  place,  where  he  defended  himself 
with  great  bravery  three  whole  days.  Adal- 
gisus,  finding  that  he  was  determined  to 
hold  out  to  the  last  extremity,  and  at  the 
same  time  apprehending  that  the  French 
troops,  quartered  in  the  neighboring  cities, 
might  hear  of  his  danger  and  hasten  to  his 
rescue,  resolved  to  set  fire  to  the  place,  and 
the  n)aterials  were  all  got  ready  for  that 
purpose.  But  in  the  mean  while  the  em- 
peror, alarmed  at  the  danger  to  which  he 
saw  himself  and  his  family  inevitably  ex- 
posed, thought  it  advisable  to  capitulate; 
and  the  following  capitulation  was  by  him 
agreed  and  solemnly  sworn  to,  upon  reliques 
brought  from  the  cathedral  to  the  palace. 
L  That  the  emperor  should  liienceforth 
never  set  foot  in  the  dukedom  of  Benevento. 
2.  That  he  should,  upon  no  color  or  pre- 
tence whatever,  send,  for  the  future,  any 
troops  into  that  dukedom.  3.  That  lie  sliould 
take  no  vengeance  on  the  duke  or  the  Bene- 
ventans  for  what  had  passed  on  the  present 
occasion,  but  bury  the  whole  in  eternal  ob- 

«  Annal.  Bertin.  ad  ann.  872. 


livion.'  From  this  oath  the  emperor  desired 
to  be  absolved,  that  he  might,  with  a  safe 
conscience,  revenge  the  afl'ront  offered  by 
the  duke  to  the  imperial  dignity.  The  pope 
declared  at  once,  that  an  oath,  extorted  by 
force,  was  not  binding;  that  the  present  oath, 
was,  besides,  contrary  to  the  welfare  of  the 
empire,  and  he  therefore  absolved  the  em- 
peror from  it  in  the  name  of  God,  and,  as 
if  that  were  not  enough,  in  the  name  of  St. 
Peter.  At  the  same  time  the  Roman  senate 
declared  the  duke  of  Benevento  a  pubhc 
enemy,  and  war  was  proclaimed  against 
him.  However  the  emperor,  more  tender- 
conscienced  than  the  pope,  and  not  acqui- 
escing in  his  holiness's  absolution,  would 
not  head  his  army  in  person,  but  gave  the 
command  of  it  to  the  empress  Ingelberga, 
flattering  himself  Can  evasion  only  worthy 
of  a  Jesuit)  that  he  thus  religiously  observed 
the  oath  he  had  taken.  The  empress  led 
the  army  against  the  city  of  Benevento,  but 
not  being  able  to  reduce  it,  and  powerful 
succors  arriving  in  the  mean  time  from  the 
emperor  Basilius,  with  whom  duke  Adal- 
gisus  had  entered  into  an  offensive  and  de- 
fensive alliance,  Lewis  was  glad  to  con- 
clude a  peace  with  the  Benevenlans;  and  a 
peace  Avas  accordingly  concluded  by  the  in- 
terposition of  the  pope.- 

The  following  year  the  pope,  leaving 
Rome,  repaired  to  Ravenna,  to  assist  at  a 
council,  which  he  had  appointed  to  meet  in 
that  city,  in  order  to  make  up  a  difference 
between  Ursus,  duke  of  Venice,  and  the  pa- 
triarch of  Grado.  Senator,  bishop  of  Tor- 
cellum,  dying,  the  clergy  and  people  chose 
Dominic,  abbot  of  the  monastery  of  Altena, 
for  his  successor.  But  the  patriarch  re- 
fusing to  ordain  him,  because  he  had  made 
himself  an  eunuch,  the  duke,  espousing  the 
cause  of  the  elect,  intimidated  the  patriarch 
with  his  menaces  to  such  a  degree,  that  not 
thinking  himself  safe  at  Grado,  he  privately 
withdrew  to  Rome,  and  referred  the  decision 
of  the  affair  to  his  holiness.  Hereupon  the 
pope  summoned  all  the  bisliops  of  that  pro- 
vince, to  meet  at  Ravenna,  went  thither 
himself  with  the  patriarch  of  Grado,  and 
Hendelmar,  patriarch  of  Aquileia,  and  it 
was  determined  by  the  council,  consisting 
of  seventy-four  bishops,  that  Dominic  should 
be  ordained  by  the  patriarch.' 

>  Annal.  Bertin.  et  Metens.  Begino.  Leo  Osiions. 
Ilcrenibertus,  &c. 

'  Idem  ibid,  et  Regino  ad  ann.  873. 

>Ruheus,  Hist.  Ravenn.  1.  v. 

This  determination  was  contrary  to  the  received 
canons  of  the  church,  forbidding  any  one  to  be  ordain- 
ed, who  had  made  himself  an  eunuch  or  had  dismem- 


284 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[John  VHI. 


Death  of  the  emperor  Lewis  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  875.]  Charles  the  Bald  crowned  emperor  at  Rome.  Charles 
did  not,  on  this  occasion,  yield  to  the  pope  the  dukedom  of  Benevento,  &.c.  He  is  crowned  king  of  Italy 
at  Pavia; — [Year  of  Christ,  876.]  Council  of  Pontion.  The  archbishop  of  Sens  appointed  by  the  pope  pri- 
mate of  all  France. 


The  following  year  died  at  Milan,  on  the 
13th,  or,  as  others  will  have  it,  on  the  14th 
of  August,  the  emperor  Lewis,  the  second 
of  that  name;  and  upon  his  death,  as  he  left 
no  issue  male  behind  him,  his  two  uncles, 
Lewis  of  Germany  and  Charles  of  France, 
laid  claim  to  the  empire  and  kingdom  of 
Italy.  But  Charles,  entering  Italy  at  the 
head  of  a  powerful  army  as  soon  as  he 
heard  of  the  emperor's  death,  and  proceed- 
ing straight  to  Rome,  whither  he  was  in- 
vited by  the  pope,  who  had  declared  in  his 
favor,  he  entered  that  city  amidst  the  loud 
acclamations  of  the  people,  and  was  crowned 
emperor  by  the  pope  with  great  solemnity 
in  the  church  of  St.  Peter  on  Christmas-day, 
the  day  on  which  Charlemagne  had  received 
the  imperial  crown  in  the  same  church.' 
The  coronation  was  a  mere  ceremony,  and 
had  been  hitherto  looked  upon  in  no  other 
light.  But  the  present  pope,  in  a  speech  he 
made  to  the  Italian  lords  and  bishops  at  Pa- 
via, speaks  of  it  as  if  it  gave  an  undoubted 
right  to  the  imperial  crown,  and  as  if  he 
had,  by  crowning  Charles,  made  him  em- 
peror. For  in  that  speech,  after  extolling 
and  commending  Charles  as  much  as  his 
predecessor  Hadrian  had  abused  and  reviled 
him,  he  told  the  assembly,  that  he  had 
elected  him,  pursuant  to  the  will  of  God  re- 
vealed to  pope  Nicholas,  and  had,  with  all 
solemnity,  advanced  him  to  the  scepter  of 
the  empire;^  insinuating  thereby  the  scepter 
of  the  empire  to  be  a  free  gift  of  his;  and 
from  this  time  forward  the  popes  have  pre- 
tended to  have  a  right  to  elect,  or  at  least  to 
confirm  the  election  of  the  emperors,  reck- 
oning the  years  of  their  empire,  not  from  the 
day  of  their  accession  to  the  imperial  crown, 
but  from  that  of  their  coronation  or  conse- 
cration by  the  pope. 

Eulropius,  surnamed  the  Lombard,  tells 
us,  that  Charles,  in  return  for  the  favors 
which  he  received  on  this  occasion  from  the 
pope,  made  many  very  rich  and  valuable 
presents  to  St.  Peter,  and  besides  yielded  to 
the  pope  the  dukedoms  of  Benevento  and 
Spoleti,  as  well  as  the  sovereignty  of  Rome, 
and  renounced  the  right,  which  his  prede- 
cessors had  enjoyed  to  that  time,  of  confirm- 
ing the  election  of  the  popes,  and  sending 
deputies  to  assist,  in  his  name,  at  their  con- 
secration. But  several  of  this  pope's  letters 
have  reached  our  times,  wherein  he  com- 


bered  himself  in  health,  as  it  was  worded  by  the  fa- 
thers of  Nice  in  their  first  canon,nay,  and  command- 
injr  the  person  to  be  deposed,  who  should  commit  such 
a  fact  after  his  ordination.  These  canons  were  made 
to  discountenance  the  mistaken  notion  of  some,  who, 
misunderstanding  the  words  of  our  Savior,  "  There  are 
some  that  make  themselves  eunuchs  for  the  kingdom 
of  heaven's  sake,"  fulfilled  them  literally  after  the 
example  of  Origen.  The  Valesian  heretics  thouglit 
none  but  eunuchs  fit  to  serve  God,  and  therefore  made 
themselves  eunuchs,  as  St.  Austin  informs  us,  (Aug. 
de  Hseres.  c.  37.)  and  all  who  came  over  to  them, 

>  Anna],  Bertin.  ad  ann.  876. 

9  Sigon.  de  Reg.  Italise,  1.  vi. 


plains  to  Charles  of  some  who  raised  dis- 
turbances in  Rome,  and  entreats  him  to 
punish  with  banishment  or  otherwise  such 
as  disturbed  the  public  peace  in  that  city, 
the  head  or  metropolis  of  his  empire  ;'  which 
was  plainly  acknowledging  him  for  sove- 
reign of  Rome.  In  the  same  style  did  Ha- 
drian III.,  Stephen  V.  or  VI.,  and  John  IX., 
the  successors  of  the  present  pope,  write  to 
the  successors  of  Charles  in  the  empire.  As 
for  the  dukedoms  of  Benevento  and  Spoleti, 
they  were  governed  at  this  time,  and  long 
after  the  pontificate  of  John  VIII.  by  their 
own  dukes,  as  is  manifest  from  history;  and 
it  is  very  certain  that  the  popes  had  no  kind 
of  power  over  the  city  and  dukedom  of 
Benevento  till  the  beginning  of  the  eleventh 
century,  or  till  the  year  1019,  as  we  shall 
see  in  the  sequel.  Neither  did  Charles  re- 
nounce the  right  of  confirming  the  election 
of  the  pope,  and  sending  deputies  to  assist 
at  his  ordination,  as  will  appear  in  the  course 
of  the  present  history. 

From  Rome  Charles  repaired,  together 
with  the  pope,  to  Ticinum,  now  Pavia,  and 
was  in  a  diet  held  there  acknowledged  em- 
peror by  the  Italian  lords  and  bishops,  and 
according  to  custom  crowned  king  of  Italy 
by  the  archbishop  of  Milan.  In  this  diet 
the  emperor  declared  Boso,  brother  to  his 
wife  Richilda,  duke  of  Lombardy,  gave  him 
a  ducal  crown,  and  appointed  him  to  go- 
vern, as  his  lieutenant  or  commissary,  the 
Italian  dominions  appertaining  to  the  impe- 
rial crown.2  From  Pavia  the  emperor  re- 
turned to  France,  where  his  election,  and 
the  acts  of  the  diet  of  Pavia  were  confirmed 
in  a  council  held  at  Pontion,  at  which  pre- 
sided the  pope's  legates,  John  bishop  of  Tus- 
canella,  and  John  of  Arezzo,  and  were  pre- 
sent six  archbishops,  and  forty-three  bishops. 
In  this  council  was  read  by  Odo,  bishop  of 
Beauvais,  a  letter,  which  the  emperor  had 
procured  from  the  pope,  appointing  Anse- 
gisus,  archbishop  of  Sens,  primate  of  all 
France  and  Germany  on  the  French  side  of 
the  Rhine.  The  bishops,  greatly  surprised 
at  the  contents  of  the  letter,  desired  to  read 
it  themselves,  since  it  was  addressed  to  them. 
That  the  emperor,  who  was  present,  would 
not  allow,  but  insisted  on  their  declaring 
their  sentiments  concerning  it.  The  bishops 
then  answered,  that  they  were  ready  to 
obey  so  far  as  was  consistent  with  the  rights 
of  the  metropolitans,  with  the  canons,  and 
with  the  decrees  of  the  apostolic  see.  The 
emperor  and  the  legates,  not  satisfied  with 
this  answer,  pressed  the  bishops,  but  could 
by  no  means  prevail  upon  them  to  approve 
of  Ansegisus's  primacy,  without  limitation 
or  restriction.  Fritarius  alone,  who  had 
been  translated    from   Bourdeaux   to   Poi- 


»  Johan.  ep.  21.  23.  26.  31. 

a  Annal.  Fuld.  Metens.  et  Bertin. 


John  VIH.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


285 


Sentence  pronounced  by  the  pope  against  Formosus,  bishop  of  Porto.  Charge  brought  against  hini.  Richilda 
introduced  to  the  council  and  saluted  empress.  The  emperor  complains  to  the  pope  of  the  abuse  of  appeals 
to  Rome.     Several  provinces  in  Italy  overrun  by  the  Saracens. 


tiers,  and  now  wanted  to  exchange  Poitiers 
for  Bourges,  returned  a  satisfactory  answer, 
acknowledging  the  primacy  of  the  arch- 
bishop of  Sens  without  any  regard  to  the 
right  of  the  metropolitans,  to  the  canons,  or 
to  the  decrees  of  the  apostohc  see.  But  the 
emperor  was  determined  to  carry  his  point 
notwithstanding  the  opposition  of  the  other 
bishoi)s;and  therefore  deHvering  to  Anse- 
gisus  the  pope's  letter  commissioning  him 
to  hold  his  place  in  this  council,  he  ordered 
him  to  be  sealed  on  a  chair  at  the  left  hand 
of  John  of  Tuscanella,  one  of  the  legates, 
but  above  all  the  bishops  on  this  side  the 
Alps.  The  Gallican  bishops  loudly  pro- 
tested against  this  innovation  ;  and  Hincmar 
of  Reims,  published  a  treatise  to  show  that 
it  was  repugnant  to  the  canons  of  Nice,  and 
inconsistent  with  the  privileges  granted  by 
preceding  popes  to  that  see.  But  the  pope, 
glad  to  oblige  the  emperor,  supported  the 
new  primate  in  his  dignity,  without  any  re- 
gard either  to  the  canons  or  to  the  decrees 
of  his  predecessors ;  so  that  Ansegisus  en- 
joyed it  to  the  hour  of  his  death.  And  so 
great  was  the  power  attending  it,  that  he 
was  styled  in  France  and  Germany  another 
pope.' 

"While  the  council  was  yet  sitting,  Leo  bi- 
shop of  Gabii,  the  pope's  nephew,  and 
Peter  bishop  of  Fossombrone  arrived  at  Pon- 
tion  with  a  copy  of  the  sentence  that  had 
been  pronounced  by  the  pope,  in  a  council 
held  at  Rome,  against  Formosus  bishop  of 
Porto,  Gregory  nomenclator  of  the  Roman 
church,  George  his  son-in-law,  and  their 
accomplices.  They  were  charged  with 
many  heinous  crimes,  and  among  the  rest 
with  conspiring  against  the  emperor  'as 
well  as  against  the  pope;  and  being  sum- 
moned to  appear  and  take  their  trials,  in- 
stead of  complying  with  the  summons  they 
had  privately  withdrawn  from  Rome.  The 
following  sentence  was  therefore  pronounced 
by  the  pope  against  Formosus,  and  ap- 
proved by  the  council :  Formosus  bishop  of 
Porto,  formerly  sent  into  Bulgaria  by  pope 
Nicholas  of  blessed  memory,  having  artful- 
ly insinuated  himself  into  the  favor  of  the 
newly  baptized  king,  prevailed  upon  him  to 
bind  himself  with  dreadful  oaths  never  to  re- 
ceive another  bishop  from  the  apostolic  see 
so  long  as  he  lived  ;  and  he  in  his  turn  bound 
himself  by  the  like  oaths  to  return  to  the 
king  as  soon  as  he  possibly  could,  and  with 
that  view,  obtained  leave  of  us,  with  letters 
and  whatever  else  was  necessary  for  his 
journey.  He  has,  besides,  prompted  by  his 
boundless  ambition,  been  long  caballing  to 
raise  himself  from  a  smaller  to  a  greater 
church,  even  to  the  apostolic  see;  has 
abandoned  his  own  diocese  without  our 
leave  or  knowledge,  and  conspired  with  his 

«  Odorann.  in  Chronic.  Natal.  Alexand.  sec.  ix.  el  x. 
Part.  i.  c.  T.  Gerard  Dubois  in  Hist.  Paris.  1.  8.  c.  i. 


accomplices  against  the  safety  of  the  repub- 
lic, and  of  our  beloved  son  Charles,  whom 
we  have  chosen  and  consecrated  emperor. 
If  he  does  not  therefore  personally  appear, 
and  satisfy  us  in  the  term  of  ten  days,  that  is, 
by  the  twenty-ninth  of  April  of  the  present 
indiction,  we  declare  him  deprived,  by  the 
authority  of  God  and  his  holy  apostles  Peter 
and  Paul,  of  all  ecclesiastical  communion. 
If  he  does  not  appear  within  the  space  of 
twenty  days,  that  is,  by  the  ninth  of  May  ; 
if  in  the  mean  lime  he  raises  any  disturbance 
in  the  church,  or  cavils  at  this  our  sentence, 
let  him  be  anathematized  without  hopes  of 
absolution.'  This  letter  was  read  in  the 
sixth  session  of  the  council  of  Poniion,  and 
the  sentence  against  Formosus  confirmed  by 
all  the  bishops  of  that  assembly.  Of  this 
bishop  we  shall  have  occasion  to  speak  in  the 
sequel,  and  shall  even  see  him  raised  to  the 
pontifical  throne. 

In  the  last  session  of  the  present  council 
the  empress  Richilda  was  presented  to  the 
bishops  by  the  two  bishops,  John  of  Tus- 
canella and  Peter  of  Fossombrone,  in  her 
imperial  robes,  with  a  crown  on  her  head, 
and  being  placed  on  a  throne  close  to  that  of 
the  emperor's,  she  was  by  the  whole  assem- 
bly with  loud  acclamations  saluted  empress. 

As  the  abuse  of  appeals  to  Rome  begaa 
now  universally  to  prevail  in  the  Gallican 
churches,  not  only  bishops,  but  priests  and 
the  rest  of  the  inferior  clergy,  appealing  to 
the  pope  from  the  judgment  given  in  the 
provinces,  the  emperor,  at  the  request  of  the 
bishops  of  the  present  council,  wrote,  or 
rather  ordered  Hincmar  to  write  in  his 
name,  to  the  pope,  and  represent  to  his  holi- 
ness the  evil  consequences  necessarily  at- 
tending so  pernicious  a  practice.  In  that 
letter  Hincmar,  after  showing  that  such  a 
practice,  if  encouraged,  would  entirely  sub- 
vert all  ecclesiastical  discipline,  and  render 
the  authority  of  bishops  quite  precarious, 
quotes  the  canons  of  Sardica,  on  which  the 
popes  grounded  their  right  of  receiving  ap- 
peals, and  proves  from  those  very  canons, 
that  bishops  are  to  be  judged  only  upon  the 
spot,  and  that  priests  are  only  allowed  to  ap- 
peal to  their  metropolitans,  or  to  the  bishops 
of  the  province.  In  the  close  of  his  letter  he 
entreats  the  pope  to  conform  to  those  canons, 
since  many  offenders  would  otherwise  es- 
cape the  punishment  due  to  their  offences, 
as  few  bishops  would  care  to  send  to  Rome 
deputies,  witnesses,  and  the  acts  of  their  pro- 
ceedings, to  maintain  the  judgment  they 
had  given  against  every  clerk  whom  they 
had  condemned. 

While  these  things  passed  in  France,  the 
southern  provinces  of  Italy  were  over-run, 
and  dreadfully  harassed  by  the  Saracens. 
The  late  emperor  had  gained  several  vic- 
tories over  them,  and  shut  them  up  in  Ta- 

*  Joann.  ep.  319. 


286 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[John  VHI. 


The  duke  of  Naples  joins  the  Saracens.  The  bishop  of  Naples,  his  brother,  treacherously  seizes  him,  puts  out 
his  eyes,  and  sends  him  to  Rome.  Is  highly  commended  on  that  account  by  the  pope.  The  bishop  takes 
upon  him  the  government  and  joins  the  Saracens.  The  pope  excommunicates  him  and  presses  the  emperor 
to  hasten  to  its  relief.  The  election  of  Charles  confirmed  in  a  council  at  Rome  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  877.]  The 
emperor  marches  to  the  assistance  of  the  pope. 


ranto.  But  upon  his  death,  having  nobody 
to  oppose  them,  they  made  themselves  mas- 
ters of  several  places,  spreading  everywhere 
slaughter  and  destruction  ;  which  obliged  the 
neighboring  dukes,  not  able  to  make  head 
against  them  with  their  own  forces,  to  sue 
for  a  peace.  The  Saracens  insisted,  and 
would  hearken  to  no  other  terms,  upon  their 
entering  into  an  alliance  with  them,  and 
marching  with  their  united  forces  against 
the  dukedom  of  Rome,  and  Rome  itself. 
The  pope,  apprised  of  this  alliance,  spared 
no  pains,  no  promises,  nor  threats,  to  pre- 
vail on  those  princes  to  break  it  off.  Guai- 
ferius,  prince  of  Salerno,  not  only  quitted 
the  Saracens  through  fear  of  the  excom- 
munication with  which  he  was  threatened, 
but  marched,  at  the  request  of  the  pope, 
against  the  NeapoUtans,  who  obstinately  ad- 
hered to  the  alliance,  which  they  had  enter- 
ed into  with  the  common  enemy,  defeated 
them  and  made  twenty-two  of  them  pri- 
soners, whom  the  pope  ordered  to  be  put  to 
death.'  Sergius,  duke  of  Naples  fared  not 
much  better,  for  as  he  continued  to  act  in 
concert  with  the  Saracens,  notwithstanding 
the  excommunication  thundered  out  by  the 
pope  against  him,  and  the  Neapolitans  in 
general,  his  brother  Athanasius,  bishop  of 
that  city,  treacherously  seized  him,  and 
having  put  out  his  eye?!,  sent  him  thus  de- 
prived of  his  sight  to  Rome.^  The  pope, 
highly  pleased  with  the  present,  wrote  a  let- 
ter to  the  bishop,  wherein  he  extols  his  zeal 
for  the  welfare  of  the  church,  in  not  sparing 
his  own  brother,  agreeably  to  that  of  our 
Savior,  "he  that  loveth  father  or  mother 
(the  pope  adds,  or  brother)  more  than  me, 
is  not  worthy  of  me  ;"^  compares  him  to 
Judith  cutting  off  the  head  of  Holofernes, 
and  promises  to  send  him,  by  Avay  of  re- 
ward for  so  good  and  so  meritorious  a  work, 
the  sum  of  fifteen  hundred  mancu?ce,a  very 
considerable  sum  in  those  days.'*  The  pope 
did  not,  it  seems,  recollect  the  admonition  of 
St.  Paul,  that  a  bishop  should  be  no  striker.^ 
He  wrote  at  the  same  time  to  the  people  of 
Naples  to  thank  them  for  joining  the  bishop 
against  the  duke  his  brother,  whom  he  styles 
the  man  of  sin,  an  enemy  to  God,  the  tyrant 
of  his  people,  and  a  rebel  to  the  Roman 
church.6  The  bishop,  encouraged  by  the 
pope,  took  upon  him  the  government  of  the 
dukedom,  and  thus  became  both  duke  and 
bishop.  It  was  this  he  had  in  his  view  in 
removing  his  brother,  who  died  in  great 
misery  at  Rome,  out  of  the  way  :  and  he  ac- 
cordingly rio  sooner  found  himself  firmly 
established  in  his  government,  than,  treading 
in  the  footsteps  of  his  brother,  he  joined  the 
Saracens,  committed  most  dreadful  ravages 


•  Erchamp.  num.  39. 
3  Mat.  10:  37. 
IS  1  Tim.  3  :  3. 


2  Leo.  Ostien. 
•*  Johan.  ep.  66. 
s  Johan.  ep.  67. 


in  the  neighboring  provinces,  made  frequent 
inroads  into  the  dukedom  of  Rome,  and 
threw  the  city  itself  into  the  utmost  con- 
fusion. Hereupon  the  pope  solemnly  ex- 
communicated and  anathematized  him  and 
all  his  followers.  But  as  he  paid  no  more 
regard  to  the  papal  thunders  than  he  had 
done  to  the  ties  of  blood  and  nature,  John 
was  obliged  to  recur  to  the  emperor ;  and  he 
wrote  most  pressing  letters  to  Charles  en- 
treating him  to  hasten  to  the  relief  of  his 
dominions  in  Italy,  and  of  Rome  itself,  in 
imminent  danger  of  falling  into  the  hands 
of  the  sworn  enemies  of  the  Christian  name. 
But  Lewis,  king  of  Germany,  dying  in  the 
mean  time  at  BVankfort,  the  emperor,  more 
desirous  of  extending  his  dominions  on  the 
Rhine  than  defending  those  in  Italy,  march- 
ed, upon  the  first  news  of  his  brother's  death, 
at  the  head  of  a  powerful  army  against 
Lewis,  the  deceased  king's  second  son,  to 
whoselotGermany  had  fallen.  Buttheyoung 
prince  meeting  him,  Avhen  he  least  expected  J 
it,  with  an  army  not  half  so  numerous  as  his,  I 
gave  him  a  total  overthrow,  cut  the  far  great- 
er part  of  his  choicest  troops  in  pieces,  and 
obliged  him  to  leave  all  his  baggage  behind 
him  and  save  himself  by  a  precipitate  flight.' 

The  emperor,  apprehending  that  Carlo- 
man,  king  of  Bavaria,  the  eldest  son  of  the 
late  king,  might  improve  this  defeat  to  his 
advantage,  and  lay  claim  to  the  imperial 
crown,  dispatched  Adalgarius,  bishop  of 
Autun  to  Rome,  with  letters  to  the  pope, 
excusing  his  not  sending  him  the  promised 
succours,  and  at  the  same  time  entreating 
him  to  convene  a  council  of  as  many  bishops 
as  he  could  possibly  assemble,  and  get  his 
election  to  the  empire  confirmed  by  them. 
The  council  was  assembled  with  all  speed, 
and  opened  by  the  pope  with  a  most  ful- 
some panegyric  upon  Charles,  as  if  his  pro- 
motion had  been  revealed  to  pope  Nicholas, 
and  he  had  used  no  indirect  means  to  attain 
the  imperial  dignity,  but  had  been  called  to  it, 
and  freely  chosen  by  the  bishops  and  the  Ro- 
man people.  He  therefore  exhorted  the  bi- 
shops to  confirm  their  own  election,  that  the 
world  might  see  they  did  not  repent  the  choice 
they  had  made.  To  this  they  all  agreed,  and 
by  thewholeassembly,  all whoshould  dispute 
or  oppose  the  election  of  Charles,  were  ex- 
communicated, anathematized,  and  cursed, 
as  disturbers  of  the  public  peace,  as  ministers 
of  the  devil,  and  enemies  to  God  and  his 
church.  This  council  was  held  in  July  877, 
and  Adalgarius  of  Autun  was  dispatched 
with  a  copy  of  the  acts  to  the  emperor.^ 

As  the  Saracens  in  the  mean  time,  pur- 
sued their  ravages  Avithout  check  or  control, 
burning  churches,  destroying  cities,  towns, 
and  villages,  and  either  putting  to  the  sword. 


«  Annal.  Fuld.  Metens.  et  Berlin,  ad  ann.  876,  <t  877. 
i"  Tom.  viii.  Concil.  Gall. 


John  VIIL] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


287 


The  pope  meets  the  emperor  at  Vercelli,  and  crowns  Richilda  empress  atTortona.  The  emperor  dies  of  poison 
administered  to  hirn  by  liis  physician.  Council  of  Ravenna.  The  pope  agrees  to  pay  a  yearly  tribute  to  the 
Saracens.  Rome  plundered  by  the  duke  of  Spoleli  and  the  pope  confined.  The  pope,  upon  his  retreat,  re- 
pairs to  France  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  878.] 


or  carrying  into  captivity  the  helpless  in- 
habitants, the  pope  dispatched  messengers 
after  messengers  to  the  emperor,  pressing 
him  in  the  name  of  the  bishops,  priests,  no- 
bles, and  the  unhappy  people,  who  had  not 
yet  fallen  into  the  liands  of  their  merciless 
enemies,  to  hasten  to  their  relief,  and  rescue 
the  church,  that  had  raised  him  to  the  em- 
pire in  preference  to  his  brother,  from  im- 
pending slavery  and  oppression.  The  em- 
peror, thus  pressed  by  the  pope's  letters,  and 
more  by  his  two  leijates,  Peter,  bishop  of 
Fossombrone,  and  Peter,  bishop  of  Siniga- 
glia,  sent  by  his  holiness  to  represent  to  him, 
by  word  of  mouth,  the  deplorable  condition 
which  his  Italian  dominions  were  reduced 
to,  resolved  at  length  to  march  with  an 
army  into  Italy.  He  set  out  accordingly  in 
the  month  of  July  of  the  present  year,  witli 
a  small  number  of  troops,  ordering  his  gene- 
rals to  follow  him  with  the  main  body  of 
the  army.  On  his  arrival  at  Orba  on  the 
other  side  mount  Jura,  he  was  met  by  Adal- 
garius,  who  delivered  to  him  a  copy  of  the 
acts  of  the  council  confirming  his  election, 
and  at  the  same  time  informed  him,  that  his 
holiness  intended  to  meet  him  at  Pavia. 
But  the  emperor  found  him  at  Vercelli,  and 
from  thence  proceeded  with  him  to  Pavia. 
They  had  not  been  long  there  when  advice 
was  brought,  that  Carloman,  king  of  Bava- 
ria, was  advancing  at  the  head  of  a  power- 
ful army  to  ascertain  the  right  he  claimed  to 
the  imperial  crown,  as  the  eldest  son  of  the 
elder  brother.  This  intelligence  alarmed  the 
emperor,  and  as  he  had  but  very  few  troops 
with  him,  he  left  Pavia  in  great  haste,  and 
repassing  the  Po  retired  to  Tortona,  where 
Richilda,  who  attended  her  husband,  was 
crowned  empress  by  the  pope. 

The  emperor  and  the  pope  passed  a  few 
days  together  at  Tortona,  waiting  for  the 
troops,  that  Charles  had  ordered  to  follow 
him  into  Italy.  But  he  waited  in  vain ;  and 
was  soon  informed,  that  the  generals,  whom 
he  had  trusted  with  the  command  of  the 
forces,  had  kept  them  at  home  and  con- 
spired against  him.  Hereupon  leaving  Tor- 
tona in  as  great  haste  as  he  had  done  Pavia, 
he  fled  into  Morienne,  whither  the  empress 
had  withdrawn  with  all  his  treasures  upon 
the  news  of  the  approach  of  Carloman.  It 
is  remarkable,  that  while  Charles  was  flying 
back  to  France  upon  the  news  of  the  ap- 
proach of  Carloman,  Carloman  was  flying 
back  to  Bavaria  upon  a  false  report  spread 
amongst  his  troops,  that  the  emperor  and 
the  pope  were  coming  at  the  head  of  a  nu- 
merous army  to  give  him  battle.  From  Tor- 
tona the  pope  returned  to  Rome.  But  the 
emperor  died  on  his  way  to  France,  being 
poisoned  by  his  physician,  a  Jew  named 
Sedecias,  in  whom  he  had  ever  placed  an 
entire  confidence.    The  physician  is  sup- 


posed to  have  been  bribed  by  the  conspira- 
tors to  administer  the  poison  of  which  he 
died:  we  do  not  at  least  find  that  he  was 
punished  for  it.  Be  that  as  it  will,  the 
emperor  died  at  Brios,  a  small  village  on 
this  side  of  Mount  Cenis,  eleven  days  after 
he  had  taken  the  poisonous  potion,  that  is, 
on  the  sixth  of  October,  877,  in  the  second 
year  of  his  empire,  the  thirty-eighth  of  his 
reign,  and  the  fifty-fourth  of  his  age.' 

A  great  council  was  held  this  year  in  the 
city  of  Ravenna,  at  which  the  pope  presided 
in  person,  and  were  present  no  fewer  than 
one  hundred  and  thirty  bishops.  This  coun- 
cil is  said  in  the  acts  to  have  been  convened 
"  by  apostolic  authority  and  the  command 
of  the  emperor  Charles ;"  whence  it  is  plain 
that  it  was  not  held  after,  as  some  have  writ, 
but  before  his  death.  The  pope  mentions 
that  assembly  in  several  of  his  letters  f  but 
only  nineteen  canons  issued  by  it  have 
reached  our  time ;  and  they  are  calculated 
to  restore  the  ecclesiastical  discipline,  great- 
ly decayed  in  the  Italian  provinces.^ 

The  news  of  the  emperor's  death  threw 
the  pope  and  the  Romans  into  the  utmost 
confusion.  The  Saracens,  now  masters  of 
a  fortress  upon  the  borders  of  the  Roman 
dukedom,  delivered  up  to  them  by  Docibilis, 
duke  of  Gaeta,  made  daily  inroads  to  the 
verv  gates  of  Rome.  On  the  other  hand  the 
pope,  having  disobliged  Carloman  and  the 
other  princes  by  his  partiality  for  Charles, 
could  expect  no  relief  from  them.  In  this 
extremity  he  resolved  to  treat  with  the  Sara- 
cens, and  he  accordingly  agreed  to  pay  them 
a  yearly  tribute  of  twenty- five  thousand 
mancusse,  upon  condition  they  committed 
no  hostilities  in  the  Roman  dukedom,  nor 
made  any  attempt  upon  the  city  of  Rome.'' 
The  Saracens  faithfully  observed  the  arti- 
cles of  the  treaty.  But  Lambert,  duke  of 
Spoleti,  and  Adalbert,  marquis  of  Tuscany, 
who  had  both  been  excommunicated  by  the 
pope  for  usurping  some  lands  that  belonged 
to  the  Roman  church,  entering  Rome  in  a 
hostile  manner,  seized  on  the  pope  and  con- 
fined him,  plundered  the  city,  and  obliged 
the  Romans  to  take  an  oath  of  allegiance  to 
Carloman  as  king  of  Italy. ^  Upon  their  re- 
treat from  Rome  they  set  the  pope  at  liberty, 
who  after  thundering  out  dreadful  curses 
against  them,  left  Rome,  and  embarking  at 
dstia  fled  by  sea  to  France,  not  doubting 
but  he  should  be  well  received  there  by 
Lewis,  surnamed  the  Stammerer,  who  had 
succeeded  the  emperor  Charles,  his  father, 
in  that  kingdom.  He  landed  at  Aries  on 
Whitsunday,  which  in  878  fell  on  the  Illh 
of  May,  and  was  from  thence  attended  by 
duke  Boso,  and  his  wife  Hermengarda  to 


•  .\nnal.  Berlin. 

*  Tom   ix.  Coniil.  p.  300. 
'  Johun,  cp.  8J,  85. 


2  Epist.  53,  5,  56,57,  59,60. 
'  Johan.  ep.  89. 


288 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[John  VHI. 

Council  of  Troies.  The  duke  of  Spoleti  anathematized  in  that  council,  and  with  him  Formosiis  of  Porto. 
Hincmar  of  Laon  kindly  treated  by  the  pope  and  bishops  of  the  council.  Some  canons  of  this  council.  Lewis 
crowned  king  by  the  pope. 


Lions.  From  Lions  he  dispatciied  legates 
to  Tours  to  acquaint  the  king,  who  lay  in- 
disposed in  that  city,  with  his  arrival  in  his 
dominions,  and  his  intention  of  assembling 
a  council  there,  as  he  could  not  safely  con- 
vene one  in  Italy.  The  king  appointed 
some  bishops  to  wait  on  his  holiness  in  his 
name,  to  conduct  him  to  Troies,  the  most 
proper  place  for  the  council  to  meet  at,  and 
to  defray  his  expenses  on  the  road.  Baro- 
nius  writes,  that  the  pope,  during  his  stay 
at  Lions,  granted  the  pall  to  Rostagnus  Arch- 
bishop of  that  city ,  and  besides  declared  him, 
at  the  request  of  Boso,  vicar  of  the  apostolic 
see  in  France.  It  is  indeed  said  in  the  let- 
ters quoted  by  Baronius  as  pope  John's, 
namely,  in  the  93d,  94th,  and  95th,  that  he 
appointed  the  archbishop  of  Lions  his  vicar 
and  representative  in  Gaul.  But  Natalis 
Alexander  has  proved,  beyond  contradiction, 
those  letters  to  be  forged.' 

The  pope  had  invited  to  his  council  all  the 
bishops  of  France  and  Lombardy,  and  like 
wise  Lewis  of  France,  as  well  as  the  three 
sons  of  the  late  king  of  Germany,  Carloman, 
Lewis,  and  Charles.  But  thirty  bishops 
only  complied  with  the  invitation,  and  not  one 
of  the  princes  but  Lewis  of  France,  in  whose 
kingdom  the  council  was  assembled.  The 
bishops  met,  for  the  first  time,  on  the  thir- 
teenth of  August,  when  a  speech  was  read 
in  the  pope's  name,  laying  before  them  the 
outrages  committed  in  Rome  by  Lambert, 
duke  of  Spoleti,  and  the  unworthy  treat- 
ment he  had  met  with  at  his  hands.  The 
pope  informed  them,  that  he  had  excommu- 
nicated the  duke  and  his  accomplices  in  the 
church  of  St.  Peter,  and  desired  they  would 
not  only  confirm  his  sentence,  but  add  their 
Anathemas  to  his,  and  cause  them  to  be 
published  by  their  suffragans  in  all  the 
churches.  To  this  the  bishops  readily  agreed, 
and  Lambert  was  again  and  again  anathe- 
matized by  the  whole  assembly.  At  the 
same  time  the  sentence  against  Formosus  of 
Porto  was  confirmed,  and  he  with  his  ac- 
complices the  third  lime  excommunicated, 
degraded,  and  anathematized,  the  bishops 
declaring  all  with  one  voice,  that  they  con- 
demned those,  whom  the  holy  see  con- 
demned, and  received  those,  whom  the  holy 
see  received. 

Hincmar  of  Laon,  of  whom  I  have  spoken 
above,  appearing  unexpectedly  at  this  coun- 
cil, presented  a  memorial  to  the  pope,  com- 
plaining of  the  hard  treatment  he  had  met 
with,  especially  from  his  uncle  Hincmar  of 
Reims,  notwithstanding  his  appeal  to  Rome. 
He  had  been  condemned,  excommunicated, 
and  degraded,  by  the  council  of  Douzi,  in 
the  Pontificate  of  Hadrian,  as  has  been  re- 
lated above ;  and  the  emperor  Charles,  while 
he  was  at  Rome,  had  prevailed  upon  the 
present  pope  to  confirm  the  judgment  of 


»  Natal.  Alex.  sect.  9  et  10.  c.  i.  art.  H. 


that  council,  and  suffer  another  bishop  to 
be  chosen  in  the  room  of  Hincmar.  The 
unhappy  bishop,  as  he  was  a  man  of  a  most 
restless  temper,  had  been  kept  closely  con- 
fined after  his  condemnation  ;  and  the  king, 
to  prevent  his  being  ever  reinstated  in  his 
see,  had  after  two  years  confinement  ordered 
his  eyes  to  be  put  out.  In  this  condition  he 
appeared  before  the  pope  and  the  council, 
begging  they  would  judge  his  cause  anew 
according  to  the  canons  and  the  decrees  of 
the  apostolic  see.  The  pope  had  confirmed 
the  sentence  of  the  council  of  Douzi,  had 
approved  the  election  of  Hedenulfus  in  the 
room  of  Hincmar,  and  could  not,  therefore, 
allow  the  cause  to  be  re-examined.  How- 
ever, touched  with  compassion,  he  took  off 
the  excommunication,  granted  the  deposed 
bishop  leave  to  sing  mass,  and,  with  the 
consent  and  approbation  of  the  king,  allotted 
part  of  the  revenues  of  the  bishopric  of  Laon 
for  his  maintenance.  Hereupon  the  bishops, 
among  whom  were  some  metropolitans  who 
befriended  blind  Hincmar,  restoring  to  him 
his  sacerdotal  habit,  presented  him  in  that 
attire  to  the  pope,  and  afterwards  made 
him  give  the  sacerdotal  benediction  to  the 
people.' 

Several  canons  were  issued  by  the  present 
council,  and  this,  among  the  rest,  worthy  of 
particular  notice,  that  the  higher  power 
should  pay  that  respect  to  bishops  which 
was  due  to  their  dignity  and  the  rank  they 
held  in  the  church,  and  that  no  man  should 
presume  to  sit  in  the  presence  of  a  bishop 
unless  he  commanded  it.  The  pope  and  the 
bishops,  at  the  request  of  the  king,  excom- 
municated Bernard  marquis  of  Languedoc, 
Hugh  the  son  of  Lotharius,  late  king  of 
Lorraine  by  Waldrada,  and  some  others,  as 
disturbers  of  the  public  peace,  and  enemies 
to  the  state. 

Lewis  had  been  crowned,  upon  (he  death 
of  his  father,  by  Hincmar  of  Reims ;  but  he 
nevertheless  desired  to  be  crowned  anew  by 
the  pope ;  and  his  holiness  accordingly  per- 
formed the  ceremony  with  great  solemnity 
while  the  council  was  yet  sitting,  that  is  on 
the  7th  of  September,  of  the  present  year, 
878.  Some  writers,  and  Baronius  among 
the  rest,  will  have  Lewis  to  have  been,  on 
this  occasion,  crowned  emperor.  But  that 
opinion  is  now  universally  exploded,  the 
contrary  being  manifest  from  several  letters 
written  by  the  pope  after  that  ceremony, 
especially  from  the  eighty-second  to  Lewis 
and  Carloman,  the  sons  of  king  Lewis, 
wherein  he  styles  Charles  emperor  of  blessed 
memory,  and  gives  no  other  title  to  his  son 
Lewis  than  that  of  king.^  But  this  point  is 
cleared  up,  beyond  all  doubt,  by  a  charter, 
that  was  granted  by  Lewis  to  the  church 
of  Nevers,  three  days  after  the  ceremony  of 


»  Concil.  Gall.  torn.  iii.  p.  421,  ■ 
a  Johan.  VIll.  71,  82,  &c. 


,  Annal.  Bertin. 


John  VIIL] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME, 


289 


The  pope  could  not  be  prevailed  upon  to  crown  the  queen.  His  speech  at  the  close  of  the  council.  He  sends 
legates  into  the  east  for  the  recovering  of  Bulgaria.  Death  of  the  patriarch  Ignatius.  Photius  restored  and 
acknowledged  by  the  pope's  legates.  Writes  to  the  pope.  The  emperor  Basilius  recommends  him  to  the 
pope  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  879] 


the  coronation,  and  is  still  extant.  For  in 
that  charter  he  only  styles  himself  "  Lewis 
by  the  grace  of  God,  king.'"  The  pope  re- 
fused to  crown  Adelaida  the  queen  for  rea- 
sons unknown  to  us,  nor  could  he  by  any 
means  be  prevailed  upon  to  perform  that 
ceremony.  As  Lewis  had  been  obliged  by 
his  father  to  put  away  his  first  wife  Ans- 
garda,  by  whom  he  had  Lewis  and  Carlo- 
man,  and  marry  Adelaida  in  her  room, 
some  are  of  opinion  that  the  pope  looked 
upon  that  marriage  as  unlawful,  and  there- 
fore would  not  crown  the  queen.  But  that 
is  mere  conjecture,  no  notice  being  taken  by 
any  of  the  contemporary  writers,  which  is 
somewhat  surprising,  of  the  motives  that 
restrained  the  pope  from  complying  with 
the  earnest  and  repeated  entreaties  of  the 
king,  whom  he  was  so  willing  to  oblige  on 
every  other  occasion. 

The  pope  closed  the  council  on  the  tenth 
of  September  878,  with  a  speech  addressed 
to  the  king  and  the  bishops.  He  exhorted 
the  king  to  employ  his  arms,  as  his  prede- 
cessors had  done,  against  the  enemies  of 
God  and  his  church,  and  the  bishops  to  arm 
their  vassals  with  all  possible  speed  and 
send  them  with  him  into  Italy  to  protect  the 
holy  Roman  church  against  the  Saracens, 
and  the  Christians,  more  wicked  than  them, 
who  had  joined  them.  He  begged  the  king, 
and  likewise  the  bishops,  to  return,  without 
delay,  a  positive  answer  to  this  his  request; 
but  from  history  it  does  not  appear  that 
either  did ;  and  the  pope  was  attended  into 
Italy  only  by  duke  Boso  and  his  wife  Her- 
mengarda,  with  whose  obliging  behavior  he 
was  so  well  pleased,  that  on  his  arrival  at 
Pavia  he  adopted  the  duke  for  his  son.^ 

The  deplorable  state  to  which  Italy  was 
reduced  at  this  time,  and  Rome  itself,  did 
not  divert  the  pope  from  attending  to  the  af- 
fairs of  the  east.  As  the  patriarch  Ignatius 
continued,  notwithstanding  the  menaces  of 
the  late  pope,  to  keep  possession  of  Bulga- 
ria, and  to  send  Greek  bishops  and  other 
missionaries  to  preach  the  gospel  there,  John 
despatched,  this  year,  into  the  east,  Paul, 
bishop  of  Ancona,  and  Eugene,  bishop  of 
Oslia,  with  letters  to  Ignatius,  to  the  Greek 
bishops  and  clergy  in  Bulgaria,  and  to  Mi- 
chael, king  of  that  country.  In  his  letter  to 
the  patriarch  he  commands  him  to  recal,  in 
a  month's  time,  all  the  Greek  bishops, 
priests,  and  missionaries,  and  to  renounce 
all  jurisdiction  over  the  kingdom  of  Bulga- 
ria, on  pain  of  being  excluded  from  the  par- 
ticipation of  the  body  and  blood  of  our  Lord, 
and  being  deprived  of  the  patriarchal  dignity, 
if  he  did  not  obey  that  command  of  the  apos- 
tolic see  within  the  term  of  two  months.  In 
his  letter  to  the  Greek  bishops  and  clergy  he 


«  Sirmond.  in  not.  ad  Concil.  Trecen. 
a  Johan.  VIIL  cp.  119. 

Vol.  II.— 37 


declares  them  excommunicated,  and  sus- 
pended from  all  ecclesiastical  functions  if 
they  quit  not  the  country  within  a  month. 
He  exhorts  the  king,  in  his  letters  to  him, 
to  drive  out  the  Greeks,  lest  he  should  be  in- 
fected with  the  heresies  that  frequently  pre- 
vail among  them.'  The  legates  were  charged 
to  represent  to  the  emperor,  by  word  of 
mouth,  the  dreadful  ravages  committed  by 
the  Saracens  in  Italy,  and  implore  his  as- 
sistance. 

Ignatius  died  before  the  legates  arrived  at 
Constantinople,  and,  to  their  great  surprise, 
they  found  Photius  placed  anew  in  the  pa- 
triarchal chair.  As  he  was  a  man  of  most 
uncommon  parts  and  great  address,  he  had 
regained  the  favor  of  the  emperor  in  the  life- 
time of  the  deceased  patriarch,  and  was  there- 
fore suffered  to  seize  on  tlie  patriarchal  see 
the  moment  it  became  vacant.  The  two  le- 
gates refused  at  first  to  acknowledge  him; 
but  they  were  soon  persuaded  by  the  empe- 
ror to  own  him  for  lawful  patriarch,  and 
Photius,  who  well  knew  how  to  deal  with 
the  Roman  legates,  prevailed  upon  them 
with  rich  presents  publicly  to  declare,  that 
the  pope,  hearing  of  his  promotion,  had  sent 
them  to  approve  and  confirm  it.  Thus  did 
he  impose  upon  most  of  the  metropolitans 
and  other  bishops,  who  had  hitherto  sided 
with  the  two  preceding  popes  against  him; 
and  in  order  to  impose  upon  the  pope  him- 
self, he  assured  him  in  a  letter,  which  he 
wrote  on  this  occasion,  that  he  had  long 
withstood  the  prayers  of  the  bishops,  and 
even  the  commands  of  the  emperor,  but  had, 
in  the  end,  been  forced  to  yield,  and  resume, 
which  he  did  with  the  utmost  reluctance, 
the  patriarchal  dignity.  He  got  the  bishops 
to  sign  this  letter,  pretending  that  it  was  the 
deed  of  a  purchase,  which  was  to  be  kept 
secret;  and  when  they  had  all  signed  it,  his 
secretary,  named  Peter,  stole  their  seals 
away,  and  set  them  to  it,  and  for  this  piece 
of  knavery  Photius  preferred  him  soon  after 
to  the  metropolitan  see  of  Sardis.  With  this 
letter,  thus  signed  and  sealed,  Photius  des- 
patched to  Rome  one  Theodore,  who  had 
been  ordained  by  him,  during  his  exile,  me- 
tropolitan of  Pathmi,  a  city  that  never  ex- 
isted ;  and  he  was  therefore  styled  by  way  of 
derision,  bishop  of  Aphantopolis,  that  is,  of 
the  invisible  city. 

At  the  same  time  the  emperor  Basilius 
sent  a  solemn  embassy  to  the  pope,  recom- 
mending Photius  to  his  favor  in  the  strong- 
est terms,  and  representing  his  restoration 
as  the  only  possible  tneans  of  restoring  peace 
and  tranquillity  to  the  church  and  state. 
The  ambassadors  arrived  at  Rome  in  the 
beginning  of  April,  879,  were  received  by 
the  pope  with  extraordinary  marks  of  re- 
spect and  esteem,  and,  what  greatly  sur- 

Johan.  Vlll.  ep.  75,  76,  77. 


290 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[John  VHI. 


The  pope  absolves  Pbotius  from  the  excommunication  and  receives  him  as  his  colleague,  upon  condition  of 
his  renouncing  all  claim  to  Bulgaria.  The  pope's  letter  in  answer  to  that  of  Photius.  The  pope's  legates 
restore  to  Photius  in  a  full  council  the  ensigns  of  the  patriarchal  dignity,  and  condemn  the  eighth  general 
council. 


prised  the  whole  church,  obtained  at  once 
his  consent  to  the  restoration  of  Photius  so 
often  excommunicated,  and  anathematized 
by  his  two  immediate  predecessors  Nicholas 
and  Hadrian.  This  appears  from  the  letter 
he  wrote  and  sent  by  the  ambassadors  on 
their  return  to  Constantinople,  in  answer  to 
that  which  he  had  received  from  the  em- 
peror. For  in  that  letter  he  tells  Basilius, 
that,  Ignatius  being  dead,  he,  at  his  request, 
allows  Photius  to  exercise  the  episcopal 
functions,  though  he  had  reassumed  them 
without  the  consent  or  knowledge  of  the 
apostolic  see,  that  had  suspended  him  from 
them;  that  he  receives  him  as  a  bishop,  as  a 
brother,  as  a  colleague ;  and  that,  relying  on 
the  extensive  and  unlimited  power  granted 
to  him  in  the  person  of  St.  Peter,  he  absolves 
him  from  all  ecclesiastical  censure,  as  well 
as  all  bishops,  priests,  clerks,  and  laymen, 
who  had  incurred  any  on  his  account.  How- 
ever the  pope  insisted  on  the  following  terms 
or  conditions,  namely,  that  Photius  should, 
in  a  full  council,  ask  pardon  for  his  past 
conduct;  that  in  time  to  come  no  layman 
should  be  preferred  to  the  patriarchal  see; 
and,  what  was  the  most  important  article 
of  all,  that  the  patriarch  of  Constantinople 
should  renounce  all  kind  of  jurisdiction 
over  the  kingdom  of  Bulgaria.  The  pope 
closed  his  letter  with  declaring  all  excom- 
municated, who,  after  the  third  admonition, 
should  refuse  to  communicate  with  the  holy 
patriarch  Photius,  should  give  ear  to  any 
calumnies  against  him,  or  look  upon  him 
in  any  other  light  than  that  of  their  spiritual 
guide,  and  mediator  between  God  and  them.' 
The  pope,  in  his  answer  to  Photius'  letter, 
acknowledges  him  for  lawful  successor  to 
the  deceased  patriarch  of  blessed  memory; 
exhorts  him  to  forget  past  injuries,  to  gain 
over  by  gentle  means  such  as  may  still  op- 
pose his  restoration ;  and  earnestly  entreats 
him  to  get  those  who  have  been  banished, 
recalled  from  exile,  and  reinstated  in  their 
respective  dignities.  The  pope  wrote  like- 
wise to  the  bishops  under  the  immediate  ju- 
risdiction of  the  see  of  Constantinople,  and 
to  those  subject  to  the  other  three  patriarchal 
sees,  to  acquaint  them  with  the  restoration 
of  Photius,  which,  he  says,  he  had  agreed 
to  at  their  request,  Photius  having  forged 
letters  to  that  purpose  in  their  names.  It  is 
to  be  observed,  that,  in  the  time  of  the  pre- 
ceding pope,  the  whole  body  of  the  Roman 
clergy,  and  John  among  the  rest,  he  being 
then  archdeacon  of  that  church,  bound 
themselves  by  a  solemn  oath  never  to  con- 
sent to  the  restoration  of  Photius,  but  ever  to 
look  upon  his  ordination  as  void  and  null. 
But  John  was,  on  the  one  hand,  under 
dreadful  apprehensions  from  the  neighbor- 
hood of  the  Saracens,  who  had  seized  on 

» Johan.  ep.  199. 


some  strong  holds  adjoining  to  the  Roman 
dukedom :  on  the  other  none  of  the  Christian 
princes,  beside  the  emperor  of  the  east,  were 
at  this  time  in  a  condition  to  afford  him  any 
assistance  or  relief;  and  therefore,  sacrificing 
all  other  views  to  his  own  safety,  he  did  not 
scruple,  in  order  to  gain  his  favor  at  so  cri- 
tical a  juncture,  not  only  to  reverse  the  de- 
crees of  his  predecessors,  as  well  as  those  of 
a  general  council,  but  to  break  the  solemn 
oath  he  had  taken.' 

The  imperial  embassadors  left  Rome  in 
the  month  of  August  of  the  present  year; 
and  with  them  the  pope  despatched  into 
the  east  Peter,  cardinal  presbyter  of  the 
Roman  church,  adding  him  to  the  two  le- 
gates, Paul  and  Eugene,  who  he  had  sent 
thither  the  preceding  year.  He  brought  with 
him  a  letter  from  the  pope  to  the  two  legates 
directing  them  how  to  proceed  in  the  affair 
of  Photius.  They  were  ordered  in  the  first 
place  to  wait  upon  the  emperor  with  their 
new  colleague,  and  let  him  know,  that  his 
holiness  had  sent  them,  at  his  request,  to 
reinstate  the  holy  patriarch  Photius  in  his 
former  dignity.  In  the  next  place  they  were 
to  visit  Photius  himself,  and  acquaint  him 
that  the  pope  acknowledged  him  for  his  bro- 
ther and  his  colleague,  but  only  upon  the 
conditions  mentioned  above ;  Photius  pro- 
mised to  fulfil  those  conditions;  and  a  nu- 
merous council  being  thereupon  assembled, 
the  legates  restored  to  him,  in  the  presence 
of  the  bishops  who  composed  it,  the  ensigns 
of  the  patriarchal  dignity,  declared  him  law- 
ful patriarch  of  the  imperial  city,  and  besides, 
of  their  own  authority  pronounced  all  de- 
posed, excommunicated,  and  anathematized, 
who  should  thenceforth  refuse  to  acknow- 
ledge him,  or  should  receive  any  of  the 
councils  that  had  condemned  him.  The 
present  council  consisted  of  no  fewer  than 
three  hundred  and  eighty  bishops;  the  em- 
peror was  present  in  person,  with  his  two 
sons,  Constantine  and  Leo  ;  and  the  three 
legates,  gained  over  with  rich  presents  by 
Photius,  allowed  him  to  preside  at  it  with 
them.  The  first  session  was  held  in  No- 
vember 879,  and  the  last  in  March  880. 
The  Greeks  condemn  and  reject  to  this  day 
the  council  held  under  Hadrian,  and  receive 
this,  that  condemned  it,  for  the  eighth  gene- 
ral council. 

The  three  legates  upon  their  return  to 
Rome  took  care  to  conceal  from  the  pope 


'  Baronius  thinks  that  John,  on  account  of  the  cow- 
ardice and  pusillanimity  vchich  he  betrayed  on  this 
occasion,  was  universally  looked  upon  not  as  a  man, 
but  a  woman,  that  by  some  he  might  have  been  called 
so,  and  that  from  thence  the  fable  of  pope  Joan  pro- 
bably took  its  rise.  But  the  annalist  did  not,  it  seems, 
recollect  that  this  fable  was  not  heard  of  till  long  after 
the  time  of  John  VIII.,  that  is,  till  the  latter  end  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  and  that  the  she  pope  was  placed 
by  the  inventor  of  it  between  Leo  IV.  and  Benedict 
III.,  about  tbe  middle  of  the  ninth  centuiy. 


John  VIII.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


291 


The  legates  are  deposed  for  condemning  the  eighth  general  council,  by  the  pope,  on  their  return  home; — 
[Year  of  Christ,  8S0.]  Photius  excommunicated  anew.  Marianus  sent  into  the  East  annuls  the  acts  of  the 
council  of  Constantinople  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  H81.]  Charles  the  Gross  is  crowned  emperor,  but  lends  the 
pope  no  assistance  against  the  Saracena.  The  bishop  of  Naples  excommunicated  in  a  council  at  Rome; — 
[Year  of  Christ,  882.] 


their  having  condemned  the  eighth  general 
council,  and  with  it  all  the  councils  that  had 
condemned  Photius.  They  only  told  him, 
that,  pursuant  to  their  instructions,  they  had 
replaced  Photius  on  the  patriarchal  throne  ; 
that  his  restoration  was  approved  by  a  very 
numerous  council  assembled  for  that  pur- 
pose ;  that  an  end  was,  by  that  means,  put 
to  all  disturbances  in  the  eastern  churches  ; 
that  the  patriarch  had  ordered  all  the  Greek 
priests  to  be  recalled  from  Bulgaria;  and 
lastly,  that  the  emperor  would  soon  send  a 
fleet  to  protect  the  coasts  of  Italy,  especially 
of  the  Roman  dukedom  against  the  Saracens. 
But  the  pope  was  soon  informed  of  the  pre- 
varication of  his  three  legates,  and  having 
thereupon  deposed  them,  he  declared  all  they 
had  done  void  and  null,  excommunicated 
all,  who  should  receive  the  late  council  held 
at  Constantinople,  or  communicate  with  the 
usurper  Photius,  and  despatched,  without 
delay,  Marinus,  deacon  of  the  Roman 
church,  to  Constantinople,  with  orders  to 
protest  against  the  proceedings  of  the  coun- 
cil lately  convened  there,  and  declare  them 
null.  This  commission  Marinus  executed 
with  the  greatest  firmness  and  intrepidity, 
which  so  provoked  the  emperor  Basilius, 
that  he  ordered  him  to  be  imprisoned,  and 
kept  closely  confined.  But  finding  that  he 
was  neither  to  be  gained  with  promises,  nor 
terrified  with  menaces,  he  set  him  at  liberty 
after  thirty  days  confinement,  and  sent  him 
back  to  Rome.'  The  pope  informed  by  him 
of  the  proceedings  of  the  council  under  Pho- 
tius, confirmed,  with  great  solemnity,  the 
acts  of  the  councils,  that  his  two  predeces- 
sors Nicholas  and  Hadrian  had  convened 
against  him,  and  condemned  him  anew  in  a 
council  he  assembled  for  that  purpose.^ 

As  to  the  state  of  affairs  at  this  lime  in  the 
west,  Carloman  king  of  Bavaria,  the  eldest 
son  of  Lewis,  late  king  of  Germany,  enter- 
ing Italy  at  the  head  of  a  numerous  army 
upon  the  first  news  of  the  death  of  his  uncle 
Charles  the  Bald,  was  there  received  and 
acknowledged  by  the  Italian  lords  and  bishops 
king  of  Lombardy.  But  he  held  not  long 
his  new  kingdom,  being  driven  out  of  Italy 
by  his  younger  brother  Charles  surnamed 
the  Gross.  Carloman  died  soon  after  j  and 
as  he  left  no  issue,  the  states  of  Bavaria 
chose  his  second  brother  Lewis  for  their 
king,  who,  to  prevent  Charles  from  disturb- 
ing him  in  the  possession  of  that  kingdom, 
renounced  in  his  favor  all  claim  to  the  king- 
dom of  Lombardy  and  the  title  of  emperor. 
The  pope  had  not  yet  declared  for  either  of 
these  princes ;  but  he  no  sooner  heard  of 
this  agreement  between  t^em,  than  he  wrote 
to  Charles,  offering  him  the  imperial  crown, 

«  Epist.  Steph.  V.  apud  Bar.  ad  ann.  885. 
"  Epist.  Formos.  in  Actia  Synod,  viii. 


and  pressing  him  to  come  to  Rome  and  receive 
it.  He  even  went  as  far  as  Ravenna  to  meet 
him.  But  the  state  of  his  affairs  in  France 
obliged  that  prince  to  repass  the  Alps,  and 
put  off  his  journey  to  Rome,  till  the  latter 
end  of  the  year  880,  when  he  was  crowned 
with  great  solemnity  by  the  pope  in  the 
church  of  St.  Peter  on  Christmas-day.* 
But  the  new  emperor  showed  no  inclinatioa 
to  employ  his  troops  against  the  Saracens, 
nor  did  the  pope,  so  long  as  he  lived,  receive 
from  him  the  least  assistance,  though  he  fre- 
quently pressed  him,  and  likewise  the  em- 
press Richilda,  to  rescue  the  capital  of  his 
empire  from  imminent  slavery  and  utter 
ruin. 

As  the  emperor,  diverted  at  this  time  by 
other  wars,  was  not  in  a  condition,  had  he 
been  ever  so  willing,  to  redeem  his  Italian 
dominions  from  the  ravages  of  the  Saracens, 
the  pope  spared  no  pains,  no  promises,  no 
anathemas  to  gain  over  such  of  the  Italian 
princes  as  had  joined  them,  and  prevail  upon 
them  to  enter  into  an  offensive  and  defensive 
alliance  against  them.  He  even  went  in 
person  to  Naples  to  try  whether  he  could, 
by  any  means,  persuade  Athanasius,  duke 
and  bishop  of  that  city,  of  whom  [  have 
spoken  above,^  to  renew  his  alliance  with 
the  sworn  enemies  of  the  Christian  name. 
Athanasius  promised  not  only  to  break  off 
the  treaty  he  had  made  with  them,  but  to 
turn  his  arms  against  them;  and  he  was  for 
that  purpose  supplied  by  the  pope  with  a 
large  sum  of  money.  That  money  the  faith- 
less bishop  employed  in  levying  new  forces 
to  assist  the  Saracens  more  effectually,  and 
oblige  the  neighboring  princes  to  join  them. 
The  pope  therefore  excommunicated  him 
with  great  solemnity  in  a  council  at  Rome,  de- 
claring him  anathematized,  and  suspended 
from  all  the  functions  of  his  office  as  a  bishop, 
till  such  lime  as  he  recalled  all  the  troops  to 
a  man,  that  he  had  sent  to  the  assistance  of 
the  Saracens.'  This  sentence  made  some 
impression  upon  the  bishop,  and  he  sent 
one  of  his  deacons,  but  not  till  a  iwelve- 
month  after,  to  assure  the  pope  that,  pro- 
vided he  absolved  him  from  it,  he  would 
order  all  his  troops  home,  and  thenceforth 
never  lend  the  Saracens  the  least  assistance. 
But  the  pope,  not  satisfied  with  his  barely 
affording  them  no  assistance,  dispatched 
Marinus,  bishop  and  treasurer  of  the  holy 
see,  and  another  person  of  distinction  named 
Sico,  to  let  Athanasius  know,  that  in  order 
to  obtain  the  wished  'for  absolution,  he  must 
convince  him  of  the  sincerity  of  his  repent- 

>  Regino,  Annal.  Metens.  &c. 

Rarnnius  supposes  this  ceremony  to  have  been  per- 
formed in  881,  not  aware  that  Regino,  Sigebert,  Her- 
mannus  Contractus,  and  the  annalist  of  Metz.  whom 
he  follows  thertiin,  reckon  Christmas-day  the  first  day 
of  the  year. 

3  See  p.  386.  »  Johan.  ep.  270. 


292 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Marinus. 


Instance  of  this  pope's  cruelty.  His  death.  His  writings.  The  letter  condemning  the  procession  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  from  the  Father  and  Son  probably  forged.  Allows  the  Moravians  to  say  the  canonical  hours  in  their 
native  language.     Marinus  elected. 


ance,  and  that  he  could  by  no  other  means 
convince  him  of  it  but  by  apprehending  and 
sending  to  Rome  some  of  the  chief  men 
among  the  Saracens,  of  whose  names  Ma- 
rinus would  deliver  him  a  list,  and  cutting 
the  throats  of  the  rest  in  the  presence  of  his 
legates,  "jugulatis  aliis.'"  Such  was  the 
spirit  of  this  blood  thirsty  church,  even  in 
those  early  times. 

The  pope  had  resolved  to  undertake  a 
second  journey  into  France,  in  order  to 
mediate  a  peace  between  the  French  princes 
at  war  with  one  another,  and  had  even  wrote 
to  count  Suppo  to  meet  him  at  mount  Cenis.^ 
But  he  died  in  the  mean  time,  according  to 
the  most  probable  opinion,  on  the  15th  or 
16th  of  December,  882,  having  held  the  see 
ten  years  and  two  days.  The  continuator  of 
the  annals  of  Fulda  writes,  that  the  emperor 
received  the  news  of  the  death  of  pope  John, 
and  was  at  the  same  time  informed,  that  he 
had  been  knocked  on  the  head  with  a  ham- 
mer by  some  who  coveted  his  wealth  and 
aspired  at  his  dignity.  But  of  this  no  notice 
is  taken  by  any  other  writer.  Of  this  pope 
we  have  three  hundred  and  twenty  letters, 
the  fragments  of  some  others,  and  a  consti- 
tution concerning  the  cardinals  commonly 
ascribed  to  him,  but  thought  by  the  best 
critics  to  be  of  a  much  later  date.  Platina 
supposes  the  life  of  pope  Gregory  the  Great, 
comprised  in  four  books,  to  have  been  writ- 
ten by  this  pope  while  he  was  yet  deacon 
of  the  Roman  church.  But  that  mistake  is 
confuted  by  Panvinius.^  The  life  of  Gre- 
gory was  written  during  the  pontificate  of 
pope  John,  and  at  his  request,  by  a  deacon 
of  the  Roman  church  named  John,  which 
probably  led  Platina  into  that  mistake. 

As  for  the  letter  to  Photius,  wherein  the 
pope  condemns  as  blasphemous  the  addition 
of  the  words  "  and  from  the  Son"  to  the 
symbol,  it  is  by  some  looked  upon  as  ge- 
nuine, by  others  as  spurious.  The  style 
certainly  bears  a  very  near  resemblance  to 


that  of  this  pope's  other  letters.  But,  on 
the  other  hand,  as  we  have  a  long  letter  from 
Photius  to  the  patriarch  of  Aquileia  upon 
this  subject,  written  after  the  death  of  the 
present  pope,'  wherein  he  mentions  several 
of  his  predecessors  who  had  disapproved  of 
that  addition,  but,  speaking  of  him,  only 
says,  that  his  legates  at  the  council  of  Con- 
stantinople had  signed  the  symbol  without 
it,  we  may,  I  think,  conclude  from  thence 
the  letter  in  question  to  be  forged.  For  is  it 
not  altogether  incredible  that,  if  Photius  had 
received  such  a  letter  from  pope  John,  he 
would  not  have  mentioned  it,  and  named 
him  among  the  popes  who  had  condemned 
the  said  addition? 

John  confirmed,  at  the  request  of  Sfento 
Pulcher,  prince  of  Moravia,  the  licence,  that 
had  been  granted  by  pope  Nicholas  to  the 
inhabitants  of  that  country,  of  saying  the 
canonical  hours  and  celebrating  mass  in 
their  native  language,  "  the  Sclavonian  lan- 
guage we  justly  commend,"  says  the  pope 
in  his  letter  to  the  prince  I  have  just  men- 
tioned, "  and  order  the  praise  and  the  works 
of  Christ  our  Lord  to  be  celebrated  in  that 
tongue,  being  directed  by  divine  authority  to 
praise  the  Lord  not  in  three  only,  but  in  all 
languages,  agreeably  to  what  we  find  in 
Holy  Writ,  'praise  the  Lord  all  ye  nations, 
and  bless  him  all  ye  people.'  The  apostles 
announced  the  wonderful  works  of  God  in 
all  languages,  &c.  and  he  who  made  the 
three  chief  languages,  the  Hebrew,  the 
Greek,  and  the  Latin,  created  all  the  rest  for 
his  praise  and  glory. "^  The  same  privilege 
was  granted  by  the  Greek  church  to  the 
Russians,  who  speak  the  Sclavonian  lan- 
guage ;  and  they  perform  to  this  day,  as 
well  as  the  Moravians,  divine  service  in 
their  native  tongue.  The  pope  however 
ordered  the  Gospel  to  be  first  read  in  the 
Latin,  and  afterwards,  for  the  sake  of  those 
who  understood  not  that  language,  in  the 
Sclavonian. 


MARINUS,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  SEVENTH  BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[Basilius,  Leo  the  Philosopher,  Emperors  of  ihe  East. — Charles  the  Gross,  Emperor 

of  the  West.'] 

[Year  of  Christ  882.]  In  the  room  of 
John,  and  a  few  days  after  his  death,  was 
unanimously  chosen  by  the  Roman  people, 
Marinus,  called  by  some  Martin  II.,  a  native 
of  Gallesium  in  Tuscany,  and  the  son  of  a 
presbyter  named  Palumbus.''  He  had  been 
sent  to  Constantinople  with  the  character  of 


«  Johan.  ep.  294.  a  idem.  ep.  307. 

3  In  Notis  ad  Platin. 

'  Panvin.  in  Not.  ad  Platin.  et  Annal.  Fuld. 


legate  by  pope  Nicholas  to  excommunicate 
Photius,  by  Hadrian  II.,  to  preside  at  the 
eighth  general  council,  and  by  John  his  im- 
mediate predecessor,  to  annul  the  acts  of  the 
council  held  under  Photius,  and  excom- 
municate him  anew,  as  has  been  related 
above.  Some  will  have  him  to  have  been  a 
bishop  at  the  time  of  his  election,  though  of 
no  particular  see.     But  in  the  annals  of 


<  Apud  Bar.  ad  ann.  > 


a  Johan.  ep.  247. 


Hadrian  III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


293 


Marianus  excommunicates  Photius.     Restores  Formosus.    His  death  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  884.]  Hadrian  chosen. 
Two  decrees  issued  by  him.    The  emperor  Basilius  strives  in  vain  to  reconcile  him  with  Photius. 


Fulda,  continued  by  an  anonymous  writer, 
and  published  by  Freherius,  he  is  said  to 
have  been  raised  from  the  dignity  of  arch- 
deacon of  the  Roman  church  to  that  of 
sovereign  pontiff.  He  was  scarce  warm  in 
the  chair  when  he  declared  the  acts  of  the 
late  council  of  Constantinople  void  and  null, 
excommunicated  Photius,  and  anathema- 
tized all  who  should  communicate  with  him, 
or  acknowledge  him  for  lawful  patriarch ;' 
which  so  provoked  the  emperor  Basilius, 
that  he  never  owned  him  for  lawful  pope, 
alledging  that  he  had  been  translated,  con- 
trary to  the  canons,  from  one  see  to  another, 
and  therefore  was  not  canonically  elected. 

The  next  thing  we  find  recorded  of  Mari- 
nus  is,  that  he  restored  Formosus,  bishop  of 
Porto  to  his  see,  though  he  had  been  often 
excommunicated  by  his  predecessor,  and 
had  even  been  obliged  to  swear,  that  he 
never  would  return  to  Rome  nor  resume  the 
episcopal  dignity,  but  content  himself,  so 
long  as  he  lived,  with  lay  communion. 
From  all  these  oaths  Marinus  absolved  him, 
and  declaring  him  innocent  of  the  crimes  laid 
to  his  charge,  replaced  him  on  his  see.^ 
About  the  same  time  Marinus  sent  the  pall 
to  Fulco  preferred  to  the  archiepiscopal  see 
of  Reims  in  the  room  of  the  famous  Hinc- 


raar,  who  died  on  the  seventeenth  of  Decem- 
ber, 882.  He  is  likewise  said  to  have  sent 
many  valuable  presents  to  Alfred,  king  of 
England,  and  among  the  rest  some  of  the 
wood  of  the  true  cross,  and  to  have  exempted, 
at  that  king's  request,  the  English  school  at 
Rome  from  all  taxes.'  This  is  all  we  know 
of  Marinus.  He  died,  according  to  the  best 
historians,  in  the  second  year  of  his  pontifi- 
cate, having  presided  in  the  apostolic  see  one 
year  and  five  months.^  He  is  said  by  Platina 
to  have  raised  himself  by  wicked  practices.^ 
But  of  such  practices  no  notice  is  taken  by 
any  of  the  more  ancient  writers;  nay,  in  the 
Saxon  chronicle  printed  at  Oxford,  he  is 
styled  a  renowned  pope.^  If  he  was  chosen 
and  ordained  a  few  days  after  the  death  of 
pope  John  in  December,  882,  as  we  are  told 
he  was,  and  held  the  see  one  year  and  five 
months,  his  death  must  have  happened  in 
May  884.  Of  this  pope  no  writings  have 
reached  our  times,  besides  a  charter,  which 
he  granted  to  a  Benedictine  monastery  in  the 
diocese  of  Limoges, empowering  the  monks 
to  chose  their  own  abbot,  according  to  the 
rules  of  the  order,  and  anathematizing  all, 
who  should  be  any  ways  concerned  in  ob- 
liging them  to  receive  one,  whom  they  them- 
selves had  not  freely  chosen.* 


HADRIAN  III.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  EIGHTH  BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[Basilius,  Leo  the  Philosopher,  Emperors  of  the  East. — Charles  the  Gross,  Emperor 

of  the  West.'] 


[Year  of  Christ,  844.]  Marinus  was  suc- 
ceeded by  Hadrian  the  third  of  that  name, 
by  birth  a  Roman,  and  the  son  of  one  Bene- 
dict. He  was  chosen  and  ordained,  so  far 
as  we  can  conjecture  from  the  duration  of 
his  pontificate,  in  the  latter  end  of  May  or 
the  beginning  of  June  884. 

As  the  Saracens  still  continued  their  ra- 
vages in  Italy,  and  burned  in  the  month  of 
September  of  the  present  year  the  rich  mo- 
nastery of  Monte  Cassino,  murdered  the 
abbot  Bertarius  at  the  altar,  and  committed 
many  other  barbarous  murders  without  check 
or  control,  the  emperor  Charles  being  obliged 
to  employ  his  forces  in  the  defence  of  his 
French  dominions  against  the  Normans,  the 
Italians  began  to  think  of  choosing  an  em- 
peror of  their  own  nation,  who,  not  being 
diverted  by  foreign  wars,  nor  having  other 
kingdoms  to  defend,  might  solely  attend  to 
the  defence  of  Italy.  This  measure  the 
Itahan  princes  represented  to  the  pope  as 
the  only  means  of  preserving  Italy  from 
being  brought  in  the  end  under  the  yoke  of 


»  Breviar.  Gra-c.  Synod.  Constantinop.  viii. 
3  Auxil.  du  Ordinationibus  Formos.  I.  ii.  c.  20. 


the  Saracens;  and  Hadrian  is  said  to  have 
issued,  at  their  desire  and  request,  a  decree 
ordaining,  that,  if  Charles  should  die  with- 
out issue  male,  the  kingdom  of  Italy  and  the 
title  of  emperor  should  be  bestowed  upon 
none  but  natives  of  Italy.®  Hadrian  at  the 
same  time  decreed,  that  the  new  pope  should 
be  thenceforth  consecrated  without  waiting 
for  the  imperial  envoys  to  assist  at  his  con- 
secration.'' 

The  emperor  Basilius,  hearing  of  the  pro- 
motion of  Hadrian,  left  nothing  unattempted 
to  reconcile  him  with  Photius,  even  offering 
to  send  a  powerful  fleet  to  assist  him  against 
the  Saracens,  provided  he  communicated 
with  him,  and  acknowledged  him  for  lawful 
patriarch.  But  finding  him  no  less  inflexible 
than  his  immediate  predecessor,  he  wrote 
him  a  very  sharp  letter,  charging  him,  as 
well  as  Marinus,  .whom  he  had  succeeded, 
with  pride,  arrogance,  and  presumption,  as 

1  Math.  Westmon.  et  Sim.  Dunel.  ad  ann.  884. 

a  Marian.  Luitprand.  Martin.  Polon.  &c. 

3  Platin.  in  Martin.  II.    '  Cbron.  Saxon,  ad  ann.  6S3. 

»  Sirmond.  Concil.  Gall. 

«  Sigon.  de  reg.  Italia;,  I.  v.  ad  ann.  884. 

'■  Platin.  et  Ciacon.  in  Hadrian  III. 

z2 


294  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES,        [Stephen  V.  or  VI. 

Death  of  Hadrian  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  885.]  Stephen  unanimously  chosen.  Is  ordained  without  the  emperor's 
knowledge.  Miracle  wrought  by  him  after  his  consecration.  His  liberality.  His  answer  to  a  letter  from 
the  emperor  Basilius  to  his  predecessor. 


if  ihey  sacrificed  the  peace  and  tranquillity 
of  the  church  to  their  own  private  views  and 
the  exaltation  of  their  see.  Hadrian  did  not 
live  to  receive  this  letter,  but  died  on  his 
way  to  Worms,  being  invited  by  the  empe- 
ror to  assist  at  a  diet  there.  In  that  diet  the 
emperor  proposed  to  depose  some  bishops, 
very  unjustly,  says  the  annalist  of  Fulda, 
and  wanted  for  that  purpose  the  authority 


of  the  pope.  But  his  design,  adds  the  an- 
nalist, was  defeated  by  the  death  of  the  pope, 
who  died  in  the  neighborhood  of  Modena, 
and  was  buried  in  the  monastery  of  Nonan- 
tula,  about  five  miles  from  that  place.'  If 
Hadrian  held  the  see  one  year  and  four 
months,  as  we  read  in  most  of  the  catalogues 
of  the  popes,  his  death  must  have  happened 
about  the  month  of  September  885. 


STEPHEN  V.  OR  VI.,  HUNDRED  AND  NINTH  BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[Basilius,  Leo  the  Philosopher,  Emperors  nf  the  East. — Charles  the  Gross,  Wido, 

Emperors  of  the  West.'] 

[Year  of  Christ,  885.]  The  news  of  Ha- 
drian's death  no  sooner  reached  Rome,  than 
the  people,  the  clergy,  and  the  nobility,  as- 
sembled to  choose  him  a  successor;  and  they 
unanimously  chose  Stephen,  by  birth  a  Ro- 
man, and  presbyter  of  that  church,  all  crying 
out  with  one  voice,  "we  will  have  Stephen, 
and  no  other,  for  our  bishop."  They  went 
accordingly  all  in  a  body  from  the  place  of 
election  to  his  house,  and  carried  him  by 
force  (for  he  was  the  only  person  that  op- 
posed his  election)  to  the  Lateran  palace, 
and  there  placed  him  upon  the  patriarchal 
throne.  The  very  next  day,  being  Sunday, 
he  was  attended  by  the  whole  Roman  clergy 
to  the  basilic  of  the  prince  of  the  apostles, 
and  ordained  or  consecrated  there  with  the 
usual  solemnity. • 

As  the  emperor  heard  at  the  same  time  of 
his  election  and  consecration,  he  highly  re- 
sented their  having  performed  that  ceremony 
without  consulting  him,  or  wailing  for  the 
arrival  of  his  envoys  to  assist  at  it  in  his 
name ;  and  he  immediately  despatched  Lin- 
tard,  bishop  of  Vercelli,  and  some  other 
bishops,  with  orders  to  depose  him.  But 
the  pope  having  sent  to  him,  by  a  solemn 
legation,  the  decree  of  his  election,  signed  by 
thirty  bishops,  and  by  all  the  leading  men  of 
the  clergy,  the  nobility,  and  the  people,  he 
■was  appeased,  revoked  the  order  he  had 
given,  and  acknowledged  Stephen  for  lawful 
pope.2 

Stephen  was  come  of  a  noble  and  wealthy 
family,  was  greatly  beloved  by  pope  Hadrian 
II.  and  likewise  by  Marinus,  who  ordained 
him  priest,  and  was  held  in  the  greatest  ve- 
neration by  all  ranks  of  men  for  the  purity 
and  sanctity  of  his  life.  They  had  long  had 
a  great  drought  at  Rome,  and  the  neighbor- 
ing country  was  at  the  same  time  infested 
with  prodigious  swarms  of  locusts  that 
every  where  devoured  the  fruits  of  the  earth, 
which  the  Saracens  were  not  able  to  carry 


«  Gulielm.  Biblioth.  in  Steph.  VI. 
>  Annal.  Fuld.  ad  ann.  885. 


off.  Thus  a  dreadful  famine  began  to  rage 
in  Rome.  But  the  very  day  Stephen  was 
chosen,  and  even  before  he  got  to  the  Late- 
ran palace,  a  plentiful  shower  fell;  and  as  to 
the  locusts,  in  order  to  encourage  the  people 
to  destroy  them,  he  publicly  promised  a  re- 
ward of  six  denarii  a  bushel.  But  finding 
that  they  multiplied  as  fast  as  they  were  de- 
stroyed, and  consequently  that  to  extirpate 
them  he  must  put  himself  to  the  expense  of 
a  miracle,  he  blessed  a  great  quantity  of 
water,  and  distributed  it  among  the  people, 
ordering  them  to  sprinkle  their  corn  and 
vines  Avith  it.  They  did  so,  and  the  ground 
was  soon  every  where  covered  with  heaps 
of  those  dead  insects.^  His  generosity  and 
charity  to  the  poor  do  more  honor  to  his  me- 
mory than  all  his  miracles.  For  finding 
nothing  in  the  patriarchal  palace  but  bare 
walls,  the  furniture,  money,  and  every  thing 
else  being  carried  off  upon  the  first  news  of 
his  predecessor's  death,  according  to  the  cus- 
tom that  began  then  to  prevail,  and  obtains 
to  this  day,  he  was  obliged  to  recur  to  his 
own  patrimony  ;  and  he  generously  expended 
it  in  maintaining  the  poor  during  the  famine, 
in  relieving  the  orphans,  many  of  whom  he 
fed  daily  at  his  own  table,  and  in  privately 
supplying  with  all  the  necessaries  of  life 
noble  but  unfortunate  and  decayed  families.^ 
Such  is  the  character  the  bibliothecarian 
gives  us  of  the  present  pope. 

The  letter  that  the  emperor  Basilius  wrote 
to  Hadrian,  filled  with  severe  reflections 
upon  that  pope,  as  well  as  upon  his  prede- 
cessor Marinus,  for  not  communicating  with 
Photius,  as  has  been  said  above,  was  deli- 
vered to  Stephen,  and  he  answered  it  a  few 
days  after  his  consecration.  The  emperor's 
letter,  said  by  Baronius  to  have  been  fraught 
with  blasphemies,  has  not  reached  our  times, 
but  Stephen's  answer  to  it  has ;  and  the  pope 
begins  it  with  fixing  the  limits  of  the  two 
powers,  the  spiritual  and  the  temporal,  telling 

«  Annal.  Fuld.  ad  Ann.  885. 

2  Guil.  Biblioth.  in  Steph.  VI.         '  Idem  ibid. 


Stephen  "V.  or  VI.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


295 


Death  of  the  emperor  Basiliua  ;  Photius  deposed,  and  confined  to  a  monastery  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  886.3 
Stephen,  the  emperor  Leo's  brother,  substituted  in  his  room.  The  emperor  writes  to  the  pope  for  a  dispen- 
sation in  behalf  of  his  brother,  ordained  deacon  by  Photius. 


the  emperor,  that  it  is  his  province  to  check 
tyrants  with  the  sword,  to  administer  justice, 
to  make  laws,  and  to  command  fleets  and 
armies;  but  that  the  oare  of  the  flock  was 
committed  to  St.  Peter,  and  in  him  to  his 
successors  in  the  apostolic  see;  and  that 
their  power  is  as  much  above  all  temporal 
power,  as  heaven  is  above  the  earth.  From 
thence  he  lakes  occasion  to  exhort  the  em- 
peror not  to  meddle  with  the  affairs  of  the 
church,  but  contenting  himself  with  his  own 
province,  to  leave  the  disposal  of  spiritual 
concerns  to  those  whom  the  Lord  has  trusted 
with  the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  In 
the  next  place  the  pope  proceeds  to  answer 
the  reason  the  emperor  had  alledged  for  not 
acknowledging  Marinus  for  lawful  bishop, 
namely,  because  he  had  been  translated, 
contrary  to  the  canons,  from  one  see  to 
another.  Stephen  positively  asserts  that  he 
was  no  bishop  at  the  time  of  his  election; 
that  the  emperor  could  not  prove  that  he 
was;  and  that  he  therefore  ought  not,  upon 
that  account,  to  have  looked  upon  his  pro- 
motion to  the  apostolic  see  as  inconsistent 
with  the  canons.  He  adds,  that  the  canons 
may,  on  many  occasions,  be  dispensed  with, 
alledges  several  instances  of  translations  in 
the  eastern  churches  approved  by  men  emi- 
nent for  their  sanctity,  and  concludes  from 
thence,  that  the  canons,  forbidding  transla- 
tions, are  not  binding  in  all  cases,  and  con- 
sequently that  Marinus  might  have  been 
translated,  which,  he  says,  was  not  the  case, 
from  another  see  to  the  first  without  any 
breach  of  the  laws  of  the  church.  The  pope 
then  complains  of  the  emperor,  but  in  the 
most  respectful  terms,  for  taking  intq  his 
protection  one  so  often  and  so  justly  con- 
demned, excommunicated,  and  anathema- 
tized by  the  apostolic  see;  expresses  great 
surprise  at  his  giving  ear  to  the  enemies  of 
Marinus  striving  to  prejudice  him  against 
that  holy  pontiff  worthy  of  eternal  memory; 
condoles  the  church  of  Constantinople  upon 
its  being  destitute  of  a  pastor,  and  only  go- 
verned by  a  layman;  declares,  that  if  he 
were  not  restrained  by  his  great  regard  for  a 
prince,  so  well  deserving  of  the  church  in 
other  respects,  he  would  treat  the  usurper 
Photius  with  more  severity  than  any  of  his 
predecessors  had  done,  and  closes  his  letter 
with  congratulating  the  emperor  upon  his 
having  destined  one  of  his  sons,  namely, 
Stephen  the  youngest  of  the  three,  for  the 
priesthood,  and  earnestly  entreating  him  to 
send  a  fleet  to  protect  the  coast,  and  a  body 
of  troops  to  garrison  and  defend  the  city  of 
Rome,  in  imminent  danger  of  falling  into 
the  hands  of  the  Saracens.  We  may  judge 
of  the  deplorable  condition  to  which  Rome 
was  reduced  at  this  lime,  from  their  wanting 
even  oil,  as  we  read  in  the  close  of  the  pope's 
letter,  for  the  lamps  of  the  churches. • 

>  Apud  Baron,  ad  ann.  885. 


This  letter  was  written  by  the  pope  soon 
after  his  consecration,  and  consequently  in 
the  latter  end  of  September  885,  but  it  did 
not  reach  Constantinople  till  the  year  886, 
after  the  death  of  the  emperor  Basilius, 
which  happened  upon  the  first  of  March  of 
that  year,  after  he  had  reigned  one  year 
with  the  emperor  Michael,  and  nineteen 
alone.'  He  was  succeeded  by  his  second 
son  Leo,  surnaraed  the  Philosopher,  or  the 
Wise,  his  eldest  son  Constanline  dying  be- 
fore his  father :  and  to  him  was  delivered 
the  pope's  letter  addressed  to  his  father. 
As  Photius  was  charged  after  the  death  of 
Basilius  with  having  formed  a  design  of 
raising  a  relation  of  his  own  to  the  imperial 
throne,  the  new  emperor,  upon  the  receipt 
of  the  pope's  letter,  took  occasion  from 
thence  to  drive  him,  as  guilty  of  high  trea- 
son, from  the  patriarchal  see,  and  confine 
him,  so  long  as  he  lived,  to  a  monastery  in 
Armenia  called  Bardi. 

To  him  Leo  substituted  his  own  brother 
prince  Stephen,  who  had  then  scarce  com- 
pleted the  sixteenth  year  of  his  age.  But 
as  he  had  been  ordained  deacon  by  Photius, 
and  all  ordinations,  performed  by  him,  were 
declared  null  by  the  decrees  of  several 
popes,  as  well  as  by  a  decree  of  the  eighth 
general  council,  and  such  as  had  received 
orders  at  his  hands  were  rendered  incapable 
of  ever  rising  to  a  higher  degree  in  the 
church,  the  emperor  apprehended  that  the 
pope  might  insist  on  the  observance  of  those 
canons,  and  not  consent  to  the  promotion  of 
the  new  patriarch.  Having  therefore  invited 
to  a  conference  Stylianus,  metropolitan  of 
Neocesarea  in  Euphratesia,  and  with  him 
all  the  bishops,  presbyters,  deacons,  abbots, 
and  clerks,  who  had  suffered  most  for  not 
acknowledging  Photius,  nor  communicating 
with  him,  he  addressed  them  thus  :  "  I 
have,  upon  mature  deliberation,  driven  that 
wicked  man  Photius  from  the  patriarchal 
see,  and  happily  put  an  end  to  the  persecu- 
tion you  have  suffered.  I  shall  require  none 
of  you  to  communicate  with  him.  On  the 
contrary,  I  beg  you  will  all  communicate 
with  my  brother,  that  Ave  may  again  become 
one  flock.  But  he  has  been  ordained  deacon 
by  Photius,  whom  the  Romans  have  con- 
demned, if  you  do  not  choose  to  acknowledge 
him  without  first  consulting  them,  let  us  write 
jointly  to  the  pope  for  his  absolution  in  be- 
half of  those  whom  Photius  has  ordained. "2 

The  emperor  wrote  to  the  pope  accord- 
ingly, and  so  did  Stylianus,  in  the  name  of 
all  the  bishops,  presbyters,  &.c.  in  the  east, 
who  communicated  with  Rome,  begging 
his  holiness  to  dispense  with  their  ordaining 
the  new  patriarch  contrary  to  the  canons, 
and  to  forgive  those,  who,  being  imposed 
upon  by  the  craft  of  the  usurper  Photius, 
had  communicated  with  him  upon  the  death 


'  Porpbyr.  in  Basil. 


a  Apud  Baron,  ad  ann. 


296 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES,  [Stephen  V.  or  VI. 


The  pope's  answer  to  the  emperor's  letter.  Charles  the  Gross  dies ; — [Year  of  Christ,  888.]  Wido,  duke 
of  Spoleti,  chosen  emperor,  and  crowned  at  Rome  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  891.]  Death  of  pope  Stephen.  His 
letters,  and  some  of  his  actions. 


of  Ignatius.  Stylianus  in  his  letter  (for  that 
of  the  emperor  has  not  reached  our  times) 
assures  the  pope  that  he  had  opposed  the 
intrusion  of  Photius  from  the  beginning; 
enumerates  the  many  crimes,  with  which 
he  twice  opened  himself  a  way  to  the  patri- 
archal throne,  reckoning  among  them  the 
murder  of  his  predecessor  Ignatius ;  excuses 
those,  who  had  communicated  with  him,  as 
having  been  induced  to  it  by  the  legates  of 
the  apostolic  see,  whom  the  emperor  had, 
on  the  one  hand,  terrified  with  his  menaces, 
and  Photius,  on  the  other,  allured  with  his 
presents ;  declares,  that  to  his  certain  know- 
ledge not  one  of  the  many,  who  had  com- 
municated with  Photius,  had  done  so  by 
choice,  and  closes  his  letter  with  the  fol- 
lowing words;  "As  we  know  that  we  are 
to  be  corrected,  and  reprimanded  by  your 
apostolic  see,  we  humbly  beseech  you  to 
deal  mercifully  with  us,  and  receive  those, 
who  have  gone  astray,  but  repent  and  return 
to  the  fold ;  that  by  your  means  peace  may 
be  restored  in  our  days  to  a  church,  that  has 
been  so  long  divided  and  rent  into  parties." 

The  pope,  in  his  answer,  not  only  ap- 
proved of  but  expressed  great  satisfaction  at 
the  expulsion  of  Photius.  However,  ob- 
serving no  small  disagreement  between  the 
emperor's  letter  and  that  of  Stylianus,  the 
emperor  writing,  that  Photius  had  abdicated 
of  his  own  accord  to  lead  a  solitary  life,  and 
Stylianus  that  he  had  been  driven  from  his 
see,  he  would  determine  nothing  with  re- 
spect to  the  dispensation  for  which  they 
applied  ;  but  desired  that  bishops  might  be 
sent  by  both  parties,  since  he  could  not  give 
sentence  without  hearing  the  one  as  well  as 
the  other.  The  emperor  and  the  bishops, 
upon  the  receipt  of  the  pope's  letter,  de- 
spatched legates  to  Rome,  to  give  the  pope 
a  minute  account  of  the  expulsion  of  Pho- 
tius and  of  every  thing  that  had  passed  on 
that  occasion.  But  as  Stephen  died  before 
their  arrival,  we  shall  have  occasion  to  speak 
of  the  success  of  this  legation  in  the  follow- 
ing pontificate. 

In  the  mean  time  died  in  the  month  of 
January, 888,  the  emperor  Charles  the  Gross, 
and,  as  he  left  no  male  issue,  the  Italian 
princes  determined  to  choose  a  king  of  their 
own  nation;  but  not  being  able  to  agree 
among  themselves,  some  acknowledging  Be- 
rengarius,  duke  of  Friuli,  and  others  Wido, 
duke  of  Spoleti,  the  whole  country  was  di- 
vided into  two  opposite  factions,  and  in- 
volved by  that  means  in  the  utmost  confu- 


sion. The  pope,  siding  at  first  with  neither 
of  the  competitors,  invited  Arnulph,  king 
of  Germany,  the  natural  son  of  Carloman, 
brother  to  the  late  emperor,  into  Italy,  to 
take  possession  of  that  kingdom,  and  deliver 
the  unhappy  people  from  the  calamities  of  a 
civil  and  destructive  war.  But  Arnulph 
being  then  engaged  in  another  war,  the  pope 
and  the  Romans  declared  for  Wido,  who, 
finding  his  party  thus  greatly  strengthened, 
attacked  Berengarius  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Placentia,  and  having  gained  a  complete 
victory,  made  himself  master  of  all  Lora- 
bardy  in  890,  and  going  the  following  year 
to  Rome,  was  there,  on  the  21st  of  February, 
crowned  emperor  by  the  pope  with  the  usual 
solemnity.' 

The  pope  died,  according  to  the  most  pro- 
bable opinion,  about  the  latter  end  of  Sep- 
tember of  the  same  year,  after  a  pontificate 
of  nine  years  and  fourteen  days  according 
to  some,  but  only  of  nine  days  according  to 
others.  That  Stephen  governed  the  Roman 
church  nine  years,  and  should  be  called,  not 
the  VI.,  but  the  V.  of  that  name,  appears 
from  his  epitaph,  which  was  still  to  be  seen 
in  the  old  porch  of  St.  Peters'  church  in 
Manlius'  time,  as  that  writer  informs  us, 
and  is  as  follows  : 

"  Hie  tumulus  quinti  sacratos  continet  artus 
Praesulls  eximii  pontificis  Stephani; 
Bis  teruis  annis  populum  qui  rexit  &  urbum." 

Several  letters  passed  between  this  pope 
and  Fulco  of  Reims,  that  are  to  be  met  with 
in  Flodoard's  history  of  that  church.  Lewis, 
the  son  of  Boso,  who  had  been  chosen  king 
of  Burgundy  and  Provence,  was  indebted 
to  pope  Stephen  for  the  kingdom  which  his 
father  had  possessed.  For  it  was  upon  the 
pope's  recommendation  that  the  bishops 
crowned  and  anointed  him  king,  though  he 
was  then  only  ten  years  of  age ;  and  we 
shall  see  him  hereafter  raised  to  the  imperial 
throne.  We  have  a  sermon  preached  by 
this  pope  against  the  using  of  charms,  and 
talking  at  church.^  He  forbade  the  keepers 
of  St.  Peter's  church  to  exact,  or  even  to 
accept  any  thing  of  those  who  said  mass 
there;  a  custom  which  they  had  introduced, 
or  rather  revived  in  the  pontificate  of  his 
predecessor.  He  is  likewise  said  to  have 
abolished  several  other  abuses,  which  the 
preceding  popes  had  connived  at,  and  among 
the  rest  that  of  the  ordeal  by  fire  and  hot 
water. 


'  Herman.    Contract,   ad  ann.   890  Luitprand,  1.  i. 
3igon.  de  reg.  Italiie,  1.  vi.  Annal.  Metens. 
3  Apud  Baron,  ad  ann.  890. 


FOBMOSUS.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


297 


Formosus  raised  to  the  pontifical  chair.  Is  commended  by  several  writers.  Refuses  the  dispensation  sued 
for  by  the  emperor  Leo  in  favor  of  his  brother  ;  who  is,  nevertheless,  raised  to  the  patriarchal  throne.  Coun- 
cil of  Vienne  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  892.]  The  African  bishops,  divided  among  themselves,  apply  to  Formosua. 
He  espouses  the  cause  of  Charles  the  Simple  against  Odo  ; — Year  of  Christ,  893.] 


FORMOSUS,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  TENTH  BISHOP  OF  ROxME. 

[Leo  the  Philosopher,  Emperor  of  the  East. — Wido,  Lambert,  and  Arnulph,  Emperors 

of  the  West.'] 


[Year  of  Christ  891.]  In  the  room  of 
Stephen  was  chosen  Formosus,  bishop  of 
Porto,  who  had  been  so  often  excommuni- 
cated by  John  VIII.,  and  even  obliged  to 
swear  that  he  would  never  return  to  Rome, 
nor  ever  exercise  any  episcopal  functions, 
but  content  himself  with  lay  communion  so 
long  as  he  lived.  But  from  this  oath  he 
was  absolved  by  pope  Marinus,'  and  upon 
the  death  of  Stephen  raised  to  the  apostolic 
see  from  that  of  Porto,  to  which  Marinus 
had  restored  him.  He  is  the  first  that  was 
translated  from  another  see  to  that  of  Rome, 
the  preceding  popes  having  all  been  chosen 
from  among  the  presbyters  and  deacons  of 
that  church.  Formosus,  though  persecuted 
by  pope  John  VIII.  in  the  manner  we  have 
seen,  is  commended  by  Luitprand  for  the 
sanctity  of  his  life  and  the  knowledge  of  the 
Scripture,^  and  several  other  writers,  who 
flourished  at  the  same  time,  speak  of  him 
as  one  worthy,  in  every  respect,  of  the  high 
station  to  which  he  was  raised.  Luitprand 
supposes  one  Sergius,  deacon  of  the  Roman 
church,  to  have  been  chosen  at  the  same  time, 
but  to  have  been  driven  from  the  see  by  the 
party  of  Formosus,  the  more  powerful  of 
the  two.''  But  that  this  schism  happened 
on  occasion  of  the  election  of  John  IX.,  and 
not  of  Formosus,  shall  be  made  to  appear 
in  the  sequel. 

The  legates,  sent  by  the  emperor  Leo  and 
the  eastern  bishops,  of  whom  I  have  spoken 
in  the  foregoing  pontificate,  arrived  at  Rome 
soon  after  the  promotion  of  Formosus,  and 
were  received  by  him  with  all  possible  marks 
of  respect  and  esteem.  However  he  could 
not  be  prevailed  upon  to  grant  them  their 
request,  and  allow  those  who  had  been  or- 
dained by  Photius  to  keep  their  ranks  in  the 
church,  or  to  be  preferred  to  a  higher  de- 
gree, since  their  ordination  had  been  de- 
clared null  by  the  decrees  of  his  predecessors, 
and  those  of  a  general  council.  All  the  en- 
voys could  obtain  of  him  was,  that  such  as 
had  been  ordained  by  Photius,  and  had  com- 
municated with  him,  should  be  admitted  to 
lay  communion,  upon  their  acknowledging 
their  fault,  and  asking  pardon  for  it  in  writ- 
ing. But  the  Greeks,  to  avoid  the  confusion 
that  the  deposing  of  all  the  bishops,  priests, 
deacons,  and  other  clerks  whom  Photius  had 
ordained,  would  occasion  in  the  church  of 
Constantinople,  thought  it  advisable  to  leave 


t  See  p.  293. 

'  Luitp.  1.  i.  c.  8. 

Vol.  II.— 38 


•Luitp.  1.  i.  c.  8. 


them  in  their  respective  ranks,  and  commu- 
nicate with  them  upon  their  condemning 
Photius,  and  owning  they  had  done  wrong 
in  receiving  ordination  at  his  hands.  Thus 
Stephen,  the  emperor's  brother,  though  or- 
dained deacon  by  Pholius  was  acknowledged 
for  lawful  patriarch  by  all  the  bishops  in  the 
East,  no  regard  being  had  by  them  to  the 
decrees  of  the  popes,  forbidding  those  to  be 
ever  preferred  to  a  higher  rank,  who  had 
been  admitted  by  him  to  any  degree  what- 
ever in  the  church.* 

The  following  year  Formosus  appointed 
a  council  to  meet  at  Vienne,  in  order  to  re- 
dress some  abuses,  that  prevailed  in  the  king-- 
dom  of  Aries,  and  sent  the  two  bishops 
John  and  Paschal  to  preside  at  it.  By  that 
council  excommunications  were  thundered 
outagainst  laymen,  who  should  strike  clerks,, 
make  them  eunuchs,  or  any  otherwise  muti- 
late or  maim  them,  should  usurp  lands  be- 
longing to  the  church,  dispose  of  churches 
without  the  consent  of  the  bishop  of  the  dio- 
cese, or  exact  fees  of  those  whom  they  pre- 
sented to  vacant  benefices.  By  the  same 
council  ecclesiastics  of  all  ranks  were  strict- 
ly enjoined  to  suffer  no  women  in  their 
houses.^ 

As  the  churches  in  Africa  were  no  less 
divided  among  themselves  than  those  in  the 
East,  the  African  bishops  sent  deputies  to 
consult  Formosus  concerning  the  points 
that  occasioned  their  division,  entreating 
him  to  return  them  a  full  and  speedy  answer, 
and  put  an  end,  by  that  means,  to  the  schism,, 
that  had  long  prevailed  among  them.  What 
these  points  were,  history  does  not  inforni' 
us  :  but  from  a  letter,  written  by  the  pope 
to  Fulco  of  Reims  at  this  very  time,  it  ap- 
pears, that,  upon  the  arrival  of  the  Africaa 
deputies,  he  resolved  to  assemble  a  very  nu- 
merous council  at  Rome,  in  order  to  advise 
with  them  what  answer  he  should  return. 
He  appointed  the  council  to  meet  in  the 
month  of  May  of  the  present  year,  and,  in 
his  letter  to  Fulco,  desired  him  to  repair  to 
it  without  delay,  that  he  might  consult  him. 
at  leisure.*  But  the  meeting  of  the  council 
was  afterwards  put  off  till  the  first  of  March 
of  the  following  year;  and  we  have  reason 
to  believe,  that  it  was  not  held  even  then, 
no  mention  being  made  of  it  by  any  writer 
of  those  days. 

Formosus  espoused  with  great  zeal  the 

«  Concil.  torn.  ix.  p.  428.       «  Idem  torn.  U.  p-  434. 
'  Flodoard,  I.  iv.  c.  2. 


298 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[FORMOSUS. 


Great  revolutions  in  Italy  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  894.]  Arnulph,  king  of  Germany,  lays  siege  to  Rome  ;— [Year 
of  Christ,  895.]  The  Romans  yield  and  admit  him  into  the  city.  He  is  crowned  emperor  by  Formosus 
Oath  taken  by  the  Romans. 


cause  of  Charles  of  France,  surnamed  the 
Simple,  against  Odo  or  Eudes,  who  upon 
the  death  of  Lewis  the  Stammerer,  that 
prince's  father,  had  seized  on  the  kingdom 
of  Acquitaine  and  the  country  lying  between 
the  Seine  and  the  Loire,  and  had  been  even 
anointed  king  of  France  by  Walterius  arch- 
bishop of  Sens.  We  have  several  letters 
written  by  the  pope  on  occasion  of  Odo's 
usurpation,  some  of  them  to  Odo  himself, 
exhorting  him  to  restore  to  the  lawful  heir 
the  countries  which  he  had  unjustly  seized; 
and  some  to  the  Gallican  bishops,  requiring 
them  to  interpose  their  good  offices  with  the 
usurper,  and  divert  him,  if  by  any  means 
they  could,  from  kindling  a  war,  whereof 
the  issues  are  uncertain,  in  the  bowels  of  the 
kingdom.  But  no  regard  was  had  by  Odo 
either  to  the  exhortations  of  the  pope  or  the 
remonstrances  of  the  bishops;  and  Charles, 
though  crowned  king  of  all  France  by  the 
archbishop  of  Reims  on  the  28th  of  January, 

893,  was,  in  897,  obliged  to  yield  great  part 
of  that  kingdom  to  his  competitor,  that  is, 
the  whole  country  from  the  Seine  to  the 
Pyrenees.'  But  Odo  dying  the  following 
year,  Charles  was  owned  by  all  sole  king  of 
France;  and  thus  was  that  crown  restored 
to  the  family  of  Charlemagne. 

Great  revolutions  happened  at  the  same 
time  in  Italy.     The  emperor  Wido  dying  in 

894,  his  son  Lambert  whom  he  had  taken 
for  his  partner  in  the  enTpire,  was  the  same 
year  crowned  emperor  by  Formosus.  But 
a  most  bloody  war  breaking  out  between  him 
and  Berengarius,  who  upon  the  death  of 
Wido  had  revived  his  claim  to  the  kingdom 
of  Italy,  the  pope,  to  put  an  end  to  the 
calamities  attending  so  destructive  a  war, 
invited  Arnulph  king  of  Germany  to  Rome, 
promising  to  crown  him  emperor,  provided 
he  drove  out  both  the  tyrants,  and  restored 
peace,  with  his  victorious  arms,  to  the 
harassed  country.  Arnulph  readily  com- 
plied with  the  invitation,  and  entering  Italy 
at  the  head  of  a  powerful  army,  made  him- 
self master  of  the  whole  country,  now 
known  by  the  name  of  Lombardy.  But  in- 
stead of  pursuing  his  march  to  Rome,  he 
unexpectedly  turned  his  arms  against  Ru- 
dulph,  who,  upon  the  death  of  Lewis  the 
Stammerer,  had  caused  himself  to  be  pro- 
claimed king  of  Burgundy.  However  he 
re-entered  Italy  the  following  year,  but 
found,  on  his  arrival  at  Rome,  the  gates 
shut,  and  the  city  walls  defended  by  a 
numerous  garrison,  Agiltruda,  mother  of  the 
emperor  Lambert,  having  shut  herself  up  in 
the  place  with  the  flower  of  the  imperial 
troops.  As  her  party  prevailed  in  the  city, 
the  pope  could  afl'ord  no  assistance  to  the 
king  of  Germany,  being  himself  kept,  in  a 
manner,  prisoner  by  Agiltruda  and  her 
friends,  determined  to  stand  a  siege  and  de- 


<  Flodoard,  1.  iv.  c.  2.  Annal.  Metens. 


fend  the  place  to  the  last  extremity.  Ar- 
nulph therefore  attacked  first  the  Leonine 
city  with  his  whole  army,  flattering  himself 
that  he  should  carry  it  by  assault.  But  he 
met  with  a  vigorous  resistance,  and  was  re- 
pulsed with  no  small  loss.  He  resolved  to 
renew  the  attack  the  next  day :  but  in  the 
mean  time  an  odd  accident  put  him  in  pos- 
session of  the  place,  Avithout  any  blood  being 
shed  on  the  one  side  or  the  other.  A  hare, 
starting  up  among  the  troops  as  they  were 
preparing  for  the  assault,  and  running  to- 
wards the  city,  the  soldiers  pursued  it  with 
loud  shouts  ;  and  the  besieged,  imagining 
they  were  advancing  thus  undauntedly  to  the 
assault,  were  seized  with  a  panic,  fled  from 
the  walls  in  the  utmost  confusion,  and  could 
by  no  means  be  prevailed  upon  by  their 
commanders  to  return  to  their  posts.  Ar- 
nulph, perceiving  the  walls  were  abandoned 
on  all  sides,  laid  hold  of  the  opportunity,  as 
favorable  as  unexpected,  and  marching  that 
moment  up  to  the  walls,  took  the  place  by 
escalade  without  the  loss  of  a  single  man. 
Arnulph,  now  master  of  the  Leonine  city, 
was  preparing  to  attack  the  other  part  of  the 
city  separated  from  this  by  the  Tiber.  But 
in  the  mean  time  the  senate  and  the  nobility 
submitted  to  the  conqueror,  came  out  in  a 
body  with  their  standards  and  crosses  to  re- 
ceive him,  and  implore  his  protection  against 
the  insults  of  his  victorious  army. 

The  pope,  now  set  at  liberty,  received  the 
king  upon  the  steps  of  St.  Peter's  church, 
and  attending  him,  with  the  whole  body  of 
the  clergy,  to  the  tomb  of  the  apostle,  he 
anointed  and  crowned  him  emperor  that 
very  day.  The  next  day  the  new  emperor 
having  ordered  the  heads  of  the  Roman 
people  to  meet  in  the  church  of  St.  Paul, 
obliged  them  to  lake  the  following  oath  of 
allegiance  :  "  I  swear  by  all  these  holy  mys- 
teries, that,  saving  my  honor,  my  law,  and  the 
fidelity  I  owe  to  my  lord  pope  Formosus,  I 
am,  and  shall  be  faithful  all  the  days  of  my 
life  to  the  emperor  Arnulph  ;  that  I  shall 
never  join  any  man  against  him;  that  I  shall 
never  assist  Lambert,  the  son  of  Agiltruda, 
nor  Agiltruda ;  and  that  I  shall  never  deliver, 
nor  be  any  ways  accessory  to  the  delivering 
of  the  city  of  Rome  to  either  of  them,  or  to 
any  of  their  party."  As  Agiltruda  had  the 
good  luck  to  make  her  escape,  and  had 
thrown  herself  into  the  city  of  Spoleti,  Ar- 
nulph, having  appointed  Eurold  governor 
of  Rome,  left  that  city  after  a  short  stay 
there  of  fifteen  days,  and  taking  with  him 
Constantine  and  Stephen,  two  leading  men 
in  the  senate,  who  had  distinguished  them- 
selves by  their  attachment  to  Lambert, 
marched  to  Spoleti  with  a  design  to  lay 
siege  to  that  city ;  but,  being  taken  ill  on  his 
march,  he  dropped  that  design,  and  returned 
to  Bavaria. 

Upon  his  retreat  the  war  was  rekindled 


Boniface  VI.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


299 


Lambert  and  Berengarius  divide,  by  agreement,  the  kingdom  of  Italy ;— [Year  of  Christ,  896.]  Death  of 
Formosus  and  his  character.  Letter  or  bull  of  this  pope  to  king  Edward  of  England  a  manifest  forgery. 
Boniface,  a  man  of  a  most  infamous  character.     Dies  soon  after  his  election. 


between  Berengarius  and  Lambert  about  the 
kingdom  of  Italy,  bothi  claiming  that  king- 
dom and  the  title  of  emperor  with  it.  Thus 
was  the  whole  country  again  divided,  more 
than  ever,  into  parties,  some  declaring  for 
Lambert,  others  for  Berengarius,  and  some 
for  Arnulph.  As  Arnulph  was  then  en- 
gaged in  other  wars,  and  seemed  to  have 
laid  aside  all  thoughts  of  ever  returning  into 
Italy,  the  pope  left  nothing  unatlempted  to 
bring  about  a  reconciliation  between  the 
other  two :  and  they  were  in  the  end  pre- 
vailed upon,  in  896,  to  divide  the  kingdom  of 
Lombardy  between  them.' 

In  the  same  year  896,  and  on  Easter-day, 
which  fell  that  year  ou  the  fourth  of  April, 
died  pope  Formosus,  after  a  pontificate  of 
four  years  and  six  months.-  Luitprand 
speaks  of  him  as  a  man  truly  religious,  and 
well  versed  in  the  sacred  writings.^  Fulco, 
archbishop  of  Reims,  a  prelate  no  less  con- 
spicuous for  his  piety  and  learning  than  his 
high  birth,  being  descended  from  Charle- 
magne, and  first  cousin  to  the  emperor 
Wido,  looked  upon  the  election  of  Formosus 
as  a  mark  of  the  church  being  under  the 
immediate  protection  of  heaven;^  Auxilius, 
who  lived  at  this  time,  writes,  that  he  drank 
no  wine,  that  he  never  tasted  meat,  and  that 
he  died  a  virgin  in  the  80th  year  of  his  age ; 


and  what  he  writes  is  contirmed  by  Flodoard 
commending  this  pope  for  his  chastity,  his 
sobriety,  his  generosity  to  the  poor,  his 
zeal  in  propagating  the  Gospel,  &,c.  His 
words  are 

Prssul  hie  egregius  Formosus  liiudibus  altis 
Evehitur,  castas,  parcus  sibi,  largus  egenis. 
Buljarica;  genti  fidei  qui  semina  spar.^it, 
Delubra  destruxit,  populum  ccelestibus  armis 
Instruxil,  tolerans  discrimina  plurima  :  promptus 
Exemplum  tribuens  ut  sint  adversa  ferenda, 
Et  bene  viventi  metuenda  incommoda  nulla.' 

However  we  shall  soon  see  this  pope's 
body  taken  out  of  the  grave,  most  barbar- 
ously insulted,  and  thrown  ignominiously 
into  the  Tiber. 

As  for  ttie  letter  or  bull  said  by  Malms- 
bury^  to  have  been  sent  by  Formosus  to 
king  Edward,  the  son  of  Alfred,  excommu- 
nicating him  and  interdicting  his  kingdom 
till  several  bishoprics,  that  had  lain  vacant 
seven  years,  were  filled  up,  it  is,  without  all 
doubt,  a  forged  piece,  nothing  being  more 
certain  than  that  Formosus  died  in  896,  and 
Edward  did  not  come  to  the  crown  till  the 
year  900.  Besides  no  notice  is  taken  of  this 
excommunication  either  by  the  author  of  the 
Saxon  Chronicle,  or  by  Asserius,  who  lived 
at  this  very  time,  and  would  not,  we  may 
very  well  suppose,  have  passed  over  ia 
silence  so  remarkable  an  event. 


BONIFACE  VI.,  HUNDRED  AND  ELEVENTH  BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[Leo  the  Philosopher,  Emperor  of  the  ^ast. — L.\mbekt  and  Arnulph,  Emperors  of  the  West.] 


[Year  of  Christ  896.]  Formosus  was  suc- 
ceeded by  Boniface,  the  sixth  of  that  name, 
a  man,  even  according  to  Baronius,  of  a 
most  infamous  character.^  He  was  a  Ro- 
man, the  son  of  Hadrian,  and  had  been  de- 
posed, for  his  wicked  and  scandalous  life, 
first  from  the  rank  of  subdeacon,  and  after- 
wards from  the  priesthood,  as  appears  from 
the  acts  of  a  council  held  under  Pope  John 
IX.*  He  is  said  by  the  continuator  of  the 
annals  of  Fulda,  who  lived  at  this  time,  to 

'  Annal   Fiild.  et  Metens.  Herman.  Contract.  Luit- 
pr;»iid.  I.  i.  c.  8. 
»  Annal.  Fuld.  Herman.  Contract. 
'  I.uitp.  1.  i.  c.  8.  *  Flodoard,  I.  iv.  c.  1. 

»  Baron,  ad  ann.  897.        »  Apud  Daron.  ad  ann.  904. 


have  died  of  the  gout  at  the  end  of  fifteen 
days.  As  he  held  the  see  so  short  a  time, 
and  intruded  himself  into  it  by  open  force, 
Baronius  and  after  him  some  other  writers, 
have  not  allowed  him  a  place  among  the 
popes.  But  he  is  reckoned  among  them,  and 
placed  by  the  abovementioned  annalist,  as 
well  as  by  Flodoard,  between  Formosus  and 
Stephen  VI.  or  VII. 

Hinc  subit  ad  modicum  vates  Bonifariug  almus. 
Ter  quinos  hie  in  arce  dies  explevit  honoris,  ice. 

says  Flodoard.^ 

»  Apud  Mahill.  Secul.  iii.  Benedic.  par  2. 
"  Malmsb.  de  Cost.  Reg.  Ang.  I.  ii. 
'  Flod.  in  Fragment,  de  Pontif.  Rom. 


300 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES,       [Stephen  VI.  or  VII. 


Stephen  intrudes  himself  into  the  see.  Condemnation  and  barbarous  treatment  of  Formosus.   His  ordinations 
declared  null.     Stephen  reverses  the  decree  of  Hadrian  III.  relating  to  the  consecration  of  the  pope. 


STEPHEN  VI.  OR  VII.  THE  HUNDRED  AND  TWELFTH 
BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[Leo  the  Philosopher,  Emperor  of  the  East. — Lambert  and  Arnulph,  Emperors  of  the  Wesi.'\ 


[Year  of  Christ  896.]  Stephen  VI.  or  VII. 
a  native  of  Rome,  and  a  son  of  a  presbyter 
named  John,  intruded  himself,  to  use  the 
expression  of  Baronius,  into  the  see,  in  the 
room  of  the  intruder  Boniface.  That  he 
was  in  possession  of  the  see  before  the  20th 
of  August  896,  is  manifest  from  a  rescript 
or  bull  issued  by  him  in  favor  of  Arnulph 
archbishop  of  Narbonne,  and  dated  20th  of 
August,  fourteenth  indiction,  that  is,  in  the 
year  896.'  From  the  same  rescript  it  ap- 
pears, that  Stephen  at  first  acknowledged 
Arnulph  for  emperor,  the  said  bull  or  re- 
script bearing  date,  the  first  year  of  the  em- 
pire of  the  great  emperor  Arnulph  crowned 
by  God.  But  from  a  charter  which  he 
granted  to  a  monastery  in  France,  we  learn, 
that,  forsaking  Arnulph,  he  soon  after  sided 
with  Lambert,  that  charter  being  dated,  in  the 
reign  of  our  most  pious  emperor  Lambert,  fif- 
teenth indiction,  which  indiction  commenced 
at  Rome,  on  the  first  of  September  896.^ 

The  barbarous  and  unprecedented  treat- 
ment, that  the  dead  body  of  his  predecessor 
Formosus  met  with  fron*  this  pope,  reflects 
greater  disgrace  on  his  memory,  than  his 
having  intruded  himself  by  force  and  vio- 
lence into  the  see.  For  actuated  with  an 
unparalleled  rage  against  that  pope,  he  re- 
solved to  try  him  after  his  death  ;  and  having 
assembled  a  council  at  Rome  for  that  pur- 
pose, he  ordered  the  body  of  the  dead  pon- 
tiflf  to  be  taken  out  of  the  grave,  to  be 
brought  before  them,  and  to  be  placed  in 
his  episcopal  robes  on  the  pontifical  chair. 
Having  then  appointed  him  a  deacon  for 
his  counsel,  he  addressed  the  dead  body 
thus ;  "  Why  didst  thou,  being  bishop  of 
Porto,  prompted  by  thy  ambition  usurp  the 
universal  see  of  Rome?"  What  the  mock 
counsel  answered  we  know  not,  but  Ste- 
phen, with  the  approbation  and  consent  of 
all  the  bishops  who  were  present,  pro- 
nounced Formosus,  heretofore  bishop  of 
Porto,  guilty  of  the  charge,  viz.  of  intruding 
himself,  by  unlawful  means  into  the  apos- 
tolic see ;  and  he  was  thereupon  stript  of 
the  pontifical  ornaments,  three  of  his  fingers 
were  cut  off  (those,  probably,  with  which 
the  popes  used  to  bless  people  in  those  days, 
as  they  still  do  in  ours)  and  the  body  was 
cast  into  the  Tiber.  It  was  at  the  same 
time  declared  by  the  pope  and  his  council, 
that  Formosus  could  confer  no  orders,  and 
therefore  that  they,  who  had  received  them 


»  Comment.  Languedoc.  p.  773. 
>  Apud  Datber.  Spicileg.  torn.  3. 


at  his  hands,  should  be  ordained  anew.' 
They  pretended  that  a  bishop  could,  in  no 
case  whatever,  forsake  his  first  see,  as  a  man 
could  in  no  case  forsake  his  lawful  wife, 
and  marry  another  in  her  room,  wresting  to 
that  purpose  the  words  of  St.  Paul,  "  a 
bishop  must  be  the  husband  of  one  wife:" 
and  from  thence  they  concluded,  that  a 
bishop,  by  passing  from  one  see  to  another, 
forfeited  all  his  power,  and  could  therefore 
perform  no  episcopal  functions.  But  this 
doctrine,  though  defined  by  pope  Stephen  in 
a  council,  and  consequently  ex  cathedra, 
has  been  long  since  condemned  by  his  suc- 
cessors, many  of  them,  and  the  present 
pope  among  the  rest,  having  been  trans- 
lated, as  Formosus  was,  from  other  sees  to 
that  of  Rome.  The  implacable  hatred  that 
Stephen  bore  to  Formosus  was  owing, 
according  to  Platina,^  to  his  having  traversed 
his  wicked  designs,  and  prevented  him  from 
being  chosen  at  a  former  election.  But 
Hermannus  Contractus  ascribes  it  to  his 
zeal  for  the  emperor  Lambert,  and  aversion 
to  Arnulph,  whom  Formosus  had  invited 
to  Rome,  and  crowned  emperor.'* 

As  dreadful  disorders  had  happened  in 
Rome  at  the  election  of  a  new  pope  ever 
since  the  decree  of  Hadrian  III.  took  place, 
whereby  it  was  enacted,  that  the  elect  should 
be  ordained  or  consecrated  without  waiting 
for  the  imperial  envoys,  the  emperor  Lam- 
bert, sensible  how  much  it  concerned  him 
to  have  the  pope  on  his  side,  took  occasion 
from  thence  to  persuade  Stephen  to  reverse 
the  decree  of  Hadrian,  and  confirm,  by  a 
new  one,  that  of  Eugene  II.  forbidding  the 
new  pope  to  be  ordained  till  his  election  was 
approved  by  the  emperor,  and  deputies  were 
sent  to  assist  in  his  name  at  the  ceremony 
of  his  consecration.*  The  decree  Stephen 
issued  is  quoted  by  Gratian  in  the  following 
words:  "As  the  holy  Roman  church,  in 
which  we  preside  by  the  appointment  of 
God,  suffers  great  violence  from  many  at 
the  death  of  the  pontiff,  owing  to  the  custom 
which  has  been  introduced  of  consecrating 
the  elect  without  wailing  for  the  approba- 
tion of  the  emperor,  or  the  arrival  of  his 
envoys  to  assist  at  his  ordination,  and  pre- 
vent, with  their  presence,  all  tumults  and 
disorders,  we  command  the  bishops  and  the 
clergy  to  meet  when  a  new  pontiff  is  to  be 
chosen,  and  the  election  to  be  made  in  the 

»  Luitprand,  1.  i.  c.  8. 

9  Platin.  in  Steph.  VI. 

»  Herman.  Contract,  ad  ann.  896. 

*  See  p.  203. 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


301 


Stephen  is  thrown  into  a  dungeon  and  strangled, 
against  Formosus  to  be  null. 


Romanus  chosen.     8aid  to  have  declared  the  proceedings 
His  death;— [Year  of  Christ,  898.] 


presence  of  the  senate  and  the  people  ;  but 
let  the  elect  be  consecrated  in  the  presence 
of  the  imperial  envoy.' 

Stephen  held  the  see  but  a  short  time,  ac- 
cording to  some,  one  year  one  month  and 
twenty-eight  days;  according  to  others,  one 
year  and  three  months ;  and  according  to 
some,  one  year  one  month  and  nineteen 
days.  But  all  we  know  for  certain  is,  that 
he  was  in  possession  of  the  see  before  the 
20th  of  August  89G,  as  has  been  shown 
above,  and  that  Romanus,  his  immediate 
successor,  held  it  in  October  897,  a  letter, 
bull,  or  rescript  of  that  pope,  dated  the  Ides 
of  October,  first  indiction,  or  year  of  Christ 
897,  having  reached  our  times.     Stephen 


was  driven  from  the  see,  was  thrown  into 
a  dungeon  and  strangled  there,  as  we  learn 
from  his  epitaph  found  in  the  ruins  of  the 
ancient  church  of  St.  Peter,  and  published 
by  Manlius  in  the  pontificate  of  Alexander 
III.'  Who  were  the  authors  of  his  death 
history  does  not  inform  us  ;  but  Baronius 
himself  owns,  that  he  richly  deserved  the 
doom  that  overtook  him.  He  had  entered 
the  fold,  says  the  annalist,  like  a  thief;  and 
just  it  was  that  he  should  die  by  the  halter.* 
Flodoard  mentions  a  letter  from  this  pope 
to  Fulco  of  Reims,  inviting  him  to  a  coun- 
cil, which  he  proposed  to  assemble  at  Rome.^ 
But  of  this  council  no  notice  is  taken  by  any 
other  writer. 


ROMANUS,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  THIRTEENTH  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[Leo  the  Philosopher  Emperor  of  the  East. — Lambert  and  Arnulph,  Emperors  of  the  Wesi.^ 


[Year  of  Christ,  897.]  Stephen  being 
driven  from  the  see,  Romanus,  a  native  of 
Gallesium,  and  the  son  of  Constantine,  was 
preferred  to  it  in  his  room.  We  have  two 
letters  of  this  pope,  both  beginning  with 
these  words,  "  Romanus,  bishop,  servant  of 
the  servants  of  God,"  and  both  dated  in  the 
month  of  October,  the  first  indiction,  which 
commenced  in  Rome  on  the  first  of  Septem- 
ber, 897.^  Romanus  is  said  by  Platina,  and 
after  him  by  Ciaconius  and  Oldwinus,  to 
have  annulled  the  acts  of  his  predecessor 
Stephen,  and  declared  his  proceedings  against 
Formosus  unjust  and  illegal.  But  of  that 
no  notice  is  taken  by  any  of  the  more  ancient 
writers.  Romanus  enjoyed  his  dignity,  ac- 
cording to  Martinus  Polonus,  and  some  ca- 
talogues, only  three  months  and  twenty-two 
days,  and  with  them  Flodoard  agrees,  speak- 
ing of  Romanus  thus : 

"  Post  hunc  luce  brevi  Romani  rejrmina  surgunt. 
Quatiior  hand  plenos  tractans  is  ciilmina  menses 
.*:there  suscipitur,  meritos  sortitus  honores." 

If  he  held  the  see  but  three  months  and 
twenty-two  days,  he  must  have  died  about 


the  end  of  January,  898.  The  words 
"  .^there  suscipitur,"  &,c.  show  him  to 
have  been  a  man  of  a  different  character 
from  his  predecessor. 


'  Gratian,  Distinct.  33.  c.  28. 

»  Baluz,  in  Append,  ad  Marcam  Hispanic,  n.  58,  ic. 


'  The  epitaph  is  as  follows  : 

Hoc  Stephani  papse  clauduntur  membra  locello  : 

Se.\tus  dictus  erat  ordine  quippe  patrum. 
Hie  primum  repulit  formosi  spurca  superbi 

Criniina,  qui  invasit  sedis  apostolical 
Concilium  instituit,  priBsedit  pastor,  et  ipse 

Leges  satis  fessis  jura  dedit  fainulis. 
Cumque  pater  multum  certaret  dngmate  sancto, 

Captus  et  a  sede  pulsus  ad  ima  fuit 
Carceris  interea  vinclis  constrictus,  et  uno 

Strangulatus  nervo,  exuit  et  hominem  [num 

Post  decimumque  regens  sedem  cum  transtulit  an- 

Sergius  hue  papa,  funera  sacra  colens. 
From  the  last  distich  it  appears,  that  pope  Sergiug 
(namely.  III.)   translated  the  body  of  this  pope,  from 
the  place  where  it  was  interred  before,  to  the  church 
of  St.  Peter,  and  that  this  happened  ten  years  after  his 
death,  or  in  907.     What  is  said  in  this  epitaph  agrees 
with  what  we  read  in  Flodoard,  who  speaks  of  Ste- 
phen VI.  the  present  pope,  thus  : 
Turn  sextus  Stephanus  sacra  regimina  culmine  carpit, 
Durus  qui  nostris,  propriis  at  durior  instat. 
Sa;va  quidem  leeat  vivis,  truciora  sepultis 
Fulconemque  mircis,  formosum  conculit  actis 
Concilium  gregat  infaustum,  cui  praesidet  atrox: 
Pr.Tdecessorem  abjiciens,  ponensque  patrot)um, 
Visus  ab  hinc  meritis  dignam  incurrisse  ruinaro, 
Carptus  et  ipse,  sacraque  abjectus  sde,  tenebris 
Carceris  iujicitur,  vinrlisque  innectitur  alris, 
Et  suffbcalum  crudo  premit  ultio  letho. — (In  Frag,  de 
Pont.  Rom.) 
3  Bar.  ad  ann.  900.     »  Flod.  Hist.  Rem.  1.  iv.  c.  4  et  6. 


2A 


302 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[John  IX. 


Theodore  annuls  the  acts  of  Stephen  against  Form.osus,  and  restores  his  body  to  its  sepulchre.  His  death  and 
character.  John  elected.  Berengarius  obliges  the  pope  to  crown  him  emperor.  Council  of  Rome  annuls 
the  acts  of  that  held  by  Stephen  against  Formosus.     Other  decrees  of  this  council.     Council  of  Ravenna. 


THEODORE  II.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  FOURTEENTH 
BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[Leo  the  Philosopher,  Emperor  of  the  East. — Lambert  and  Arnulph,  Emperors  of  the  West."] 


[Year  of  Christ,  898.]  Romanus  was 
succeeded  by  Theodore,  the  second  of  that 
name.  He  was  a  native  of  Rome,  the  son 
of  one  Photius,  and  held  the  see  but  twenty 
days.  However,  he  reinstated,  in  his  short 
ponlificate,  those  in  their  ranks,  whom  For- 
mosus had  ordained,  and  Stephen  had  de- 
posed, caused  the  body  of  that  pope  to  be 
taken  out  of  the  Tiber,  and  declaring  all  his 
acts  to  be  legal  and  valid,  restored  him  with 


great  solemnity  to  his  sepulchre  in  the  Va- 
tican.' Luitprand  writes,  that  upon  the  dead 
body  being  carried  into  the  church  it  was 
saluted,  as  many  Romans  informed  him,  by 
all  the  images  of  the  saints  there.^  Theodore 
is  commended  by  Flodoard  for  his  tempe- 
rance, his  chastity,  his  liberality  to  the  poor, 
and  is  said  to  have  been  a  lover  of  peace, 
and  greatly  beloved  by  the  clergy.'^ 


JOHN  IX.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  FIFTEENTH  BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[Leo  the  Philosopher,  Emperor  of  the  East. — Lambert  and  Arnulph,  Emperors  of  the  West.'] 


[Year  of  Christ,  898.]  In  the  room  of 
Theodore  was  chosen  Sergius,  presbyter  of 
the  Roman  church ;  but  the  party  of  John 
prevailing,  Sergius  was  driven  out  of  Rome 
before  his  consecration,  and  his  rival  pre- 
ferred to  the  see  vacant  by  his  flight.  John 
was  a  native  of  Tibur  or  Tivoli,  the  son  of 
Rampoald,  a  deacon  and  monk  of  the  Bene- 
dictine order.'  Soon  after  his  election  Be- 
rengarius, appearing  unexpectedly  before 
Rome  at  the  head  of  a  numerous  army, 
obliged  the  new  pope  to  crown  him  emperor. 
But  he  was  no  sooner  gone,  than  the  pope 
declared  in  a  council,  which  he  assembled 
on  that  occasion,  the  coronation  of  Berenga- 
rius null  and  illegal,  as  having  been  extorted 
by  force,  and  acknowledged  Lambert  alone 
for  lawful  emperor.  By  the  same  council 
the  acts  of  that  held  under  Stephen  against 
Formosus  were  annulled :  those  whom  For- 
mosus had  ordained  were  restored  to  their 
ranks  in  the  church,  as  having  been  unjustly 
degraded ;  the  acts  of  Stephen's  council  were 
condemned  to  the  flames;  but  they  were 
forgiven  who  had  assisted  at  that  sacrilegious 
assembly,  upon  their  owning  their  fault  and 
begging  for  mercy.  Twelve  canons  were 
issued  by  this  council,  and  the  four  follow- 
ing among  the  rest:  1.  That  though  For- 
mosus had  been  translated  from  the  see  of 
Porto  to  that  of  Rome,  on  account  of  his 
extraordinary  merit,  no  man  should  presume, 
for  the  future,  to  pass  from  one  church  to 
another,  they  being  excluded  by  the  canons 
from  lay  communion,  even  at  the  point  of 


>  Flod.  ubi  supra. 


death,  who  transgress  therein.  2.  That  they, 
who  had  violated  the  sepulchre  of  Formo- 
sus, and  dragged  his  body  to  the  Tiber, 
should  not  be  admitted  to  the  communion  of 
the  church  till  they  performed  the  penance 
imposed  upon  them  for  so  heinous  a  crime. 
3.  That  the  new  pope  should  be  consecrated 
in  the  presence  of  the  imperial  envoys. 
Thus  was  the  decree  issued  by  Stephen  VI., 
as  has  been  related  above,  confirmed  by  the 
present  council ;  and  it  is  here  repeated  word 
for  word.  4.  That  none  should  dare,  upon 
the  death  of  the  pope,  to  plunder  the  patri- 
archal palace,  on  pain  of  incurring  the  cen- 
sures of  the  church,  and  the  indignation  of 
the  emperor;  and  this  prohibition  extended 
to  the  houses  of  all  bishops,  the  custom  of 
plundering  them  when  the  bishops  died  pre- 
vailing at  this  time  all  over  Italy. 

In  the  same  year,  898,  the  pope  convened 
another  council  at  Ravenna,  at  which  were 
present  seventy-four  bishops,  and  the  empe- 
ror Lambert  in  person.  By  this  council  the 
acts  of  that  which  I  have  just  mentioned, 
were  all  confirmed  ;  and  it  was,  besides,  de- 
creed that  the  regulations  of  the  fathers,  and 
the  capitulars  of  the  emperors  Charlemagne, 
Lewis  I.,  Lotharius,  and  Lewis  II.,  concern- 
ing ty thes  should  be  strictly  observed,  and  ex- 
communications were  thundered  out  against 
all  who  transgressed  them.  When  the  coun- 
cil was  ended,  the  pope  represented  to  the 
emperor  the  deplorable  state  to  which  the 

«  Sigebert,  in  Chron.  Flod.  in  Frag,  de  Bom.  Pont. 
Auxil.  1.  ii.  c.  2. 
3  Luitprand,  1.  i.  c.  8.       »  Flod.  ibid. 


John  IX.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


303 


John  dies.  His  writings.  Will  not  allow  the  bishops  in  the  east  to  communicate  with  those  whom  Photiua 
had  ordained.  Approves  an  election  which  his  predecessor  had  disapproved.  His  answer  to  the  archbishop 
of  Reims  concerning  the  wickedness  of  the  Normans  who  had  embraced  Christianity.  Letter  from  the 
bishops  of  Germany  to  the  pope 


Roman  church  was  reduced,  not  having,  he 
said,  wherewithal  to  relieve  the  poor,  nor 
even  to  pay  the  salaries  of  her  clerks  and 
other  ministers.  He  then  exhorted  the  bi- 
shops to  discharge  their  duty,  not  like  hire- 
lings, but  true  pastors,  and  to  order  a  fast 
and  procession,  upon  their  return  to  theil- 
respective  sees,  for  the  preservation  of  the 
emperor  Lambert,  the  exaltation  of  the 
church,  and  the  extinguishing  of  all  schism 
and  discord  in  the  state,  as  well  as  in  the 
church.'  Flodoard  speaks  of  a  third  council 
assembled  by  this  pope,  and  mention  is  like- 
wise made  of  it  in  his  epitaph  .'^  But  the  acts 
of  that  assembly  have  not  reached  our  times. 
John  IX.,  held  the  see,  according  to  the 
most  probable  opinion,  two  years  and  fifteen 
days,  and  must  consequently  have  died 
about  the  beginning  of  August,  900,  it  being 
manifest  from  some  of  his  letters,  that  he 
■was  in  possession  of  the  see  in  July,  898. 
Of  this  pope  we  have  four  letters,  namely, 
one  to  Stylianus,  metropolitan  of  Csesarea, 
another  lo  the  clergy  and  people  of  Langres, 
the  third  to  Charles  the  Simple,  king  of 
France,  and  the  fourth  to  Heriveus,  arch- 
bishop of  Reims.  Stylianus,  who  had  all 
along  adhered  to  the  patriarch  Ignatius,  and 
had,  on  that  account,  been  driven  from  his 
see,  and  most  cruelly  persecuted  by  Photius, 
wrote  to  John,  begging  he  would  allow  him, 
and  the  other  bishops  in  the  East,  to  com- 
municate with  those,  whom  Photius  had 
ordained;  which,  he  said,  would  restore  the 
so  long  and  so  much  wished  for  peace  to  the 
patriarchal  church  of  Constantinople.  The 
pope,  in  his  answer,  commended  the  metro- 
politan for  his  attachment  to  the  holy  Reman 
church  his  mother,  but  at  the  same  time  de- 
clared, that  he  inviolably  adhered,  and  ever 
would,  to  the  decrees  of  his  predecessors, 
excommunicating  all,  who  communicated 
with  those  whom  the  usurper  Photius  had 
preferred  to  any  rank  whatever  in  the 
church;  since  none  could  communicate 
with  them  without  owning  them  to  have 
been  lawfully  ordained,  and  Photius,  who 
ordained  them,  to  have  been  lawful  patri- 
arch. But  Stylianus,  consulting  the  peace 
of  the  church  of  Constantinople,  did  not 
acquiesce  in  the  pope's  answer,  nor  did  the 
other  bishops  in  the  East.  They  all  agreed 
among  themselves  not  only  to  communicate 
with  those  whom  Photius  had  ordained, 
but  to  leave  them  in  the  ranks  to  which  he 
had  preferred  them.  And  thus  was,  at 
length,  an  end  put  to  the  schism,  that  had 
divided  the  eastern  churches  for  the  space 
of  near  forty  years. 

«  Sigon.  de  reg.  Itali!i>,l.  vl.  Rubeus  Hist.  Raven.  1.  v. 
Sigehert.  in  Chron.  Vincen.Bellovac.  in  Specul.  Hist. 
«  For  we  read  there  the  following  lines  : 
".Johannes  mcritis  qui  fulsit  in  ordiiie  nonus 
Inter  apostolicos  quern  veiit  altitonans 
Conciliis  docuit  ternis  qui  dogma  salutis,  ii.c. 


The  pope  in  his  letter  to  the  clergy  and 
people  of  Langres,  declares  Argrim  to  have 
been  lawfully  elected  to  that  see,  though  his 
predecessor  (Stephen  V.,)  had  disapproved 
of  his  election  as  illegal,  and  ordered  another 
to  be  preferred  to  tliat  see  in  his  room.  "  I 
do  not  condemn  the  judgment  given  by  my 
predecessor,"  says  tiie  pope  in  this  letter, 
"  but  only  alter  it  for  the  better,  being  au- 
thorized therein  by  the  example  of  several 
other  pontiff's."  John  did  not,  it  seems, 
think  himself  bound  to  adhere  to  the  decisions 
of  his  predecessors,  right  or  wrong;  and  he 
would  have  found  it  no  easy  task  to  alledge 
several  instances  of  popes  acting  so  just  a 
part.  The  pope  wrote,  at  the  same  lime,  to 
Charles  of  France,  entreating  him  to  favor 
the  restoration  of  Argrim,  who  had  been 
canonically  elected,  and  was  deservedly  es- 
teemed and  beloved  by  his  people. 

The  pope's  fourth  letter  is  addressed  to 
Heriveus,  archbishop  of  Reims,  who  had 
been  substituted  in  that  see  to  Fulco  bar- 
barously murdered  by  the  command  of 
Baldwin  II.,  count  of  Flanders.  Heriveus 
had  applied  to  the  pope  to  know  how  he 
should  treat  the  Normans,  who,  after  em- 
bracing the  Christian  religion,  contmued  to 
lead  the  same  life  as  they  had  led  before 
their  conversion,  namely,  to  murder  Chris- 
tians, and  even  priests,  to  sacrifice  to  idols, 
and  eat  the  meats,  which  they  had  offered 
to  their  false  gods.  The  pope,  after  con- 
gratulating the  archbishop  upon  the  conver- 
sion of  those  infidels  (such  a  conversion  as 
that  of  the  savages  in  the  Indies  by  the 
Jesuits  and  other  popish  missionaries,)  an- 
swers, that  if  they,  who  are  guilty  of  such 
enormities  are  newly  converted,  and  not  suf- 
ficiently instructed  in  the  doctrines  and 
principles  of  Christianity,  he  must  not  pro- 
ceed against  them  according  to  the  rigor  of 
the  canons;  but  if  they  are  not  novices  in 
the  Christian  religion,  if  they  are  sensible  of 
the  heinousness  of  their  crimes,  and  desire 
to  atone  for  them,  they  may  be  made  to  un- 
dergo the  penance  prescribed  by  the  canons. 

We  have  two  letters  from  the  bishops  of 
Germany  to  this  pope,  both  worthy  of  par- 
ticular notice.  The  emperor  Arnulph  dying 
in  December,  899,  his  son  Lewis,  at  that 
time  but  seven  years  old,  was  acknowledged, 
the  following  year,  by  the  German  lords  for 
lawful  heir  to  the  crown  of  Germany.  On 
this  occasion  Hatto,  archbishop  of  Mentz, 
wrote  to  the  pope  in  his  own  name  and  in 
that  of  his  suffragans,  to  acquaint  him  with 
the  death  of  Arnulph  their  king,  and  the 
election  of  his  son  Lewis,  whom,  he  says, 
they  had  chosen  with  one  voice,  agreeably 
to  the  ancient  custom,  that  obtained  among 
them,  of  keeping  the  crown  in  the  same 
line.  He  then  begs  the  pope  to  excuse  their 
having  done  so  without  his  permission,  as  it 


304 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Benedict  IV. 


Letter  from  the  archbishop  of  Saltzburg,  finding  fault  with  the  pope's  conduct.     Character  of  the  popes  of  the 

tenth  century.     Benedict  elected. 


was  impossible  for  them  to  send  deputies  to 
Rome,  the  roads  being  ail  infested  by  the  bar- 
barians, masters  of  the  country  between  them 
and  Italy.  But  as  they  had,  at  last,  found 
an  opportunity  of  conveying  a  letter  to  his 
holiness,  they  entreated  him  to  confirm  with 
his  blessing  what  they  had  done.  In  the 
next  place  they  lay  before  the  pope  the 
complaints  of  their  brethren,  the  bishops  of 
Bavaria,  against  the  Sclavonians,  who, 
having  revolted  from  the  French,  and  seized 
on  Moravia,  had  withdrawn  themselves  from 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  bishops  of  Bavaria, 
pretending  to  have  a  metropolitan  of  their 
own  ;  and  besides  accused  the  Bavarians  to 
his  holiness,  as  if  they  had  entered  into  an 
alliance  with  the  pagans  (the  Hungarians) 
and  acted  in  concert  with  them.  Haito  as- 
sures the  pope,  that  this  charge  has  not  the 
least  foundation  in  truth,  and  represents  to 
him,  at  the  same  time,  the  evils  that  will 
inevitably  attend  his  allowing  the  Moravians 
to  withdraw  themselves  from  all  subjection 
to  the  bishops  of  Bavaria  ;  since  they  will  be 
thereby  encouraged  to  affect  an  indepen- 
dency in  the  state  as  well  as  in  the  church, 
and  revolting  anew  to  rekindle  the  war.' 

The  other  letter  was  written  to  pope  John 
by  Theotmar,  archbishop  of  Saltzburg,  in 
the  name  of  all  the  bishops  of  Bavaria,  as 
well  as  of  the  clergy  and  the  people.  This 
pope  had  appointed  one  archbishop  and 
three  bishops  in  the  country  of  the  Mora- 
vians, which,  till  his  tirne,  had  no  bishop, 
but  was  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  arch- 
bishop of  Saltzburg.    Of  this  Theotmar  and 


the  other  bishops  of  Bavaria  loudly  complain 
in  their  letter,  charging  the  pope  with  acting 
therein  contrary  to  the  known  laws  of  the 
church,  and  the  decrees  of  his  predecessors 
Leo  and  Celestine,  which  they  quote.  They 
even  insinuate,  as  if  his  holiness  had  been 
prevailed  upon  by  dint  of  money  to  erect 
those  new  bishopricks,  and  exempt  the  Mo- 
ravians from  all  subjection  to  the  see  of 
Saltzburg,  though  they  had  been  subject  to 
it  ever  since  their  conversion  to  Christianity. 
The  Moravians  had  prejudiced  the  pope 
against  the  Bavarians  as  joined  in  confede- 
racy with  the  Hungarians,  who  broke  into 
Germany  and  Italy  at  this  time,  and  com- 
mitted every  where  unheard  of  barbarities, 
murdering  priests,  burning  churches  and 
monasteries,  and  carrying  all,  without  dis- 
tinction of  sex  or  age,  into  captivity,  who 
had  the  misfortune  to  fall  into  their  hands. 
In  answer  to  this  charge  the  Bavarian  bish- 
ops assure  the  pope,  that  their  country  has 
suffered  as  much  by  the  irruption  of  the 
Hungarians  as  any  other;  that  they  have 
lent  those  barbarians  no  kind  of  assistance 
whatever;  but,  on  the  contrary,  would  have 
readily  made  peace  with  the  Moravians,  ia 
order  to  attack  them,  as  a  common  enemy, 
with  their  united  forces  ;  but  that  the  Mora- 
vians, far  from  hearkening  to  any  terms  of 
peace,  had  joined  the  Hungarians  against 
their  Christian  brethren,  and  treated  them  with 
the  same  cruelty.'  What  answer  the  pope  re- 
turned to  this  letter  we  know  not,  nor  whether 
he  returned  any.  But  of  these  new  bishoprics, 
no  further  mention  occurs  in  history. 


BENEDICT  IV.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  SIXTEENTH  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[Leo  the  Philosopher,  Emperor  of  the  East. — Lewis  III.  Emperor  of  the  West.'] 


[Year  of  Christ,  900.]  We  enter  now 
upon  the  tenth  century,  which  we  may  well 
call,  after  Baronius,  "an  iron  age  barren  of 
all  goodness,  a  leaden  age  abounding  with 
all  wickedness,'and  a  dark  age,  remarkable, 
above  all  the  rest,  for  the  scarcity  of  writers, 
and  men  of  learning.^  In  this  century," 
continues  the  annalist,  "the  abomination  of 
desolation  was  seen  in  the  temple  of  the 
Lord ;  and  in  the  see  of  St.  Peter,  revered  by 
the  angels,  were  placed  the  most  wicked  of 
men,  not  pontiffs,  but  monsters.  And  how 
hideous  was  the  face  of  the  Roman  church, 
when  filthy  and  impudent  whores  governed 
all  at  Rome,  changed  sees  at  their  pleasure, 
disposed  of  bishoprics,  and  intruded  their 
gallants  and  their  bullies  into  the  see  of  St. 


»  Tom.  ix.  Concil.  p. 


a  Bar.  ad  ann.  900. 


Peter.  No  mention  was  then  made  of  the 
clergy  electing  or  consenting,  the  canons 
were  trod  under  foot,  the  decrees  of  the 
popes  were  despised,  the  ancient  traditions 
turned  out  of  doors,  and  the  old  customs, 
sacred  rites,  and  former  method  of  choosing 
popes  quite  laid  aside.  The  church  was 
then  without  a  pope,  but  not  without  a  head, 
its  spirital  head  (Christ)  never  abandoning 
it."  If  the  church  subsisted  so  long  with- 
out any  other  head  but  Christ,  what  neces- 
sity is  there  for  any  other  head?  If  it  had 
no  visible  head  for  so  long  a  time,  the  so 
much  boasted  succession  Avas  evidently  in- 
terrupted. Other  historians  speak  in  the 
same  strain  of  the  popes  who  were  preferred 
to  the  Roman  see  in  those  unhappy  times. 


»  Tom.  ix.  Concil.  p. 


Benedict  IV.]  OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME.  305 

Benedict  restores  the  bishop  of  Langres  to  his  see.     Lewis,  the  son  of  Boao,  king  of  Aries,  crowned  emperor 
by  Benedict,  and  not  by  his  predecessor.     Death  of  Benedict ;— [Year  of  Christ,  903.] 


However,  we  meet  with  some  good  men 
among  them,  and  in  that  number  we  may 
reckon  Benedict  IV.  the  immediate  successor 
of  John  IX.  He  was  a  native  of  Rome,  the 
son  of  Mommolus,  come  of  an  illustrious 
family,  and  greatly  esteemed  by  the  Roman 
nobility,  as  well  as  by  the  people  and  the 
clergy.  All  we  know  for  certain  concerning 
the  time  of  his  election  is,  that  he  was 
chosen  and  ordained  before  the  thirtieth  of 
August  of  the  present  year  900,  a  letter, 
which  he  wrote  to  the  bishops  of  France, 
bearing  that  date. 

Benedict  had  scarce  taken  possession  of 
the  see  when  deputies  arrived  at  Rome,  sent 
by  Argrim,  of  whom  I  have  spoken  in  the 
foregoing  pontificate,  to  inform  him  that  the 
clergy  and  people  of  Langres  had  unani- 
mously chosen  him  for  their  bishop,  that  he 
had  been  ordained  by  Aurelian,  archbishop 
of  Lions,  and  his  suffragans,  and  had  go- 
verned that  church  for  the  space  of  two 
years  and  upwards,  but  had  been  driven 
from  it  by  a  powerful  faction,  and  was  not 
yet  restored,  though  his  election  had  been 
approved  by  the  late  pope,  and  declared  en- 
tirely agreeable  to  the  canons.  On  this  oc- 
casion the  pope  assembled  a  council  in  the 
Lateran,  and  the  bishops,  who  composed  it, 
being  all  to  a  man  of  opinion  that  Argrim 
had  been  unjustly  driven  from  the  see  of 
Langres,  the  pope  wrote  to  the  Galilean 
bishops,  and,  at  the  same  time,  to  the  clergy 
and  people  of  Langres,  to  acquaint  them 
with  the  decision  of  the  council,  and  recom- 
mend to  them  the  execution  of  the  decree 
they  had  issued.  Argrim  was  accordingly 
reinstated  in  his  see,  and  governed  that 
church  quite  undisturbed  till  the  year,  911, 
when  he  resigned  his  dignity  to  embrace  a 
monastic  life.  The  two  letters  written  by 
the  pope  on  this  occasion,  are  dated  the  30th 
of  August,  in  the  first  year  of  lord  Benedict, 
pope,  the  second  after  the  death  of  the  em- 
peror Laudebert  or  Lambert,  the  third  indic- 
tion,  that  is  in  the  year  of  Christ  900.'  From 
the  date  of  these  letters  it  is  manifest  that  the 
emperor  Lambert  died  in  898.  Some  ascribe 
his  death  to  a  fall  from  his  horse;  but  others 
suppose  him  to  have  been  murdered  by 
Hugh,  the  son  of  Magnifred,  count  of  Mi- 
lan, who  had  been  beheadetl  by  his  order. 
The  emperor  Arnulph  died  the  following 
year,  899.  Berengarius  was  still  living; 
but  as  his  coronation  had  been  declared  null 
by  the  preceding  pope,  no  notice  is  taken  in 
the  date  of  either  of  those  letters  of  him  or 
the  years  of  his  empire. 

As  the  pope  did  not  acknowledge  Beren- 
garius for  lawful  emperor,  several  Italian 
lords,  and  among  the  rest  Adelbert,  marquis 
«  Concil.  tora.ix.  p.  511. 


of  Tuscany,  the  most  powerful  of  them  all, 
invited,  no  doubt,  with  the  approbation  of 
the  pope,  Lewis,  the  son  of  Boso,  late  king 
of  Aries,  into  Italy  to  take  the  imperial 
crown,  promising  to  assist  him  to  the  utmost 
of  their  power  against  Berengarius.  Lewis 
readily  complied  with  the  invitation,  but 
Berengarius,  the  more  skilful  commander  of 
the  two,  found  means  to  surround  his  army 
on  all  sides,  upon  his  first  entering  Italy,  so 
that  he  could  neither  advance  or  retire,  and 
was,  at  the  same  time,  cut  off  from  all  com- 
munication with  the  country  around  him. 
In  these  straits  Lewis  offered  to  withdraw 
his  troops,  to  quit  Italy  and  return  to  his 
own  kingdom,  provided  he  Avas  allowed  to 
retire  unmolested.  Berengarius  insisted  on 
his  promising  upon  oath  never  thenceforth 
to  set  foot  in  Italy.  That  oath  Lewis  took, 
but  soon  forgot  it,  and  returned  the  very 
next  year,  899,  at  the  head  of  a  very  nu- 
merous and  powerful  army.  Thus  was  a 
bloody  war  kindled  in  Italy  between  the  two 
competitors.  But  Lewis  prevailing  in  the 
end,  drove  Berengarius  quite  out  of  Italy, 
and  entering  Rome  in  triumph,  was  crowned 
with  the  usual  solemnity  by  the  pope.' 

Some,  and  among  the  rest  Baronius,  will 
have  Lewis  to  have  been  crowned  emperor 
by  the  preceding  pope  John  IX.  But  from 
the  letters  of  the  present  pope,  quoted  above, 
it  is  manifest  that  he  was  raised  to  the  pon- 
tifical dignity  before  the  30lh  of  August, 
900;  and  we  have  a  diploma  of  the  emperor 
Lewis,  dated  February,  fourth  indiction,  or 
901,  in  the  first  year  of  the  empire  of  our 
lord  Lewis,  crowned  by  the  most  holy  and 
thrice  most  blessed  pontiffand  universal  pope 
Benedict,^  Lewis  therefore  was  crowned  by 
Benedict  after  the  30th  of  August,  900,  and 
before  the  end  of  February,  901.  I  said, 
after  the  30th  of  August,  for  the  two  letters 
quoted  above,  are  dated  the  30th  of  August, 
the  second  year  after  the  death  of  the  empe- 
ror Lambert;  a  plain  proof  this,  that  Lewis 
was  not  at  that  time  yet  crowned  emperor, 
else  the  year  of  his  empire  would  have  been 
marked. 

Benedict  died,  according  to  the  most  pro- 
bable opinion,  about  the  beginning  of  Octo- 
ber, 903,  having  presided  in  the  Roman 
church  three  years  and  two  months.  We 
learn  from  his  epitaph,^  and  from  Flodoard,* 
that  he  was  a  kind  father  to  the  widows,  the 
poor,  and  the  orphans,  cherishing  them  like 
his  own  children,  and  that  he  preferred  the 
public  to  his  private  good. 

*  Luitp.  I.  ii.  c.  10.  Regino  in  Chronic. 

«  Florentiniiis  de  rebus  ad  Mathildem  Spectantibua 
1.  iii.  p.  114.  apud  Pagi  ad  ann.  950. 
'  Apud  Baron,  ad  ann.  907. 

♦  Flod.  in  Frag,  de  Pont.  Rom. 


Vol.  II.— 39 


2a2 


306 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Sergius  hi. 


Leo  chosen,  driven  from  his  see,  and  thrown  into  prison.     Christopher  intrudes  himself  into  the  see.     Is  shut 
up  in  a  dungeon  by  Sergius  and  dies.     Sergius  usurps  the  see  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  904.]     His  character. 


LEO  v.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  SEVENTEENTH  BISHOP  OF  EOME. 

[Leo  the  Philosopher,  Emperor  of  the  East. — Lewis  IIL,  Emperor  of  the  West.'] 


[Year  of  Christ,  903.]  To  Benedict  was 
substituted  Leo,  the  sixth  of  that  name;  a 
native  of  Ardea.  But  he  was  soon  driven 
out  by  one  of  his  own  priests  named  Chris- 
topher, and  thrown  into  prison,  where  he 
died  of  grief,  as  we  read  in  Signonius.  In 
some  Catalogues  he  is  said  to  have  held  the 
see  thirty  days,  in  others  forty,  and  in  some 


one  month  and  twenty-six,  or  twenty-seven 
days.  Ail  we  know  for  certain  is,  that 
Christopher  was  possessed  of  the  pontifical 
dignity  in  the  month  of  December  of  the 
present  year,  903.  Flodoard  says  no  more 
of  this  pope  than  that  he  died  before  the  end 
of  two  lunar  months. 


CHRISTOPHER,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  EIGHTEENTH 
BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[Leo  the  Philosopher,  Emperor  of  the  East. — Lewis  HL,  Emperor  of  the  West."] 


[Year  of  Christ,  903.]  Christopher,  the 
successor  of  Leo,  was  by  birth  a  Roman, 
and  the  son  of  one  Leo.  All  we  know  of 
him  is,  that  he  intruded  himself  into  the  see 
by  open  force  and  violence,  that  he  treated 
his  predecessor  with  great  barbarity,  and 
confirmed  all  the  privileges,  that  his  prede- 
cessors had  granted  to  the  famous  abbey  of 
Corbie.  The  diploma,  confirming  those  pri- 
vileges, is  dated,  the  seventh  of  the  calends 
of  January,  the  seventh  indiction,  that  is, 
the  twenty-fifth  of  December,  903,  in  the 
reign  of  our  most  pious  emperor  Lewis.' 
Christopher,  therefore,  had  seized  on  the  see 
before  the  twenty-fifth  of  December  of  the 


present  year.  But  he  held  it,  as  we  read  in 
Martinus  Polonus,  in  Flodoard,  and  in  most 
of  the  catalogues,  only  six,  or  at  most  seven 
months,  being  driven  from  it  by  Sergius,  who 
first  confined  him  to  a  monastery,  and  after- 
wards shut  him  up  in  a  dungeon,  where  he 
died  of  the  hardships  which  he  underwent.' 
Manlius  supposes  him  to  have  been  buried 
in  the  Vatican,  and  the  following  epitaph, 
that  was  found  in  the  ruins  of  the  ancient 
church,  to  be  his  : 

Hie  pia  Christopher!  requiescunt  membra  sepulti. 

but  one  would  think  the  epithet /Jiows  could 
scarce  be  bestowed  upon  him,  or  upon  his 
bones. 


SERGIUS  III.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  NINETEENTH 
BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[Leo  the  Philosopher,  Emperor  of  the  East. — Lewis  IH.,  Emperor  of  the  West."] 


[Year  of  Christ,  904.]  Christopher  being 
driven  from  the  see,  Sergius,  the  third  of 
that  name,  a  native  of  Rome,  the  son  of 
Benedict,  and  presbyter  of  the  Roman 
church,  intruded  himself  into  it  in  his  room. 
He  was  chosen  upon  the  death  of  Theodore 
n.,  as  has  been  related  above,  but  obliged 
by  the  more  powerful  party  of  John  IX.,  to 
quit  Rome  before  his  ordination,  and  lie  con- 
cealed for  the  space  of  seven  years,  that  is 
from  the  year  898  to  904,  when  the  faction 
of  Adelbert,  Marquis  of  Tuscany,  who  had 

>  Dacher.  Spicileg.  torn.  vi.  p.  315. 


espoused  his  cause,  prevailing,  he  returned, 
drove  out  Christopher,  and  placed  himself 
on  the  chair  in  his  room.^  "He  was," 
says  Baronius,  "  the  slave  of  every  vice,  and 
the  most  wicked  of  men.""  In  these  un- 
happy times  lived,  and,  in  a  manner,  reigned 
at  Rome  the  celebrated  Theodora  and  her 
two  daughters  Marozia  and  Theodora.  They 
were  of  a  senatorial  family,  and  no  less  fa- 
mous for  their  beauty,  their  wit  and  address, 
than  infamous  for  the  scandalous  lives  they 


'  Ciacon.  Marian.  Scot.  &.c. 

^  Flodoard.  ubi  supra,  et  epitaph,  apud  Manlium. 

3  Bar.  ad  ann.  908. 


Anastasius  III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


307 


Some  of  Sergius'  actions.     His  death  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  911.]     Anastasius.     Letter  from  the  patriarch  of 
Constantinople  to  the  pope,  concerning  third  and  fourth  marriages. 


led.  Marozia  cohabited  with  Adelbert,  Mar- 
quis of  Tuscany,  who  having  seized  on  the 
castle  Sant  Angelo,  delivered  it  up  to  her,  and 
from  thence  she,  her  mother  and  her  sister, 
supported  by  the  marquis  and  his  party, 
governed  Rome  without  control,  and  dis- 
posed of  the  holy  see  to  whom  they  pleased. 
Adelbert  had  a  son  by  Marozia  named  Al- 
beric,  but  she  nevertheless  prostituted  her- 
self to  the  pope,  and  his  holiness  had  by  her 
a  son  called  John,  whom  we  shall  soon  see 
raised  to  the  papal  chair,  by  the  interest  of 
his  mother.' 

Sergius  is  said  to  have  granted  the  pall  to 
the  archbishop  of  Cologne,*  and  to  have 
exempted  the  church  of  Hambourgh,  or 
Bremen,  from  all  subjection  to  that  see.'' 
He  rebuilt,  decorated,  and  enriched  with 
many  valuable  presents  the  Lateran  church, 
which  had  stood,  says  John  the  deacon,  ever 
since  the  time  of  Constantine  the  great,  but 
fell  in  the  pontificate  of  Stephen  ¥!.■*  The 
deacon  speaks  favorably  of  this  pope,  and, 
if  we  believe  what  we  read  in  his  epitaph, 
he  was  unjustly  driven  from  the  see  by  John 
IX.  and  resumed  the  pontifical  dignity  at 
the  earnest  desire  of  the  Roman  people. 
But  all  the  writers,  who  lived  the  nearest  to 
those  times,  speak  of  pope  Sergius  III.  as  a 
man  abandoned  to  all  manner  of  vice,  and 
the  most  wicked  of  men.  However,  we 
read  of  a  solemn  embassy  sent  to  him  by 
Leo,  emperor  of  the  east,  on  the  following 
occasion :   The  emperor  had  married  three 


wives ;  but  as  they  had  all  proved  barren, 
he  resolved  to  marry  a  fourth,  named  Zoe, 
by  whom  he  had,  in  his  first  wife's  life-time, 
a  son  called  Constantine.  As  third  and 
fourth  marriages  were  forbidden  in  the  Greek 
church,  Nicholas,  then  patriarch,  not  only 
refused  to  perform  the  marriage  ceremony, 
but  deposed  the  presbyter  who  performed  it, 
and  would  not  allow  the  emperor  to  enter 
the  church.  Hereupon  Leo  applied  to  the 
pope;  and  Sergius,  not  satisfied  with  ap- 
proving of  his  marriage,  there  being  no  law 
in  the  Latin  church  forbidding  a  man  to 
marry  as  many  wives  as  he  pleases,  des- 
patched legates  to  Constantinople  solemnly 
to  confirm  the  marriage  which  the  emperor 
had  contracted.  The  patriarch,  however, 
continued  to  oppose  it  as  unlawful  and  null, 
nor  could  he  ever  be  prevailed  upon  to  ac- 
knowledge Constantine  for  lawful  heir  to  the 
imperial  crown.  His  obstinacy,  or  rather 
his  strict  observance  of  the  laws  of  his 
church,  provoked  the  emperor  to  such  a  de- 
gree, that  he  sent  him  into  exile,  and  raised 
Euthymius,  his  syncellus,  to  the  patriarchal 
see  in  his  room.' 

Sergius  enjoyed  the  pontifical  dignity  se- 
ven years  and  three  months,  as  we  read  in 
Herraannus  Contractus,  Martinus  Polonus, 
and  most  of  the  catalogues.  As  he  was 
therefore  ordained,  about  the  beginning  of 
June  904,  his  death  must  have  happened 
about  the  latter  end  of  August  911. 


ANASTASIUS  III.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  TWENTIETH  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[Leo  the  Philosopher,  Alexander,  Emperors  of  the  East. — Lewis  III.,  Emperor  of  the 

West.'] 


[Year  of  Christ,  91 1 .]  Sergius  was  suc- 
ceeded by  Anastasius  III.,  by  birth  a  Roman, 
and  the  son  of  one  Lucian.  The  only  thing 
we  know  of  him,  that  deserves  any  notice, 
is,  that  at  the  request  of  Berengarius,  king 
of  Italy,  he  sent  many  rich  ornaments  to  the 
church  of  Pavia,  and  granted  to  the  bishop 
of  that  city  the  use  of  a  canopy  the  privilege 
of  riding  a  white  horse  with  the  cross  car- 
ried before  him,  and  of  sitting  in  all  councils 
at  the  pope's  left  hand.^  Ciaconius  adds, 
upon  whose  authority  I  know  not,  that  he 
repaired  the  church  of  St.  Hadrian,  that  was 
ready  to  fall,  and  there  consecrated  an  altar 
of  his  own  erecting. 

To  this  pope  Nicholas  of  Constantinople 

1  Luitp.  I.  ii.  c.  13.        >  Krantzius  hist.  Sax.  1.  iii.  c.  1. 
>  Adam.  Drcmens.  I.  i.  c.  24. 

«  Johan.  Diac.  de  Eccles.  Lateran.  paragraph.  17.  et 
Mabill.  in  append.  Ordinis  Roman. 
»  Sigon.  de  reg.  Ital.  1.  vi. 


wrote  a  long  letter  to  acquaint  him  with 
what  had  passed  between  him  and  the  em- 
peror on  occasion  of  that  prince's  fourth 
marriage.  The  emperor  finding,  according 
to  his  account,  that  he  could  by  no  means 
prevail  upon  him  to  authorize  his  inconti- 
nence, ordered  him  to  be  seized  at  a  grand 
entertainment,  to  which  he  had  invited  him, 
to  be  conveyed  from  thence  on  board  a  ves- 
sel and  carried  into  exile.  However,  he  re- 
pented, a  little  before  his  death,  of  what  he 
had  done,  and  bewailing  it  with  floods  of 
tears,  recalled  him  from  exile,  and  restored 
him  to  his  see.  In  that  letter  the  patriarch 
bitterly  inveighs  against  third  and  fourth 
marriages,  stigmatizing  them  with  the  name 
of  an  "impure  conjunction,"  and  treating 
those  who  countenance  or  encourage  them. 


'  Leo  Grammatic.  p.  473,  et  483.  Zonar.  Symeon.  Lo- 
gotb.  Stc. 


308 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[John  X. 


Death  and  character  of  Anastasius;— [Year  of  Christ,  913.]     Death  of  the  emperor  Leo.     Lando  dies  after  a 
pontificate  of  six  months  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  914.]     John,  how  raised  to  the  see. 


as  promoters  and  encouragers  of  concubin- 
age. The  words  of  St.  Paul,  "  It  is  better  to 
marry  than  to  burn,"  he  absurdly  restrains 
to  women  only,  as  if  it  were  better  for  men 
to  burn  than  to  marry,  and  loudly  complains 
of  the  pope's  legates  for  presuming  to  ap- 
prove what  the  bishops  in  the  East  had  all, 
with  one  voice,  condemned  as  repugnant  to 
the  laws  of  the  church  and  the  gospel.  He 
adds,  that  he  did  not  intend  that  his  holiness 
should  brand  the  memory,  either  of  the  late 
emperor,  or  of  his  predecessor  Sergius,  for 
what  ihey  have  done  amiss  in  that  affair, 
since  both  have  been  called  from  this  world, 
to  account  for  their  conduct  at  the  tribunal 
of  the  Sovereign  Judge,  but  thinks  that  they, 
who  have  encouraged  the  emperor  to  trans- 
gress the  known  laws  of  the  church,  and  are 
still  living,  ought  to  be  punished  with  the 
same  severity  as  if  they  themselves  had 
transgressed  them.'  As  Anastasius  did  not 
live  long  enough  to  answer  this  letter,  the 


patriarch  wrote  another  to  pope  John  X.  of 
which  I  shall  have  occasion  to  speak  in  the 
sequel. 

Anastasius  died,  according  to  the  compu- 
tation of  the  best  chronologers,  about  the 
middle  of  October,  913,  after  a  pontificate  of 
about  two  years  and  two  months,  and  was 
buried  in  the  Vatican.  He  is  commended 
in  his  epitaph,  and  likewise  by  Flodoard, 
for  the  mildness  of  his  government,  for  his 
integrity,  and  the  purity  of  his  manners. 
He  did  nothing  blame-worthy,  says  Platina, 
which,  in  the  popes  of  those  days,  was  mat- 
ter of  great  commendation. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  pontificate  of  Anas- 
tasius, or  in  the  latter  end  of  his  predeces- 
sor's, died  Leo  the  philosopher,  emperor  of 
the  East,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  brother 
Alexander,  who  took  Constantine,  the  de- 
ceased emperor's  son  by  Zoe,  for  his  partner 
in  the  empire. 


LANDO,  HUNDRED  AND  TWENTY-FIRST  BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[Alexander,  Constantine,  Emperors  of  the  East. — Lewis  111.,  Emperor  of  the  West.] 


[Year  of  Christ,  914.]  Lando,  by  birth  a 
Sabine,  and  the  son  of  Tranus,  succeeded 
Anastasius,  but  held  the  see,  as  we  read  in 
Flodoard,  only  six  months  and  ten  days. 
Rubeus  in  his  history  of  Ravenna  informs 
us  that  mention  is  made  of  Pope  Lando  in 
the  tables  written  by  John,  archbishop  of 


that  city,  on  the  nones  of  February  of  the 
second  indiction,  that  is,  on  the  5th  of  Fe- 
bruary, 913.'  He  is  supposed  to  have  died 
about  the  27th  of  April,  914.  In  his  ponti- 
ficate died,  after  a  very  short  reign,  the  em- 
peror Alexander,  and  by  his  death  Constan- 
tine remained  sole  master  of  the  empire. 


JOHN  X.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  TWENTY-SECOND  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[Constantine  VIIL,  Emperor  of  the  East. — Lewis  III.,  Emperor  of  the  West.'] 


[Year  of  Christ,  914.]  John  X.  a  Roman, 
and  the  son  of  John,  was,  upon  the  death  of 
Lando  raised  to  the  papal  chair  by  the  in- 
terest of  the  famous  prostitute  Theodora. 
Luitprand  gives  us  the  following  account 
of  his  promotion:  "In  those  days,  says 
that  historian,  Peter,  archbishop  of  Ravenna, 
thought  to  be  the  first  archiepiscopal  see 
after  that  of  Rome,  used  frequently  to  send 
to  Rome  a  deacon  of  his  church  named  John 
to  pay  his  obeisance  to  his  holiness.  As  the 
deacon  was  a  very  comely  and  personable 
man,  Theodora  falling  passionately  in  love 
with  him,  engaged  him  in  a  criminal  intrigue 
with  her.  While  they  lived  thus  together, 
Apud  Baron,  ad  ann.  912. 


the  bishop  of  Bologna  died,  and  John  had 
interest  enough  to  get  himself  elected  in  his 
room.  But  the  archbishop  of  Ravenna 
dying  before  he  was  consecrated,  Theodora 
persuaded  him  to  exchange  the  see  of  Bo- 
logna for  that  of  Ravenna;  and  he  was  ac- 
cordingly, at  her  request,  ordained  by  pope 
Lando  archbishop  of  that  city.  Lando  died 
soon  after,  and  upon  his  death  Theodora, 
exerting  all  her  interest,  as  she  could  not 
live  at  the  distance  of  two  hundred  miles 
from  her  lover,  got  him  preferred  to  the  pon- 
tifical chair,'"^ 

To  no  pope,  perhaps,  did  Rome  owe  more 
than  to  John  thus  elected,  or  rather  intruded 


«  Bub.  Hist.  Raven.  1.  v.  p.  253.      »  Luitp.  1.  ii.  c.  13. 


John  X.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


309 


John  engages  the  Italian  princes  in  a  league  against  the  Saracens.  Crowns  Berengarius  emperor ;— [Year 
of  Christ  916.]  He  marches  in  person  against  the  Saracens  ;  who  are  all,  to  a  man,  cut  off  or  taken.  Coun- 
cil of  Altheis.     Sends  a  legate  into  Spain  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  917.] 


into  the  see.  The  Saracens  had  possessed 
ever  since  the  year  876  a  strong  hold  on  the 
banks  of  the  Liris,  now  the  GarigHano,  at  a 
small  distance  from  Rome,  and  from  thence 
made  daily  incursions  into  the  Roman  terri- 
tories, and  kept  the  city  itself  in  a  manner 
blocked  up,  insomuch  that  none  could  come 
to  visit  the  tombs  of  the  apostles  without 
exposing  themselves  to  the  danger  of  falling 
into  the  hands  of  those  barbarians,  and  being 
either  murdered  by  them,  or  carried  into 
captivity.  As  John  was  better  qualified  to 
command  an  army  than  to  govern  thechurch, 
he  resolved  to  deliver  Rome  from  so  grievous 
an  oppression,  and  with  that  view  found 
means,  being  a  man  of  uncommon  address 
and  great  abilities,  to  engage  not  only  the 
Italian  dukes,  but  Berengarius  king  of  Lom- 
bardy,  and  even  Constantine,  emperor  of  the 
East,  in  a  league  against  those  infidels,  as  a 
common  enemy.  Berengarius  had  been 
crowned  emperor  by  Stephen  VII.  but  that 
coronation  having  been  declared  null  by  John 
IX.  as  has  been  related  above,  the  present 
pope  promised  to  crown  him  anew,  and  get 
him  acknowledged  by  all  for  lawful  emperor, 
provided  he  joined  the  rest  of  the  Italian 
princes  in  the  intended  expedition  against 
the  Saracens,  who  plundered  the  Roman 
church  of  all  the  wealth  that  the  kings  of  the 
Franks  and  the  Roman  emperors,  his  ances- 
tors (for  he  was  descended  from  Char- 
lemagne) had  so  generously  bestowed  upon 
St.  Peter  and  his  successors  in  the  apostolic 
see.  Berengarius,  allured  with  this  oflTer, 
marched  to  Rome  at  the  head  of  a  very  nu- 
merous and  powerful  army ;  was  met,  as  he 
approached  the  city,  by  the  nobility,^  the 
clergy,  and  the  people,  and  attended  by  Peter, 
the  pope's  brother,  amidst  the  loud  acclama- 
tions of  the  multitude,  to  the  Vatican.  The 
pope  waited  for  him  in  the  porch  of  the 
church,  sitting  in  a  chair  of  state,  from  which 
he  rose  as  the  king  approached,  and  ad- 
vancing a  few  steps  kissed  him,  and  then 
conducted  him  to  the  tomb  of  the  apostle, 
where,  after  a  short  prayer,  he  received  his 
confession  of  faith,  and  repaired  with  him  to 
the  Lateran  palace.  There  the  pope  enter- 
tained him  with  all  the  splendor  and  magni- 
ficence of  a  great  prince  till  Easter  Sunday, 
that  is  till  the  24th  of  March  of  the  present 
year,  916,  when  he  crowned  him  emperor 
with  the  usual  solemnity  in  the  church  of 
St.  Peter. 

In  the  mean  time  arrived  the  expected 
succours  from  the  East,  sent  by  the  emperor 
Constantine,  no  less  provoked  against  the 
Saracens  than  the  pope  himself,  for  the 
dreadful  ravages  they  had  committed,  and 
continued  to  commit  in  his  Italian  dominions. 
Upon  their  arrival  the  pope  and  the  emperor 
took  the  field  ;  for  the  pope,  who  had  more 
of  the  soldier  than  the  bishop,  would  have 
his  share  ia  the  victory,  which,  he  said,  he 


did  not  doubt  but  they  should  obtain  by  the 
intercession  of  the  prince  of  the  apostles, 
whose  patrimony  they  defended.  The  Greeks 
under  the  command  of  Nicholas  Picigli,  a 
patrician,  the  imperial  troops  commanded 
by  the  emperor  in  person,  and  those  of  the 
Italian  lords,  headed  by  their  respective 
dukes  and  marquises  under  the  pope  as  their 
generalissimo,  advanced  from  different  quar- 
ters to  the  Garigliano,  surrounded  the  fortress, 
and  began  to  batter  it  on  all  sides.  The  Sa- 
racens held  out  for  three  months  against  the 
daily  attacks  of  three  numerous  armies;  but 
in  the  end,  their  provisions  being  all  con- 
sumed, they  set  fire  to  the  fortress,  which 
soon  destroyed  the  wealth  of  the  many  pro- 
vinces that  they  had  plundered,  and  sallying 
out  in  a  close  body,  opened  themselves  a 
way,  sword  in  hand,  to  the  neighboring 
woods  and  mountains.  But  being  closely 
pursued,  they  were  all,  to  a  man,  either 
taken  or  cut  in  pieces.'  Thus  was  the  fortress 
of  Garigliano  recovered  from  the  Saracens, 
chiefly  by  means  of  pope  John,  after  they 
had  held  it  for  the  space  of  forty  years,  and 
been  so  long  the  terror  of  all  Italy.  His 
holiness  returned,  in  triumph,  from  so  suc- 
cessful an  expedition  to  the  arms  of  his  be- 
loved Theodora. 

In  the  same  year,  916,  the  pope  appoint- 
ed a  council  to  meet  at  Altheis,  a  town  in 
lower  Bavaria,  in  order  to  redress  several 
abuses  that  had  crept  into  those  churches, 
and  sent  Peter,  bishop  of  Ortona,  a  city  in 
Abruzo,  to  preside  at  it  with  the  character 
of  his  legate.  By  that  council  several  canons 
were  enacted,  and  the  following  among  the 
rest :  that  no  man  should  marry  the  widow, 
whom  he  had  criminally  conversed  with  in 
her  husband's  lifetime;  that  none  should 
communicate  with  excommunicated  persons 
on  pain  of  incurring  the  same  excommuni- 
cation ;  that  no  bishop  should  pray  with 
them  in  the  church;  and  that  they,  who, 
unmindful  of  their  allegiance,  should  revolt 
from,  or  bear  arms  against  their  lawful 
prince,  should  be  excommunicated,  and  by 
all  avoided.- 

The  following  year  the  pope,  to  avert  the 
punishment  due,  as  he  was  sensible,  to  the 
scandalous  and  wicked  life  he  led,  sent  a 
legate  to  visit,  in  his  name,  the  tomb  of  the 
apostle  St.  James  at  Compostella,  in  the 
kingdom  of  Leon,  and  at  the  same  time 
wrote  to  Sisenand,  who  was  then  bishop  of 
that  city,  and  looked  upon  as  a  man  of  great 
sanctity,  desiring  him  to  engage  for  him, 
with  his  daily  prayers,  the  protection  of  the 
holy  apostle  in  his  life  time,  and  at  the  point 
of  death.  Sisenand  took  occasion  from  thence 
to  send  a  presbyter,  named  John,  to  Rome; 
and  by  him  Ordonius,  king  of  Leon,  wrote 
a  most  submissive  letter  to  the  pope,  with 


>  I.uitprand.  1.  ii.  c.  13. 

9  Bucbard.  1.  ii.  c.  08.  Juv.  part.  ziv.  c.  116. 


310 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[John  X. 


John  approves  of  the  Mosarabic  missal  with  some  alterations.  The  church  of  Constantinople  reunited  to  that 
of  Rome  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  920.]  The  pope  determines  a  dispute  concerning  the  bishoprics  of  Tongres  ; — 
[Year  of  Christ,  921.]  Approves  the  election  of  a  child  to  the  see  of  Reims  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  925.]  Dis- 
turbances in  Italy.  Hugh,  count  of  I'rovence,  crowned  king  of  Lorabardy; — [Year  of  Christ,  926.]  John  is 
deposed  and  dies  in  prison. 


many  rich  and  valuable  presents.  The  pope 
received  the  Spanish  legate  with  all  possible 
marks  of  distinction,  and  kept  him  a  whole 
year  at  Rome,  on  account  of  some  disputes 
between  him  and  the  Roman  clergy  con- 
cerning the  Mosarabic  missal,  that  was  used 
in  Spain,  but  differed  in  some  points  from 
the  Roman.  As  the  difference  was,  upon 
examination,  found  to  be  no  ways  material, 
the  Spanish  churches  were  allowed  to  use 
their  own  missal,  altering  only  some  words 
in  the  consecration  of  the  host.' 

As  some  misunderstanding  had  subsisted 
between  Rome  and  Constantinople  ever  since 
the  time  of  pope  Sergius  III.,  who  had  ap- 
proved of  the  emperor  Leo's  fourth  marriage, 
as  has  been  related  above,  the  emperor  Con- 
stanline,  and  Nicholas  the  patriarch,  desi- 
rous of  re-establishing  a  perfect  union  and 
concord  between  the  two  churches,  sent,  in 
920,  a  solemn  embassy  to  Rome  for  that  pur- 
pose. The  pope,  in  his  turn,  sent  the  two 
bishops  Theophylactus  and  Charles,  with 
the  character  of  his  legates,  to  Constantino- 
ple; and  thus  were  the  two  churches  again 
happily  united.  As  Euthymius,  whom  the 
emperor  Leo  had  appointed  patriarch  in  the 
room  of  Nicholas  sent  into  exile  for  opposing 
his  fourth  marriage,  died  at  this  time,  an  end 
was  put,  by  his  death,  to  the  schism,  which 
had  divided  that  church,  some  acknowledg- 
ing Nicholas,  and  som'e  Euthymius.  By 
the  treaty  of  union  that  was  agreed  to  and 
signed,  on  this  occasion,  by  the  patriarch 
and  the  rest  of  th*e  clergy,  fourth  marriages 
were  absolutely  forbidden  on  pain  of  excom- 
munication ;  a  five  years'  penance  was  im- 
posed upon  those  who  should  contract  a 
third  marriage  after  the  age  of  forty ;  and 
they  were  enjoined  a  three  years'  penance, 
who,  being  thirty  years  of  age,  and  having 
children,  should  marry  a  third  wife;  but 
this  penance  was  to  be  lessened,  if  they  had 
no  children.2 

In  the  year  921  the  pope  determined  a  con- 
troversy, which  had  lasted  some  time,  be- 
tween Hilduin,  and  Richerius  abbot  of  Prom, 
concerning  the  bishopric  of  Tongres.  Riche- 
rius, it  seems,  had  been  chosen  bishop  of 
that  city  by  a  majority  of  the  people  and  the 
clergy,  but  Heriman,  archbishop  of  Cologne, 
had  nevertheless  ordained  Hilduin.  Both 
parties  applied  to  the  pope,  who  summoned 
the  two  competitors  and  the  archbishop  to 
Rome.  Hilduin  and  Richerius  complied 
with  the  summons,  but  Heriman  was  pre- 
vented by  sickness,  real  or  pretended,  from 
undertaking  that  journey.  On  this  occasion 
the  pope  assembled  a  council  of  the  neigh- 
boring bishops  ;  and  by  them  Richerius  was 
declared  lawfully  elected,  and  Hilduin  not 

'  Ambros.  Moral.  1.  xv.  c.  47. 

>  Apud  Bals.  et  Baron,  ad  ann.  917, 


only  pronounced  an  intruder,  but  excommu- 
nicated and  divested  of  the  episcopal  dignity. 
In  his  room  Richerius  was  ordained  by  the 
pope  himself,  who  is  said  to  have  honored 
him  with  the  pall,  an  honor  that  none  of  his 
predecessors  ever  enjoyed.' 

How  little  the  discipline  and  laws  of  the 
church  were  regarded  by  this  pope  plainly 
appears  from  his  confirming  the  election  of 
Hugh,  whom  his  father,  count  Herbert,  one 
of  the  most  powerful  lords  in  France,  had 
caused  to  be  chosen  archbishop  of  Reims, 
though  he  was,  at  the  time  of  his  election, 
scarce  five  years  old.  John,  however,  ap- 
pointed Abbo,  bishop  of  Soissons,  to  perform 
the  episcopal  functions  in  that  diocese,  and 
left  the  care  of  the  temporalities  to  the  count, 
during  the  minority  of  his  son.2 

Great  disturbances  happened  in  Italy  dur- 
ing John's  pontificate.  The  emperor  Beren- 
garius  being  treacherously  murdered  by  some 
of  his  own  people  in  922,  Rodolph  II.,  king 
of  Burgundy,  entering  Italy,  seized  on  the 
kingdom  of  Lombardy,  and  was  crowned, 
according  to  custom,  at  Pavia  by  the  arch- 
bishop of  Milan.  But  the  Italian  lords,  dis- 
satisfied with  his  government,  drove  him  out 
in  926,  and  chose  Hugh,  count  of  Provence, 
king  of  Lombardy  in  his  room.  He  was 
the  son  of  Theutbald  and  Bertha,  daughter 
of  Lotharius  king  of  Lorraine.  His  mother, 
upon  the  death  of  Theutbald,  had  married 
Adelbert,  marquis  of  Tuscany,  and  had  by 
him  Wido,  who  succeeded  his  father  in  that 
marquisate,  and  got  the  Italian  lords  to  call 
his  half-brother  Hugh  to  the  crown  of  Lom- 
bardy. As  Hugh  went  to  Italy  by  sea,  he 
was  met  at  Pisa  by  the  pope's  nuncio  and 
the  deputies  of  the  Italian  princes,  and  at- 
tended by  them  to  Pavia,  where  he  was 
crowned  with  great  solemnity.  From  Pavia 
the  new  king  repaired  to  Mantua,  whither 
the  pope  himself  went  to  congratulate  him 
upon  his  accession  to  the  crown ;  and  on 
this  occasion  his  holiness  is  said  to  have  en- 
tered into  an  alliance  with  him,  but  upon 
what  terms  history  does  not  inform  us.'' 

As  the  two  prostitutes  Theodora  and 
Marozia  exercised,  at  this  time,  an  abso- 
lute power  in  Rome,  Wido,  marquis  of 
Tuscany,  in  order  to  establish  his  interest 
there,  married  Marozia,  though  she  had  a 
son  by  his  father  Adelbert.  John  had  been 
raised,  as  we  have  seen,  to  the  chair,  by  their 
mother  Theodora  ;  but  upon  her  death  Ma- 
rozia, provoked  at  the  pope's  placing  greater 
confidence  in  his  brother,  named  Peter,  than 
in  her  or  her  husband,  resolved  to  remove 
them  both  out  of  the  way.  This  resolution 
she  communicated  to  her  husband,  and  not 
only  prevailed  upon  him  to  approve  but  to 

«  Concil.  torn.  ix.  p.  571.  Flodoard  ad  ann.  920,  922. 
"  Flod.  ad  ann.  925.      =  Luitp.  1.  ii.  c.  3.  et  1.  iii.  c.  4. 


John  XI.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


311 


John  the  first  pope  that  headed  an  army.  Leo  VI.,  raised  to  the  chair  ;— [Year  of  Chriat,  929.]  Stephen 
succeeds  Leo.  Dies  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  931.]  John  intruded  into  the  see.  Grants  a  charter  to  Odo,  abbot 
ofCluny. 


execute  her  wicked  design.  For  Wido, 
breaking  into  the  Lateran  palace  with  a 
band  of  ruffians,  while  the  pope's  brother 
was  there  with  him,  killed  the  brother  on 
the  spot,  and  seizing  the  pope,  dragged  him 
to  prison,  where  he  died  soon  after,  some 
say,  smothered  with  a  pillow."  He  held  the 
see,  according  to  Flodoard,  fourteen  months 
and  somewhat  more  (paulo  ampUus),  and 
consequently  must  have  died   in  June  or 


July  928.  He  deserved,  says  Rubeus,  a 
better  end ;  but  to  one  woman  he  owed  his 
rise,  and  his  downfall  to  another.'  John  X. 
is  the  first  pope  that  is  seen  at  ihe  head  of 
an  army ;  and  to  him  Italy  owed  more  than 
to  most  of  the  popes,  who  have  been  honored 
with  a  place  in  the  calendar.  He  is  said  to 
have  espoused  with  great  zeal  the  cause  of 
Charles,  surnamed  the  Simple,  king  of 
France,  against  his  rebellious  subjects.* 


LEO  VI.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  TWENTY-THIRD  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[CoNSTArrriNE,  RoMANUs,  Emperors  of  the  East.'] 


[Year  of  Christ,  929.]  John  was  succeded 
by  Leo  VI.  said  by  Onuphrius,  and  after  him 
by  Baronius  and  Papebroch,  to  have  been 
the  son  of  the  primicerius  Christopher. 
Leo  is  greatly  commended  by  Platina,  and 
the  writers  who  have  copied  him.^  But  all 
we  read  of  him  in  Flodoard,  who  lived  in 
those  days,  is,  that  he  succeeded  John  X. 


and  governed  the  church  seven  months  and 
five  days. 

From  the  year  922,  when  the  emperor 
Berengarius  was  murdered,  there  were  no 
emperors  of  the  West  till  the  year  962,  when 
Olho  king  of  Germany  was  crowned  empe- 
ror by  pope  John  XI  I.  in  the  seventh  year  of 
his  pontificate,  as  I  shall  relate  in  the  sequel. 


STEPHEN  VII.  OR  VIII.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  TWENTY- 
FOURTH  BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[CoNSTANTiNE,  RojlANUS,  EmperoTS  of  the  East."] 


[Year  of  Christ,  931.]  Upon  the  death  of 
Leo,  Stephen  VII.  a  native  of  Rome,  and 
the  son  of  one  Theudemund,  was  raised  to 
the  see  in  his  room,  and  held  it  two  years 
one  month  and  twelve  days.  Thus  Flodoard, 


with  whom  most  chronologers  agree.  He 
must  therefore  have  died  about  the  fifteenth 
of  March  931.  Platina  speaks  of  him  as  a 
man  who  was  blessed  with  a  sweet  temper, 
and  led  a  very  religious  life.^ 


JOHN  XI.  THE  HUNDRED  AND  TWENTY-FIFTH  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[CoNSTANTiNE,  RoMANUS,  EmperoTS  of  the  East."] 


[Year  of  Christ,  931.]  In  the  room  of 
Stephen  was  intruded  into  the  see  John,  the 
eleventh  of  that  name.  He  was  the  son  of 
pope  Sergius  III.  by  Marozia,  and  owed  his 
promotion  to  Wido,  marquis  of  Tuscany, 
who  had  married  his  mother,  and  jointly 
with  her  governed  Rome.  He  must  have 
been  very  young  when  raised  to  the  see,  as 


« Luitp.  1.  lii.  c.  12, 


»  Platin.  in  Leon.  VI. 


Hugh,  king  of  Italy,  was  so  taken  with  his 
mother's  beauty,  as  to  marry  her  upon  the 
death  of  her  husband  Wido. 

All  we  find  recorded  of  this  pope  from  the 
time  of  his  election,  if  we  may  so  call  it,  in 
931  to  933,  is,  that,  at  the  request  of  Hugh, 
king  of  Burgundy,  he  granted  a  charter  to 


»  Hist.  Raven.  1.  5. 

3  Platin.  in  Stepben.  VIL 


9  Flodoard  Chron. 


312 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Leo  Vn. 


John  is  confined,  and  dies  in  prison ;— [Year  of  Christ,  936.]  Leo's  election  and  character.  Hugh,  king  of 
Italy,  and  Alberic,  lord  of  Rome,  reconciled  by  his  means.  Leo's  letter  concerning  abuses  that  prevailed  in 
the  German  churches.     His  answer  to  some  questions. 


Odo,  abbot  of  Cluny,  confirming  the  grant 
of  an  abbey  given  to  that  monastery,'  and 
that  he  sent  the  pall  to  Artald,  the  new- 
archbishop  of  Reiins.2  In  the  year  933  he 
was  seized  and  kept  confined  to  the  hour 
of  his  death  by  his  half-brother  Alberic  on 
the  following  occasion.  Hugh,  king  of  Italy, 
become  master  of  Rome  by  marrying  Maro- 
zia,  began  to  treat  the  Romans  as  his  slaves 
rather  than  his  vassals.  Alberic,  the  son  of 
Marozia  by  Adelbert,  marquis  of  Tuscany, 
met  with  no  better  treatment  from  him  than 
the  Romans ;  nay,  being  one  day  ordered 
by  his  mother  to  wait  upon  the  king  with 
water  to  wash  his  hands,  and  doing  it  very 
awkwardly,  the  haughty  prince  struck  him 
in  a  passion,  which  so  provoked  the  youth 


against  the  king  as  well  as  against  his  mo- 
ther, that  he  put  himself  at  the  head  of  the 
discontented  Romans,  with  a  design  to  drive 
them  both  out  of  Rome.  As  the  people 
flocked  to  him  from  all  quarters,  he  attacked 
the  castle  of  St.  Angelo  before  the  king  could 
assemble  his  forces,  and  made  himself  mas- 
ter of  that  fortress,  the  king  having,  with 
much  ado,  made  his  escape  over  the  wall, 
during  the  hurry  and  confusion  of  the  assault. 
Marozia,  however,  fell  into  his  hand ;  and 
he  kept  her,  as  well  as  his  brother,  pope 
John,  closely  confined  so  long  as  they  lived.' 
John  died,  according  to  Flodoard,  in  the 
third  year  of  his  confinement,  after  a  ponti- 
ficate of  four  years  and  ten  months  not  quite 
complete. 


LEO  VII.  THE  HUNDRED  AND  TWENTY-SIXTH  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[CoNSTANTiNE,  RoMANUS,  Emperors  of  the  East.l 


[Year  of  Christ,  933.1  Leo,  the  seventh 
of  that  name,  a  native  of  Rome,  was  chosen, 
with  one  consent,  by  the  clergy  and  people 
to  succeed  the  deceased  pope.  He  was  him- 
self the  only  person  that  opposed  his  elec- 
tion, but  was  in  the  end  obliged  to  yield, 
and  accept  the  offered  dignity.  Flodoard, 
who  went  to  Rome  in  his  pontificate,  and 
was  there  personally  acquainted  with  him, 
calls  him  a  servant  of  God,  and  speaks  of 
him  as  one  endowed  with  every  virtue  be- 
coming a  person  in  his  high  station.  He 
spared  no  pains  to  restore  the  decayed  dis- 
cipline, and  redress  the  abuses,  that  prevail- 
ed not  in  the  Roman  only,  but  in  most  other 
churches. 

As  the  disagreement  between  Hugh  king 
of  Italy,  and  Alberic  lord  of  Rome,  occasion- 
ed great  disturbances,  some  of  the  Italian 
princes  siding  with  one,  and  some  with  the 
other,  the  pope  undertook,  in  the  very  be- 
ginning of  his  pontificate,  to  reconcile  the 
two  opposite  parties.  With  that  view  he 
sent  for  Odo,  the  second  abbot  of  Cluny, 
who,  he  knew,  was  highly  esteemed  and  re- 
spected by  the  king.  Odo  interposed,  as 
directed  by  the  pope,  and  not  only  a  peace, 
but  an  alliance  was  concluded  by  his  means 
between  the  two  princes,  Alberic  marrying 
the  king's  daughter,  and  the  king  thereupon 
engaging  not  to  disturb  him  in  the  posses- 
sion of  Rome  and  its  dukedom.'  This  holy 
monk  was  likewise  employed  by  the  pope 
in  restoring  the  famous  monastery  of  St. 
Paul  at  Rome  to  its  former  discipline  ;  and 


«  Apud  Mabill.  Secul.  v.  Benedict. 
«  Flodoard,  in  Chron.  ad  ann.  93,"?. 
'  Luitprand,  1.  iv.  c.  1.  Vit.  Odon. 


he  succeeded  therein  to  the  great  satisfaction 
of  the  whole  Roman  clergy,  as  well  as  of 
his  holiness,  flattering  himself,  that  the 
other  monasteries  of  Rome,  encouraged  by 
the  example  of  those  monks,  would  reform 
themselves.^ 

Leo  sent  the  pall  to  Gerhard,  bishop  of 
Lorch,  and  thus  restored  that  see  to  the 
archiepiscopal  dignity,  which  it  had  former- 
ly enjoyed .3  Gerhard  went  afterwards  to 
Rome,  to  inform  the  pope  of  several  abuses 
that  obtained  in  the  German  churches,  and 
beg  his  holiness  to  correct  them.  The  pope, 
in  compliance  with  his  request,  wrote  a  let- 
ter addressed  to  the  kings,  dukes,  archbi- 
shops, and  bishops  in  those  parts,  exhorting 
them  to  join  in  extirpating,  with  their 
temporal  as  well  as  their  spiritual  power,  the 
many  disorders  which,  he  was  informed, 
prevailed  among  them.  In  that  letter  he 
answered  the  questions  that  Gerhard  had 
proposed  to  him,  in  order  to  their  being 
known  to  all.  These  were,  whether  witches, 
enchanters,  and  wizards  should  be  put  to 
death  ;  whether  the  Lord's  prayer  should  be 
said  before  and  after  meals ;  and  whether  the 
children  of  married  priests  should  be  admit- 
ted to  holy  orders.  In  answer  to  these  ques- 
tions the  pope  leaves  enchanters,  &c.  to  the 
rigor  of  the  laws,  issued  by  the  civil  power 
against  them,  declaring,  at  the  same  time,  that 
it  is  no  sin  to  punish  them  with  death.  He 
will  not  allow  the  Lord's  prayer  to  be  said  at 
meals,  as  being  appropriated,  according  to 
him,  to  the  sacrifice  of  the  mass.  As  for  the 
marriages  of  priests,  he  condemns  them  as 


'  Luitprand,  1.  iii.  c.  12. 
I  Concil.  t.  ix.  p.  595. 


a  Vit.  Odon. 


STEPHftN  VIII.  OR  IX.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


313 


Leo's  letter  to  the  abbot  of  St.  Martin  at  Tours.  Dies  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  939.]  Stephen  succeeds  Leo.  Was 
so  disfigured  in  the  face  by  order  of  Alberic,  that  he  was  ashamed  to  appear  in  public.  The  pope  sends  the 
pall  to  Hugh,  archbishop  of  Reims  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  942.]  He  zealously  esjiouses  the  cause  of  Lewis 
d'Outremer.     Sends  again  for  the  abbot  of  Cluny. ^^^ 


highly  criminal,  orders  those,  who  have  con- 
tracted them,  to  be  deposed,  but  thinks,  that 
"  the  son  should  not  bear  the  iniquity  of  the 
father."  In  the  same  letter  the  pope  forbids 
the  chorepiscopi  to  consecrate  churches,  or- 
dain priests,  or  administer  confirmation ; 
declares  it  unlawful  for  a  man  to  marry  his 
god-mother  or  god-daughter,  and  closes  his 
letter  with  enjoining  the  bishops  to  obey 
Gerhard  as  their  metropoHtan,  and  vicar  in 
those  parts  of  the  apostolic  see.' 

We  have  another  letter  of  this  pope,  ad- 
dressed to  Hugh,  abbot  of  the  monastery  of 
St.  Martin,  in  the  city  ot  Tours,  wherein  he 
finds  fault  with  him  for  suffering  women  to 
enter  that  monastery,  and  excommunicates 
any  woman  who  shall  thenceforth  set  foot 


within  the  walls.  This  letter  is  dated  the 
ninth  of  January  of  the  eleventh  indiction, 
that  is,  of  the  year  938,  in  the  third  year  of 
his  pontificate  ;  so  that  he  was  ordained  be- 
fore the  ninth  of  January,  936,  and  must 
therefore  have  died  about  the  eighteenth  of 
July  939,  if  he  held  the  see,  as  we  read  ia 
the  best  chronologers,  three  years  six  months 
and  ten  days.  As  in  one  of  his  letters,  part 
of  which  has  reached  our  times,  he  calls  St. 
Benedict  his  father,  Mabillon  from  thence 
concludes  him  to  have  been  a  monk  of  that 
order;  which  is  not  at  all  improbable,  the 
rather  as  he  is  styled  by  Flodoard  "  a  servant 
of  God,"  a  title  commonly  given,  in  those 
days  to  monks. 


STEPHEN  VIII.  OR  IX.,  HUNDRED  AND  TWENTY-SEVENTH 
BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[CoNST.\NTiNE,  RoMANUS,  Emperors  of  the  East.'\ 


[Year  of  Christ,  939.]  Stephen  VIII.  or 
IX.  was  raised  to  the  see  after  Leo.  He 
was  by  birth  a  German,  according  to  Platina. 
But  Ciaconius  will  have  him,  upon  whose 
authority  we  know  not,  to  have  been  a  na- 
tive of  Rome,  only  brought  up  in  Germany. 
As  he  was  chosen  against  the  will  of  Al- 
beric, who  continued  to  tyrannize  at  Rome, 
he  was  by  some  of  his  partisans  so  cut  and 
disfigured  in  the  face,  that  he  was  ever-after 
ashamed  to  appear  in  public.^  What  some 
have  written,  namely,  that  Stephen  was 
placed  on  the  chair  by  Olho,  king  of  Ger- 
many, though  opposed  by  Alberic,  by  the 
Roman  people  and  the  clergy,  h^as  not  the 
least  foundation  in  truth  or  in  history,  Otho 
being  then  too  much  engaged  in  domestic 
wars,  and  at  too  great  a  distance  from  Rome, 
to  concern  himself  with  the  election  of  the 
pope,  or  with  any  thing  else  that  happened 
there.3 

The  first  thing  we  find  recorded  of  this 
pope  is  his  acknowledging  Hugh,  the  son 
of  count  Herbert,  for  archbishop  of  Reims, 
and  sending  him  the  pall.  Hugh  had  been 
chosen,  by  the  interest  of  his  father,  arch- 
bishop of  that  city  when  he  was  but  five 
years  old,  as  has  been  related  above.  But 
Rodulph,  duke  of  Burgundy,  having  made 
himself  master  of  Reims,  drove  Hugh  from 
that  see,  and  appointed  Artold,  monk  of  the 
monastery  of  St.  Remigius,  archbishop  in 
his  room.  But  Artold  being,  in  94U,  driven 
out  by  the  opposite  party  in  his  turn,  Hugh 

«  Auct.  ubi  supra.  ^  Baron,  ad  ann.  940. 

>  Vide  Pnpebrnch.  in  Concil.  Chronic.  Historic. 
Vol.  II.— '10 


was  restored,  and  the  following  year  conse- 
crated in  a  council  of  bishops  at  Soissons, 
though  at  that  time  only  eighteen  years  of 
age.  The  bishops  who  ordained  him  des- 
patched one  of  their  body  to  Rome  for  the 
pall,  which  Stephen  readily  granted,  though 
it  had  been  sent  to  Artold  by  John  XI.  but 
a  few  years  before.' 

The  same  year,  942,  the  pope,  zealously 
espousing  the  cause  of  Lewis,  surnamed 
d'Outretner,  the  son  of  Charles  the  Simple,, 
against  his  rebellious  subjects,  despatched  a 
bishop  named  Damasus,  into  France  with 
letters  addressed  to  the  French  lords,  as  well 
as  to  the  people  of  France  and  Burgundy. 
In  these  letters  the  pope  exhorted  them  to 
submit  to  their  lawful  sovereign,  and  obey 
him  whom  God  had  placed  over  them,  since 
they  could  not  disobey  him  without  disobey- 
ing God  himself,  who  would  not  suffer  their 
disobedience  to  pass  unrevenged.  The  pope, 
in  the  close  of  his  letter,  commands  them,. 
by  virtue  of  his  apostolic  authority,  to  ac- 
knowledge Lewis  for  their  king,  to  lay  dowa 
their  arms,  and  send  deputies  to  Rome  to 
acquaint  him  with  their  having  done  so, 
threatening  them  with  excommunication,  if 
they  did  not  comply  with  these  his  apostolic 
injunctions  before  the  ensuing  Christmas.^ 

As  Hugh,  king-  of  Italy,  and  Alberic, 
prince  of  Rome,  fell  out  anew,  and  their  dis- 
agreement was  likely  to  involve  all  Italy  in 
a  civil  war,  the  pope  sent  for  Odo,  by  whose 
means  they  had  been  reconciled  before,  in 


«  Flodoard  Hist.  1.  iv.  c.  28. 
>  Idem  in  Chonic. 

2B 


314 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Agapetus  II. 


Stephen  dies;— [Year  of  Christ,  942]     The  election  and  character  of  Marinus.     A  great  friend  to  the  monks. 
His  death; — [Year  of  Christ,  946.]  Agapetus.    Council  of  Ingelheim. 

order  to  his  mediating  a  peace  between  them.  I  The  pope  did  not  long  outlive  him  ;  for  the 
The  holy  abbot,  in  compliance  with  the  abbot's  death  is  said  to  have  happened  in 
pope's  request,  repaired  immediately  to  November  942,'  and  pope  Stephen's  about 
Rome.  But  being  taken  ill  soon  after  his  the  beginning  of  December  of  the  same  year, 
arrival  there,  he  was  obliged  to  return  to  after  he  had  presided  in  the  see  three  years. 
Tours,  where  he  died  in  a  very  short  time.  I  four  months,  and  five  days. 


MARINUS  II.  OR  MARTINUS  III.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND 
TWENTY-EIGHTH  BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[CoNSTANTiNE,  RoMANUS,  Emperors  of  the  East.'] 


[Year  of  Christ,  942.]  Stephen  was  suc- 
ceeded by  Marinus  II.  or  Marti  II.,  this  pope 
being  by  some  named  Marinus,  and  by  others 
Martinus.  Baronius  tells  us,  upon  the  au- 
thority of  an  ancient  manuscript  lodged  in 
the  Vatican  library,  that  Marinus  was  a  na- 
tive of  Rome,  and  a  great  friend  to  the  poor ; 
that  he  rebuilt,  repaired,  and  adorned  several 
churches ;  that  he  strove,  to  the  utmost  of 
his  power,  to  restore  the  decayed  discipline, 
to  reform  the  monasteries,  and  reconcile  the 
Christian  princes  then  at  war.'  What  Baro- 
nius writes  is  confirmed  by  Platina  in  his  life 
of  this  pope.  He  seems  to  have  had  a  particu- 
lar regard  for  the  monks;  and  we  have  some 
rescripts  or  bulls  of  his,  granting  privileges 
and  exemptions  to  them,  and  their  monaste- 
ries.^ He  wrote  a  very  severe  letter  to  Scio, 
bishop  of  Capua,  censuring  him  for  his 
ignorance  of  the  canons,  for  his  intimacy 
with  seculars,  and  his  utter  disregard  for  the 
laws  of  the  church.  What  drew  these  harsh 
censures  upon  him  was  his  having  settled 


upon  one  of  his  deacons  a  church  with  its  re- 
venues, which  his  predecessors  had  granted 
to  the  Benedictine  monks  in  order  to  their 
building  a  monastery.  The  pope  orders  the 
bishop  to  restore  to  the  monks,  without  delay, 
what  he  had  taken  from  them,  upon  pain  of  ex- 
communication and  deposition,  and  declares 
the  monastery  that  was  to  be  built,  exempt 
from  the  jurisdiction  of  the  bishop  of  Capua 
and  his  successors  in  that  see.  As  for  the 
deacon,  to  whom  the  grant  of  that  church 
had  been  made,  the  pope  forbids  the  bishop 
to  have  ever  thenceforth  any  intercourse 
with  him,  even  at  the  altar,  and  threatens 
him  with  excommunication,  if  he  paid  not 
due  obedience  to  his  order.^ 

Marinus  held  the  see,  according  to  the 
most  probable  opinion,  three  years,  six 
months,  and  thirteen  days ;  and  consequently 
must  have  died  some  time  in  June,  946; 
and  his  death  is  accordingly  placed  by  Flo- 
doard  at  that  year.'' 


AGAPETUS  II.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  TWENTY-NINTH  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[CoNSTANTiNE,  RoMANUS,  Empcrors  of  the  East.'\ 


[Year  of  Christ,  946.]  Agapetus  II.,  the 
successor  of  Marinus,  by  birth  a  Roman, 
was  ordained  before  the  22d  of  June,  946. 
For  we  have  a  letter  of  his  bearing  that  date 
of  the  eleventh  indiction,  which  coincides 
with  the  year  946;  so  that  he  was,  at  that 
time,  in  possession  of  the  see.^  As  the  dis- 
agreement between  Hugh,  king  of  Lom- 
bardy,  and  Alberic,  lord  of  Rome,  occasion- 
ed great  disturbances  in  that  city,  especially 
at  the  electing  of  a  new  pope,  Agapetus  un- 
dertook, as  soon  as  he  was  raised  to  the  see. 


»  Baron,  ad  ann.  943. 

'  Apud  Dacher.  Spicileg.  torn.  ill.  p.  464.  et  Ughell. 
torn.  i.  col.  133. 
3  Bubeus  Hist.  Ravenn,  1.  v. 


to  reconcile  them.  But  what  success  attend- 
ed his  negotiations  we  know  not,  Hugh  being 
this  very  year  driven  out  of  Italy  by  Beren- 
garius,  the  grandson  of  the  emperor  Beren- 
garius  by  his  daughter. 

As  the  see  of  Reims  was  claimed  by  Hugh 
and  by  Artold,  and  both  had  received  the 
pall  from  Rome,  a  council  was  appointed  to 
meet  at  Ingelheim,  in  the  diocese  of  Cologne, 
in  order  to  determine  whose  claim  was  best 
grounded.  The  pope  sent  Marinus,  bishop 
of  Polymartis,  to  preside  at  it  in  his  name; 
and  it  consisted  of  thirty-one  bishops  besides 


«  Flodoard  in  Chron. 
'  Flodoard  in  Chron. 


a  Leo  Ostiens.  I.  i.  c.  60. 


John  XII.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


Council  of  Treves.  The  acts  of  both  councils  confirmed  by  the  pope;— [Year  of  Christ, 
vides  Pannonia  into  two  arciibishoprics  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  950]  His  death  ;— [Year  o 
character.  John  XII.  Intrudes  liinise'lf  into  the  see.  Makes  war  upon  the  prince  of  Cap 
rv.^o»  «*•  r<K..;<.»    o^iT  i 


[Year  of  Christ,  957.] 


315 

[Year  of  Christ,  919]     Agapetus  di- 
Capua  and  is  defeated  ; 


him,  ihe  two  kings  Otho  of  Germany,  and 
Lewis  d'Outremer,  of  France,  being  present 
in  person.  The  council  met  on  the  7lh  of 
June,  948,  and  the  two  competitors  were 
summoned  to  appear;  with  that  summons 
Artold  readily  complied ;  but  Hugh  declin- 
ing, upon  various  pretences,  to  stand  to  the 
judgment  of  that  assembly,  the  bishops  de- 
clared, with  one  voice,  Artold  lawful  bishop 
of  Reims,  and  at  the  same  time  thundered 
out  the  sentence  of  excommunication  against 
Hugh,  as  one  who  had,  contrary  to  the  ca- 
nons, intruded  himself  into  that  see.  The 
same  sentence  was  at  the  same  time  pro- 
nounced against  Hugh,  surnamed  the  Great 
or  the  White,  if  he  did  not,  within  a  limited 
time,  quit  the  party  of  the  rebels,  and  acknow- 
ledge Lewis  for  his  lawful  sovereign.'  From 
that  time  Artold  held  undisturbed  the  see  of 
Reims  till  his  death,  that  is,  till  the  year  961 . 
The  same  year  948,  the  legate  Marinus 
presided  at  another  council  held  at  Treves, 
and  by  that  council  was  confirmed  the  sen- 
tence of  the  council  of  Ingelheim  against 
count  Hugh,  guilty  of  rebellion  and  treachery, 
of  driving  bishops  from  their  sees  on  account 
of  their  steady  attachment  to  their  prince,  and 
seizing  on  their  revenues.  The  bishops,  who 
had  ordained  Hugh  archbishop  of  Reims, 
were  likewise  excommunicated,  and  sus- 
pended from  all  episcopal  functions  till  they 
satisfied  the  legates,  and  publicly  acknow 
ledged  their  fault.^  The  acts  of  both  these 
councils  were  confirmed  the  following  year 
by  the  pope  in  a  council,  which  he  assem 
bled  at  Rome,  upon  the  return  of  the  legate. 


and  count  Hugh  was  excommunicated  the 
third  time,  as  he  still  continued  at  the  head 
of  the  rebels.' 

The  same  year  the  pope  confirmed  all  the 
privileges  that  had  been  granted  by  his  pre- 
decessors to  the  see  of  Hamburg,  and  ap- 
pointed Adaldagus,  who  then  held  that  archi- 
episcopal  see,  his  vicar,  with  full  power  to 
ordain  bishops  in  Denmark,  lately  converted 
to  the  Christian  faith,  as  well  as  in  the 
neighboring  countries.^ 

The  following  year  a  dispute  arising,  or 
rather  the  ancient  dispute  being  revived, 
between  Harold,  archbishop  of  Saltzburg, 
and  Gerard,  archbishop  of  Lorch,  concern- 
ing the  metropolitan  dignity,  Agapetus  in- 
terposed, and  dividing  the  province  of  Pan- 
nonia, over  which  each  of  them  claimed  a 
jurisdiction  independent  of  the  other,  sub- 
jected western  Pannonia  to  the  see  of  Saltz- 
burg, and  the  eastern  part  of  that  province 
with  the  country  of  the  Avares,  of  the  Mo- 
ravians and  the  Sclavonians,  to  the  see  of 
Lorch,  granted  to  both  the  metropolitan  dig- 
nity, and  distinguished  both  with  the  pall.^ 

Agapetus  sent  likewise  the  pall  to  Bruno, 
brother  to  Otho,  king  of  Germany,  upon  his 
being  preferred  to  the  see  of  Cologne,  and 
to  Odo,  the  new  archbishop  of  Canterbury ; 
and  this  is  all  we  read  of  Agapetus,  though 
he  presided  in  the  see  ten  years  and  about 
three  months.  He  is  styled  by  the  writer  of 
the  life  of  St.  Bruno,  archbishop  of  Cologne, 
"a  man  of  wonderful  sanctity,"^  and  most 
other  writers  place  him  among  the  few  good 
popes  of  this  century. 


JOHN  XII.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  THIRTIETH  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[ Const ANTiNE,  Emperor  of  ihe  East. — Otho,  Emperor  of  the  Wes(.'\ 


[Year  of  Christ,  956.]  Upon  the  death 
of  Agapetus,  Octavianus,  the  son  of  Albe- 
ric,  who  had  succeeded  his  father  in  the 
usurped  sovereignty  of  Rome,  seized  on  the 
see,  though  then,  at  most,  but  eighteen  years 
of  age.  Being  raised  to  the  chair,  he  took 
the  name  of  John,  that  of  his  uncle  pope 
John  XI.,  and  he  is  the  first  pope  that 
changed  his  name. 

The  first  thing  we  find  recorded  of  this 
pope  is,  his  raising  troops  and  marching  in 
person,  at  the  head  of  a  considerable  army, 
against  Pandulph,  prince  of  Capua,  but 
upon  what  provocation,  history  does  not  in- 
form us.     Pandulph,  finding  his  dominions 


'  Concll.  torn.  ix.  p.  623. 

>  Flodoard  in  Cbron.  ad  ann.  948. 


thus  unexpectedly  invaded  by  the  young 
pope,  had  recourse  to  Girulph,  prince  of 
Salerno,  who  readily  joined  him  with  all  his 
forces,  as  he  apprehended  that  the  pope 
would  next  fall  upon  him.  The  two  princ«, 
taking  the  field  with  their  joint  forces,  met 
the  pope  as  he  was  advancing  to  Capua  to 
lay  siege  to  that  place,  and  a  battle  thereupon 
ensuing,  John's  army  was  entirely  defeated, 
and  he  himself  narrowly  escaped  falling  into 
the  hands  of  the  provoked  princes.^ 

This  defeat  made  the  pope  lay  aside  all 
thoughts  of  extending  his  dominions  or  en- 
croaching upon  the  neighboring  princes ;  and 

'  Flodoard  in  Chron.  ad  ann.  949. 

'  Adam.  liremens.  1.  ii.  c.  2. 

'  Concil.  torn.  ix.  p.  618. 

*  Rotgerus.  vit.  Bru.  c.  23.      >  Apud  Bar.  ad  ann.  9S7. 


316 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[John  XH. 


John  invites  Otho  into  Italy; — [Year  of  Christ,  961.]  Promises  to  crown  him  emperor.  Otho  marches  into 
Italy  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  962.]  Goes  to  Rome,  and  is  there  crowned  emperor.  Famous  diploma  of  the  em- 
peror Otho  still  to  be  seen  at  Rome.    The  pope  revolts  from  the  emperor  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  963.] 


therefore  disbanding  his  army,  he  returned 
to  Rome,  and  there  abandoned  himself  to  all 
manner  of  wickedness  and  debauchery.  But 
in  the  mean  time  Berengarius,  king  of  Italy, 
and  his  son  Adelbert,  whom  he  had  taken 
for  his  partner  in  the  kingdom,  governing  in 
a  most  tyrannical  manner,  and  loading  with 
most  exorbitant  taxes  the  clergy  as  well  as 
the  laity,  the  Romans  themselves  not  ex- 
cepted, the  pope  resolved  to  apply  for  redress 
to  Otho,  king  of  Germany,  a  prince  no  less 
renowned  for  his  justice  and  virtue,  than 
his  warlike  exploits,  and  the  conquests  he 
had  made.  John  dispatched  accordingly  into 
Germany,  John,  cardinal  deacon,  and  Azo, 
keeper  of  the  records  of  the  Roman  church, 
to  represent  to  the  king  the  deplorable  con- 
dition to  which  the  two  tyrants  had  reduced 
not  only  the  Roman  church,  but  all  Italy, 
and  entreat  him  to  hasten  to  their  rescue. 
The  legates  were  enjoined  to  offer  the  im- 
perial crown  to  the  king  of  Germany,  pro- 
vided he  drove  out  the  tyrants,  and  deliver- 
ed the  mother  of  all  churches  from  the  mise- 
ries she  groaned  under,  and  could  no  longer 
bear.  At  the  same  time  came  deputies  to 
Otho  from  most  of  the  bishops  and  princes 
of  Italy,  all  complaining  of  the  tyrannical 
government  of  Berengarius  and  his  son,  and 
imploring  his  protection,  they  all  assured 
him  that  the  Italian  princes  would  readily 
join  him,  and  assist  him  to  the  utmost  of 
their  power,  and  acknowledge  him,  as  soon 
as  he  appeared,  for  their  king. 

As  Otho  had  no  other  wars  at  that  time 
on  his  hands,  he  could  not  withstand  so 
tempting  an  offer;  and  having  therefore  as- 
sembled the  flower  of  his  army,  he  went 
first  to  Aix-la-Chapelle,  caused  his  son  Otho 
to  be  there  anointed  king  of  Germany, 
though  then  only  seven  years  old,  and  from 
thence  pursuing  his  march,  he  entered  Italy, 
and  advanced,  without  opposition,  to  Pavia, 
the  troops  of  Berengarius  flying  everywhere 
before  him,  and  the  Italians  flocking  from 
all  quarters  to  join  him.  At  Pavia  he  was 
met  by  most  of  the  princes  and  bishops  of 
Italy;  and  having  kept  his  Christmas  there, 
he  resumed  his  march  after  the  holidays, 
and  arrived,  the  enemy  not  daring  to  appear, 
without  the  least  interruption,  at  Rome.  He 
was  met  at  the  gate  by  the  clergy  in  a  body, 
by- the  nobility,  and  crowds  of  people,  and 
attended  by  them  with  loud  acclamations  to 
the  Vatican.  He  was  there  received  by  the 
pope,  and  after  performing  his  devotions  at 
the  tomb  of  St.  Peter,  was  crowned  and 
anointed  emperor  with  the  usual  solemnity. 
On  this  occasion  the  emperor,  at  the  request 
of  the  pope,  promised  upon  oath  to  defend 
the  Roman  church  against  all  her  enemies ; 
to  maintain  her  in  the  quiet  possession  of 
all  the  privileges  she  had  enjoyed  to  that 
time ;  to  restore  to  the  holy  see  the  lands  and 
possessions  that  belonged  to  St.  Peter,  as 


soon  as  he  recovered  them ;  to  assist  the  pope 
to  the  utmost  of  his  power,  when  his  assist- 
ance was  wanted;  and,  lastly,  to  make  no 
alteration  in  the  government  of  Rome  with- 
out his  knowledge  or  approbation.  At  the 
same  time  the  emperor  confirmed  all  the 
grants  of  Pepin  and  Charlemagne;'  but 
obliged,  in  his  turn,  the  pope  and  the  Ro- 
mans to  swear  obedience  to  him,  and  pro- 
mise upon  oath  to  lend  no  kind  of  assistance 
to  Berengarius  or  to  his  son  Adelbert,  from 
whose  tyranny  he  was  come  to  deliver  them. 
The  coronation  of'Otho  happened  before  the 
13ih  of  February,  962;  for  we  have  a 
diploma  of  his  bearing  that  date,  wherein  he 
styles  himself  emperor.^ 

That  diploma,  in  letters  of  gold,  is  still  to 
be  seen  in  the  castle  of  St.  Angelo  at  Rome; 
and  it  is  thereby  enacted,  that  the  election 
of  the  pope  shall  thenceforth  be  made  after 
the  manner  prescribed  by  the  canons ;  that 
none  shall  disturb  the  election  on  pain  of 
banishment;  that  the  elect  shall  not  be 
ordained  till  his  election  is  confirmed  by  the 
emperor,  and  deputies  are  sent  by  him  to 
assist,  in  his  name,  at  that  ceremony;  that 
the  new  pope  shall  promise,  in  the  presence 
of  the  imperial  envoys,  to  injure  no  man  in 
his  property;  that  they,  who  have  been  any 
ways  injured,  may  apply  either  to  the  com- 
missaries of  the  pope,  or  to  those  of  the  em- 
peror residing  in  Rome,  and  have  their 
grievances  redressed,  and  justice  done  them 
by  either.  Thus  was  the  empire  transferred 
from  the  Italian  to  the  German  princes,  by 
the  free  election  of  an  oppressed  people,  J 
inviting  him  to  their  relief,  and  putting  them-  I 
selves,  of  their  own  accord,  under  his  pro- 
tection. 

The  emperor,  in  his  turn,  made  the  pope 
swear  allegiance  to  him,  and  promise  upon 
oath  to  lend  no  assistance  to  Berengarius  or  , 
to  Adelbert  his  son.  But  no  sooner  was  l 
Otho  gone,  than,  forgetting  his  oath  though  i 
taken  upon  the  body  of  St.  Peter,  he  began 
privately  to  correspond  with  Adelbert,  who 
had  taken  refuge  among  the  Saracens;  and 
he  at  last  openly  declared  for  him,  and  ad- 
mitted him,  with  all  his  followers,  into 
Rome.  The  emperor,  upon  the  first  intel- 
ligence he  received  of  the  pope's  correspond- 
ing with  his  enemies,  dispatched  embassadors 
to  Rome  to  put  him  in  mind  of  the  oath  he 
had  taken,  and  at  the  same  time  to  inquire 
of  the  Romans  what  could  have  induced 
him  to  infringe  the  treaty,  which  he  had  but 
lately  concluded,  and  sworn  to  observe. 
The  embassadors  met  with  a  very  indifferent 
reception  from  the  pope ;  and  the  Romans 
gave  them  a  most  shocking  account  of  the 
debauched  life  which  he  publicly  led,  to  the 
disgrace  of  the  apostolic  see,  and  their  holy 

'  Luitprand,  1.  vi.  c.  6.  Regino  ad  ann.  962.  Flodoard, 
in  Chron.  Gratian.  Dist.  63. 
>  Apud  Baron,  ad  ann.  962. 


John  XII.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


317 


The  pope's  debaucheries.  Otho  marches  to  Rome.  The  pope  abandons  the  city  and  flies.  The  emperor 
assembles  a  council  at  Rome  to  try  the  pope.  Crimes  laid  to  his  charge.  Speech  of  the  bishop  of  Ciemona 
to  the  council,  in  the  emperor's  name. 


religion  itself.  They  told  the  embassadors, 
thai  he  carried  on  in  the  eyes  of  the  whole 
city,  a  criminal  commerce  with  one  Rainera, 
the  widow  of  one  of  his  soldiers ;  that  he 
had  given  her  the  government  of  several 
cities,  and  presented  her  with  crosses  and 
chalices  of  gold  belonging  to  the  church  of 
St.  Peter;  that  he  publicly  kept  another 
concubine,  named  Stephania,  who  lately 
died  in  the  delivery  of  a  child  she  had  by 
him ;  that  he  had  changed  the  Lateran 
palace,  once  the  abode  of  saints,  into  a 
brothel,  and  there  cohabited  with  his  father's 
concubine  the  sister  of  Stephania;  that 
women  were  afraid  to  come  from  other 
countries  to  visit  the  tombs  of  the  apostles  at 
Rome ;  that  he  spared  none,  and  had  within 
these  few  days  forced  married  women, 
widows,  and  virgins,  to  comply  with  his 
impure  desires.  They  added,  that  the  devil 
hated  not  more  his  Creator  than  pope  John 
did  the  emperor,  apprehending  that  he  might 
as  a  prince  of  great  piety,  and  strictly  reli- 
gious, call  him  to  an  account  and  punish 
him  for  his  debaucheries,  and  that  he  there- 
fore wanted  an  Adelbert  to  protect  and  de- 
fend him.' 

The  emperor,  informed  by  his  embassa- 
dors, upon  their  return,  of  the  wicked  and 
scandalous  life  the  pope  led,  said  no  more 
than  that  he  was  yet  a  child,  and  might 
mend  his  manners  by  the  example  of  good 
men  and  retrieve.  But  when  he  received 
certain  intelligence  of  his  having  openly  de- 
clared for  Adelbert,  and  even  admitted  him 
into  Rome,  he  raised  the  siege  of  Montefel- 
tro,  where  Berengarius  had  shut  himself  up, 
and  marched  with  his  whole  army  against 
the  pope  and  his  new  ally.  But  they  no 
sooner  heard  of  his  march,  than  despairing 
of  being  able  to  withstand  so  great  a  force, 
they  plundered  the  church  of  St.  Peter,  and 
fled,  carrying  along  with  them  all  the  wealth 
they  found  there.  The  emperor  entered 
Rome  at  the  head  of  his  army,  was  received 
by  the  clergy,  the  nobility  and  the  people,  as 
their  deliverer,  with  the  greatest  demonstra- 
tions of  joy,  and,  attended  by  them,  to  the 
castle  of  St.  Paul,  which  his  friends  had  sur- 
prised before  the  flight  of  the  pope,  and  pre- 
pared for  his  reception.  During  his  stay 
there,  the  Romans  renewed,  of  their  own 
accord,  the  oalh  of  allegiance  they  had  taken 
to  him,  and  at  the  same  time  solemnly  pro- 
mised to  give  no  kind  of  assistance  to  Beren- 
garius, to  Adelbert,  or  to  any  of  his  enemies, 
and  never  to  elect  a  pope,  nor  suffer  a  pope 
to  be  ordained  without  his  consent,  or  that 
of  his  son.2 

The  emperor,  having  settled  the  civil  go- 
vernment of  the  city,  assembled  in  the  next 
place,  by  the  advice  of  the  prelates,  who  at- 
tended him,  a  council  in  order  to  examine 


*  Luitprand,  1.  vi.  c.  6. 


'  Idem  ibid. 


into  the  conduct  of  the  pope,  and  give  him 
an  opportunity  of  clearing  himself,  if  he  was 
innocent,  from  the  many  crimes  that  were 
laid  to  his  charge.  At  this  council  the  em- 
peror presided  in  person,  and  were  present 
thirteen  cardinal  priests,  three  cardinal  dea- 
cons, the  archbishops  of  Hamburg  and 
Treves,  the  bishops  of  Minden  and  Spire, 
and  almost  all  the  bishops  of  Italy,  with 
many  priests,  deacons,  and  the  chief  nobility 
of  Rome.  The  pope  was  summoned  by  the 
council  and  the  emperor  to  appear  and  an- 
swer the  many  accusations  lodged  against 
him.  But  as  he  did  not  comply  with  the 
summons,  the  council  met  after  waiting  some 
time  for  his  answer;  and  upon  the  empe- 
ror's asking  the  Italian  bishops,  why  his 
holiness  absented  himself  from  so  venerable 
an  assembly,  all  answered  with  one  voice, 
"  we  are  surprised  that  you  should  not  know 
what  is  well  known  to  the  Babylonians,  the 
Iberians,  and  even  to  the  Indians.  So  pub- 
lic are  bis  crimes;  and  he  is  so  lost  to  all 
shame,  that  he  does  not  even  attempt  to  con- 
ceal them."  The  emperor  desired  them  to 
mention  each  crime  in  particular  that  they 
laid  to  his  charge.  Hereupon  Peter,  cardi- 
nal bishop,  rising  up,  declared,  that  he  had 
seen  him  say  mass  without  communicating; 
John,  bishop  of  Narni,  and  John,  cardinal 
deacon,  attested,  that  they  had  seen  him  or- 
dain a  deacon  in  a  stable  ;  Benedict,  deacon, 
with  other  deacons  and  priests  said,  that  they 
knew  for  certain  that  he  had  ordained 
bishops  for  money,  and  had,  among  the 
rest,  ordained  a  child,  but  ten  years  old, 
bishop  of  Todi.  They  added,  that  they  knew 
likewise  for  certain,  that  he  carried  on  a 
scandalous  intrigue  with  the  widow  of  Rain- 
erius,  with  Stephania,  his  father's  concubine, 
and  at  the  same  time  with  one  named  Ann 
and  her  niece;  that  he  had  turned  the  holy 
palace  into  a  brothel;  had  publicly  hunted; 
had  put  out  the  eyes  of  Benedict,  his  ghostly 
father,  who  died  of  the  anguish  ;  had  caused 
John,  cardinal  subdeacon,  to  be  made  an 
eunuch,  which  occasioned  his  death;  had 
set  several  houses  on  fire ;  and  had  been  fre- 
quently seen  clad  in  armor  with  a  sword  by 
his  side.  Many  clerks  as  well  as  laymen 
assured  the  emperor  and  the  fathers  of  the 
council,  that  he  had,  to  their  certain  know- 
ledge, drank  wine  in  honour  of  the  devil; 
that  in  playing  at  dice  he  had  invoked  Ju- 
piter, Venus,  and  the  other  pagan  deities; 
that  he  never  said  matins,  nor  any  other 
canonical  hours,  nor  ever  signed  himself 
with  the  sign  of  the  cross.' 

As  the  emperor  only  spoke  the  Saxon  lan- 
guage, which  the  Romans  did  not  understand, 
he  ordered  Luitprand,  bishop  of  Cremona, 
to  address  the  assembly  in  Latin,  as  follows  : 
"  It  too  often  happens,  as  experience  teaches 

»  Luitprand,  I.  vi.  c.  7. 

202 


318 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[John  XH. 


Letter  to  the   pope  from  the  emperor  and  the  council.     The  pope's  letter  to  the  council.     The  council's 
answer.    The  emperor's  speech  to  the  bishops.     The  bishops  speech  to  the  emperor. 


US,  that  men  raised  to  high  stations,  are  en- 
vied and  calumniated  by  their  inferiors,  I 
therefore  conjure  you  in  the  name  of  God, 
■whom  no  man  can  deceive,  of  his  immacu- 
late mother,  the  Virgin  Mary,  and  by  the 
body  of  St.  Peter,  in  whose  church  we  are, 
not  to  allege  any  crime  against  our  lord  the 
pope,  of  which  you  do  not  know  him  for 
certain  to  be  guilty."  To  this  the  whole 
synod  answered  with  one  voice,  "if  pope 
John  is  not  guilty  of  the  crimes  laid  to  his 
charge,  and  of  many  other  still  more  detest- 
able enormities,  may  St.  Peter,  who  opens 
the  gates  of  heaven  to  the  just,  and  shuts 
them  against  the  unworthy,  never  absolve 
us  from  our  sins,  and  let  us  be  placed  on  the 
left  hand  at  the  last  day.  If  you  do  not  be- 
lieve us,  believe  your  army,  who  beheld  him 
but  five  days  ago,  having  a  sword  by  his 
side,  and  armed  with  a  shield,  with  a  helmet, 
and  a  cuirass."  They  were  separated  from 
him  only  by  the  Tiber,  which  prevented 
them  from  taking  him  thus  accoutred.  The 
emperor  answered,  "  there  are  as  many  wit- 
nesses of  it  as  there  are  soldiers  in  my 
army."  Though  the  crimes  of  which  he 
was  arraigned  were  all  fully  proved,  yet  the 
synod  begged  he  might  be  heard  before  he 
was  condemned;  and  that  being  agreed  to 
by  the  emperor,  the  following  letter  was 
written,  and  sent  to  him  in  the  name  of  the 
emperor,  and  the  bishops  who  composed 
that  assembly. 

"  Being  come  to  Rome  for  the  service  of 
God,  and  not  finding  you  here,  we  asked 
the  Roman  bishops,  the  cardinals,  the  pres- 
byters, deacons,  and  people,  why  you  had 
withdrawn  from  the  city  at  our  arrival,  and 
would  not  see  your  defenders,  and  the  de- 
fenders of  your  church.  They,  in  answer, 
charged  you  with  such  obscenities  as  would 
make  us  blush,  were  they  said  of  a  stage- 
player.  I  shall  mention  to  you  a  few  of  the 
crimes  that  are  laid  to  your  charge,  for  it 
would  require  a  whole  day  to  enumerate 
them  all.  Know  then  that  you  are  accused, 
not  by  some  few,  but  by  all  the  clergy  as 
well  as  the  laity,  of  murder,  perjury,  sacri- 
lege, and  incest  with  your  own  relations, 
and  two  sisters ;  that  you  are  said  to  have 
drunk  wine  in  honor  of  the  devil,  and  to 
have  invoked  at  play  Jupiter,  Venus,  and 
the  other  demons.  We  therefore  earnestly 
entreat  you  to  come  and  clear  yourself  from 
these  imputations.  If  you  are  afraid  of  being 
insulted  by  the  multitude,  we  promise  you 
upon  oath,  that  nothing  shall  be  done  but 
what  is  warranted  by  the  canons."  The 
direction  of  this  letter  was,  "  to  our  lord 
John,  high  pontiff  and  universal  pope,  the 
emperor  Otho,  and  the  archbishops  of  Ligu- 
ria,  Tuscany,  Saxony,  and  France,  greet- 
ing." 

To  this  letter  the  pope  returned  the  follow- 
lowing  laconic  answer.  "  John,  servant  of 
the  servants  of  God,  to  all  bishops.    We 


hear  that  you  want  to  make  another  pope. 
If  that  is  your  design,  I  excommunicate  you 
all  in  the  name  of  the  Almighty,  that  you 
may  not  have  it  your  power  to  ordain  any 
other,  or  even  to  celebrate  mass."  While 
the  bishops  were  reading  this  letter  several 
other  bishops  arrived,  and  among  the  rest, 
Hericus,  archbishop  of  Treves;  and  with 
their  advice  the  council  returned  the  follow- 
ing answer  to  the  pope's  letter.  "If  you 
come  to  the  council,  and  clear  yourself  from 
the  crimes  that  are  laid  to  your  charge,  we 
shall  pay  all  due  respect  to  your  authority. 
But  if  you  do  not  come,  and  are  not  detain- 
ed by  lawful  impediment,  as  you  have  no 
seas  to  cross,  nor  a  very  long  journey  to 
perform,  we  shall  make  no  account  of  your 
excommunication,  but  retort  it  upon  you. 
The  traitor  Judas  received  of  our  Lord  the 
power  of  binding  and  loosening,  as  well  as 
the  other  apostles;  and  with  that  power  he 
was  vested  so  long  as  he  continued  faithful 
to  his  divine  master  and  Lord.  But  by  be- 
traying him  he  forfeited  all  his  power  and 
authority,  and  could  thenceforth  bind  none 
but  himself"  The  bishops  were,  it  seems, 
all  strangers  to  the  doctrine  that  the  pope  is  to 
judge  all  mankind,  and  be  judged  by  none. 

With  this  letter  were  sent  Hadrian,  pres- 
byter cardinal,  and  Benedict,  cardinal  dea- 
con :  but  arriving  at  the  Tiber  they  were 
informed,  that  the  pope  was  gone,  with  a 
quiver  upon  his  shoulder,  nobody  knew 
whither.  The  letter  was  therefore  brought 
back,  and  the  council  being  assembled  the 
third  time,  the  emperor  addressed  the  bishops 
thus:  "We  have  waited  for  John,  in  order 
to  lay  our  complaints  against  him  before  you 
in  his  presence.  But  now,  as  we  find  that 
he  is  determined  not  to  appear,  I  shall  briefly 
acquaint  you  with,  and  leave  you  to  judge 
of  his  conduct  towards  me.  When  he  was 
grievously  oppressed  by  the  two  tyrants,  Be- 
rengarius  and  Adelbert,  he  dispatched  mes- 
sengers to  us  into  Saxony,  beseeching  us  to 
hasten  to  Italy,  and  dehverthe  church  of  St. 
Peter  and  himself  from  the  calamities  they 
groaned  under.  I  complied  with  his  request ; 
and  I  need  not  tell  you  what  I  have  done,  as 
you  have  all  seen  it.  However,  forgetting 
the  fidelity,  Avhich  he  swore  to  me  upon  the 
body  of  St.  Peter,  he  entered  into  an  aUiance 
with  Adelbert,  invited  him  to  Rome,  sup- 
ported him  against  me,  raised  seditions  in 
the  city,  and  arming  himself  with  a  cuirass, 
appeared  thus  armed  in  the  sight  of  my  army. 
Let  him  be  judged  by  the  synod." 

The  council  replied,  "Such  an  extraordi- 
nary evil  must  be  cured  by  an  extraordinary 
remedy.  Had  he  hurt  none  but  himself,  he 
might,  in  some  degree,  be  borne  with :  but 
how  many  has  his  example  perverted  ?  How 
many,  who  would,  in  all  likelihood,  have  led 
a  pure  and  irreproachable  life,  have  aban- 
doned themselves  to  ail  manner  of  wicked- 
ness 1    We  beg  therefore,  that  this  monster. 


Leo  VIII.] OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME.  319 

Leo  chosen  in  the  room  of  the  deposed  pope.  John  stirs  up  the  Romans  against  the  emperor;  who  defeats 
but  forgives  them ;— [Year  of  Christ,  964.]  Conspiracy  against  Leo  ;  who  is  obliged  to  quit  Rome.  John's 
cruelty  to  Leo's  friends.     John  assembles  a  council  in  Rome.     Acts  of  that  council. 


without  one  single  virtue  to  atone  for  his 
many  vices,  may  be  driven  from  the  holy 
apostolic  see,  and  another,  who  will  set  us  a 
good  example,  be  put  in  his  room."     "It  is 


our  pleasure,"  replied  the  emperor,  "and 
nothing  will  give  us  greater  satisfaction,  than 
your  raising  to  the  holy  apostolic  see  a  per- 
son of  that  character." 


LEO  VIII.  THE  HUNDRED  AND  THIRTY-FIRST  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[NicEPHORUS  Phocas,  Emperor  of  the  East. — Otiio,  Emperor  of  the  West."] 


[Year  of  Christ,  963.]  John  being  deposed 
by  the  emperor  and  the  council,  the  clergy, 
nobility,  and  people  chose,  with  one  voice, 
Leo  VIII.  of  that  name,  a  native  of  Rome, 
and  the  son  of  John,  formerly  Protoscrinarius, 
or  first  keeper  of  the  records,  which  office  Leo 
exercised  at  the  time  of  his  election.  He  is 
supposed  to  have  been  ordained  on  the  6th 
of  "December,  963,  and  in  the  presence  of  the 
emperor,  who  was  then  at  Rome. 

As  the  Romans  seemed  all  extremely  well 
pleased  with  their  new  pope,  and  the  city 
enjoyed  a  perfect  tranquillity,  the  emperor, 
to  relieve  the  inhabitants,  dismissed  the  great- 
er part  of  his  army.  Of  this  the  deposed 
pope  was  no  sooner  informed,  than  he  began, 
by  his  emissaries,  to  tamper  with  the  Romans, 
and  stir  them  up  to  rebellion,  promising  to 
reward  ihem  with  the  immense  wealth  of 
the  church  of  St.  Peter,  which  he  had  taken 
with  him,  if  they  murdered  the  emperor  and 
his  new  pope,  the  usurper  of  the  holy  see. 
The  leading  men  in  the  city  hearkened  to 
the  offer;  and  as  no  men,  says  the  historian, 
are  more  greedy  of,  and  more  easily  corrupted 
with  money  than  the  Romans,  they  were 
soon  prevailed  upon  to  engage  in  so  wicked 
an  attempt ;  and  they  conducted  it  with  such 
secresy,  that  at  the  day  appointed,  the  2d  of 
January  964,  the  whole  city  was  in  arms, 
without  the  emperor's  having  ever  received 
the  least  intimation  of  their  design.  They 
marched  in  battle  array  to  the  emperor's 
quarters  on  the  other  side  of  the  Tiber.  But 
his  advanced  guards  taking  the  alarm,  the 
few  troops  he  had  with  him,  drew  in  an  in- 
stant together,  and  marching,  with  their  brave 
commander  at  their  head,  met  the  Romans 
as  they  were  passing  the  bridge,  engaged 
them,  put  them,  at  the  first  onset,  to  flight, 
and  pursued  them  with  great  slaughter,  till 
the  emperor,  touched  with  compassion,  put 
a  stop  to  their  fury.  The  next  day,  pope 
Leo  interposed  in  behalf  of  the  rebels,  and  at 
his  request  the  good-natured  prince  granted 
them  all  a  free  pardon,  upon  their  taking 
anew  an  oath  of  allegiance,  and  delivering 
up  hostages  for  the  observance  of  that  oath.' 

'  Luitprand,  1.  vi.  c.  2. 


Some  few  days  after,  the  emperor  resolved 
to  leave  Rome,  and  repaired  to  Spoleti  and 
Camerino,  being  informed  that  Adelbert  had 
appeared  in  those  dukedoms.  Before  he  set 
out,  the  pope  persuaded  him  to  return  the 
hostages,  assuring  him  that  by  such  a  mark 
of  confidence  he  would  rivet  himself  in  the 
favour  of  the  Romans,  and  engage  for  ever 
their  affection  as  well  as  their  fidelity.  He 
did  so ;  but  he  was  scarce  gone  when  a  new 
revolution  ensued.  For  several  women  of 
great  distinction,  with  whom  the  young  de- 
bauched pope  used  to  riot  and  pass  the 
greater  part  of  his  time,  no  longer  able  to 
bear  his  absence,  formed  a  design  of  mur- 
dering Leo  and  restoring  John  to  the  see. 
They  communicated  their  design  to  several 
persons  of  rank,  and  by  them  the  deposed 
pope  was  unexpectedly  brought  back,  was 
admitted  into  the  city,  and  attended,  in  a  kind 
of  triumph,  to  the  Lateran  palace.  Leo  had 
the  good  luck  to  make  his  escape  to  the  em- 
peror, then  at  Camerino.  But  two  of  his 
friends  were  seized,  namely,  John,  cardinal 
deacon,  and  Azo,  the  Protoscrinarius  ;  and 
John  ordered  immediately  the  right  hand  of 
the  former  to  be  cut  off,  and  the  tongue, 
nose,  and  two  fingers  of  the  latter.  At  the 
same  time  Otger,  bishop  of  Spire,  was  whipt 
by  his  command  till  he  was  ready  to  expire.^ 

In  the  next  place  John  assembled  a  coun- 
cil in  the  church  of  St.  Peter,  on  the  2d  of 
February,  964,  at  which  were  present  six- 
teen bishops,  some  cardinals,  and  seven 
priests  and  deacons,  John  presiding  in  per- 
son. It  was  finished  in  three  sessions;  in 
the  first,  the  council  that  deposed  him  was 
condemned  as  an  unlawful  and  uncanonical 
meeting,  Leo  was  deposed,  and  forbidden, 
on  pain  of  being  anathematized  without 
hopes  of  absolution,  ever  to  exercise  any 
episcopal  functions,  or  attempt  the  recovery 
of  the  see,  which  he  had,  contrary  to  the 
canons  and  all  laws  of  justice,  usurped  ;  his 
ordinations  were  all  declared  null,  and  they, 
whom  he  had  ordained,  stript  in  the  council 
of  their  sacerdotal  ornaments,  and  ordered 
to  write  these  words  upon  a  paper,  "ray 


>  Luitprand.  \.  vi.  c.  3. 


a  Idem  I.  vi.  c.  3. 


320 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Leo  Vm. 


John  murdered.  Benedict  chosen  by  the  Romans  in  his  room.  Olho  marches  to  Rome  and  obliges  the  inha- 
bitants to  surrender.  Benedict  condemned  in  a  council,  and  divested  of  the  pontifical  ornaments.  Whether 
the  decree  conferring  on  the  emperor  Otho  and  his  successors  the  power  of  nominating  the  pope,  &c.  be 
forged  or  genuine. 


father  had  nothing,  and  gave  me  nothing," 
which  was  owning  that  Leo  had  not  the 
power  of  conferring  orders,  and  liierefore 
that  they  iiad  received  none.  In  tlie  second 
session,  they  who  had  been  any  ways  ac- 
cessory to  the  usurpation  of  Leo,  were  an- 
athematized, if  laymen  or  monks,  and,  if 
ecclesiastics,  degraded.  In  the  third  session, 
Benedict  of  Porto,  and  Gregory  of  Albano, 
who  had  ordained  Leo,  were  suspended 
from  all  episcopal  functions,  after  owning 
that  they  had  acted  contrary  to  the  canons, 
and  begging  forgiveness.  Sico  of  Oslia,  the 
third  bishop  concerned  in  the  ordination  of 
Leo,  did  not  appear  at  the  council,  and  was 
therefore  deposed  without  hopes  of  being 
ever  restored.  By  this  council  a  canon  was 
issued,  forbidding  laymen,  on  pain  of  ex- 
communication, to  stand,  during  mass, 
within  the  presbytery,  or  near  the  altar.' 

John  did  not  long  survive  the  holding  of 
this  council.  For  being  one  night,  soon 
after,  in  bed  with  a  married  woman,  the 
devil,  says  the  historian,  but  more  probably 
the  husband  in  the  disguise  of  the  devil, 
gave  him  so  violent  a  blow  on  the  temple, 
that  he  died  in  a  week,  having  held  the  see 
seven  years  and  two  months  before  his  de- 
position, and  five  months  more  after  it.  His 
death  is  supposed  to  have  happened  on  the 
14th  of  May,  964. 

Upon  the  death  of  Jehn,  the  Romans, 
persisting  in  their  rebellion,  chose  one  Bene- 
dict, a  native  of  Rome,  and  Protoscrinarius 
of  the  Roman  church,  to  succeed  him, 
though  they  had  promised  to  the  emperor 
upon  oath  to  acknowledge  no  other  than 
Leo,  so  long  as  he  lived,  and  to  suffer  no 
pope  to  be  thenceforth  ordained  without  his 
consent.  Olho  was  then  busied  in  reducing 
the  dukedom  of  Camerino,  but  he  was  no 
sooner  informed  of  the  election  of  Benedict, 
than  he  left  that  dukedom,  and  marching  at 
the  head  of  his  army  to  Rome,  invested  the 
place  so  closely  on  all  sides,  that  the  inha- 
bitants were,  in  a  very  short  time,  obliged 
to  submit  for  want  of  provisions,  to  open  the 
gates,  and  surrender  at  discretion,  though 
they  had  bound  themselves  by  a  solemn 
oath  never  to  forsake  Benedict,  nor  to  ac- 
knowledge Leo,  whom  they  styled  the  em- 
peror's pope.  Olho,  now  masterof  the  city, 
ordered,  in  the  first  place,  the  bishops  who 
attended  him,  and  those  whom  he  found  in 
Rome,  to  assemble  in  council,  and  settle,  in 
the  first  place,  the  affairs  of  the  church. 
The  bishops  met  in  the  Lateran  church  at 
the  time  appointed,  and  Benedict  being 
brought  before  them  in  his  pontifical  robes, 
Benedict,  cardinal  archdeacon,  addressed 
him  thus  :  "  By  what  authority  or  by  what 
law  hast  thou  assumed  these  ornaments  in 
the  life   time  of  the  venerable  pope  Leo, 

'  Apud  Baron,  ad  ann.  964. 


whom  thou  madest  choice  of  together  with 
us  in  the  room  of  John,  whom  we  all  con- 
demned and  rejected?  Canst  thou  deny  thy 
having  promised  upon  oath  to  the  emperor 
never  to  choose  nor  to  ordain  a  pope  with- 
out his  consent,  or  that  of  his  son,  king 
Otho?"  Benedict  answered,  "I  have 
sinned,  take  pity  on  me;"  which  words  so 
affected  the  good-natured  emperor,  that 
bursting  into  tears,  he  begged  the  fathers 
would  deal  mercifully  with  him,  provided 
he  acknowledged  his  fault  in  the  hearing  of 
the  whole  council.  At  these  words,  Bene- 
dict, throwing  himself  at  Leo's  feet  and  the 
emperor's,  owned  aloud,  that  he  was  aa 
usurper,  and  begged  the  pope,  the  emperor, 
and  the  council  to  forgive  him.  He  then 
took  off  his  pall,  and  delivered  it  to  the 
pope  with  his  pastoral  staff,  which  Leo  im- 
mediately broke,  and  showed  it  thus  broken 
to  the  people.  After  this  Leo  ordered  him 
to  sit  down  on  the  ground,  and  having  stript 
him,  in  that  posture,  of  all  the  pontifical  or- 
naments, he  pronounced  the  following  sen- 
tence :  "  We  divest  Benedict,  who  has 
usurped  the  holy  apostolic  see,  of  the  pon- 
tifical dignity,  and  the  honor  of  priesthood; 
however,  at  the  request  of  the  emperor,  who 
has  restored  us,  we  allow  him  to  retain  the 
order  of  deacon,  but  upon  condition  that  he 
quits  Rome,  and  goes  into  perpetual  ban- 
ishment."' 

By  this  council,  a  constitution  or  decree 
is  said  to  have  been  issued,  conferring  on 
the  emperor  Otho,  and  his  successors  for- 
ever, the  power  of  nominating  the  pope,  and 
granting  the  investiture  to  bishops.  But 
whether  the  said  constitution  be  forged  or 
genuine,  is  not  agreed  among  authors. 
Goldastus,2  de  Marca,'  and  many  others, 
maintain  it  to  be  genuine;  and  it  is  to  be 
met  with  in  Gratian'*  and  in  Theodoric  of 
Niem.  However,  as  in  this  constitution 
mention  is  made  of  the  like  privilege  granted, 
as  is  there  supposed  in  774,  by  pope  Hadrian 
I.  to  Charlemagne,  and  we  have  reason  to 
believe  that  no  such  privilege  ever  was 
granted  by  that  pope,  I  cannot  help  looking 
upon  the  decree  or  constitution  of  Leo  as  a 
forgery.  The  reasons  that  incline  me  to 
think  the  decree  of  Hadrian  to  be  forged, 
are,  I.  Florus  Magister,  in  his  Treatise  of 
the  Election  of  Bishops,  written  about  the 
year  820,  says  it  was  established  by  custom, 
that  the  person  elected  should  be  approved 
by  the  prince;  so  that  he  was  quite  unac- 
quainted with  the  pretended  constitution  of 
Hadrian;  and  we  cannot  suppose  he  would 
never  have  heard  of  it,  if  it  had  been  enacted, 
as  is  said,  in  774,  that  is  but  forty-six  years 
before,  in  a  council  at  Rome,  consisting  of 

»  Luitprand,  I.  vi.  c.  2. 
a  Goldiist.  Constitut.  Imperial.  I.  i. 
3  Marca  Concord.  1.  viii.  c.  12,  29. 
'  Gratian.  Distinct.  1.  iii.  c.  23. 


John  XIII.] 

Leo  dies; 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


331 


[Year  of  Christ,  965.]     John  XIII.  chosen.     Driven  out  of  Rome,  takes  refuge  in  Capua.     Erects 
that  city  into  a  metropolis  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  966.] 


one  hundred  and  fifiy-lliree  bishops.  2.  Lu- 
pus Ferrariensis  grounds  the  right  of  elect- 
ing and  instituting  bishops,  which  he  vests 
in  the  emperor  and  in  other  secular  princes, 
upon  a  constitution  issued  bj'  pope  Zachary 
in  757,  and  takes  no  kind  of  notice  of  the 
more  recent  constitution  of  Hadrian  ;  a  plain 
proof  that  it  was  not  yet  heard  of  in  his 
time.  3.  From  one  of  Hadrian's  letters, 
written  in  784,  it  appears,  that  in  the  king- 
dom of  Lombardy,  when  a  new  bishop  was 
chosen,  the  decree  of  election  was  sent  to 
Rome,  and  the  elect  was  thereupon  ordained 
by  the  pope  without  the  consent  or  even  the 
knowledge  of  the  emperor.  We  have  an- 
other letter  from  the  same  pope  to  Charle- 
magne of  the  year  787,  in  answer  to  one  he 
had  received  from  that  prince,  desiring  that 
the  bishop  of  Ravenna  might  always  be 
chosen  in  the  presence  of  his  deputies.  The 
pope  answered  that  this  was  a  new  thing, 
and  that  ever  since  the  time  of  Pepin,  the 
clergy  and  people  of  Ravenna  had  chosen 
their  own  bishop,  none  else  interfering,  and 
sent  the  decree  of  election  to  the  apostolic 
see ;  which  is  evidently  inconsistent  with 
that  pope's  having,  by  a  special  decree, 
vested  in  the  emperor,  ever  since  the  year 
774,  the  power  of  appointing  all  bishops 
throughout  his  dominions.  Upon  the  whole, 
the  decree  ascribed  to  Hadrian,  is,  evidently, 
forged  ;  and  consequently  that  of  Leo,  sup- 


posing it  genuine,  and  as  such,  contirming 
it,  must  be  likewise  a  forgery. 

In  that  decree,  as  quoted  by  Goldastus' 
out  of  Theodoric  of  Niem,  who  wrote  about 
the  year  1420,  Leo  is  made  to  yield  to  Otho 
all  the  countries  and  territories  that  had  been 
given  to  the  Roman  church  by  other  princes 
and  emperors.  But  as  Leo  there  gives  up 
many  places  which  it  is  very  certain  the 
Roman  church  never  possessed,  and  many 
which  she  did  not  possess  till  long  after  the 
time  of  this  emperor,  that  piece  is  now  uni- 
versally looked  upon  as  spurious  ^ 

Leo  enjoyed  the  pontifical  dignity  but  a 
very  short  time  after  his  restoralion,  for  he 
died  in  the  beginning  of  March  of  the  fol- 
lowing year,  965,  after  a  pontificate  of  one 
year  and  three  months. 

As  to  Benedict,  styled  the  Fifth  of  that 
name,  by  those  who  acknowledge  him  for 
lawful  pope,  he  was  banished  to  Ham- 
burgh, where  he  died  in  the  month  of  July 
of  the  same  year,  965.  Adamus  Bremensis 
writes,  that  at  Hamburg  he  led  a  very  edi- 
fying life;  that  he  was  a  man  of  uncommon 
learning  and  parts,  and  as  worthy  of  the 
high  station  to  which  the  Romans  had  raised 
him,  as  any  of  his  time.'  Ditmarus  speaks 
of  him,  in  his  chronicle,  as  a  man  of  great 
sanctity,  and  adds,  that  by  the  command  of 
Otho  III.,  his  remains  were  translated  from 
Hamburgh  to  Rome.'* 


JOHN  XIIL,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  THIRTY-SECOND  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[NiCEPHORirs  Phocas,  Emperor  of  the  East. — Otho,  Emperor  of  the  West.'] 


[Year  of  Christ,  965.]  Upon  the  death 
of  Leo  the  Romans,  mindful  of  their  oath, 
dispatched  Azo,  keeper  of  the  records,  and 
Marinus,  bishop  of  Sutri,  into  Saxony,  where 
the  emperor  then  was,  to  desire  him  to  ap- 
point a  successor  to  the  deceased  pope. 
Otho,  pleased  with  this  mark  of  their  obe- 
dience, left  them  at  full  liberty  to  choose 
whom  they  pleased,  but  sent  with  them 
Otger,  bishop  of  Spire,  and  Linzo  (perhaps 
Luitprand)  bishop  of  Cremona  to  Rome, 
to  assist  at  the  election  in  his  name.  Upon 
their,  arrival  the  Romans  chose  Benedict, 
then  in  e.xile  at  Hamburgh,  and  even  pre- 
vailed upon  the  emperor  to  consent  to  his 
promotion.'  But  he  dying  in  the  mean  time, 
John  bishop  of  Narni,  a  native  of  Rome, 
and  the  son  of  a  bishop  of  the  same  name, 
was  unanimously  chosen  and  ordained  on 
the  1st  of  October,  which  in  965  fell  on  a 
Sunday. 

>  Adam.  Uremens.  ubi  supra. 
Vol.  II.— 41 


The  new  pope  was  scarce  warm  in  the 
chair,  when  the  Roman  nobility,  provoked  at 
his  haughty  behavior,  and  the  power  he 
assumed  over  them,  entered  into  a  combina- 
tion against  him,  and  being  assisted  by  the 
prefect  and  by  one  named  Rotfred,  a  leading 
man  in  the  city,  drove  him  from  Rome  and 
obliged  him  to  take  refuge  in  Capua.  He 
was  there  received  with  the  highest  respect 
by  prince  Pandulph,  and  entertained  suitably 
to  his  rank  for  the  space  often  months,  that 
is,  till  the  Romans  recalled  him,  hearing  that 
the  emperor  was  marching  with  his  army  to 
Rome  in  order  to  restore  him  and  punish  his 
enemies,  whom  he  could  not  but  look  upon 
as  rebels.  The  pope,  to  reward  the  prince 
and  people  of  Capua  for  the  respect  and 
kindness  they  had  shown  him  during  his 
stay  there,  erected  their  city  into  a  metro- 
polis, and  before  he  set  out  on  his  return  to 

'  Goldast.  p.  36.  ■>  See  Pagi  ad  ann.  964. 

'  Ailam.  Bremens.  1.  ii.  c.  6. 
«  Ditmar.  Chroii.  1.  ii.  c.  3. 


322 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[John  XIII. 


Otho  marches  to  Rome  to  restore  the  pope.  Punishes  the  Romans  as  Rebels.  The  pope  holds  a  council  at 
Ravenna; — [Year  of  Christ,  967.]  Magdeburg  erected  into  a  metropolis; — [Year  of  Christ,  968.]  Otho 
sends  ambassadors  into  the  East  to  propose  a  marriage  between  his  son  Otho  and  the  daughter  of  the  em- 
peror Romanus.  Young  Otho  crowned  emperor.  Otho  sends  ambassadors  into  the  East.  Treatment  they 
met  with  there  from  Nicephorus. 


Rome,  ordained  the  brother  of  the  prince 
the  first  archbishop  of  the  place.' 

In  the  mean  time  Otho  pursuing  his  march 
to  Rome,  seized  at  Placentia  Sigovulfus 
bishop  of  the  place,  and  sent  him  prisoner 
into  Germany  with  several  Italian  counts, 
who  had  declared  together  with  him  for 
Adelbert,  and  stirred  the  people  up  to  rebel- 
lion. From  Placentia  he  advanced  with  his 
army  to  Rome,  and  entering  the  city  without 
opposition,  he  ordered  the  chief  authors  of 
the  late  disturbances  to  be  seized,  sent  the 
consuls  into  exile,  and  ordered  the  thirteen 
tribunes  to  be  hanged.  The  prefect  had  the 
good  luck  to  maive  his  escape.  But  the  rest 
were  ail  either  banished  or  condemned  to 
dungeons  for  life;  one,  and  he  a  man  of  the 
first  distinction,  was,  by  the  command  of  the 
emperor,  stript  naked,  and  being  set  on  an 
ass,  most  cruelly  scourged  through  the  chief 
streets  of  the  city,  and  then  banished  the 
dukedom  of  Rome.  The  body  of  Rotfred, 
who  had  been  murdered  by  some  of  the 
pope's  partizans,  was  dug  up,  was  cut  in 
pieces,  and  thrown  into  the  kennels,  as  un- 
worthy of  Christian  burial.^ 

The  emperor,  having  thus  made  the  Ro- 
mans, who,  he  found,  were  not  to  be  gained 
by  gentle  methods,  feel  the  effects  of  his 
justice,  left  Rome  in  the  beginning  of  the 
following  year,  and,  after  visiting  several 
cities  of  Tuscany,  repairecl  together  with  the 
pope  to  Ravenna;  where  a  council  was 
held,  consisting  of  most  of  the  bishops  of 
Italy,  and  of  some  from  France  and  Ger- 
many, who  attended  the  emperor.  In  that 
council  the  emperor  restored  to  the  pope  the 
city  of  Ravenna  with  its  territory,  and 
several  other  places,  which  Pepin  and  Char- 
lemagne had  given  to  St.  Peter,  but  Beren- 
garius  and  Adelbert  had  seized  and  kept  for 
themselves.  In  the  same  council  the  depo- 
sition of  Herold,  archbishop  of  Saltzburg, 
Avas  confirmed,  and  likewise  the  election  of 
Frederic,  who  had  been  appointed  to  succeed 
him.  Herold  revolting  from  the  emperor, 
had  joined  the  Pagans,  probably  the  Hun- 
garians, and  had  been,  on  that  account, 
punished  with  the  loss  of  his  sight,  and 
driven  from  his  see.  But  though  deprived 
of  his  sight,  and  suspended  from  all  episco- 
pal functions,  he  continued  to  celebrate  mass, 
to  wear  the  pall,  and  to  act  in  every  other 
respect  as  still  vested  with  the  archiepiscopal 
dignity.  The  sentence  of  deposition  was 
therefore  anew  pronounced  in  full  council 
against  him,  and  all  were  excommunicated 
who  should  thenceforth  receive  any  ordi- 
nation whatever  at  his  hands.  This  sen- 
tence or  decree  is  dated  the  25th  of  April, 
967. 


'  Suppl.  Reein.  Leo  Ostien.  1.  ii.  c.  9.  Sigon.  1.  vii. 
Canelius  in  Hist.  Metropolitan.  Par.  3.  Dissert,  ii.  c.  5. 
3  Suppl.  Regin.  ad  ann.  967, 


Upon  the  breaking  up  of  the  council,  the 
pope  returned  to  Rome,  and  there  passed 
the  remaining  part  of  his  pontificate  without 
the  least  molestation  from  the  Romans.  The 
emperor  remained  in  Lombardy,  and  having 
there  settled  the  affairs  of  his  Italian  domin- 
ions, he  assembled,  before  his  return  to  Sax- 
ony, another  council  at  Ravenna,  at  which 
were  present  most  of  the  bishops,  who  had 
assisted  at  the  former.  By  this  council,  the 
city  of  Magdeburg  was,  at  the  desire  and 
request  of  the  emperor,  erected  into  an  archi- 
episcopal see,  and  Adelbert,  monk  of  the 
monastery  of  St.  Maximinus  at  Treves,  was, 
with  the  approbation  of  the  bishops,  appoint- 
ed by  the  emperor  the  first  archbishop  of  the 
place,  and  sent  to  Rome  for  the  pall.  The 
pope,  desirous  of  obliging  the  emperor,  not 
only  granted  the  pall  to  the  new  archbishop, 
but  declared  him  primate  of  all  Germany, 
put  him  upon  the  level  with  the  archbishops 
of  Cologne  and  Treves,  made  him  metropo- 
litan of  the  Sclavonians,  who  inhabited  the 
vast  country  beyond  the  Elbe  and  the  Sala, 
and  were  then,  or  should  be  afterwards  con- 
verted to  the  faith.  At  the  same  time,  the 
pope  ordered  bishoprics  to  be  founded  in  the 
following  places,  namely,  at  Zitz,  at  Meissen, 
at  Merseburg,  Brandenburg  and  Poznan,  and 
these  new  bishoprics  were  all  subjected  to  the 
metropolitan  see  of  Magdeburg.' 

While  Otho  was  still  at  Ravenna,  embas- 
sadors arrived  from  Nicephorus  Phocas,  em- 
peror of  the  East,  sent  with  rich  presents  to 
conclude  a  peace  between  him  and  the  La- 
tins. Otho  received  the  Greek  embassadors 
with  the  greatest  marks  of  esteem,  sent  them 
back  loaded  with  presents  of  great  value  for 
the  emperor,  and  dispatched  with  them  to 
Constantinople,  some  persons  of  the  first 
rank  in  the  empire,  to  propose  a  match  be- 
tween his  son  Otho,  king  of  Germany,  and 
Theophania,  daughter  of  the  late  emperor 
Romanus  by  Theophano,  whom  Nicephorus 
the  present  emperor  had  married.  As  the 
emperor  proposed  to  keep  his  Christmas  at 
Rome,  the  pope,  acquainted  therewith,  wrote 
to  the  king  of  Germany,  pressing  him  to 
meet  his  father  there,  and  visit  with  him  the 
tombs  of  the  holy  apostles,  the  protectors  of 
his  kingdom,  as  well  as  of  the  church  and 
the  empire.  The  king  readily  complied  with 
the  invitation,  and  being,  upon  his  arrival  at 
Rome,  taken  by  the  emperor  for  his  partner 
in  the  empire,  he  was  crowned  by  the  pope 
on  Christmas-day,  with  the  usual  solemnity 
in  the  church  of  St.  Peter.^ 

From  Rome  the  emperor  dispatched  a  se- 
cond embassy  to  Constantinople,  to  demand 
Theophania  in  marriage  for  his  son  Otho. 
But  Nicephorus,  instead  of  consenting  to  the 
proposed  marriage,  treated  the  embassadors, 

'  Chronograph,  apud  Mabill.  See  Benedict,  v.  p.  833. 
a  Suppl.  Regin.  ad  ann.  967. 


John  XIII.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


333 


Beneventum  made  a  metropolis  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  969.]  Marriage  between  the  emperor's  son  and  the 
daughter  of  Romanus,  who  is  crowned  empress  at  Rome  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  971.]  The  pope  dies  the  fol- 
lowing year.  Poland  converted  in  this  pope's  time.  Prague  made  an  episcopal  see.  He  confirmed  the 
acts  of  a  council  held  in  London.    The  ceremony  of  christening  bells  not  introduced  by  him. 


as  well  as  the  pope's  nuncio,  who  attended 
them,  with  the  utmost  contempt.  Luitprand 
bishop  of  Cremona,  who  was  at  the  head  of 
the  embassy,  writes,  that  upon  their  arrival 
at  Constantinople,  they  were  shut  up  in  one 
of  the  imperial  palaces;  that  they  were  not 
suffered  to  stir  from  thence,  nor  were  any 
allowed  to  come  near  them  ;  that  the  impe- 
rial ministers  gave  the  emperor  of  the  West 
no  other  title  than  that  of  king ;  that  they 
expressed  the  greatest  indignation  at  the 
pope's  styling  him,  in  his  letter,  emperor  of 
the  Romans  ;  and  that,  with  respect  to  the 
proposed  marriage,  the  emperor  declared 
that  he  would  consent  to  it  only  upon  con- 
dition that  Rome  and  Ravenna  were  re-united 
to  the  empire,  and  that  the  pope  should 
thenceforth  be  elected  and  ordained  in  the 
presence  of  his  envoys,  agreeably  to  the  cus- 
tom that  had  ever  obtained  since  the  earliest 
limes.  Nicephorus  however  condescended 
to  answer  Otho's  letter,  expressing  a  sincere 
desire  of  living  in  peace  and  friendship 
with  him,  but  returned  no  answer  to  the 
pope.' 

The  following  year,  in  a  council  held  at 
Rome,  at  which  were  present  both  the  em- 
perors, namely,  Otho  and  his  son,  the  pope, 
at  their  request,  and  with  the  consent  of  all 
the  bishops,  who  composed  that  assembly, 
raised  the  see  of  Beneventum  to  the  rank  of 
a  metropolis,  granted  the  pall  to  Landulphus, 
then  bishop  of  the  place,  and  subjected  to  the 
new  metropolis  the  sees  of  St.  Agatha,  Avel- 
lino,  Arriano,  Ascoli,  Bovino,  Volturara, 
Larino,  Telese,  Alife,  and  Siponto,  The 
decree  granting  this  dignity,  and  the  privi- 
leges attending  it  to  the  bishop  of  Beneven- 
tum and  his  successors  for  ever,  is  subscribed 
by  the  pope,  by  both  emperors,  and  twenty 
three  bishops,  and  dated  the  26th  of  May, 
969.2 

In  the  mean  time  the  emperor  Nicephorus 
Phocas  being  murdered,  and  John  Tzimisces 
raised  to  the  empire  in  his  room,  Otho  sent 
a  third  embassy  into  the  East  to  propose  the 
above-mentioned  marriage  to  the  new  em- 
peror. The  embassadors  were  received  at 
Constantinople  with  all  possible  marks  of 
esteem,  were  entertained  with  the  greatest 
magnificence,  and  the  match  was  no  sooner 
proposed  than  agreed  to  by  the  emperor  and 
all  the  great  men  of  the  empire.  Otho  was 
no  sooner  acquainted  by  his  embassadors 
with  the  success  of  their  negotiation,  than 
he  dispatched  some  of  the  first  men  of  the 
empire  to  attend  the  bride  from  Constanti- 
nople to  Rome.  She  was  met  there  by  the 
two  emperors  ;  and  at  their  request  the  pope 
first  performed  the  marriage  ceremony, 
and  crowned  her,  the  Very  next  day,  with 


'  Luitprand,  apud  Baron,  ad  ann.  96S. 
'Append,  tom.  ix.  Concil.  p.  1238. 


great  pomp  and  solemnity,  empress  of  the 
West.' 

The  following  year  the  pope  died ;  and 
his  death  is  supposed  to  have  happened  on 
the  5th  or  the  6th  of  September,  after  he  had 
presided  in  the  see  six  years,  eleven  months, 
and  five  days.  The  inhabitants  of  Poland 
being  converted  to  the  Christian  faith  in  this 
pope's  time,  he  sent  some  bishops  from 
Rome  to  keep  them  steady  in  their  new 
religion,  and  with  the  consent  and  concur- 
rence of  Mieceslaus,  their  first  Christian 
duke  or  king,  established  several  bishoprics 
in  that  populous  country,  then  known  by 
the  name  of  Sclavonia,  as  the  inhabitants 
were  by  that  of  Sclavonians.^  By  the  same 
pope  the  city  of  Prague  was  made  an  epis- 
copal see,  and  a  monk  of  Saxony,  named 
Ditmar,  was  chosen  the  first  bishop  of  the 
place,  and  ordained  by  the  archbishop  of 
Mentz.  None  of  the  natives  were,  it  seems, 
acquainted  with  the  Latin  language,  and 
the  pope  would  not  allow  divine  service  to 
be  performed  in  any  other.  At  the  same 
time  Mlada,  sister  to  Boleslaus  duke  of 
Bohemia,  coming  to  Rome  to  visit  the  holy 
places  there,  was,  at  her  request,  allowed 
by  the  pope  to  found  a  monastery  for  nuns 
in  the  city  of  Prague,  and  appointed  the 
first  abbess,  the  pope  only  requiring  her  to 
exchange  the  name  of  Mlada  for  that  of 
Maria.^  John  XIII,  is  said  to  have  con- 
firmed in  a  council  at  Rome,  the  privileges, 
which  king  Edgar  had  granted  to  the  monas- 
tery of  Glassenbury,  in  a  council  held  at 
London  in  the  thirteenth  year  of  his  reign, 
that  is  971.* 

The  custom  of  blessing,  or,  as  is  vulgarly 
called,  of  christening  bells,  is  said  by  Ba- 
ronius,^  to  have  been  first  introduced  by  this 
pope,  who  gave  the  name  of  John  Baptist 
to  the  great  bell  of  the  Lateran  church.  But 
that  this  custom  prevailed  long  before  the 
time  of  John  XIII.  is  manifest  from  the 
capitulars  of  Charlemagne  in  789,  that  is, 
near  two  hundred  years  before  pope  John. 
For  in  those  capitulars  the  christening  of 
bells  is  forbidden,  "  ut  clocas  non  baptizea- 
tur."^  This  custom  therefore  obtained  so 
early  as  the  year  789,  at  least  in  France  and 
Germany.  Cardinal  Bona  observes,  that  the 
name  of  some  saint  is  given  to  a  bell  in  its 
consecration,  that  the  people  may  think 
themselves  called  to  divine  service  by  the 
voice  of  the  saint,  whose  name  the  bell 
bears.''  John  XIII.  was  buried  in  the  church 
of  St.  Paul ;  and  there  his  epitaph  is  still  to 
be  seen. 


•Chronograph.  Hildensheim.  et  Sisebert  adann.  971. 

"  Chromer  Hist.  Polon.  ad  ann.  963. 

3  Mabill.  See  Benedict  V.  p.  833. 

*  Malmes.  I.  ii.  de  reg.  c.  8. 

'  Baron,  ad  ann.  968. 

'  Martene  de  antiq.  Eccles.  ritib.  I.  ii.  c.  21. 

'  Bona  rer.  Liturg.  1.  ii.  c.  22. 


3&4 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[DoNus  II. 


Benedict  VI.  chosen.  Extends  the  jurisdiction  of  the  see  of  Saltzburg.  Otho  the  Great  dies  ; — [Year  of  Christ, 
973.]  The  pope  imprisoned  and  strangled;— [Year of  Christ,  974.]  Bonus  elected.  His  character.  Dies; — 
[Year  of  Christ,  975.] 


BENEDICT  VL,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  THIRTY-THIRD  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[John  Tzimisces,  Emperor  of  the  East. — Otho  I.  Otho  II.,  Emperors  of  the  West."] 


[Year  of  Christ,  972.]  Benedict,  the  sixth 
of  that  name,  by  birth  a  Roman,  and  the 
son  of  one  Hildebrand,  was,  upon  the  death 
of  John,  preferred  to  the  pontifical  chair  in 
his  room.  He  was  ordained  after  the  28th 
of  November;  for  we  have  a  letter  of  his 
bearing  that  date,  which  is  said  to  have  been 
"  written  in  973,  the  first  year  of  his  pontifi- 
cate;" so  that  on  the  28th  of  November,  973 
he  had  not  completed  his  first  year,  and 
must,  consequently,  have  been  ordained  after 
that  day.  All  we  find  recorded  of  this  pope 
besides  his  tragical  death,  is  his  having  ex- 
tended the  jurisdiction  of  the  archiepiscopal 
see  of  Saltzburg  over  the  whole  province  of 
Noricum,  and  all  Pannonia,  whereas  his 
predecessor  Agapetus  II.  had  confined  the 
jurisdiction  of  that  see  to  Noricum  and 
Lower  Pannonia,  and  subjected  Upper  Pan- 
nonia to  the  see  of  Lorch.' 


In  the  second  year  of  Benedict's  pontifi- 
cate died  the  emperor  Otho,  deservedly  sur- 
named  the  Great,  and  his  son  and  successor 
being  diverted  by  foreign  wars  from  attend- 
ing to  the  affairs  of  Italy,  many  of  the  Italian 
lords  shook  off  the  yoke,  and,  setting  up 
for  sovereigns,  tyrannized  uncontroled  over 
those  who  were  not  in  a  condition  to  oppose 
them.  At  Rome  one  Cincius,  having  formed 
a  strong  party  by  exclaiming  against  the 
emperor  as  a  tyrant,  by  putting  the  Romans 
in  mind  of  the  late  executions,  and  exhorting 
them  to  recover  their  former  liberty,  attacked 
unexpectedly  the  Lateran  palace,  and  seizing 
on  the  pope,  who  he  knew  would  oppose 
him,  dragged  him  to  prison,  and  after  keep- 
ing him  some  time  confined  in  the  castle  of 
St.  Angelo,  caused  him  to  be  strangled. • 
This  is  all  we  know  of  pope  Benedict  the 
sixth. 


DONUS  II.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  THIRTY-FOURTH  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[John  Tzimisces,  Emperor  of  the  East. — Otho  II.,  Emperor  of  the  West.'] 


[Year  of  Christ,  974.]  Benedict  being 
put  to  death  by  the  tyrant  Cincius,  Donus 
II.,  a  native  of  Rome,  was  by  the  Tusculan 
faction  chosen  to  succeed  him.  Hermannus 
Contractus  does  not  reckon  Donus  among 
the  popes.  But  he  is  by  all  other  writers 
placed  in  their  catalogues  immediately  after 
Benedict  VI.  Platina  writes,  and  after  him 
Stella,  that  Donus  was  a  man  remarkable 
for  his  modesty  and  his  integrity,  and  there- 
fore met  with  no  ill  treatment,  but  lived  un- 
molested, and  was  buried  in  the  church  of 
St.  Peter.     Upon  the  death  of  Benedict  VI. 


'  Concil.  torn.  ix.  p.  711. 


one  Franco,  deacon  of  the  Roman  church, 
was  raised  by  the  party  of  Cincius  to  the 
see.  But  the  Tuscan  party  declaring  against 
him,  he  left  Rome  soon  after  his  intrusion, 
and  carrying  with  him  the  treasure  of  St. 
Peter  fled  to  Constantinople.  It  was  at  his 
instigation,  and  to  make  place  for  him,  that 
Cincius  ordered  Benedict  to  be  murdered. 
He  is  styled  by  Gerbert,  "of  all  monsters 
of  wickedness  the  most  wicked."  Some, 
however,  have  allowed  him  a  place  between 
Benedict  VI.  and  Donus  II.,  under  the  name 
of  Boniface  VII. 


<  Hermannus  Contract. 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


325 


John  XIV.]  ^^ 

Majolus,  abbot  of  Cluny,  declines  the  pontifical  dignity  offered  by  the  emperor.  Benedict  VII.  chogen.  Es- 
comtiiunicates  Franco.  Holds  a  council  at  Rome  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  9b1.]  Dies.  John  XIV.  chosen  and 
driven  from  the  see  by  Franco.  Franco  dies  suddenly  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  985.]  John  elected,  but  not  reckoned 
amongst  the  popes. 


BENEDICT  VII.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  THIRTY-FIFTH  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[John  Tzimisces,  Emperor  of  the  East. — Otiio  II.,  Emperor  of  th^  West."] 


[Year  of  Christ,  975.]  The  emperor  no 
sooner  heard  of  the  death  of  Donus,  than 
wishing  to  see  one  placed  in  the  chair  capa- 
ble of  reforming  the  many  abuses  that  pre- 
vailed in  the  Roman  church,  he  wrote  to 
Majolus,  abbot  of  Cluny,  a  man  held  by  all 
in  great  esteem  for  the  sanctity  of  his  life, 
earnestly  pressing  him  in  his  own  name,  and 
in  the  name  of  the  empress  Adalais,  his 
mother,  to  accept  of  the  papal  dignity,  and 
repair,  without  delay,  for  that  purpose  to 
Rome.'  But  the  holy  abbot  obstinately  re- 
fusing to  accept  what  others  were  striving 
by  the  most  wicked  means  to  attain,  the 
emperor,  after  tempting  him  again  and  again , 
but  in  vain,  with  the  same  offer,  dispatched 
his  envoys  to  Rome,  to  assist  according  to 
custom  at  the  ordination  of  the  new  pope. 
The  deputies  were  ordered  to  join  the  Tus- 
can party;  and  by  that  party  was  chosen 
and  ordained  in  the  presence  of  the  imperial 
envoys,  Benedict  VII.,  a  Roman,  the  son  of 


one  David,  and  at  the  time  of  his  electioa 
bishop  of  Sutri. 

Benedict  was  no  sooner  ordained,  than 
assembling  a  council  in  the  Lateran  church, 
he  deposed,  excommunicated,  and  anathe- 
matized with  great  solemnity  Franco,  who 
had  intruded  himself  into  the  chair  upon  the 
death  of  Benedict  VI.,  inhumanly  murdered 
at  his  instigation.' 

Of  this  pope  we  find  nothing  else  recorded 
in  history,  but  that  in  977  he  restored  the  see 
of  Lorch  to  its  metropolitan  dignity,  and  in 
981  held  a  council  at  Rome  againstsimoniacal 
ordinations,  at  which  theernperor  was  present 
in  person.2  In  Benedict's  time  died  at  Rome, 
in  the  month  of  December,  983,  the  emperor 
Olho  II.,  and  was  buried  in  the  porch  of  the 
Vatican  church.  The  pope  survived  him 
but  a  few  months ;  for  his  death  is  said  to 
have  happened  on  the  10th  of  July  of  the 
following  year,  984,  after  enjoying  the  pon- 
tifical dignity  nine  years  and  some  months. 


JOHN  XIV.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  THIRTY-SIXTH  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[Basilus,  Const  antine,  Emperors  of  the  East.— Otho  III.,  Emperor  of  the  West.'} 


[Year  of  Christ,  984.]  In  the  room  of 
Benedict  was  chosen,  a  few  days  after  his 
death,  John  XIV.,  bishop  of  Pavia,  and 
archchancellor  under  the  late  emperor  Otho 
II.  His  name  was  Peter,  but  he  exchanged 
it.  upon  his  promotion,  for  that  of  John,  out 
of  respect  for  the  prince  of  the  apostles.  He 
held  the  see  only  eight  months.  For  Franco, 
hearing  that  Otho  was  dead,  left  Constanti- 
nople, and  returning  to  Rome  soon  after  the 
election  of  John,  was  received  with  great 
joy  by  those  of  his  party,  and  even  encour- 
aged to  resume  the  pontifical  dignity,  and 
drive  John  from  the  see.  This  he  readily 
undertook,  and  his  party  prevailing,  he  seized 
on  pope  John,  confined  him  in  the  castle  of 
St.  Angeio,  and  there  either  starved  him  to 
death,  or  dispatched  him  with  poison.  He 
caused  his  body  to  be  exposed  to  public 
view,  that  his  friends  might  all  know  he  was 
dead,  and  lay  aside  all  thoughts  of  attempt- 

«  Syrus  in  Vit.  Majoli,  1.  iii.  c.  8. 


ing  his  rescue,  or  re-instating  him  in  his  see. 
Franco  enjoyed  but  a  very  short  time  the 
usurped  dignity,  being  carried  off  by  a  sudden 
death  when  he  had  not  yet  held  it  a  whole 
year.  He  behaved,  after  his  restoration,  in 
so  tyrannical  a  manner  to  all  indiscriminate- 
ly, even  to  those  of  his  own  party,  that  they 
stabbed  his  dead  body  in  an  hundred  places, 
dragged  it  stark  naked  through  the  kennels 
to  the  place  where  stood  the  equestrian  statue 
of  the  emperor  Marcus  Aurelius  Antoninus, 
(called  in  the  Vatican  manuscript  the  statue 
of  Constantine)  and  there  left  it.  But  it  was 
from  thence  conveyed  away  early  the  next 
day  by  some  of  the  clergy,  and  privately 
buried.' 

In  the  room  of  Franco,  called  in  most 
catalogues  Boniface  VII.,  though  by  no 
writer  acknowledged  for  lawful  pope,  was 
elected  John,  a  native  of  Rome,  and  the  son 
of  one  Robert.     But  whether  his  election 


«  Concil.  torn.  ix.  p.  721. 
>  Apud  Baron,  ad  ann.  965. 

2C 


3  Idem,  p.  1244. 


326 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[John  XV. 


John  leaves  Rome  soon  after  his  election.  Is  recalled  by  the  tyrant  Crescentius.  Mediates  a  peace  between 
Ethelred,  king  of  England,  and  Richard,  duke  of  Normandy; — [Year  of  Christ,  990.]  The  first  instance  of 
a  solemn  canonization  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  993.]     Quarrel  between  the  pope  and  the  Gallican  bishops. 


was  not  canonical,  or  he  died  before  his  con- 
secration, he  is  not  reckoned  among  the 
popes,  his  immediate  successor,  called  like- 
wise John,  being  counted  the  fifteenth  pope 
of  that  name.  However,  as  John,  the  son 
of  Robert,  was  elected,  he  is  styled  in  the 


chronicle  of  St.  Maxentius,  apostolicus,  that 
is,  pope,  and  so  is  Boniface  VII.  For  it  is 
there  said,  that  three  apostolici  died  in  one 
year  at  Rome,  in  985,  namely,  John  XIV., 
Boniface  VII.  and  John  the  elect. 


JOHN  XV.,  THE  HUNDREJ)  AND  THIRTY-SEVENTH  BISHOP 

or  ROME. 

[Basilius,  Constantine,  Emperors  of  the  East. — Otho  HI.,  Emperor  of  the  West."] 


[Year  of  Christ,  985.]  To  John,  the  son 
of  Robert,  was  substituted  John  XV.,  by 
birth  a  Roman,  and  the  son  of  a  presbyter 
named  Leo.  He  was  chosen,  it  seems,  with- 
out opposition,  and  ordained,  as  appears  from 
some  of  his  letters,  in  December,  985.'  In 
the  beginning  of  his  pontificate,  Crescentius, 
a  man  of  great  power  and  authority  in  Rome, 
aspiring,  after  the  example  of  the  Tuscan 
marquises,  at  the  sovereignty  of  the  city, 
seized  on  the  castle  of  St.  Angelo,  which 
alarmed  the  pope,  acquainted  with  his  vio- 
lent and  tyrannical  temper,  to  such  a  degree, 
that  leaving  Rome  he  withdrew  into  Tus- 
cany, and  from  thence  wrote  to  Otho,  en- 
treating him  to  hasten  to  the  relief  of  the 
holy  see,  and  the  unhappy  city,  threatened 
with  destruction  by  a  new  tyrant.  Otho 
answered  the  pope,  that  as  soon  as  his  affairs 
were  settled  in  Germany,  he  would  march 
with  his  whole  army  to  Rome,  and  exert  the 
same  zeal  in  defence  of  the  apostolic  see  as 
his  father  and  grandfather  had  done.  The 
pope  took  care  to  acquaint  Crescentius  with 
this  answer,  who  thereupon,  remembering 
the  late  executions,  dispatched  some  of  the 
chief  men  of  his  party  to  invite  his  holiness 
back  to  Rome,  and  assure  him,  that  he 
should  be  treated  with  all  the  respect  that 
was  due  to  the  successor  of  the  prince  of 
the  apostles.  The  pope  complied  with  the 
invitation,  and  was  thenceforth  suffered  to 
live  quite  unmolested  by  Crescentius,  and 
those  of  his  party.^ 

In  the  year  990  a  quarrel  arising  between 
Ethelred,  king  of  England,  and  Richard, 
duke  or  marquis  of  Normandy,  the  pope 
sent  over  into  England  Leo,  chorepiscopus 
of  Treves,  with  the  character  of  his  legate  a 
latere,  to  mediate  a  peace  between  them.  On 
that  occasion  John  wrote  a  letter  addressed 
to  all  the  faithful,  wherein  he  tells  them  that 
he  had  sent  a  legate  to  the  sea  coast  at  a 
great  distance  with  exhortatory  letters;  that 
on  Christmas  day  his  legate  had  an  audience 
of   the    king;   that  he   persuaded   him   to 


'  Baluz.  in  Append.  Marcx  Hispan.  p.  234. 
^  Baron,  ad  ann.  985. 


hearken  to  terms  of  peace,  and  send  over 
with  him  embassadors  to  treat  with  the 
duke;  and  that,  on  the  first  of  March  991,  a 
peace  was  happily  concluded  at  Roan  be- 
tween the  king  and  the  duke.' 

In  the  life  of  this  pope  we  meet  with  the 
first  instance  of  a  solemn  canonization.  For 
by  him  was  solemnly  canonized,  or  sainted, 
Ulderic,  bishop  of  Augusta,  at  the  request 
of  Liutulf,  his  successor  in  that  see.  On 
that  occasion  the  pope  assembled  a  council 
in  the  Lateran  palace ;  and  when  the  bishops 
were  all  met,  Liutulf  rising  up,  begged  leave 
of  the  assembly  to  read  to  them  the  book 
which  he  held  in  his  hand,  containing,  he 
said,  an  authentic  account  of  the  life  and 
miracles  of  the  venerable  Ulderic.  They 
readily  agreed  to  his  request ;  and  when  he 
had  done,  the  pope,  after  consulling  the 
bishops,  declared  with  their  approbation, 
that  Ulderic  might  thenceforth  be  worshipped 
and  invoked  as  a  saint  reigning  in  heaven 
with  Christ.2  They  did  not,  it  seems,  in- 
quire into  the  truth  of  any  thing  contained 
in  that  book,  but  supposed  the  miracles,  and 
whatever  else  it  contained,  to  be  true. 

The  only  thing  that  occurs  worthy  of 
notice  in  the  pontificate  of  John  XV.  is  the 
quarrel  that  arose  in  990,  between  him  and 
the  Gallican  bishops,  on  the  following  occa- 
sion :  Adelbert,  archbishop  of  Reims,  dying, 
the  famous  Hugh  Capet,  whom  the  French 
had  raised  to  the  throne  in  987,'  appointed 
Arnold,  natural  brother  to  Charles,  duke  of 
Lorraine,  with  whom  Hugh  was  then  at 
war,  to  succeed  him,  flattering  himself,  that 
he  should  thus  gain  him  over  to  his  party. 
The  archbishop  took  the  usual  oath  of  alle- 
giance to  the  king;  but  six  months  after  he 

'  Malmes.  de  Beg.  1.  ii.  c.  10.  et  Concil.  torn.  ix. 

3  Mabill.  in  Pref.  ad  sec.  v.  Benedict,  p.  99. 

'  As  Lewis  V.  left  no  issue  behind  him,  the  French 
chose  Hugh  Capet,  descended  from  Childebrand, 
brother  to  Charles  Martel,  for  his  successor.  Charles, 
duke  of  Lorraine,  and  uncle  to  the  deceased  king,  had 
an  indisputable  right  to  the  crown  ;  but  he  was  ex- 
cluded on  account  of  his  attachment  to  the  German 
party  and  the  emperor  Otho.  Thus  was  the  crown 
transferred  from  the  Carlovingian,  or  the  second  race 
of  the  French  kings  to  the  third,  who  hold  it  to  this 
day. 


John  XV.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


327 


Council  of  Reims  against  Arnold.     Speech  of  the  bishop  of  Orleans.     The  pope  suspends  the  bishops  of  the 
council.     Oerbert's  letter  on  this  occasion. 


betrayed  the  city  to  the  duke  his  brother,  as 
was  proved  by  the  testimony  of  the  very 
priest,  who,  by  his  order,  opened  the  gate  to 
the  duke.  Of  this  treachery  the  king  and 
the  bishops  of  the  province  of  Reims  com- 
plained to  the  pope,  informing  his  holiness, 
at  the  same  time,  that  they  designed  to  as- 
semble a  council  in  order  to  try  the  arch- 
bishop. The  deputies,  whom  they  sent  to 
Rome  on  that  occasion,  were  at  first  well 
received  by  the  pope.  But  Herbert,  count 
of  Vermandois,  having  in  the  mean  time  es- 
poused the  cause  of  Arnold,  to  whom  he 
was  related,  the  pope,  gained  by  his  presents, 
would  not  afterwards  so  much  as  admit  the 
envoys  of  the  king  and  the  bishops  to  his 
presence.  However,  upon  their  return,  a 
council  was  assembled  at  Reims,  at  which 
presided  Seguin,  archbishop  of  Sens,  and 
were  present  all  the  bishops  of  the  province 
of  Reims,  and  a  great  number  of  abbots 
from  different  provinces.  They  met  on  the 
seventeenth  of  June  991  ;  and  Arnold  being 
in  the  first  session  convicted  of  high  treason, 
and  of  a  manifest  breach  of  his  oath,  he  was 
in  the  second,  at  which  assisted  king  Hugh 
and  his  son  Robert,  solemnly  deposed,  and 
Gerbert,  formerly  preceptor  to  prince  Robert, 
was,  at  the  desire  of  the  king,  appointed 
archbishop  of  Reims  in  his  room. 

Arnold  was  not  deposed  by  the  council, 
nor  was  his  successor  named,  till  he  owned 
himself  guilty  of  the  crime  laid  to  his  charge, 
and  acknowledging  himself  unworthy  of  the 
episcopal  dignity,  delivered  the  ring  and  his 
crosier  to  the  king,  and  publicly  consented 
to  the  election  of  another  bishop  to  that  see. 
However  some  abbots,  undertaking  his  de- 
fence, pretended,  upon  the  authority  of 
forged  decretals,  that  his  renunciation  was 
null,  and  that,  notwithstanding  his  pleading 
guilty,  no  other  could  be  placed  on  that  see, 
till  his  cause  was  re-examined  at  Rome,  and 
his  resignation  received  by  the  pope.  But 
they  were  silenced  by  Arnold,  bishop  of  Or- 
leans, who,  on  that  occasion,  made  a  long 
speech,  showing  that  all  honor  was  due  to 
the  see  of  Rome,  as  having  been  founded  by 
St.  Peter,  the  prince  of  the  apostles;  that 
due  obedience  ought  to  be  paid  to  its  decrees, 
so  long  as  they  are  consistent  with  the  de- 
crees of  Nice  and  of  other  general  councils  ; 
that  if  the  pope  acted  agreeably  to  those  de- 
crees, he  would  not  disapprove  nor  reverse 
the  judgment  given  by  a  provincial  synod, 
or  a  national  council;  that  if  he  disapproved 
or  reversed  it,  greater  regard  should  be  had 
to  the  ancient  laws  and  canons  of  the  church 
universal,  than  to  any  new  decrees  that  the 
popes  might  be  prompted  to  issue  by  mo- 
tives of  interest,  pride,  or  revenge.  From 
thence  he  took  occasion  to  lament  the  de- 
plorable condition  to  which  the  Roman 
church  was  reduced,  being  now  no  longer 
governed  by  the  Leos,  the  Innocents,  the 
Gregories,  &.C.,  but  by  the  most  worthless 


wretches  of  the  whole  human  race,  by  mon- 
sters rather  than  men,  abandoned  to  all 
manner  of  wickedness,  and  void  of  ail  know- 
ledge, both  sacred  and  profane.  "And  are 
we,"  he  added,  "to  consult  them  and  ac- 
quiesce in  their  judgment,  when  we  have 
in  Belgium  and  Germany,  provinces  so  near 
us,  so  many  bishops,  no  less  eminent  for 
their  learning  than  for  their  religion  and  ex- 
emplary lives?  At  Rome  every  thing  is 
venal;  and  he  will  always  have  justice  on 
his  side,  who  has  most  gold  to  give  to  his 
judges."  The  bishop  of  Orleans  proves,  in 
the  remaining  part  of  his  speech,  that  the 
bishops  of  each  province  are  empowered,  by 
the  councils,  to  try,  condemn,  and  depose, 
such  of  their  fellow  bishops  as  are  arraigned 
and  convicted  of  crimes,  for  which  they  de- 
serve to  be  deposed ;  that  they  are  directed 
by  no  canons  or  laws  of  the  church  to  con- 
sult in  such  cases  the  pope,  but  are  only  re- 
quired to  acquaint  him  with  the  judgment 
they  have  given,  and,  if  he  does  not  approve 
of  it,  to  re-examine  the  cause  on  the  spot. 

The  pope  was  no  sooner  informed  of  the 
deposition  of  Arnold,  and  the  ordination  of 
Gerbert,  than  he  declared  the  one  and  the 
other  null,  nay,  and  suspended  all  the  bishops, 
and  among  the  rest  Gerbert  himself,  who 
had  assisted  at  that  council.  But  Gerbert, 
little  imagining  then  that  he  should  ever  be 
raised,  as  he  afterwards  was,  to  the  pontifical 
dignity,  not  only  made  no  account  of  the 
sentence  pronounced  by  the  pope,  continu- 
ing to  perform  all  episcopal  functions  as  if 
no  such  sentence  ever  had  passed,  but  per- 
suaded the  other  bishops  to  pay  as  little  re- 
gard to  it  as  he  did  iiimself.  As  Seguin, 
archbishop  of  Sens,  who  had  presided  at  the 
council,  betrayed  some  fear  of  the  papal 
thunder,  Gerbert  wrote  to  him,  that  he  had 
nothing  to  fear;  that  the  judgment  of  the 
pope  was  not  so  much  to  be  dreaded  as  the 
judgment  of  God  ;  that  should  the  pope  sin 
against  his  brother,  and  not  obey  the  church, 
after  repeated  admonitions,  he  ought  to  be 
looked  upon,  without  any  regard  to  his  station, 
as  a  heathen  and  publican  ;  that  he  can  cut 
no  man  off,  much  less  his  fellow  bishops, 
from  the  communion  of  the  church,  for  not 
approving  what  they  believe  to  be  contrary 
to  the  gospel ;  that  a  sentence  manifestly  un- 
just, ought  not  to  be  looked  upon,  according 
to  the  great  pontiff  St.  Leo,  as  coming  from 
the  see  of  St.  Peter;  that  bishops  and  the 
other  pastors  of  the  church,  are  to  regulate 
theirconduct  by  the  Scriptures,  by  the  canons 
of  the  church  universal,  and  by  the  decrees 
of  the  apostolic  see,  when  agreeable  to  them ; 
that  they,  who  transgress  those  laws,  are  to 
be  tried  by  them,  and  by  them  alone  absolved 
or  condemned ;  but  that  such  as  observe  them 
have  nothing  to  fear,  and  may  live,  happen 
what  will,  quite  undisturbed.  He  closed  his 
letter  with  e.xhorting  Seguin  to  take  the  laws 
of  the  church,  and  not  the  will  of  one  man. 


328 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[John  XV. 


Another  letter  of  Gerbert  on  the  proceedings  of  the  council  against  Arnold.  The  king  writes  to  the  pope  ;  who 
sends  a  legate  into  France.  The  council  of  Mouson  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  995.]  Gerbert's  speech  in  the  coun- 
cil.   Delivers  it  to  the  legate.     Gerbert  deposed,  and  Arnold  restored. 


misinformed  or  misled  by  passion  or  preju- 
dice, for  the  rule  of  his  conduct. 

Gerbert  wrote  another  letter  on  the  same 
subject  to  Vilderod,  bishop  of  Strasburg, 
wherein,  after  giving  him  an  account  of  the 
proceedings  of  the  council  against  Arnold, 
he  maintains  the  justice  of  the  sentence  pro- 
nounced by  the  bishops  who  composed  it,  as 
entirely  agreeable  to  the  decrees  of  the  gene- 
ral councils,  and  the  practice  of  the  church 
in  all  ages ;  confutes  Avhat  had  been  urged 
by  some  abbots  in  the  council,  namely,  that 
a  bishop  could  be  judged  and  deposed  by 
none  but  the  pope,  and  shows,  that  as  the 
crimes  which  Arnold  was  arraigned  of,  de- 
served the  punishment  that  the  council  had 
inflicted  upon  him,  and  were  fully  proved, 
the  pope  could  not  reverse  the  judgmentthey 
had  given,  nor  suspend  them  for  giving  it. 

At  the  same  time,  king  Hugh  wrote  to  the 
pope,  giving  him  a  succinct  account  of  the 
proceedings  of  the  council  of  Rheims,  beg- 
ging him  to  confirm  them,  as  no  ways  de- 
rogatory to  the  authority  of  the  apostolic  see, 
and  inviting  him  to  meet  the  Galilean  bishops 
at  Grenoble,  on  the  confines  of  France  and 
Italy,  where  the  affair  should  be  examined 
anew,  in  the  presence  of  his  holiness.  In 
answer  to  this  letter,  the  pope  pretended 
that  he  could  not  leave  Rome,  as  the  tyrant 
Crescentius  would  probably  lay  hold  of  that 
opportunity  to  usurp  the  sovereignty  of  the 
city.  He  therefore  proposed  the  assembling 
of  a  council  either  at  Rome  or  at  Aix-la- 
Chapelle.  But  that  proposal  being  rejected 
by  the  Galilean  bishops,  the  pope  dispatched 
into  France,  Leo,  abbot  of  St.  Boniface  in 
Rome,  with  the  character  of  his  legate,  to 
assemble  a  council  at  Mouson  in  the  diocese 
of  Reims,  ordering  him  to  insist  on  the  ex- 
pulsion of  Gerbert,  and  restoration  of  Arnold, 
as  the  one  had  been  deposed,  and  the  other 
ordained,  without  the  knowledge  or  the  con- 
sent of  the  apostolic  see. 

The  council  met  accordingly  at  the  place 
appointed  on  the  2d  of  June,  995 ;  and  the 
legate  having  presented  to  the  bishops  a 
letter  from  the  pope,  declaring  the  deposition 
of  Arnold  uncanonical,  and  representing 
Gerbert  as  an  usurper  of  his  see,  that  pre- 
late showed,  in  a  speech  which  he  made, 
and  afterwards  delivered  to  the  legate  in 
writing,  that  Arnold  had  been  judged  and 
condemned  according  to  the  canons;  that 
being  convicted  of  many  enormous  crimes, 
he  had  owned  himself  unworthy  of  the  epis- 
copal dignity  and  resigned  it;  that  as  for 
himself,  he  had  never  courted  that  nor  any 
other  dignity ;  that  he  had  been  named  to  it 
by  the  king,  Avilhoul  any  application  from 
him,  and  freely  chosen  by  the  bishops  of 
the  province ;  that  he  had  long  declined  the 
offered  dignity,  but  was,  in  the  end,  forced 
to  yield  to  the  pressing  instances  of  the  king, 
of  the  bishops  of  the  province,  and  the  peo- 


ple and  clergy  of  Reims ;  and  consequently 
that  he  did  not  deserve  to  be  treated  as  an 
usurper  of,  or  intruder  into  that  see.  He 
added,  that  as  to  the  pope,  his  holiness  had 
no  just  cause  to  complain,  since  they  had 
informed  him  of  the  whole  affair  before  they 
took  any  step  in  it;  but  as  he  returned  no 
answer  to  their  deputies,  after  they  had 
waited  eighteen  months  for  directions,  they 
thought  it  their  duty  to  proceed,  according 
to  the  known  laws  of  the  church,  against 
one  whose  scandalous  conduct  reflected  dis- 
grace on  the  episcopal  order. 

This  speech  Gerbert  delivered  to  the  legate 
in  writing,  who  promised  to  transmit  it  to 
his  holiness,  but  at  the  same  time  ordered 
him  to  forbear  all  ecclesiastical  functions  till 
the  meeting  of  another  council;  and  he  ap- 
pointed another  to  meet  on  the  1st  of  July 
at  Reims,  there  being  present  at  this  only 
four  bishops,  namely,  the  archbishop  of 
Treves,  and  the  bishops  of  Liege,  of  Verdun, 
and  Munster.  When  the  legate  commanded 
Gerbert  to  abstain  from  the  functions  of  his 
office  till  the  meeting  of  the  new  council,  he 
told  him  in  plain  terms,  that  he  would  not 
comply  with  that  injunction,  no  bishop,  no 
patriarch,  nor  even  the  pope  himself,  being 
empowered  by  the  canons  to  suspend  a 
bishop,  unless  he  was  convicted  of  the  crime 
laid  to  his  charge,  or  confessed  it,  or  refused 
to  appear  at  a  synod,  when  canonically 
summoned ;  that  he  was  not  guilty,  nor  even 
arraigned,  of  any  thing  of  that  nature,  and 
would  not  therefore  condemn  himself.  How- 
ever, at  the  friendly  interposition  of  Luitolf, 
archbishop  of  Treves,  he  consented  to  abstain 
from  celebrating  mass  till  the  meeting  of  the 
council.' 

The  acts  of  that  council  have  not  reached 
our  times.  But  from  history  it  appears, 
that  Leo,  the  pope's  legate,  having  gained, 
as  he  was  a  man  of  great  address,  many  of 
the  Galilean  bishops  over  to  his  party,  Ger- 
bert was  deposed  by  that  assembly,  and 
Arnold  ordered  to  be  reinstated  in  his  see. 
But  notwithstanding  this  sentence,  Arnold 
was  kept  by  the  king  closely  confined,  as 
guilty  of  high  treason,  till  three  years  after, 
when,  upon  the  death  of  king  Hugh,  he 
was,  at  the  request  of  pope  Gregory  V.  the 
immediate  successor  of  the  present  pope, 
released  by  king  Robert,  the  son  of  Hugh, 
and  suffered  to  return  to  his  see.^  As  for 
Gerbert,  he  readily  submitted  to  the  sentence 
of  the  council,  however  unjust,  saying  the 
bishops  are  welcome  to  take  from  me  what 
they  have  given  me;  which  was  tacitly  de- 
claring, that  he  yielded  to  the  bishops,  and 
not  to  the  pope.  He  withdrew  from  France 
to  the  court  of  Otho  III.  whose  preceptor  he 
had  been,  and  was  by  him  first  preferred  to 
the  see  of  Ravenna,  and,  upon  the  death  of 


«  Concil.  torn.  ix.  p.  743.  747. 
2  Almoin,  in  Vit.  Sancti  Abbon. 


Gregory  V.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


329 

Death  of  John  XV.  ;— Year  of  Christ,  996.]     Gregory  V.  choBnn.     He  crowns  Otho  emperor.    The  electoral 
college  not  instituted  t>y  Gregory.     Gregory  driven  from  Rome  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  997.] 


Gregory  V.  to  that  of  Rome,  as  we  shall  see 
in  the  sequel. 

The  council  of  Reims  was  held  in  995, 
and  pope  John  XV.  died  the  following  year, 
the  eleventh  of  his  pontificate.  He  is  com- 
mended by  the  writers  of  later  times  for  his 
piety,  his  learning,  and  even  for  his  skill  in 
the  military  art,  though  we  do  not  find,  that 
he  ever  had  the  least  opportunity  of  showing 


or  exerting  that  skill,  and  it  can  be  no  great 
commendation  in  a  bishop  to  be  a  good 
general.  He  is  said  to  have  writ  several 
booksj-but  none  of  his  works  have  reached 
our  times.  I  shall  leave  Baronius  to  recon- 
cile with  this  pope's  sanctity,  what  was 
said  by  Arnold  bishop  of  Orleans,  in  the 
council  of  Reims,  namely,  that  in  his  time 
every  thing  was  venal  at  Rome. 


GREGORY  v.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  THIRTY-EIGHTH 
BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[Basilius,  Constantine,  Emperors  of  the  East. — Otho  III.,  Emperor  of  the  West.l 


[Year  of  Christ,  996.]  As  Otho  III.  was 
encamped  with  his  army  at  Ravenna  when 
the  pope  died,  the  clergy,  the  senate,  and 
the  people  of  Rome,  immediately  despatched 
messengers  to  acquaint  him  with  the  death 
of  the  pope,  to  express  their  desire  of  being 
honored  with  his  presence  in  their  city,  and 
beg  his  directions  with  respect  to  the  fulure 
election.  Among  the  clergy  of  Otho's  chapel 
was  his  nephew,  Bruno,  then  only  twenty- 
four  years  of  age,  but  of  a  sweet  disposition, 
of  an  exemplary  life,  well  versed  in  most 
branches  of  learning,  and  by  all  no  less  es- 
teemed for  his  eminent  virtues  than  his  high 
birth.  This  youth  Otho  recommended  to 
the  clergy  and  people  of  Rome,  and  he  was, 
it  seems,  elected  while  he  was  slill  at  Ra- 
venna. For  we  are  told  by  the  author  of 
the  life  of  St.  Adalbert,  bishop  of  Prague,  who 
flourished  at  this  very  lime,  that  Bruno  was 
elected,  and  attended  to  Rome  by  Willigisus, 
archbishop  of  Mentz,  and  another  bishop ; 
that  he  was  received  there  with  all  possible 
marks  of  respect  and  esteem,  and  conse- 
crated pope  to  the  great  satisfaction  of  the 
people  and  clergy.'  As  to  the  time  of  his 
ordination,  all  we  know  for  certain  is,  that 
he  was  ordained  before  the  twenty-eighth  of 
April,  996.  This  we  learn  from  a  charter 
he  granted  to  the  monastery  of  St.  Ambrose, 
dated  the  twenty-eighth  of  April,  998,  in  the 
second  year  of  his  pontificate.^  If  he  was 
on  the  twenty-eighth  of  April,  998,  still  in 
his  second  year,  he  must  have  begun  his 
first  before  that  day.  At  his  ordination  he 
chose  to  be  called  Gregory,  and  he  is  the 
fifth  of  that  name. 

Otho,  who  had  been  hitherto  only  styled 
king  of  Germany,  went  soon  after  the  ordi- 
nation of  his  nephew  to  Rome,  and  was  by 
him  solemnly  crowned  emperor  on  Whit- 
sunday, which  in  996  fell  on  the  thirty-first 
of  May  .3 


»  In  Vit.  Adalbert  apnd  Mabill.  See  Benedict.  V. 

»  Concil.  torn.  ix.  p.  555. 

'  Chronograph,  llildcitsheim.  ad  hunt  ann. 

Vol  II.— 42 


The  same  year  Gregory  held  a  council  at 
Rome,  consisting  chiefly  of  Italian  bishops; 
and  in  this  council  the  electoral  college  is 
said  to  have  been  instituted  by  the  pope  and 
the  emperor,  who  was  present  at  it  in  per- 
son. But  the  writers,  who  first  ascribed 
that  institution  to  Gregory  V.,  all  Hved  three 
years  after  his  time ;  and  the  more  ancient 
and  contemporary  historians  are  all,  to  a 
man,  silent  about  it.  Besides,  the  presbyter 
Nippo,  in  the  account  he  gives  us  of  the 
election  of  the  emperor  Conrad,  surnamed 
the  Salic,  that  happened  twenty-six  years 
after  the  death  of  Gregory  V.,  tells  us,  as  an 
eye-witness,  that  Conrad  was  elected  em- 
peror by  the  archbishops,  who  voted  the 
first,  and  by  the  grandees  of  Italy  as  well  as 
of  Germany,  the  emperor,  whoever  he  was, 
being  at  that  time  king  of  Lombardy.  In 
the  same  manner,  Lotharius,  duke  of  Sax- 
ony, was  chosen  emperor  in  1125,  upon  the 
death  of  Henry  V.,  who  died  without  issue, 
as  we  read  in  Orderic,  who  flourished  about 
that  time.'  From  these  testimonies  of  con- 
temporary writers,  and  many  more  might 
be  produced,  it  is  evident,  that  the  number 
of  electors  was  not,  till  long  after  this  pope's 
time,  confined  to  seven. 

Upon  the  breaking  up  of  this  council, 
with  respect  to  which  we  are  left  quite  in 
the  dark,  the  emperor,  taking  leave  of  the 
pope,  returned  with  his  army  to  Germany, 
having  first  made  the  Romans  swear  allegi- 
ance to  him,  and  obedience  to  the  pope.  But 
he  was  no  sooner  gone,  than  the  tyrant 
Crescentius,  having  formed  a  strong  party 
under  color  of  redeeming  the  city  from  the 
bondage  it  groaned  under,  and  restoring  the 
Romans  to  the  liberty  they  enjoyed  under 
their  own  princes,  drove  Gregory  from  his 
see,  plundered  the  Lateran  Palace,  and  be- 
gan, as  consul  and  prince  of  the  republic, 
titles  his  followers  bestowed  on  him,  to  act 
as  sovereign  of  Rome. 

Gregory  being  fled,  the  tyrant  declared 
'  Orderic  Vitalis,  I.  ii.  p.  882. 

2c2 


330 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Gregory  V. 

John  XVI.  anti-pope.    Excommunicated  by  Gregory.    Gregory  restored  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  998.]     Crescentius 
and  his  accomplices  punished.     Council  of  Rome.    King  Robert  excommunicated  and  his  queen. 


the  see  vacant,  and  raised  to  it  one  Phila- 
gathes,  who  took  the  name  of  John.  He 
was  a  native  of  Calabria,  of  a  very  mean  ex- 
traction, but  a  man  of  great  parts  and  ad- 
dress. As  Calabria  was  then  subject  to  the 
Greek  empire,  and  he  spoke  that  ]an.guage, 
he  soon  insinuated  himself  into  the  favor  of 
the  Greek  empress,  Theophania,  the  wife 
of  Otho  II.,  and  was  by  her  recommended 
to  the  emperor,  who  employed  him  in  seve- 
ral afTairs  of  great  moment,  as  did  likewise 
his  son,  the  present  emperor,  Otho  III. 
Upon  the  death  of  the  bishop  of  Placentia, 
he  seized  on  that  see,  and  held  it,  till  hear- 
ing that  Gregory  was  driven  from  Rome,  he 
purchased  the  see  with  the  plunder  of  the 
church  of  Placentia.' 

From  Rome  Gregory  withdrew  to  Pavia, 
and  in  a  council  held  there  excommunicated 
Crescentius,  as  well  as  the  usurper  of  his 
see,  and  with  them  all  their  accomplices. 
Thesentence  pronounced  by  the  pope  against 
John  was  confirmed  by  all  the  bishops  of 
Italy,  France,  and  Germany,  in  the  councils 
they  assembled  for  that  purpose.  In  the 
mean  time  the  emperor,  hearing  of  the  revolt 
of  the  Romans,  of  the  expulsion  of  the 
pope,  and  tyranny  exercised  in  Rome  by 
Crescentius,  set  out  at  the  head  of  a  small, 
but  chosen  body  of  troops  for  Italy,  and 
finding  the  pope  at  Pavia,  pursued  his  march 
with  him  to  Rome.  John  betook  himself  to 
flight  at  their  approach  ;  but  falling  into  the 
hands  of  some  of  the  pope's  friends,  they 
deprived  him  of  his  sight,  cut  off"  his  nose, 
and  tore  out  his  tongue.  This  they  are  by 
some  said  to  have  done  without  the  empe- 
ror's knowledge,  apprehending  that  he  might 
forgive  him,  as  he  had  been  formerly  one  of 
his  chief  favorites.^  But  others  write,  that 
this  punishment  was  inflicted  upon  him  by 
the  command  of  the  emperor.*  As  for  Cre- 
scentius, he  retired  into  the  castle  of  St. 
Angelo,  not  having  a  sufficient  number  of 
men  to  defend  the  walls  of  the  city.  But 
the  emperor  ordered  a  general  assault,  and 
having  taken  the  place  by  storm,  though  till 
that  time  thought  impregnable,  he  ordered 
the  tyrants  head  to  be  cut  off",  and  his  body 
to  be  hung  upon  a  gibbet  before  one  of  the 
gates  of  the  city,  with  the  bodies  of  twelve 
of  his  accomplices.''  The  famous  abbot  St. 
Nilus  is  said  by  the  author  of  his  life  to  have 
exerted  his  utmost  endeavors  in  favor  of 
John,  begging  both  of  the  pope  and  the  em- 
peror that  his  life  might  be  spared,  and  he 
sent  back  to  his  monastery  (for  he  was 
originally  a  monk)  to  do  penance  there  for 
his  sins.  That  writer  adds,  that,  notwith- 
standing the  interposition,  the  prayers,  and 
entreaties  of  so  holy  a  man,  the  pope  order- 
ed the  unhappy  wretch,  blind  and  deformed 


'  Chron.  Magdeburg,  ad  ann.  997. 
"Ibid,  ad  ann.  998. 

'  Chronograph.  Hildensheim.  ad  ann. ' 
♦  Idem  ibid. 


as  he  was,  to  be  led  through  the  streets  in  a 
tattered  sacerdotal  habit,  mounted  upon  an 
ass  with  his  face  to  the  tail,  which  he  held  in 
his  hand.  But  of  this  no  notice  is  taken  by 
the  more  ancient  writers ;  and  besides,  Gre- 
gory is  commended  by  the  contemporary 
writers  for  the  sweetness  of  his  temper,  and 
is  even  said  to  have  diverted  the  emperor, 
when  he  first  came  to  Rome,  from  banish- 
ing Crescentius  for  the  disturbances  which 
he  had  raised,  under  the  other  popes,  in  that 
city.-  The  executions  spoken  of  above  struck 
such  terror  into  the  people,  that  they  thence- 
forth carefully  avoided  giving  Gregory  the 
least  cause  of  complaint. 

The  pope  being  thus  restored  to  his  see, 
and  having  nothing  to  fear  from  the  Romans, 
convened  a  council  in  Rome,  at  which  as- 
sisted twenty-eight  bishops,  and  the  emperor 
in  person,  with  a  great  number  of  presby- 
ters, abbots,  and  deacons.  This  council  was 
chiefly  assembled  on  the  following  occasion. 
Robert,  king  of  France,  had  married  Berta, 
the  widow  of  Odo,  count  of  Champagne, 
and  daughter  of  Conrad,  king  of  Burgundy. 
But  as  Robert  had  been  godfather  to  one  of 
her  children,  and  godfathers  were  forbidden 
by  the  council  of  Trullo  not  only  to  marry 
the  infant,  but  the  mother  of  the  infant  for 
whom  they  had  answered,'  the  pope  assem- 
bled a  council  to  declare  the  king's  marriage 
incestuous  and  null.  And  such  it  was  ac- 
cordingly declared  by  the  pope  and  all  the 
bishops  who  were  present,  and  the  king  was 
ordered,  in  the  first  canon,  to  dismiss  Berta, 
whom  he  had  married  contrary  to  the  laws 
of  the  church,  and  to  atone  by  a  seven  years' 
penance  for  that  transgression,  on  pain  of 
being  cut  off  from  the  communion  of  the 
faithful.  The  same  sentence  was  pronounced 
against  Berta,  if  she  did  not  separate  from 
the  king.  By  the  second  canon,  ail  the  bi- 
shops who  had  assisted  at  that  marriage,  and 
Erchembaldus  in  particular,  archbishop  of 
Tours,  who  had  given  the  nuptial  benedic- 
tion, were  suspended  from  their  episcopal 
functions  and  the  communion,  till  they  went 
to  Rome,  and,  acknowledging  their  fault, 
obtained  forgiveness  of  the  apostolic  see. 
No  regard  was  at  first  paid,  either  by  the 
king  or  by  Berta,  to  the  sentence  of  the  pope 
and  his  council :  but  it  made  so  deep  an  im- 
pression upon  the  minds  of  his  subjects,  that 
he  was  forsaken,  if  Petrus  Damianus  is  to 
be  credited,  by  all  his  domestics  except  two, 
who  supplied  him  with  the  necessaries  of 
life;  and  neither  would  they  have  any  other 
intercourse  with  him,  nor  would  they  so 
much  as  touch  the  vessels  he  had  used,  till 
they  had  purified  them  in  the  fire.3  Be  that 
as  it  will,  the  king  lived  three  years  longer 

»  Justin.  Cod.  1.  v.  tit.  4.  leg.  16. 
2  Petrus  Damian.  ep.  5. 

But  this  is  probably  of  a  piece  with  what  we  read 

in  the  same  author,  namely,  that  Berta  was  delivered 

1  of  a  monster,  having  the  neck  and  the  head  of  a  goose. 


Silvester  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


331 


Other  canons   of  the  council  of  Rome.     Gregory  dies 

generosity  to  A 


[Year  of  Christ,  999.]     Silvester  II.,  chosen.     His 
mold  of  Reims. 


wilh  Berta,  and  then,  dismissing  her,  mar- 
ried Constaniia,  surnamed  Candida,  the 
daughter  of  William,  count  of  Provence. 
He  is  said  to  have  been  persuaded  by  Abbo, 
abbot  of  Fleury,  to  part  wilh  Berta  and 
marry  another  in  her  room.  Ivo  of  Char- 
tres  writes,  that  the  bishops  went  all  to  Rome 
wilh  the  king,  and  with  Berta,  to  be  absolved 
by  the  pope.'  But  the  writer  of  Abbo's  life, 
taking  uo  notice  of  the  king's  journey  to 
Rome,  only  says,  that  he  confessed  his  fault, 
that  he  publicly  begged  pardon  for  the  scan- 
dal that  he  had  given,  and  performed  the 
penance  that  was  enjoined  him. 

Gisilerius,  bishop  of  Mersburg,  held  at 
this  time  the  archbishopric  of  Magdeburg, 
and  being  therefore  charged  with  holding 
two  parishes,  that  is,  two  bishoprics,  it  was 
ordained  by  the  third  canon  of  the  present 
council,  that  the  church  of  Mersburg,  erected 
by  the  apostolic  see  and  the  emperor  Otho  I. 
into  an  episcopal  see,  but  divested  of  that 
dignity  by  Otho  II.,  should  be  restored  to  its 
former  rank;  and  by  the  fourth  canon  it  was 
decreed,  that  if  Gisilerius  could  make  it  ap- 
pear, that  his  translating  himself  from  the 
see  of  Mersburg  to  that  of  Magdeburg  was 
not  owing  to  ambition,  but  that  he  had  been 
invited  by  the  people,  he  should  be  con- 
tinued in  that  see  ;  but  if  he  could  not  make 
that  appear  he  should  return  to  Mersburg. 
It  was  added  in  that  canon,  that  if  it  could  be 
proved,  that  he  had  been  induced  by  motives 
of  ambition  or  avarice  to  exchange  the  one 


church  for  the  other,  he  should  keep  neither. 
The  fifth  canon  related  to  the  church  of  Puy 
in  Velay.  Guy,  bishop  of  that  city,  had, 
on  his  death-bed,  appointed  Stephen,  his 
nephew,  to  succeed  him,  without  consult- 
ing either  the  clergy  or  people.  Stephen 
was  accordingly  ordained  by  the  archbishop 
of  Bourges,  and  the  bishop  of  Nevers.  But 
this  ordination  Avas  declared  null  by  the 
council,  Stephen  was  deposed,  and  two 
bishops,  who  had  ordained  him,  were  sus- 
pended, till  they  satisfied  the  holy  see.  By 
the  same  canon  the  clergy  and  people  of 
Velay  were  empowered  to  choose  their 
bishop,  who  was  to  be  ordained  by  the 
pope,  and  king  Robert  was  exhorted  not  to 
support  Stephen,  but,  on  the  contrary,  to 
favor  the  election  of  the  clergy  and  people. 
This  judgment  was  complied  with  in  France, 
and  in  the  room  of  Stephen,  Theodard  was 
elected  by  the  clergy  and  people,  and  or- 
dained by  Silvester  II.  the  successor  of 
Gregory.' 

Gregory  did  not  long  survive  the  holding 
of  this  council,  for  he  died,  as  appears  from 
his  epitaph,  which  is  still  to  be  seen  in  the 
church  of  St.  Peter,  on  the  eighteenth  of 
February,  999.  In  the  same  epitaph  he  is 
commended  for  his  high  birth,  for  his  know- 
ledge of  three  languages,  the  French,  or  the 
Teutonic,  the  Latin,  and  the  language,  or 
barbarous  Latin,  that  was  then  spoken  in 
Italy,  and  for  his  generosity  to  the  poor. 


SILVESTER  n.,THE  HUNDRED  AND  THIRTY-NINTH  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[Basilius,  Constantine,  Emperors  of  the  East. — Otho  III;,  Emperor  of  the  West.] 


[Year  of  Christ,  999.]  Gregory  was  suc- 
ceeded by  Gerbert,  unanimously  chosen  by 
the  clergy  and  people  of  Rome  upon  the  re- 
commendation of  the  emperor,  who  had  pre- 
ferred him  the  year  before  to  the  archiepis- 
copal  see  of  Ravenna.  Pie  was  a  native  of 
Auvergne,  come  of  an  obscure  family,  but 
endowed  with  most  extraordinary  parts,  and 
had  shown  from  his  tender  years  great  thirst 
after  knowledge.  He  was  highly  esteemed 
by  the  emperor  Otho  II.  who  chose  him  for 
preceptor  to  his  son  Otho  III.  and  gave  him 
the  abbey  of  Bobio  in  Italy.  Upon  the  death 
of  the  emperor  he  returned  to  France,  and 
settled  at  Reims  with  archbishop  Adalberon. 
He  pretended  to  have  been  named  by  that 
prelate,  on  his  death-bed,  for  his  successor 
in  that  see.  But  the  king,  Hugh  Capet,  ne- 
vertheless preferred  to  it  Arnold,  the  natural 
« Ivo,  Part.  ix.  c.  8. 


son  of  Lotharius,  king  of  France,  and  brother 
to  Charles,  Duke  of  Lorraine.  When  Ar- 
nold was  convicted  of  having  betrayed  that 
city  to  the  duke,  and  thereupon  deposed  by 
the  council  of  Reims,  he  was,  with  the  ap- 
probation of  the  king,  chosen  by  the  people 
of  Reims  and  the  bishops  of  that  province  to 
succeed  him.  But  being  afterwards  deposed 
in  his  turn  by  Leo,  the  legate  of  John  XV., 
the  emperor  Otho  III.  got  him  first  chosen 
archbishop  of  Ravenna,  and  afterwards 
raised  to  the  apostolic  see.  He  was  or- 
dained in  the  presence  of  the  imperial  en- 
voys, on  Palm-Sunday,  which  in  999  fell  on 
the  second  of  April ;  and  on  that  occasion  he 
took  the  name  of  Silvester  II. 

He  was  no  sooner  ordained,  than,  forget- 
ting the  quarrel  between  him  and  Arnold, 
archbishop  of  Reims,  he  confirmed  that  pre^ 

*  ConcU.  torn.  iz.  p.  772,  et  seq. 


33i 


theJ  history  of  the  popes, 


[Silvester  II. 


St.  Stf[ilien,  king  of  Hungary,  perpetual  legate  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1000.]  The  bishop  of  Hildesheim  complains 
to  the  pope  of  his  metropolitan  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1001.]  Council  in  Germany  disapproves  the  conduct  of 
the  metropolitan.     Silvester  dies  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1003.  [    Charged  with  the  study  of  Magic. 


late  in  his  see,  empowered  him  to  perform 
all  the  functions  of  his  office,  to  wear  the 
l)all,  to  consecrate  the  kings,  to  ordain  his 
sufiVagans,  and  exercise  the  same  jurisdic- 
tion over  them,  as  had  ever  been  exercised 
by  any  of  his  predecessors.  As  he  could 
not  justify  him  without  condemning  himself, 
he  told  him  in  the  letter,  which  he  wrote  to 
him  on  that  occasion,  that  though  his  con- 
science condemned  him,  he  absolved  him  by 
the  authority  with  which  he  was  vested  as 
the  successor  of  the  prince  of  the  apostles.' 

The  pope  is  said  to  have  sent  the  follow- 
ing year  to  St.  Stephen  I.  king  of  Hungary, 
the  famous  crown,  with  which  his  successors 
are  crowned  to  this  day,  and  to  have  be- 
stowed upon  him,  at  the  same  time,  the  title 
of  king,  and  appointed  him  his  perpetual 
legate,  with  full  power  to  dispose  of  all 
ecclesiastical  preferments  at  his  pleasure, 
and  to  have,  as  legate  of  the  apostolic  see, 
the  cross  carried  before  him,  as  a  reward 
justly  due  to  his  apostolic  labours  in  con- 
verting his  subjects  to  the  Christian  faith. 
"  I  am  called  the  apostolic,"  said  the  pope 
to  the  king's  ambassadors  demanding  a  royal 
crown  for  their  master;  "but  he  may  well 
be  called  the  apostle  of  Christ,  who  has 
gained  to  him  so  numerous  a  people;  and 
we  therefore  leave  the  c+iurches  to  be  dis- 
posed of  by  him,  as  our  vicar. "^ 

In  the  year  1001  the  pope  sent  Frederic, 
cardinal  of  the  Roman  church,  into  Germany 
to  determine  a  difference  between  Bernouard, 
bishop  of  Hildesheim,  and  his  metropolitan, 
Willegisus,  archbishop  of  Mentz.  The  arch- 
bishop had  given  the  veil  to  a  nun  in  a 
monastery  imder  the  immediate  jurisdiction 
of  the  see  of  Hildesheim,  and  besides  conse- 
crated the  church  of  the  said  monastery 
without  the  permission  of  the  bishop.  Ber- 
nouard, provoked  at  the  arbitrary  proceed- 
ings of  his  metropolitan,  and  determined  to 
maintain  the  just  rights  of  his  see,  went  in 
person  to  Rome  to  complain  to  the  pope. 
Silvester,  who  had  been  formerly  acquainted 
with  him,  received  him  with  the  greatest 
marks  of  esteem,  the  rather,  as  he  was 
warmly  recommended  to  him  by  the  em- 
peror; but  he  would  give  no  sentence  till  he 
had  heard  both  sides,  and  the  affair  was 
inquired  into  on  the  spot.  He  therefore  sent 
the  above  mentioned  cardinal  into  Germany 
with  orders  to  assemble  a  council,  to  hearken 
to  the  advice  of  the  bishops  who  composed 
it,  and  to  determine  the  dispute  together  with 
them.  The  council  met  by  the  appointment 
of  the  legate  at  Polden  on  the  22d  of  July. 
But  the  archbishop,  finding  his  conduct  was 
censured  by  almost  all  the  bishops  who  were 
present,  privately  withdrew ;  and  he  was 
thereupon,  with  the  approbation  of  the 
council,   suspended  by  the  legate  from  all 


»  Concil.  1.  ix.  p.  778. 

a  Apud  Suriura.  in  Vit.  S.  Steph.  ad  Diem  20  Aug. 


episcopal  functions,  till  he  gave  the  bishop 
of  Hildesheim  such  satisfaction  as  his  fellow- 
bishops  should  judge  proper;  and  he  was 
strictly  enjoined  to  abstain  for  the  future 
from  any  ways  encroaching  on  the  jurisdic- 
tion and  rights  of  his  suffragans  as  esta- 
blished by  the  known  laws  of  the  church. 
The  acts  of  this  council  were  brought  to 
Rome  by  the  cardinal  legate,  and  confirmed 
by  the  pope  in  a  council  held  in  the  Lateran 
palace,  at  which  were  present  thirty  bishops, 
and  the  emperor  in  person. 

Of  this  pope,  though  highly  commended 
by  most  of  the  writers  who  lived  the  nearest 
to  this  time,  for  the  sanctity  of  his  life, 
as  well  as  the  prudence  with  which  he 
administered  his  short  pontificate,  we  find 
nothing  else  recorded  besides  his  giving  the 
pall  at  Rome  to  St.  Herebert,  archbishop  of 
Cologne,  and  his  confirming  to  Leothoric, 
archbishop  of  Sens,  the  primacy  of  all  Gaul, 
formerly  granted  by  John  VIII.  to  Ansegisus, 
his  predecessor  in  that  see.  Silvester  died 
on  the  12th  of  May,  1003,  having  governed 
the  church  four  years  one  month  and  nine 
days.  The  day  of  his  death  is  marked  on 
his  epitaph,  which  was  composed  by  pope 
Sergius  IV.  who  succeeded  him  in  1009, 
and  is  still  to  be  seen  in  the  Lateran  church. 

Cardinal  Benno,  who  lived  in  the  time  of 
Gregory  VII.,  writes,  that  Silvester  was  a 
famous  magician;  that  he  learnt  the  black 
art  in  a  book,  which  he  stole  at  Seville ; 
that  he  did  homage  to  the  devil;  that  he 
sold  his  soul  to  him  for  the  popedom ;  that 
he  had  a  brazen  head  in  his  closet,  which 
answered  all  the  questions  he  asked,  and 
that  having  consulted  the  devil  about  the 
length  of  his  life,  he  was  assured  he  should 
not  die  till  he  had  said  mass  in  Jerusalem; 
that  he  thereupon  promised  himself  a  very 
long  life,  but  happening  in  the  fifth  year  of 
his  pontificate  to  say  mass  in  the  church 
called  the  Holy  Cross  in  Jerusalem,  he  was 
taken  suddenly  ill,  and  concluding,  from  a 
strange  noise  of  devils,  that  his  end  was  at 
hand,  he  made  a  full  confession  of  his  sins 
to  the  cardinals,  and  desired  that  his  body 
might  be  put  into  a  chariot  drawn  by  two 
horses,  and  buried  where  they  should  stop; 
that  his  request  being  complied  with,  the 
horses  stopt  at  the  Lateran  church,  and  that 
he  was  buried  there  by  the  cardinals.  To 
these  tales  other  writers  have  added,  that  for 
a  long  time  after  his  bones  were  heard  to 
rattle,  and  his  sepulchre  used  to  sweat  great 
drops  when  a  pope  was  to  die.  These 
fables,  however  absurd  and  ridiculous,  have 
been  adopted  by  Sigebert,  who  indeed  speaks 
doubtfully  of  them,  and  likewise  by  Martinus 
Polonus,  Vincent  of  Beavais,Galfrid,  Malms- 
bury,  and  several  others,  who  flourished 
many  years  after  his  time.  But  he  is  highly 
commended  for  his  piety  and  eminent  virtues 
by  all  the  contemporary  writers,  who  speak 


John  XVH.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


333 


Silvester's  writings.     John  XVII.  chosen. 


of  him,  namely,  by  his  .successor  Sergius  IV.; 
in  his  epitaph,  by  Ditmar,  bishop  of  Mers- 
burg,'  by  Helgald,  monk  of  Fleuri,^  and  by 
several  others,  who  lived  in  his  time,  or 
very  soon  after  it.  His  rise  from  the  lowest 
station  in  life  to  the  highest  dignity  in  the 
church,  the  high  favour  he  was  in  with  the 
emperor  and  other  princes  and  kings  of  his 
time,  and  his  extraordinary  knowledge  in 
every  branch  of  literature,  especially  in 
mathematics  and  astronomy,  probably  made 
him  be  looked  upon  in  so  ignorant  an  age  as 
a  magician ;  and  what  was  said  by  the 
ignorant  multitude  was  gravely  related  by 
cardinal  Benno  as  matter  of  fact,  the  cardinal 
being  a  most  violent  partizan  of  the  emperor 
Henry,  with  whom  Gregory  VII.  was  then 
at  war. 

Silvester  travelled  very  early  into  Italy, 
Spain,  and  Germany,  in  quest  of  knowledge, 
spent  large  sums,  as  soon  as  he  had  it  in  his 
power,  in  the  purchase  of  books,  and  spared 
no  expense  to  get  those  transcribed,  which 
he  could  not  purchase.  He  wrote  himself 
several  learned  treatises  of  rhetoric,  arith- 
metic, and  geometry.  He  made  a  set  of 
globes,  and  a  clock,  while  he  was  with  the 
emperor  at  Magdeburg,  and  afterwards  an 
astrolabe,  of  which  he  wrote  a  treatise  by 
way  of  dialogue  between  him  and  Leo,  the 
pope's  legate.  Upon  his  being  preferred  to 
the  archiepiscopal  see  of  Ravenna,  he  wrote 
a  very  learned  charge  to  his   suffragans. 


which  has  been  published  by  Mabillon  under 
the  following  title,  "  A  sermon  or  speech  of 
the  philosopher  Gerbert,  pope  of  the  city  of 
Rome,  surnamed  Silvester,  for  the  instruction 
of  bishops."'  In  that  piece  he  highly  com- 
plains of  the  simony  that  prevailed  in  his 
time.  To  Silvester  is  ascribed  by  Baronius 
and  others,  the  life  of  St.  Adalbert,  bishop  of 
Prague,  and  martyr.  But  the  learned  Ma- 
billon has  plainly  proved  it  to  be  the  work 
of  an  anonymous  monk.^  This  pope  wrote 
a  great  number  of  letters  upon  different  sub- 
jects, whereof  one  hundred  and  sixty  were 
printed  at  Paris  in  IGl  1.  But  the  completest 
collection  of  these  letters  is  to  be  met  with  in 
Duchesne  ;3  and  they  afford  us  great  light 
with  respect  to  the  affairs  of  those  times,  both 
ecclesiastic  and  civil.  His  thirty-eighth  let- 
ter contains  the  first  exhortation  to  the  croi- 
sade.  For  he  there  introduces  the  city  of 
Jerusalem  addressing  and  exhorting  the 
church  universal  to  rescue  the  holy  places, 
where  our  Lord  was  born,  where  he  lived 
and  suffered,  out  of  the  hands  of  the  infidels. 
He  was  frequently  consulted,  before  his  pro- 
motion to  the  apostolic  see,  by  the  emperor 
Otho  III.,  and  we  have  one  of  that  prince's 
letters  to  him  with  the  following  direction, 
"To  Gerbert,  a  most  learned  philosopher, 
and  eminent  in  the  three  branches  of  philo- 
sophy." The  verse  he  wrote  on  his  promo- 
tion from  Reims  to  Ravenna,  and  from 
Ravenna  to  Rome,  does  him  no  great  honour.* 


JOHN  XVII.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  FORTIETH  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[Basilius,  Constantine,  Emperors  of  the  East. — Henry  II.,  King  of  Germany. 1 


[Year  of  Christ,  1003.1  In  the  room  of 
Silvester  was  chosen,  after  a  vacancy  of 
thirty-three  days,  John  XVII.,  surnamed 
Sicco,  a  native  of  Rome,  of  a  mean  descent 
according  to  some  :  of  a  very  illustrious  and 
ancient  family  according  to  others.  As  the 
emperor  Otho  III.  died  the  year  before,  and 
Henry  of  Bavaria  was  not  yet  crowned  em- 
peror, the  clergy  and  people  were  left  to 
choose  whom  they  pleased,  and  to  their  dis- 
agreement was,  probably,  owing  the  length 
of  the  vacancy.  We  know  nothing  at  all 
of  the  character  or  actions  of  this  pope.     In- 


*  Ditmar.  1.  vi. 


"Helgald,  in  Vit.  Robert  Regis. 


deed,  his  pontificate  was  so  short,  that  he 
scarce  had  time  to  perform  any  thing  worthy 
of  notice.  For  he  was  ordained  on  the  loth 
of  June,  ICOo,  and  died  on  the  7th  of  De- 
cember of  the  same  year,  having  held  the 
see  five  months,  and  twenty-five  days.  He 
was  buried,  as  Joannes  Diaconus  the 
Younger  informs  us,  in  the  Lateran  church, 
and  his  tomb  was  still  to  be  seen  there  in  his 
time.5 


»  Mabill.  Analect.  torn.  2.    »  MabjU.  Sec.  Benedict. V. 
'  Diichos,  Srriptor.  V(>r.  Franc. 
•  Wcandil  ah  R,  (icrhcrtua  in  R,  post  Papa  viget  R. 
'  Joun.  Diac  de  £ccles.  Luteran- 


334 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Sergius  IV. 


John  XVIII.  chosen.     Bamberg  made  an  episcopal  see.      He  reunites  the  churches  of  Constantinople  and 
Rome.     He  dies.     Sergius  chosen.     Sends  a  legate  to  consecrate  a  monastery  in  Tours. 


JOHN  XVIII.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  rORTY-riRST  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[Basilius,  Constantine,  Emperors  of  the  East. — Henry  II.,  King  of  Germany.'] 


[Year  of  Christ,  1003.]  John  XVII.  was 
succeeded  by  John  XVIII.,  by  birth  a  Ro- 
man, and  called,  before  his  election,  Fasa- 
nus.  He  was  ordained  on  the  twenty-sixth 
of  December,  which  in  the  year  1003  fell  on 
a  Sunday. 

The  first  thing  we  find  recorded  of  this 
pope  is  his  sending  a  legate  into  Germany 
to  assist  at  the  consecration  of  Tagmo,  who 
had  been  elected  archbishop  of  Magdeburg 
in  the  room  of  Gisilerus  deceased.  That 
see  was  founded  by  Otho  I.,  and  by  a  parti- 
cular privilege  granted  at  his  request,  the 
new  archbishop  was  to  be  ordained  by  none 
but  the  pope.  As  Tagmo,  therefore,  was 
not,  at  the  time  of  his  election,  in  a  condi- 
tion to  undertake  a  journey  to  Rome, 
nor  did  the  pope  think  it  advisable  to 
leave  the  city  in  the  very  beginning  of  his 
pontificate,  he  appointed  a  legate  to  assist  at 
the  ordination  in  his  name  ;  and  the  cere- 
mony was  performed  by  Willegisus,  arch- 
bishop of  Mentz,  and  the  other  bishops  of 
the  province,  in  the  presence  of  the  legate, 
and  of  Henry,  duke  of  Bavaria,  who  had 
succeeded  Otho  III.  in  the  kingdom  of  Ger- 
many.' 

In  this  pope's  time  the  city  of  Bamberg 
was,  with  his  approbation,  erected  by  king 
Henry  into  a  bishopric,  and  taken  by  the 
pope  into  the  particular  protection   of  the 


apostolic  see,  but  at  the  same  time  subjected 
to  the  metropohtan  see  of  Mentz,  as  appears 
from  the  pope's  letters  to  the  bishops  of  Gaul 
and  Germany. 1 

Of  John  XVIII.,  we  read  nothing  else 
besides  his  sending  St.  Bruno  to  preach  the 
gospel  to  the  Russians,  his  granting  some 
privileges  to  monasteries,  and  receiving  at 
Rome,  with  uncommon  marks  of  distinc- 
tion, Elpheg,  the  new  archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury, gone  thither,  in  1006,  for  the  pall.^ 
It  is  said  in  his  epitaph,  that  he  reunited  the 
eastern  and  western  churches,  and  happily 
put  an  end,  we  know  not  by  what  means, 
to  the  schism  that  subsisted  between  them. 
What  is  said  there  is  confirmed  by  Peter, 
patriarch  of  Antioch,  who  tells  Michael 
Coerularius  in  a  letter,  which  he  wrote  to 
him  in  1050,  that  being  forty  years  before  at 
Constantinople,  in  the  pontificate  of  pope 
Sergius,  he  found  that  the  name  of  pope 
John,  the  predecessor  of  Sergius,  was  com- 
memorated at  mass  with  the  names  of  the 
other  patriarchs,  but  was  omitted,  he  knew 
not  why,  at  the  time  he  wrote  that  letter." 
We  shall  see  in  the  sequel  what  this  rup- 
ture was  owing  to. 

The  pope  died,  according  to  the  most 
probable  opinion,  about  the  end  of  May, 
1009,  having  presided  in  the  church  five 
years  and  five  months. 


SERGIUS  IV.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  FORTY-SECOND  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[Basilics,  Constantine,  Emperors  of  the  East. — Henry  II.,  King  of  Germany.'] 


[Year  of  Christ,  1009.]  To  John  XVIII. 
was  substituted  Sergius  IV.,  a  native  of 
Rome,  the  son  of  one  Martin,  and  at  the 
time  of  his  election  bishop  of  Albano.  His 
name  was  Peter,  but  he  is  said  to  have 
changed  it,  out  of  respect  for  the  founder  of 
his  see,  and  to  have  taken  that  of  Sergius. 
As  to  the  time  of  his  election,  we  only  know 
that  it  happened  after  the  seventeenth  of 
June,  1009,  a  charter  dated  that  day  in  1012 
being  said  to  have  been  granted  in  the  third 
year  of  his  pontificate;^  so  that  on  the  seven- 

»  Ditmar.  I.  v. 

»  Ughell.  Italia  sacra,  torn.  vii.  p.  52S. 


teenth  of  June,  1012,  he  had  not  entered 
into  his  fourth  year,  and  he  must  therefore 
have  been  chosen  after  that  day  in  1009. 

We  find  nothing  recorded  of  this  pope  be- 
sides his  sending  a  legate  into  France  to 
consecrate  a  monastery  founded  in  the  dio- 
cese of  Tours,  which  Hugh,  archbishop  of 
that  city,  looked  upon  as  an  encroachment 
upon  his  jurisdiction  ;  and  his  determining  a 
dispute  between  the  archbishop  of  Hamburg 
and  the  bishop  of  Verden  about  a  parish 


»  Ooncil.  torn.  ix.  p.  785. 

»  Osbern.  in  Vit.  Sancti  Elphegi,  apud  Surium,  torn. 
ii.  Die  19  April. 
3  Apud  Baron,  ad  ann.  1009. 


Benedict  VIII. ] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


335 


Sergius'  death  and  character  ;- 
Crowns  Henry  II.  emperor  ;- 
emperors. 


[Year  of  Christ,  1012.1 
[Year  of  Christ,  1014.] 


Benedict  chosen,  driven  from  the  see,  and  restored- 
Henry  confirms  all  the  donations  of  the  preceding 


named  Ilamsola,  which  the  pope  adjudged 
to  the  archbishop.' 

Sergius  died  in  1012,  either  in  the  latter 
end  of  the  third,  or  in  the  beginning  of  the 
fourth  year  of  his  pontificate.  For  his  suc- 
cessor was  possessed  of  the  see  on  the 
twenty-third  of  November  of  that  year,  as 
appears  from  one  of  his  diplomas. ^  From 
his  epitaph,  it  appears  that  he  had  governed 
tiie  church  of  Albano  five  years  before  he 
was  translated  to  that  of  Rome  ;  that  he  was 
of  a  mild  disposition,  kind  to  his  friends. 


generous  to  the  poor,  and  dear  to  all.  He 
has  been  thought  worthy  of  a  place  in  the 
Benedictine  monology,  though  he  is  not 
honored  by  the  church  as  a  saint.  This 
pope  was  called  Os  Porci,  or  Hog's  Snout, 
as  we  read  in  Ditmar,  a  contemporary  writer, 
and  not  Sergius  II.  as  is  said  by  Platina, 
who  will  have  that  pope  to  have  been  the 
first,  who,  disliking  his  own  name,  took 
another.  But  that  custom  did  not  take  place, 
as  has  been  shown,  till  long  after  the  time 
of  Sergius  II.  raised  to  the  see  ia  844. 


BENEDICT  VIII. ,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  FORTY-THIRD  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[Basilius,  Constantine,  Emperors  of  the  East. — Henry  II,  King  of  Germany.'] 


[Year  of  Christ,  1012.]  Upon  the  death 
of  Sergius,  John,  bishop  of  Porto,  the  son 
of  Gregory,  count  of  Tusculum,  was  raised 
by  his  family  to  the  chair,  after  the  seven- 
teenth of  June  1012,  when  Sergius  was  still 
living,  as  we  have  seen,  and  before  the 
twenty-third  of  November  of  the  same  year, 
when  John,  under  the  name  of  Benedict 
VIII.,  was  in  possession  of  the  see.  But  he 
was  soon  driven  from  it  by  one  Gregory, 
and  obliged  to  fly  into  Saxony,  and  implore 
the  protection  of  Henry,  king  of  Germany. 
That  prince  received  him  with  the  greatest 
marks  of  respect  and  esteem,  promised  to 
re-instate  him  in  his  see,  and  having  settled 
the  aff'airs  of  his  kingdom,  he  set  out  with 
that  view  for  Italy  in  September,  1013,  kept 
his  Christmas  at  Pavia,  and  from  thence 
pursued  his  march,  at  the  head  of  a  nume- 
rous army,  to  Rome.  But  the  Romans,  in 
the  mean  time,  hearing  that  the  king  had 
espoused  the  cause  of  Benedict,  recalled 
him,  and  drove  Gregory  from  the  chair  and 
the  city.  The  king,  however,  continued  his 
march,  and  arriving  at  Rome  in  February, 
1014,  was  met  by  the  pope  at  some  distance 
from  the  city,  and  received  at  the  gate  by  the 
clergy,  the  magistrates,  and  the  nobility,  and 
attended  by  them  to  the  church  of  St.  Peter. 

The  pope,  to  engage  the  king  in  his  de- 
fence, had,  no  doubt,  promised  to  crown 
him  emperor;  and  this  ceremony  he  per- 
formed a  few  days  after  his  arrival  with  the 
greatest  pomp  and  solemnity,  crowning  him 
emperor,  and  at  the  same  time  his  queen 
Cunegunda  empress.  The  pope,  before  he 
placed  the  crown  on  his  head,  asked  him 
whether  he  would  be  the  protector  and  de- 
fender of  the  church,  whether  he  would  be 
faithful  to  him  and  his  successors,  and  upon 


'  Adam.  IJremens.  I.  iii.  c.  13.  et  lib.  ii.  c.  38. 
3  Apud  Ouron.  ad  ann.  1012. 


his  answering,  that  he  would  ever  protect 
and  defend  the  church  to  the  utmost  of  his 
power,  and  pay  all  due  obedience  to  his  ho- 
liness and  his  successors  in  the  apostolic  see, 
the  pope  set  the  crown  on  his  head  and  sa- 
luted him  emperor,  amidst  the  loud  accla- 
mations of  the  multitude.  On  this  occasion 
the  pope  presented  the  emperor  with  a  crown 
of  gold  in  the  shape  of  a  globe,  enriched 
with  precious  stones  of  an  immense  value, 
with  a  cross  of  gold  at  the  top,  to  denote, 
says  Glaber,  a  contemporary  writer,  that  he 
ought  to  reign  so  as  to  deserve  the  protection 
of  the  cross.  That  crown  the  emperor  sent 
to  the  monastery  of  Cluny,  in  high  reputa- 
tion, even  in  that  degenerate  age,  for  the 
strict  observance  of  the  monastic  rules,  and 
the  eminent  sanctity  of  many  of  those  monks. 
When  the  ceremony  of  the  coronation  was 
over,  the  pope  gave  a  grand  entertainment 
to  the  emperor  and  the  empress  in  the  Late- 
ran  palace.'  This  ceremony  was  performed 
on  the  fourteenth  of  February,  in  the  year 
1014,  which  was  the  thirteenth  of  Henry's 
reign  as  king  of  Germany.  ^ 

The  emperor  confirmed,  before  he  left 
Rome,  all  the  donations  of  his  predecessors 
in  favor  of  the  apostolic  see ;  "  we  confirm," 
said  he  in  his  diploma,  "  all  the  donations 
made  to  the  blessed  apostle  Peter,  by  Pepin, 
by  Charles,  and  by  the  Otho's."  However, 
by  the  same  diploma  he  confirmed  the  de- 
crees of  Eugene  II.  and  Leo  IV.,  ordering 
the  new  pope  to  be  ordained  or  consecrated 
in  the  presence  of  the  imperial  commissaries ; 
and  this  edict  or  diploma  was  still  complied 
with  in  the  election  of  Alexander  II.,  raised 
to  the  chair  in  lOGl,  as  appears  from  Petrus 
Damianus,  who  wrote  in  that  pontificate. 

'  Chron.  Hildoslieim.  ad  ann.  1014.     Glaber,  in  fine 
libri  1.     Ditmar,  in  iiiit.  1.  7. 
'  Ditmar,  in  init.  1.  vii. 


336 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Benedict  VHI. 


Henry  causes  the  symbol  to  be  sung  at  mass  in  Rome.  The  pope  drives  the  Saracens  out  of  Ttaly  ; — [Year 
of  Christ,  1016.]  Some  Jews  executed  at  Rome  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1017.]  The  bishopric  of  Bamberg  given 
to  the  pope  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1019.]     Two  councils  held  by  the  pope. 


The  emperor,  who  was  a  most  religious 
prince,  and  is  now  even  honored  as  a  saint, 
is  said  to  have  asked  the  Roman  clergy, 
during  his  stay  at  Rome,  why  they  did  not 
sing  at  mass  the  symbol  or  creed  after  the 
Gospel,  agreeably  to  the  custom  that  obtain- 
ed in  all  other  churches.  That  question 
the  Romans  answered,  saying,  the  Roman 
church  had  never  been  infected  with  heresy, 
but  had  always  held  the  doctrine  delivered 
to  her  by  the  apostle  St.  Peter;  and  there- 
fore left  tho.se  churches  to  sing  the  creed, 
that  had  held  tenets  contrary  to  the  doctrines 
which  it  contained.  This  answer,  reflecting 
on  all  other  churches,  did  not  satisfy  the 
emperor,  who  therefore  insisted  on  the  creed 
being  sung  at  Rome  as  it  was  everywhere 
else;  and  he  prevailed  in  the  end.' 

In  the  year  1016  the  Saracens  made  a  de- 
scent upon  the  coast  of  Italy,  and  having 
made  themselves  masters  of  the  city  of  Luna 
in  Tuscany,  they  settled  there  with  their  fa- 
milies, and  made  frequent  incursions  into 
the  neigboring  countries.  Their  neighbor- 
hood alarmed  the  pope,  and,  therefore,  as- 
sembling all  the  bishops  and  defenders  of 
the  church,  he  ordered  them  to  join  him 
with  all  the  men  they  could  raise,  in  order  to 
march  jointly  with  him  against  the  common 
enemy.  Having  thus  aSsembled  a  compe- 
tent army,  and  at  the  same  time  prepared  a 
great  number  of  armed  vessels  to  prevent 
their  escaping  by  sea,  his  holiness  set  out 
from  Rome  at  the  head  of  his  army.  At  his 
approach  the  king  of  the  Saracens  had  the 
good  luck  to  get  off  unobserved  in  a  small 
vessel;  but  his  people,  reduced  to  despair, 
held  out  three  whole  days,  and  with  great 
slaughter  repulsed  the  aggressors  in  their 
repeated  attacks.  But  being  in  the  end  quite 
tired  out,  they  abandoned  the  place,  hoping 
to  find  shelter  in  the  neighboring  woods. 
But  his  holiness  pursued  them  so  close,  that 
not  one  out  of  so  numerous  a  multitude 
escaped  the  edge  of  the  sword.  We  are 
told  the  number  of  the  slain  was  so  great, 
that  the  victors  could  not  count  the  dead 
bodies,  and  thatthe  booty  was  immense.  The 
queen  of  the  Saracens  was  taken,  and  with- 
out any  regard  to  her  sex,  put  to  death.  The 
ornament  of  gold,  enriched  with  precious 
stones,  which  she  wore  on  her  head,  was 
claimed  by  the  pope,  who  sent  to  the  empe- 
ror his  share  of  the  rest  of  the  booty.  The 
king  of  the  Saracens,  highly  provoked  at 
the  loss  of  his  queen,  and  so  many  of  his 
subjects,  sent  him  a  sack  full  of  chesnuts, 
with  this  message,  that  he  would  return 
next  summer  with  as  many  men.  In  answer 
to  this  message  the  pope  sent  him  a  bag 
filled  with  millet,  and  bid  the  messenger  let 
the  king  know,  that  if  he  was  not  satisfied 
with  the  mischief  which   he  had  already 

<  Berno.  Augien.  de  Missa,  c.  2. 


done  to  the  patrimony  of  St.  Peter,  he  might 
return,  but  should  find  as  many  armed  men 
to  receive  him.' 

The  following  year  there  happened  in 
Rome  a  most  violent  storm  of  wind,  by 
which,  as  it  began  on  Good  Friday  after  the 
adoration  of  the  cross,  and  lasted,  without 
intermission,  till  Saturday  evening,  many 
houses  were  blown  down,  and  great  num- 
bers of  people  buried  in  the  ruins.  But  they 
found  at  last  what  had  occasioned  that  storm. 
For  a  Jew  of  the  Greek  synagogue  informed 
the  pope,  that  his  brethren  had  treated  the 
image  of  Christ  with  scorn  and  derision  at 
the  very  time  the  Christians  were  worshiping 
it.  Upon  this  intelligence  the  pope  caused 
the  Jews,  belonging  to  that  synagogue,  to 
be  strictly  examined ;  and  having  found 
what  the  informer  told  him  to  be  true,  he 
ordered  all,  who  were  anyways  concerned 
in  that  sacrilegious  insult,  to  be  immediately 
executed,  and  the  storm  ceased.^  Many  such 
stories  were  related,  and  even  believed  by 
some  of  the  best  writers  of  those  dark  ages. 

In  the  year  1019  the  pope,  leaving  Rome, 
where  a  perfect  tranquillity  reigned,  went 
into  Germany,  and  kept  his  Easter  at  Bam- 
berg with  the  emperor,  who  had  invited  him 
thither  to  consecrate  a  church  in  that  city, 
erected  by  him  into  a  bishopric.  That  cere- 
mony the  pope  performed  with  great  so- 
lemnity, and  the  emperor  entailed  that  bi- 
shopric upon  him  and  his  successors  forever, 
with  an  annual  tribute  of  a  white  horse, 
and  an  hundred  marks  of  silver.'  This 
bishopric  Leo  IX.  afterwards  exchanged  for 
that  of  Beneventum,  only  reserving  the  tri- 
bute of  a  white  horse,  as  we  shall  see  in  the 
sequel. 

By  this  pope  two  councils  only  are  said 
to  have  been  held,  during  the  eleven  years 
of  his  pontificate,  the  one  at  Rome,  the  other 
at  Pavia.  All  we  know  of  the  former  is  his 
granting  a  charter  to  a  monastery  in  Italy, 
containing  several  privileges.''  The  acts  of 
the  latter  have  reached  our  times;  and  they 
consist  of  a  speech  pronounced  by  the  pope, 
wherein  he  loudly  complains  of  the  inconti- 
nence of  the  clergy,  and  of  seven  canons, 
whereof  the  two  first  enforce  the  observance 
of  the  canons  forbidding  clerks  to  keep  con- 
cubines, or  to  have  women  in  their  houses. 
By  the  two  next,  the  children  of  clerks  are 
declared  to  be  slaves  of  the  church,  which 
their  fathers  belonged  to,  though  born  of  a 
free  woman  ;  and  it  was  enacted  by  the 
three  last,  that  no  vassal  of  the  church, 
whether  clerk  or  layman,  should  make  any 
purchase  in  his  own  name,  or  in  the  name 
of  a  freeman.     The  decrees  of  this  council 


«  Ditmar,  I.  vii. 

'Fragm.  Historise  Aquitan.  ad  ann   1017. 
3  Chron.  Hilden.  ad  ann.  1019.     Wippo,  in  Vit.  Con- 
rad. Salic.  Leo  Ostiens.  1.  i.  c.  47. 
*  Ughell  Ital.  Sacra  torn.  ii.  p.  996. 


John  XIX.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


337 


Benedict  dies ; — [Year  of  Christ,  1021.]     His  writings.     John  XIX.  chosen.    He  refuses  the  title  of  universal 
bishop  to  the  patriarch  of  Constantinople  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  1025.] 


were  signed  by  the  pope,  by  ihe  archbishop 
of  Milan,  and  five  bishops,  and  confirmed  by 
the  emperor,  who,  at  the  request  of  the 
pope,  inserted  ihem  in  an  imperial  edict,  and 
by  this  means  they  became  a  standing  law 
in  all  his  dominions.'  This  council  was 
held  on  the  first  of  August,  but  in  the  Acts 
no  mention  is  made  of  the  year.  However, 
as  it  is  said  to  have  assembled  in  the  reign 
of  the  glorious  emperor  Henry,  it  is  mani- 
fest that  it  did  not  assemble  till  after  the 
year  1013,  since  Henry  was  not  crowned 
emperor  till  the  14th  of  February,  1014. 

Benedict  VIII.  died,  as  we  read  in  the 
authors,  whose  calculations  seem  to  be  the 
most  exact,  after  a  pontificate  of  eleven 
years,  eleven  months,  and  twenty-one  days. 
He  is  commended  by  the  contemporary 
writers  for  his  charity  and  generosity  to  the 
poor,  and  his  zeal  in  striving  to  reform  the 
scandalous  and  dissolute  manners  of  the 
clergy.  He  was  a  great  friend  to  the  monks, 
held  in  great  esteem  and  received  at  Rome, 
with  uncommon  marks  of  distinction,  St. 
Odilo,  abbot  of  Cluny,  and  St.  Romuald, 
founder  of  the  order  of  Camaldulese,  and  is 
said  to  have  enriched  the  monastery  of 
Monte  Cassino  with  many  valuable  relics 
sent  thither  from  the  Lateran  church.  Of 
these  relics  the  reader  will  find  an  inventory 
in  Leo  Ostiensis,  by  whom  the  following 
are  mentioned  among  the  rest,  namely, 
some  of  the  wood  of  the  cross,  of  the  gar- 
ment, and  of  the  blood  of  the  Saviour,  a 
splinter  of  one  of  the  stones  with  which  St. 
Stephen  was  stoned,  and  some  drops  of  his 


blood,  some  of  the  veil  of  the  Virgin  Mary, 
and  of  the  garments  of  most  of  the  apostles, 
and  of  many  other  saints.'  This  pope,  for 
all  his  good  works,  is  said  to  have  been 
condemned  to  purgatory,  and  appearing  to 
John,  bishop  of  Porto,  to  have  told  him  that 
he  should  not  be  delivered  from  these  scorch- 
ing flames  till  Odilo,  abbot  of  Cluny,  prayed 
him  out  of  them.  This  intelligence  the 
bishop  communicated  to  the  abbot,  who, 
falling  immediately  upon  his  knees,  conti- 
nued praying  till  it  was  revealed  to  him  that 
his  petition  was  heard.^ 

We  have  one  letter  of  this  pope  addressed 
to  the  bishops  of  Burgundy,  Aquitain,  and 
Provence,  to  Burchard,  archbishop  of  Ly- 
ons, and  to  eighteen  other  bishops  or  arch- 
bishops, who  are  all  named.  In  that  letter 
the  pope  excommunicates,  and  orders  the 
bishops  to  excommunicate,  those  who  had 
usurped  the  possessions  of  the  monastery  of 
Cluny,  and  thereby  deprived  the  monks  of 
the  means  of  relieving  the  poor,  and  exer- 
cising hospitality.  The  pope  says  in  that 
letter  that  he  had  complained  of  these  usur- 
pations in  the  presence  of  Robert,  king  of 
the  Franks,  and  of  the  nobility,  who  attended 
him  to  Rome.''  From  these  words,  it  ap- 
pears that  the  king  undertook  a  journey  to 
Rome,  though  not  the  least  notice  is  taken 
of  that  journey  by  any  of  the  contemporary 
writers;  and  we  know  not  when  he  per- 
formed it,  the  pope's  letter  being  dated  the 
first  of  September,  without  any  mention  of 
the  year. 


JOHN  XIX.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  FORTY-FOURTH  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[Basilius,  Constantine,  Emperors  of  ike  East. — Conrad  II.,  Emperor  of  the  TVest.} 


[Year  of  Christ,  1024.]  Upon  the  death 
of  Benedict,  his  brother,  named  John,  was 
raised  to  the  see  by  dint  of  money,  says 
Glaber,  a  contemporary  writer,^  though  at 
the  time  of  his  election  he  was  but  a  layman. 
We  have  seen  Hadrian  and  the  succeeding 
popes  refusing  to  acknowledge  Photius  for 
lawful  patriarch,  and  declaring  his  ordina- 
tion to  be  null,  because  he  had  not  passed 
through  the  inferior  degrees.  But  these 
irregularities  were  overlooked  by  the  Roman 
clergy;  the  best  bidder,  whether  an  eccle- 
siastic or  layman,  being  sure  at  this  time  to 
carry  his  eleclion.  All  we  know  for  certain 
of  the  time  of  his  ordination  is,  that  he  was 
ordained  before  the  month  of  September, 
1024,  one  of  his  bulls  dated  that  month. 


•  Corcil.  torn.  ix.  p.  819. 

Vol.  I1.-43 


a  Glaber,  I.  i.  c.  4. 


1027,  being  said  to  have  been  issued  in  the 
fourth  year  of  his  pontificate.'* 

In  the  very  beginning  of  John's  pontifi- 
cate the  emperor  Basilius,  and  the  patriarch 
of  Constantinople,  sent  a  solemn  embassy  to 
Rome,  to  obtain  of  the  pope  his  consent, 
that  the  patriarch  of  the  imperial  city  should 
style  himself  universal  bishop  of  the  East,  as 
the  patriarch  of  Rome  was  styled  universal 
bishop  of  the  whole  world.  As  it  is  well 
known  in  the  East  and  every  where  else, 
that  all  things  were  venal  at  Rome,  the 
papacy  itself  not  excepted,  the  embassadors 
brought  presents  with  them  of  an  immense 
value  for  the  pope  and  the  rest  of  the  clergy ; 

'  Leo  Osticns.  1.  iii.  c.  28. 

^  I'ctrus  Uamian.  vit.  a  Odilon  Sigebert.  Chron,  &c. 

=■  Concil.  torn.  i.x.  p.  810. 

*  Hist.  Ital.  Sacra  torn.  v.  p.  48. 

2D 


338 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[John  XIX. 


John  crowns  Conrad  emperor  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  1027.]     Canutus,  king  of  England,  at  Rome.     The  pope  grants 
the  use  of  the  pall  to  the  bishop  of  Girona.     He  dies; — [Year  of  Christ,  1033.]     His  writings. 


and  they  would  have  certainly  carried  their 
point,  says  Hugh,  abbot  of  Pleury,  had  not 
both  Italy  and  France  taken  the  alarm,  and 
the  request  of  the  Greeks  been  strongly 
opposed  by  some  of  the  most  eminent  men 
then  in  the  West  for  their  learning  and  piety. 
Among  these  was  William,  abbot  of  the 
monastery  of  St.  Benignus  in  Dijon,  who 
wrote  a  short  but  very  strong  letter  to  the 
pope,  to  divert  him  from  complying,  upon 
any  consideration  whatever,  with  the  unjust 
and  insidious  demands  of  the  Greeks.  The 
pope,  finding  he  could  not  gratify  the  em- 
peror and  the  patriarch  without  disobliging 
those,  who  had  nothing  so  much  at  heart  as 
the  honor  and  dignity  of  his  see,  dismissed 
the  embassadors,  telling  them,  that  the  title 
of  universal  bishop  became  none  but  the 
successors  of  St.  Peter  in  the  apostolic  see, 
and  that  none  but  his  successors  should  wear 
it.'  This  is  the  title,  of  which  it  was  said 
by  pope  Gregory  the  Great,  that  whoever 
assumed  it  was  either  the  antichrist  or  the 
forerunner  of  the  antichrist. 

The  emperor  Henry  11.  dying  in  1024 
without  issue,  Conrad,  surnamed  the  Salic, 
chosen  king  of  Germany  in  his  room,  entered 
Italy  with  a  powerful  army  about  the  begin- 
ning of  lent,  1026,  and  having  reduced  all 
the  towns  there,  that  had  shaken  off  the 
yoke,  he  went  to  Rome,  no  doubt  invited 
thither  by  the  pope,  who  had  gone  as  far  as 
Corno  to  meet  him  upon  his  first  coming  into 
Italy.  He  was  received  at  Rome  with  the 
greatest  demonstrations  of  joy  by  all  ranks 
of  people;  and  on  Easter-day  the  pope 
crowned  him  emperor  with  the  usual  solem- 
nity in  the  church  of  St.  Peter.  Q,ueen 
Gisela  was  at  the  same  time  crowned  em- 
press ;  and  this  august  ceremony  was  per- 
formed in  the  presence  of  Rudolph,  king  of 
Burgundy,  and  Canutus,  king  of  England, 
who,  when  divine  service  was  ended,  at- 
tended the  new  emperor,  says  Wolferus, 
walking  between  them,  back  to  his  cham- 
ber.2  It  is  to  be  observed,  that  Wippo,  who 
lived  in  the  court  of  Conrad,  and  was  one 
of  the  priests  of  his  chapel,  speaking  of  his 
promotion  to  the  imperial  dignity,  says,  that 
he  was  chosen  emperor  by  the  Romans  and 
crowned  by  the  pope,  calling  him  constantly 
king  before,  and  constantly  emperor  after  he 
was  elected  by  the  Romans,  and  the  cere- 
mony of  his  coronation  or  consecration  was 
performed  by  the  pope;  which  fully  confutes 
what  some  have  asserted,  namely,  that 
whoever  was  elected  king  of  Germany  be- 
came emperor  by  that  election  alone. 

Canutus  or  Cnutus,  who  assisted,  as  has 
been  said,  at  the  coronation  of  Conrad,  had 
undertaken  a  pilgrimage  to  Rome,  in  com- 
pliance with  the   fashionable  devotion  of 


«  Hugo  Flavin,  in  Chron.  Glab.  1.  iv.  c.  1. 

2  Wippo  in  Vit.  Cunegund.  Wolfer.  in  Vit.  Sancti 
Godehard  apud  Mabill.  secul.  Benedict.  VI.  Part.  i. 
num.  28. 


those  times.  From  Rome  the  king  wrote  a 
letter  to  the  bishops  of  his  kingdom,  wherein 
he  expresses  great  satisfaction  at  the  recep- 
tion he  had  met  with  from  the  pope,  as  well 
as  from  the  emperor  and  the  king  of  Bur- 
gundy; and  at  the  same  time  acquaints  them, 
that  he  had  obtained  of  those  princes  an 
exemption  from  all  tolls  and  taxes  for  such 
of  his  subjects  as  should  pass  through  their 
dominions  either  to  trade,  or  to  visit  the  holy 
places  at  Rome.  He  adds  in  his  letter,  that 
he  had  complained  to  the  pope  of  the  im- 
mense sums  that  were  extorted  from  his 
archbishops  when  they  went  to  Rome  for 
the  pall,  and  that  the  pope  had  promised  to 
moderate  those  exorbitantcharges.  Whether 
the  present  age  reaped  any  benefit  from  the 
pope's  promise  we  know  not ;  but  it  is  very 
certain  that  future  ages  reaped  none.  In  the 
same  letter  the  king  promises  to  rectify  for  the 
future  whatever  was  amiss  in  his  govern- 
ment, to  square  his  conduct  by  the  strictest 
rules  of  equity,  and  orders  justice  to  be  ad- 
ministered without  distinction  of  persons.' 

In  the  year  1030  Peter,  bishop  of  Girona, 
in  Spain,  coming  to  Rome,  begged  leave  of 
the  pope  to  wear  the  pall  twelve  days  in  the 
year,  promising  to  redeem  thirty  slaves  in 
captivity  among  the  Saracens,  provided  his 
holiness  granted  him  his  request.  It  was 
readily  granted,  and  the  days  were  named, 
the  chief  solemnities  of  the  year,  on  which 
he  was  allowed  to  use  that  ornament.  But 
the  pope  declared  that  the  privilege  he 
granted  him  was  only  personal,  and  should 
not  descend  to  his  successors  in  that  see.^ 

John  XIX.  died  in  1033,  having  held  the 
see  nine  years  and  nine  days,  as  we  read  in 
the  most  exact  catalogues.  He  is  said  to 
have  been  haled  by  the  Romans  on  account 
of  his  uncommon  severity ;  nay,  Baronius 
supposes  him  to  have  been  driven  by  them 
from  his  see  in  1033,  and  to  have  been  re- 
stored to  it  by  the  emperor  Conrad.  But  as 
no  notice  is  taken  by  any  cotemporary  writer 
of  Conrad's  going  to  Rome  in  that  year,  and 
all  speak  of  his  entering  Italy  at  the  head  of 
a  powerful  army  in  1038,  and  marching  to 
Rome  in  order  to  restore  the  pope,  (namely, 
Benedict  IX.,  the  successor  of  John)  whom 
the  Romans  had  driven  from  the  see,  what 
Baronius  supposes  to  have  happened  to  pope 
John,  must  have  happened  to  pope  Bene- 
dict. 

Of  this  pope  we  have  three  letters,  the 
one  addressed  to  Jordan,  bishop  of  Limoges, 
and  to  the  other  Galhcan  bishops,  wherein 
he  declares  Martialis,  the  first  bishop  of  that 
city,  worthy  of  the  title  of  an  apostle,  and 
allows  him  to  be  called  so.  For  it  had  been 
disputed  in  two  councils,  the  one  held  at 
Poictiers  in  1023,  the  other  at  Paris  in  1021, 
whether  that  holy  bishop  should  be  styled 
an  apostle,  or  only  a  confessor ;  and  as  those 

»  Concil.  torn.  ix.  p.  861,  et  apud  Baron,  ad  ann.  1027. 
s  Baluz.  Mari.  Hispan.  1.  iv. 


John  XIX.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


339 


The  pope's  writings,  continued. 


wise  prelates  could  not  settle  that  point 
among  themselves,  they  applied  to  the  pope, 
who  decided  the  important  question  in  the 
manner  I  have  said.'  Another  letter  of  John 
XIX.  has  reached  our  times  written  in  1029 
to  Odilo,  abbot  of  Cluny,  whereby  he  offers 
him,  and  even  commands  him  to  accept  the 
archbishopric  of  Lyons,  vacant  by  the  death 
of  BurchardjWho  had  been  greatly  beloved  by 
his  clergy  and  the  people  of  the  diocese. 
But  the  holy  abbot  withstood  to  the  last  so 
tempting  an  offer,  though  threatened  by  the 
pope  with  excommunication  if  he  did  not 
comply.^  The  third  letter  was  written  by 
the  pope  on  the  following  occasion.  In  the 
council  held  at  Limoges,  in  1031,  several 
Gallican  bishops  complained  of  the  pope's 
absolving  those  whom  they  had  excommu- 
nicated, upon  their  going  as  pilgrims  to 
Rome.  The  bishop  of  Puy,  in  particular, 
remonstrated  against  that  abuse,  as  entirely 
subverting  the  ecclesiastical  discipline,  told 
the  fathers  of  the  assembly,  that  a  few  years 
before  the  count  of  Auvergne,  upon  being 
excommunicated  by  the  bishop  for  dismissing 
his  lawful  wife  and  marrying  another,  had 
gone  to  Rome,  and  there  obtained  a  general 
absolution  of  the  pope,  as  he  did  not  know 
that  the  count  was  excommunicated.  He 
added,  that  the  bishop  having  complained 
thereof  to  the  pope,  his  holiness  had  answer- 
ed, that  he  was  not  to  blame,  but  the  bishop, 
who  had  not  informed  him  that  the  count 
was  excommunicated,  as  he  might,  and 
ought  to  have  done;  that  if  he  had  known 
it,  far  from  taking  off  the  excommunication, 
he  would  have  confirmed  it,  as  he.  thought 
it  his  duty  to  second  his  brethren,  and  not  to 
contradict  or  oppose  them;  that  it  was  far 
from  his  thoughts  to  give  room  to  any  schism 
or  misunderstanding  between  him  and  them, 
and  that  he  therefore  revoked  and  annulled 
the  absolution  obtained  by  surprise,  and  de- 
sired them  to  let  the  person,  whom  he  had 
thus  absolved,  know,  that  instead  of  his  ab- 
solution and  blessing,  his  curse  should  attend 
him  till  he  satisfied  his  bishop,  and  by  him 
was  absolved.  Another  case  was  related  of 
the  same  nature,  said  to  have  happened  in 
the  diocese  of  Angoulesme,  where  a  person, 
upon  being  refused  absolution  by  his  bishop, 
delivered  a  letter  to  him  from  the  pope,  re- 


■  Coiicil.  torn.  ix. 


3  Dach.  Spicile  g.  torn.  ii. 


quiring  him  to  absolve  the  offender  upon  his 
performing  the  penance  enjoined  him  at 
Rome.  But  to  that  letter  the  bishop  paid 
no  kind  of  regard,  telling  the  person  who 
brought  it,  that  he  should  continue  under 
the  excommunication  which  he  had  in- 
curred, till  he  had  fulfilled  the  penance,  that 
he  or  his  archdeacon  should,  by  his  order, 
impose  on  him.  Upon  these  two  instances 
the  council  decreed,  that  the  pope  might 
lessen  the  penance  imposed  by  a  bishop,  or 
add  to  it,  in  order  to  proportion  it  to  the 
crime,  and  likewise  impose  penances  oa 
those  who  were  sent  by  their  bishops  to  ob- 
tain forgiveness  at  Rome ;  but  could  not  pre- 
scribe penance,  or  give  absolution  to  any 
person  without  the  knowledge  of  his  bishop, 
it  being  the  duty  of  the  vicar  of  St.  Peter  to 
maintain  the  other  bishops  in  the  possession 
of  their  just  rights,  that  they  may  be  able  to 
support  him  in  the  possession  of  his.' 

This  pope  is  greatly  commended  by  Pla- 
tina,  Onuphrius,  Ciaconius,  Slc,  and  by 
most  of  the  modern  writers.  But  I  find  no 
such  commendations  bestowed  on  him  by 
the  contemporary  historians ;  nay  Glaber, 
who  lived  in  those  days,  says,  in  express 
terms,  that  he  purchased  the  see  with  money, 
as  has  been  already  observed,  Martinus 
Polonus  tells  us,  that  the  pope  caused  all 
who  had  robbed  the  pilgrims  coming  to 
Rome,  to  be  publicly  executed  ;  that  the  car- 
dinal (who  perhaps  shared  the  plunder  with 
the  robbers)  provoked  at  his  putting  so  many 
persons  to  death,  let  him  know  in  his  last 
illness,  that  they  did  not  think  one  who  had 
shed  so  much  Christian  blood  worthy  of  a 
place,  after  his  death,  among  his  holy  pre- 
decessors in  the  church  of  the  prince  of  the 
apostles ;  that  thereupon  the  pope  begged 
his  body  might  be  laid  before  the  church 
door,  giving  them  leave  to  dispose  of  it  as 
they  pleased,  if  the  door,  how  carefully 
soever  guarded,  and  locked,  and  barred,  did 
not  fly  open  of  itself;  and  that  his  body  being 
placed  after  his  death  as  he  had  directed,  a 
violent  wind  arose  that  moment,  and  blew 
the  door  to  the  other  end  of  the  church. 
This  story  is  gravely  related  by  Martinus 
Polonus,  and  after  him  by  Palatius.^ 


'  Concil.  torn.  ix.  p.  908. 

^  Mart.  Polon.  in  Greg.  vi.  et  Palat.  in  Joan.  six. 


340 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Benedict  IX. 


Benedict  IX.  chosen.     Visits  the  emperor; — [Year  of  Christ,  1037.]     Is  driven  from  the  see  and  restored  by 
the  emperor; — [Year  of  Christ,  1038.]     The  pope  absolves  Casimir,  a  monk  and  deacon,  from  his  vows. 


BENEDICT  IX.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  FORTY-FIFTH  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[RoMANUs  Argyrus,  Emperor  of  the  East. — Conrad  II.,  Emperor  of  the  West.l 


[Year  of  Christ,  1033.]  John  was  suc- 
ceeded by  Theophylact,  nephew  to  the  two 
preceding  popes,  and  at  the  time  of  his 
election  about  eighteen  years  old.  But  as 
his  father  Alberic,  count  of  Tusculum, 
spared  no  money,  his  party  prevailed,  and 
Benedict  IX.,  for  he  took  that  name,  was 
ordained,  as  we  read  in  the  best  writers,  in 
the  month  of  November,  1033.  Desiderius, 
afterwards  pope  under  the  name  of  Victor 
III.,  speaking  of  Benedict,  styles  him  the 
successor  of  Simon  the  sorcerer,  and  not  of 
Simon  the  apostle,  and  paints  him  as  one 
abandoned  to  all  manner  of  vice.' 

In  the  year  1037,  the  emperor  Conrad 
coming  into  Italy  to  quell  a  rebellion  raised 
there  by  the  archbishop  of  Milan  and  other 
discontented  lords,  the  pope  went  to  pay 
him  a  visit  at  Cremona,  and  being  received 
by  him  with  all  possible  marks  of  respect, 
he  deposed  and  excommunicated  the  arch- 
bishop of  Milan.  But  the  "archbishop,  pay- 
ing no  sort  of  regard  to  that  sentence,  kept 
possession  of  the  see  to  the  hour  of  his 
death. ^  From  Cremona  the  pope  returned 
to  Rome,  but  the  Romans,  shocked  at  his 
debaucheries,  and  the  wicked  life  he  pub- 
licly led,  drove  him  soon  after  from  the  see. 
He  fled  to  the  emperor,  who  espousing  his 
cause,  marched  straight  to  Rome,  as  he  was 
then  in  Lombardy,  and,  entering  the  city 
without  opposition,  restored  the  pope,  visited 
the  holy  places  there,  and  then  returned  to 
Lombardy  without  hearkening  to  the  just 
complaints  brought  by  the  Romans  against 
him.^  Glaber  tells  us,  that  the  pope  was 
several  times  driven  from  his  see,  but  that  he 
always  recovered  it  by  some  means  or  other, 
though  universally  hated  and  despised.'' 

Benedict  IX.  is  the  first  pope  that  released 
a  monk  who  had  made  his  solemn  profes- 
sion, from  his  vows ;  and  he  did  it  on  the 
following  occasion  :  Misco,  the  second  of 
that  name,  king  of  Poland,  dying  in  1034, 
and  dreadful  disturbances  arising  after  his 
death  in  that  kingdom,  his  son  Casimir,  not 
caring  to  undertake  the  government  in  times 
of  such  confusion,  withdrew  first  to  Hun- 
gary, and  afterwards  to  France.  During 
his  stay  in  France  he  visited  the  famous 
monastery  of  Cluny,  and  being  there  taken 
with  the  conversation  and  exemplary  lives 
of  the  monks,  he  embraced  the  same  state 


•  Desid.  Dialog. !.  lii. 

»  Hermann.  Contract,  ad  ann.  1038. 

3  I,eo  Ostiens.  I.  li.  c.  169.    Glaber.  1.  iv.  c.  89. 

*  Idem  1.  ill.  c.  5. 


of  life,  and  exchanging  the  name  of  Casimir 
for  that  of  Charles,  made  his  profession 
among  them.  But,  in  the  mean  time  the 
Poles,  weary  of  the  anarchy  that  prevailed, 
and  the  disorders  attending  it,  resolved  to 
place  the  lawful  heir  on  the  throne,  as  the 
only  means  of  restoring  peace  to  the  king- 
dom. But  as  they  knew  not  where  he  was, 
nor  what  was  become  of  him,  they  applied 
to  the  queen,  his  mother,  who  had  fled  with 
him,  and  was  then  in  Germany,  and  being 
informed  by  her  that  he  had  embraced  a  mo- 
nastic life  in  the  monastery  of  Cluny,  they 
sent  thither  some  of  the  chief  lords  of  the 
kingdom  to  represent  to  him  the  deplorable 
condition  to  which  his  unhappy  subjects 
were  reduced,  and  entreat  him  to  return, 
and  by  taking  upon  him  the  government, 
which  he  alone  had  a  right  to,  put  an  end 
to  their  intestine  divisions.  The  deputies 
found,  upon  their  arrival  at  Cluny,  that 
Casimir  had  not  only  made  his  solemn 
profession,  but  had  been  ordained  deacon. 
However,  having  obtained  leave  of  the  holy 
abbot  Odilo  to  speak  to  him,  they  delivered 
their  message,  earnestly  entreating  him,  in 
the  name  of  the  whole  nation,  to  come  and 
redeem  them  from  the  calamities  with  which 
they  had  been  so  long  afflicted.  Casimir 
answered,  that  he  had  vowed  perpetual  obe- 
dience to  his  abbot,  and  therefore  could  not 
dispose  of  himself;  that  he  pitied  their  con- 
dition, and  wished  they  could  find  some 
other  person  to  rescue  them  from  the  mise- 
ries which  they  so  justly  complained  of;  but 
as  for  himself,  he  could  lend  them  no  other 
assistance  but  that  of  his  prayers,  without  a 
breach  of  his  vow,  which  he  was  determined 
religiously  to  observe  to  the  hour  of  his 
death.  Hereupon  the  deputies  applied  to 
the  abbot,  who,  thinking  it  exceeded  the 
limits  of  his  power  to  absolve  a  professed 
monk  from  his  vows,  referred  them  to  the 
pope.  They,  therefore,  undertook  a  journey 
to  Rome,  and  having  there  represented  to 
Benedict  the  distracted  state  of  the  nation, 
the  little  regard  that  was  paid  to  religion,  and 
the  many  enormities  that  were  daily  com- 
mitted in  the  different  parts  of  the  kingdom, 
for  want  of  a  lawful  governor  to  punish  the 
delinquents,  they  obtained  permission  of  his 
holiness  for  Casimir  to  exchange  the  cowl 
for  a  crown,  nay,  and  though  he  was  a  dea- 
con, to  marry.  As  nothing  was,  in  those 
days,  to  be  got  at  Rome  without  money,  the 
pope  granted  that  extraordinary  dispensa- 
tion, upon  condition  that  the  nobles  of  Po- 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


341 


Gregory  VI.] 

Benedict  driven  anew  from  the  see  and  restored  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  1044.]  Sells  the  pontificate  ; — [Year  of 
Christ,  1045.]  Gregory  VI.  raised  by  simony.  Gregory,  Silvester  and  Benedict  deposed  in  a  council: — 
[Year  of  Christ,  1046.] 


land  paid  yearly  a  penny  a  man  to  the  apos- 
tolic see,  sliaved  their  heads  after  the  manner 
of  the  monks,  and,  on  the  chief  festivals  of 
our  Savior,  and  the  Virgin  Mary,  wore  a 
linen  cloth  round  their  necks  in  the  shape 
of  a  priest's  stole.  With  these  terras  the 
deputies  readily  complied,  and  Casimir,  hav- 
ing upon  his  return  assembled  a  general 
diet,  sent  a  solemn  embassy  to  Rome  to 
thank  the  pope,  in  the  name  of  the  whole 
nation,  for  the  dispensation,  and  pay  him 
the  tribute.' 

There  were  in  this  pope's  time  two  very 
powerful  factions  in  Rome,  that  divided  the 
city  into  two  opposite  and  irreconcilable  par- 
ties. At  the  head  of  the  one  were  the  counts 
of  Tusculum,  and  at  that  of  the  other  the 
Roman  family  of  the  Ptolemies.  The  latter, 
no  longer  able  to  bear  with  the  daily  ra- 
pines, murders,  abominations  of  the  young 
pope,  stirred  up  the  Roman  people  against 


him,  and  having  got  the  better  of  the  Tus- 
culum party,  drove  Benedict  out  of  Rome, 
and  placed  John,  bishop  of  Sabina,  under 
the  name  of  Silvester  III.,  in  the  chair  in  his 
stead.  But  the  counts  of  Tusculum  pre- 
vailing again,  Silvester  was  driven  out,  in 
his  turn,  after  three  months,  and  Benedict 
restored.' 

The  pope,  though  powerfully  supported 
by  his  family,  resolved,  as  he  found  himself 
become,  by  his  enormous  wickedness,  a 
public  object  of  contempt  and  abhorrence, 
to  part  with  the  popedom,  that  he  might  the 
more  freely  indulge  himself  in  his  debauche- 
ries. He  accordingly  sold  it  to  John,  arch- 
priest  of  the  Roman  church,  said  by  pope 
Victor  III.  to  have  been  the  most  religious 
man,  at  that  time,  in  the  whole  body  of  the 
Roman  clergy .^  What  must  the  rest  of  the 
Roman  clergy  have  been,  if  a  simoniac  was 
the  most  religious  among  them! 


GREGORY  VI.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  FORTY-SIXTH  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[CoNSTANTiNK  MoNOMACHUS,  Emperor  of  the  East. — Henry  III.,  King  of  Germany. 1 


[Year  of  Christ,  1046.]  Benedict,  having 
consigned  the  pontifical  ensigns  to  John, 
called  by  some  Gratian,  betook  himself  to 
a  private  life,  rioting  without  restraint  or 
control  in  all  manner  of  debaucheries  ;  and 
John,  without  any  previous  election,  took 
possession  of  the  chair  he  had  purchased, 
under  the  name  of  Gregory  VI.  He  was 
a  native  of  Rome,  and  his  family  was  one 
of  the  most  powerful  and  opulent  then  in 
that  city.  Otto  Frisingensis,  who  wrote  in 
1158,  pretends  Gregory  to  have  paid  a  large 
sum  of  money  to  Benedict,  with  no  other 
view  but  to  induce  him  by  that  means  to 
quit  the  pontificate,  which  he  so  much  dis- 
graced, to  have  been  actuated  therein  by 
zeal,  and  not  by  ambition,  and  upon  the 
resignation  of  the  other  to  have  been  canoni- 
cally  chosen  by  the  Roman  people  and  the 
clergy.  That  writer  adds,  that  he  made  it 
his  study  to  reform  the  many  scandalous 
abuses  that  had  been  introduced,  or  connived 
at  by  his  wicked  predecessors ;  that  with  his 
discretion  and  prudence  he  restored  good 
order  in  the  city,  and  was  therefore  deser- 
vedly looked  upon  by  the  Romans  as  their 
deliverer.*  But  Hermannus  Contractus, 
Bonizo,  bishop  of  Sutri,  who  lived  at  this 
very  time  in  the  neighborhood  of  Rome, 
Victor  III.  and  Clement  II.,  the  immediate 
successor  of  Gregory,  speak  of  him  as  a  si 


moniac  intruder,  as  one  who  had  not  been 
raised  by  merit,  but  by  corruption  and  bri- 
bery to  the  see  of  St.  Peter. 

In  the  mean  time,  Henry  III.,  king  of 
Germany,  who  had  succeeded  his  father, 
Conrad,  in  that  kingdom  in  1039,  hearing 
of  the  dreadful  disorders  that  reigned  in 
Rome,  of  the  scandalous  lives  led  by  the 
popes,  and  the  entire  disregard  that  was 
shown  by  them,  as  well  as  their  clergy,  to 
all  religion  and  virtue,  resolved  to  go  in 
person,  and  inquire  upon  the  spot,  into  the 
conduct  of  the  popes,  and  the  state  of  the 
church.  He  accordingly  set  out  from  Ger- 
many in  1046,  and  arriving  at  Sutri,  assem- 
bled a  council  in  that  city,  at  which  were 
present  almost  all  the  bishops  of  Italy.  The 
king  invited  Gregory  to  preside  at  it;  and  he 
readily  complied  with  the  invitation,  flatter- 
ing himself  that  the  king,  by  desiring  him 
to  preside  at  a  council,  tacitly  acknowledged 
him  for  lawful  pope.  But  he  soon  found  that 
he  had  been  sent  for  only  to  clear  himself, 
if  he  could,  from  t-he  charge  brought  against 
him,  that  of  having  purchased  with  money 
the  pontifical  dignity.  He  owned  at  once 
what  he  could  not  deny,  the  infamous  bar- 
gain being  well  known  to  every  bishop  in 
the  council,  and  quitting  his  chair,  he  di- 
vested himself,  in  full  council,  of  the  ponti- 
fical ornaments,  gave  up  the  pastoral  staff. 


<  Joan.  Languin.  in  Hist.  Rerum  Polonic. 
<>  Otto  Frisingens.  1.  vi.  c.  25. 


«  Victor  III.  Dialog,  iii.    Leo  Ostiens.  1.  ii.  c.  80. 
>  Idem  ibid. 

2d2 


342 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Clement  II. 


Clement  II.  chosen.    Crowns  Henry  emperor,  and  his  wife  Agnes  empress.     Dispute  between  the  archbishops 
of  Ravenna  and  Milan; — [Year  of  Christ,  1047.]     The  pope  e.\communicate3  the  Beneventans.     He  dies. 


and  begging  forgiveness,  renounced  all 
claim  to  the  chair  of  St.  Peter.  By  the  same 
council  Benedict  IX.  and  Silvester  III.  were 
declared  usurpers,  simoniacs,  intruders,  and 
as  such  deposed,  and  forbidden,  on  pain  of 
excommunication,  ever  to  attempt  the  reco- 
very of  a  dignity,  of  which  they  had  shown 
themselves  unworthy  by  their  wicked  lives, 
as  well  as  by  the  means  they  had  employed 
to  attain  it.  Thus  Victor  III.,  who  lived  at 
this  time,  and  was  chosen  pope  nine  years 
after  this  council.'  Though  the  election  of 
Gregory  was  certainly  null,  he  is  reckoned 
in  all  the  catalogues  among  the  lawful  popes. 


for  no  other  reason  that  I  can  see,  but  be- 
cause the  next  Gregory  called  himself  the 
seventh  of  that  name,  and  speaking  of 
Gregory  VI.  gives  him  the  title  of  pope.  He 
held  the  see  two  years  and  eight  months. 
The  emperor,  on  his  return  to  Germany, 
took  Gregory  with  him ;  and  as  for  the  other 
two  pretenders  to  the  see,  Silvester  III.  was 
sent  back  to  his  bishopric,  but  Benedict  IX. 
kept  himself  concealed  so  long  as  the  empe- 
ror continued  in  Italy,  and  we  shall  see  him 
raising  new  disturbances  upon  the  death  of 
the  next  pope. 


CLEMENT  IL,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  FORTY-SEVENTH  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[Const ANTING  Monomachus,  Emperor  of  the  East. — Henry  III.,  Emperor  of  the  West.] 


[Year  of  Christ,  1046.]  The  see  being 
declared  vacant  by  the  resignation  of  Gregory 
and  the  deposition  of  the  other  two,  the  king 
and  the  bishops  of  the  council  repaired  to 
Rome,  in  order  to  choose  there,  jointly  with 
the  people  and  clergy,  a  pew  pope.  They 
met  on  Christmas  day,  1046,  in  the  church 
of  St.  Peter,  when  the  Romans  declaring, 
that  there  was  not  a  man  in  the  whole  Ro- 
man clergy  whom  they  could  recommend  as 
worthy  of  the  pontifical  dignity,  the  king 
named  Suiger,  bishop  of  Bamberg,  then  in 
his  retinue ;  and  he  was  upon  his  nomina- 
tion unanimously  chosen,  and  placed,  being 
already  a  bishop,  on  the  pontifical  throne.^ 
Papebroche  observes,  that  upon  his  elec- 
tion, he  did  not  resign  the  bishopric  of  Bam- 
berg. For  that  see  is  said  to  have  become, 
nine  months  after,  vacant  by  his  death.  He 
was  a  native  of  Saxony,  and  had  been  pre- 
ferred by  the  king  for  his  eminent  virtues  to 
the  see  of  Bamberg.  We  are  told  that  he 
declined  the  pontificate  as  long  as  he  could, 
but  was  in  the  end  forced  to  yield  to  the 
pressing  instances  of  the  king  and  the  peo- 
ple. Upon  his  installation  he  took  the  name 
of  Clement.3 

The  new  pope  upon  the  day  of  his  elec- 
tion crowned  Henry  emperor,  and  Agnes 
his  queen  empress,  and  walked,  in  solemn 
procession,  with  both,  from  the  church  of 
St.  Peter  to  the  Lateran  palace,  attended  by 
the  Roman  nobility  and  vast  crowds  of  peo- 
ple flocking  from  all  quarters  to  see  the  new 
pope  and  the  new  emperor.^ 

As  simony  prevailed,  almost  universally, 
all  over  the  West,  the  pope  assembled  a 
council  in  Rome  in  order  to  extirpate  so 


»  Victor  Dialog.  1.  iii. 

«  Victor  Dialog.  1.  iii.    Herman.  Contract. 

»  Lambert.  Schafnaburg.  ad  1048. 

'  Hermann.  Contract.  21,  et  Lambert,  ibid. 


common  an  evil ;  and  several  canons  were 
issued  against  all  who  should  sell  or  should 
purchase  any  ecclesiastical  dignity  whatever. 
In  this  council  a  warm  dispute  arose  between 
the  two  archbishops  of  Milan  and  Ravenna 
about  precedency,  both  claiming  the  privilege 
of  sitting  at  the  pope's  right  hand  in  the  ab- 
sence of  the  emperor,  and  at  his  left  when 
the  emperor  was  present.  This  important 
point  gave  occasion  to  a  long  debate ;  and 
the  pope,  after  hearing  both  sides,  gave  sen- 
tence in  favor  of  the  archbishop  of  Ravenna, 
ordering,  by  virtue  of  his  apostolic  authority, 
the  said  archbishop  always  to  sit  at  his  right 
hand,  unless  the  emperor  should  happen  to 
be  present,  and  in  that  case  to  sit  at  his  left.' 
The  emperor,  after  a  short  stay  at  Rome, 
went  from  thence  to  Beneventum,  but  the 
citizens  refusing  him  admittance  into  their 
city,  he  obliged  the  pope,  whom  he  had 
taken  with  him,  to  thunder  out  the  sentence 
of  excommunication  against  them.  But 
they,  in  defiance  of  all  his  anathemas,  kept 
their  gates  shut.^  From  Beneventum  the 
pope  repaired,  with  the  emperor,  to  Salerno, 
and  there  confirmed  the  translation  of  John, 
bishop  of  Pesto,  to  the  archiepiscopal  see  of 
that  city,  and  gave  him  the  pall.^  The  pope 
and  the  emperor  kept  their  Easter,  this  year 
1047,  at  Mantua,  and  went  from  thence  into 
Germany.  But  the  pope  must  have  stayed 
there  a  very  short  time,  as  we  are  assured 
by  the  most  credible  writers,  that  he  died  at 
Rome,  or  in  the  neighborhood  of  that  city, 
(in  Romanis  parlibus,  in  Romanis  finibus) 
on  the  9th  of  October  of  the  same  year,  after 
a  pontificate  of  nine  months  and  fifteen  days.* 
From  Rome  or  the  neighborhood  of  Rome 


'  Concil.  torn.  i.x.  p.  1257. 
2  Leo  Ostiens.  I.  ii.  c.  81.  "  Glaber,  I.  5. 

••  Herman.  Contract,  ad  ann.  1048.    Lambert.  Schaf. 
Structor.  Vit.  Sancti  Henrici. 


Leo  IX.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


343 


Clement  canonized  St.  Wiborada.    His  writings.    Damasus  appointed  pope  by  the  emperor.    Dies ;— [Year 
of  Christ,  1048.]     Leo  IX.  chosen  in  Germany. 


his  body  was  carried  to  Bamberg,  and  buried 
there  with  the  following  epitaph,  "  the  most 
reverend  father  in  Christ  and  lord  Suiger  of 
Mayendurf,  a  Saxon,  the  second  bishop  of 
Bamberg,  and  afterwards  high  pontiff,  died 
at  Rome  on  the  10th  of  October,  1047.'" 
He  IS  said,  in  his  epitaph,  to  have  died  on 
the  10th  of  October:  but  all  the  ancient 
writers  place  his  death  on  the  9th  of  that 
month.  His  being  buried  at  Bamberg  pro- 
bably led  Leo  Ostiensis  into  the  mistake  of 
his  dying  beyond  the  mountains. 
Clement,  while  in  Germany,  canonized 


St.  Wiborada,  virgin  and  martyr,  who  had 
been  martyred  by  the  Hungarians  in  925, 
that  is,  being  informed  of  the  holy  life  she 
had  led,  and  the  miracles  she  had  wrought, 
he  ordered  her  to  be  honored  as  a  saint,  and 
the  day  of  her  death  to  be  annually  solem- 
nized as  a  festival.' 

Of  this  pope  we  have  a  bull  dated  the  21st 
of  March,  1047,  confirming  the  translation 
of  John  bishop  of  Pesto,  to  the  archiepiscopal 
see  of  Salerno,  and  granting  him  leave  to 
wear  the  pall  on  the  sanle  day,  as  his  pre- 
decessors had  done. 


DAMASUS  II.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  FORTY-EIGHTH  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[Const ANTiNE  Monomachus,  Emperor  of  the  East. — Henry  III.,  Emperor  of  the  West.'\ 

bishop  of  Lyons,  to  the  emperor.  But  he, 
not  satisfied  with  rejecting  tlie  dignity  they 
offered  him,  privately  withdrew  from  court, 
and  absconded  till  another  was  named.  Ha- 
linard  used  yearly  to  visit  the  tombs  of  the 
apostles,  was  well  known  to  the  clergy  and 
people  of  Rome,  and  by  all  greatly  beloved 
and  esteemed  for  his  affability  and  the  sanc- 
tity of  his  life ;  and  it  was  upon  his  de- 
clining the  pontifical  dignity  that  the  empe- 
ror conferred  it  on  the  bishop  of  Brixen.* 
But  he  enjoyed  it  a  very  short  time,  only 
twenty-three  days,  and  died  at  Praeneste  on 
the  8th  of  August,  1048.  Cardinal  Benno 
supposes  him  to  have  died  of  a  poisonous 
draught  administered  to  him  by  Benedict. 
But  of  that  no  notice  is  taken  by  any  other 
contemporary  writer.  He  was  buried  in  the 
church  of  St.  Lawrence  without  the  walls 
of  the  city. 


[Year  of  Christ,  1047.]  The  see  being 
vacant  by  the  death  of  Clement,  the  Romans 
dispatched  immediately  messengers  into  Ger- 
many, to  acquaint  the  emperor  therewith, 
and  desire  him  to  appoint  him  a  successor. 
But  in  the  mean  time  Benedict  IX.,  who 
had  sold  and  resigned  the  pontificate  to  Gre- 
gory VI.,  as  has  been  said,  seized  on  it  the 
third  time,  being  supported  by  the  interest 
and  wealth  of  his  family,  and  held  it  eight 
months  and  ten  days,  that  is,  from  the  8th  of 
November  to  the  17lh  of  July  of  the  follow- 
ing year,  1048,  when  Popponius,  whom  the 
emperor  had  nominated  to  the  vacant  see, 
arriving  in  Rome,  he  thought  it  advisable 
to  quit  the  chair,  and  make  room  for  one 
who  had  so  powerful  a  protector.  Poppo- 
nius was  a  native  of  Bavaria,  and  bishop  of 
Brixen,  and  looked  upon  as  a  man  of  great 
learning  in  those  days,  and  no  less  piety .^ 
The  Romans  recommended  Halinard,  arch- 


LEO  IX.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  FORTY-NINTH  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[CoNSTANTiNE  MoNAMACHUs,  EmperoT  of  the  East — Henry  IIL,  Emperor  of  the  West.'] 


[Year  of  Christ,  1048.]  Upon  the  death 
of  Damasus  the  Romans  applied  anew  to 
the  emperor  for  one,  worthy  of  so  high  a 
post,  to  succeed  him.  As  they  named  no 
particular  person,  the  emperor,  upon  the  ar- 
rival of  their  deputies,  convened  at  Worms 
an  assembly  of  the  chief  lords  and  bishops 
of  his  kingdom,  and  leaving  to  them  the 


«  Papebroc.  Conat.  Chronic. 

3  Herman.  Contract.  Leo  Ostiena.  1.  ii.  c.  81. 


election  of  the  new  pope,  charged  them  to 
choose  one  capable  of  restoring  the  see  of 
St.  Peter  to  its  former  reputation  and  dignity. 
At  this  assembly  was  present,  among  the 
rest,  Bruno,  bishop  of  Toul ;  and  he  was 
chosen  at  once,  with  the  greatest  unanimity 
that  had  ever  been  seen  in  the  election  of  a 
pope.    But  he,  thinking  himself  unworthy 


>  Burchard,  1.  vi.  et  Mabill.  sec.  Benedict  V. 
0  Dacber.  Spicileg.  torn.  i. 


344 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Leo  IX. 


Leo  opposes  his  election.  Yields  upon  condition  of  his  being  freely  elected  by  the  clergy  and  the  people  of 
Rome.  Goes  to  Rome  in  the  habit  of  a  pilgrim  ;  is  chosen  there.  This  not  suggested  to  him  by  Hildebrand. 
His  family,  &c.     When  enthroned. 


of  SO  high  a  dignity,  and  incapable  of  per- 
forming the  duties  attending-  it,  long  with- 
stood the  pressing  instances  of  the  whole 
assembly,  and  of  the  emperor  himself.  But 
finding  that,  in  spite  of  his  tears,  his  entrea- 
ties, and  of  all  he  could  urge  against  his 
promotion,  they  persisted,  all  to  a  man,  in 
the  choice  they  had  made,  he  begged  they 
would  allow  him  at  least  three  days  to  de- 
liberate with  himself  concerning  an  affair  of 
the  utmost  importance  to  the  whole  church, 
as  well  as  to  him.  They  granted  him  his 
request;  and  he  spent  the  whole  time  that 
was  allowed  him  in  prayer,  abstaining  from 
all  manner  of  food.  At  last  he  made  a  public 
confession  of  his  sins,  flattering  himself  that 
he  should  thus  lessen  the  opinion  which 
they  entertained  of  his  sanctity.  But  such 
an  instance  of  humility  served  only  to 
heighten  the  esteem  in  which  they  held  him 
before;  and  he  was  in  the  end  forced  to 
comply.  But  it  was  upon  condition  that 
the  Roman  people  and  clergy  approved  and 
confirmed  his  election.  Thus  Wibert,  Bru- 
no's archdeacon,  and  an  eye  witness  of  what 
he  writes.'  St.  Bruno,  bishop  of  Segni,  who 
wrote  in  this  very  century,  entirely  agrees 
with  Wibert.  For  he  tells  us,  that  the  bishop 
of  Toul,  finding  the  emperor  and  the  assem- 
bly unalterable  in  their  resolution  of  placing 
hira  in  the  pontifical  chair,  yielded  at  last, 
upon  condition  that  he  was  freely  chosen  by 
the  people  and  clergy  of  Rome;  nay,  and 
that  he  acquainted  the  assembly  with  his 
intention  of  traveling  to  that  city  in  order 
to  be  chosen  there  anew,  adding,  that  he 
should  otherwise  look  upon  his  election  as 
nuU.^  The  same  writer  informs  us,  that  the 
condition  insisted  upon  by  the  holy  bishop, 
being  agreed  to  by  the  emperor  and  the  as- 
sembly, he  returned  to  his  bishopric,  cele- 
brated the  festival  of  Christmas  there,  and 
then  set  out  for  Rome  in  the  habit  of  a  pil- 
grim. The  Romans,  informed  by  the  depu- 
ties they  had  sent  to  the  emperor  of  what 
had  passed  in  the  assembly  of  Worms,  no 
sooner  heard  of  his  approach,  than  flocking 
out  to  meet  him,  they  received  him  with 
songs  of  joy  and  loud  acclamations.  He 
walked  barefoot  to  the  church  of  St.  Peter, 
and  having  there  prayed  some  time  at  the 
tomb  of  the  apostle,  he  informed  the  clergy 
and  people  of  his  having  been  nominated 
by  the  emperor  to  the  apostolic  see ;  but 
added,  that  as  by  the  canons  the  election  of 
a  bishop  was  null,  unless  made  by  the  peo- 
ple and  clergy,  they  were  still  at  full  liberty 
to  choose  or  reject  him,  begged  they  would 
declare  their  thoughts  freely,  and  assured 
them  that  it  was  against  his  own  will,  and 
in  compliance  with  the  emperor's,  that  he 
off'ered  to  take  upon  him  so  important  a 
charge  ;  and  that  if  he  was  not  unanimously 


'  Wibert.  in  Vit.  S.  Leon.  1.  ii.  c.  2. 
2  Bruno  in  Vit.  Leon.  IX. 


elected  by  them,  he  would  return  to  his  bi- 
shopric as  willingly  as  he  had  left  it  un- 
willingly. His  speech  was  received  with 
the  greatest  demonstrations  of  joy  by  the 
clergy  and  people,  and  he  was  by  them 
unanimously  proclaimed  sovereign  pontiff, 
and  placed  a  few  days  after  on  the  pontifical 
throne  under  the  name  of  Leo  IX.' 

Thus  Wibert,  an  eye  witness,  as  has  been 
said,  of  what  he  relates,  and  likewise  the 
bishop  of  Segni,  who  flourished  in  the  same 
century.  We  may  therefore  well  conclude, 
from  what  we  read  in  them,  that  Otto  Fri- 
singensis,  who  lived  about  the  middle  of  the 
following  century,  was  misinformed,  when 
he  wrote,  that  Leo  IX.  assuming  the  ponti- 
fical ornaments  upon  his  election  at  Worms, 
traveled  in  that  attire  through  France;  but 
that  having  visited,  on  his  journey,  the 
monastery  of  Cluny,  the  famous  Hildebrand, 
then  prior,  by  representing  to  him  how  de- 
grading it  was  for  the  sovereign  pontiff  to 
owe  his  dignity  to  a  layman,  prevailed  upon 
him  to  quit  the  pontifical  ensigns,  and  pursue 
his  journey  to  Rome  in  the  habit  of  a  pil- 
grim; that  the  monk,  taking  upon  him  to 
manage  his  election,  attended  him  to  Rome, 
and  there  got  him  unanimously  elected. 
This  account  contradicts  that  of  the  two 
more  unexceptionable  writers  quoted  above. 
For  Wibert,  who  was  then  at  Toul,  tells  us, 
that  Leo  set  out  from  thence  in  the  garb  of 
a  pilgrim,  and  takes  no  kind  of  notice  of  his 
passing  through  France,  of  his  visiting  the 
monastery  of  Cluny,  or  his  meeting  there 
with  Hildebrand ;  nay,  the  bishop  of  Segni 
says  in  express  terms,  that  Hildebrand  was 
present  at  the  assembly  or  diet  of  Worms, 
and  that  Leo  took  him  from  thence  to  Toul, 
and  from  Toul  to  Rome.^ 

Leo  was  descended  of  an  illustrious  family, 
and  nearly  related  to  the  emperor.  He  was 
brought  up  under  Berthold,  bishop  of  Toul, 
and  Heriman,  who  succeeded  Berthold  in 
that  see.  He  was  ordained  deacon  in  1025, 
and  bishop  of  Toul  on  the  9th  of  September 
of  the  following  year.^  Ordericus  supposes 
him  to  have  been  preferred  by  his  predecessor 
Damasus  to  the  dignity  of  cardinal.'*  But 
of  that  preferment  no  notice  is  taken  by  the 
contemporary  writer  of  his  life.  From 
Worms,  where  he  was  elected  by  the  lords 
and  bishops  of  Germany,  he  returned  to 
Toul,  and  setting  out  from  thence  on  the 
27th  of  December,  1048,  he  arrived  at  Rome 
on  the  2d  of  the  following  February,  was 
unanimously  elected  thesameday,andon  the 
12th  of  that  month  enthroned,  or  placed  with 
great  solemnity  on  the  pontifical  throne,  a 
ceremony  that  was  always  performed  on  a 
Sunday;  and  in  1049  the  12th  of  February 
fell  on  a  Sunday. 

The  first  thing  we  find  recorded  of  this 


»  Bruno  in  Vit.  Leon.  IX. 
3  Wibert.  in  ejus  Vit. 


2  Idem  ibid. 

<  Orderic.  1.  ii.  p.  372. 


Leo  IX.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


345 


The  pope  consecrates  the  abbot  of  Richenou.     Holds  a  council  at  Rome; — [Year  of  Christ,  1049.1     Goes  to 
France.     Holds  a  council  at  Pavia.     Council  of  Reims.     Some  bishops  accused  of  simony . 


pope  is  his  consecrating  Udalric,  abbot  of 
the  monastery  of  Richenou,  and  confirming 
all  the  privileges  that  his  predecessors  had 
granted  to  that  monastery.  This  bull  is 
dated  at  Rome  the  26th  of  March,  which  in 
1049  was  Easter-day;  whence  it  is  plain 
that  he  did  not  celebrate  his  Easter,  as  we 
read  in  some  writers,  in  the  monastery  of 
Monte  Cassino. 

Leo,  impatient  to  redress  the  many  scan- 
dalous abuses  that  prevailed  in  the  church, 
more  especially  to  extirpate  the  vice  of 
simony,  that  had  almost  every  where  taken 
deep  root,  assembled  a  council  at  Rome  the 
second  week  after  Easter,  at  which  were 
present  all  the  Italian,  and  the  greater  part 
of  the  Galilean  bishops,  with  Halinard  arch- 
bishop of  Lyons.  By  this  council  all  simo- 
niacal  bargains  were  forbidden  on  pain  of 
excommunication  and  deposition  ;  some  bi- 
shops convicted  of  simony  were  deposed, 
and  it  was  ordained,  that  they,  who  had  re- 
ceived ordination  at  the  hands  of  a  simoniacal 
bishop,  should  perform  no  ecclesiastical 
functions  till  they  had  performed  a  forty 
days'  penance.  The  pope  was  for  having 
all  simoniacal  ordinations  declared  null ;  but 
he  was  therein  opposed  by  the  major  part 
of  the  bishops,  remonstrating,  that  if  such  a 
decree  should  take  place,  scarce  any  would 
be  found  in  some  dioceses  capable  of  per- 
forming the  sacerdotal  or  episcopal  functions. 
By  the  same  council  it  was  decreed,  that  all 
Christians  should  pay  tythes,  the  very  name 
of  tylhes  being  unheard  of  in  Apulia,  and  in 
several  other  places;  some  marriages  within 
the  forbidden  degrees  were  annulled,  and 
the  parties,  though  persons  of  distinction, 
separated  ;  clerks,  who,  apostatizing  from 
the  church,  had  joined  in  communion  with 
heretics,  were  allowed  to  keep  their  former 
ranks  upon  their  return  to  the  church,  but 
debarred  from  ever  rising  to  a  higher  degree. 
Several  other  canons  were  issued  by  this 
council,  all  calculated  to  correct  and  reform 
the  licentious  lives  of  the  laity  as  well  as  the 
clergy.'  Wibert  writes,  that  the  bishop  of 
Sutri,  accused  in  this  council  of  simony, 
produced  several  false  witnesses  to  confute 
that  charge,  but  that  while  he  himself  was 
upon  the  point  of  taking  the  fol.se  oath,  that 
his  witnesses  had  taken,  he  suddenly  dropt 
down,  and  being  carried  out  of  the  council 
expired  soon  after.2 

The  council  ended  about  the  12th  of  April 
of  the  present  year;  and  the  pope,  having 
first  obtained  leave  of  the  Romans,  says  the 
writer  of  his  life,  set  out  soon  after  for  France, 
in  order  to  consecrate  the  new-built  church 
of  St.  Remigius  at  Reims,  pursuant  to  the 
promise  he  had  made  to  the  abbot  Herimar, 
and  at  the  same  time  to  redress,  if  by  any 
means  he  could,  the  many  abuses  that  pre- 
vailed in  most  of  the  churches  of  that  king- 

'  Concil.  tom.  Ix.  p.  1098.  Wibert.  in  Vit.  Leon.  c.  4. 
3  Idem  ibid. 

Vol.  II.— 44 


dom.  On  his  arrival  at  Pavia,  he  there 
assembleda  council  in  Whitsun-week,  which 
festival  fell  this  year  on  the  14th  of  May. 
The  council  consisted  of  the  neighbouring 
bishops,  and  those,  who  attended  the  pope. 
But  none  of  the  acts  of  that  assembly  have 
been  transmitted  to  us.  From  Pavia,  the 
pope  went  first  to  pay  the  emperor  a  visit 
in  Saxony,  celebrated  with  him  the  festival 
of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul  at  Cologne,  and 
from  thence  repairing  to  Toul,  wrote  to  the 
Galilean  bishops  and  abbots,  requiring  them 
to  meet  him  at  Reims,  where  he  intended  to 
hold  a  council  on  the  1st  of  October. 

The  pope  arrived  at  Reims  in  the  latter 
end  of  September,  attended  by  the  arch- 
bishops of  Treves,  of  Lyons,  of  Besan9on, 
and  the  bishop  of  Porto,  and  having  conse- 
crated with  great  solemnity  the  new  church 
of  St.  Remigius,  and  translated  thither  the 
body  of  the  saint,  he  appointed  the  council 
to  meet  there  the  next  day,  the  1st  of  October. 
It  was  composed  of  four  archbishops,  of  fif- 
teen bishops,  among  whom  was  an  English 
bishop  named  Dudocus,  sent  by  Edward  the 
Confessor,  and  of  a  great  number  of  abbots 
and  other  ecclesiastics  of  all  ranks.  As  a 
dispute  arose  at  their  first  meeting,  between 
the  archbishops  of  Treves  and  Reims,  about 
precedency,  the  pope,  leaving  that  contro- 
versy to  be  settled  at  a  more  proper  season, 
caused  the  seats  of  the  bishops  to  be  placed 
in  a  circle,  and  his  own  in  the  middle.  When 
they  were  all  thus  seated,  Peter,  deacon  of 
the  Roman  church,  rising  up,  told  them,  in 
the  pope's  name,  that  his  holiness  had  as- 
sembled them,  in  order  to  advise  with  them 
about  the  most  effectual  means  of  suppress- 
ing the  many  abuses  that  prevailed  in  their 
churches;  that  in  many  places  the  church 
lands  had  been  usurped,  and  were  held  by 
laymen  ;  that  simony  was  publicly  practised, 
and  both  abbeys  and  bishoprics  publicly  sold  ; 
that  incestuous  marriages  were  contracted 
without  any  regard  to  the  canons  strictly 
forbidding  them,  as  if  no  such  canons  had 
ever  been  issued  ;  that  monks,  apostatizing 
from  their  order,  returned  with  impunity  to 
the  world,  which  they  had  solemnly  re- 
nounced ;  that  clerks,  neglecting  the  functions 
oftheir  office,  and  abandoningtheirchurches, 
bore  arms  and  served  in  war,  &-c. ;  and  that 
it  was  to  redress  these  abuses  that  his  holi- 
ness was  come  into  France,  and  had  called 
them  together.  In  the  next  place,  the  dea- 
con, addressing  himself  to  the  bishops,  or- 
dered them,  in  the  pope's  name,  and  on  pain 
of  excommunication,  to  declare  whether  they 
had  been  siraoniacally  ordained.  All  the 
bishops  but  four,  namely,  those  of  Langres, 
Nevers,  Coutances,  and  Nantes,  readily  de- 
clared that  no  simony  had  intervened  in  their 
ordination.  The  examination  of  the  four 
bishops  was  put  oflT  to  another  day  ;  and  the 
abbots  being,  in  the  mean  time,  required  to 
make  the  same  declaration,  some  of  them. 


346 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Leo  IX. 


Crimes  laid  to  the  charge  of  the  bishop  of  Langres.  Withdraws  from  the  council,  and  is  deposed.  Other 
bishops  forgiven  or  cleared.  Canons  of  this  council.  The  body  of  St.  Remigius  translated.  Council  of 
Mentz.     Privileges  granted  to  some  churches. 


Avith  their  silence,  owned  themselves  guilty. 
In  this  session,  the  abbot  of  Poitiers,  arraign- 
ed by  the  bishop  of  Langres,  and  convicted 
of  incontinence,  was  deposed;  and  the  testi- 
monies of  the  fathers  in  favour  of  the  primacy 
of  the  apostolic  see  being  read,  they  were 
anathematized,  who  should  give  the  title 
of  universal  primate,  to  any  but  the  bishop 
of  Rome. 

In  the  next  session  the  bishop  of  Langres 
was  charged  with  simony,  with  having 
borne  arms,  committed  murder,  tyrannized 
over  his  clergy,  &c.  One  of  his  clerks  de- 
posed, that  he  had  taken  his  wife  from  him 
by  force,  while  he  was  yet  a  layman ;  that 
he  had  debauched  her,  and  afterwards  caused 
her  to  be  shut  up  in  a  monastery.  One  of 
his  priests  attested,  that  he  had  delivered 
him  up  to  some  ruffians,  who  had  used 
him  most  cruelly,  in  order  to  extort  from  him 
a  sum  of  money  by  that  means.  The  arch- 
bishops of  Lyons  and  Besan9on  undertook 
his  defence;  but  the  latter  was  suddenly 
struck  dumb,  and  the  former  could  not  help 
owning  that  the  bishop  had  exacted  money 
for  his  ordinations,  and  compelled  the  priests 
to  pay  him  the  sum  of  money  he  mentioned, 
but  denied  his  having  ever  put  him  to  the 
torture,  or  having  committed  any  of  the 
other  crimes  that  were  hid  to  his  charge. 
As  the  day  was  far  spent,  the  pope  caused 
the  canons  forbidding  simony  to  be  read,  and 
put  off  the  trial  of  the  other  bishops  charged 
with  that  crime  to  the  next  session. 

In  the  mean  time  the  bishop  of  Langres 
privately  withdrew,  and  not  appearing  after 
he  had  been  thrice  summoned,  was  deposed 
in  the  third  session,  and  declared  incapable 
of  ever  performing  any  ecclesiastical  function 
whatever.  In  the  same  session,  the  bishop 
of  Nevers  owned,  that  his  relations  had  paid 
a  considerable  sum  of  money  for  that  bi- 
shopric, but  unknown  to  him;  that  he  had 
not  lived  up  to  the  purity  that  was  required 
of  one  in  his  station;  and  was  therefore  ready 
to  resign  a  dignity  of  which  he  thought  him- 
self altogether  unworthy.  When  he  had 
done  speaking,  he  laid  down  his  crosier  at 
the  pope's  feet,  and  began  to  divest  himself 
of  his  episcopal  ornaments.  But  the  pope, 
touched  with  compassion,  stopped  him,  and 
upon  his  taking  a  solemn  oath  that  the  bar- 
gain was  made  and  the  money  paid  without 
his  knowledge,  he  restored  to  him  his  crosier, 
and  confirmed  him  in  his  dignity,  with  full 
power  to  exercise  all  episcopal  functions. 
The  bishop  of  Constance  owned  that  his 
brother  had  purchased  his  bishopric  for  him ; 
but  as  he  declared  upon  oath  that  it  was 
done  without  his  privity,  nay,  that  he  op- 
posed his  ordination  to  the  utmost  of  his 
power  as  soon  as  he  was  informed  of  it,  he 
was  not  only  cleared  from  all  simony,  but 
commended  by  the  pope  and  the  council. 
The  bishop  of  Nantes  had  succeeded  his 


father  in  that  see,  and  he  ingenuously  owned 
that  it  was  not  without  money  he  had  been 
allowed  to  succeed  him.  He  was,  therefore, 
divested  of  the  episcopal  dignity,  but  suf- 
fered, in  consideration  of  his  voluntary  con- 
fession, to  retain  his  priesthood,  and  perform 
the  functions  of  a  priest.  The  archbishop 
of  Reims  was  likewise  arraigned  of  simony  ; 
but  the  examining  of  his  cause  was  referred 
to  a  council  to  be  held  at  Rome  about  the 
middle  of  the  ensuing  April.  In  this  session 
the  bishops,  who  had  been  summoned  to 
the  council,  and  had  neither  appeared  nor 
excused,  in  writing,  their  non-appearance, 
were  suspended  from  all  ecclesiastical  func- 
tions whatever,  the  abbot  of  St.  Medard  was 
excommunicated  for  privately  withdrawing 
from  the  council,  and  the  same  sentence 
was  pronounced  against  the  archbishop  of 
St.  James  in  Galicia  for  styling  himself 
apostolical,  a  title  which  none  but  the  pope 
had  a  right  to. 

The  twelve  canons  issued  by  this  council 
were  chiefly  calculated  to  banish  simony  out 
of  the  church ;  to  restrain  the  clergy  from 
bearing  arms  or  serving  in  war;  to  prevent 
marriages  within  the  forbidden  degrees ;  to 
restore  to  the  people  and  clergy  the  right  of 
choosing  their  own  pastors.  By  the  fifth 
canon  the  clergy  were  strictly  forbidden  to 
demand  or  receive  any  fee  or  reward  what- 
ever for  burying  the  dead,  for  visiting  the 
sick,  or  for  administering  baptism  and  the 
eucharist.' 

The  day  after  the  council  the  pope  assisted 
at  mass  in  the  church  of  St.  Remigius,  at- 
tended by  most  of  the  bishops,  and  the  ser- 
vice being  ended,  took  the  body  of  the  saint 
from  the  altar,  where  it  had  been  laid,  and 
carried  it  on  his  shoulders  to  the  place  that 
was  prepared  for  it  in  the  same  church. 

From  Reims  the  pope  returned  to  Ger- 
many, and  passing  through  Metz,  conse- 
crated the  church  of  St.  Arnulphus  in  that 
city.  On  his  arrival  at  Mentz  he  held  an- 
other council,  at  which  were  present  five 
archbishops,  and  about  forty  bishops.  The 
emperor  himself  assisted  at  this  council,  and 
with  him  the  chief  lords  and  princes  of  Ger- 
many. All  we  know  of  it  is,  that  ail  simon- 
iacal  bargains  or  contracts  were  forbidden 
on  pain  of  excommunication,  and  marriages 
of  priests  not  only  prohibited  but  declared 
null.  Wibert  writes,  that  Sibicho,  bishop  of 
Spire,  charged  in  this  council  with  adultery, 
denied  the  charge,  and  took  the  sacrament 
as  a  proof  of  his  innocence;  but  that  his 
mouth  was  suddenly  distorted,  and  so  re- 
mained to  the  hour  of  his  death.^ 

The  pope,  during  his  stay  in  Germany, 
ordered  divine  service  to  be  daily  performed 
at  the  altar  of  St.  Peter,  in  the  cathedral  of 


'  Ansel.  Itinerar.  apud   Lalbeum,  tom.  ix.    Concil. 
Joan.  Papien.  in  Spec.  Radulph  de  Dicet.  p.  475. 
3  Wibert.  c.  5. 


Leo  IX.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


347 


The  archbishop  of  Cologne  made  chancellor  of  the  Konian  church.  The  pope  returns  to  Rome,  visits  Monte 
Gargano,  Sec. ; — [Year  of  Christ,  1050.]  Council  of  Sipontum.  Gerard  of  Toul  canonized.  Some  account 
of  Uerengarius  and  his  doctrine.    The  doctrine  of  Paschasius. 


Cologne ;  and  to  distinguish  the  seven  priests 
whom  the  arciibishop  should  appoint  lo  per- 
form it,  he  granted  them  the  privilege  of 
wearing  sandals,  then  an  episcopal  orna- 
nament,  during  the  service.'  To  the  canons 
of  Bamberg  he  allowed  the  use  of  the  mitre 
on  the  chief  festivals,  and  on  the  anniver- 
sary of  the  emperor  St.  Henry,  the  founder 
of  that  church.*  The  same  mark  of  dis- 
tinction was  afterwards  granted  by  the  popes 
to  the  canons  of  other  churches,  who  enjoy 
it  to  this  day.  The  pope,  before  he  left 
Cologne,  appointed  Herman,  archbishop  of 
that  place,  chancellor  of  the  holy  apostolic  see ; 
and  he  thenceforth  constantly  signed  him- 
self S.  A.  S.  (that  is,  "sacree  apostolico; 
sedis")  "  Archicancellarius  et  Coloniensis 
Archiep."  That  was,  it  seems,  a  new  dig- 
nity, no  mention  being  any  where  made  of 
it  till  the  present  year,  1049,  Avhen  Leo  con- 
ferred it  upon  Herman  and  his  successors 
in  the  see  of  Cologne  for  ever.  ^ 

From  Mentz  the  pope  set  out,  soon  after 
the  breaking  up  of  the  council,  on  his  return 
to  Rome,  celebrated  the  festival  of  St. 
Clement,  and  kept  the  First  Sunday  in  Ad- 
vent, which  in  1049  fell  on  the  26th  of  No- 
vember, in  the  monastery  of  Richenou,  not 
far  from  the  city  of  Constance,  and  from 
thence  pursuing  his  journey  to  Rome,  was 
met  at  a  great  distance  from  the  city  by  the 
nobility  and  the  clergy,  and  attended  by 
them,  in  a  kind  of  triumph,  to  the  church 
of  St.  Peter,  and  from  thence  to  the  Lateran 
Palace.*  The  precise  time  of  his  arrival  at 
Rome  is  no  Avhere  mentioned.  But  he  must 
have  staid  there  a  very  short  time.  For  we 
find  him  at  Monte  Gargano,  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  following  year,  1050,  and  on 
Palm  Sunday  at  Monte  Cassino.  He  visited 
several  cities  in  those  parts,  restoring  every 
where  the  decayed  discipline,  and  inquiring 
upon  the  spot,  into  the  lives  led  by  the 
clergy.  At  Sipontum,  a  city  that  stood  at 
the  foot  of  Monte  Gargano,  but  is  no  more, 
he  held  a  council,  and  deposed  two  arch- 
bishops convicted  of  Simony  ;  which  is  all 
we  know  of  that  council.^  We  are  told  that 
a  Beneventum,  a  woman  who  for  fifteen 
years  had  been  confined  to  her  bed  by  ill- 
ness, was  suddenly  cured  by  drinking  the 
water  with  which  the  holy  pontiff  had 
washed  his  hands.^  During  his  stay  at 
Monte  Cassino  he  dined  with  the  monks  in 
th(>  common  refectory,  conformed  to  the  rules 
of  the  monastery,  and  would  suffer  no  par- 
ticular marks  of  distinction  to  be  sliown  him. 
Being  well  pleased  with  the  regular  and  ex- 
emplary lives  of  the  monks,  he  granted  to 
the  abbot  and  his  successors  the  privilege  of 

«  Wibert.  1.  ii.  c.  4. 

»  Vit  Sancli  Henriciapud  Surium  14  Julii. 
'  Cardinalis   Kaspon.  in   Basilic.  Lateran.     Wibert. 
ubi  sup. 
<  Wibert.  I.  ii.  c.  6.  Herman.  Contract,  ad  ann.  1050. 
*  Idem  ibid.  "  Idem  ibid. 


wearing,  on  the  great  festivals,  sandals. 
gloves,  and  the  dalmatic,  all  ensigns  of  the 
episcopal  dignity.' 

From  Sipontum  the  pope  returned  to 
Rome,  and  there  canonized,  in  a  council 
which  he  held  soon  after  Easter,  Gerard, 
bishop  of  Toul,  who  had  governed  that 
church  thirty-one  years,  and  died  in  994, 
with  the  reputation  of  a  great  saint ;  nay, 
and  had  lately  appeared  to  a  monk,  and  told 
him,  that  as  he  reigned  in  heaven  with  the 
saints,  he  ought  to  be  honored  upon  earth, 
as  a  saint.^ 

In  the  same  council  was  condemned  the 
doctrine  of  the  famous  Berengarius  con- 
cerning the  Eucharist,  contained  in  a  letter 
which  he  had  written  to  Lanfranc,  a  monk 
of  the  monastery  of  Bee,  in  Normandy,  and 
afterwards  archbishop  of  Canterbury.  Be- 
rengarius, of  whom  I  shall  have  frequent 
occasion  to  speak  in  the  sequel,  was  born  at 
Tours  about  the  beginning  of  the  tenth  cen- 
tury, studied  under  Fulbert,  bishop  of 
Chartres,  and  upon  his  death  returned  to 
Tours,  where  he  was  employed  to  teach  in 
the  public  school  of  St.  Martin.  In  that 
employment  he  acquitted  himself  so  well 
that  he  was  admitted  into  the  chapter,  and 
made  treasurer  of  that  church.  However, 
he  left  Tours,  history  does  not  inform  us  on 
what  account,  and  removed  to  Angers,  was 
preferred  by  Bruno,  called  also  Eusebius, 
bishop  of  the  place,  to  the  dignity  of  arch- 
deacon of  that  church.  It  was  there,  and 
about  the  year  1047,  that  he  first  began  to 
teach  his  doctrine  concerning  the  Eucharist, 
namely,  that  Christ  was  not  really  but  only 
figuratively  present  in  that  sacrament;  or 
that  it  was  not  the  real  body  and  blood  of 
our  Lord,  but  only  a  type  or  figure  of  his 
body  and  blood.  Two  of  the  miost  learned 
writers  of  the  preceding  century  had  handled 
this  subject  before  him,  and  maintained 
quite  contrary  opinions  concerning  it, 
namely,  Paschasius  Radbertus,  a  monk  of 
Corby,  and  the  famous  Johannes  Scotus. 

In  the  year  831  Paschasius  wrote  a  trea- 
tise "  upon  the  Sacrament  of  the  Body  and 
Blood  of  our  Lord,"  for  the  instruction  of 
the  Saxon  youth,  who  had  been  late  con- 
verted to  the  faith,  and  were  educated  in  the 
new  monastery  of  Corby  in  Saxony.  That 
treatise  he  afterwards  revised,  and  sent  it 
improved  with  additions  to  Charles  the  Bald, 
of  France,  when  he  was  abbot  of  Old  Corby, 
and  consequently  after  the  year  844,  the  year 
in  which  he  was  made  abbot.  In  that  piece 
he  plainly  maintains  the  real  presence,  and 
what  lias  been  since  called  transubstantia- 
tion,  as  appears  from  the  following  words  ; 
"  though  there  be  still  the  figure  of  bread 
and  wine,  yet  we  are  to  believe,  that  after 
consecration  nothing  remains  but  the  body 

»  Wibert.  1.  ii.  c  6. 

a  Mabill.  aec  v.  Benedict,  p.  194. 


348 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Leo  IX. 


The  doctrine  of  Johannes  Scotus.    His  treatise  on  the  eucharist.     Letter  of  Berengarius  to  Lanfranc. 


and  blood  of  Christ  our  Lord,  and  he  there- 
fore said,  'this  is  my  flesh  for  the  life  of  the 
world;'  and  to  say  what  is  still  more  won- 
derful, no  other  flesh  than  that  which  was 
born  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  which  suff"ered  on 
the  cross,  and  rose  from  the  grave.  This 
the  whole  world  holds  and  confesses,  and 
no  man  openly  contradicts." 

On  the  other  hand,  Johannes  Scotus,  so 
called  because  a  native  of  Scotland  or  Ire- 
land, that  name  being  then  common  to  those 
of  both  nations,  held  the  quite  contrary 
opinion.  He  came  into  France  about  the 
beginning  of  the  reign  of  Charles  the  Bald, 
that  is,  about  the  year  829,  and  having  soon 
gained  great  reputation  there  by  his  erudition 
and  learning,  he  was  distinguished  with  an 
honorable  place  in  the  university  of  Paris, 
and  consulted  by  the  king  concerning  the 
eucharist.  For  it  was  by  the  king's  express 
order  that  he  wrote  the  treatise  "  of  the  Body 
and  Blood  of  our  Lord,"  wherein  he  as 
plainly  impugned  the  real  presence,  as  the 
other  maintained  it,  declaring,  that  "the 
body  of  our  Lord  is  by  the  faithful  received 
figuratively,  mystically,  sacramentally,  spi- 
ritually, and  not  really  or  corporally."  That 
treatise  he  published  under  the  feigned  name 
of  Bertram,  which  induced  Sigebert  and 
Trithemius  to  ascribe  it  to  Ratram,  a  monk 
of  Corby,  who  flourished*  at  this  time,  and 
wrote,  by  order  of  Charles  the  Bald,  two 
books  upon  predestination.  For  in  the  dis- 
putes that  arose  in  after  days  about  the  eu- 
charist, the  treatise  in  question  is  constantly 
quoted  as  the  work,  not  of  Bertram  or  Ra- 
tram, but  of  Scotus,  and  no  mention  is  ever 
made  of  any  writer  upon  that  subject  under 
either  of  those  names.  Scotus  having  taught 
some  doctrines  in  France  displeasing  to 
Rome,  pope  Nicholas  complained  of  him  to 
the  king  ;  and  he  thereupon  left  France,  and 
came  into  England  in  the  reign  of  king  Al- 
fred. Being  employed  here  to  instruct  the 
youth,  it  is  said  that  at  Malmsbury  the  boys 
committed  to  his  care  stabbed  him  to  death 
with  their  penknives.  Thus  William  of 
Malmsbury.'  But  he  speaks  doubtfully  of 
what  he  relates,  as  if  it  had  no  better  foun- 
dation than  a  report  or  tradition ;  "  ut  fertur," 
says  he,  and  all  the  rest  have  copied  the 
story  from  him. 

That  Christ  is  present  in  the  eucharist 
was  the  ancient  doctrine  and  belief  of  the 
catholic  church.  But  as  to  the  manner  of 
his  presence,  Paschasius  was  the  first  who 
explained  it  in  the  terms  which  I  have  men- 
tioned above,  as  is  owned  by  the  learned 
Sirmundus,  and  many  other  Roman  catholic 
writers.^  Till  that  monk's  time,  all  had  un- 
derstood our  Savior  calling  the  elements  of 
bread  and  wine  his  body  and  blood,  as  they 
had  understood  him  calling  himself  the 
shepherd,  the  vine,  the  way,  the  truth,  the 

«  Malmsb.  de  reg.  1.  ii.  c.  4. 

»  See  Usher's  Answerto  the  Jesuit's  Challenge,  p.  74. 


bread  that  came  from  heaven,  8cc.,  that  is, 
in  a  figurative  sense,  as  has  been  proved  by 
many  protestant  writers  with  innumerable 
passages  out  of  the  fathers.  This  new  doc- 
trine gave  great  ofi'ence  to  the  Gallican 
church;  and  it  was  on  that  occasion  that 
Charles  the  Bald  put  the  following  question 
to  Scotus,  and  desired  him  to  solve  it: 
"Whether  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  be 
mysteriously  received  by  the  faithful  in  the 
eucharist,  or  in  truth,  and  whether  it  be  the 
same  body  that  was  born  of  the  Virgin 
Mary,  that  suff'ered  on  the  cross,  that  rose 
from  the  dead,  ascended  into  heaven,  and 
sits  at  the  right  hand  of  the  Father?"  In 
answer  to  that  question  Scotus  wrote  his 
treatise  "  on  the  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ," 
wherein  he  maintained  the  bread  and  the 
wine  in  the  eucharist  to  be  only  the  sign, 
figure,  type,  or  image  of  Christ's  body  and 
blood.  Scotus  had  his  followers,  and  so  had 
Paschasius;  and  both  pleaded  antiquity  and 
the  authority  of  the  fathers,  plainly  establish- 
ing the  reality  of  Christ's  presence,  accord- 
ing to  one  party,  and  plainly  denying  it  ac- 
cording to  the  other.  However,  the  opinion 
of  Paschasius,  as  vesting  in  the  priesthood 
a  most  extraordinary  power,  that  of  "  making 
the  God  that  made  them,"  prevailed  in  the 
end.  For  when  Berengarius  revived,  about 
two  hundred  years  after,  the  opinion  of  Sco- 
tus, it  was  combatted  as  a  new  doctrine  by 
almost  all  men  of  any  learning  or  know- 
ledge in  France  and  Italy.  Among  these 
Adelman  of  Liege,  who  had  been  his  school- 
fellow, and  was  afterwards  preferred  for  his 
learning  to  the  see  of  Brescia,  no  sooner 
heard  of  his  holding  and  propagating  an 
opinion,  repugnant,  as  he  said,  to  the  belief 
of  the  church,  than  he  wrote  a  long  letter 
to  him,  exhorting  him  to  walk  in  the  beaten 
path,  and  not  disturb,  with  new  opinions, 
the  peace  of  the  church;  that  is,  blindly  to 
believe  what  others  believed,  and  sacrifice 
truth  to  the  peace  of  the  church.  In  the 
same  letter  he  undertook  to  prove,  that  in 
the  eucharist  Christ  was  truly  and  substan- 
tially present.'  Many  others,  and  some  of 
them  the  ablest  men  of  that  age,  engaged  in 
the  same  dispute,  all  declaring  for  the  real 
and  corporeal  presence  of  Christ  in  the  sa- 
crament, a  mystery,  they  said,  which  all 
were  to  believe,  though  none  could  explain 
it.  Among  the  rest  Lanfranc,  who  taught 
then  in  the  public  schools  at  Bee  in  Nor- 
mandy, censured  the  opinion,  denying  or 
questioning  the  reality  of  Christ's  body  in 
the  eucharist,  as  repugnant  to  the  belief  of 
the  church  and  the  fathers.  Of  this  Berenga- 
rius was  no  sooner  informed,  than  he  wrote 
to  Lanfranc  the  following  letter.  "  My 
brother — You  hold  as  heretical  the  senti- 
ments of  Johannes  Scotus  concerning  the 
sacrament  of  the  altar,  as  disagreeing  with 
those  of  Paschasius,  which  you  receive.   If 

>  Bibliothec.  Patrum,  torn,  xviii. 


Leo  IX.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


349 


Berengarius' letter  to  Lanfranc  sent  to  Rome, and  the  doctrine  it  contained  condemned  there,  and  in  Nor- 
mandy.    Council  of  Vercelli  condemns  the  doctrine  of  Berengarius.     Anelin's  letter  to  Berengarius. 


thai  be  true,  you  have,  ray  brother,  decided 
too  hastily,  and  acted  in  a  manner  unworthy 
of  a  man  of  your  lalenis.  You  have  not 
studied  the  Holy  Scripture  with  those  who 
are  best  versed  in  il.  I  should  therefore  be 
glad,  unlearned  as  I  am,  to  reason  witii  you 
upon  that  subject  in  the  presence  of  such 
judges  or  hearers  as  you  shall  think  fit. 
Till  that  happens  despise  not  what  I  say, 
namely,  that  if  you  hold  John,  whose  senti- 
ments concerning  the  eucharist  I  adopt,  for 
a  heretic,  you  must  likewise  hold  St.  Am- 
brose, St.  Jerom,  and  St.  Austin  for  heretics, 
not  to  mention  the  rest  of  the  fathers." 

The  messenger,  whom  Berengarius  sent 
with  this  letter,  not  finding  Lanfranc  in 
Normandy,  for  he  was  gone  to  Rome,  de- 
livered it  to  some  clerks,  who  read  it,  and 
gave  it  to  others  to  read.  And  thus  was  the 
doctrine  it  contained  made  public,  and  Lan- 
franc, to  whom  it  was  addressed,  suspected 
of  approving  the  sentiments  of  his  friend. 
The  letter  was  even  sent  to  Rome,  and  after 
being  perused  by  many  of  the  Roman  clergy, 
shown  to  the  pope,  who  ordered  it  to  be 
read  in  the  council  that  had  been  assembled 
for  the  canonization  of  the  bishop  Gerard, 
as  has  been  said  above,  and  was  still  silting. 
The  fathers  of  the  council,  upon  hearing  it 
read,  pronounced  at  once  the  doctrine  here- 
tical, repugnant  to  the  belief  of  the  whole 
catholic  church,  and  inconsistent  with  that 
of  the  Scriptures  and  fathers.  At  the  same 
time  the  sentence  of  excommunication  was 
thundered  out  against  Berengarius,  and  all 
who  should  countenance  either  him  orchis 
doctrine.  As  Lanfranc,  to  whom  the  letter 
was  written,  happened  to  be  present  at  the 
council,  the  pope  ordered  him  to  make  a 
public  confession  of  his  faith,  especially  with 
respect  to  the  article  of  the  eucharist,  that  no 
room  might  be  left  for  the  least  suspicion  of 
his  approving  the  same  doctrine.  Lanfranc, 
in  compliance  with  the  pope's  order,  rose 
up,  declared  his  belief,  and  explained  it  to 
the  full  satisfaction  of  the  pope  and  all  who 
were  present.  The  pope,  before  he  dis- 
missed the  bishops,  who  assisted  at  the 
council,  appointed  another  to  meet  at  Ver- 
celli in  the  month  of  September  of  the  pre- 
sent year  1050,  and  invited  them  to  it.' 
Thus  was  Berengarius,  with  the  utmost 
injustice,  condemned  without  being  heard, 
or  so  much  as  summoned  to  the  council 
that  condemned  him,  and  for  disapproving  a 
doctrine,  which,  how  generally  soever  re- 
ceived, had  not  yet  been  defined,  or  proposed 
by  the  churches  an  article  of  the  catholic 
faith. 

Berengarius,  informed  of  what  had  passed 
in  the  council  of  Rome,  withdrew  into  Nor- 
mandy, and  being  there  kindly  received  by 
Ansfred,  abbot  of  Preaux,  he   endeavored 


•  Lanfranc  in  Comment. 
Contract. 


contra  Bcreng.     Herman. 


to  gain  William,  duke  of  Normandy,  over 
to  his  party.  But  that  prince,  though  then 
but  a  youth,  suspending  liis  judgment, 
ordered  a  conference  to  be  held  at  Brienne, 
consisting  of  all  the  prelates  and  learned 
men  in  the  country  ;  and  by  all  the  new 
doctrine,  as  they  styled  it,  w:is,  with  one 
voice,  condemned  and  rejected.'  Berenga- 
rius therefore,  leaving  Normandy,  retired  to 
Chartres,  but  there  kept  his  opinion  to  him- 
self, telling  those  who  were  desirous  to 
know  it,  that  he  would  acquaint  them  with 
it  at  a  more  proper  season,  that  is,  when  he 
should  have  convinced  the  pope  of  the  truth 
of  his  doctrine,  which  he  did  not  despair  of 
effecting  at  the  council  appointed  to  meet  at 
Vercelli.  In  the  mean  time  he  wrote  a  letter, 
strongly  reflecting  on  the  conduct  of  the 
pope,  condemning  him  as  a  heretic,  and 
cutting  him  off  from  the  communion  of  the 
church,  without  hearing-  what  he  had  to 
offer  in  defence  of  his  doctrine.  This  letter 
has  not  reached  our  times,  but  Uurandus, 
abbot  of  Troarn,  who  read  it,  tells  us,  that 
the  Roman  church,  and  the  holy  pope  Leo, 
head  of  the  church  universal,  were  there 
taxed  with  heresy,  and  blasphemously  called 
heretics.* 

The  council  of  Vercelli  met  at  the  time 
appointed,  in  the  beginning  of  September  of 
the  present  year  1050.  It  was  composed  of 
bishops  from  different  countries,  especially 
from  France  and  Germany,  and  of  most  of 
the  learned  men  then  in  the  West.  The 
pope  presided  in  person,  and  such  of  the 
nobility,  as  chose  it,  were  allowed  to  be  pre- 
sent. To  this  council  Berengarius  had  been 
summoned  at  the  breaking  up  of  the  council 
of  Rome.  But  not  thinking  it  safe  for  him 
to  comply  with  that  summons,  he  appointed 
two  clerks,  his  disciples,  to  maintain  his  and 
their  doctrine  in  his  room.  Lanfranc,  who 
was  present,  informs  us,  in  a  very  few  words, 
of  what  was  transacted  in  that  assembly. 
The  book  of  Johannes  Scotus,  says  he,  was 
read  and  condemned,  and  the  two  clerks, 
sent  by  Berengarius  to  maintain  his  doctrine, 
confounded  and  silenced.'^  The  doctrine  of 
Berengarius  was  the  same  with  that  of 
Scotus,  and  the  council  by  condemning 
Scotus  condemned  Berengarius. 

The  opinion  of  Scotus  being  thus  con- 
demned, Anelin,  monk  of  St.  Evrou  in 
Normandy,  wrote  to  Berengarius,  with 
whom  he  had  formerly  had  a  conference 
about  the  doctrine  in  dispute,  exhorting  him 
to  condemn  an  opinion,  that  was  maintaineQ 
by  one  man,  but  condemned  by  two  full 
councils.  He  declared  in  that  letter,  that  he 
firmly  believed  the  bread  and  wine  in  the 
Eucharist  to  be  changed,  by  the  ministry  of 
the  priest,  into  the  real  body  and  real  blood 
of  our  Lord,  il  being  impossible,  he  said,  to 

'  Diirand.  Troarn,  de  Corpore  et  Sang.  Christi. 

«  Idem  llild.  part  ix.  p.  106. 

»  Lanf.  in  Comment,  contra  Bereng. 

2E 


350 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Leo  IX. 


Berengarius'  answer  to  Anelin's  letter.     His  doctrine  condemned  in  a  council  at  Paris, 
chasius  unknown  at  this  time  to  the  English  church. 


The  doctrine  of  Pas- 


understand  the  words  of  our  Savior  in  any 
other  sense,  than  that  he  held  in  his  hands 
and  gave  them  to  eat  of  the  very  body 
which  was  sitting  at  table  with  them ;  that 
such  an  opinion  was  neither  contrary  to  the 
laws  of  nature,  which  depended  upon  the 
will  of  the  author  of  nature,  nor  to  any 
thing  revealed  in  the  Gospel ;  that  he  would 
therefore  ever  adhere  to  the  doctrine  of 
Paschasius,  and  believe  with  him,  and  the 
catholic  church,  that  the  faithful  receive  the 
true  and  real  body  and  blood  of  Christ  under 
the  appearance  of  bread  and  of  wine.'  In 
answer  to  this,  and  many  other  letters  of 
the  same  kind  from  others,  Berengarius  ap- 
pealed to  the  fathers,  especially  to  St.  Am- 
brose, St.  Austin,  and  St.  Jerom,  who  had 
held,  as  he  said  he  was  ready  to  prove,  the 
very  doctrine  that  Scotus  had  taught;  and 
from  thence  he  concluded  Paschasius,  and 
not  Scotus,  to  have  introduced  a  new  doctrine. 
As  this  dispute  made  a  great  noise  in 
France,  the  king,  Henry  I.,  summoned  all 
the  bishops  and  learned  men  of  his  kingdom 
to  meet  at  Paris,  on  the  16th  of  October, 
1050,  in  order  to  examine  it,  and  Berengarius 
among  the  rest.  But  as  he  did  not  appear, 
Isambardus,  bishop  of  Orleans,  produced  a 
letter,  which  he  had  written  to  one  named 
Paul,  and  the  bishop  had  intercepted.  This 
letter  being  read  in  the*  council,  the  bishops 
with  one  voice  pronounced  the  doctrine  it 
contained  heretical.  For  in  that  letter  Beren- 
garius had  opened  his  mind  to  his  friend, 
without  reserve,  condemning,  in  plain  terms, 
the  opinion  of  Paschasius  as  repugnant,  and 
extolling  that  of  Scotus  as  entirely  agreeable 
to  the  belief  of  the  church  in  the  primitive 
times,  and  the  doctrine  of  the  fathers.  At 
the  same  time  the  book  of  Scotus,  whom 
they  styled  the  author  of  the  new  heresy, 
was  condemned  ;  and  it  was  enacted,  that 
Berengarius  and  his  followers  should  be 
sought  for,  should  be  apprehended,  and 
wherever  found  even  put  to  death,  if  they  did 
not  publicly  retract  their  impious  doctrine.^ 
Who  can  but  admire  the  Christian  spirit  of 
those  good  bishops!  This  decree  suffi- 
ciently justified  the  conduct  of  Berengarius 
in  not  venturing  to  appear  at  that  council. 
Of  this  cruel  and  unjust  sentence  he  com- 
plained in  a  letter  to  an  abbot  named  Rich- 
ardus,  one  of  the  king's  chief  favorites, 
entreating  him  to  undeceive  that  Prince, 
whom  the  enemies  of  truth  had  found  means 
to  prejudice  so  strongly  against  him,  and  let 
him  know,  that  he  was  ready  to  defend,  in 
his  presence,  the  doctrine,  that  had  been  so 
rashly  condemned  by  the  bishops  of  his 
kingdom.  He  added,  that  the  king  ought 
to  be  informed,  that  Scotus  wrote  his  book, 
at  the  request  of  Charles  the  Great  (meaning 
Charles  the  Bald,  who  was  sometimes  distin- 

«  Dacher.  in  Not.  ad  Vlt.  Lanfran. 
5  Dunrand.  Abbot.  Troarn,  par.  ix. 


guished  with  the  title  of  Great)  in  order  to 
undeceive  the  ignorant,  and  confute  the 
many  gross  errors,  relating  to  the  eucharist, 
that  had  been  introduced,  chiefly  by  Pascha- 
sius, into  the  church;  and  that  so  deserving 
a  man  should,  on  that  account,  be  protected 
after  his  death  by  the  successors  of  the 
prince,  in  obedience  to  whose  commands  he 
had  undertaken  so  useful  a  work.'  But  the 
monk  either  did  not  apply  to  the  king,  or 
his  application  proved  ineffectual. 

That  the  doctrine  of  Christ's  real  presence 
in  the  eucharist  was  utterly  unknown  to  the 
English  church,  and  consequently  was  not 
held  and  confessed  by  the  whole  world,  as 
was  boldly  asserted  by  Paschasius,  unde- 
niably appears  from  an  ancient  Saxon  ser- 
mon or  homily,  appointed  to  be  read  in  the 
churches  of  England  on  Easter-day.  It  is 
supposed  by  some  to  have  been  written  by 
.iElfric,  who  succeeded  Sigeric  in  the  see  of 
Canterbury  about  the  year  995,  but  by  others 
ascribed  to  ^Ifrick  the  younger,  raised  to 
the  see  of  York  in  1028.  It  is  gtill  in  manu- 
script in  the  pubhc  hbrary  at  Oxford,  and  in 
that  of  Bennet  college  in  Cambridge,  has 
been  long  ago  published  in  the  Saxon  with 
an  English  translation,  and  since  by  the 
learned  Wheelock,  both  in  Saxon  and  in 
Latin,  in  his  edition  of  Bede's  Ecclesiastical 
History .2  I  shall  transcribe  here  out  of  that 
invaluable  piece,  some  passages  that  will 
put  it  out  of  all  doubt,  that  in  the  latter  end 
of  the  tenth,  or  in  the  beginning  of  the 
eleventh  century,  the  doctrine  of  Christ's 
real  or  corporeal  presence  in  the  eucharist 
was  not  the  doctrine  of  the  English  church. 
The  homily  begins  thus  : 

"Men  beloved,  you  have  been  often  dis- 
coursed to  concerning  our  Savior's  resur- 
rection, &,c.  Now  we  shall,  by  God's  grace, 
explain  something  to  you  about  the  holy 
eucharist,  which  this  day  we  are  bound  to 
frequent,  and  instruct  your  understandings 
about  this  mystery,  both  according  to  the 
Old  and  New  Testament,  that  no  doubt  may 
disturb  you  concerning  this  life-giving  ban- 
quet.— Christ  before  his  suffering,  conse- 
crated bread,  and  distributed  it  to  his  dis- 
ciples, saying,  '  eat  this  bread,  it  is  my  body, 
and  do  this  in  remembrance  of  me.'  He 
likewise  consecrated  wine  in  a  cup,  and 
said,  'drink  ye  all  of  this,  this  is  my  blood, 
which  is  shed  for  many  for  the  remission  of 
sins.'  The  apostles  did  as  Christ  com- 
manded, they  consecrated  bread  and  wine 
for  the  eucharist. — Now  men  have  often  dis- 
puted, and  still  do  dispute,  how  that  bread, 
which  is  prepared  of  corn,  can  be  changed 
into  Christ's  body,  and  how  that  wine,  by 
any  blessing  of  it,  can  be  changed  into 
Christ's  blood  \  To  such  men  I  answer, 
that  some  things  are  spoken  of  Christ  by 

«  Dacher.  Specileg.  torn.  ii.  et  Concil.  torn.  ix.  p.  1062. 
a  Bed.  Eccl.  Hist.  p.  462. 


Leo  IX.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


351 


Some  observations  on  the  foregoing  doctrine. 


signification,  some  others  by  a  known  tiling. 
Ii  is  a  true  tliinj:  and  known,  that  Christ 
was  born  of  a  virgin,  that  he  voluntarily 
suffered  death,  was  buried,  and  this  day  rose 
from  the  dead.  He  is  called  bread,  and  a 
lamb,  and  a  lion  by  signification.  He  is 
called  bread,  because  he  is  our  life,  a  lamb 
for  his  innocence,  a  lion  for  his  strength. 
Yet  according  to  true  nature  Christ  is  neither 
bread,  nor  a  lamb,  nor  a  lion.  Why,  then, 
is  the  holy  eucharist  called  Christ's  body,  or 
his  blood,  if  it  be  not  truly  what  it  is  called? 
Truly  the  bread  and  wine,  which  are  conse- 
crated, show  one  thing  outwardly  to  mens' 
senses,  and  another  thing  they  declare  in- 
wardly to  believing  minds.  Outwardly, 
bread  and  wine  are  seen  both  in  appearance 
and  in  taste ;  yet  they  are  truly,  after  conse- 
cration, Christ's  body  and  blood  by  a  spi- 
ritual sacrament.  So  the  holy  font-water, 
called  the  well-spring  of  life,  is  like  in  nature 
to  other  waters,  and  is  subject  to  corruption  ; 
but  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  by  the 
priest's  blessing,  comes  upon  that  corrupti- 
ble water;  and  after  that  it  can  wash  both 
body  and  soul  from  all  sin  by  spiritual  vir- 
tue. We  see  now  two  things  in  this  one 
creature;  that,  whereby  it  is,  according  to 
nature,  corruptible  water,  and  that,  whereby 
it  has,  according  to  the  spiritual  mystery,  a 
saving  power.  In  like  manner,  if  we  look 
upon  the  holy  eucharist  according  to  a  cor- 
poreal sense,  we  see  that  it  is  a  creature  cor- 
ruptible and  changeable.  But  if  we  own  a 
spiritual  power  therein,  then  we  understand 
that  life  is  in  it,  and  that  it  confers  immor- 
tality on  those  who  taste  it  by  faith.  There 
is  much  difference  between  the  invisible 
power  of  the  holy  eucharist,  and  the  visible 
appearance  of  its  proper  nature.  By  nature 
it  is  corruptible  bread,  and  corruptible  wine, 
but  by  virtue  of  the  divine  Word,  it  is  truly 
the  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  yet  not  corpo- 
rally so,  but  spiritually.  There  is  a  great  dif- 
ference between  the  body  that  Christ  suffered 
in,  and  that  body  which  is  consecrated  for 
the  eucharist.  The  body  that  Christ  suf- 
fered in,  was  born  of  the  flesh  of  Mary,  with 
blood  and  bones,  with  skin  and  nerves, 
animated  with  a  rational  spirit  in  human 
members.  But  his  spiritual  body,  which 
we  call  the  eucharist,  is  collected  from  many 
grains  of  corn,  without  blood  and  bone, 
without  member  or  soul;  and  therefore  there 
is  nothing  in  it  to  be  understood  corporally, 
but  all  is  to  be  understood  spiritually.  This 
sacrament  is  a  pledge  and  a  type:  the  body 
of  Christ  is  the  truth.  We  keep  the  pledge 
sacramentally  till  we  come  to  the  truth  itself; 
and  then  is  the  pledge  at  an  end.  It  is  in- 
deed Christ's  body  and  his  blood,  not  cor- 
porally but  spiritually.  Do  not  dispute  how 
this  can  be  effected,  but  believe  it  firmly. 
Paul,  the  apostle,  speaking  of  the  Israelites, 
says,  'they  all  drank  of  the  spiritual  rock, 
and  that  rock  was  Christ.'  That  rock  was 
not  Christ  in  a  corporal  sense,  but  it  signified 


Christ.  The  heavenly  food,  that  fed  them 
for  forty  years,  and  the  water,  that  flowed 
from  the  rock,  signified  Christ's  body  and 
blood,  which  are  now  daily  offered  in  the 
church.  It  was  the  same  which  we  offer  to- 
day, not  corporally,  but  spiritually.  Christ 
consecrated  bread  and  wine  for  the  eucharist, 
and  said,  this  is  my  body  and  blood ;  he  had 
not  yet  suffered,  and  yet  he  changed  the 
bread  into  his  body,  and  the  wine  into  his 
blood,  as  he  did  before  in  the  wilderness, 
when  he  changed  the  heavenly  food  into  his 
flesh,  and  the  water  flowing  from  the  rock 
into  his  blood.  They  saw,  that  the  heavenly 
food  was  visible  and  corruptible ;  but  they 
understood  that  thing  spiritually.  Jesus  said, 
'whoever  eateth  my  flesh,  and  drinketh  my 
blood,  hath  eternal  life.'  He  did  not  com- 
mand them  to  eat  that  body,  which  he  had 
assumed,  nor  to  drink  that  blood,  which  he 
shed  for  us;  but  by  that  speech  he  meant 
the  holy  eucharist,  which  is  spiritually  his 
body  and  his  blood." 

We  have  two  other  pieces  written  by 
^Ifric,  that  contain  the  very  same  doc- 
trine ;  the  one  an  epistle  to  Wulffine,  bishop 
of  Shirburne,  where  he  speaks  thus:  "  The 
eucharist  is  not  the  body  of  Christ  corpo- 
rally, but  spiritually  ;  not  the  body  in  which 
he  suffered,  but  the  body  of  which  he  spoke 
when  he  blessed  bread  and  wine  for  the  eu- 
charist, saying,  'this  is  my  body,'  &c." 
The  other  is  an  epistle  to  Wulstane,  arch- 
bishop of  York;  and  he  there  expresses  him- 
self, with  respect  to  the  eucharist,  in  the 
following  terms:  "Christ  himself  conse- 
crated the  eucharist  before  his  passion  ;  he 
blessed  bread  and  broke  it,  saying,  '  eat  this 
bread,  it  is  my  body  ;'  and  again,  he  blessed 
the  cup,  saying,  'drink  ye  all  of  this,  it  is 
my  blood  of  the  New  Testament,  which  is 
shed  for  many  for  the  remission  of  sins.' 
The  Lord,  who  consecrated  the  eucharist 
before  his  passion,  and  said  that  bread  was 
his  body,  and  wine  truly  his  blood,  daily  con- 
secrates, by  the  priest's  hands,  bread  for  his 
body,  and  wine  for  his  blood,  in  a  spiritual 
mystery.  However,  that  life-giving  bread  is 
not  the  same  body  in  which  Christ  suffered, 
nor  that  holy  wine  the  blood  of  our  Savior, 
that  was  shed  for  us,  in  bodily  thing,  but  in 
a  spiritual  sense.  That  bread  indeed  was 
his  body,  and  that  wine  his  blood,  just  as 
that  heavenly  bread,  which  we  call  manna, 
was  his  body,  and  the  clear  water,  that 
flowed  from  the  rock  in  the  wilderness,  was 
his  blood.  The  apostle,  who  says  they  all 
did  eat,  &c.,  does  not  say  corporally,  but 
spiritually.'" 

I  shall  conclude  on  this  head  with  a  few 
observations.  And,  1.  The  doctrine,  deny- 
ing Christ's  real  or  corporeal  presence  in  th»> 
eucharist,  is  here  asserted  in  such  plain 
terms,  as  leave  not  the  least  room  to  ques- 
tion the  meanin?  of  the  writer.     2.  As  the 


■  Not.  ad  Bed.  p.  332,  333,  334,  &  Usher's  answer  to 
the  Jesuits,  p.  79. 


352 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Leo  IX. 


Council  of  Rome;— [Year  of  Christ,  1051.]     The  pope  absolves  Edward  the  Confessor  from  a  vow.     He  re- 
turns to  Germany. 


sermon,  containing  that  doctrine,  was  ap- 
pointed to  be  read  on  Easter  day,  for  the  in- 
struction of  the  faithful,  before  they  received 
the  eucharist :  it  was  not  the  private  opinion 
of  iElfric,  but  the  doctrine  of  the  English 
church.  3.  The  same  doctrine  must  have 
been  once  taught  by  the  Roman  church, 
since  the  English  church  was  instructed  in 
the  chief  mysteries  of  the  Christian  religion 
by  the  Roman.  4.  What  Paschasius  wrote, 
namely,  that  "no  man  openly  contradicted 
his  doctrine,"  was  certainly  true,  as  no  man 
had  ever  heard  of  it  till  he  published  his  fa- 
mous treatise.  But  it  was  no  sooner  known 
than  contradicted  by  some  of  the  most  learned 
men  of  that  age,  and  among  the  rest  by 
Raban,  archbishop  of  Mentz,  as  appears 
from  an  epistle  of  his  to  Heribald,  wherein 
he  speaks  thus,  alluding,  no  doubt,  to  the 
treatise  of  Paschasius  ;  "  some  of  late,  not 
thinking  rightly  of  the  sacrament  of  our 
Lord's  body  and  blood,  have  said,  that  the 
very  body  and  blood  of  our  Lord,  which  was 
born  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  and  in  which  he 
suffered  on  the  cross,  and  rose  again  out  of 
the  grave,  is  the  same  that  is  taken  at  the 
altar,  which  error  we  have  opposed  as  we 
are  able.'  Lastly,  from  what  has  been  said 
it  is  evident  that  the  present  doctrine  of  the 
church  of  Rome  concerning  the  eucharist 
was,  so  late  as  the  ninth  century,  unknown 
to  the  English  church,  and  even  looked  upon 
as  an  error  by  some  of  the  most  learned  men 
of  that  age,  and  consequently,  that  it  was 
not  taught,  from  the  earliest  times,  by  the 
catholic  church.  And  now  to  return  from 
this  digression  to  Leo. 

From  Vercelli,  the  pope^  instead  of  re- 
turning to  Rome,  after  the  council,  paid  a 
second  visit  to  his  flock  atToul,  for  he  never 
resigned  that  bishopric,  and  there  translated, 
with  great  pomp  and  solemnity,  the  body 
of  St.  Gerard,  whom  he  had  lately  canon- 
ized. He  was  still  in  that  city  on  the  30th 
of  October,  as  appears  from  a  charter  granted 
at  Toul,  bearing  that  date.^  But  he  kept  the 
feast  of  the  purification  at  Augsburg  with 
the  emperor,  and  from  thence  returning  to 
Rome,  held  a  council  soon  after  Easter,  in 
which  he  excommunicated  Gregory,  bishop 
of  Vercelli,  for  committing  adultery  with  a 
widow  betrothed  to  his  uncle.  The  bishop 
was  absent  when  this  sentence  was  given, 
but  he  flew  to  Rome  as  soon  as  he  heard  of 
it;  and  upon  his  promising  to  perform  the 
penance  that  his  holiness  imposed  upon 
him,  he  was  absolved  from  the  excommuni- 
cation and  restored  to  the  functions  of  his 
office.  On  that  occasion  the  canons  issued 
by  other  councils  against  the  incontinence 
of  the  clergy  were  confirmed,  some  new 
ones  were  added  to  them,  and  in  order  to 
check  more  effectually  the  scandalous  irre- 

»  Baluz.  in  append,  ad  Reginon.  p.  516. 
a  Wibert  in  Vit. 


gularities  of  the  Roman  clergy  in  particular, 
it  was  decreed,  at  the  request  of  the  pope, 
that  all  women  who  should,  for  the  future, 
prostitute  themselves  to  priests  within  the 
walls  of  Rome,  should  be  condemned  to 
serve  as  slaves  in  the  Laleran  palace.' 

It  was  probably  in  this  council  that  the 
pope  absolved  Edward  the  Confessor  from  a 
vow  he  had  made  to  visit  the  holy  places  at 
Rome.  The  king  showed  a  great  inclination 
to  undertake  that  pilgrimage,  the  visiting  of 
the  tombs  of  the  apostles  being  still  in  repu- 
tation, and  thought  highly  meritorious.  But 
his  council,  apprehending  the  evil  conse- 
quences of  his  being  absent  at  a  time  when 
the  state  was  divided  into  opposite  parties, 
as  it  happened  then,  persuaded  him  to 
send  a  solemn  embassy  to  Rome,  to  acquaint 
the  pope  with  the  vow  he  had  made,  and 
laying  before  him  the  evils  that  would  inevi- 
tably attend  his  performing  such  a  journey, 
to  beg  his  holiness  would  absolve  him  from 
it.  The  embassadors  were  kindly  received 
by  the  pope,  and  he  very  readily  granted 
their  request,  but  upon  condition  that  the 
king  bestowed  upon  the  poor  the  money 
which  he  had  reserved  to  defray  the  ex- 
penses of  his  journey ;  and  besides,  either 
repaired  or  built  anew  and  enlarged  the 
monastery,  dedicated  to  the  prince  of  the 
apostles,  St.  Peter.  The  king,  in  compli- 
ance with  these  terms,  immediately  under- 
took the  rebuilding  of  St.  Peter's,  at  West- 
minster; which  work  was  completed,  and 
the  new  church  consecrated,  on  the  28th  of 
December,  1065.^ 

Upon  the  breaking  up  of  this  council,  the 
pope  took  a  third  journey  into  Germany,  to 
mediate  a  peace  between  the  emperor  and 
Andrew,  king  of  Hungary,  refusing  to  pay 
the  tribute  that  his  predecessors  had  annually 
paid  to  the  emperor,  as  a  token  of  their  sub- 
jection to  the  empire.  The  emperor  had 
thereupon  besieged  a  strong-hold,  called 
Berziburg,  that  belonged  to  the  king,  who, 
apprehending  he  would  reduce  it,  and  open 
himself  a  way  into  the  heart  of  his  kingdom, 
wrote  to  the  pope,  offering  to  pay  the  usual 
tribute,  and  begging  his  holiness  to  interpose 
with  the  emperor  in  his  behalf  Leo  com- 
plied with  his  request,  and  having  other 
affairs  to  transact  with  the  emperor,  he  had 
no  sooner  dismissed  the  council  than  he  set 
out  for  Germany.  But  the  vigorous  resist- 
ance which  the  emperor  met  with  from  the 
garrison  of  Berziburg,  having,  in  the  mean 
time,  obliged  him  to  raise  the  siege,  the  king 
would  no  longer  stand  to  the  terms  which 
the  pope  had  proposed,  at  his  desire,  to  the 
emperor.  Leo,  highly  provoked  at  the  con- 
duct of  the  king,  threatened  him  with  ex- 
communication ;3  but  what  was  the  issue  of 
that  affair  history  does  not  inform  us. 


»  Herman,  ad  ann.  1051.     Petrus  Damian.  in  ep.  ad 
Cunibert. 
=  Concil.  torn.  ix.  p.  1186.        'Herman,  ad  ann.  1051. 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


353 


Leo  IX.]  

The  pope  canonizes  two  saints  at  Ratisbon  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  1052.]  Council  at  Mantua;— [Year  of  Christ, 
1053.]  Disturbances  on  occasion  of  that  council.  Council  of  Rome.  Some  opinions  of  the  Greeks  con- 
demned. 


The  following  year,  1052,  Leo  being  still 
in  Germany,  canonized  at  Ratisbon  two 
bishops  of  that  city,  namely,  Wolfangus, 
who  was  made  bishop  in  972,  and  died  on 
the  21st  of  October,  994,  and  Erhard,  who 
governed  the  same  church  with  great  repu- 
tation of  sanctity,  and  was  believed  to  have 
wrought  many  miracles  in  his  lifetime  and 
after  his  death.'  From  Ratisbon  the  pope 
went  to  meet  the  emperor  at  Worms,  and 
there  they  both  celebrated  the  Christmas 
festival.  It  was  in  that  city,  and  in  the 
present  year,  1052,  that  Leo  exchanged  the 
bishopric  of  Bamberg,  the  monastery  of 
Fulda,  and  several  other  places,  for  the  city 
of  Beneventum,  in  Apulia.^  But  this  ex- 
change did  not  take  place  till  the  year  1076. 
A  late  historian  supposes  the  whole  princi- 
pality of  Beneventum,  comprising  at  this 
time  several  provinces,  and  many  great  cities, 
to  have  been  yielded  to  the  pope.''  But  Leo 
Ostiensis,  the  most  ancient  writer  who  men- 
tions this  exchange,  and  Petrus  Diaconus, 
who  wrote  soon  after  him,''  say  in  express 
terms,  that  the  emperor  gave  the  city  of 
Beneventum  in  exchange  for  the  bishopric 
of  Bamberg,  and  no  man  can  think,  that  if 
he  had  given  the  whole  principality,  as  well 
as  the  city,  they  would  only  have  men- 
tioned the  city. 

ThefoUowingyear,  1053, the  pope, having 
celebrated  the  festival  of  the  purification  at 
Augsburg,  set  out  from  thence  on  his  return 
to  Italy,  and  arriving  at  Mantua  about 
Shrove  Sunday,  assembled  a  council  in  that 
city.  But  the  domestics  of  the  bishops'quar- 
reling,  at  the  instigation  of  their  masters, 
with  those  of  the  pope's  retinue,  raised  such 
disturbances,  as  obliged  the  pope  to  dismiss 
the  assembly,  after  he  had  attempted  in  vain, 
and  not  without  endangering  his  life,  to  ap- 
pease the  tumult.  For,  thinking  the  rioters 
would  be  awed  by  his  presence,  he  quitted 
his  seat  in  the  council,  and  showed  himself 
at  the  church  doors  in  his  pontifical  robes. 
But  they  still  continued  to  pursue  his  ser- 
vants with  showers  of  darts  and  stones,  that 
flew  thick  about  the  pope  himself,  and  even 
wounded  one  of  his  domestics,  who  had  taken 
shelter  under  his  mantle.  Thus  did  the 
bishops  prevent  the  pope  from  inquiring  into 
their  conduct,  which  they  knew  would  de- 
servedly draw  upon  them  the  severest  cen- 
sures. The  authors  of  these  disturbances 
were  discovered  the  next  day  ;  but  the  pope 
forgave  them,  lest  he  should  be  thought,  as 
the  affront  was  offered  to  him,  to  have  been 
actuated,  in  punishing  them,  by  aspirit  of  re- 
venge.* I  have  observed  elsewhere,  that  at 
Mantua  was  kept  a  spunge,  steeped,  as  was 

«  Mabil.  Sec.  Benedict  V.    Bolland  ad  diem  8  Jan. 
«  Herman,  ad  ann.  1053.    Leo  Ostien.  1.  ii.  c.  84. 
»  Gianneias.  Hist.  Neap.  1.  ix. 
«  Leo  Ostiens.  ubi  supra.  &.  Petr.  Diacon.  ad  Ostiens. 
1.  ii.  c.  84. 
»  Herman.  Wihert.  in  Vil  Leon.  1.  ii.  c.  8. 

Vol.  II.— 45 


believed,  in  the  blood  of  our  Savior.'  That 
relic  the  pope  attempted  to  carry  with  him  to 
Rome  :  but  the  whole  city  takin-g  the  alarm, 
he  was  obliged  to  content  himself  with  a 
small  portion  of  the  holy  spunge,  which  he 
deposited  in  the  Lateran  church,  wiiere  it  is 
shown  to  this  day.^ 

Leo  returned  to  Rome  in  the  beginning 
of  Lent,  and  in  a  council  which  was  held 
there  after  Easter,  he  declared  Dominic  of 
Grado,  metropolitan  or  primate  of  the  pro- 
vinces of  Venetia  and  Istria,  gave  him  the 
pall,  subjected  all  the  bishops  of  those  two 
provinces  to  his  see,  and  confined  to  Lom- 
bardy  the  jurisdiction  of  the  bishop  of  Friuli, 
who  had  long  disputed  the  metropolitan  dig- 
nity with  the  bishop  of  Grado.  The  patri- 
archal see  was  transferred  from  Aquileia  to 
Grado  in  579,^  which  city  was  therefore 
called  New  Aquileia,  and  in  1450  it  was  re- 
moved from  Grado  to  Venice. 

It  was,  probably,  in  this  council,  that  the 
pope  condemned  the  opinion  of  the  Greeks, 
teaching,  that  the  eucharist  ought  to  be  ad- 
ministered with  leavened  bread,  which  alone 
they  pretended  to  be  true  bread,  and  there- 
fore censured  the  Roman  church,  as  deviating 
from  the  practice,  introduced  by  our  Savior 
himself,  in  solemnizing  that  sacrament  with 
unleavened  bread.  That  was  the  subject  of 
a  letter,  written  by  Michael  Cerularius,  at 
this  time  patriarch  of  Constantinople,  and 
Leo,  metropolitan  of  Achris  in  Bulgaria,  to 
John,  bishop  of  Trani  in  Apulia.  John 
showed  the  letter  to  Humbertus,  bishop  of 
the  While  Forest,  who  translated  it  into  La- 
tin, and  communicated  it  to  the  pope.  Leo, 
finding  the  Roman  church  strongly  attacked 
in  that  piece,  and  arraigned  of  adopting  both 
doctrines  and  practices  inconsistent  with 
those  of  the  primitive  church,  wrote  a  long 
answer  to  it,  reproaching  the  Greeks,  espe- 
cially the  bishops  of  Constantinople,  with  the 
many  heresies  they  had  taught  or  counte- 
nanced, and  extolling  the  Roman  church  as 
having  been  instructed  by  St.  Peter  himself, 
and  ever  preserved  by  him  free  from  all  heresy. 
He  speaks  of  the  famous  donation  of  Con- 
stantine,  long  since  universally  exploded,  as 
a  thing  that  in  his  time  no  man  questioned  ; 
blames  the  Greeks  for  admitting  eunuchs 
even  to  the  episcopal  dignity  ;  and  supposes 
the  report  of  a  woman  having  been  promoted 
to  the  patriarchal  see  of  the  imperial  city,  to 
have  been  owing  to  that  report,  which,  how- 
ever, he  says,  he  cannot  believe.  In  the  end 
of  his  letter,  he  tells  the  patriarch  and  the 
bishop  of  Achris,  for  to  them  his  letter  was 
addressed,  that  he  had  sent  some  passages 
out  of  the  fathers  to  the  bishops  of  Apulia, 
as  an  antidote  against  the  venom,  with  which 
they  were  striving  to  poison  their  minds.* 


•  See  p  187. 

'  Hyppolit.  Donesmund.  Ilist.  Mant.  I.  iil.  p.  203. 

'  See  vol.  I.  p.  383.     *  Wibert.  in  Vit.  Leon.  1.  ii.  c.  9. 

2e2 


354 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Leo  IX. 


The  pope  makes  war  upon  the  Normans.     On  what  occasion  the  Normans  came  first  into  Italy.    Are  defeated, 
with  great  slaughter,  by  the  Greeks. 


But  the  practice  that  Leo  condemned,  name- 
ly, that  of  consecrating  in  leavened  bread,  is 
now  thought,  even  by  many  learned  divines 
of  the  church  of  Rome,  to  have  been  the 
practice  of  the  whole  primitive  church.' 
Our  Savior,  it  is  true,  celebrated  his  last  sup- 
per with  unleavened  bread,  but  that  was  as 
those  writers  observe,  at  the  time  of  the  pass- 
over,  when  no  other  bread  could  be  used.^ 

As  Michael  Cerularius,  the  present  pa- 
triarch, was  the  first  who  reproached  the 
Roman  church  with  the  use  of  unleavened 
bread,  and  wrote  against  it  to  the  bishops 
who  were  subject  to  his  see  in  Italy,  some 
conclude  from  thence,  that  custom  to  have 
been  adopted  by  the  Roman  church  about 
this  time.  It  did  not,  at  least,  prevail  in  the 
time  of  Photius,  else  he  would  have  taken 
notice  of  it,  as  he  did  of  every  other  rite  or 
practice,  wherein  the  Roman  church  differ- 
ed from  that  of  Constantinople  and  the  other 
churches  in  the  East. 

We  have  hitherto  seen  this  good  pope 
exerting  his  zeal  as  sovereign  pontiff,  and 
not  unsuccessfully,  in  reforming  the  many 
abuses  that  prevailed  in  the  church,  and  as- 
sembling for  that  purpose  frequent  councils 
in  Italy,  France,  and  Germany.  We  shall 
now  view  him  acting  in  a  very  different  ca- 
pacity, that  of  a  commander,  heading  an 
army,  and  leading  it  in  person,  not  against 
the  infidels,  as  two  of  his  predecessors  had 
done,  but  against  a  Christian  people,  re- 
markable for  their  piety  and  religion  ;  not  in 
defence  of  the  faith,  but  of  the  temporal  do- 
minions and  wealth  of  the  church.  The 
people,  upon  whom  he  made  war,  were  the 
Normans,  who,  coming  from  that  part  of 
Neustria,  which  from  them  was  called  Nor- 
mandy, had  established  themselves,  by  their 
valor,  in  Apulia,  and  gave  great  umbrage  to 
the  pope  by  the  acquisitions  they  made  in 
that  country.  Of  their  first  coming  into 
Italy,  and  their  warlike  exploits  there,  we 
read  the  following  account  in  Guillelmus 
Apuliensis,  who  wrote  it  in  verse,  but  more 
like  an  historian  than  a  poet,  and  published 
it  at  the  request  of  pope  Urban  II.,  preferred 

•  Bona  Rer.  Liturg,  1.  i.  c.  23.  Schelstrat.  Disciplin. 
Arcanic.  c.  7.     Pagi.  Critic.  Baron,  ad  ann.  313.  n.  15. 

2  That  the  church  has  always  used  common  bread 
theyprove  with  the  following  reasons:  1.  Because 
the  bread  and  wine  for  the  use  of  the  eucharist  were 
taken  out  of  the  oblations  of  the  people,  who,  no 
doubt,  offered  common  bread  and  wine,  so  long  as  they 
continued  to  make  oblations.  2.  Epiphanius,  speak- 
ing of  the  Ebionites,  takes  notice  of  their  consecrating 
in  unleavened  bread  and  water  only,  as  a  peculiar 
rite  of  those  heretics ;  (Epiph.  Hseres.  30.)  which 
plainly  shows  that  they  did  not  use  the  same  bread 
as  was  used  by  the  church.  3.  The  ancients  all  speak 
of  the  bread  for  the  eucharist  as  common  bread,  such 
as  they  used  upon  other  occasions;  (Ambrose  de  Sa- 
cram.  I.  iv.  c.  4.)  and  that  such  it  really  was,  appears 
from  a  story  we  read  in  the  life  of  Gregory  the  Great,  of 
a  woman,  who  smiling  when  he  administered  the  eu- 
charist to  her  with  the  usual  words,  "the  body  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  preserve  thy  soul,"  and  being  asked 
why  she  smiled,  answered,  because  he  called  the  bread, 
which  she  had  made  with  her  own  hands,  the  body  of 
Christ.— (Greg.  Vit.  I.  ii.  c.  41.)  It  was  therefore  com- 
mon bread. 


to  the  pontificate  in  1088.  That  small  piece, 
containing  a  succint  relation  of  the  adven- 
tures of  the  Normans,  from  their  arrival  in 
Italy  in  1016,  to  the  death  of  the  famous 
Robert  Guiscard,  in  1085,  is  ascribed  to 
Roger,  the  son  and  successor  of  Robert. 
The  substance  of  that  relation  is  as  follows  : 

One  Melus,  a  man  of  great  power  and 
authority  in  the  city  of  Bari,  in  Apulia,  not 
able  to  bear  with  the  tyrannical  government 
of  the  Greeks,  to  whom  that  city  was  sub- 
ject, conspired  with  several  of  his  fellow- 
citizens  to  drive  them  out,  and  to  rescue 
themselves  and  their  country  from  the  op- 
pression they  groaned  under.  But  the  con- 
spiracy being  discovered  before  it  was  ripe 
for  execution,  Melus  made  his  escape,  first 
to  Ascoli,  and  from  thence  to  Monte  Gar- 
gano.  There  he  found  some  Normans,  come 
from  Neustria,  their  native  country,  to  visit 
that  sanctuary,  according  to  the  devotion 
that  was  then  in  vogue;  and  upon  his  learn- 
ing who  they  were,  he  gave  them  an  account 
of  himself,  assuring  them,  that  with  a  small 
number  of  their  countrymen  he  would  drive 
out  the  dastardly  Greeks,  and  put  their  na- 
tion in  possession  of  the  most  fertile  country 
of  all  Italy.  There  wanted  no  more  for 
those  bold  adventurers.  They  went  home, 
and  returned  the  next  year  with  a  choice 
band  of  their  countrymen,  who,  being  sup- 
plied with  arms  at  Rome,  marched  from 
thence  in  a  body  into  Apulia,  where  Melus 
put  himself  at  their  head.  They  had  seve- 
ral encounters  with  the  Greeks,  whom  they 
always  defeated.  But  in  a  battle  fought  in 
1019  near  Cannse,  a  place  famous  for  the 
defeat  of  the  Romans,  the  Greeks  gained  a 
complete  victory  over  them,  cut  most  of 
them  in  pieces,  and  obliged  the  rest  to  save 
themselves  by  a  precipitate  flight.  In  this 
battle  the  Normans  behaved  with  unparal- 
lelled  bravery.  But  the  troops  that  Melus 
had  hired  of  the  Italian  princes  gave  way, 
which  occasioned  the  rout.  Melus  finding 
his  army  greatly  reduced  by  the  loss  he  had 
sustained,  and  no  longer  in  a  condition  to 
withstand  the  nu merous  forces  of  the  Greeks, 
recommended  his  Normans  to  Pandulphus, 
prince  of  Capua,  and  Guaimarus,  prince  of 
Salerno,  and  went  himself  into  Germany  to 
solicit  succors  of  the  emperor.  Benedict 
VIII.,  then  pope,  apprehending  that  the 
Greeks,  if  not  timely  opposed  by  a  superior 
force,  would  soon  make  themselves  masters 
of  all  Italy,  undertook  a  journey  into  Ger- 
many for  the  same  purpose.  But  the  em- 
peror, Henry  I.,  could  spare  them  no  troops 
at  that  juncture,  being  engaged  in  other 
wars,  and  in  the  mean  time  Melus  died. 
His  death  happened  in  1021,  while  he  was 
with  the  emperor,  who  caused  him  to  be 
buried  in  a  royal  manner,  "  ut  regius  est 
mos,"  says  the  historian,  and  attended  his 
funeral  in  person. 

The  Normans  chose,  upon  the  death  of 


Leo  IX.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


355 


The  Norraans  serve  under  the  emperor;  and  under  the  Italian  princes  and  the  Greek.  Build  the  city  of 
Aversa.  Ilunulphus  made  count  of  Aversa.  Ill  used  by  the  Greeks,  they  make  themselves  masters  of 
several  places  belonging  to  them  in  Apulia.  Gain  several  remarkable  victories  over  the  Greeks.  Choose 
William  Bras-de-fer"for  their  leader.    Divide  Apulia  into  twelve  counties. 


Melus,  one  of  their  owa  countrymen,  named 
Ranulphus,  for  their  leader,  and  under  his 
conduct  distinguished  themselves  in  the  war 
which  the  emperor  made  in  the  following 
year,  1022,  upon  the  Greeks  in  Italy.  But 
the  emperor  being  obliged  to  return  to  Ger- 
many, they  kept  in  a  body,  serving  under 
the  banners  of  such  of  the  Italian  princes  as 
happened  to  engage  them  the  first,  in  the 
wars  which  they  waged  with  each  other.  In 
1028  they  joined  Sergius,  duke  of  Naples, 
against  Panduiphus,  prince  of  Capua,  who 
had  made  himself  master  of  that  city,  drove 
him  from  it,  after  he  had  held  it  three  years, 
and  restored  Sergius.  To  reward  this  im- 
portant service,  Sergius  granted  some  lands 
m  the  neighborhood  of  Naples  to  Ranulphus 
and  his  Normans,  with  leave  to  build  a  city 
in  that  place  for  their  habitation,  which 
might  serve  as  a  barrier  against  the  princes 
of  Capua,  as  it  lay  between  that  city  and 
Naples.  They  built  a  city  accordingly,  and 
called  it,  if  some  writers  are  to  be  credited, 
Aversa,  to  show  their  aversion  to  the  prince 
of  Capua,  by  whom  they  had  been  very  ill 
used,  though  they  had  served  him  with  the 
greatest  fidelity.  In  1038  they  were  prevail- 
ed upon  by  Guaimarius,  prince  of  Salerno, 
and  their  great  friend,  to  cross  over  into 
Sicily,  and  assist  the  Greeks  against  the  Sa- 
racens, who  had  made  themselves  masters 
of  the  greater  part  of  that  island  ;  and  it  was 
chiefly  by  their  valor  and  bravery  that  the 
Greeks  recovered  the  city  of  Syracuse,  and 
several  other  places  possessed  by  the_^Sara- 
cens.  Upon  their  return  home,  the  emperor 
Conrad,  who  had  succeeded  Henry  I.,  grant- 
ed, at  the  request  of  the  prince  of  Salerno, 
the  title  of  Count  to  Ranulphus,  and  gave 
him  the  investiture  of  that  small  county. 

The  Greeks,  though  indebted  to  the  Nor- 
mans for  all  the  advantages  they  had  gained 
over  the  Saracens,  had  not  allowed  them  the 
least  share  of  the  plunder,  pretending  they 
had  acquired  it,  not  by  the  valor  of  the  Nor- 
mans, but  their  own;  nay,  they  command- 
ed Arduinus,  a  noble  Lombard,  who  served 
with  the  Normans,  to  restore  a  fine  horse  he 
had  taken  from  a  Saracen,  whom  he  had 
killed,  and  ordered  him,  because  he  refused 
to  comply  with  that  unjust  command,  to  be 
ignominiously  whipt  round  the  camp.  To 
revenge  this  affront  the  Normans  resolved  to 
fall  upon  the  dominions  of  the  Eastern  empire 
in  Italy,  and  establish  themselves  there  at  the 
expense  of  the  Greeks.  They  marched  ac- 
cordingly, soon  after  their  return  from  Sicily, 
against  the  city  of  Melfi,  and  being  reinforced 
with  great  numbers  of  new  adventurers  from 
Normandy,  they  laid  siege  to  that  place,  and 
in  a  very  few  days  obliged  the  inhabitants  to 
open  their  gates,  and  receive  them  into  their 
city.  This  same  year,  1041,  they  made 
themselves  masters  of  Venosa,  Ascoli,  and 


Lavelli,  and  fortified  the  city  of  Melfi,  strong 
by  its  situation,  with  such  works  as  baffled 
all  the  attempts  the  Greek  emperors  after- 
wards made  to  recover  it. 

Constantine  Monomachus,  at  this  time 
emperor  of  the  East,  alarmed  at  the  con- 
quests the  Normans  made  with  so  much 
rapidity  in  Apulia,  sent  a  powerful  fieet,  and 
a  very  numerous  army  into  Italy,  under  the 
command  of  Duclius,  ordering  him  to  give 
no  quarter  to  the  Normans,  but  to  extirpate 
the  whole  race.  But  Duclius,  though  a 
brave  and  experienced  commander,  had  the 
mortification  to  see  three  numerous  armies, 
headed  by  him,  put  to  the  rout  by  a  handful 
of  Normans.  The  first  battle  was  fought 
near  the  Olivento,  the  other  at  Cannaj,  and 
the  third  on  the  banks  of  the  Ofanto,  and 
the  Normans,  though  they  had,  in  these 
three  engagements,  fresh  troops  to  encounter, 
made  dreadful  havoc  of  the  enemy,  while 
the  loss  was  very  inconsiderable  on  their 
side.  The  emperor,  therefore,  recalling  Du- 
clius, sent  Anno  with  a  new  and  more  nu- 
merous army  than  any  of  the  other  three,  to 
succeed  him.  But  he  was  attended  with  no 
better  success  than  his  predecessor.  For, 
having  engaged  the  Normans  near  Monte 
Peloso,  his  army  was  almost  entirely  cut  to 
pieces,  and  he  himself  taken  prisoner. 

The  Normans,  to  avoid  giving  umbrage 
to  the  neighboring  Lombard  princes,  and  to 
gain  the  affections  of  their  people,  had 
hitherto  chosen  one  of  that  nation  for  their 
leader  in  the  wars  they  waged  with  the 
Greeks.  But  being  now  under  no  appre- 
hension of  the  Greeks  ever  prevailing  over 
them,  they  resolved  to  have  no  other  leader 
but  one  of  their  own  nation ;  and  they  ac- 
cordingly put  themselves  under  the  com- 
mand of  William  Bras-de-fer,  who  had 
distinguished  himself  above  all  the  rest  in 
the  late  engagements.  He  was  the  eldest 
son  of  Tancred  of  Hauteville,  and  came  into 
Italy  soon  after  the  building  of  the  city  of 
Aversa,  with  two  of  his  brothers,  namely, 
Drago  and  Humbert  or  Umfred,  and  several 
other  Normans.  As  he  was  a  man  of  un- 
common strength,  and  thence  called  Bras- 
de-fer,  or  Iron-arm,  of  great  skill  in  war, 
and  of  prudence  equal  to  his  bravery,  the 
Normans  chose  him  for  their  leader  in  1043, 
distinguishing  him,  on  that  occasion,  with 
the  title  of  count  of  Apulia,  which  was  but 
an  honorary  title.  For  they  divided  the 
whole  country  into  twelve  counties,  and  ap- 
pointed so  many  counts  over  them,  but  left 
the  city  of  Melfi  common  to  all;  and  there 
they  met  to  consult  about  the  important 
affairs  of  the  nation.  William,  the  first 
count  of  Apulia,  called  by  Guillelmus 
Apuliensis,  a  lion  in  battle,  and  lamb  in 
conversation,  died  in  1046,  and  his  brother 
Drago,  to  whose  share  the  city  of  Venosa 


356 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Leo  IX. 


The  emperor  grants  the  Normans  the  investiture  of  the  countries  they  had  conquered.  Snare  laid  for  them 
by  the  Greek  emperor.  The  Apulians  bribed  to  conspire  against  them.  Many  of  them  murdered,  and  Drago 
among  the  rest.    The  Apulians  prejudice  the  pope  against  them,  and  the  pope  the  emperor. 


had  fallen  in  the  above-mentioned  division, 
was  in  an  assembly  of  the  Normans,  that 
met  at  Melfi,  appointed  count  of  Apulia  in 
his  room.  In  Drago's  time  many  more 
Normans,  leaving  their  native  country,  came 
to  try  their  fortune  in  Italy,  and  among  the 
rest  Robert,  surnamed  aftervirards  Guiscard, 
half-brother  to  Drago,  being  Tancred's  eldest 
son  by  his  second  wife.  Drago,  knowing 
him  to  be  a  man  of  great  resolution  and  in- 
trepidity, sent  him,  soon  after  his  arrival, 
with  a  chosen  body  of  men  against  a  strong 
hold,  possessed  by  the  Greeks,  on  the  bor- 
ders of  Apulia  and  Calabria,  which  he  re- 
duced, and  made  from  thence  frequent 
incursions  into  Calabria,  which  still  belonged 
to  the  Greeks. 

The  conquests,  made  by  the  Normans  in 
Apulia  and  Calabria,  gave  not  the  least  um- 
brage to  the  emperors  of  the  West,  who 
wished  to  see  the  Greeks  driven  quite  out 
of  Italy,  and  only  wanted  the  Normans  to 
hold  those  provinces  of  them  as  fiefs  of  the 
empire.  To  this  the  Normans  readily 
agreed,  and  Drago  was  thereupon,  in  1046, 
invested  by  Henry  II.  who  came  that  year 
into  Italy,  in  all  the  countries  that  he  and 
his  Normans  had  taken  from  the  Greeks. 
•Thus  were  the  Normans  put  upon  the  same 
footing  with  the  princes  pr  dukes  of  Bene- 
vento,  Capua,  Salerno,  and  the  other  Lom- 
bard princes,  who  acknowledged  the  em- 
peror, as  king  of  the  Lombards,  for  their 
sovereign,  and  held,  as  feudatories,  their 
dominions  of  him. 

In  the  mean  time  Constantine  Monoma- 
chus,  emperor  of  the  East,  despairing  of 
ever  being  able  to  recover,  by  force,  the 
countries  which  the  Normans  had  seized, 
resolved  to  employ  other  means,  which  he 
flattered  himself  would  prove  more  success- 
ful. He  pretended  to  be  upon  the  point  of 
undertaking  an  expedition  against  the  Per- 
sians, and  under  that  pretence  sent  one  of 
his  chief  officers,  named  Argyrus,  with  a 
great  sum  of  money  and  many  rich  presents, 
to  engage  the  Normans  to  pass  over  into 
Greece,  in  order  to  serve  under  his  banner 
in  that  undertaking.  But  they  had  already 
learned  by  experience  how  little  Greek  faith 
was  to  be  relied  on  ;  and  therefore  rejected, 
with  scorn,  the  emperor's  presents,  and 
laughed  at  the  great  promises  that  were 
made  them  in  his  name. 

Argyrus,  finding  they  were  aware  of  the 
snare  that  was  laid  for  them,  resolved  to 
employ  the  treasure  he  had  brought  from 
Constantinople,  for  a  still  more  wicked  pur- 
pose; which  was,  to  bribe  several  of  the 
citizens,  in  the  different  cities  of  Apulia 
held  by  the  Normans,  to  conspire  against 
them,  and  rising  at  an  appointed  time,  mur- 
der them  all  without  distinction.  The  con- 
spiracy was  carried  on  with  the  greatest 
secrecy,  and  executed  with  such  barbarity. 


that  the  Normans  are  said  to  have  lost,  on 
this  occasion,  a  greater  number  of  their 
brave  countrymen,  than  they  had  done  in 
all  their  wars  with  the  Greeks.  They  lost 
among  the  rest  Drago,  the  second  count  of 
Apulia,  who  was  slabbed,  as  he  was  going 
to  prayers  in  the  castle  of  Montoglio,  by  one 
of  the  conspirators,  who  had  concealed  him- 
self behind  the  door  of  the  chapel.  The 
other  conspirators  fell  upon  those  who  at- 
tended the  count,  massacred  such  of  them 
as  had  not  the  good  luck  to  make  their 
escape,  and  seized  on  the  castle.  But  Um- 
fred,  who  was  but  at  a  small  distance,  hear- 
ing of  the  barbarous  murder  of  his  brother, 
flew  with  a  small  body  of  Normans,  assem- 
bled in  great  haste,  to  the  castle,  and  having 
made  himself  master  of  it,  in  spite  of  the 
vigorous  resistance  he  met  with,  he  caused 
the  conspirators  to  be  all  put  to  most  cruel 
deaths.  This  instance  of  treachery  and  bar- 
barity in  the  Greeks  provoked  the  Normans 
to  such  a  degree,  that  they  resolved,  by  way 
of  revenge,  to  drive  them  out  of  Calabria  as 
well  as  Apulia.'  How  they  executed  this 
resolution,  I  shall  relate  in  the  course  of  the 
present  history,  and  in  the  mean  time  return 
to  the  expedition  of  pope  Leo  against  that 
people,  which  gave  occasion  to  this  digres- 
sion. 

The  Normans,  finding  that  the  Apulians 
were  no  more  to  be  trusted  than  the  Greeks, 
began  from  this  time  forward  to  keep  a 
watchful  eye  over  them,  and  to  treat  them 
with  the  severity  they  deserved.  Of  this 
treatment  they  complained,  first  to  the  empe- 
ror, and  afterwards  to  the  pope,  representing 
the  government  of  the  Normans  as  cruel  and 
tyrannical,  charging  them  with  many  crimes, 
and  painting  them  as  barbarians,  without 
either  laws  or  religion.  These  calumnies 
were  all  credited  by  the  pope,  as  appears 
from  one  of  his  letters  to  Constantine  Mono- 
machus,  emperor  of  the  East,  wherein  he 
taxes  the  Normans  with  plundering  and  burn- 
ing churches  and  monasteries,  with  racking 
and  putting  to  death,  by  the  most  exquisite 
torments,  such  of  the  Apulians  as  gave  them 
the  least  oflTence,  with  extending  their  savage 
fury  even  to  women  and  innocent  children, 
and  turning  the  countries,  which  they  con- 
quered, into  deserts.^  No  wonder  therefore, 
that  Leo,  thus  prejudiced  against  them,  and 
at  the  same  time  jealous  of  their  growing 
power,  should  have  exerted  all  his  interest 
with  both  emperors  to  get  them  driven  out 
of  Italy ;  with  that  view  he  took  a  journey 
into  Germany  in  1052.  But  all  he  could 
obtain  of  the  emperor,  engaged  at  that  junc- 
ture in  other  wars,  was  a  small  body  of  Ger- 
man troops  to  keep  the  Normans  in  awe,  till 
he  was  at  leisure  to  march  with  his  whole 


1  Guill.  Apul.  1.  i.  et  ii.    Leo  Ostiens.  1.  ii.  c.  58,  65, 
67,  72,  85. 
a  Apud  Baron,  ad  ann.  1054. 


Leo  IX.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


357 


The  pope  marches  in  pennon  against  the  Normans,  who  strive  to  divert  the  pope  from  the  intended  war,  but  in 
vain.  Tliey  gain  a  complete  victory.  The  pope  taken  prisoner,  but  used  by  the  Normans  with  the  greatest 
respect  and  politeness.  Letters  to  the  pope  from  the  emperor  of  the  East  and  the  patriarch  of  Constantino- 
ple for  restoring  the  union  between  the  two  churches. 


army  against  them;  which  he  promised  to 
do  as  soon  as  he  settled  his  affairs  at  home. 

But  the  pope,  impatient  to  see  Italy  deli- 
vered from  those  |)ublic  robbers,  as  he  styled 
them,  resolved  to  undertake  so  meriiorious  a 
work  himself.  Having  therefore,  upon  his 
return  to  Rome,  assembled  a  very  numerous 
army,  he  marched  with  all  possible  expedi- 
tion to  the  borders  of  Apulia,  not  doubting 
but  he  should  surprise  the  Normans,  and 
make  himself  master  of  the  country,  before 
they  could  assemble  their  forces  and  put 
themselves  in  a  posture  of  defence.  They 
were  indeed  not  a  little  alarmed  at  the  unex- 
pected approach  of  so  numerous  an  army, 
and  could  scarcely  believe  that  it  had  been 
raised,  and  was  commanded  by  the  pope,  to 
whom  they  were  conscious  to  themselves 
they  had  never  given  the  least  provocation. 
They  therefore  deputed  some  of  the  chief 
men  among  them  to  wait  on  his  holiness, 
to  learn  what  was  his  true  design,  what  he 
complained  of,  and  to  offer  him,  if  he  had 
taken  anything  amiss  of  them,  all  the  satis- 
faction he  could  wish  for.  The  pope  received 
the  deputies  with  great  haughtiness,  re- 
proached them  with  cruelly  oppressing  the 
people  they  had  conquered,  with  seizing  and 
holding  a  country  to  which  they  had  no  kind 
of  right,  with  trampling  under  foot  all  laws, 
human  and  divine.  Sec.  Leo  added,  that  he 
was  come  with  a  powerful  army  to  rescue 
the  unhappy  inhabitants  of  Apulia  from  the 
yoke  they  groaned  under;  that  he  would  al- 
low the  Normans  to  march  unmolested  out 
of  Italy,  but  would  grant  them  quarter' upon 
no  other  terms.  The  deputies  strove  to  clear 
their  nation  from  the  crimes  with  which  they 
were  charged  ;  showed  the  necessity  of  treat- 
ing the  Apulians,  who  had  treacherously 
murdered  so  many  of  their  country  men,  with 
the  severity  they  so  loudly  complained  of; 
expressed  the  greatest  veneration  and  respect 
for  the  successor  of  St.  Peter,  and  offered 
themselves  ready  to  serve  against  the  ene- 
mies of  the  apostolic  see,  when  or  wherever 
his  holiness  should  think  fit  to  employ  them. 
But  as  to  their  tamely  quitting  a  country 
which  they  had  purchased  with  the  blood 
of  so  many  brave  men,  it  was  a  condition 
tliey  could  not  comply  with,  and  were  there- 
fore unalterably  determined  to  defend  it  to 
the  last  drop  of  their  blood,  and  repel  force 
by  force,  by  whomsoever  attacked. 

With  these  words  the  deputies  took  leave 
of  the  pope,  and  returned  to  their  country- 
men, who,  finding  that  the  pope  would 
hearken  to  no  other  terms  but  those  which 
they  could  not  agree  to,  flew  to  arms,  and 
marching  out,  without  loss  of  time,  against 
the  enemy,  under  the  command  of  Umfred, 
count  of  A.pulia,  of  Richard,  count  of  Aver- 
sa,  and  of  the  brave  Robert  Guiscard,  fell 
upon  them  with  incredible  fury  in  the  neigh- 


borhood of  Civitade.  The  count  of  Aversa 
put  the  Italians  to  flight  at  the  first  onset, 
and  pursued  them  with  great  slaughter. 
But  the  Germans  withstood  all  the  efforts 
of  count  Umfred,  and  many  fell  on  both  sides. 
But  Robert,  who  commanded  a  body  of  re- 
serve, coming  seasonably  to  the  assistance 
of  his  brother,  and  falling  sword  in  hand 
upon  the  Germans,  they  were  forced  to  give 
ground,  and  betake  themselves,  in  the  end, 
to  a  precipitate  flight.  Robert  pursued  them 
so  close,  that  not  one  of  them  escaped  the 
slaughter  of  that  day.' 

The  pope,  who  beheld  the  fight  from  a 
rising  ground,  at  a  small  distance,  seeing 
his  army  thus  put  to  flight,  and  the  flower 
of  his  troops  cut  to  pieces,  flew  to  Civitade, 
and  there  shut  himself  up  with  such  of  his 
men  as  he  had  been  able  to  slop  in  their 
flight.  But  the  place  was  soon  invested  by 
the  Normans,  and  forced  to  surrender  at  dis- 
cretion. The  pope,  who  looked  upon  the 
Normans  as  a  barbarous  people,  expected  to 
be  treated  by  them,  as  their  avowed  enemy, 
with  the  utmost  severity.  But  the  treatment 
he  met  with  was  very  different  from  that 
which  he  expected,  and  had  reason  to  ex- 
pect. Count  Umfred,  hearing  that  the  pope 
was  in  the  city,  and  his  prisoner,  went  im- 
mediately to  wait  upon  him,  accosted  him 
with  all  the  respect  that  was  due  to  his 
character,  and  conducted  him,  attended  by 
all  the  chief  officers  of  the  army,  to  his 
camp.  There  he  entertained  him  for  a  few 
days  with  the  greatest  magnificence,  and 
then  not  only  set  him  at  liberty,  but,  upon 
his  choosing  to  be  conducted  to  Benevento, 
attended  him  thither  in  person.  Leo,  no  less 
surprised  at,  than  pleased  with  the  polite 
and  extremely  obliging  behavior  of  the  Nor- 
mans, absolved  them  from  the  censures 
which  they  had  incurred,  blessed  their  arms, 
approved  of  the  conquests  they  had  made, 
and  encouraged  them  to  pursue  the  advan- 
tages they  had  already  gained,  and  add  the 
reduction  of  Calabria  to  that  of  Apulia.* 
This  memorable  battle  was  fought  on  the 
eighteenth  of  June,  1053;  and  those  who 
fell  in  it  on  the  pope's  side,  being  looked 
upon  as  martyrs,  though  they  died  in  fighting 
against  as  good  Christians  as  themselves,  a 
church  was  built  to  their  memory  upon  the 
field  of  battle.3 

The  pope  arrived  at  Benevento  on  the 
twenty-third  of  June  of  the  present  year 
1053,  and  continued  there  to  the  twelfth  of 
March  1054.  During  his  stay  in  that  city 
he  received  a  very  respectful  letter  from  the 
emperor  Constantine  Monomachus,  wherein 
he  expressed  a  great  desire  to  see  the  an- 
cient, but  long  interrupted  union  restored 
between   the   sees    of   Constantinople  and 


'  Malater.  1.  ii.  c.  14. 
"Idem  ibid. 


Leo  Ostiens.  1.  ii.  c.  87. 
» Wibert.  Vit.  Leon. 


358 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Leo  IX. 


The  pope  sends  legates  into  the  East.  They  are  well  received  by  the  emperor;— [Year  of  Christ,  1054.]  But 
the  patriarch  declines  all  conferences  with  them.  They  publish  a  treatise  in  defence  of  unleavened  bread. 
Nicctas  obliged  by  the  emperor  to  condemn  his  treatise  against  the  same.  The  legates  excommunicate  the 
patriarch. 


Rome,  and  offered  himself  ready  to  con- 
tribute, so  far  as  in  him  lay,  to  so  good  a 
work;  nay,  he  obliged  the  patriarch,  Mi- 
chael Cerularius,  to  write  to  the  pope  at  the 
same  time,  entreating  his  holiness  to  concur 
with  him  in  re-establishing  the  so  much 
wished-for  harmony  between  the  two 
churches.  The  emperor  flattered  himself, 
that  by  thus  writing  to  the  pope,  he  should 
gain  him,  and  by  his  means  procure  assist- 
ance from  the  emperor  Henry  to  drive  the 
Normans  out  of  Italy  ;  for  that  Constantine 
had  in  his  view,  little  solicitous  about  the 
union  between  the  Greek  and  Latin  churches. 

The  pope,  upon  the  receipt  of  these  let- 
ters, dispatched  three  legates  into  the  East, 
namely,  Humbert,  cardinal  bishop  of  the 
White  Forest,  Peter,  bishop  of  Amalfi,  and 
Frederic,  then  chancellor  of  the  Roman 
church,  and  afterwards  pope  under  the  name 
of  Stephen  IX.  or  X.  They  were  charged 
with  two  letters  in  answer  to  those  which 
the  pope  had  received  from  the  emperor  and 
the  patriarch.  Leo  declared  in  both,  his 
earnest  desire  of  seeing  the  perfect  harmony 
restored  that  had  once  subsisted  between 
the  East  and  the  West,  assured  the  emperor 
that  nothing  should  be  wanting  on  his  side 
to  revive  it,  but  complained,  in  very  strong 
terms,  of  the  patriarch.  Tor  presuming  to 
condemn  the  practice  of  consecrating  in  un- 
leavened bread,  a  practice,  which,  he  said, 
the  Roman  church  had  adopted,  and  con- 
stantly followed  ever  since  the  passion  of 
our  Savior,  or  the  institution  of  the  sacra- 
ment.' 

The  legates  set  out  in  the  month  of  Janu- 
ary, 1054,  for  the  East,  and  being,  upon 
their  arrival  at  Constantinople,  received  by 
the  emperor  with  extraordinary  marks  of 
distinction,  they  told  him  that  they  were 
sent,  at  his  request,  by  the  holy  pope  Leo, 
to  renew  the  ancient  correspondence  and 
good  understanding  between  Constantinople 
and  Rome,  and  begged  his  concurrence  in 
an  undertaking  that  would  no  less  redound 
to  the  honor  of  the  see  of  the  imperial  city 
than  to  his.  The  emperor  promised  to  assist 
them  to  the  utmost  of  his  power.  But  the 
patriarch  could  by  no  means  be  prevailed 
upon  to  confer  with  the  legates,  or  so  much 
as  to  see  them.  Humbert,  therefore,  thought 
it  necessary  to  answer,  in  writing,  the  letter 
he  wrote  to  the  bishop  of  Trani  against  the 
use  of  unleavened  bread  in  the  eucharist,  as 
well  as  some  other  practices,  wherein  the 
Greek  church  differed  from  the  Roman. 
That  letter  he  answered  accordingly  in  a 
dialogue  between  a  member  of  the  church 
of  Constantinople,  and  one  of  the  Roman, 
the  former  objecting  and  the  latter  solving 
the  objections.  The  Roman  lays  great  stress 
on  our  Savior's  having  consecrated  in  un- 


>  Wibert.  Vit.  Leon. 


leavened  bread,  (which  does  not  prove  that 
no  other  should  be  used,  as  has  been  shown 
above)  and  on  the  indecency  of  using  bread, 
bought  in  the  common  market,  and  kneaded 
with  impure  hands  ;  whereas  the  bread,  con- 
secrated in  the  Roman  church,  was  kneaded 
by  the  priests,  the  deacons,  and  the  sub- 
deacons  in  their  sacred  garments,  and  sing- 
ing all  the  while  psalms.  The  Roman  finds 
fault  with  several  other  practices,  which,  it 
seems,  prevailed  at  that  time  among  the 
Greeks,  such  as  their  crumbling  the  conse- 
crated bread  into  the  chalice,  and  taking  it 
with  a  spoon,  their  burning  or  burying  the 
remains  of  the  eucharist,  their  refusing  the 
communion  to  women  in  childbirth,  though 
in  danger  of  their  lives,  and  not  baptizing 
infants  till  the  eighth  day.  This  piece  was 
written  in  Latin,  but  translated  into  Greek 
by  the  emperor's  order,  and  sent  to  the  pa- 
triarch, and  to  all  the  bishops  under  the 
jurisdiction  of  his  see. 

Humbert  likewise  auswered  a  piece  that 
had  been  published  by  a  monk  of  the  mon- 
astery of  Studium,  named  Nicetas,  who  was 
deemed  one  of  the  most  learned  men  at  that 
time  in  the  East.  In  that  piece  the  monk 
undertook  to  prove,  that  leavened  bread  only 
should  be  used  in  the  eucharist,  that  the 
Sabbath  ought  to  be  kept  holy,  and  that 
priests  should  be  allowed  to  marry.  But  the 
emperor,  who  wanted  by  all  means  to  gain 
the  pope,  for  the  reasons  mentioned  above, 
was,  or  rather  pretended  to  be,  so  fully  con- 
vinced with  the  arguments  of  the  legate, 
confuting  those  alleged  by  Nicetas,  that  he 
obliged  the  monk  publicly  to  recant,  and 
anathematize  all  who  held  the  opinion  that 
he  had  endeavored  to  establish,  with  respect 
to  unleavened  bread,  the  Sabbath,  and  the 
marriage  of  priests.  At  the  same  time  Ni- 
cetas, in  compliance  with  the  command  of 
the  emperor,  anathematized  aU  who  should 
question  the  primacy  of  the  Roman  church 
with  respect  to  all  other  Christian  churches, 
or  should  presume  to  censure  her  ever  or- 
thodox faith.  The  monk  having  thus  re- 
tracted all  he  had  written  against  the  holy 
see,  his  book  was  burnt  by  the  emperor's 
order,  and  he  absolved,  by  the  legates,  from 
the  censures  he  had  incurred.' 

Constantine  spared  no  pains,  no  threats, 
nor  promises,  to  get  the  patriarch  to  retract, 
after  the  example  of  Nicetas,  what  he  had 
written  against  the  Roman  church  in  his 
letter  to  the  bishop  of  Trani.  But  his  en- 
deavors were  all  to  no  purpose,  the  patri- 
arch declaring,  with  unshaken  constancy, 
that  the  emperor  might,  if  he  pleased,  re- 
move him,  but  that  no  power  upon  earth 
should  ever  make  him  betray  his  trust,  by 
subjecting  the  see  of  the  imperial  city  to  that 
of  Rome.     The   legates,  therefore,  finding 

'  Apud  Baron,  ad  ann.  1054. 


Leo  IX.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


359 


The  legates  leave  Constantinople.    Snare  laid  for  iheni  by  the  patriarch.    The  patriarch  guilty  of  forgery. 
The  sentence  against  the  patriarch  left  by  the  legates  at  their  departure. 


him  thus  unaUerable,  went,  on  the  sixteenth 
of  July  to  the  church  of  St.  Sophia,  attended 
by  their  retinue  and  some  of  the  chief  of- 
ficers of  the  empire,  and  there,  after  com- 
plaining of  the  obstinacy  of  the  patriarch,  in 
the  presence  of  the  clergy  and  a  great  multi- 
tude of  people  come  to  assist  at  divine  ser- 
vice, they  laid  the  sentence  of  excommuni- 
cation against  the  patriarch  in  writing  upon 
the  high  altar,  and  then  leaving  the  church, 
shook  off  the  dust  from  their  feet,  saying, 
let  God  look  down  and  judge  him. 

The  legates  left  Constantinople  two  days 
after,  pronouncing,  upon  their  departure, 
sentence  of  excommunication  against  all 
who  should  thenceforth  receive  the  sacra- 
ment administered  by  any  Greek  who  found 
fault  with  the  sacrifice  or  mass  of  the  Latins. 
The  emperor  loaded  them,  at  their  setting 
out,  with  presents  for  St.  Peter,  the  pope, 
and  themselves.  But  two  days  after  their 
departure,  the  patriarch,  applying  to  the 
emperor,  declared  that  he  was  willing  to 
confer  with  them,  and  begged  they  might 
be  recalled.  The  emperor  thereupon  imme- 
diately dispatched  a  messenger  after  them, 
who  overtook  them  at  Selimbria ;  and  they 
returned  with  him  the  next  day  to  Constan- 
tinople. The  patriarch,  hearing  of  their  re- 
turn, invited  them  to  meet  him  the  following 
day  in  a  council,  which  he  had  appointed  to 
assemble  in  the  great  church  of  St.  Sophia. 
But  the  emperor,  apprehending  that  the  pa- 
triarch had  laid  some  snare  for  the  legates, 
declared  that  no  council  should  meet  unless 
he  was  present  at  it  in  person.  Th^s  put 
the  patriarch  into  some  confusion,  which 
greatly  increased  the  emperor's  suspicion, 
who  thereupon  advised  the  legates  to  depart 
without  delay  ;  and  they  did  so  accordingly. 
It  was  afterwards  found  that  the  patriarch 
had  falsified  the  sentence  of  excommunica- 
tion left  by  the  legates  on  the  altar,  and 
filled  it  with  such  severe  reflections  on  the 
Greeks  in  general,  as  would  have  incensed 
the  multitude,  and,  in  all  likelihood,  proved 
fatal  to  the  legates.  The  patriarch,  finding 
his  design  thus  defeated  by  the  emperor, 
stirred  up  the  people  against  him,  as  acting 
in  concert  with  the  legates,  and  sacrificing 
the  undoubted  rights  of  the  church  of  Con- 
stantinople to  the  ambition  of  the  pope  and 
his  legates.  The  discontent  this  occasioned 
among  the  people,  as  well  as  the  clergy, 
became  so  general,  that  the  emperor,  to 
satisfy  them,  was  obliged  to  cause  the  two 
Latin  interpreters,  Paul,  and  his  son  Sma- 
ragdus,  to  be  publicly  whipped  and  delivered 
up  to  the  patriarch. 

In  the  mean  time  the  emperor,  suspecting 
the  sentence  of  excommunication  left  by  the 
legates  to  have  been  falsified  by  the  patri- 
arch, dispatched  a  messenger  after  them  for 
a  true  copy  of  that  sentence.  The  messen- 
ger overtook  the  legates  in  the  country  of 


the  Russians,  and  from  thence  brought  back 
with  him  a  copy  of  that  sentence,  which  he 
solemnly  attested  to  be  genuine.  That  copy 
the  emperor  caused  to  be  immediately  made 
public,  to  the  no  small  mortification  of  the 
patriarch :  but  not  thinking  it  safe  to  remove 
him,  as  he  was  a  great  favorite  of  the  popu- 
lace, he  contented  himself  with  depriving 
his  friends  and  relations  of  their  employ- 
ments, and  banishing  them  all  from  the  court. 
The  substance  of  the  true  sentence,  as 
published  by  the  emperor,  was  as  follows  : 
"We  Humbert,  bv  the  grace  of  God,  cardi- 
nal bishop  of  the  holy  Roman  church,  Peter 
archbishop  of  Amalfi,  Frederic  deacon  and 
chancellor,  to  all  the  sons  of  the  catholic 
church.  The  holy  Roman  and  apostolic 
see,  the  first  of  all  sees,  and  charged,  as 
such,  with  the  care  of  all  churches,  has  sent 
us  to  this  imperial  city,  to  inquire,  upon  the 
spot,  into  the  truth  of  what  is  reported  con- 
cerning it.  Indeed  we  have  found  what 
affords  us  great  matter  of  joy,  and  likewise 
what  gives  us  great  grief  and  concern.  For 
as  to  the  pillars  of  the  empire,  those,  who  are 
distinguished  with  dignities  in  the  govern- 
ment, and  the  citizens  of  any  rank  in  the 
city,  are  most  Christian  and  orthodox.  But 
as  to  Michael,  improperly  called  patriarch, 
and  his  adherents,  the  tares  of  numberless 
heresies  are  sowed  daily  by  them.  They 
are  simoniacs,  and  sell  the  gift  of  God ; 
they  not  only  ordain  eunuchs,  but  prefer 
them,  in  defiance  of  the  canons,  to  the  epis- 
copal dignity ;  like  the  Arians,  they  rebaptize 
those  who  have  been  baptized  in  the  name 
of  the  Trinity,  especially  the  Latins;  they 
maintain,  that  besides  the  Greek  church 
there  is  no  true  church  in  the  world,  and  no 
true  sacrifice,  no  true  baptism  out  of  that 
church  ;  like  the  Nicolaites,  they  permit  the 
ministers  of  the  altar  to  marry ;  like  the 
Severians,  they  call  the  law  of  Moses  an 
accursed  law;  like  the  Pneumatomachi,  they 
have  left  out  of  the  Symbol  the  procession 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  from  the  Son  ;  like  the 
Manichees,  they  maintain,  among  other 
things,  that  whatever  is  leavened  is  ani- 
mated ;  like  the  Nazarenes,  they  observe 
the  purifications  of  the  Jews  ;  will  not  suffer 
children,  even  in  imminent  danger,  to  be  bap- 
tized before  the  eighth  day,  nor  women  in 
childbed  to  receive  the  eucharist,  or  baptism, 
if  they  are  Pagans;  they  deny  their  com- 
munion to  those  who  cut  their  hair,  or 
shave  their  beards,  as  is  practised  in  the 
Roman  church.  Of  these  errors  and  many 
wicked  deeds  Michael  has  been  admonished 
by  our  lord  pope  Leo,  but  has  not  hearkened 
to  his  admonitions;  nay  he  would  not  so 
much  as  see  us,  or  converse  with  us,  though 
desirous  of  curing  these  evils  jointly  with 
him,  nor  would  he  allow  us  churches  for 
the  celebration  of  mass.  He  had  before  shut 
up  the  churches  of  the  Latins,  calling  them. 


360 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Leo  IX. 


Letter  of  the  patriarch  of  Constantinople  to  the  patriarch  of  Antioch.     The  patriarch  of  Antioch's  answer. 

returns  to  Rome  and  dies. 


Leo 


by  way  of  contempt,  Azimites,  persecuting 
them  as  heretics,  and  in  them  the  holy  apos- 
tolic se,e ;  in  opposition  to  which  he  assumes 
the  title  of  universal  patriarch.  We  there- 
fore, by  the  authority  of  the  holy  and  undi- 
vided Trinity,  of  the  holy  apostolic  see,  of  all 
the  orthodox  fathers,  of  the  seven  general 
councils,  and  of  the  whole  catholic  church, 
subscribe  the  anathema,  that  our  most  rever- 
end lord  the  pope  has  pronounced  against 
Michael  and  his  followers  unless  they  re- 
pent, and  say — May  Michael,  the  false  patri- 
arch, the  neophyte,  who  took  the  monastic 
habit  out  of  fear  of  men,  and  is  even  now 
charged  by  many  with  the  worst  of  crimes, 
and  with  him  Leo,  called  bishop  of  Acris, 
and  Consiantine,  Michael's  treasurer,  who 
has  profanely  trodden  upon  the  sacrifice  of 
the  Latins,  may  they  and  all  their  followers 
be  anathematized  with  the  above  mentioned 
and  all  other  heretics,  nay  with  the  devil 
and  his  angels,  unless  they  repent.  Amen, 
amen,  amen."  Another  excommunication 
•was  thundered  out  by  the  legates,  in  the 
presence  of  the  emperor  and  the  nobles  of  his 
court,  in  the  following  words:  "Whoever 
shall  find  fault  with  the  faith  of  the  holy  see 
of  Rome,  and  its  sacrifice,  let  him  be  anathe- 
matized, and  not  looked  upon  as  a  Christian 
catholic,  but  as  a  Prozimite  heretic.  Fiat, 
fiat,  fiat." 

The  patriarch,  highly  provoked  at  the 
insolence  of  the  legates,  wrote  a  long  letter 
to  Peter,  patriarch  of  Antioch,  calculated  to 
persuade  him  to  break  off  all  communication 
with  the  Roman  church.  In  that  letter  he 
pretended  that  the  three  legates  were  impos- 
tors, not  sent  by  the  pope,  but  by  Argyrus, 
the  emperor's  lieutenant  in  Italy,  with  a 
design  to  promote  the  opinions  of  the  Latins, 
and  engage  them,  by  that  means,  to  assist 
him  in  his  wars  with  the  Normans.  He 
tells  the  patriarch  of  Antioch,  that  the  em- 
peror, and  he  at  the  emperor's  request,  wrote 
to  the  pope,  expressing,  in  their  letters,  a 
most  sincere  desire  ofseeingthe  two  churches 
happily  re-united ,  but  that  Argyrus,  applying 
to  his  own  use  the  presents  which  the  em- 
peror had  sent  to  the  pope,  and  keeping  the 
letters,  forged  answers  to  them  in  the  pope's 
name,  and  sent  them  by  three  impostors  to 
Contantinople,  namely,  by  one,  who  had 
been  bishop  of  Amalfi,  but  was  driven  from 
that  see,  and  deposed  for  his  wickedness;  by 
another  who  styled  himself  chancellor;  and 
a  third  who  assumed  the  title  of  archbishop, 
but  nobody  could  tell  where  his  bishopric 
lay.  In  the  next  place  the  patriarch  describes 
the  haughty  behavior  of  the  three  pretended 
legates  to  the  emperor  as  well  as  to  him, 
and  then  enumerates  the  many  abuses  that 
prevailed  in  the  Roman  church,  and  most 
other  churches  in  the  West,  such  as  their 
using  unleavened  bread  in  the  eucharist; 
their  shaving  their  beards ;  eating  unclean 
and  suffocated  meats;  forbidding  priests  to 


n)arry ;  eating  flesh  on  Wednesdays,  and 
cheese  and  eggs  on  Fridays,  and  adding  to 
the  Symbol  that  the  Holy  Ghost  proceeded 
from  the  Father  and  the  Son.  He  closes  his 
letter  with  exhorting  the  patriarch  of  Antioch 
to  renounce  the  communion  of  a  church 
infected  with  so  many  errors  in  faith,  as 
well  as  practices  repugnant  to  those  of  the 
primitive  church.' 

This  letter  the  patriarch  of  Antioch  an- 
swered, expressing  great  surprise,  in  his  let- 
ter, at  the  boldness  of  Argyrus,  in  presuming 
to  impose  forged  letters  upon  the  emperor, 
as  written  by  the  pope;  and  he  seems  to 
question  the  truth  of  the  fact.  As  to  the  er- 
rors charged  upon  the  Latins,  he  Avas  of 
opinion  that  most  of  them  might  be  connived 
at;  for  what  matters  it,  said  he,  whether  they 
shave  theirbeards,  or  let  them  grow,;  whether 
they  eat  certain  meats,  or  abstain  from  them, 
as  no  meats  are  forbidden ;  whether  on  cer- 
tain days  they  fast  or  they  feast :  they  are  our 
brethren,  and  as  we  can  only  look  upon  them 
as  barbarians,  it  behoves  us  to  wink  at  their 
less  gross  errors,  and  content  ourselves  with 
their  holding  the  true  doctrine  concerning 
the  mysteries  of  the  Trinity  and  the  incarna- 
tion. With  respect  to  leavened  or  unleaven- 
ed bread,  the  patriarch  will  have  the  different 
churches  to  retain  their  different  customs, 
and  not  to  quarrel  about  a  point  of  so  little 
moment,  but  thinks  that  the  Greeks  should 
all  insist  upon  the  Latins  allowing  their 
priests  to  marry,  and  altering  the  symbol, 
where  the  Holy  Ghost  is  said  to  proceed  from 
the  Father  and  the  Son.  He  closed  his  letter 
with  exhorting  his  brother,  the  patriarch  of 
Constantinople,  to  use  moderation,  and  bear 
with  the  customs  of  the  Latins,  though  dif- 
ferent from  those  of  the  Greeks,  rather  than 
break  the  union,  as  such  a  breach  would  be 
attended  with  the  worst  of  evils.  But  the 
patriarch,  provoked  beyond  measure  at  the 
haughty  behavior  of  the  legates,  instead  of 
following  the  more  moderate  councils  of  his 
brother  of  Antioch,  sowed  such  seeds  of  di- 
vision between  the  East  and  the  West,  as 
keep  them  divided  to  this  day,  notwithstand- 
ing the  frequent  attempts  that  have  been 
made,  at  different  times,  to  heal  that  division. 

Leo  died  before  the  legates  returned  to 
Rome.  He  staid  at  Benevento  till  the  12lh 
of  March,  1054,  when,  being  taken  ill,  he 
desired  count  Humfrid  to  escort  him  to  Capua, 
which  the  count  did  very  readily,  attended  by 
most  of  the  chief  officers  of  his  army.  At 
Capua  the  pope  staid  twelve  days,  and  from 
thence  returned  to  Rome  a  little  before  Easter, 
which  in  1054  fell  on  the  3d  of  April.  He 
remained  a  kw  days  in  the  Lateran  palace, 
and  it  being  revealed  to  him  there,  as  we  are 
told,  that  his  end  was  at  hand,  he  caused 
himself  to  be  carried  in  a  litter  to  the  oratory 
of  St.  Peter.     There  he  received  the  sacra- 


<  Baron,  ubi  supra. 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


Victor  II.] 

Leo's  cliaracler.     Victor  II.  chosen  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1 
A  bishop  miraculously 


361 


055.]     Holds  a  council  at  Florence.    Council  of  Lyons. 
convicted  of  simony. 


ment,  and  being  removed  from  thence  to  an 
adjoining  house,  that  belonged  to  his  see,  he 
died  the  next  day,  the  19th  of  April,  in  the 
fiftieth  ye;ir  of  his  age,  having  governed  the 
church  of  Toul  twenty-eight  years,  and  that 
of  Rome,  five  years,  two  months,  and  seven 
days. 

He  spared  no  pains  during  the  whole  time 
of  his  pontificate  to  reform  the  many  scan- 
dalous abuses  that  had  been  tolerated,  and 
even  encouraged  by  his  wicked  predecessors. 
Simony,  that  prevailed  all  over  France,  as 
well  as  Italy,  he  entirely  extirpated,  punish- 
ing, witli  tlie  utmost  severity,  all  whom  he 
found  guilty  of  that  crime.  He  constantly 
lay  on  the  ground,  wore  a  hair-cloth  next  to 
his  skin,  practised  many  other  austerities, 
and,  while  he  was  at  Rome,  walked  bare- 
footed, three  days  in  the  week,  from  the 
Lateran  palace  to  St.  Peter's.  Hisgenerosity 
to  the  poor  knew  no  bounds;  and,  we  are 
told,  that  seeing  one  day  a  leper  at  the  door 
of  his  palace,  he  carried  him  upon  his  shoul- 


ders, and  put  him  into  his  own  bed,  but  that 
though  the  doors  were  kept  shut,  he  could 
not  be  found  the  next  day,  whence  it  was 
concluded,  that  Clirist  liiiuself  had  taken 
that  shape.  In  ambition,  he  etpjalled  the 
most  ambitious  of  his  predecessors,  letting  no 
opportunity  of  aggrandizing  his  see  pass  un- 
improved. His  crediting  the  false  reports 
that  were  spread  of  the  Normans  by  their 
enemies,  his  painting  them  to  both  emperors 
as  a  most  barbarous  and  savage  race,  his 
making  war  upon  them,  and  heading  his 
army  in  person,  are  actions  that  even  those 
have  highly  condemned  who  speak  the  most 
favourably  of  him.  However,  he  has  been 
honoured  with  a  place  in  the  calendar,  and 
his  remains  are  still  worshiped  under  the 
altar  in  St.  Peter's  church,  that  Paul  V. 
erected,  in  ICOG,  to  his  memory.  Leo  was 
the  first  pope  that  marked  in  his  bulls  the 
years  of  our  Lord,  the  preceding  popes 
using  no  other  date  but  that  of  the  indic- 
tions. 


VICTOR  IL,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  FIFTIETH  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[TiiEODOKA  PoRPiiynoGENiTA,  MiciUEL  Stratioticus,  Isaacius  Comnenus,  Emperors  of  the 
East. — Henry  III.  Henry  IV.,  Emperors  of  the  West.J 


[Year  of  Christ,  1055.]  As,  upon  the 
death  of  Leo,  no  person  was  to  be  found  in 
the  Roman  church  fit  to  be  raised  to  the 
pontifical  chair,  the  people  and  clergy  of 
Rome  dispatched  the  monk  Hildebrand,  a 
man  of  great  cunning  and  address,  into  Ger- 
many, empowering  him  to  choose  there  one, 
in  their  name,  whom  he  should  think  equal 
to  so  great  a  trust.  This  commission  Hilde- 
brand readily  undertook,  and  the  person  he 
chose  was  Gebeliard,  bishop  of  Eichsted,  a 
near  relation  of  the  emperor,  and  the  most 
wealthy  and  powerful  lord  in  tiie  whole  em- 
pire. As  he  was  a  man  of  uncommon  parts, 
of  groat  experience  in  the  management  of 
public  affairs,  and  the  emperor  was  entirely 
governed  by  his  counsels,  he  could  not,  for 
a  long  time,  be  prevailed  upon  to  consent  to 
his  election,  and  deprive  himself  of  so  able 
and  so  faithful  a  counsellor;  the  rather  as 
Gebehard  himself  strongly  opposed  his  own 
election,  being  as  unwilling  to  part  with  the 
emperor,  as  the  emperor  was  to  part  with 
him.  But  Hildebrand  obstinately  persisting 
in  the  election  he  had  made,  though  many 
others  were  named  to  him,  all  men  of  unex- 
ceptionable characters,  they  were  both  in 
the  end  forced  to  yield.  Gebehard  therefore, 
taking  his  leave  of  the  emperor,  repaired 
with  Hildebrand  to  Rome,  where  he  was 
received  with  the  greatest  demonstrations  of 

Vol.  II.— 46 


joy  both  by  the  people  and  the  clergy,  and 
enthroned,  under  the  name  of  Victor  II.,. 
with  the  usual  solemnity,  on  Maunday- 
Thursday,  which  in  1055  fell  on  the  13th  of 
April,  when  the  see  had  been  vacant  ever 
since  the  19th  of  the  same  month  1054.' 

Victor,  a  few  days  after  his  inauguration,, 
went  to  meet  the  emperor  at  Florence,  and 
held  there  a  general  council ;  that  is,  a  coun- 
cil consisting  of  most  of  the  Italian,  and  such 
of  the  German  bishops  as  attended  the  em- 
peror. By  this  council  several  abuses  were 
redressed,  the  alienating  the  goods  of  the 
church  was  strictly  forbidden,^  and  the  doc- 
trine of  Berengarius  was  anew  condemned.' 
At  the  same  time  the  pope  sent  Hildebrand, 
though  then  only  a  subdeacon  of  the  Roman 
church,  into  France,  with  the  character  of 
his  legate,  to  correct  the  abuses  that  pre- 
vailed in  those  parts,  especially  simoniacal 
ordinations.  Hildebrand  convened  a  great 
council  at  Lyons',  and  proceeding,  with  the 
utmost  severity,  against  the  delinquents,  de- 
posed no  fewer  than  six  bishops  accused 
and  convicted  of  different  crimes.  Among 
these  was  one  arraigned  of  simony;  but  the 
charge  not  being  fully  proved  on  the  day 
when  it  was  first  brought  against  him,  he 
found  means,  in  the  night,  to  buy  off  the  ac- 


>  Leo  Ostiens.  I.  ii.  c.  90. 

>  Petru3  Daniian.  I.  xii-  ep.  4. 

2F 


'  Lanfranc. 


362 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Victor  II. 


Berengarius  condemned  in  a  council  held  at  Tours.  Ferdinand,  king  of  Castile,  ordered  by  the  pope  not  to 
take  upon  him  the  title  of  emperor.  Council  of  Toulouse ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1056.]  The  pope  Koes  into 
Germany,  and  attends  the  emperor  in  his  last  hours.     Victor  dies  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  1057]. 


cusers,  as  well  as  the  witnesses,  and  ap- 
pearing the  next  day  undaunted  before  the 
council,  he  pleaded  not  guilty,  challenging 
those  who  had  accused  him,  to  produce  their 
witnesses  and  prove  the  charge  to  the  satis- 
faction ot'the  council.  As  nobody  appeared, 
the  bishops  were  all  of  opinion  that  judg- 
ment should  be  given  in  his  favor.  But 
Hildebrand,  addressing  him  with  a  deep 
sigh,  "do  you  believe,"  said  he,  "that  the 
Holy  Ghost  is  of  the  same  divine  substance 
with  the  Father  and  the  Son?"  "  1  do  be- 
lieve it,"  answered  the  bishop.  "  If  you 
do,"  replied  Hildebrand,  say,  "Glory  be  to 
the  Father,  to  the  Son,  and  to  the  Holy 
Ghost."  The  bishop  named,  without  the 
least  hesitation,  the  Father  and  the  Son,  but 
could  never  utter  the  name  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  though  he  attempted  it  several  times  ; 
which  struck  the  bishop  with  such  terror, 
that  being  conscious  to  himself  of  his  guilt, 
he  threw  himself  at  Hildebrand's  feet,  con- 
fessed his  crime,  and  being  thereupon  di- 
vested of  his  episcopal  dignity,  he  imme- 
diately pronounced  the  name  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  with  the  same  ease  as  he  did  the 
names  of  the  two  other  divine  persons. 
Strange!  that  any  of  the  popes  should  have 
been  able,  for  a  whole  century,  to  utter  that 
divine  name.  This  story  is  related  by  Petrus 
Damianus,  who  lived  at  this  time,  in  a  let- 
ter to  pope  Nicholas,'  by  Desiderius,  abbot 
of  Monte  Cassino,  who  declares,  in  his  dia- 
logues, that  he  had  it  from  Hildebrand  him- 
self, and  by  Malmsbury,  upon  the  authority 
of  St.  Hugh,  abbot  of  Cluny,  a  contemporary 
writer.- 

In  the  same  year,  another  council  was 
held  by  Hildebrand,  at  Tours,  in  which  the 
doctrine  of  Berengarius  was  again  con- 
demned ;  for  it  had  taken  deep  root  in 
France,  and  begun  to  spread  there.  An 
anonymous  author,  who  wrote  in  1088,  tells 
us,  that  in  this  council,  leave  was  given  to 
Berengarius  to  defend  his  doctrine;  but  not 
being  able  to  maintain  it,  he  abjured  his 
heresy,  and  promised,  upon  oath,  to  hold 
thenceforth  no  other  doctrine  but  that  of  the 
church,  with  respect  to  the  eucharist.^  Lan- 
franc,  who  was  present  at  this  council,  re- 
proaches his  antagonist,  Berengarius,  in  the 
following  words:  "In  the  council  of  Tours, 
at  which  assisted  the  legates  of  pope  Victor, 
you  were  permitted  to  defend  your  opinion, 
but  not  daring  to  do  it,  you  confessed,  in  the 
presence  of  all,  the  common  faith  of  the 
church,  and  swore  that  you  would  thence- 
forth hold  no  other."  But  though  he  thus 
publicly  retracted  his  opinion  out  of  fear,  he 
was  not  convinced  of  its  being  erroneous, 
and  therefore  still  continued  to  hold,  and 
even  to  teach  it,  with  good  success. 


«  Petrus  Damion.  Opuscul.  19.  c.  6. 

2  Malmsb.  de  Gest.  Reg.  Angl.  1.  3. 

3  Anonymus.  Chifflet  de  multiplicj  Bereng.  Damna- 
tione.    Malmes.  ubi  gup.  p.  113. 


To  this  council  the  emperor  Henry  sent 
embassadors,  to  complain  of  Ferdinand  the 
Great,  king  of  Castile  and  Leon,  for  assu- 
ming the  title  of  emperor,  and  refusing  to 
obey  the  emperor  of  the  Romans.  Henry 
begged  that  Ferdinand  might  be  excommu- 
nicated, and  his  kingdoms  put  under  an  in- 
terdict, if  he  did  not  obey  him,  and  relin- 
quish the  title  of  emperor.  Hildebrand  did 
not  let  so  favorable  an  opportunity  of  ex- 
tending the  papal  power  and  authority  over 
princes,  pass  unimproved.  He  immediately 
acquainted  Victor  with  the  request  of  the 
emperor,  and  having  prevailed  upon  him  to 
comply  with  it,  he  dispatched  legates  into 
Spain,  to  let  Ferdinand  know  that  if  he  did 
not  renounce  the  title  of  emperor,  to  which 
he  had  no  kind  of  right,  and  submit  to 
Henry,  the  only  true  emperor,  pursuant 
to  the  decree  of  the  sovereign  pontiff,  and 
the  council  assembled,  by  his  orders,  at 
Tours,  the  sentence  of  excommunication 
and  interdict  would  be  thundered  out  against 
him  and  his  subjects.  This  haughty  mes- 
sage occasioned  the  assembling  of  a  council, 
at  which  were  present  most  of  the  chief 
bishops  and  lords  of  the  two  kingdoms;  and 
it  was  determined,  after  a  long  and  warm 
debate,  that  the  king  should,  for  the  sake  of 
peace,  comply  with  the  command  of  the 
pope  and  the  council;  and  he  complied 
with  it  accordingly.' 

The  following  year,  1056,  another  council 
was  held,  by  the  pope's  order,  at  Toulouse, 
under  Rambald,  Pontius,  and  Wilfrid,  arch- 
bishops of  Aries,  Aix  and  Narbonne,  ap- 
pointed to  preside  at  it  with  the  character  of 
legates  of  the  apostolic  see.  The  council  met 
on  the  13th  of  Seplemberj  consisted  of  sev- 
enteen bishops,  and  thirteen  canons  were 
made  by  it  against  simony  and  the  inconti- 
nence of  the  clergy.^  The  council  was  yet 
sitting  when  the  pope,  at  the  request  of  the 
emperor,  who  was  taken  dangerously  ill, 
went  into  Germany,  and  finding  him,  upon 
his  arrival  at  Goslar,  near  his  end,  he  at- 
tended him  in  his  last  hours.  Henry  died 
on  the  5th  of  October  of  the  present  year, 
having  caused  his  son  Henry,  the  fourth  of 
that  name,  then  about  seven  years  old,  to  be 
acknowledged  by  the  pope  for  his  successor ; 
and  it  was  chiefly  for  that  purpose  he  had 
sent  for  him.  The  pope  assembled  a  gene- 
ral diet  at  Cologne,  before  he  left  Germany, 
in  order  to  reconcile  the  malecontenis,  among 
whom  Avere  some  lords  of  great  power,  wiilt 
the  empress  Agnes,  appointed  to  govern 
during  the  minority  of  her  son. 

The  pope  celebrated  the  Christmas  festival 
at  Ratisbon  with  the  young  prince,  and  from 
thence  returned  to  Rome.  But  leaving  that 
city  soon  after,  he  went  into  Tuscany,  and 
died  there  in  June,  1057,  having  held  the 


»  Mariana  in  Ferdinand.  &  apud  Baron,  ad  huncann. 
a  Concil.  tom.  ix.  p.  1084. 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


36d 


Stephen  IX.  or  X.] 

Stephen  IX.  chosen.     His  family  employments,  &c.     Councils  held  at  Rome.    The  pope  at  Monte  Cassino 


see  two  years,  three  months  and  some  days. 
Of  this  pope  we  have  but  one  letter,  whereby 
he  confirms  all  the  privileges  granted  by 
his  predecessors  to  the  bishops  of"  the  White 
Forest.  He  is  said  lo  have  been  preserved 
from  an  imminent  danger  by  the  following 
miracle  :  A  subdeacon  put  a  dose  of  poison, 
upoa  what  provocation  we  know  not,  into 
the  chalire,  while  the  pope  was  celebrating 
mass,  which  would  have  soon  put  an  end  to 
his  life  ;  but  he  could  not,  with  all  his  might, 
lift  up  the  chalice  to  drink  the  consecrated 
wine.  Such  an  extraordinary  event  sur- 
prised him  and  the  whole  congregation,  and 


they  ail  I'ell  upon  their  knees,  beseeching 
the  Almighty  to  discover  the  cause  of  so  mi- 
raculous an  effect.  While  they  were  pray- 
ing, the  subdeacon  was  suddenly  seized 
with  the  devil;  and  he  thereupon  publicly 
confessed  his  crime,  begging  tlie  pope  and 
the  congregation  to  forgive  him,  winch  the 
holy  pontiff  not  only  did  very  readily,  but 
continued  praying  for  him  with  all  who 
were  present,  till  the  evil  spirit  left  him.  As 
for  the  poisoned  chalice  and  the  consecrated 
wine,  he  caused  them  to  be  shut  up  in  an 
altar,  and  to  be  kept  there  for  ever  with  other 
relics.' 


STEPHEN  IX.  OR  X.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  FIFTY-FIRST 
BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[IsAACius  CoMNENUS,  Empcror  of  the  East. — Henry  IV.,  King  of  Germany.'] 


[Year  of  Christ,  10.57.]  The  unexpected 
news  of  Victor's  death  was  brought  to  Rome 
by  Boniface,  bisliop  of  Albano;  and  Frede- 
ric, cardinal  of  St.  Chrysogonus,  and  chan- 
cellor of  the  Roman  church,  happening 
then  to  be  there,  the  leading  men  of  the  peo- 
ple and  clergy  went  immediately  to  the 
palace  Pallaria,  where  he  was  lodged,  to 
advise  with  him  about  the  election  of  a  new 
pope.  The  cardinal  named  five  to  them, 
whom  he  thought  the  most  worthy  of,  and  all 
alike  equal  to  the  pontifical  dignity.  These 
were  Humbert,  bishop  of  the  White' Forest 
or  St.  Rufina,  the  bishops  of  Veletri,  of  Pe- 
rugia, of  Tusculum,  and  Hildebrand,  sub- 
deacon of  the  Roman  church.  But  the  Ro- 
mans, thinking  none  better  qualified  for  so 
high  a  station  than  Frederic  himself,  de- 
clared they  would  choose  him,  and  no  other. 
He  answered,  "  God's  will  bo  done ;  you 
can  neither  bestow  that  dignity  upon  me, 
nor  take  it  from  me  against  his  will."  Some 
were  for  putting  off  the  election  till  Hilde- 
brand returned,  who  had  attended  the  late 
pope  into  Tuscany.  But  the  greater  part, 
thinking  no  time  was  to  be  lost,  went  early 
the  next  day  to  the  palace  of  Pallaria,  and  car- 
rying Frederic  from  thence  to  the  church  of 
St.  Peter  ad  Vincula,  they  there  unani- 
mously elected  him,  under  the  name  of  Ste- 
phen IX.,  his  election  happening  on  the  2d 
of  August,  the  festival  of  the  pope  of  that 
name.  He  was  at  the  same  time  enthroned 
in  the  Lateran  basilic,  and  the  next  day  sol- 
emnly consecrated  in  the  church  of  St. 
Peter,  where  that  ceremony  was  constantly 
performed,  sometimes  after,  but  commonly 
before  the  enthronation.' 

Frederic  was  brother  to  Godfrey,  duke  of 
Lorraine,  in  those   days   a   very    powerful 


Leo  Ostiens.  1.  ii.  c. 


prince.     In  the  time  of  Leo   IX.,  he  was 

archdeacon  of  the  church  of  Liege;  but 
having  attended  that  pope  while  in  Ger- 
many, and  accompanied  him  from  thence  to 
Rome,  he  was  by  him  made  chancellor  of 
the  Roman  church,  and  sent,  with  Hum- 
bert and  Peter  of  Amalfi,  into  the  East,  to 
negotiate  an  union  between  the  churches  of 
Constantinople  and  Rome.  On  his  return 
to  Rome,  he  was  created  cardinal  deacon  of 
St.  Chrysogonus,  and  embracing  soon  after 
a  monastic  life  at  Monte  Cassino,  he  was, 
by  the  intrigues  of  cardinal  Humbert,  made 
abbot  of  that  monastery  ;  and  it  was  on  his 
return  from  Tuscany,  whither  he  had  gone 
to  be  consecrated  abbot  by  the  pope,  that  he 
received  the  unexpected  news  of  his  death. 

The  new  pope  stayed  four  months  at 
Rome  after  his  election,  during  which  time 
he  held  several  councils  against  incestuous 
marriages  and  the  marriages  of  priests  ;  and 
in  one  of  these  councils  it  was  decreed  that 
such  priests  as  had  married  since  the  prohi- 
bition of  Leo  IX.  should  be  degraded,  and 
for  ever  expelled  the  order,  and  that  even 
those  among  them  who  sincerely  repented 
of  their  crime,  and  had  done  penance  for  it 
of  their  own  accord,  should  nevertheless  quit 
the  ecclesiastical  order  for  a  time,  and  be 
forever  debarred  from  saying  mass.^ 

The  pope  continued  at  Rome  till  the  fes- 
tival of  St.  Andrew,  and  then  repairing  to 
Monte  Cassino,  he  staid  there  till  the  feast 
of  St.  Scholastica,  that  is,  till  the  20th  of 
February,  1058,  striving  to  reform  some 
abuses,  especially  that  of  private  property, 
which  had  crept  into  that  monastery.  Du- 
ring his  stay  at  Monte  Cassino  he  fell  dan- 
gerously ill,  and  thinking  himself  near  his 


'  Lambert.  Schaffnaburg.  ad  ann.  1054.     Uspergens. 
Abb.  ad  eundem  ann. 
'  Petrus  Damian.  Epist.  ad  Epis.  Taurin. 


364 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES,         [Stephen  IX.  or  X. 


Petrus  Damianus  made  cardinal  and  bishop  of  Ostia  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  1058.]  The  pope  seizes  on  the  wealth 
of  Monte  Cassino  ;  but  restores  it.  The  pope  issues  a  decree  concerning  the  election  of  his  successor.  He 
dies  at  Florence.     His  writings. 

end,  he  desired  the  monks  to  choose  them- 
selves another  abbot  in  his  room ;  and  they 
accordingly  chose,  with  one  consent,  Desi- 
derius,  monk  of  that  monastery,  who  was 
afterwards  created  cardinal  by  pope  Nicholas 
II.,  and  raised,  upon  the  death  of  Gregory 
VII.,  to  the  pontifical  dignity,  under  the 
name  of  Victor  III.  The  pope  approved 
and  confirmed  the  election  of  Desiderius,  but 
upon  condition  that  it  should  not  take  place 
till  after  his  death,  and  he  still  should  be 
abbot,  if  he  recovered.'  He  is  said  to  have 
followed  therein  the  example  of  his  two  im- 
mediate predecessors,  who  kept,  after  their 
promotion,  what  they  held  before  it,  the  one 
the  bishopric  of  Toul,  and  the  other  that  of 
Eichsted. 

Stephen  upon  his  return  to  Rome  con- 
ferred the  dignity  of  cardinal  on  Petrus 
Damianus,  and  at  the  same  time  preferred 
him  to  the  bishopric  of  Ostia.  He  was  one 
of  the  most  learned  as  well  as  the  best  men 
of  his  age,  had  embraced  a  monastic  life, 
and  was  so  fond  of  retirement,  that  he  could 
by  no  means  be  prevailed  upon  to  accept 
either  of  those  dignities,  till  the  pope  threat- 
ened him  with  excommunication  if  he  did 
not  comply.2  Ciaconius  supposes,  upon 
what  authority  I  know  not,  six  other  cardi- 
nals to  have  been  created  «t  the  same  time, 
and  will  have  this  to  have  been  the  first 
solemn  creation  of  cardinals  that  we  meet 
with  in  history.  Be  that  as  it  will,  Dami- 
anus, upon  the  death  of  Stephen,  whom  he 
styled  his  persecutor,  applied  to  Nicholas, 
his  successor,  for  leave  to  resign  but  could 
not  obtain  it.'' 

From  Rome  the  pope  sent  an  order,  soon 
after  his  return  to  that  city,  to  the  treasurer 
of  the  monastery  of  Monte  Cassino,  enjoin- 
ing him  to  convey  to  Rome  without  delay, 
and  as  secretly  as  he  possibly  could,  all  the 
silver  and  gold  belonging  to  that  sanctuary. 
The  monks  were  greatly  alarmed  at  so  un- 
precedented an  order;  but  not  daring  to  dis- 
obey it,  the  whole  treasure  of  the  church 
was  privately  brought  to  Rome  and  delivered 
to  the  pope.  The  holy  pontiflf  proposed  to 
confer  the  imperial  dignity  upon  Godfrey, 
his  brother,  who  had  lately  married  Beatrix, 
the  widow  of  Boniface,  duke  of  Tuscany, 
and  had  by  that  marriage  added  that  duke- 
dom to  Lorraine.  But  as  he  wanted  money 
to  defray  the  expenses  of  that  ceremony,  and 
to  maintain  his  brother  on  the  imperial 
throne  against  the  empress  Agnes,  who 
governed,  during  the  minority  of  her  son, 
he  thought  it  no  crime  to  rob  the  churches 
of  their  wealth  for  so  pious  a  purpose,  and 
began  with  that  of  Monte  Cassino.  But  he 
soon  changed  his  mind,  being  greatly  af- 
fected with  the  tears  the  monks  shed  in  part- 

»  Leo  Ostiens.  1.  iii.  c.  8. 

^  Joann.  Lacedens.  in  ejus  Vit.  c.  6. 

^  Epist.  apud  Baron,  ad  ann.  1057. 


ing  with  their  treasures,  and  ordered  them 
all  to  be  carried  back,  nay  and  terrified  with 
a  vision  or  dream,  he  added  to  them  many 
rich  presents,  whereof  the  reader  will  find 
and  inventory  in  Leo  Ostiensis.' 

The  pope,  after  a  short  stay  at  Rome,  re- 
paired to  Florence,  to  confer  there  with  his 
brother  Godfrey,  whom  he  was  very  de- 
sirous of  promoting  to  the  imperial  dignity, 
flattering  himself  that  he  should,  with  the 
assistance  his  brother  would  lend  him,  were 
he  placed  upon  the  imperial  throne,  be  able 
to  drive  the  Normans,  of  whose  growing 
power  he  entertained  great  jealousy,  quite 
out  of  Italy.  While  he  was  upon  the  point 
of  setting  out  for  Florence,  he  dispatched 
Hildebrand  into  Germany,  to  transact  with 
the  empress  Agnes  some  aflfairs  relating  to 
the  apostolic  see;  and  on  that  occasion,  he 
issued  a  decree,  strictly  forbidding  the  people 
and  the  clergy  to  proceed  to  the  election  of 
a  new  pope,  if  he  should  die  in  the  mean 
time,  before  Hildebrand  returned  to  Rome, 
and  at  the  same  time  exhorting  them  to  ac- 
quiesce in  his  councils  whenever  the  see 
became  vacant.  Stephen  was,  it  seems, 
sensible  of  the  approach  of  death ;  and  he 
died  on  the  twenty-ninth  of  March,  1058, 
soon  after  his  arrival  at  Florence,  having 
held  the  see  from  the  second  of  August, 
1057,  to  that  time.  He  was  attended  on  his 
death-bed  by  St.  Hugh,  abbot  of  Cluny; 
and  we  are  told  that  the  devil  appeared  to 
him  several  times  in  his  last  illness,  but  con- 
stantly left  the  room  as  soon  as  the  holy 
abbot  entered  it.^  He  was  buried  at  Flo- 
rence, where  he  died,  and  is  said  to  have 
wrought  many  miracles  after  his  death,  but 
has  not  nevertheless  been  canonized  by  the 
church,  though  his  name  is  to  be  met  with 
in  some  martyrologies  of  the  Benedictine 
order  with  the  epithet  of  saint.  A  monu- 
ment was  erected  to  his  memory  by  his 
brother  Godfrey,  duke  of  Tuscany,  in  a 
more  elegant  style  than  we  commonly  meet 
with  in  compositions  of  that  century.^  He 
was  concerned  in  the  writings  that  cardinal 
Humbert  published  at  Constantinople,  in 
answer  to  the  patriarch  Michael  Cerularius, 
and  the  monk  Nicelas;  and  we  have  besides 
two  letters  of  his,  the  one  to  the  archbishop 
of  Reims,  wherein  he  invites  him  to  a 
council,  which  he  had  appointed  to  meet  at 


»  Leo  Ostiens.  1.  ii.  c.  100,  103. 

"  Ap.  Suriuni,  Die  19  April. 

"  It  is  as  follows  : 

D.  O.  M. 

"  Stephano  Papae  Nono,  olim  Juniano  Friderico, 
Gozelonis  Lotharingias  Duels  Filio,  Apostolicas  Sedis 
Cancellario,  Monacho  et  Abbati  Casinensi,  Cardinali 
tit.  S.  Chrysogoni,  Pontifici  opt.  max.  pio,  felici,  Sanc- 
titate  et  Miraculorum  Gloria,  illustri,  Gothifredus  He- 
truscorum  Dux,  ut  defuncto  Fratri  Domi  sueb  et  inter 
proprios  Amplexus,  quas  potest,  Charitatis  su8e  Vices 
rependat,  non  sine  Lacrymis  parentat.  Monachi  Ab- 
batiffi  FlorentiniE  in  .^dibus  ad  divi  Joannis  Baptists 
offerunt,  et  justa  solvunt.  IV.  Kalendas,  Aprilis, 
M.LVIII."  This  monument  is  still  to  be  seen  at  Flo- 
rence in  the  palace  of  the  grand  duke. 


Benedict  X.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


365 


Benedict  X.  simoniacally  elected.     Said  to  have  sent  the  pall  to  Stigand  of  Canterbury. 


Rome  fourteen  days  alter  Easter.  By  the 
other,  addressed  to  Pandulphus,  bishop  of 
Marsi,  he  restores  that  bishopric,  which  had 
been  divided  into  two,  to  its  former  condition. 
He  resolved,  a  little  before  he  died,  to  at- 
tempt a  reconciliation  between  the  churches 
of  Constantinople  and  Rome,  and  named 
Desiderius,  abbot  of  Monte  Cassino,  with 
cardinal  Stephen,  and  Mainard,  afterwards 


bishop  of  the  White  Forest,  to  go  into  the 
East  with  the  character  of  his  legates,  and 
they  had  got  as  far  as  Bari,  intending  to  em- 
bark for  Constantinople.  But  being  there 
informed  of  the  pope's  death,  and  thinking 
it  advisable  not  to  proceed,  Desiderius  re- 
turned to  his  monastery,  and  the  other  two 
to  Rome.' 


BENEDICT  X.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  FIFTY-SECOND  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[IsAACius  CoMNENUS,  Emperor  of  the  East. — Henry  IV.,  King  of  Germany.'] 


[Year  of  Christ.  1058.]  The  deceased 
pope  had,  as  has  been  said,  issued  a  decree, 
forbidding  a  new  pope  to  be  chosen,  if  he 
should  die,  till  Hildebrand  returned  from 
Germany.  But  though  the  decree  was  made 
with  the  consent  and  approbation  of  the 
clergy  and  the  people,  news  of  Stephen's 
death  was  no  sooner  brought  to  Rome,  than 
a  strong  party,  headed  by  the  counts  of  Tus- 
culum,  chose  John  Mincius,  bishop  of  Ve- 
letri,  and  placing  him  upon  the  pontifical 
throne,  gave  him  the  name  of  Benedict  X. 
A  contemporary  writer  gives  us  the  follow- 
ing account  of  his  election:  Stephen,  says 
he,  dying,  one  Benedict  immediately  invaded 
the  apostolic  see  without  tlie  knowledge  or 
approbation  of  the  king,  being  supported  in 
that  attempt  by  a  party,  that  he  had  gained 
with  money."  And  the  continuator  of  Her- 
mannus  Contractus — Pope  Stephen,  says  he, 
died,  and  the  Romans,  bribed  by  one  John, 
chose  him  contrary  to  the  canons,  and  placed 
him  by  force  upon  the  apostolic  throne.^ 
Petrus  Damianus,  with  the  other  cardinals 
and  leading  men  of  the  Roman  church, 
beinir  determined  to  adhere  to  the  decree  of 
the  late  pope,  and  wait  for  the  return  of 
Hildebrand,  as  if  he  were  to  bring  the  Holy 
Ghost  along  with  him,  opposed  the  simon- 
iacal  election  of  John,  nay,  and  solemnly 
anathematized  all  who  were  anyways  con- 
cerned in  it.  But  they  were  thereupon 
obliged  to  quit  the  city,  and  leave  Benedict 
and   his  party   masters  of  Rome.     Petrus 


>  Lambert.  Schafnab. 


»  Ad  ann.  1058. 


Damianus,  by  whom,  as  bishop  of  Ostia, 
the  new  pope  was  to  be  consecrated,  being 
fled,  they  seized  upon  a  priest  belonging  to 
that  church,  and  obliged  him,  with  a  dagger 
at  his  throat,  to  perform  the  ceremony  on 
the  thirtieth  of  March,  1058.  Benedict,  thus 
intruded  and  consecrated,  held  the  .see  nine 
months  and  twenty  days  f  but  we  find  no- 
thing recorded  of  him,  during  that  time,  be- 
sides his  sending  the  pall  to  Stisand,  who, 
in  the  year  1047,  had  been  translated  from 
the  see  of  Helmham  to  that  of  Winchester, 
and  was  about  the  year  1052  preferred  to 
the  see  of  Canterbury,  We  are  told  that  as 
he  still  retained  the  bishopric  of  Canterbury, 
and  none  of  the  preceding  popes  would, 
upon  that  account,  grant  him  the  pall,  he 
acknowledged  Benedict  in  order  to  obtain  it 
of  him;  and  he  obtained  it  accordingly .3 
Thus  Malmsbury  :  But  I  can  hardly  believe 
that  all  the  preceding  popes  would  have  re- 
fused him  the  pall  merely  because  he  held 
two  bishoprics,  since  two  of  them  were,  in 
his  time,  guilty  of  the  same  fault,  namely, 
Leo  IX.  and  Victor  II.  who  held  the  bi- 
shoprics of  Toul  and  Eichsted  with  that  of 
Rome.  I  have  placed  this  anti-pope  among 
the  lawful  popes,  under  the  name  of  Bene- 
dict X.,  the  next  pope  of  that  name,  chosen 
in  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century, 
being  called,  in  all  the  catalogues,  Bene- 
dict XI. 


'  Leo  Ostiens.  I.  iii.  c.  8. 

»  Herman  Contract  ud  aim.  1058. 

'  MalniB.  Pontif.  1.  i. 


2f2 


366 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Nicholas  II. 


Nicholas  II.  named  by  the  kinc  of  Germany.  Is  unanimously  chosen.  Benedict  deposed  in  the  council  of  Sutri, 
and  Nicholas  enthroned; — [Year  of  Christ,  1059.]  Desiderius  made  cardinal.  Berengarius  condemned  in 
a  council  at  Rome. 


NICHOLAS  IL,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  FIFTY-THIRD  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[IsAACius  CoMNENUS,  EmperoT  of  the  East. — Henry  IV.,  King  of  Germany.'] 


[Year  of  Christ,  1058.]  As  Benedict 
had  been  chosen  without  the  knowledge  of 
the  king,  and  consecrated  without  his  appro- 
bation or  consent,  the  chief  citizens  of 
Rome,  and  such  of  the  clergy  as  had  re- 
mained there,  apprehending  that  the  em- 
press Agnes  would  resent  such  an  open 
violation  of  the  rights  of  her  son,  dispatched 
some  of  their  body  into  Germany  to  assure 
her  that  they  had  no  share  in  so  uncanonical 
an  election,  that  they  did  not  look  upon  the 
bishop  of  Veletri  as  lawful  pope,  but  were 
ready  to  receive^  and  place  upon  the  pontifi- 
cal throne,  the  person  whom  it  should  please 
the  king  to  name.  The  Roman  envoys  were 
well  received  at  court ;  and  the  king,  or  rather 
the  empress,  nominated  Gerard,  then  bishop 
of  Florence,  a  native  of  Burgundy,  and  one 
equally  acceptable  to  the  Italians  and  the 
Germans.'  In  the  mean  time  Hildebrand 
returned  from  Germany,  and  stopping  at 
Florence  upon  the  news  of  the  election  of 
Benedict,  he  wrote  from  thence  to  the  Ro- 
mans, finding  great  fault  with  their  conduct, 
and  exhorting  them  to  proceed,  without  de- 
lay, to  a  new  election.  As  this  could  not  be 
done  in  Rome,  where  the  party  of  Benedict 
prevailed,  the  cardinals  and  the  rest  of  the 
Roman  clergy,  who  had  retired  from  the 
city  lest  they  should  be  forced  to  acknow- 
ledge Benedict,  met  at  Siena,  and  there 
chose  unanimously,  with  the  consent  of  the 
Roman  people,  the  person  whom  the  king 
had  named.  This  happened  on  the  28th  of 
October,  1058. 

The  pope  immediately  after  his  election 
appointed  a  council  to  meet  at  Sutri,  in  order 
to  consult  with  the  cardinals,  and  the  other 
bishops,  about  the  most  proper  means  of 
driving  Benedict  from  the  see.  At  this  coun- 
cil assisted  most  of  the  Italian  bishops,  and 
with  them  duke  Godfrey,  whom  the  king 
had  ordered  to  attend  the  new  pope  to  Rome, 
and  see  him  placed  on  the  pontifical  throne. 
The  bishops  declared,  all  with  one  voice, 
Gerard  lawfully  elected,  and  the  sentence  of 
excommunication  was  thundered  out  against 
Benedict,  if  he  did  not  forthwith  relinquish 
the  see  and  retire.  He  retired  accordingly 
as  soon  as  he  was  informed  of  the  sentence 
pronounced  against  him,  sensible  that  his 
friends  were  not  able  to  support  him  against 
the  king,  and  the  duke  of  Tuscany.  Upon 
his  retreat  Gerard  repaired  to  Rome  with  the 
bishops  of  the  council  and  duke  Godfrey, 


»  Lambert.  Schafnaburg.  ad  ann.  1059. 


and  being  there  received  with  all  possible 
marks  of  respect  and  esteem,  he  was  so- 
lemnly enthroned  in  the  beginning  of  Janua- 
ry, 1059,  under  the  name  of  Nicholas  II.' 
A  few  days  after  his  enthronation  the  anti- 
pope  Benedict,  being  admitted  to  his  pre- 
sence, threw  himself  at  his  feet,  owned  him- 
self an  usurper,  and  begged  forgiveness, 
protesting  that  he  never  had  aspired  to  the 
pontifical  dignity,  but  that  it  was  offered 
him,  and  he  viras  forced  to  accept  the  offer. 
Nicholas  absolved  him  from  the  excommu- 
nication which  he  had  incurred,  but  divest- 
ing him  at  the  same  time  of  the  episcopacy 
and  the  priesthood,  he  obliged  him  to  spend 
the  rest  of  his  days  at  St.  Mary  the  Greater 
in  Rome.2  He  hved  there  accordingly,  being 
admitted  by  the  pope  to  lay  communion,  and 
was  buried  in  that  church  between  the  altar 
of  the  manger,  and  that  of  St.  Jerom.* 

The  first  thing  we  find  recorded  of  this  pope 
is  his  sending  for  Desiderius,  abbot  of  Monte 
Cassino,  his  ordaining  him  priest,  consecrat- 
ing him  abbot,  creating  him  cardinal  of  St.  Ce- 
cilia, and  appointing  him  his  vicar  in  the  pro- 
vinces of  Campania,  Apulia,  and  Calabria.* 

As  Berengarius  continued,  notwithstand- 
ing his  repeated  recantations,  to  teach  the 
same  doctrine  concerning  the  eucharist,  and 
daily  gained  many  followers,  the  pope,  to 
put  a  stop  to  the  spreading  evil,  resolved  to 
condemn  it  again,  and  to  assemble  for  that 
purpose  the  bishops  of  diff'erent  nations  at 
Rome.  He  accordingly  appointed  a  council 
to  meet  there  in  the  Lateran  palace,  invited 
to  it  all  the  bishops  of  Italy,  France,  and 
Germany,  and  summoned  Berengarius  him- 
self to  appear  and  maintain  his  opinion,  as- 
suring him  that  no  violence  should  be  offer- 
ed him.  The  council  met  in  the  month  of 
April  of  the  present  year,  consisted  of  one 
hundred  and  thirteen  bishops,  of  a  great 
number  of  abbots,  priests,  and  deacons,  the 
pope  presiding  at  it  in  person.  Berengarius 
appeared,  and  is  said  to  have  for  some  time 
defended  his  opinion  against  Alberic,  monk 
of  Monte  Cassino,  but  to  have  yielded  in 
the  end,  convinced  by  that  monk  of  his  error, 
nay,  and  to  have  declared  that  he  was  ready 
to  sign,  hold,  and  believe  the  confession  of 
faith,  that  the  pope  and  the  council  should 
think  fit  to  dictate  to  him.  The  council, 
pleased  with  his  submission,  ordered  cardi- 


1  Leo  Ostiens.  I.  iii.  c.  12.  =  Idem  ibid. 

3  Paulus  de  Angelis  in  Descript.  Basilicte,  &c.p.  157. 

<  Leo  Ostiens.  1.  iii.  c.  14. 


Nicholas  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


367 


Confession  of  failh  prescribed  to  Berengarius. 
in  ihe  time  of  Berengarius. 

nal  Humbert  to  draw  up  a  formulary  to  be 
signed  by  him;  and  the  cardinal  drew  it  up 
in  the  following  words. 

"  I,  Berengarius,  unworthy  deacon  of  the 
church  of  St.  Maurice  of  Angers,  knowing 
the  true  catholic  and  apostolic  failh,  do 
anathematize  all  heresies,  especially  that  of 
which  I  have  been  accused,  endeavoring  to 
maintain  that  the  bread  and  wine,  placed 
upon  the  altar  after  consecration,  are  only  a 
sacrament,  and  not  the  true  body  and  blood 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  cannot,  save 
only  in  the  sign,  be  handled  or  broken  by  the 
priest's  hands,  or  be  ground  by  the  teeth  of 
the  faithful.  But  I  agree  with  the  holy  Ro- 
man church,  and  the  apostolic  see,  and  do 
with  my  mouth,  and  from  my  heart  profess, 
that  I  hold  the  same  faith  concerning  the 
sacrament  of  the  Lord's  table  which  our  lord 
the  venerable  pope  Nicholas,  and  this  holy 
synod,  by  evangelical  and  apostolical  author- 
ity, has  delivered  to  me  to  hold,  and  con- 
firmed to  me,  namely,  that  the  bread  and 
wine,  which  are  placed  on  the  altar,  after 
consecration,  are  not  only  a  sacrament,  but 
also  the  true  body  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
which  are  sensibly,  not  only  as  a  sacrament, 
but  verily  and  in  truth,  handled  and  broken 
by  the  priest's  hands,  and  ground  by  the 
teeth  of  the  faithful.  This  I  swear  by  the 
holy  and  consubstantial  Trinity,  and  by  these 
holy  Gospels,  declaring  those  who  shall  op 
pose  this  faith,  as  well  as  their  followers, 
worthy  of  an  eternal  anathema;  and  if  I  my- 
self shall  dare  to  hold  or  to  teach  any  thing 
repugnant  to  this  faith,  I  will  readily  submit 
to  the  rigor  of  the  canons.  I  have  volun- 
tarily signed  this  writing  after  it  was  twice 
read  over  to  me."  Berengarius,  aftersigning 
this  formulary,  threw  his  own  writings,  and 
with  them,  those  of  Scotus,  containing  the 
same  doctrine,  into  a  fire  kindled  for  that 
purpose,  in  the  midst  of  the  council.'  The 
pope,  believing  the  conversion  of  Berengarius 
to  be  sincere,  sent  copies  of  his  recantation 
into  all  the  countries  where  his  doctrine  had 
been  heard  of,  that  they  who  had  been 
scandalized  by  his  heresy  might  be  edified 
by  his  repentance.2  But  that  his  repentance 
was  only  pretended,  will  appear  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  following  pontificate. 

From  the  confession  of  faith  before  us, 
approved  by  the  pope  and  a  council  of  one 
hundred  and  thirteen  bishops,  it  is  manifest, 
that  the  doctrine  it  contains  was  the  doctrine 
or  belief  of  the  church  at  that  time.  But  it 
would  now  be  heresy  to  say  that  "  the  true 
body  and  blood  of  our  Lord  are,  not  only  as 
a  sacrament,  but  verily  and  in  truth,  handled 
and  broken  by  the  priest's  hands,  and  ground 
by  the  teeth  of  the  faithful;"  the  species  only, 
or  the  accidents,  being,  according  to  the  pre- 
sent doctrine  of  that  church,  "  handled,  bro- 


The  belief  of  the  aliurch  of  Rome  different  from  what  it  was 
Decree  concerning  the  election  of  the  pope. 


ken,  and  ground  with  the  teeth."  Peter 
Lombard,  master  of  the  sentences,  says,  in  ex- 
press terms,  and  in  direct  opposition  to  Be- 
rengarius' recantation,  that  Christ's  body  is 
handled,  &c.  "only  in  sacrament,"  that  is, 
in  the  visible  species.'  Joannes  Semcca, 
author  of  the  gloss  upon  the  canon  law, 
speaks  much  to  the  same  purpose  :  *'  Unless 
you  understand  the  words  of  Berengarius  in 
a  sound  sense,"  says  he,  "  you  will  fall  into 
a  greater  heresy  than  that  which  he  was 
guilty  of;  and  therefore  you  must  refer  all 
to  the  species;"^  which  is  directly  contra- 
dicting the  pope  and  the  council  defining, 
that  the  body  of  Christ,  not  only  as  a  sacra- 
ment, but  verily  and  in  truth,  is  handled, 
broken,  &,c.  Joannes  Parisiensis  was  of  the' 
same  opinion,  as  has  been  shown  by  Dr. 
Ailix,  in  a  dissertation  prefixed  to  tliat  learn- 
ed writer's  "determination  concerning  the 
manner  of  the  existence  of  Christ's  body  in 
the  sacrament  of  the  altar, "^  Thus  has  the 
church  of  Rome,  for  all  her  infallibility,  evi- 
dently changed  her  belief,  with  respect  to  the 
manner  in  which  Christ's  body  is  eaten  in 
the  eucharist. 

By  the  same  council,  a  decree  was  issued 
concerning  the  election  of  the  pope;  and  it 
was  ordained,  that  the  cardinal  bishops  should 
elect  the  first ;  the  cardinal  priests  after  them  ; 
the  clergy  and  the  people  in  the  third  place  ; 
and  that  the  king  should,  in  the  last  place, 
be  applied  to  for  his  approbation  and  consent. 
They  were  to  choose  out  of  the  bosom  of  the 
Roman  church,  if  a  proper  person  was  to  be 
found  there  ;  if  not,  out  of  any  other  church, 
"save  the  honor  and  respect  (these  are  the 
words  of  the  decree)  that  are  due  to  our  be- 
loved son  Henry,  who  is  at  present  king, 
and  will,  if  God  please,  be  emperor.  The 
same  honor  and  respect  shall  be  paid  to  such 
of  his  successors  as  shall  have  personally 
obtained  the  same  right  of  the  apostolic  see." 
Nicholas  here  supposes  the  emperor's  right 
of  confirming  the  election  of  the  pope,  to  be 
a  personal  privilege,  granted  to  the  emperors 
by  the  holy  see,  though  we  have  seen  them 
exercising  that  right,  for  many  ages,  quite 
independent  of  the  popes.  By  the  same  de- 
cree it  was  enacted,  that  if  a  free  election 
could  not  be  made  in  Rome,  the  cardinals, 
with  the  clergy  and  laity,  should  have  a 
right  to  proceed  to  the  election,  in  what  place 
soever  they  should  think  the  most  convenient ; 
and  that,  if  the  elect  could  not  be  conveni- 
ently enthroned,  he  &liould,  nevertheless,  by 
virtue  of  his  election,  be  acknowledged  by 
all  for  true  pope;  and,  as  such,  have  full 
power  and  authority  to  govern  the  Roman 
church,  and  dispose  of  the  goods  of  the  holy 
see.''    Till  this  pope's  time,  the  popedom 


'  Alger  de  Sacram. 
1.  i.  c.  2. 


I.  i.  c.  19.  Lanfranc.  dc  Corp.  Doni. 
>  Lanf.  ibid. 


<  Lombard.  Sent.  1.  iv.  dist.  12. 
"i  Gloss,  apud  Grat.  de  Consecratione,  dist.  2.  c.  Ego 
Berengarius,  tec. 
"  Determinalio  Johan  Paris.  Lond.  1680. 
*  Chronograph.  Virdun.    Gratian.  Dist.  23. 


368 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Nicholas  H. 


Other  decrees  of  the  council  of  Rome.    Legates  sent  to  reform  the  church  of  Milan, 
pope  comes  to  an  agreement  with  the  Normans. 


Council  of  Melfi.     The 


was  not  thought  to  be  conferred  by  election 
only,  but  by  election  and  consecration;  so 
that  if  the  elect  died  before  consecration,  he 
was  not  placed  in  the  catalogue  of  popes,  as 
has  been  shown  elsewhere.'  This  decree, 
as  it  is  related  by  Petrus  Damianus,  confined 
the  election  to  the  cardinals,  and  only  left 
to  the  people,  to  the  clergy,  and  to  the  em- 
peror, the  power  of  confirming  the  election 
which  they  alone  had  made.2 

By  this  council  several  canons  were  made 
against  simony,  incestuous  marriages,  the 
marriages  of  priests,  and  other  abuses,  that 
the  preceding  popes  had  endeavored,  but  in 
vain,  to  extirpate.  They  who  had  been  or- 
dained by  simoniac  bishops,  but  had  not 
paid  for  their  ordination,  were  allowed  to 
continue  in  the  orders  they  had  received; 
but  were  all  forbidden,  on  pain  of  degrada- 
tion, to  take  any  orders,  for  the  future,  at 
the  hands  of  a  simoniac,  though  he  should 
not  require  any  fee  or  reward  for  conferring 
them.  By  another  canon  priests,  who  kept 
concubines,  were  suspended  from  the  func- 
tions of  their  office,  excluded  from  sharing 
with  the  rest  the  income  of  the  church,  and 
ordered  to  live  without  the  precincts  of  the 
church  till  they  should  have  atoned  for  their 
crime.  By  the  eleventh  canon  relations  were 
forbidden  to  intermarry,  and  that  prohibition 
was  extended  to  the  seventh  generation.  It 
is  to  be  observed,  that  till  the  time  of  the 
emperor  Theodosius,  there  was  no  law, 
civil  or  ecclesiastic,  forbidding  even  the  mar- 
riage of  cousin-germans.  Such  marriages 
were  indeed  forbidden  by  that  emperor;  but 
Arcadius  revoked  his  law,  declaring  the 
marriage  of  cousin-germans  to  be  lawful, 
and  their  children  legitimate;  and  Justinian 
made  this  the  standing  law  of  the  empire.^ 
These  marriages,  however,  were  forbidden 
by  the  church  before  the  time  of  pope  Gre- 
gory the  Great,  as  appears  from  his  answer 
to  the  monk  Austin,  in  the  following  words  : 
"  The  civil  law  of  the  Roman  empire  allows 
the  marriage  of  cousin-germans,  but  the 
sacred  law  forbids  it."'* 

The  same  year  the  pope  sent  Peter  Da- 
mian,  cardinal  bishop  of  Ostia,  and  Anselm, 
bishop  of  Lucca,  with  the  character  of  le- 
gates, to  Milan,  in  order  to  redress,  jointly 
with  Guido,  archbishop  of  that  city,  several 
abuses  that  prevailed  there,  especially  si- 
mony and  the  marriages  of  priests.  The 
legates  were,  upon  their  arrival,  well  re- 
ceived both  by  the  people  and  clergy:  but 
the  next  day,  when  they  acquainted  them 
with  the  subject  of  their  legation,  the  clergy, 
loth  to  part  with  their  wives,  stirred  up  the 
populace  against  them,  giving  out  that  they 
were  come  to  subject  the  church  of  Milan  to 
that  of  Rome;  which  so  incensed  the  multi- 
tude, that,  surrounding  the  episcopal  palace, 

'  See  p.  91.  2  Petrus  Damian.  1.  i.  ep.  20. 

3  Cod.  Justin.  1.  v.  tit.  4.  de  Nupiiis.  leg.  19. 
<  Greg.  1.  i.  ep.  31. 


where  the  legates  were  lodged,  they  threat- 
ened them  with  death  if  they  offered  to  sub- 
ject the  church,  that  had  been  ever  free,  to 
any  other.  But  Damian,  assuring  them  that 
they  had  been  sent  by  the  holy  pope  Nicholas 
for  no  other  purpose  but  to  correct  the  abuses 
that  had  crept  into  their  church,  and  that 
they  were  not  empowered  to  meddle  with 
their  privileges,  the  multitude  acquiesced, 
and  the  clergy  were  obliged  to  submit  to  the 
intended  reformation.  Several  conferences 
were  held,  in  the  presence  of  the  legates 
and  the  archbishop,  and  after  the  most  dili- 
gent enquiries  it  appeared,  that  in  so  nume- 
rous a  clergy  as  that  of  Milan,  scarce  one 
had  been  ordained,  for  some  years  past, 
without  paying  for  his  ordination.  This 
greatly  embarrassed  the  legates,  thinking  it, 
on  the  one  hand,  unjust  to  punish  some  and 
pardon  others,  when  they  were  all  alike 
guilty ;  and  on  the  other  not  advisable  to 
punish  all.  They,  therefore,  agreed  to  over- 
look what  was  past,  and  by  new  regulations 
obviate  such  disorders  for  the  future.  They 
accordingly  obliged  the  archbishops  and  the 
rest  of  the  clergy  to  promise  upon  oath,  that 
in  time  to  come  they  would  avoid  all  simony, 
and  forthwith  dismiss  their  concubines.' 

The  same  disorders  prevailed  in  the  lower 
part  of  Italy,  now  called  the  kingdom  of  Na- 
ples ;  nay,  the  incontinence  of  the  clergy 
was  so  notorious  there,  that  scarce  a  bishop, 
priest  or  deacon  was  to  be  found  in  those 
provinces  who  kept  not  publicly  his  concu- 
bine; and  their  concubines,  styling  them- 
selves their  lawful  wives,  had  the  assurance 
to  claim  the  same  privileges  and  exemptions 
as  were  enjoyed  by  the  clergy  to  whom 
they  belonged.  The  pope,  therefore,  a  few 
days  after  the  breaking  up  of  the  council  at 
Rome,  set  out  for  Apulia,  to  assist  in  person 
at  a  council,  which  he  appointed  to  meet  at 
Melfi,  the  capital  of  that  province.  The 
council  met  in  the  month  of  August  of  the 
present  year,  1059,  consisted  of  a  hundred 
bishops,  and  a  great  number  of  abbots,  pres- 
byters, and  deacons,  by  whom  many  severe 
laws  were  issued  against  the  incontinent  or 
married  clergy. 

While  the  pope  was  at  Melfi,  he  received  a 
solemn  embassy  from  the  famous  Robert 
Guiscard  the  Norman,  who  had  by  this  time 
reduced  all  Apulia,  and  extended  his  con- 
quests over  the  greater  part  of  Calabria.  He 
was  sensible  that  it  was  his  interest,  and 
that  of  his  nation,  to  have  the  popes  for  their 
friends ;  and  being,  therefore,  determined  to 
purchase  their  friendship  at  any  rate,  he  sent 
some  of  his  chief  lords  to  wait  upon  his  ho- 
liness in  his  name,  and  beg  an  interview,  in 
order  to  settle  with  him  some  matters  of  the 
utmost  importance  to  both.  Nicholas  rea- 
dily agreed  to  the  proposal,  being  as  desirous 
as  the  Normans  themselves  to   establish  a 

»  Petrus  Damian.  Opuscul.  5. 


Nicholas  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


369 


litures  granted  by  the  pope  to  them.     The  pope  returns 
Cassino;— [Year  of  Christ,  1060.]     Council  of  Tours. 


Conditions  of  the  agreement  with  the  Normans.  Inves 
to  Rome,  attended  by  the  Normans.  Goes  to  Monle 
Council  of  Home  ; — [Vear  of  Christ,  1061.] 


good  understanding  between  so  warlike  a| 
nation  and  the  apostolic  see.  Robert,  there- 1 
fore,  leaving  his  generals  to  carry  on  the 
siege  of  Curiato,  a  city  in  Calabria,  which 
he  had  invested,  hastened  to  Melfi,  attended 
by  Richard,  count  of  Aversa,  and  the  flower 
of  the  Norman  nobility.  They  were  all  re- 
ceived by  the  pope  with  extraordinary  marks 
of  respect  and  esteem,  and  in  a  few  confe- 
rences, the  following  agreement  was  con- 
cluded between  Robert  and  the  pope, 
namely,  that  the  pope  should  absolve  the 
Normans  from  the  excommunication  which 
they  had  incurred  ;  that  he  should  confirm 
to  Robert,  to  his  heirs  and  successors,  the 
dukedoms  of  Apulia  and  Calabria,  which  he 
had  taken  from  the  Greeks;  and  likewise 
Sicily,  when  he  should  drive  the  Greeks  and 
Saracens  out  of  that  island.  As  Richard  of 
Aversa  had  lately  made  himself  master  of 
the  city  of  Capua,  and  driven  out  Landul- 
phus  v.,  the  lawful  prince,  it  was  added  in 
the  agreement  that  the  pope  should  acknow- 
ledge Richard  for  lawful  prince,  and  confirm 
to  him  and  his  heirs  the  possession  of  that 
principality.  On  the  other  hand,  Robert 
and  Richard  were  to  own  themselves  vas- 
sals of  the  apostolic  see,  were  to  swear 
fealty  to  pope  Nicholas  and  his  successors, 
and  Robert  was  to  pay  yearly  at  Easter 
twelve  deniers,  money  of  Pavia,  for  each 
yoke  of  oxen.'  The  oath  Robert  took  on 
this  occasion  was  couched  in  the  following 
terms,  as  we  read  in  Baronius,  who  trans- 
cribed it  from  a  book  lodged  in  the  Vatican 
library,  under  the  title  of  "  Liber  Censi>um  :" 
"I,  Robert,  by  the  grace  of  God  and  St. 
Peter,  duke  of  Apulia  and  Calabria,  and  fu- 
ture duke  of  Sicily,  promise  to  pay  to  St. 
Peter,  to  you,  pope  Nicholas,  my  lord,  to 
your  successors,  or  to  your  and  their  nuncios, 
twelve  deniers,  money  of  Pavia,  for  each 
yoke  of  oxen,  as  an  acknowledgment  for 
all  the  lands  that  I  myself  hold  and  possess, 
or  have  given  to  be  held  and  possessed  by 
any  of  the  ultramontanes;  and  this  sum 
shall  be  yearly  paid  on  Easter-Sunday  by 
me,  my  heirs  and  successors,  to  you,  pope 
Nicholas,  my  lord,  and  to  your  successors. 
So  help  me  God,  and  these  his  holy  Gos- 
pels." When  Robert  had  taken  this  oath, 
the  pope  acknowledged  him  for  lawful  duke 
of  Apulia  and  Calabria,  confirmed  to  him 
and  his  successors,  forever,  the  possession 
of  those  provinces,  promised  to  confirm  to 
him  in  like  manner  the  possession  of  Sicily, 
as  soon  as  he  should  reduce  that  island,  and 
putting  a  standard  in  his  right  hand,  de- 
clared him  vassal;  of  the  apostolic  see,  and 
standard-bearer  of  the  holy  church.  From 
this  time  Robert  styled  himself  "  Dux  Apu- 
life  &.  Calabritc,  &  futurus  Sicilian."  '  Thus 
did  the  popes  begin  to  dispose  of  provinces 
and  kingdoms,  as  their  own,  to  which  they 


«  Leo  Ostiens.  1.  iii.  c.  15. 

Vol.  II.— 47 


a  Idem,  I.  ii.  c.  W. 


had  no  kind  of  right;  and  it  is  upon  duke 
Robert's  having  declared  himself  and  his 
successors  vassals  of  the  apostolic  see,  that 
the  popes  to  this  day  look  upon  the  king- 
doms of  Naples  and  Sicily  as  fiefs  of  the 
church,  and  claim  the  power  of  transferring 
them,  at  pleasure,  from  one  nation  to  another. 

The  pope,  well  pleased  with  the  agree- 
ment between  him  and  the  Normans,  left 
Melfi,  and  after  holding  another  council  at 
Beneventum,  set  out  on  his  return  to  Rome, 
attended  by  a  numerous  body  of  Normans, 
who,  by  his  order,  laid  waste  the  territories 
of  Prceneste,  Tusculum,  and  Nomentum, 
obliged  the  inhabitants  to  submit  to  the  pope, 
from  whom  they  had  revolted,  and  crossing 
the  Tiber,  destroyed  all  the  strong  holds  of 
Gerard  count  of  Galera,  who  lived  chiefly 
upon  plunder.  Thus  was  Rome  delivered 
by  the  brave  Normans  from  the  many  petty 
tyrants  that  surrounded  it  on  all  sides. 
From  Rome  the  pope,  in  the  beginning  of 
the  following  year  1060,  took  a  journey  to 
Florence,  and  from  thence  went  to  Monte 
Cassino,  where  he  conferred  the  dignity  of 
Cardinal  upon  Oderisius,  the  son  of  the 
count  of  Marsi,  who  was  a  monk  in  that 
monastery,  and  raised  another  monk,  named 
Martin,  to  the  espiscopal  see  of  Aquino,  in 
the  room  of  Angelus,  whom  he  deposed, 
because  he  had  been  made  bishop  without 
passing  through  the  inferior  degrees,  and 
had  by  his  conduct  shown  himself  unworthy 
of  that  dignity.' 

The  pope  on  his  return  to  Rome  sent 
Stephen,  cardinal  priest,  into  France,  with 
the  character  of  his  legate,  to  reform  the 
abuses  that  prevailed  in  the  Galilean  church, 
and  were  connived  at  by  the  bishops  in  those 
parts.  The  cardinal  assembled  a  council  at 
Tours,  and  by  the  ten  bishops  who  com- 
posed it,  several  canons  were  made  against 
simony,  the  alienating  of  church  lands,  and 
the  incontinence  of  the  clergy,  there  being  as 
few  of  that  order  to  be  found  in  France  as  in 
Italy  that  did  not  keep  concubines,  and  even 
appear  in  public  with  them  as  their  lawful 
wives.2 

The  following  year  1061  the  pope  assem- 
bled a  council  in  the  Lateran  palace,  at  which 
were  present,  besides  the  Italian  bishops, 
Aldred,  archbishop  of  York,  Guiso  and 
Walter,  both  bishops  elect,  the  former  of 
Wells  and  the  latter  of  Hereford.  Aldred 
had  been  translated  from  Worcester  to  York, 
and  it  was  to  receive  the  pall  at  the  pope's 
hands  that  he  undertook  a  journey  to  Rome. 
The  two  other  bishops  accompanied  him, 
in  order  to  be  ordained  by  the  pope  himself. 
Nicholas  ordained  them  accordingly,  in  the 
presence  of  the  bishops  of  the  council,  but 
would  not  grant  the  pall  to  Aldred,  on  ac- 
count of  his  having  been  translated  from  a 
lesser  see  to  a  greater  without  his  knowledge, 

'  Leo  Ostiens.  1.  iii.  c.  14.       ^  Concil.  torn,  iz-  p.  1109. 


370 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Alexander  II, 


Nicholas  grants  the  pall  to  Aldred  of  York.     Death  of  pope  Nicholas. 

election  of  a  pope. 


Disturbances  in  Rome  about  the 


and  his  not  having  yet  quitted  the  see  from 
which  he  was  translated.  Aldred,  finding 
the  pope  inflexible,  set  out  with  the  other 
two  bishops  on  his  return  home;  but  the 
highways  leading  to  Rome  being  then  greatly 
infested  by  robbers,  they  were  by  them  stript 
of  all  they  had,  some  of  their  attendants, 
who  perhaps  offered  to  defend  them,  being 
grievously  wounded,  and  used  with  great 
barbarity.  In  this  miserable  condition  they 
returned  to  Rome,  and  acquainted  the  pope 
with  their  misfortune,  who  was  so  aff'ecled 
with  it,  that  to  comfort  Aldred  he  granted 
him  the  pall,  but  upon  condition  that  he  re- 
signed the  see  of  Worcester.'  Malmsbury 
writes,  that  Aldred  Avas  arraigned  of  simony, 
that  the  pope  refused  him  the  pall  on  that 
account,  and  that  Tostin  earl  of  Northumber- 
land, who  had  accompanied  Aldred  to  Rome, 
told  the  pope,  that  unless  he  complied  with 
the  request  of  the  archbishop,  the  king  would 
withdraw  the  contribution,  which  he  paid 
yearly  to  St.  Peter.^  But  no  notice  is  taken 
by  any  other  writer  of  the  charge  of  simony, 
or  the  threats  of  Tostin ;  nay,  Malmsbury 
himself  clears  Aldred  from  that  imputation, 
in  his  life  of  Wulstan,  the  successor  of  Al- 
dred in  the  see  of  Worcester.'  Aldred  in 
his  return  to  England  brought  letters  from 
the  pope  to  king  Edward,  containing  a  confir- 
mation of  all  the  privileges  granted  by  his  pre- 
decessors to  the  monastery  of  Westminster. 


Nicholas  did  not  long  survive  the  holding 
of  this  council;  for  going  soon  after  it  broke 
up  to  Florence,  he  died  there  on  the  22d  of 
July  of  the  present  year  1061,  having  go- 
verned the  Roman  church  two  years  six 
months  and  twenty-five  days,  that  is,  from 
the  28th  of  December,  1058,  to  the  22d  of 
July,  1061.  But  it  is  to  be  observed,  that 
the  pope  himself  reckoned  the  time  of  his 
pontificate  from  the  day  of  his  enthronatioa 
and  not  of  his  election.  Peter  Damian,  in 
one  of  his  letters  to  the  archbishop  of  Ra- 
venna, paints  this  pope  as  a  man  of  learning, 
of  a  sprightly  genius,  and  of  great  resolu- 
tion in  pursuing  what  he  undertook.  He 
was  chaste,  says  that  writer,  beyond  sus- 
picion, and  his  generosity  to  the  poor  knew 
no  bounds.'  Damian  adds,  upon  the  autho- 
rity of  Mainard,  who  had  succeeded  the 
famous  cardinal  Humbert  in  the  see  of  the 
White  Forest  or  St.  Rufina,  that  the  good 
pope  washed  daily  the  feet  of  twelve  poor 
people ;  and  that  if  his  other  occupations  did 
not  allow  him  to  finish  that  charitable  task 
in  the  day-time,  he  completed  it  at  night.^ 
We  have  several  letters  of  this  pope,  most 
of  them  addressed  to  the  bishops  of  France, 
whom  he  exhorts  to  reform  the  many  abuses 
that  his  predecessors  had  labored  to  root  out, 
especially  simony  and  the  incontinence  of 
the  clergy. 


ALEXANDER  II.  THE  HUNDRED  AND  riFTY-FOURTH  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[CoNSTANTiNE  DucAS,  RoMANUS  DioGENES,  MicHAEL  DucAS,  Emperors  of  the  East. — Henry 

IV.,  King  of  Germany.'] 


[Year  of  Christ,  1061.]  The  death  of 
Nicholas  was  attended  with  great  distur- 
bances, the  whole  city  being  divided  into  two 
powerful  and  irreconcileable  factions  about 
the  choice  of  a  new  pope.  The  one,  headed 
by  Hildebrand,  was  for  choosing  a  pope,  as 
Henry  was  a  minor,  without  consulting  him, 
and  thus  excluding  him  from  having  any 
share  in  the  election,  which  belonged,  as  he 
pretended,  to  the  clergy  and  people  of  Rome 
alone.  With  him  were  almost  all  the  cardi- 
nals, and  the  far  greater  part  of  the  clergy, 
thinking  the  minority  of  the  king  too  favor- 
able an  opportunity  of  shaking  oflf  the  yoke 
to  be  let  pass  unimproved.  On  the  other 
hand  the  counts  of  Tusculum  and  Galera, 
and  with  them  most  of  the  Roman  nobility, 
determined  to  maintain  the  just  rights  of  the 
king,  protested  against  the  iniquitous  pro- 

•  Decern  Scriptores,  p.  386.  Stubbs  in  Act.  Pont.  Ebor. 
»Malmsb.  de  Gest.  Pont.  Angl.  1.  iii.  p.  271. 
'  See  Warton  Angiiee  Sacrte,  part.  xi.  p.  20. 


ceedings  of  Hildebrand  and  those  of  his 
party,  and  sent  deputies  to  acquaint  the  king 
with  them.  The  deputies  carried  with  them 
a  crown  of  gold  for  the  young  king,  and 
were  empowered  to  confer  upon  him  the 
dignity  of  patrician,  in  the  same  manner  as 
it  had  been  conferred  on  Charlemagne; 
which  was  investing  him  with  an  unlimited 
power  in  Rome.  Hereupon  Hildebrand, 
finding  he  could  not  carry  his  design  into 
execution,  sent  cardinal  Stephen,  a  monk  of 
Cluny,  to  acquaint  the  king  and  the  empress 
Agnes  with  the  death  of  Nicholas,  and  beg 
leave  to  proceed  to  the  election  of  a  new 
pope.  This  letter  was  written  in  the  name 
of  the  cardinals  of  the  holy  Roman  church. 
But  the  empress,  provoked  at  the  proceed- 
ings of  that  party,  would  not  so  much  as  see 
the  cardinal  legate;  and  he  returned  with 
the  letter  unopened.  Upon  his  return  to 
Rome  the  cardinals,   resolved  to  wait  no 


i  Petrus  Damian.  ep.  14.         »  Dam,  Opusc.  is.  c.  7. 


Alexander  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


371 


Alexander  II.  chosen  pope  by  one  party,  and  Cadalus  by  another  ;  who  marches  to  Rome  with  an  army,  but  ia 
defeated  and  Alexander  established.  Anno  of  Cologne  wrests  from  the  empress  the  tutelage  of  the  young 
king.     The  monks  at  Florence  quarrel  with  the  bishop  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1063.] 


longer,  chose  Anselm,  a  native  of  Milan, 
and  at  that  time  bishop  of  Lucca,  flattering 
themselves  that  the  empress  would  approve 
the  election  they  had  made,  as  the  elect  was 
well  known,  and  even  a  favorite  at  court. 
He  was  chosen  on  the  1st  of  October,  lOGl, 
and  took  the  name  of  Alexander  II.'  But 
on  what  day  he  was  enthroned  we  are  no- 
where told.  Robert  Guiscard  assisted  at 
this  election,  having  promised  upon  oath  to 
the  deceased  pope  to  second  the  cardinals  in 
the  election  of  his  successor. 

The  empress  Agnes,  looking  upon  the 
election  of  Alexander  as  an  encroachment 
upon  the  rights  of  her  son,  not  only  refused 
to  confirm  it,  but  by  the  advice  of  Gibert, 
great  chancellor  of  Italy,  appointed  a  council 
to  meet  at  Basil,  in  order  to  declare  the  elec- 
tion, made  by  the  cardinals  without  the 
knowledge  of  the  king,  to  be  null,  and  to 
choose  another  in  his  room.  This  council 
consisted  of  the  bishops  of  Lombardy,  and 
some  German  bishops ;  and  by  them  the 
election  of  Alexander  was  annulled,  as  an 
open  violation  of  the  rights  of  the  king,  and 
Cadolus,  or  Cadolous,  was  chosen,  with  one 
consent,  on  the  28th  of  October  of  the  pre- 
sent year  lUGI.  He  was  at  the  time  of  his 
election  bishop  of  Parma,  but  a  man  of  a 
most  infamous  character,  if  Peter  Damian  is 
to  be  credited  :  for  he  not  only  kept  publicly 
a  concubine,  styhng  her  his  wife,  but  main- 
tained that  it  was  as  lawful  for  a  priest  to 
marry,  as  for  any  other  man;  and  we  are 
told,  that  it  was  to  get  the  laws  concerning 
the  celibacy  of  the  clergy  revoked,  that  the 
Lombard  bishops  so  unanimously  chose  him. 
He  had  been  arraigned  and  convicted  of 
simony  in  three  different  councils,  namely, 
of  Pavia,  Mantua,  and  Milan,  but  had  been 
forgiven  upon  owning  himself  guilty  of  the 
charge,  and  submitting  to  the  penance  that 
was  enjoined  him.^  His  election  being  ap- 
proved of  by  Agnes  and  the  young  prince 
her  son,  the  Lombard  bishops,  those  espe- 
cially of  Placentia  and  Vercelli,  took  care  to 
supply  him  both  with  men  and  money  to 
drive  his  antagonist  from  the  papal  throne. 
With  that  view  he  marched  at  the  head  of  a 
considerable  army  from  Basil  straight  to 
Rome,  and  having,  by  dint  of  money,  gained 
some  of  Alexander's  friends  over  to  his 
party,  he  would  have  made  himself  master 
of  the  city,  had  not  Godfrey,  duke  of  Tus- 
cany, espousing  the  cause  of  Alexander, 
fallen  with  a  more  numerous  army  upon  his 
troops,  and  obliged  him  with  great  slaughter 
to  raise  the  siege,  and  return  to  Parma. 
Cadolus  himself  would  have  been  taken 
prisoner,  had  not  an  officer  of  the  duke's 
army,  whom  he  bribed  with  a  large  sum  of 
money,  assisted  him  in  making  his  escape.^ 

»  Herman.  Contract.    Leo  Ostiens.  I.  iii.  c.  20. 
»  Petrus  Damian.  Opusc.  ix.  c.  8. 
'  Leu  Ostiens.  1.  iii.  c.  80. 


Upon  his  retreat,  Alexander,  who  had  fled 
at  his  approach,  returned  to  Rome,  and  was 
there  received,  with  great  demonstrations  of 
joy,  by  the  cardinals,  and  the  rest  of  the 
Roman  clergy. 

Cadolus  was  preparing  to  return  to  Rome 
with  a  more  numerous  army,  being  strongly 
supported  by  the  empress  Agnes,  by  the 
chancellor  Gibert,  and  by  all  who  had  any 
zeal  for  the  maintenance  of  the  imperial 
rights.  But  in  the  mean  time  Anno,  arch- 
bishop of  Cologne,  declaring  for  Alexander, 
seized  on  the  king,  who  was  then  but  twelve 
years  old,  and  carrying  him  to  Cologne, 
where  he  was  treated  with  all  the  respect 
that  was  due  to  his  high  rank,  he  assembled 
a  council  at  a  place  in  Germany  called  Os- 
borium,  and  there  caused  the  election  of 
Cadolus  to  be  declared  an  intrusion,  and 
that  of  Alexander  a  lawful  election.  As 
this  council  was  held  in  the  presence  of  the 
king,  Alexander  was  said  to  have  been  ac- 
knowledged by  him  for  lawful  pope.  Anno 
held  another  council  or  diet,  by  which  he 
got  himself  declared  regent  and  guardian  of 
the  king  during  his  minority.  Agnes,  find- 
ing the  tutelage  of  her  son,  and  with  it  all 
power,  thus  wrested  from  her  by  the  ambi- 
tious archbishop,  retired  to  Rome,  and  there 
acknowledging  Alexander,  was  absolved  by 
him  from  the  censures  she  had  incurred  by 
adhering  to  Cadolus.  She  spent  the  rest  of 
her  days  in  that  city,  leading  a  most  exem- 
plary life,  and  died  there  in  1077. 

Alexander,  having  now  nothing  to  fear 
from  Cadolus,  sent  Peter  Damian  to  Flo- 
rence, with  the  character  of  his  legate,  upoa 
the  following  occasion :  The  bishop  of  that 
city,  named  Peter,  was  arraigned  of  simony, 
and  his  father,  one  of  the  principal  citizens 
of  Pavia,  coming  to  visit  his  son  at  Florence, 
owned,  as  he  was  a  very  simple  man,  that 
he  had  paid  the  king  a  very  large  sum  for 
the  promotion  of  his  son.  Hereupon  the 
monks,  headed  by  the  famous  St.  John 
Gualbert,  founder  of  the  order  of  Vollum- 
brosa,  began  publicly  to  inveigh  against  the 
bishop,  as  a  simoniac  and  a  heretic,  pre- 
tending that  the  sacraments  administered  by 
him  were  null.  This  occasioned  great  dis- 
turbances, and  even  a  kind  of  civil  war 
among  the  citizens,  some  siding  with  the 
bishop  against  the  monks,  and  some  with 
the  monks  against  the  bishop.  Several  frays 
happened,  and  in  one  some  of  the  monks 
were  killed  ;  which  obliged  the  pope  to  send 
Peter  Damian  to  Florence,  with  full  power 
to  employ  what  means  he  should  think  the 
most  proper  to  reconcile  the  contending 
parlies.  But  the  monks,  insisting  upon  the 
nullity  of  the  sacraments  administered  by 
the  bishop,  as  well  as  by  those  whom  he 
had  ordained,  would  hearken  to  no  terms; 
so  that  Damian,  finding  them  bent  upon  the 
deposition  of  the  bishop,  left  matters  as  he 


372 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Alexander  H. 


The  monks  apply  to  the  pope.  A  new  kind  of  ordeal  by  fire.  The  bishop  deposed  by  a  council  at  Rome. 
Canons  of  that  council.  Peter  Damian  sent  to  France.  Holds  a  council  at  Chalons.  Tho  first  instance  of 
a  plenary  indulgence. 


found  them  and  returned  to  Rome.  He 
was  soon  followed  by  several  monks  sent  by 
their  brethren  to  accuse  the  bishop  to  the 
pope,  and  beg  his  holiness  would  remove 
him,  as  several  persons  chose  rather  to  die 
without  receiving  the  viaticum,  than  to  re- 
ceive it  at  his  hands,  or  at  the  hands  of  any 
whom  he  had  ordained.  As  the  pope  had 
appointed  a  council  to  meet  in  the  Lateran 
palace,  he  told  the  monks,  that  the  cause  of 
their  bishop  should  be  examined  by  the 
bishops  of  that  assembly,  and  that  if  he  was 
found  guilty  of  the  charge  which  they 
brought  against  him,  he  should  be  punished 
as  was  prescribed  by  the  canons.  The  monks 
acquiesced,  and  upon  their  return  to  Flo- 
rence, one  of  them,  by  name  Peter,  to  con- 
vince the  citizens  that  their  bishop  was 
guilty  of  the  crime  they  charged  him  with, 
offered  to  undergo  a  new  kind  of  fiery  trial, 
and  underwent  it  accordingly,  walking  bare- 
footed and  quite  unhurt  upon  a  very  narrow 
path,  covered  with  burning  coals,  between 
two  huge  piles  of  dry  wood  set  on  fire.  We 
are  told,  that  having  dropped  his  handker- 
chief as  he  walked  between  the  two  burning 
piles,  he  returned  with  great  composure, 
and  took  it  up  from  amidst  the  flames  quite 
entire.  The  reader  will  find  a  minute  ac- 
count of  this  wonderful  performance  in  the 
letter,  which  the  clergy  and  people  of  Flo- 
rence, who  were  all  eye-witnesses  of  it, 
wrote  to  the  pope  on  the  occasion.'  Desi- 
derius,  abbot  of  Monte  Cassino,  and  after- 
wards pope  under  the  name  of  Victor  III. 
speaks  of  this  trial  as  a  thing  that  was  noto- 
rious, or  well  known  to  all  the  world;  and 
adds,  that,  at  the  time  he  wrote,  the  monk 
was  still  hving,  and  bishop  of  Albano.^  He 
was  from  that  time  distinguished  with  the 
epithet  of  Igneus,  and  is  styled  by  the  writers 
who  speak  of  him,  Petrus  Igneus,  or  Fiery 
Peter. 

The  council,  which  the  pope  had  ap- 
pointed to  meet  in  the  Lateran  palace,  was 
held  soon  after  this  miraculous  trial,  and 
Peter,  bishop  of  Florence,  found  guilty  of 
the  charge  of  simony,  was  deposed,  and  for- 
bidden, upon  pain  of  excommunication,  to 
exercise  thenceforth  any  episcopal  or  even 
sacerdotal  functions.  It  is  to  be  observed, 
that  notwithstanding  the  authentic  account 
of  the  miraculous  preservation  of  the  monk 
and  his  handkerchief,  transmitted  to  Rome 
by  the  clergy  and  people  of  Florence,  the 
pope  did  not  condemn  the  bishop  till  several 
witnesses,  appearing  before  the  council,  de- 
posed that,  to  their  certain  knowledge,  the 
bishopric  was  purchased  of  the  king  or  his 
ministers  with  a  large  sum  of  money,  a 
plain  proof  that  the  pope  paid  very  little  re- 
gard to  that  account;  and  his  holiness  was 
better  informed   of  every  circumstance  at- 


«  Apud  Baron,  ad  ann.  1063. 
3  Desider.  Dialog.  1.  iii. 


tending  so  extraordinary  an  event,  than  we 
are,  or  can  be,  at  so  great  a  distance  of  time. 
This  council  consisted  of  one  hundred  bi- 
shops and  upwards,  and  the  canons  were 
confirmed  by  it,  which  had  been  issued  by 
the  two  preceding  popes,  Leo  and  Nicholas, 
against  simony,  the  marriage  of  the  clergy, 
incestuous  marriages,  that  is,  marriages 
within  the  forbidden  degrees,  or  to  the  seventh 
generation,  and  the  raising  of  any  man  at 
once,  let  his  merit  be  ever  so  great,  to  the 
episcopal  dignity.  By  the  fourth  canon  it 
was  ordained,  that  the  clerks  should  eat  and 
sleep  together  near  the  churches  which  they 
served,  and  that,  banishing  all  private  pro- 
perty, they  should  enjoy  their  income  in 
common."  To  this  canon  the  regular  canons 
owe  their  institution. 

In  this  council,  Hugh,  abbot  of  Cluny, 
complained  to  the  pope  of  Drago,  bishop  of 
Ma9on,  pretending,  in  defiance  of  the  papal 
bulls,  to  exercise  jurisdiction  over  that  mo- 
nastery, because  situated  in  his  diocese. 
Peter  Damian,  who  was  a  monk  himself  of 
the  holy  cross  of  Avellana,  near  Engubio, 
and  a  most  zealous  defender  of  the  monkish 
orders,  hearing  this  complaint,  offered  to  go 
to  France,  and  there  maintain  the  privileges 
of  the  monastery  against  the  unju.st  usurpa- 
tions of  the  bishop.  The  pope  not  only  ac- 
cepted his  offer,  but  charging  him  with  sev- 
eral other  commissions,  vested  him  with  the 
character  and  the  power  of  his  legate  a 
Latere.  The  legate,  on  his  arrival  in  France, 
held  a  council  at  Chalons,  on  the  Saone,  and 
having  caused  the  bulls  of  the  popes,  ex- 
empting the  monastery  of  Cluny  from  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  bishop,  to  be  read  in  that 
assembly,  the  bishop  was  by  all  found  guilty 
of  a  breach  of  the  privileges  granted  by  the 
apostolic  see  to  the  monks  and  their  monas- 
tery. But  he  declaring,  upon  oath,  that  he 
never  had  heard  of  those  privileges,  and  at 
the  same  time  asking  the  pope  pardon  on 
his  knees,  in  the  midst  of  the  assembly,  the 
legate  contented  himself  with  enjoining  him 
to  fast  seven  days  upon  bread  and  water.'^ 
In  the  same  council,  the  bishop  of  Orleans, 
named  Haderic,  was  arraigned  of  simony. 
But  as  he  denied  that  charge  upon  oath,  the 
legate  would  not  so  much  as  hear  his  ac- 
cusers. However,  the  crime  being  after- 
wards proved,  the  pope  ordered  the  archbi- 
shop of  Sens  to  excommunicate  and  depose 
him.'' 

In  the  mean  time  the  Normans  were  ex- 
tending their  conquests,  not  only  in  Italy, 
but  in  the  island  of  Sicily,  under  the  con- 
duct of  Roger,  brother  to  Robert  Guiscard, 
duke  of  Calabria.  This  year  Roger  gained 
a    memorable   victory   over   the   Saracens, 

>  Concil.  torn.  ix.  p.  1275. 

^Concll.  torn.  ix.  p.  1177,  et  Bibliothec.  Cluniac.  p. 
509. 
«  Petrus  Damian.  1.  vi.  ep.  2. 


Alexander  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


373 


Two  councils  held  at  Rome. 

1066.] 

masters  of  the  far  greater  part  of  that  island, 
aad  having  acquired  a  very  rich  booty,  he 
sent  a  considerable  share  of  it  to  the  pope, 
sensible  that  it  was  his  interest  to  have  the 
pope  for  his  friend,  and  that  he  could  no 
otherwise  more  effectually  gain  him  than  by 
presents.  The  pope,  well  pleased  with  his 
share  of  the  spoils,  granted  to  Roger  in  re- 
turn, and  to  all  who  had  assisted  him,  or 
who  should  for  the  future  assist  him,  in 
driving  the  Saracens  quite  out  of  Sicily,  full 
remission  of  all  their  sins,  provided  they 
sincerely  repented  of  the  sins  they  had  com- 
mitted, and  were  determined  to  commit  none 
in  time  to  come.'  This  was  granting  them 
a  "plenary  indulgence,"  as  it  is  now  called  ; 
and  it  is  the  first  instance  of  such  a  grant 
that  occurs  in  history.  At  the  same  time 
the  pope  sent  a  standard  to  Roger  from  the 
tomb  of  St.  Peter,  that  he  and  his  men  might 
fight  more  courageously  under  the  protection 
and  the  banner  of  the  prince  of  the  apostles.^ 

The  two  following  years  two  councils 
were  held  at  Rome  against  those  who  main- 
tained that  the  degrees  of  consanguinity  ought 
not  to  extend  beyond  cousin-germans ;  and 
by  both  councils  all  were  excommunicated 
as  heretics  who  held  that  opinion.  But 
Damianus  informs  us,  that  scarce  one  out 
of  many  thousands  paid  any  kind  of  regard 
to  the  anathemas  of  those  councils,  or  to 
the  canons  forbidding  marriages  of  relations 
to  the  seventh  generation.^  However,  they 
who  held  those  marriages  to  be  lawful,  were 
looked  upon  by  the  pope  as  heretics,  and 
their  pretended  heresy  was  called  the  '•  he- 
resy of  the  incestuous." 

The  ensuing  year  1066  arrived  at  Rome, 
Giselbert,  archdeacon  of  Lizieux,  sent  thither 
by  William,  duke  of  Normandy,  on  the  fol- 
lowing occasion.  Edward,  king  of  England, 
surnamed  the  Confessor,  dying  on  the  5th 
of  January  of  the  present  year,  Harold,  son 
to  Godwin,  earl  of  Kent,  and  brother  to 
Egiltha,  the  deceased  king's  wife,  caused 
himself  to  be  proclaimed  king  the  very  next 
day.  But  Edward,  having  no  male  issue, 
had  promised,  and  was  said  to  have  left  by 
his  last  will  the  crown  to  William,  who  was 
therefore  no  sooner  informed  of  what  had 
passed  in  England,  than  assembling  the 
chief  lords  and  prelates  of  his  dukedom,  he 
acquainted  ihem  with  his  claim  to  the  crown, 
advising  at  the  same  time  with  them  about 
the  most  proper  means  of  ascertaining  it. 
They  were  divided  in  their  opinions,  some, 
in  compliance  with  the  inclination  of  the 
duke,  encouraging  him  to  pass  over  into 
England  without  delay,  while  others  strove 
to  divert  him  from  such  an  undertaking  as 
too  hazardous,  it  being  impossible  for  a 
handful  of  Normans  to  overcome  the  whole 
English  nation.     Upon  their  disagreement 


The  pope  sends  a  standard  to  William,  duke  of  Normandy; — [Year  of  Christ, 
The  Roman  territories  ravaged  by  Richard,  the  Norman. 

the  duke  resolved  to  apply  to  the  pope ;  and 
it  was  to  consult  and  engage  him  in  his 
cause  that  he  dispatched  the  archdeacon  of 
Lizieux  to  Rome.  Alexander  received  him 
with  extraordinary  marks  of  esteem,  and 
being  informed  by  him  that  Harold  had,  by 
the  breach  of  an  oath  he  had  taken  to  Wil- 
liam, assumed  the  ensigns  of  royally,  his 


»  Malaterra   1.  ii.  c.  33. 

>  Damian.  Opusc.  xii.  c.  89. 


'  Idem  ibid. 


holiness  not  only  approved  of  the  intended 
expedition,  but  that  he  might  be  protected  ia 
such  an  undertaking  by  the  merits  of  St. 
Peter,  he  sent  him  the  standard  of  that  apos- 
tle.' William,  having  received  the  standard, 
crossed  over  with  his  army  into  England  in 
the  latter  end  of  September,  and  having  de- 
feated with  great  slaughter  the  army  of 
Harold,  who  was  killed  at  the  first  onset,  he 
was  on  Christmas  day  following,  1066,  con- 
secrated and  crowned  king  of  England  ia 
the  basilic  of  St.  Peter,  Westminster.  The 
ceremony  was  performed  by  Aldred,  arch- 
bishop of  York,  in  the  presence  of  the  pre- 
lates, abbots,  and  nobility  of  the  whole  king- 
dom.^ 

Giselbert,  the  duke  of  Normandy's  envoy, 
had  scarcely  left  Rome,  when  Richard,  bro- 
ther to  Robert  Guiscard,  appeared  unex- 
pectedly at  the  head  of  a  considerable  body 
of  troops  in  the  neighborhood  of  that  city. 
The  late  pope  had  granted  him  the  investi- 
ture of  the  dukedom  of  Capua,  which  he 
had  taken  from  Landulphus,  the  lawful 
duke.  But  he  now  wanted  to  be  made  a 
Roman  patrician,  a  very  great  dignity  ia 
those  days;  and  because  neither  the  pope 
nor  the  Romans  would  confer  that  honor 
upon  him,  he  laid  waste  the  neighboring 
country,  and  threatened  Rome  itself.  But 
the  ministers  of  the  king,  hearing  of  the  ra- 
vages he  committed,  ordered  Godfrey,  duke 
of  Tuscany,  to  march  against  him  and  pro- 
tect the  city.  At  his  approach  Richard  re- 
tired; but  the  duke,  attended  by  the  pope 
himself  and  all  the  cardinals,  pursued  him 
as  far  as  Aquino,  where,  after  several  skir- 
mishes, without  any  advantage  on  either 
side,  a  peace  was  concluded,  but  upon  what 
terms  history  does  not  inform  us ;  we  only 
know  that  the  pope  absolved  Richard  and 
his  Normans  from  the  excommunication 
they  had  incurred  by  ravaging  the  lands  of 
the  church.  From  Aquino  the  pope  repair- 
ed to  Monte  Cassino,  and  there,  by  the  ad- 
vice of  Hildebrand,  preferred  several  monks 
to  different  employments  and  dignities  ia 
the  church,  and  at  the  same  time  exempted, 
by  a  special  bull,  not  only  their  church  and 
monastery,  but  all  their  houses  and  tene- 
ments, from  the  jurisdiction  of  any  bishop 
but  that  of  the  bishop  of  Rome.' 

As  Codolus  had  not  yet  quitted  the  en- 
signs of  the  pontifical  dignity,  but  was  still 
acknowledged  by  many  for  lawful   pope. 


1  Orderic.  Vital.  Hist.  Eccles.  1.  iii. 
»  Orderic.  Vital,  ubi  gupra. 
'  Leo  Ostiens.  1.  iii.  c.  2."?. 

2G 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Alexander  H. 


374 

Cadolus  condemned  in  a  council  at  Mantua ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1067.]  Arialdus  canonized.  The  pope  will 
not  allow  the  king  to  divorce  his  wife  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1008.]  The  archbishops  of  Mentz  and  Bamberg 
summoned  to  Rome  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  1069.] 


Anno,  archbishop  of  Cologne,  proposed  the 
assembling  of  a  council,  in  order  to  put  an 
end  by  that  means  to  the  schism.  This  pro- 
posal was  not  at  all  relished  by  Alexander; 
but  being  persuaded  by  his  friends  to  agree 
to  it,  a  council  was  appointed  to  meet  at 
Mantua,  and  the  Italian  bishops,  those  espe- 
cially of  Lombard y,  were  invited  to  it.  Ca- 
dolus was  particularly  summoned  ;  but  he 
did  not  appear,  pretending  that  nobody  had 
a  power  to  summon  him,  since  his  election 
had  been  approved  by  a  council,  that  of 
Basil,  and  confirmed  by  the  king.  The 
council,  however,  met  at  the  time  appointed, 
and  it  being  made  plainly  to  appear  that 
Cadolus  had  been  preferred  to  the  see  by 
dint  of  money,  his  election  was  declared 
simoniacal  and  null,  and  he  forbidden,  on 
pain  of  excommunication,  to  exercise  thence- 
forth any  pontifical,  episcopal,  or  sacerdotal 
functions.  Alexander  too  was  arraigned  of 
simony,  but  having  denied  the  charge  upon 
oath,  (which  he  at  first  showed  himself 
averse  to,  as  inconsistent  with  the  dignity 
of  high  pontiff,)  his  election  was  declared 
canonical,  and  he  acknowledged  by  the  whole 
council  for  lawful  pope.'  Cadolus,  how- 
ever, not  intimidated  with  the  sentence  pro- 
nounced against  him,  found  means  to  get 
one  night,  with  several*  of  his  attendants, 
privately  into  the  Leonine  city,  and  even  to 
take  possession  of  the  church  of  St.  Peter. 
This  occasioned  a  general  alarm  in  the  morn- 
ing, when  those  whom  Cadolus  had  brought 
with  him,  consulting  their  own  safety,  left 
him  to  the  mercy  of  his  enemies.  But  Cen- 
cius,  governor  of  the  castle  of  St.  Angelo, 
coming  seasonably  to  his  relief,  carried  him 
with  him  into  that  fortress.  There  he  re- 
mained two  years  besieged  by  the  Romans, 
and  very  ill  used  by  Cencius,  who,  to  extort 
money  from  him  kept  him  in  the  castle, 
though  he  might  have  made  his  escape,  as 
the  place  was  not  closely  besieged,  without 
exposing  himself  to  the  least  danger.  Cen- 
cius at  last  granted  him  his  liberty,  but  not 
till  he  had  paid  down  for  it  three  hundred 
pounds  weight  of  silver.  Having  thus  ran- 
somed himself,  he  privately  left  the  castle  in 
the  night,  and  in  the  disguise  of  a  pilgrim, 
reached  undiscovered  the  town  of  Baretta. 
Some  writers  tell  us,  that  to  the  hour  of  his 
death  he  claimed  the  pontifical  dignity,  that 
he  exercised  all  the  functions  of  that  office, 
and  looked  upon  Alexander  as  anti-pope.^ 
But  others  will  have  him  to  have  owned  his 
fault,  to  have  acknowledged  Alexander,  and 
to  have  died  a  sincere  penitent.^ 

The  pope  in  his  way  to  the  council  of 
Mantua  passed  through  Milan,  and  there 
canonized  Arialdus,  a  clerk  of  that  church. 


« In  Collect.  Concil.  ad  ann.  1064,  et  apud  Bar.  ad 
eun.  ann. 
2  Lambert.  Schafnaburg.  ad  ann.  1064. 
2  Apud  Baron,  ubi  sup. 


who  had  been  inhumanly  murdered  by  his 
brethren  for  exposing  such  of  them  as  were 
married  to  the  contempt  of  the  laity,  being  a 
most  strenuous  assertor  of  the  celibacy  of 
the  clergy.  Andrew,  abbot  of  Vallombrosa, 
assures  us  in  his  life  of  this  holy  martyr, 
that  having  happened  to  touch  his  body 
after  his  martyrdom,  his  fingers  exhaled  the 
sweetest  odor  he  had  ever  smelt.'  On  the 
other  hand  Landulphus  positively  asserts, 
that  the  body  of  Arialdus  sent  forth  such  a 
stench  as  no  man  could  bear.-  The  abbot 
was  for  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy,  and  Lan- 
dulphus against  it;  and  thus  may  we  ac- 
count for  their  different  sensations. 

The  pope,  upon  his  return  from  Mantua 
to  Rome,  was  informed  that  the  king  of 
Germany  wanted  to  divorce  his  wife  Bertha, 
the  daughter  of  Otho,  an  Italian  marquis, 
whom  he  had  married  but  two  years  before; 
that  he  was  countenanced  therein  by  Siger 
frid,  archbishop  of  Mentz,  whom  he  had 
gained  with  great  promises ;  and  that  a  coun- 
cil was  appointed  to  meet  at  Mentz  in  order 
to  determine  that  affair.  Upon  this  intelli- 
gence he  immediately  dispatched  Peter  Da- 
mian  into  Germany  with  the  character  of 
legate  a  Latere,  strictly  enjoining  him  to  op- 
pose the  intended  divorce,  and  threaten,  in 
his  name,  with  the  censures  of  the  church, 
such  as  should  presume  to  countenance  it 
by  what  title  soever  dignified  or  distin- 
guished. The  council  met  soon  after  the 
arrival  of  Damian  at  Mentz ;  but  the  lords, 
as  well  as  the  bishops,  terrified  with  the 
menaces  of  the  legate,  declared,  all  to  a  man, 
against  the  divorce,  as  forbidden  by  the  laws 
both  of  God  and  the  church,  and  earnestly 
entreated  the  king  not  to  encourage  with  his 
example  a  crime  which  it  was  his  duty  to 
punish  in  his  subjects.  The  king  finding 
his  design  thus  disapproved  by  all  the  lords 
and  prelates  of  his  kingdom,  as  well  as  the 
pope,  acquiesced,  but  treated  the  queen 
thenceforth  with  great  indifference,  though 
it  does  not  appear  that  he  ever  afterwards 
thought  of  a  divorce.* 

The  following  year  1069  was  employed 
by  the  pope  in  redressing  several  abuses, 
and  examining  into  the  conduct  of  several 
bishops  arraigned  of  simony,  or  other  crimes. 
Among  the  former  were  the  archbishops  of 
Mentz  and  Bamberg,  whom  the  pope  there- 
fore summoned  to  Rome  to  plead  their  cause 
in  his  presence.  They  were  both  found 
guilty  of  the  charge,  there  being  then  scarce 
one  bishop  in  the  whole  church  that  did  not 
receive,  nay  that  did  not.  exact,  money  for 
performing  the  functions  of  his  office.  How- 
ever the  pope  forgave  them,  upon  their 
promising  upon  oath  to  avoid  all  simony  in 
time  to  come.  The  historian  adds,  that  the 
pope  was  highly  incensed  against  them,  and 

«  Vit  Ariald.  c.  31.  a  Puricell.  1.  i.  c.  2. 

3  Lambert.  Schafnab.  ad  ann.  1068. 


Alexander  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


375 


Tlic  pope  sends  legates  into  England; — [Year  of  Christ,  1070.]  Stigand,  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  deposed 
in  a  council  at  Winchester.  Other  bishops  deposed  in  the  council  of  Windsor.  Lanfranc  archbishop  of 
Canterbury. 


would  have  punished  them  more  severely, 
had  they  not  softened  him  with  rich  presents.' 

The  following  year  the  pope  received  an 
agreeable  message  from  William,  the  new 
king  of  England,  desiring  his  holiness  to 
send  over  legates  to  assist  at  a  council  which 
he  intended  to  assemble,  in  order  to  regulate 
the  affairs  of  the  English  church.  The  pope, 
in  compliance  with  the  king's  request,  dis- 
patched, without  delay,  the  two  cardinals 
Peter  and  John,  and  with  them  Ermenfred, 
bishop  of  Sion,  with  the  character  of  his  le- 
gates a  Latere,  to  assist  the  king  with  their 
counsel  in  so  laudable  an  undertaking.  The 
legates,  says  the  historian,  Avere  received 
and  honored  by  the  king  like  angels  sent 
from  heaven,  and  employed  by  him  in  affairs 
of  the  utmost  importance.  As  he  kept  his 
Easter  this  year  at  Winchester,  he  appointed 
a  council  to  meet  there  on  the  octave  of  that 
festival;  and  by  that  council,  or  rather  by 
the  legates  and  the  king,  who  presided  at  it 
jointly  with  them,  Stigand,  archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  was  deposed,  as  unworthy  of 
that  dignity.  The  crimes  charged  upon  him 
were,  his  holding  the  bishoprics  of  Win- 
chester and  Canterbury  together;  his  in- 
truding himself  into  the  latter  in  the  life- 
time of  his  predecessor  Robert  the  Norman, 
driven  out  by  the  English  party,  and  his 
being  stained,  says  Odericus  Vitalis,  with 
perjuries  and  murders.-  It  seems  somewhat 
strange,  that  the  holding  of  two  bishoprics 
should  have  been  deemed  a  crime  in  Stigand 
worthy  of  deposition,  when  the  pope  him- 
self held  two  bishoprics  at  this  very  ?ime, 
namely,  those  of  Lucca  and  of  Rome,  and 
several  of  his  predecessors  had  kept,  as  we 
have  seen,  the  sees  from  which  they  were 
preferred  to  the  papal  dignity.  As  for  the 
crimes  of  which  Stigand  is  said  by  Ordericus 
to  have  been  arraigned,  no  notice  is  taken  of 
them  by  any  other  writer;  so  that  they,  per- 
haps, are  not  mistaken,  who  suppose  him 
to  have  been  deposed  by  the  king  and  his 
tools  the  legates,  chiefly  to  make  room  for 
Lanfranc,  who  was  a  Norman,  and  held  in 
great  esteem  both  by  the  pope  and  the  king; 
whereas  Stigand  had  greatly  disobliged  the 
present  pope,  as  well  as  several  of  his  pre- 
decessors, by  performing,  for  many  years, 
all  the  archiepiscopal  functions  without  pro- 
curing the  pall  from  Rome;  nay  he  had,  on 
that  account,  been  often  excommunicated, 
but  paying  no  kind  of  regard  to  those  ex- 
communications, he  continued  to  exercise 
the  same  functions  as  before;  and  this  was 
the  true  reason  why  the  conqueror  chose  to 
be  crowned  by  Aldred  of  York,  and  not  by 
him.  He  was  by  the  king's  order  kept 
closely  confined  from  the  time  of  his  deposi- 
tion to  the  hour  of  his  death. 

In  this  council,  and  another   held  soon 

'  Lambert.  Schafnab.  ad  ann.  1068. 
'  Orderic.  Vital.  I.  iv. 


after  at  Windsor,  several  other  bishops  were 
deposed  for  their  vicious  lives,  says  Orderi- 
cus, and  their  ignorance  of  the  pastoral 
duty.'  But  it  is  to  be  observed,  that  they 
who  were  preferred  in  their  room  were  all 
either  Normans  or  persons  in  the  Norman 
interest;  which  plainly  shows  that  it  was  not 
chiefly  for  their  ignorance,  or  their  vicious 
lives,  that  those  prelates  were  removed,  but 
because  the  king  wanted  to  put  all  the  great 
trusts  in  the  church,  as  he  had  already  done 
those  in  the  state,  into  the  hands  of  his  Nor- 
mans, or  of  other  foreigners,  whom  he  knew 
to  be  more  zealously  attached  than  the  En- 
glish to  his  person  and  interest. 

In  the  same  year  Lanfranc  was  preferred 
by  the  king  to  the  see  of  Canterbury  in  the 
room  of  Stigand.  He  was  a  native  of  Pavia 
in  Italy,  the  son  of  a  lawyer,  and  had  him- 
self been  bred  to  that  profession,  but  not 
choosing  to  pursue  it,  he  left  his  country 
and  went  into  Normandy,  where  he  was 
soon  preferred,  for  his  learning  and  parts,  to 
a  professorship  in  the  city  of  Avranches. 
He  afterwards  embraced  a  monastic  life  in 
the  monastery  of  Rey,  was  made  prior  of 
that  monasterv,  and  chosen,  while  in  that 
station,  by  William,  then  duke  of  Normandy, 
for  the  first  abbot  of  St.  Stephen's  in  Caen, 
a  monastery  which  the  duke  had  built  and 
endowed.  He  was  one  of  William's  chief 
favorites,  was  consulted  by  him  in  all  affairs 
of  importance,  and  looked  upon,  not  unde- 
servedly, as  the  ablest  man  of  his  council, 
and  one  in  whom  he  could  entirely  confide. 
He  was  no  less  acceptable  to  the  pope  than 
the  king,  on  account  of  the  zeal  he  exerted 
against  Berengarius,  in  defence  of  the  doc- 
trine concerning  the  eucharist,  defined  by 
the  popes  in  so  many  councils.  He  at  first 
declined  the  archiepiscopal  dignity,  and  even 
wrote  to  the  pope,  begging  his  holiness 
would  not  oblige  him  to  quit  the  retired  life 
he  had  chosen,  and  undertake  a  trust  to 
which  he  knew  himself  unequal.  But  the 
pope  insisting  upon  his  compliance  with  the 
will  of  the  king,  he  left  his  monastery  this 
year,  came  into  England,  and  was  conse- 
crated in  the  cathedral  of  Canterbury  by  the 
bishops  of  the  province,  and  by  Ermenfred, 
the  pope's  legate,  who,  at  the  request  of  the 
king,  remained  in  England,  while  the  other 
two  legates  returned  to  Rome.^ 

The  new  archbishop,  after  his  consecration, 
sent  a  deputy  to  Rome  for  the  pall.  But 
apprehending  that  the  pope  might  require 
him  to  come  for  it  in  person,  and  being  un- 
willing to  undertake  so  long  a  journey,  he 
wrote  to  Hildebrand,  by  whose  counsels 
pope  Alexander  was,  as  his  four  immediate 
predecessors  had  been,  entirely  governed, 
begging  him  to  interpose  his  good  offices  in 


<  Orderic  Vital,  ubi  supra. 
"Lanfranc  Vita  Orderic.  1.  iv. 
1070. 


Chron.  Sax.  ad  ann. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Aletcander  II. 


376 

Lanfranc  goes  to  Rome  for  the  pall ; — [Year  of  Christ,  1071.]  The  archbishop  of  York  and  the  bishop  of  Lin- 
coln said  to  have  been  deposed  by  the  pope.  The  possession  of  the  cathedrals  in  England  confirmed  to  the 
monks.  The  controversy  between  the  archbishops  of  Canterbury  and  York,  concerning  the  primacy,  finally 
determined;— [Year  of  Christ,  1072.]     The  pope's  letter  to  the  king. 


his  behalf.  Hildebrand  answered,  that  his 
holiness,  desirous  to  see  him,  insisted  upon 
his  coming  to  Rome ;  and  that  it  was  neces- 
sary he  should  undertake  that  journey,  not 
only  to  receive  the  pall,  but  to  concert  mea- 
sures relating  to  other  affairs.'  Upon  the 
receipt  of  this  letter,  Lanfranc  set  out  with 
Thomas,  archbishop  of  York,  and  Remigius, 
bishop  of  Lincoln,  for  Rome,  was  received, 
upon  his  arrival  there,  with  all  possible 
marks  of  esteem  by  the  pope,  and  even  ho- 
nored with  the  pall  that  his  holiness  himself 
wore  in  celebrating  mass.  As  for  the  other 
two  bishops,  they  were  both  deposed,  says 
Malmsbury ;  Thomas  as  tbe  son  of  a  priest, 
and  Remigius  because  guilty  of  simony, 
having  assisted  the  king  with  men  and  money, 
in  his  expedition  against  England,  upon  con- 
dition that,  if  the  undertaking  was  attended 
with  success,  he  should  be  preferred  to  a 
bishopric.  The  pope,  however,  upon  their 
consigning  their  crosiers  and  rings  to  him, 
delivered  them  to  Lanfranc,  with  a  power  to 
restore  them,  if  he  thought  fit,  and  he  restored 
ihem  accordingly.  Thus  Malmsbury.  But 
as  by  no  papal  decree,  or  canon  of  the  church, 
the  son  of  a  priest  was  excluded  from  the 
episcopal  dignity,  it  seems  altogether  incredi- 
ble that  an  archbishop  should  have  been  de- 
posed (if  he  really  was  deposed)  on  that  ac- 
count. As  for  Remigius,  he  was,  before  his 
preferment,  but  a  private  monk  of  the  mo- 
nastery of  Feschamp  in  Normandy,  came 
into  England  with  the  quota  of  men  which 
his  monastery  was  obliged  to  assist  the  duke 
with  in  his  wars,  and  being  known  to  him 
on  that  occasion,  he  was  advanced  to  the  see 
of  Lincoln,  when  it  became  vacant.^  In 
all  this  there  was  no  simony,  as  he  could 
not,  being  a  private  monk,  assist  the  duke 
with  men  or  money  upon  condition  of  being 
made  a  bishop,  he  could  not,  on  that  account, 
be  deposed  by  the  pope  as  guilty  of  such  a 
charge. 

As  the  clergy  here  in  England,  had  formed 
a  design  of  driving  the  monks  from  all  the 
cathedrals,  and  were  therein  supported  by 
the  nobility  and  the  king  himself,  Lanfranc, 
to  prevent  such  a  design  from  being  ever 
put  in  execution,  prevailed  upon  the  pope, 
during  his  stay  at  Rome,  to  confirm  the  pos- 
session of  those  cathedrals  to  the  monks  by 
a  special  bull,  directed  to  Lanfranc  himself. 
In  that  bull  or  decretal,  the  pope  says  he  has 
been  informed,  that  some  clerks,  with  the 
assistance  of  the  secular  power,  have  con- 
spired to  force  the  monks  away  from  the 
metropolitan,  or  cathedral  church  of  Canter- 
bury, as  well  as  from  all  the  other  cathedrals 
in  England  ;  that  such  an  attempt  is  deroga- 
tory to  the  constitution  of  Gregory  the  Great, 
ordering  Austin,  the  apostle  of  the  English 

'  Lanfr.  Opera,  p.  304. 

=  Hist.  Norm.  Scrip,  p.  1045 


nation,  to  place  in  the  cathedral  of  Canter- 
bury, men  of  the  same  profession  with  him- 
self; that  the  order,  which  Gregory  had  given 
to  Austin,  was  confirmed  by  Boniface  IV., 
in  a  letter  to  king  Ethelbert,  and  to  Laurence, 
the  successor  of  Austin  ;  and  that  he  there- 
fore could  not  suffer  the  monks  to  be  deprived 
of  that  church,  or  of  any  other,  which  had, 
by  his  predecessors  at  any  time  been  granted 
to  them.  He  closes  his  letter  with  thunder- 
ing out  the  sentence  of  excommunication 
against  such  as  should  presume,  upon  any 
pretence  whatsoever,  to  disturb  the  monks  in 
the  posses.sion  of  their  churches.'  Thus  was 
the  design  of  driving  the  monks  from  the  ca- 
thedrals entirely  dropped. 

While  the  two  archbishops  continued  at 
Rome,  the  dispute  between  them,  begun 
some  years  before,  concerning  the  primacy, 
was  revived,  and  referred  to  the  pope;  the 
archbishop  of  York  maintaining,  that  neither 
of  the  two  archiepiscopal  sees  was  subject 
to  the  other,  according  to  the  plan  of  Gregory 
the  Great,  who,  he  said,  had  fixed  the  pri- 
macy of  England  to  the  person  of  Austin, 
and  not  to  his  see  ;  that  the  two  archbishops 
should  therefore  take  place  according  to  their 
seniority,  or  priority  of  consecration ;  and 
that  the  sees  of  Dorchester,  Lincoln,  Wor- 
cester, and  Litchfield,  had  been,  from  the 
earliest  times,  subject  to  that  of  York.  On 
the  other  hand,  Lanfranc  produced  the  bulls 
of  Gregory,  Honorius,  Vitalian,  and  Sergius, 
granting  or  confirming  the  primacy  of  Eng- 
land to  Austin  and  his  successors  in  the  see 
of  Canterbury,  which  primacy,  he  said,  ap- 
pealing to  the  records  of  the  English  church, 
his  see  had  enjoyed  for  the  space  of  near 
four  hundred  years  quite  undisturbed.  The 
pope  heard  both  sides ;  but  not  caring  to  de- 
termine in  favor  of  either,  he  left  the  final 
decision  of  the  controversy  to  the  English 
bishops,  advising  them  to  convene  a  coun- 
cil for  that  purpose,  and  promising  to  send  a 
legate  to  preside  at  it  in  his  name.  A  coun- 
cil was  accordingly  held  the  following  year, 
at  which  assisted  all  the  bishops  as  well  as 
the  abbots  of  the  kingdom,  and,  by  all,  the 
primacy  of  England  was  adjudged  to  the  see 
of  Canterbury.  Their  sentence  was  con- 
firmed by  Hubert,  subdeacon  of  the  Roman 
church,  sent  from  Rome  to  pres.ide  at  that 
assembly,  and  afterwards  by  the  pope  him- 
self. Thus  was  the  primacy  ascertained  and 
confirmed  for  ever  to  the  see  of  Canterbury.^ 

The  pope  charged  Lanfranc,  on  his  leav- 
ing Rome,  with  a  letter  for  the  king,  wherein 
he  commends  him  for  his  piety  and  zeal  for 
religion,  exhorts  him  to  take  all  religious 
persons,  as  well  as  widows  and  orphans, 
into  his  protection;  advises  him  frequently 
to  consult  Lanfranc,  and  acquiesce  in  his 


»  Eadmer.  1.  i.     Ale.xand.  ep.  49. 
a  Malmsb.  de  Gest.  Reg.  Angl.  1.  i. 
p.  1211. 


Concil.  torn.  ix. 


Gregory  VII.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


377 


The  pope  cites  the  king  of  Germany  to  Rome  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  1073]     His  death.   His  miracles.     Some  par- 
ticular actions  of  his.     Hildebrand  chosen. 


counsels ;  tells  him  that  he  has  vested  his 
beloved  brother  with  the  whole  power  of  his 
see  ;  and  that  his  decisions  ought,  therefore, 
to  be  received  in  all  cases  the  same  as  his 
own,  were  he  present  in  person.' 

The  following  year  the  pope  died,  and  by 
his  death  a  quarrel  was  prevented  between 
him  and  Henry,  the  young  king  of  Ger- 
many, that,  in  all  likelihood,  would  have 
been  attended  wiih  fatal  consequences.  For 
the  Saxons,  revolting  from  that  prince, 
jusily  provoked  at  the  cruel  treatment  they 
met  wiih  from  him  and  his  ministers,  sent 
embassadors  to  complain  thereof  to  the  pope, 
and  at  the  same  time  to  inform  his  holiness 
that  the  king  sold  all  the  great  benefices  to 
the  best  bidder,  and  paid  his  troops  with  the 
money  accruing  from  those  sales.  Here- 
upon the  pope,  at  the  instigation,  as  is  com- 
monly supposed,  of  Hildebrand,  took  a  step 
which  no  pope  had  ever  thought  of  taking 
before  him.  He  summoned  the  king  to  ap- 
pear in  person  at  Rome,  in  order  to  give 
there  an  account  of  his  conduct,  and  clear 
himself,  at  the  tribunal  of  the  apostolic  see, 
from  the  charge  brought  against  him.  This 
summons  was  sent  by  the  archbishops  of 
Cologne  and  Bamberg,  come  to  Rome  to 
receive  the  money  that  was  there  due  to  the 
king.2  Henry  highly  resented  the  indignity  ; 
but  his  resentment  died  with  the  pope, 
whose  death  happened  soon  after,  on  the 
21si  of  April  of  the  present  year,  1073,  after 
a  pontificate  of  eleven  years,  six  months, 
and  twenty-one  days.  He  is  highly  com- 
mended by  all  the  monkish  writers  fog:  his 
zeal  in  endeavoring  to  extirpate  simony,  for 
the  indefatigable  pains  he  took  to  restrain 
tlie  incontinence  of  the  clergy,  and  for  the 
many  privileges,  immunities,  and  exemp- 
tions he  granted  to  the  monks  and  their  mo- 
nasteries.   He  is  said  to  have  wrought  some 


miracles  in  his  life  time,  and  many  after  his 
death.  Leo  Ostiensis  assures  us,  that  at 
Monie  Cassino  he  delivered  a  demoniac,  by 
commanding  the  devil  to  quit  the  body  he 
possessed,  and  retire  to  the  place  where  no 
bird  flies,  and  no  human  voice  ever  was 
heard.  The  same  writer  adds,  that  at 
Aquino  he  cured  a  woman  of  her  lameness 
by  giving  her  the  water  to  drink  with  which 
he  had  washed  his  hands  after  the  celebra- 
tion of  mass.'  However,  neither  of  these 
miracles,  nor  the  holy  life  he  is  said  to  have 
led  from  his  tender  years  to  the  hour  of  his 
death,  have  procured  him  a  place  in  the 
calendar,  though,  perhaps,  as  worthy  of  a 
place  there  as  any  to  whom  Rome  has 
granted  that  honor.  He  died  at  Rome  in  the 
Lateran  palace,  and  was  buried  in  that  ba- 
silic. 

This  pope  was  the  first  that  granted  the 
use  of  the  mitre  to  abbots;  and  Egelsinus,. 
abbot  of  the  monastery  of  St.  Austin  of  Can- 
terbury, was  the  first  upon  whom  that  mark 
of  distinction  was  conferred,^  but  it  has,, 
since  Alexander's  time,  been  bestowed  upon 
many.  The  same  honor  Alexander  be- 
stowed upon  Uratislaus,  duke  of  Bohemia, 
who  was  the  first  layman,  as  Gregory  VII. 
tells  him  in  one  of  his  letters,  allowed  to 
wear  that  respectable  ensign  of  dignity.'' 
The  first  fruits  were  instituted  by  this  pope, 
in  imitation  of  the  Mosaic  law,  enjoining 
them  to  the  Jews.  But  the  quantity  not 
being  settled  by  the  law,  the  Rabbles  deter- 
mined that  it  should  not  be  under  the  sixti- 
eth, nor  above  the  fortieth  part;  and  it  has,, 
therefore,  been  fixed  by  the  church  to  the 
fortieth.  Of  this  pope  we  have  forty-five 
letters,  most  of  them  relating  to  the  subjects 
of  which  I  have  spoken  in  the  history  of  his- 
life. 


CxREGORY  VII.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  FIFTY-FIFTH  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[IMicH.\EL  DucAS,  NiCEPHORAS  BoTONiATES,  Alexius  Comnenus,  EmperoTS  of  (he  East. — 
Henrv  IV.,  King  of  Germany. 


[Year  of  Christ,  1073.]  Alexander  being 
dead,  Hildebrand,  who  was  then  archdeacon 
of  the  Roman  church,  and  held  in  the 
highe^t  esteem  by  the  clergy  and  people  of 
Rome,  appointed  a  three  days'  fast  to  be  kept 
before  they  should  proceed  to  the  election  of 
a  new  pope.  But  while  they  were  perform- 
ing the  obsequies  of  Alexander  in  the  Lateran 
church  the  day  after  his  death,  that  is,  on 

'  Alex.  cp.  10. 

'  Marian.  .Scot,  ad  ann.  1075.  Abbas  Ursperg.  ad 
ann.  1073,     Otto  Prising.  1.  vi.  c.  34. 

Vol  II.— 48 


the  22d  of  April  of  the  present  year,  the 
people  all  at  once  cried  out  with  one  voice,. 
"  Hildebrand  is  pope,  St.  Peter  has  chosen 
him  ;"  and  seizing  him,  placed  him  by  force 
upon  the  pontifical  throne.*  Such  is  the 
account  he  himself  gives  of  his  election. 
But  others  say,  that  this  tumult  was  raised 
by  his  friends  at  his  instigation,  and  that 
neither  the  cardinals,  nor  the  clergy,  nor  the 


'  I,eo  Ostiens.  I.  iii.  c.  35. 

»  Mabill.  PriEfat.  part  i.  secul.  6.  Benedict,  p.  17. 

'  Greg.  vii.  ep.  38.  *  Idem,  1.  i.  ep.  3. 

2g2 


378 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Gregory  VH. 

ilildebrand's  election  approved  by  the  king.     Is  consecrated  under  the  name  of  Gregory.    His  birth,  education, 
employments,  &c.     His  character.    His  insolent  behavior  to  Philip  of  France. 


chief  men  among  the  people,  had  any  share 
ill  his  election.  However  that  be,  his  elec- 
tion was  confirmed  the  same  day  by  the 
whole  body  of  the  clergy  and  people,  and 
the  decree  confirming  it  was  published  in 
the  church  of  St.  Peter  ad  Vincula.  The 
elect  sent  the  very  next  day  after  his  election 
to  acquaint  the  king  of  Germany  with  it, 
and  beg  him  not  to  confirm  it,  as  he  thought 
himself  unequal  to  so  great  a  charge,  and 
had  accepted  it  much  against  his  will.  He 
added,  that  though  he  had  not  been  able  to 
withstand  the  earnest  desire,  or  rather  vio- 
lence, of  the  Roman  people,  he  had  not  suf- 
fered himself  to  be  consecrated  without  the 
approbation  and  consent  of  the  king.  Here- 
upon Henry  immediately  dispatched  count 
Eberhard  to  Rome,  with  orders  to  inquire 
upon  the  spot  whether  the  election  of  Hil- 
debrand  was  canonical;  and  if  it  was  not, 
to  cause  another  to  be  chosen  in  his  room. 
The  count,  gained,  some  say,  by  Hildebrand 
or  his  friends,  wrote  to  the  king  in  his  favor, 
who  thereupon  sent  Gregory,  bishop  of  Ver- 
celli  to  Rome,  to  confirm  the  election  by  his 
authority,  and  assist,  in  his  name,  at  the 
consecration  of  the  new  pontiff.  Thus  was 
Hildebrand  solemnly  ordained,  first  presby- 
ter, as  he  was  only  deacon,  and  then  bishop, 
on  the  29th  of  June,  the  festival  of  St.  Peter 
and  St.  Paul.  At  his  orclination  he  took  the 
name  of  Gregory,  to  honor  the  memory  of 
the  anti-pope  Gregory  VI.,  for  whom,  as  he 
had  been  instructed  by  him  in  his  youth,  he 
ever  retained  the  greatest  respect  and  affec- 
tion.' It  is  to  be  observed  that  Gregory  VII. 
was  the  last  pope,  the  decree  of  whose  elec- 
tion was  transmitted  to  the  emperor  or  the 
king  before  his  consecration,  or  whose  con- 
secration was  performed  in  the  presence  of 
the  imperial  envoys.^ 

Gregory  was,  according  to  the  author  of 
his  life,  by  birth  a  Tuscan,  born  at  Soana, 
in  the  diocese  of  Siena.'  But  in  the  chroni- 
cle of  Verdun  he  is  said  to  have  been  the 
son  of  a  Roman  citizen,  and  a  native  of 
Rome.  Authors  are  no  less  divided  with 
respect  to  his  family,  than  to  the  place  of  his 
birth,  some  making  him  the  son  of  a  car- 
penter, while  others  will  have  him  to  have 
been  descended  from  an  ancient  and  illustri- 
ous family.  What  we  know  for  certain 
concerning  him  before  his  promotion  is,  that 
he  was  educated  at  Rome ;  that  he  there 
lived  in  great  intimacy  with  the  archpriest 
John,  who  purchased  the  pontificate  of  Bene- 
dict IX.,  and  took  the  name  of  Gregory  VI., 
that  Gregory  being  deposed,  and  by  the  em- 
peror carried  prisoner  into  Germany,  he  at- 
tended him  thither;  that  upon  his  death  he 
embraced  a  monastic  life  in  the  monastery 
of  Cluny,  and  there  continued  till  Leo  IX., 
raised  from  the  bishopric  of  Toul  to  the 


>  Acta  Vatican,  apud  Baron.       »  Pagi  ad  ann.  1073. 
*  Paulus  Beruriedensis  in  ejus  Vit. 


apostolic  see,  finding  him  well  acquainted 
with  the  affairs  of  the  Roman  church,  as  he 
visited  that  monastery  on  his  way  to  Italy, 
took  him  from  thence  with  him  to  Rome. 
By  that  pope  he  was  created  subdeacon,  and 
by  Nicholas  II.  archdeacon  of  the  Roman 
churclx,  and  was  by  them,  as  well  as  by  Victor 
II.,  and  his  immediate  predecessor  Alexander 
II.,  employed  with  success  in  several  lega- 
tions. He  was  a  man  of  most  extraordinary 
parts,  of  an  unbounded  ambition,  of  a 
haughty  and  imperious  temper,  of  resolu- 
tion and  courage  incapable  of  yielding  to  the 
greatest  difficulties,  perfectly  acquainted  with 
the  state  of  the  western  churches,  as  well  as 
with  the  different  interests  of  the  Christian 
princes.  His  views  were  as  boundless  as 
his  ambition.  For  not  satisfied  with  rescu- 
ing the  church  from  all  subjection  to  princes, 
he  undertook  to  subject  all  princes  to  the 
church,  and  the  church  to  his  see,  thus  en- 
grossing all  temporal  as  well  as  spiritual 
power  to  himself.  This  undertaking  he 
steadily  pursued  during  the  whole  time  of 
his  pontificate,  and  with  amazing  success, 
as  we  shall  see  in  the  sequel. 

Gregory  no  sooner  found  himself  in  the 
quiet  possession  of  the  pontifical  throne, 
than  he  began  to  execute  the  vast  designs 
he  had  formed,  and  Philip  I.  then  king  of 
France,  was  the  first  against  whom  he 
exerted  the  power  which  he  intended  to 
usurp  over  all  princes.  For  being  informed 
soon  after  his  promotion,  that  great  disorders 
reigned  uncontrolled  in  that  kingdom,  that 
the  churches  and  monasteries  were  plundered 
with  impunity,  and  that  the  king  himself 
had  his  share  in  the  plunder,  he  wrote  a 
very  sharp  letter  to  that  prince,  reproaching 
him  therewith,  and  threatening  him  with 
the  censures  of  the  church,  if  he  did  not 
speedily  redress  those  abuses.'  The  king, 
upon  the  receipt  of  this  letter,  ordered  Al- 
beric,  one  of  his  chamberlains,  then  going  to 
Rome,  to  assure  his  holiness,  that  he  should 
thenceforth  have  no  occasion  to  complain 
of  his  conduct;  that  he  should  prefer  none 
but  persons  of  merit  to  the  vacant  sees,  nor 
suffer  the  lands  of  the  church  to  be  held  or 
laid  waste  by  the  laity.  As  the  people  and 
clergy  of  Mapon  had  unanimously  chosen 
Landri,  archdeacon  of  Autun,  for  their  bi- 
shop, and  the  king  himself  had  approved  of 
his  election,  but  would  not  grant  him  the 
investiture  without  being  paid  for  it,  the  pope 
sent  with  his  letter  to  the  king,  which  I  have 
just  mentioned,  one  to  the  archbishop  of 
Lyons,  another  to  the  bishop  of  Chalons, 
ordering  them  to  let  the  king  know,  that  if 
he  did  not  allow  the  archdeacon  of  Autun, 
who  had  been  canonically  elected,  to  take 
possession  of  that  see  without  fee  or  reward, 
he  would  proceed  against  him  according  to 
the  rigor  of  the  canons,  and  that  the  king 


>  Greg.  ep.  1.  i.  ep.  35. 


Gregory  VII.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


379 


The  pope  holds  a  council  at  Rome.  Decrees  against  simony  and  the  marriage  of  the  clergy.  Excommunicates 
Uobert  Guiscard.  Summons  the  bishop  of  Constance  to  Rome.  He  sends  legates  into  Germany  to  hold  a 
council  there. 


should  eitlier  renounce  simony,  or  his  sub- 
jects, struck  with  a  general  anathema,  should 
refuse  to  obey  him,  if  they  did  not  choose  to 
renounce  Christianity.  In  his  letter  to  Hum- 
bert, archbishop  of  Lyons,  he  commanded 
him  to  ordain  the  elect  without  delay,  in 
spite  of  any  opposition  he  might  meet  with, 
either  from  him  or  even  from  the  king.'  But 
the  archbishop,  and  the  other  bishops  of 
Franco,  not  choosing  to  incur  the  displeasure 
of  their  sovereign,  the  archdeacon  was 
obliged  to  undertake  a  journey  to  Rome; 
and  he  was  there  ordained  by  Gregory 
himself. 

The  following  year  the  pope,  determined 
to  oblige  the  clergy  to  observe  celibacy,  which 
several  of  his  predecessors  had  attempted 
without  success,  and  utterly  to  extirpate 
simony,  that  is,  the  practice  of  purchasing 
bishoprics,  and  other  benefices,  a  practice 
that  prevailed  chiefly  in  France  and  Ger- 
many, assembled,  with  that  view,  a  council 
at  Rome,  the  first  week  in  lent,  at  which 
were  present  most  of  the  Italian  bishops, 
and  some  from  Germany.  la  that  assembly 
the  following  decrees  were  proposed  by  the 
pope,  and  agreed  to  at  his  request  by  the 
bishops  who  composed  it.  1.  That  they 
who  had  obtained  by  simony  any  dignity, 
office,  or  degree  in  the  church,  should  be 
excluded  from  the  exercise  of  the  office  thus 
obtained.  2.  Thatthey,  who  had  purchased 
churches  with  money,  should  quit  them, 
and  no  man  should  thenceforth  presume  to 
sell  or  buy  any  ecclesiastical  dignity  what- 
ever. 3.  That  the  married  clerks  should  not 
perform  any  clerical  office.  4.  That  the 
people  should  not  assist  at  mass  celebrated 
by  them,  nor  at  any  other  sacred  function. 
5.  That  they  who  had  wives,  or,  as  they  are 
styled  in  the  decree,  concubines,  should  put 
them  away,  and  none  should  thenceforth  be 
ordained,  who  did  not  promise  to  observe 
continence  during  his  whole  life.^  These 
decrees,  so  far  as  they  related  to  the  celibacy 
of  the  clergy,  were  by  them  every  where 
strenuously  opposed.  They  did  not  even 
scruple  to  call  the  pope  a  heretic,  as  he 
taught  a  doctrine  repugnant  to  that  of  our 
Savior,  "  All  men  cannot  receive  lliis  say- 
ing ;  he  that  is  able  to  receive  it,  let  him  re- 
ceive ii;"  and  likewise  inconsistent  with  the 
doctrine  of  the  apostle,  allowing  those,  "  who 
could  not  contain  themselves,  to  marry;  and 
declaring,  that  it  is  belter  to  marry  than  to 
liurn;"  whereas  the  pope,  said  they,  taught, 
lliat  it  was  better  to  burn  than  to  marry. 
Tiiey  added,  that  they,  like  other  men,  were 
of  flesh  and  blood,  and  consequently  liable 
to  ihe  same  infirmities,  to  the  same  tempta- 
tions ;  that  men  debarred  from  pleasures 
that  were  lawful  and  allowed  by  the  Gospel, 


«  Greg.  ep.  1.  i.  ep.  36. 

*  Concil.  lom.  x.  p.  315.    Marian.  Scot,  ad  ann.  1071. 


would  be  apt  to  indulge  themselves  in  such 
as  were  forbidden  and  unlawful ;  and  that, 
if  the  pope  obstinately  insisted  on  the  execu- 
tion of  his  decrees,  they  were  determined 
to  quit  the  priesthood  rather  than  their  wives; 
and  his  holiness  might  then  see  where  he 
could  get  angels  to  govern  the  church,  since 
he  rejected  the  ministry  of  men.' 

In  the  same  council  the  pope  solemnly 
excommunicated  Robert  Guiscard,  duke  of 
Apulia  and  Calabria,  who,  after  reducing  all 
the  places  that  in  the  time  of  the  Lom- 
bards were  subject  to  the  city  of  Benevento, 
had  laid  siege  to  that  city  itself,  though  it 
belonged  to  the  apostolic  see.  Robert,  how- 
ever, pursued  the  siege,  and  to  be  revenged 
upon  Gregory  for  presuming  to  excommu- 
nicate him,  invaded  the  march  of  Ancona, 
and  made  himself  master  of  several  cities 
there,  while  his  brother  Richard,  prince  of 
Capua,  extending-  his  conquests  to  the  very 
gates  of  Naples,  held  that  city  closely  be- 
sieged.2 

Gregory,  upon  the  breaking  up  of  the 
council,  wrote  to  all  the  bishops  of  France 
and  Germany  to  acquaint  them  with  the  de- 
crees they  had  issued  against  simoniacs  and 
married  clerks,  and  ordered  them  to  exert  all 
their  power  and  authority  in  causing  them 
to  be  strictly  observed  in  all  places  under 
their  jurisdiction.  Some  bishops  complied 
so  far  with  that  injunction  as  to  cause  the 
decrees  of  the  council  to  be  published 
throughout  their  dioceses,  and  to  exhort  their 
clergy  to  conform  to  them.  But  such  was  the 
opposition  they  every  where  met  with,  that 
they  did  not  think  it  advisable  to  exert  their 
authority,  or  to  use  any  kind  of  compulsion. 
Other  bishops,  such  of  them  especially  as 
were  themselves  married,  instead  of  en- 
forcing the  observance  of  the  papal  decrees, 
declared  them  repugnant  both  to  Scripture 
and  reason.  Among  these  was  Otho,  bishop 
of  Constance,  whom  the  pope  summoned, 
on  that  account,  to  Rome,  as  an  "  encourager 
of  fornication,"  while  the  bishop  maintained 
that  vice  and  all  manner  of  uncleanness, 
abhorred  by  him,  to  be  encouraged  by  the 
pope.  At  the  same  lime  that  Gregory  wrote 
to  Oiho,  citing  him  to  Rome  to  give  there 
an  account  of  his  doctrine  and  conduct,  he 
absolved  the  clergy  and  people  of  Constance, 
by  a  letter  directed  to  them,  from  all  obedi- 
ence to  their  bishop,  so  long  as  he  persisted 
in  his  disobedience  to  God  and  the  apostolic 
see.3 

The  pope,  sensible  that  the  decrees  of  the 
Roman  council  against  simony  and  the  mar- 
riage of  the  clergy  would  meet  with  great 
opposition  from  the  German  bishops,  as 
some  of  them  were  themselves  married,  and 
most  of  them  had  purchased  their  bishoprics 


«  Lambert.  Schafn.  in  Cliron.  ad  ann.  1074. 

3  I.co  Ostiens.  1.  iii.  c.  44. 

'  Paul.  BernrieU.  in  Vit.  Greg.  c.  36,  37. 


380 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Gregory  VII. 

The  council  to  be  held  in  Germany  is  opposed  by  the  king  and  the  bishops.     The  pope  invites  the  German 
bishops  to  a  council  at  Rome.     Designs  to  lead  an  army  against  the  infidels  in  the  East. 


of  the  emperor  or  his  ministers,  sent  the  bi- 
shops of  Palestrina,  Ostia,  Coira,  and  Como, 
with  the  character  of  his  legates,  into  Ger- 
many, to  hold  a  council  there,  and  persuade 
those  bishops  to  confirm  the  decrees  of  the 
council  of  Rome.  The  legates  were  received 
by  the  king  at  Nuremberg,  and  treated  with 
ail  the  respect  that  was  due  to  their  charac- 
ter. As  that  prince  was  then  engaged  in  a 
war  with  the  rebellious  Saxons,  and  there- 
fore unwilling  to  quarrel  with  the  pope,  he 
promised  to  concur  with  his  holiness  in  re- 
dressing the  abuses  he  so  justly  complained 
of,  and  to  dispose,  for  the  future,  of  bi- 
shoprics, and  all  other  preferments  in  the 
church,  as  his  holiness  should  direct.  But 
as  to  the  assembling  of  a  council  in  Ger- 
many, he  told  the  legates,  that  he  did  not 
think  it  advisable  to  assemble  one  at  that 
juncture;  and  besides,  that  the  archbishop 
of  Mentz,  who  had  been  appointed  by  the 
popes  themselves  vicar  of  the  apostolic  see, 
had  alone  a  right  to  preside  at  all  councils 
held  in  Germany,  and  therefore  that  he 
could  not  oblige  his  bishops  to  repair  to  a 
council  at  which  any  other  presided.  The 
legates  pretended  the  power  which  the  popes 
had  granted  to  the  archbishop  of  Mentz,  to 
have  ceased  at  the  death  of  the  popes,  by 
whom  it  was  granted.  But  the  German 
bishops,  declaring  all  tc  a  man  that  they 
would  appear  at  no  council  unless  sum- 
moned to  it  by  the  archbishop  of  Mentz,  nor 
receive  any  decrees  of  a  council  at  which 
he  had  not  presided  as  legate  of  the  holy 
see,  the  legates  from  Rome  laid  aside  all 
thoughts  of  getting  the  decrees  of  the  Roman 
council  confirmed  in  Germany.  The  four 
legates  were  ordered  by  the  pope  to  depose 
in  the  council,  which  they  were  to  hold,  all 
bishops  convicted  of  simony.  Of  this  the 
German  bishops  were  informed,  and  there- 
fore, as  most  of  them  had  purchased  their 
preferments,  they  agreed  to  defeat,  and  de- 
feated accordingly,  the  designs  of  the  pope 
and  his  legates  in  the  manner  we  have  seen. 
Godfrey,  archbishop  of  Milan,  had  pur- 
chased that  dignity  of  the  king,  and,  con- 
victed thereof,  had  been  excommunicated  by 
the  preceding  pope,  and  all  who  communi- 
cated with  him.  He,  nevertheless,  held  his 
see,  was  acknowledged  by  the  bishops  of 
Lombardy  his  suffragans,  and  being  counte- 
nanced by  the  king,  performed  all  the  func- 
tions of  his  office  as  lawful  bishop.  Gregory 
excommunicated  him  anew,  and  charged 
his  legates  to  prevail  upon  the  king  to  break 
off  all  communion  with  him,  since  the  sen- 
tence thundered  out  against  him  extended 
to  all  who  communicated  with  him.  But 
Henry,  instead  of  complying  with  the  desire 
of  the  pope,  told  the  legates  that  he  had  con- 
firmed the  election  of  Godfrey  as  agreeable 
to  the  canons,  and  did  not  at  all  doubt  but 
,his  holiness  would  approve  of  it  when  better 


informed,  and  therefore  hoped  that  till  then 
he  would  not  insist  upon  his  renouncing  the 
communion  of  a  prelate  to  whom  due  obedi- 
ence was  paid  by  almost  all  the  bishops 
under  his  extensive  jurisdiction.' 

The  pope  was  not  at  all  satisfied  with  the 
behavior  of  the  king ;  but  dissembling  for  the 
present,  he  wrote  a  most  obliging  letter  to 
him,  to  thank  him  for  the  kindness  and  re- 
spect with  which  he  had  received  his  le- 
gates. By  the  same  letter  he  acquainted 
him  with  his  design  of  assembling  a  very 
numerous  council  at  Rome,  the  first  week 
in  lent  of  the  ensuing  year,  1075,  begged  he 
would  oblige  the  German  bishops  to  repair 
to  it,  especially  the  bishops  of  Constance, 
Strasburg,  Sjiire,  Augsburg,  and  Wirtzburg, 
all  charged  with  simoniacal  practices.  As 
for  the  affair  of  the  archbishop  of  Milan,  he 
told  the  king  that  he  would  order  his  cause 
to  be  examined  anew,  and  would  readily 
correct  what  should  be  found  amiss  in  the 
judgment  that  had  been  given  against  him. 
He  closed  his  letter  with  exhorting  the  king 
to  concur  with  him  in  reforming  the  abuses 
that  prevailed  in  ihe  church,  and  were  coun- 
tenanced even  by  some  whose  business  it 
was  to  extirpate  them,  especially  the  two 
reigning  evils,  simony  and  the  incontinence 
of  the  clergy.  This  letter  is  dated  the  7th 
of  December,  1074.^ 

As  Michael  Ducas,  emperor  of  the  East, 
had  written  to  Gregory,  congratulating  him 
upon  his  promotion,  the  pope  was  thereby 
encouraged  to  attempt  a  reconciliation  be- 
tween the  two  churches;  and  with  that 
view  he  sent  Dominic,  patriarch  of  Grado, 
as  his  legate  to  Constantinople.  And  that 
is  all  we  know  of  that  legation.  But  from 
a  letter  of  the  pope  to  the  emperor,  it  ap- 
pears that  he  had  formed  a  design  of  going, 
in  person,  into  the  East,  at  the  head  of  an 
army,  to  relieve  the  Christians,  most  mise- 
rably oppressed  by  the  Saracens,  who  had 
over-run  all  Asia,  and  threatened  Constan- 
tinople itself.  For  in  that  letter  he  tells  the 
emperor,  that  the  Christians  in  the  East, 
groaning  under  the  insufferable  yoke  of  the 
infidels,  had  applied  to  him  for  relief,  lest 
the  Christian  religion  should  be  totally  ex- 
tirpated in  those  unhappy  countries-  that 
deeply  affected  with  their  complaints,  and 
the  miseries  they  endured,  he  had  endea- 
vored to  stir  up  all  well-disposed  Christians 
to  relieve  them,  and  even  to  lay  down  their 
own  lives  in  defence  of  their  brethren  and 
the  law  of  Jesus  Christ;  that  the  Italians, 
and  Ultraraontanes  had  hearkened  to  his 
exhortations,  and  that  fifty  thousand  of  them 
and  upwards  were  preparing  for  this  expe- 
dition, determined,  if  they  could  have  him 
for  their  leader,  to  march,  sword  in  hand, 
against  the  enemies  of  God,  to  the  very  se- 
pulchre of  our  Lord.     He  added  that  the 


»  Greg.  ep.  11,  12,  15. 


« Idem,  1.  ii.  ep.  30. 


Gregory  VII.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


381 


The  pope's  haughty  behavior  to  Philip  of  France.    Second  council  of  Rome. 


church  of  Constantinople  divided  from  the 
Roman  on  the  subject  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
desired  to  be  reunited  with  the  apostolic 
see,  and  that  ahnost  all  the  Armenians 
gone  astray  from  the  catholic  faith,  as  well 
as  the  Orientals,  waited  for  the  decision  of 
St.  Peter  to  settle  their  different  opinions  ; 
circumstances,  he  said,  that  greatly  encou- 
raged him  to  execute  the  project  he  had 
formed  ;  but,  nevertheless,  he  would  not 
proceed  in  it  without  his  approbation,  as  he 
could  not  promise  himself  the  wished-for 
success  without  his  assistance.'  Gregory 
wrote  at  the  same  time  two  other  letters  upon 
the  same  subject,  the  one  addressed  to  all 
who  were  willing  to  defend  the  Christian 
faith,  the  other  to  all  the  faithful  of  St.  Peter, 
especially  the  Ultramontanes :  and  in  both 
he  exhorts,  in  the  name  of  St.  Peter,  such 
as  preferred  the  relief  of  their  oppressed 
brethren  to  their  own  ease,  to  concur  with 
him  in  rescuing  them  from  the  tyranny  of 
those  who  oppressed  them.  The  execution 
of  this  design  Gregory  had  greatly  at  heart, 
as  appears  from  his  letters  ;  but  Henry,  be- 
ing prevented,  by  the  dangerous  war  he  had 
then  on  his  hands  with  the  Saxons,  from 
lending  him  any  assistance,  he  thought  it 
advisable  to  lay  it  aside.  However,  we  shall 
see  in  the  sequel,  this  destructive  project 
prosecuted  with  great  ardor  by  his  succes- 
sors, under  the  name  of  "the  Crusade,  or 
the  Holy  War." 

As  the  same  disorders  which  the  pope  had 
complained  of  in  the  letter  he  wrote  soon 
after  his  promotion,  to  Philip,  king  of 
France,  continued  to  reign  in  that  kingdom, 
and  the  king  had,  besides,  extorted  large 
sums  this  year  from  some  Italian  merchants 
carrying  their  wares  to  a  fair  in  his  domi- 
nions, Gregory  took  from  thence  occasion  to 
renew  his  complaints,  as  well  as  his  threats, 
in  a  letter  to  the  three  archbishops,  Manasses 
of  Reims,  Richard  of  Sens,  Richard  of 
Bourges,  and  to  the  rest  of  the  French  bi- 
shops. In  that  letter,  dated  the  20th  of  Sep- 
tember, of  the  present  year,  he  begins  with 
lamenting  the  deplorable  condition  which 
that  once  so  glorious  and  so  flourishing 
a  kingtiom  is  in  his  days  reduced  to, 
the  crimes,  that  were  formerly  punished 
there  with  the  utmost  severity,  namely, per- 
juries, sacrileges,  incests,  rapines,  murders, 
&,c.,  being  now  connived  at.  And  no  won- 
der, says  he  :  your  king,  more  worthy  of  the 
name  of  tyrant  than  that  of  king,  not  daring 
to  punish  in  others  the  crimes  that  he  him- 
self is  guilty  of,  and  encourages  by  his  ex- 
ample. The  pope  here  paints  the  king  as 
the  most  wicked  of  men,  as  one  who  spent 
his  whole  life  in  the  most  infamous  de- 
baucheries, treating  him  with  no  more  re- 
spect than  he  would  have  done  the  meanest 
of  his  subjects.  He  then  exhorts  the  bishops 
to  oppose  his  wicked  measures,  to  represent 


to  him,  with  all  the  liberty  that  becomes 
men  in  their  station,  the  enormity  of  his 
crimes ;  and  if  he  remains  hardened  in  his 
wickedness,  forgetful  of  his  own  glory  and 
the  welfare  of  his  people,  to  assure  him  that 
he  shall  not  long  escape  the  censures  of  the 
apostolic  see.  In  the  mean  time  he  advises 
the  bishops  to  separate  themselves  from  his 
communion,  to  interdict  the  whole  kingdom, 
and  if  he  does  not  thereupon  amend,  to  let 
the  whole  world  know  that  he  is  determined 
to  deliver  the  kingdom  of  France  from  the 
oppression  it  groans  under,  that  is,  to  de- 
prive him  of  his  kingdom.  The  pope  tells 
the  bishops  in  the  close  of  his  letter,  that  if 
they  betray  any  weakness  on  so  important 
an  occasion,  he  will  suspend  them,  as  the 
accomplices  of  the  king  in  all  his  ciimes, 
from  every  function  of  their  office.'  The 
pope  wrote  another  letter,  in  the  same  style, 
dated  the  13th  of  November,  to  William, 
count  of  Poictiers,  exhorting  him  to  join  the 
bishops,  and  jointly  with  them  press  the 
king  to  restore  to  the  Italian  merchants  the 
money  which  he  had  so  unjustly  extorted 
from  them,  to  forsake  the  vicious  habits  of 
his  youth,  and  reform  his  manners,  else  he 
would  cut  him  off  from  the  communion  of 
the  church,  would  pronounce  the  same  sen- 
tence against  all  who  should  acknowledge  or 
obey  him  as  a  king,  and  would  place  it  upon 
the  altar  of  St.  Peter,  that  it  miglil  there  be 
confirmed  every  day.'^  He  repeated  the 
same  menaces  in  a  letter  to  Manasses  of 
Reims,  dated  the  8th  of  December  of  the 
same  year.^  The  Gallican  bishops  paid,  it 
seems,  as  little  regard  to  the  menaces  as  to 
the  exhortations  of  the  pope;  for  it  does  not 
appear  that  the  king  corrected  any  of  the 
abuses  that  Gregory  complained  of,  or  that 
he  was  excommunicated  either  by  him  or  by 
them. 

The  pope  had  appointed,  as  has  been  said, 
a  council  to  meet  at  Rome  the  first  week  in 
Lent,  1075;  and  it  met  accordingly  on  the 
24ih  of  February,  consisted  of  fii'ty  bishops, 
of  a  great  number  of  abbots,  presbyters  and 
deacons ;  and  by  them  were  excommuni- 
cated five  of  the  king's  ministers  for  simony, 
that  is,  for  receiving  money  of  those  who  had 
been  preferred  to  vacant  bishoprics.  Gre- 
gory well  knew  that  they  acted  therein  by 
the  direction  of  the  king,  but  flattered  him- 
self that  the  sentence  pronounced  against 
them  would  deter  him  from  such  practices. 
At  the  same  time  Liemar,  archbishop  of 
Bremen,  Garnerius,  bishop  of  Strasburg, 
Henry  of  Spire.  Herman  of  Bamberg,  Wil- 
liam of  Pavia,  Cunibert  of  Turin,  were  sus- 
pended from  the  functions  of  their  office, 
being  charged  with  purchasing  their  digni- 
ties, and  Dennis  of  Placentia,  more  guilty 
than  the  rest,  was  deposed,  without  hopes 
of  being  ever  restored.  Of  these  bishops 
some  owned  the  sentence  to  be  just,  and 


<  Greg.  1.  ii.  ep.  31. 


>  Greg.  1.  ii.  ep.  3.        a  ibid.  ep.  28.       '  Ibid.  ep.  32. 


382 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Gregory  VII. 


Decree  against  the  marriage  of  the  clergy  confirmed  by  the  council  of  Rome.   Decree  against  investitures. 


were  absolved  by  the  pope,  while  others, 
determined  to  keep  what  they  had  purchased, 
paid  no  kind  of  regard  to  the  judgment 
given  against  them  at  Rome.' 

By  the  same  council  the  decree  against 
the  marriage,  or  as  they  called  it,  the  con- 
cubinage of  the  clergy,  was  confirmed,  and 
ecclesiastics  of  all  ranks  were  ordered,  on 
pain  of  excommunication,  to  quit  their 
wives,  or  renounce  the  ministry;  the  laity 
were  forbidden  to  assist  at  any  function 
whatever,  performed  by  such  of  them  as  did 
not  immediately  obey  that  decree,  and  all 
bishops  were  strictly  enjoined  to  see  it,  in 
spite  of  all  opposition,  punctually  complied 
with  in  their  respective  dioceses.  Pursuant 
to  this  order  Sigefred,  archbishop  of  Mentz, 
having  assembled  his  clergy  in  council,  ac- 
quainted them  with  the  decree  commanding 
them  to  quit  their  wives,  or  renounce  their 
office,  and  at  the  same  time  let  ihem  know 
that,  the  order  of  his  holiness  being  peremp- 
tory, he  would  spare  none,  who  within  the 
space  of  six  months  did  not  dismiss  their 
wives,  and  promise  to  observe  celibacy  so 
long  as  they  lived.  But  all  who  were  pre- 
sent rising  up  at  these  words,  expressed 
such  indignation  and  rage  against  the  arch- 
bishop, that,  apprehending  his  life  to  be  in 
no  small  danger,  he  thought  it  advisable  to 
withdraw  from  the  assenibly,  declaring  that 
he  would  never  again  concern  himself  about 
the  execution  of  a  decree  that  was  so  uni- 
versally and  so  strongly  opposed,  but  would 
leave  the  pope  to  execute  it  himself,  when 
and  how  he  should  think  proper.^  The  de- 
cree met  everywhere  else  with  the  like  op- 
position ;  and  at  Cambray  they  who  opposed 
it,  carried  their  resentment  to  such  a  height 
against  the  party  that  declared  for  it,  as  to 
burn  one  alive  for  diverting  the  people  from 
assisting  at  the  functions  performed  by  such 
of  the  clergy  as  continued  to  live  with  their 
wives.'' 

By  this  council  was  issued  the  famous  de- 
cree, taking  the  nominations  and  investiture 
of  bishops  out  of  the  hands  of  princes. 
Most  of  the  western  princes,  if  not  all, 
claimed  at  this  time  the  right  of  nominating 
all  the  bishops  in  their  respective  dominions, 
and  of  confirming  and  investing  those  in 
their  bishoprics,  whom  the  people  and  the 
clergy  had  elected,  when  their  princes  had 
left  them  at  liberty,  as  they  frequently  did, 
to  elect  whom  they  pleased.  This  right  they 
had  enjoyed  undisputed  time  out  of  mind, 
probably  ever  since  the  establishing  of  their 
different  kingdoms  upon  the  decay  of  the 
Roman  empire,  and  their  conversion  to 
Christianity.  Hence  we  find  Gregory  the 
Great,  in  the  many  letters  which  he  wrote 
to  the  Christian  kings  of  Fiance  in  the  latter 


«  Greg.  1.  ii.  ep.  32. 

2  Lamb.  Schafn.  ad  ann.  1075.  et  Marian.  Scot,  ad 
eun.  ann. 

3  Greg.  1.  iv.  ep.  20. 


end  of  the  sixth  century,  frequently  com- 
plaining of  those  princes  for  bestowing  bi- 
shoprics upon  persons  that  were  not  equal 
to  so  great  a  charge,  and  entreating  them  to 
choose  men  that  were.  But  he  no  where 
objects  to  their  right  of  nomination.  And 
truly  it  was  but  reasonable,  that  so  great  a 
trust  should  be  placed  in  such  persons  only 
as  were  acceptable  to  the  princes  under 
whom  they  were  to  live,  that  is,  in  such  as 
the  princes  themselves  had  elected,  or  whose 
election,  when  made  with  their  permission 
by  others,  they  had  approved  and  confirm- 
ed. At  this  time,  and  for  some  ages  before, 
they  expressed  their  approbation  by  putting 
the  elect  in  possession  of  the  temporalities 
of  his  see,  which  was  done  by  their  deliver- 
ing to  him  a  pastoral  staff,  or  a  crosier,  and 
a  ring.  And  this  was  the  ceremony  known 
by  the  name  of  investiture;  and  the  elect 
was  not  ordained  till  it  was  performed.  As 
the  corrupt  practice  of  exacting  money  for 
the  investiture,  nay,  and  disposing  of  bi- 
shoprics and  other  ecclesiastical  preferments 
to  the  best  bidder,  had  begun  to  prevail 
among  princes,  Gregory,  under  color  of  re- 
dressing those  abuses,  but  in  truth  to  make 
the  clergy  independent  upon  the  princes,  and 
dependent  upon  himself,  as  Mezeray  has 
very  justly  observed,'  got  the  bishops  of  the 
council  to  pass  the  following  decree:  "If 
any  one  shall  henceforth  accept  of  a  bishopric 
or  abbey  from  a  layman,  let  him  not  be 
looked  upon  as  a  bishop  or  abbot,  nor  any 
respectbe  paid  to  him  as  such.  We  moreover 
exclude  him  from  the  grace  of  St.  Peter, 
and  forbid  him  to  enter  the  church,  till  he 
has  resigned  the  dignity  that  he  has  got  by 
ambition,  and  by  disobedience,  which  is 
idolatry.  And  this  decree  extends  to  inferior 
dignities.  In  like  manner,  if  any  emperor, 
duke,  marquis,  count,  or  any  other  secular 
person  whatever,  shall  take  upon  him  to 
give  the  investiture  of  a  bishopric,  or  of  any 
other  ecclesiastical  dignity,  he  shall  be  liable 
to  the  same  sentence."^  This  decree  was  a 
declaration  of  war  against  all  Christian 
princes :  for  Gregory  could  not  suppose 
that  they  would  tamely  part  with  a  rig-ht, 
which  they  looked  upon  as  one  of  the  most 
valuable  jewels  of  their  crown,  and  no  pope 
had  ever  yet  disputed.  But  he  thought  it 
a  point  well  worth  contending  for,  well 
worth  all  the  confusion  civil  wars,  rebellions, 
bloodshed,  that  such  a  decree  might  occa- 
sion, since  he  would,  by  carrying  it  into 
execution,  engross  to  himself  the  disposal 
of  the  Avhole  wealth  of  the  church,  and  thus 
make  the  clergy  everywhere  independent  of 
their  princes,  and  dependent  upon  him  alone, 
as  he  alone  could  reward  and  prefer  them. 
It  would  have  been  commendable  in  the 
pope  and  the  other  prelates  of  the  church  to 
prevent,  so  far  as  in  them  lay,  the  vice  of 


'  Mezeray  ad  ann.  1095. 

a  Hugo  Flaviniac.  in  Chron.  Virdun.  ad  ann.  1074. 


Gregory  VIT.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


383 


Gregory  acquaints  the  king  with  the  decree  against  investitures.     The  king's  letter  in  answer  to  the  pope's. 

Conspiracy  against  the  pope. 


simony,  that  is,  the  sale  of  bishoprics,  ab- 
beys, and  other  church  preferments,  but  too 
common  at  this  time.  But  with  what  jus- 
tice could  he,  or  they,  deprive  all  the  princes 
of  a  ri<i;ht  which  they  enjoyed  by  immemo- 
rial prescription,  for  the  ill  use  some  of  them 
made  of  it  ?  The  setting  of  ecclesiastical 
benefices  to  sale  was  by  all  deemed  simony. 
But  many  were  ofopinion,  that  when  princes 
invested  ecclesiastics  in  their  benefices,  that 
is,  when  they  put  them  in  possession  of  their 
temporalities,  they  might,  without  simony, 
exact  a  moderate  share  of  those  temporali- 
ties for  the  service  of  the  state.  But  Gre- 
gory, not  satisfied  with  condemning  that 
opinion,  declared  it  simony,  heresy,  and 
idolatry  ("and  he  might  with  as  much  reason 
have  declared  it  murder,  incest,  or  adultery,) 
in  a  prince,  or  any  layman,  to  give,  and  in 
an  ecclesiastic  to  receive  investiture  at  his 
hands,  whether  any  thing  was  exacted  on 
that  occasion  or  not.  And  thus  was  an 
usage  which  the  most  holy  bishops,  abbots, 
and  all  the  other  dignitaries  of  the  church, 
had  hitherto  looked  upon  as  quite  innocent, 
and  had,  for  several  ages  universally  sub- 
mitted to,  without  the  least  scruple,  made 
by  this  pope  a  most  enormous  crime.  The 
popes  themselves  were  not,  for  many  ages, 
consecrated  till  the  decree  of  their  election 
was  signed  by  the  emperor,  which  was  a 
ceremony  of  the  same  nature  with  that  of 
investing.  And  was  Gregory  himself,  were 
so  many  of  his  predecessors  who  complied 
with  that  ceremony,  all  simoniacs,  heretics, 
idolaters?  It  was  ordained  by  the  first  coun- 
cil of  Orange  in  441,  that,  if  any  one  should 
found  and  endow  a  church,  he  should  have 
a  riglit  to  nominate  a  clerk  to  officiate  in  it, 
which  was  putting  him  in  possession  of  the 
revenues  annexed  to  his  office;'  and  by  two 
of  the  laws  of  Justinian,  all  founders  of 
churches  and  their  heirs  are  allowed  the 
same  priviledge.*  If  this  was  no  simony, 
and  Gregory  himself  would  have  hardly 
said  that  it  was,  it  could  be  no  simony  in  a 
prince,  nor  in  any  other  layman,  to  nomi- 
nate a  proper  person  to  the  bishopric  which 
he  or  his  predecessors  had  founded,  and  put 
him  in  possession  of  the  revenues  with 
which  they  had  endowed  his  see.  In  the 
sequel  we  shall  see  the  popes,  when  they 
had  once  wrested  investitures  out  of  the 
hands  of  princes,  exacting  larger  sums  from 
those  upon  whom  the  smallest  benefices 
were  conferred,  than  ever  had  been  done  by 
princes ;  insomuch  that  their  friends  and 
advocates  could  no  otherwise  excuse  their 
extortions  from  simony,  but  by  maintaining 
•what  was  simony  in  others,  was  no  simony 
in  the  pope. 

Gregory  took  care  to  acquaint  the  king 
with  this  decree,  reproaching  him  at   the 


«  Concil.  Araus.  i.  c.  9. 

»  Novel.  123.  c.  18.  tt.  57.  c.  2. 


same  lime  in  the  letter,  which  he  wrote  to 
him  on  that  occasion,  with  still  keeping  and 
employing  the  ministers,  whom  he  had  ex- 
communicated ;  with  suffering  the  bishops, 
whom  lie  had  deposed,  to  continue  in  their 
sees;  with  neglecting  to  publish  in  his  domi- 
nions the  decrees  of  the  former  counf"il  of 
Rome  against  simony  and  the  incontinence 
of  the  clergy;  and,  lastly,  with  protecting 
Godfrey,  the  usurper  of  the  see  of  Milan, 
and  communicating  with  the  Lombard  bi- 
shops his  adherents,  though  cut  off  by  the 
apostolic  see  from  the  cominunion  of  the 
church.  In  the  close  of  his  letter  he  forbids 
the  king  thenceforth  to  meddle  at  all  with 
ecclesiastical  preferments,  to  grant  investi- 
tures, or  dispose  of  vacant  churches,  upon 
any  pretence  whatsoever,  and  threatens  him 
with  excommunication  if  he  does  not  comply 
with  the  decree  banishing  such  unlawful 
practices  from  the  church.' 

Henry  highly  resented  the  insolent  be- 
havior of  the  pope ;  but  unwilling  to  quarrel 
with  him,  as  he  was  still  engaged  in  war 
with  the  Saxons,  and  then  upon  the  point 
of  marching  against  them,  he  dissembled  his 
resentment,  and  taking  no  notice  of  the  de- 
cree with  respect  to  lay  -investitures,  told 
him  that  he  would  thenceforth  conform  to 
the  canons  in  the  disposal  of  bishoprics  and 
other  ecclesiastical  preferments ;  that  he 
would  cause  the  decrees  against  simony  and 
the  incontinence  of  the  clergy  to  be  published 
throughout  his  dominions,  and  punctually 
complied  with,  and  that  upon  his  return 
from  Saxony  he  would  send  a  solemn  em- 
bassy to  Rome  to  settle  the  points  in  dispute 
between  his  holiness  and  him  to  their  mutual 
satisfaction.^ 

In  the  mean  time  a  conspiracy  was  formed 
at  Rome  against  the  pope,  and  the  person 
employed  to  put  it  in  execution  was  Cincius, 
or  Q.uinlius,  as  others  call  him,  the  prefect, 
or  the  son  of  the  prefect  of  the  city  ;  and  the 
pope  very  narrowly  escaped  with  his  life. 
For  while  he  was  performing  at  Christmas 
the  service  of  the  night  in  the  church  of  St. 
Mary  the  Greater  according  to  custom,  at- 
tended by  a  small  number  of  clerks,  a  troop 
of  armed  men  rushing  unexpectedly  in,  with 
Cincius  at  their  head,  fell  upon  tne  pope, 
beat  him  most  unmercifully,  gave  him  a 
dangerous  wound  in  the  forehead,  and  drag- 
ging him  by  the  hair  out  of  the  church, 
carried  him  to  the  house  of  Cincius,  with  a 
design,  as  was  supposed,  to  convey  him  out 
of  Rome.  But  the  magistrates  being  imme- 
diately informed  of  what  had  happened, 
guards  were  placed  by  their  order  at  the 
gates,  trumpets  were  sounded  in  the  different 
quarters  of  the  city  to  alarm  the  people,  who 
thereupon  crowding  from  all  parts  to  the 
capitol,  flew  from  thence  to  the  house  of 


«  Arnulph.  1.  Iv.  c.  6. 

'  Paulua  Uernried.  in  Vit.  Greg.  c.  6. 


384 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Gregory  Vll. 


The  king  pays  no  regard  to  the  decree  against  investitures.    The  pope  sends  legates  into  Germany. 

deposed  in  the  council  of  Worms. 


He  13 


Cincius,  and  surrounding  it  on  all  sides, 
threatened  to  put  him  and  all  who  were  in 
it  to  the  sword,  if  he  did  not  forthwith  set 
the  pope  at  liberty.  Cincius,  intimidated  at 
the  menaces  of  the  enraged  multitude,  threw 
himself  at  the  pope's  feet,  and  upon  his  for- 
giving him,  which  he  did  very  readily,  only 
enjoining  him,  by  way  of  penance,  to  visit 
the  holy  places  at  Jerusalem,  he  granted  him 
his  liberty.  The  people  received  him  with 
loud  shouts  of  joy,  and  at  his  request  attended 
him  back,  covered  with  blood  as  he  was,  to 
the  church  from  whence  he  was  taken,  to 
end  the  service  he  had  begun  the  night  be- 
fore. In  the  mean  time  Cincius  and  his 
accomplices  made  their  escape.  But  the 
people  plundered  his  house,  and  laid  it  level 
with  the  ground;  and  he  was  himself  con- 
demned to  a  perpetual  banishment.'  Gui- 
bert,  archbishop  of  Ravenna,  is  supposed  to 
have  been  the  chief  author  of  this  attempt, 
flattering  himself  that,  if  Gregory  could  be 
removecl  out  of  the  way,  the  king,  whose 
favorite  he  was,  would  raise  him  to  the 
pontifical  chair  in  his  room. 

The  king  had  hitherto  carefully  avoided 
coming  to  an  open  rupture  with  the  pope, 
lest  he  should  raise  new  disturbances  in  Ger- 
many before  the  Saxons  were  reduced.  But 
having  this  year  gained  a  complete  victory 
over  those  rebels,  he  resolved  to  put  a  stop 
to  the  papal  encroachments  upon  the  un- 
doubted rights  of  his  crown.  He  accordingly 
named  several  bishops  to  the  vacant  sees, 
granted  them  the  investiture,  as  he  had  done 
before,  without  the  least  regard  to  the  decree 
of  the  late  council,  nay,  and  driving  some 
from  the  sees  to  which  they  had  been  pre- 
ferred by  the  pope,  unknown  to  him,  ap- 
pointed others  of  his  own  nomination  in  their 
room.  Gregory,  no  less  provoked  at  the 
conduct  of  the  king  than  the  king  was  at  his, 
wrote  a  long  letter  to  him,  complaining  of 
his  disobedience  to  the  decrees  of  the  holy 
see ;  of  his  disposing  of  bishoprics  to  persons 
utterly  unknown  to  him;  of  his  want  of  re- 
spect for  the  see,  and  the  successor  of  the 
prince  of  the  apostles.  He  exhorts  him  to 
correct  the  errors  which  he  has  been  led  into 
by  wicked  counsellors,  to  dismiss  them,  such 
of  them  at  least  as  had  been  justly  cut  off 
from  the  communion  of  the  church  ;  to  em- 
ploy in  their  room  men  of  piety,  and  to  fol- 
low their  advice  and  directions.  He  tells  the 
king  in  the  close  of  his  letter,  that  laymen 
must  not  presume  to  dispose  of  ecclesiastical 
preferments,  all  lay  investitures  being  for- 
bidden by  a  decree  of  the  late  council  of 
Rome,  which,  he  said,  all  princes  must  re- 
ceive and  comply  with.^  The  direction  of 
this  letter  was,  "  Gregory  bishop,  servant  of 
the  servants  of  God,  to  king  Henry,  health 
and  apostolic  benediction,  if  he  obeys  the 
apostolic  see,  as  becomes  a  Christian  king." 


As  the  king,  determined  to  assert  the  in- 
disputable rights  of  his  crown,  paid  no  kind 
of  regard  to  the  exhortations  or  letters  of  the 
pope,  Gregory,  not  satisfied  with  writing  to 
him,  sent  legates  this  year  into  Germany  to 
summon  him,  in  his  name,  to  appear  in  per- 
son at  Rome  on  the  Monday  of  the  second 
week  in  Lent,  in  order  to  give  there  an  ac- 
count of  his  conduct,  and  clear  himself  of 
the  crimes  laid  to  his  charge.  The  legates 
added,  in  delivering  this  message,  that  they 
were  ordered  by  his  holiness  to  let  him  know, 
that  if  he  did  not  obey  the  summons,  and  ap- 
pear on  the  day  appointed,  he  would  on  that 
very  day  be  cut  ofiT  with  an  anathema  from 
the  body  of  the  holy  apostolic  church.  The 
king,  provoked  beyond  measure  at  such  an 
extraordinary  summons,  and  no  less  at  the 
haughty  behavior  of  the  legates,  drove  them 
with  ignominy  from  his  presence,  and  in 
order  to  render  the  sentence  of  excommuni- 
cation, with  which  he  was  threatened  by  the 
pope,  ineffectual,  resolved  to  get  him  depo- 
sed in  a  council  before  he  pronounced  it. 
With  that  view  he  wrote  a  circulatory  letter 
to  all  the  bishops  and  abbots  of  his  dominions, 
to  complain  of  the  unworthy  treatment  he 
had  met  with  from  Hildebrand,  and  desired 
them  to  meet  at  Worms  on  Septuagesima 
Sunday,  in  order  to  concert  jointly  with  him 
the  most  proper  means  of  delivering  the 
church  from  the  tyranny  of  a  man,  who,  in 
defiance  of  the  canons,  exercised  a  power 
over  them  that  none  of  his  predecessors  ever 
had  claimed;  nay,  and  but  too  plainly  show- 
ed, by  his  whole  conduct,  that  he  aimed  at 
nothing  less  than  to  subject  both  the  church 
and  the  state  to  his  lawless  and  arbitrary  will. 
The  king  added,  that  the  welfare  of  both, 
and  their  safety  as  well  as  his  own,  depend- 
ed upon  the  resolution  they  should  take  when 
assembled  in  council.'  Theodoric,  bishop 
of  Verdun,  and  Engelbert,  lately  nominated 
by  the  king  to  the  archbishopric  of  Treves, 
wrote  likewise  circulatory  letters  to  all  the 
bishops  and  princes  of  Germany,  fraught 
with  bitter  invectives  against  Gregory,  as 
one  who  stuck  at  nothing  to  gratify  his 
boundless  ambition. 

The  bishops  and  abbots  met,  in  compliance 
with  the  king's  invitation,  at  the  place  and 
time  appointed,  and  cardinal  Hugh,  surnam- 
ed  "-the  White,"  whom  the  pope  had  de- 
posed for  his  irregular  conduct  but  a  few 
days  before,  arriving  very  seasonably  for  the 
king's  design  atthat  juncture,  was  invited  by 
him  to  assist  at  the  council.  The  cardinal 
brought  with  him  an  account  or  history  of 
the  pope's  hfe,  from  his  tender  years  to  the 
time  of  his  promotion  to  the  pontifical  dig- 
nity ;  and  scarce  is  there  a  crime,  which  in 
that  piece  he  is  not  said  to  have  committed, 
either  before  or  after  his  election.  He  was 
even  charged  with  magic,  and  with  invoking 


Faulus  Bernried.  ubi  sup. 


=  Greg.  1.  iii.  ep.  10. 


>  Lambert  Schafn.  ad  ann.  1076. 


Gbegory  VII.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


385 


The  bishops  of  Lombardy  confirm  the  sentence  of  the  council  of  Worms.     The  king  and  council  write  to  the 
pope.     Their  letters  delivered  to  him.    The  king  excommunicated  and  deposed  in  a  council  at  Rome. 


the  devil.  This  piece  was  read  in  the  coun- 
cil, and  likewise  letters,  which  the  cardinal 
produced,  as  written  by  the  cardinals,  the 
senate  and  the  people  of  Rome,  complaining 
to  the  king  of  the  pope,  and  demanding  his 
deposition.  But  the  zeal  which  the  people 
all  showed  for  his  safety  on  occasion  of  the 
attempt  of  Cincius,  incline  me  to  believe 
those  letters  to  have  been  forged.  Be  that 
as  it  will,  the  council  declared,  that  "  Hilde- 
brand,  who  styled  himself  Gregory  VII.,  was 
no  pope;  that  he  had  not,  nor  had  ever  had, 
the  power  of  loosening  and  binding.''  This 
sentence  was  readily  signed  by  all  the  bishops 
but  Adelbert  of  Wirtzburg,  and  Herimanof 
Melz,  thinking  that  no  bishop,  much  less  the 
Roman  poniill',  should  be  condemned  with- 
out being  heard,  or  without  proper  accusers 
and  competent  witnesses.  But  William, 
bishop  of  Utrecht,  having  satisfied  them  that 
they  must  sign  the  condemnation  of  Gregory 
or  renounce  their  allegiance  to  the  king,  they 
acquiesced,  and  signed  it  with  the  rest.' 

The  sentence  of  the  council  of  Worms 
was,  by  the  king's  order,  immediately  com- 
municated to  the  bishops  of  Lombardy,  and 
of  the  march  of  Ancona,  who  thereupon  as- 
sembling at  Pavia,  not  only   confirmed  it, 
but  swore  upon  the  Gospel  that  they  would 
no  longer   acknowledge  Gregory  for  Pope. 
The  bishops  met  at  Worms  wrote  a  letter  to 
the  pope,   before  they  parted,  to  acquaint 
him   with   the   judgment   they   had   given 
against  him,  as  well  as  the  motives  that  had 
induced  them  to  give  it,  and  order  him  to 
quit  the  see,  which  he  had  usurped  in  defi- 
ance of  the  received  laws  of  the  church^  and 
resign  a  dignity  to  which  he  had  no  kind  of 
right.     The  king  wrote  at  the  same  time 
two  letters,  much  to  the  same  purpose,  the 
one  to  Gregory  himself,  the   other  to  the 
clergy  and  people  of  Pi.ome.     In  his  letter  to 
the   pope    he  reproached   him  with  pride, 
ambition,  simony,  perjury,  usurpation,  and 
all  the  other  crimes  that  were  laid  to  his 
charge  in  the  council,  and  commanded  him 
to  descend  from  the  throne,  to  which  he  had 
raised  himself  by  the   most  unlawful  and 
wicked  means.     In  his  letter  to  the  clergy 
and  people  of  Rome  he  dwelt  chiefly  upon 
the   haughty   and    imperious   behavior  of 
Gregory,  upon  his  treating  not  only  his  fel- 
low bishops,  but  the  greatest  princes  of  the 
earth  as  his  slaves  or  vassals,  and  requiring 
them  to  pay  a  blind  obedience  to  his  com- 
mand, as  if  all  power,  temporal  as  well  as 
spiritual,  were  lodged   in  or  derived  from 
him.     He  therefore  exhorted  them  to  join 
him  in  delivering  the  church  from  the  sla- 
very which    it  was   threatened    with,  and 
they  could  not  avoid,  if  Hildebraind  was  suf- 
fered any  longer  to  enjoy  and  exercise  his 
usurped  power.* 

«  Lambert.  Schafn.  ubi  supra. 

»  Idem  ibid.     Paul  Berntied.  in  Vit.  Greg.  c.  67. 

Vol.  II.— 49 


With  these  letters,  and  that  from  the  bi- 
shops of  the  council  of  Worms,  Roland, 
clerk  of  the  church  of  Parma,  was  des- 
patched to  Rome,  but  ordered  to  wait  there 
till  the  opening  of  the  council,  which  the 
pope  had  appointed  to  meet  the  first  week 
in  Lent,  and  then  to  deliver  them  in  the  pre- 
sence of  all  the  bishops  who  composed  it. 
In  compliance  with  that  order,  Roland,  ar- 
riving at  Rome  some  days  before  the  as- 
sembling of  the  council,  continued  there, 
without  discovering  even  to  any  of  the  king's 
friends  what  business  he  was  charged  with, 
or  by  whom  he  was  sent.  But  no  sooner 
did  the  bishops  meet,  than  entering  the 
council,  he  delivered  the  letters  into  the 
pope's  own  hand,  adding  aloud,  so  as  to  be 
heard  by  the  whole  assembly,  "  the  king  my 
master,  and  with  him  all  the  Ultramontane 
and  Italian  bishops,  command  you  instantly 
to  quit  the  see  of  St.  Peter,  which  you  have 
usurped,  and  the  government  of  the  Roman 
church."  Then  turning  to  the  Roman 
clergy,  "you  are  summoned,"  said  he,  "to 
appear  before  the  king  on  Whitsunday  next, 
to  receive  a  pope  and  a  father  from  his  hand, 
since  this  is  not  a  pope  but  a  ravenous  wolf." 
At  these  words  John,  bishop  of  Porto,  start- 
ing up,  cried  out  aloud,  "  Seize  him  ;"  while 
the  other  bishops,  more  zealous  than  he, 
encouraged  the  prefect,  who  was  present 
with  a  band  of  the  Roman  militia,  to  dis- 
patch him ;  which  they  would  have  done, 
had  not  the  pope  interposed  while  they 
were  rushing  upon  him  with  their  drawn 
swords.'  Gregory  was  so  far  master  of 
himself  as  to  receive  that  message  without 
betraying  the  least  concern  or  resentment. 
He  only  declared,  addressing  himself  to  the 
assembly,  that  nothing  should  ever  deter 
him  from  correcting  the  scandalous  abuses 
that  prevailed  in  the  church,  by  whomso- 
ever patronized,  and  that  he  was  ready  even 
to  sutler  martyrdom,  and  shed  the  last  drop 
of  his  blood  in  so  good  a  cause.  The  bi- 
shops, applauding  his  firmness  and  con- 
stancy, assured  him,  all  to  a  man,  that  they 
would  stand  by  him,  not  only  at  the  expense 
of  their  dignities,  but,  if  necessary,  of  their 
lives.2 

The  next  day  the  pope  caused  the  king's 
letter,  and  that  of  the  assembly  of  Worms, 
to  be  read  in  full  council,  and  having,  after 
an  inflaming  speech  against  the  king  and 
the  bishops  of  that  assembly,  desired  all  who 
were  present,  and  had  the  honor  of  the 
apostolic  see  at  heart,  to  assist  him  with 
their  advice  at  so  critical  a  juncture,  they  all 
cried  out  with  one  voice,  "  you  have  been 
chosen,  most  holy  father,  by  us  and  by 
heaven  to  govern  the  church  in  these  peril- 
ous times ;  exert  therefore  the  power  that 
heaven  has  put  into  your  hands  for  her  de- 


'  Paul  Bcrnried.  in  Vit.  Greg.  c.  67 
3  Paul.  Bernried.  ibid. 

2H 


386 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Gregory  VII. 


The  sentence  pronounced  by  the  pope.     Several  bishops  excommunicated  with  the  king.     Some  adhere  to 
the  pope  and  some  to  the  king.     Gregory  claims  the  power  of  deposing  princes. 


fence;  suffer  not  the  blasphemer,  the  usur- 
per, the  tyrant,  the  apostate  (meaning  the 
king)  to  insult  her  with  impunity;  let  the 
sentence  you  pronounce  against  him  be  such 
as  may  for  ever  deter  others  from  treading 
in  his  footsteps."  Gregory,  thus  encouraged 
by  the  bishops  of  his  party,  rose  up,  and 
having  commanded  silence,  thundered  out, 
with  great  solemnity,  the  sentence  of  ex- 
communication against  the  king  in  the  fol- 
lowing words  addressed  to  St.  Peter :  "  Bless- 
ed Peter,  prince  of  the  apostles,  hear  me 
your  servant,  whom  you  have  nourished 
from  his  infancy,  and  have  delivered  this 
day  from  the  hands  of  the  wicked,  who  hate 
me  because  I  am  faithful  to  you.  You  are 
my  witness,  you  and  our  Lady  the  mother  of 
God,  and  your  brother  St.  Paul,  that  your 
holy  Roman  church  placed  me  against  my 
will  in  your  see,  and  that  I  had  rather  died 
an  exile  than  raised  myself  to  it  by  unlawful 
means,  or  the  favor  of  men.  But  being  by 
your  grace  placed  in  it,  I  persuade  myself 
that  it  pleases  you  that  I  should  rule  the 
Christian  people  committed  to  your  care, 
and  exert  the  power  that  God  has  given  to 
me,  as  holding  your  place,  the  power  of 
binding  and  loosening  in  heaven  and  on 
earth.  In  this  persuasion  it  is,  that  for  the 
honor  and  defence  of  your  church,  on  the 
part  of  Almighty  God,  'Father,  Son,  and 
Holy  Ghost,  and  by  your  power  and  autho- 
rity, I  forbid  king  Henry,  the  son  of  the  em- 
peror Henry,  who  with  an  unheard  of 
pride  has  insulted  your  church,  to  meddle 
henceforth  with  the'government  of  the  Teu- 
tonic kingdom,  or  of  Italy.  I  absolve  all 
Christians  from  the  oath  of  allegiance,  which 
they  have  taken,  or  shall  take  to  him,  and 
forbid  any  one  to  serve  him  as  a  king.  For 
he,  who  attempts  to  lessen  the  honor  of  your 
church,  deserves  to  forfeit  his  own.  And 
because  he  has  refused  to  obey,  as  becomes 
a  Christian,  and  has  not  returned  to  the 
Lord,  whom  he  has  forsaken,  by  communi- 
cating with  excommunicated  persons,  but 
despised  the  counsels  which  I  gave  him  for 
his  welfare,  and  endeavored  to  raise  divisions 
in  your  church,  I  now  anathematize  him  in 
your  name,  that  all  nations  may  know,  that 
thou  art  Peter,  that  upon  this  rock  the  Son 
of  the  living  God  has  built  his  church,  and 
that  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against 
it.'"  Here  Gregory  forbids  in  the  name  of 
St.  Peter,  what  that  apostle  had  expressly 
commanded,  namely,  obedience  to  princes, 
and  even  to  tyrants  and  persecutors  of  the 
Christian  name.  For  Nero,  that  monster  of 
wickedness,  and  bloody  persecutor,  was  king 
or  emperor,  when  he  commanded  the  faith- 
ful to  "  submit  themselves  to  every  ordinance 
of  man,  whether  it  be  to  the  king,"  &c.  At 
the  same  time  the  following  bishops  were 
excommunicated  by  name,  namely,  Sigefrid 

«  Paul.  Bernried.  in  Vit.  Greg.  c.  70. 


archbishop  of  Mentz,  William  bishop  of 
Utrecht,  and  Rubert  bishop  of  Bamberg, 
who  had  distinguished  themselves  above  the 
rest  in  the  council  of  Worms.  The  other 
bishops,  who  had  assisted  at  that  assembly, 
and  wickedly  conspired  against  the  apostolic 
see,  were  all  summoned  to  Rome  to  plead 
their  cause  there,  on  pain  of  having  the 
same  sentence  pronounced  against  them,  if 
they  did  not  personally  appear  at  the  ap- 
pointed time,  that  is,  at  the  festival  of  St. 
Peter.'  With  the  German  bishops  those  of 
Lombardy,  who  had  confirmed  the  sentence, 
were  all  cut  off  from  the  communion  of  the 
church,  and  threatened  with  an  anathema, 
if  they  did  not,  within  a  limited  time,  repent 
of  their  wickedness,  and  return  to  their  duty. 

When  the  council  broke  up,  Gregory  look 
care  to  acquaint  the  whole  world  with  the 
decree,  excommunicating  and  deposing  the 
king,  by  a  letter  addressed  to  all  the  faithful, 
to  which  that  decree  was  annexed.  Upon 
its  being  published  in  Germany,  several 
princes,  whom  the  king  had  disobliged, 
begun  to  cabal  and  form  parties  against  him, 
not  doubting  but  they  should  be  supported, 
let  them  attempt  what  they  would,  by  the 
pope.  Several  bishops,  even  some  who  had 
assisted  at  the  council  of  Worms,  withdrew 
from  his  cotnmunion  as  soon  as  they  heard 
that  he  was  excommunicated  by  the  pope  in 
a  council,  and  that  they  themselves  would 
incur  the  same  sentence  if  they  communi- 
cated with  him.  However,  the  bishops  of 
Lombardy,  and  with  them  Guibert  archbi- 
shop of  Ravenna,  declared  openly  for  the 
king,  nay,  and  assembling  at  Pavia,  con- 
firmed the  judgment  given  at  Worms.  Thus 
was  all  Germany,  and  great  part  of  Italy, 
divided  into  two  opposite  parties,  some 
zealously  espousing  the  cause  of  the  pope, 
and  others  maintaining  no  less  zealously  the 
cause  of  the  king. 

As  the  bishops  who  adhered  to  the  king 
maintained  that  the  power  of  excommuni- 
cating, vested  in  the  pope,  did  not  extend 
over  sovereign  princes,  Herman,  bishop  of 
Metz  proposed  that  question  in  a  letter  to 
Gregory,  who  immediately  answered  it, 
claiming  in  his  letter  the  power  of  deposing 
as  well  as  excommunicating  princes.  "As 
our  Savior,"  says  he,  "did  not  except  kings 
when  he  granted  to  St.  Peter,  and  in  him  to 
his  successors,  the  power  of  binding  and 
loosening,  why  may  not  kings  be  bound  and 
loosened,  be  excommunicated  and  absolved 
by  him  and  his  successors,  as  well  as  the 
meanest  of  their  subjects  V  The  words  of 
our  Savior  have  been  understood  by  the 
popes  as  spoken  only  to  St.  Peter,  and  in 
him  only  to  them.  But  the  fathers  under- 
stand them,  as  I  have  frequently  shown,  as 
addressed  to  all  the  apostles,  and  in  them  to 
all  bishops :  and  from  thence  it  evidently  fol- 

>  Lambert,  ad  ann.  1076. 


Gregory  VII.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


387 


Gregory's  letter  to  the  Gernianii.  A  powerful  league  formed  in  Germany  against  the  king.  The  German  lords 

assemble  at  Tribiir. 


lows,  that,  by  virtue  of  the  words  of  our  Sa- 
vior, the  pope  has  no  other  power  over 
princes  than  what  is  common  with  him  to 
all  other  bishops.  As  for  the  power  he 
claims  of  deposing  princes,  and  divesting 
them  of  their  dominions,  he  alleges  the  ex- 
ample of  pope  Zachary,  who,  he  says,  de- 
posed Icing  Childeric,  and  a  bull  of  pope 
Gregory  the  Great,  granting  certain  privi- 
leges to  a  hospital  at  Autun,  with  this  clause, 
"  If  any  king,  priest,  judge,  or  any  secular 
person  whatsoever,  shall  transgress  this  our 
constitution,  let  him  be  deprived  of  his 
power,  honor,  and  dignity."  But  that  pope 
Zachary  did  not  depose  Childeric,  I  have 
shown  in  the  life  of  that  pope  ;  and  as  to  the 
clause  "on  pain  of  forfeiting  their  dignity," 
it  is  now  generally  supposed  to  have  been 
added  after  that  pope's  time.  It  is  certain, 
at  least,  that  by  no  pope  were  princes  more 
respected  than  by  Gregory  the  Great,  nor 
more  readily  obeyed  as  his  lords  and  mas- 
ters ;  for  thus  he  frequently  styled  them.  In 
the  same  letter  the  pope  tells  Herman,  that 
he  has  empowered  some  bishops  to  absolve 
such  lords  or  bishops  as  shall  separate  them- 
selves from  the  communion  of  the  king,  but 
that  he  has  reserved  the  absolution  of  the 
king  himself  to  the  apostolic  see.  This  let 
ter  is  dated  the  25th  of  August  of  the  present 
year  1076,  and  was  written  at  Tivoli.' 

Gregory  wrote  a  few  days  after,  a  long 
letter  to  all  the  bishops,  lords,  and  faithful 
of  the  Teutonic  kingdom,  to  justify  his  con- 
duct with  respect  to  the  king,  which  had 
given  offence,  even  to  his  friends.  In  that 
letter  he  enumerates  the  many  disordeVs  that 
reigned  in  the  church,  and  were  counte- 
nanced by  the  king  ;  complains  of  his  selling 
bishoprics  and  abbies  to  persons,  who  had 
nothing  else  to  recommend  them  but  their 
money ;  insomuch  as  there  was  scarcely  a 
bishop  in  all  his  dominions  who  had  not 
been  simoniacally  preferred  to  that  dignity  ; 
charges  him  with  having  led,  from  his 
youth,  a  life  unbecoming  a  prince,  and  even 
a  Christian  ;  enlarges  on  the  great  pains  he 
has  taken  to  reclaim  him  from  his  wicked 
ways,  on  the  ungrateful  return  he  had  made 
for  the  kindness  he  had  shown  him,  on  his 
obliging  almost  all  the  bishops  of  Italy,  and 
most  of  the  bishops  of  Germany,  to  rebel 
against  the  apostolic  see,  and  thus  raising, 
as  far  as  in  him  lies,  a  dangerous  schism  in 
the  church.  For  all  these  crimes  he  has  cut 
him  off,  he  says,  as  a  rotten  member,  from 
the  body  of  the  faithful,  and  deprived  him 
of  the  power  which  he  had  so  much  abused. 
He  closed  his  letter  with  exhorting  those,  to 
whom  it  was  addressed,  to  join  him  against 
the  enemies  of  St.  Peter  and  his  church,  and 
declaring  all  excommunicated  who,  siding 
with  the  king,  couatenanced  him  in  his 
wickedness.^ 


>  Greg.  1.  iv.  ep.  2.    a  paui.  Bern,  in  Vit.  Greg.  c.  80. 


This  letter,  and  another  the  pope  wrote 
soon  after,  encouraging  the  faithful  of  St. 
Peter  to  join  against  the  avowed  enemy  of 
that  apostle  and  his  church,  had  the  wished- 
for  effect;  and  a  very  powerful  league  was 
formed  in  Germany  in  favor  of  Gregory. 
The  leading  men  in  that  league  were  Ru- 
dolph duke  of  Suabia,  Guelph  duke  of  Ba- 
varia, Berthold  duke  of  Carinthia,  Adelbe- 
ron  bishop  of  Wirtzburg,  and  Adelbert  bi- 
shop of  Worms.    The  pope,  encouraged  by 
so  powerful  a  confederacy,  began  to  think  of 
causing  another  to  be  raised  to  the  throne  in 
the  room  of  Henry ;  and  he  wrote  accord- 
ingly a  third  letter  to  the  princes,  bishops, 
and  people  of  Germany,  empowering  them 
to  choose  another  king,  if  Henry  did  not  re- 
pent of  his  wickedness,  and  render  himself, 
by  a  sincere  repentance,   worthy  of  being 
replaced  on  the  throne,  which  he  had  de- 
servedly forfeited  by  his  disobedience  to  and 
contempt  of  the  apostolic  see.'     Upon  the 
receipt  of  that  letter,  the  princes  of  the  em- 
pire who  sided  with  the  pope,  and  some  bi- 
shops, had  a  conference  at  Ulm  ;  and  it  was 
there  resolved,  that  a  general  diet  should  be 
convened    at  Tribur,  near  Mentz,   on  the 
twenty-sixth  of  the  ensuing  October,  in  order 
to  deliberate  about  the  most  proper  means  of 
preventing  the  evils,  which  the  disagreement 
between  the  pope  and  the  king  might  pro- 
duce, and  maintaining  the  peace  of  the  em- 
pire.    This  resolution  they  notified  to  the 
pope,   and   to    all  the  German  lords,  who 
thereupon  met  in  great  numbers  at  the  place 
and  lime  appointed.     The  pope,  highly  ap- 
proving the  resolution  they  had  taken,  sent 
two   bishops,  namely,  Sigehard,    patriarch 
of  Aquileia,  and  Altman,  bishop  of  Padua, 
to  assist  at  the  diet  in  his  name,  with  a  strict 
charge   to  acquaint  him  with  every  thing 
that  passed  in  it,  and  suffer  no  one  to  be 
chosen    in   the   room  of  the  deposed  king 
without  the  knowledge  and  consent  of  the 
apostolic  see.     Most  of  the  German  lords 
had,  it  seems,  been  ill  used  by  the  king,  and 
by   them   he  was  painted   in  the  diet  as  a 
monster  of  wickedness,  as  one  who  paid  no 
kind  of  regard  to  the  laws,  human  or  di- 
vine ;  they  charged  him,  in  particular,  with 
having  banished  from  his  court  all  persons 
of  birth  and  probity,  and  raised  to  the  first 
dignities  men  of  the  meanest  extraction,  and 
even  plotted  with  them  to  extirpate  the  no- 
bility ;  with  employing  his  arms  against  his 
own  subjects,  while  the  barbarians  enjoyed 
a  profound  peace;  and  made,  unmolested, 
daily  incursions  into  the  empire;  with  ap- 
plying the  revenues  of  churches  and  monas- 
teries  to   profane  uses,  maintaining  there- 
with numerous  armies  and  building  strong- 
holds, not  to  awe  the  enemies  of  the  empire, 
but  to  enslave  a  free  people;  with  oppress- 
ing the  poor,  the  widows,  and  orphans,  and 
treating  his  subjects  in  general  more  like  a 
»  Paul.  Bern,  in  Vit.  Greg.  c.  82. 


388 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Gregory  VH. 


Hard  conditions  which  the  king  is  forced  to  submit  to.     He  goes  to  Italy. 


tyrant  than  the  father  of  his  people.  They 
concluded  that  the  only  remedy  against  so 
many  evils  was  to  choose  another  king,  one 
capable  of  restoring  good  order,  and  saving 
the  state,  by  that  means,  from  imminent  ruin. 
In  the  mean  time  the  king,  advancing  with 
the  few  friends  who  still  stood  by  him,  to 
Oppenheim,  a  little  above  Tribur,  on  the  op- 
posite side  of  the  Rhine,  sent  frequent  mes- 
sages from  thence  to  the  diet,  promising  to 
redress  the  evils  they  complained  of,  to  satisfy 
those  whom  he  had  any  ways  injured,  and 
thenceforth  to  employ  the  power  that  God 
had  put  into  his  hands,  in  procuring  the 
happiness  of  his  subjects  and  the  welfare  of 
the  state.  He  added  that,  if  they  questioned 
his  sincerity,  he  was  ready  to  confirm  his 
promise  upon  oath,  and  even  to  give  host- 
ages for  the  performance.  The  lords  of  the 
diet  answered,  that  they  had  been  too  often 
deceived  by  him  to  trust  to  his  oaths  or 
promises;  that, as  he  was  excommunicated, 
they  could  not  correspond  with  him,  and 
that  being  by  the  pope  absolved  from  their 
oaths  of  allegiance,  and  even  forbidden,  on 
pain  of  excommunication,  to  acknowledge 
him  for  king,  they  were  determined  to  choose 
another  in  his  room.  As  the  German  lords 
had  brought  along  with  them,  for  their  own 
defence,  many  of  their  vassals,  well  armed, 
some  of  them  were  for  crpssing  the  Rhine, 
and  falling  upon  the  king,  who  was  only 
attended  by  his  guards  and  a  small  number 
of  friends.  But  the  lords  of  Suabia  and 
Saxony  thought  it  more  advisable  to  refer 
the  decision  of  the  dispute  between  them  and 
the  king  to  a  general  diet  of  the  whole  em- 
pire, at  which  the  pope  should  be  present  in 
person,  and,  in  the  meantime,  oblige  the 
king  to  resign  all  power  and  authority. 
This  expedient  was  approved  and  readily 
agreed  to  by  the  rest  of  the  lords  of  the  diet ; 
and  deputies  were  immediately  sent  to  let 
the  king  know  that,  notwithstanding  the  ill 
treatment  they  had  met  with  from  him,  they 
would  not  take  upon  them  to  judge  or  con- 
demn him,  but  would  leave  him  to  be 
judged,  to  be  condemned  or  acquitted  by 
the  pope,  in  a  general  assembly  of  all  the 
princes  of  the  empire ;  that  they  had  agreed 
the  assembly  should  be  convened  in  the  city 
of  Augsburg,  at  the  Purification  of  the 
blessed  Virgin,  that  is,  on  the  2d  of  Febru- 
ary; that  the  pope  should  be  invited  to  it, 
and  that  his  holiness,  after  hearing  both 
sides,  should  pronounce  the  definitive  sen- 
tence for  or  against  him.  They  added,  that 
if  he  did  not  obtain  absolution  before  the 
anniversary  of  his  excommunication,  that  is, 
before  the  day  on  which  he  was  excommu- 
nicated, he  should  be  forever  excluded  from 
the  throne.  The  deputies  were  ordered  to 
insist  upon  his  declaring  whether  he  agreed 
to  these  terms,  and  if  he  agreed  to  them,  to 
require  him,  in  their  name,  to  satisfy  them 
of  his  sincerity,  by  forthwith  dismissing  all 


the  excommunicated  persons  about  him,  by 
withdrawing  his  garrison  from  Worms,  and 
restoring  the  bishop  of  that  city  to  his  see. 
To  these  terms  they  added  others  still  harder; 
namely,  that  he  should  disband  his  army, 
and  retire  to  Spire  with  the  bishop  of  Ver- 
dun, and  such  other  bishops  or  ministers  as 
had  not  been  excommunicated  by  the  pope; 
that  he  should  lead  there  a  private  life,  di- 
vesting himself  of  all  the  ensigns  of  royalty  ; 
that  he  should  not  at  all  meddle  with  pub- 
lic affairs,  nor  enter  the  church.  To  these 
terms,  shameful  and  hard  as  they  were,  the 
king  was  obliged  to  submit;  and  he  accord- 
ingly dismissed,  without  delay,  the  arch- 
bishop of  Cologne,  and  with  him  the  bishops 
of  Bamberg,  Strasburg,  Bale,  Spire,  Lau- 
sanne, Ceitz,  Osnaburg,  and  all  who,  by  ad- 
hering to  him,  had,  on  that  account,  been 
excommunicated  by  the  pope.  He  complied 
with  the  other  terms,  in  hke  manner,  and 
quitting  the  marks  of  his  dignity,  left  the 
administration  of  public  affairs  to  the  lords 
of  the  empire. 

As  the  king  had  nothing  so  much  at  heart 
as  to  be  absolved  from  the  excommunication, 
his  friends  being  afraid  to  lend  him  any  as- 
sistance so  long  as  he  continued  under  that 
sentence,  and  his  enemies  availing  them- 
selves of  it  to  stir  up  the  people  against  him, 
he  resolved  to  procure  his  absolution,  at  any 
rate,  before  the  meeting  of  the  assembly  at 
Augsburg.  Being  therefore  informed  that 
the  pope  had  left  Rome,  and  was  coming 
into  Germany,  in  order  to  assist  at  that  as- 
sembly, he  set  out  in  great  haste  from  Spire, 
with  his  wife  and  his  son,  yet  an  infant,  to 
meet  him  and  obtain  absolution,  if  by  any 
means  he  could,  before  he  entered  Ger- 
many, where  he  apprehended  his  enemies 
would  leave  nothing  unattempted  to  divert 
him  from  granting  it.  As  he  undertook  that 
journey  in  the  depth  of  winter,  with  a  very 
small  retinue,  and  was  obliged  to  pass 
through  Burgundy,  and  from  thence  to  cross 
the  Alps  into  Italy,  all  the  othei^  roads  being 
guarded  by  his  enemies,  he  underwent  such 
hardships  as  no  prince,  perhaps,  had  ever 
undergone  before  him.  On  his  arrival  in 
Savoy,  count  Amadeus,  lord  of  that  country, 
received  and  entertained  him  suitably  to  his 
rank,  but  would  not  allow  him  to  pass, 
though  nearly  related  to  him,  till  he  had 
yielded  to  him  a  rich  and  fruitful  province 
bordering  upon  his  dominions.  As  the  winter 
was  extremely  severe,  so  severe  that  the 
Rhine  continued  frozen  over  from  the  be- 
ginning of  November  to  the  first  of  April, 
the  king  and  his  retinue  found  themselves 
often  in  imminent  danger,  as  they  crossed 
the  Alps,  of  being  buried  in  the  snow, 
or  falhng  down  the  precipices,  the  roads 
being  very  shppery,  and  scarce  passable  on 
account  of  the  ice.  The  queen  and  her  fe- 
male attendants  were  placed  upon  hides,  and 
thus  drawn  over  the  frozen  snow  by  their 


Gregory  VII.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


389 


The  reception  of  the  king  in  Italy.  The  pope  retires  to  Canusium.  Several  excommunicated  bishops  apply 
to  him  and  are  absolved.  The  king  sends  deputies  to  acquaint  the  pope  with  his  arrival,  and  sue  for  absolu- 
tion.    The  pope's  answer  to  the  deputies. 


guides,  natives  of  the  country.  Some  of  the 
king's  train  perished  in  this  passage,  and 
others  lost,  by  the  excessive  cold,  the  use  of 
their  limbs.  But  the  king  himself  arrived 
safe  in  Italy  ;  and  no  sooner  was  his  arrival 
known  there,  than  the  counts  and  bishops  of 
Lombardy,  highly  dissatisfied  with  the  pope, 
repaired  to  him  from  all  parts,  treated  him 
with  all  the  respect  that  was  due  to  his  dig- 
nity, acknowledged  him,  notwithstanding 
his  being  deposed  by  the  pope,  for  their 
lawful  sovereign,  and  encouraging  him  to 
revenge  the  base  treatment  he  had  met  with 
from  Hildebrand,  who  called  himself  pope, 
offered  to  assist  him  in  so  just  an  undertaking 
both  with  men,  as  wpU  as  with  money. 

In  the  mean  time  Gregory  had  got  as  far 
as  Lombardy  in  his  way  to  Augsburg,  at- 
tended by  the  famous  countess  Mathilda. 
She  was  the  daughter  of  Boniface,  marquis 
of  Tuscany,  by  the  countess  Beatrix,  de- 
scended from  a  sister  of  the  emperor  Otho 
II.  Mathilda  married  Geffrey  the  younger, 
duke  of  Lower  Lorraine,  but  leaving  her 
husband,  she  spent,  with  his  consent,  most 
of  her  time  in  Italy,  where  she  was  possess- 
ed of  very  large  territories,  having  succeed- 
ed her  father,  who  died  without  male  issue, 
in  the  dukedom  of  Tuscany,  which  he  had 
greatly  extended,  and  left  in  a  most  flourish- 
ing condition.  She  was  nearly  related  to  the 
king,  but  nevertheless  declared  from  the  be- 
ginning for  the  pope  ;  and  being  become  this 
year  her  own  mistress  by  the  death  of  her 
husband,  she  devoted  herself  entirely  to 
Gregory,  transacted  nothing  without  'con- 
sulting him,  followed  in  every  thing  his  di- 
rections, and  never  parting  from  him,  ac- 
companied him  wherever  he  went.  Her 
intimacy  with  Gregory,  and  the  extraordinary 
regard  he,  on  all  occasions,  showed  for  her, 
gave  occasion  to  many  scandalous  reports, 
that  were  industriously  propagated  by  the 
pope's  enemies,  especially  the  ecclesiastics, 
of  whom  he  exacted  the  strictest  celibacy. 
Their  attachment  for  each  other  was  not, 
perhaps,  criminal,  but  it  is  allowed,  even  by 
those  who  most  admire  this  pope,  to  have 
been,  at  least  on  his  side,  as  he  had  so  many 
enemies,  very  imprudent.  Be  that  as  it  will, 
the  pope  no  sooner  heard  of  the  arrival  of 
the  king,  and  the  reception  he  had  met  with 
from  his  Italian  subjects,  than  he  retired,  by 
the  advice  of  Mathilda,  to  Canusium,  a 
strong-hold  in  the  diocese  of  Reggio  that 
belonged  to  her,  it  being  publicly  reported 
that  the  king  was  come  to  depose  the  pope, 
and  cause  another  to  be  chosen  in  his  room. 
"While  the  pope  continued  in  that  fortress, 
well  guarded  by  the  troops  of  Mathilda, 
many  German  bishops,  as  well  as  laymen, 
who  had  been  excommunicated  for  acknow- 
ledging the  king,  and  communicating  with 
him  after  he  had  been  deposed  and  excom- 
municated, repaired  to  him  barefooted  and 


in  hair  cloth,  confessing  their  fault,  and  be- 
seeching his  holiness  to  forgive  and  absolve 
them.  Gregory  told  them  that  pardon  would 
not  be  refused  to  such  as  sincerely  repented 
of  their  sin,  but  that  their  long  disobedience 
required  a  long  and  severe  penance.  They 
all  answered  with  one  voice,  that  they  were 
ready  to  undergo  what  penance  soever  his 
holiness  should  think  fit  to  impose  upon 
them ;  and  the  penance  he  thereupon  en- 
joined them  was,  that  the  bishops  should  be 
shut  up  separately  in  little  cells  ;  that  during 
their  confinement  there  they  should  not  be 
suffered  to  speak  to  any  one;  that  they 
should  daily  fast  till  the  evening,  and  be  then 
allowed  a  spare  meal.  Penances  were  like- 
wise imposed  upon  the  laymen  suited  to 
their  strength  and  different  ages,  but  of  what 
nature  they  were  history  does  not  inform  us. 
The  pope  having  thus  tried  them  for  some 
days,  and  being  fully  satisfied  of  their  sin- 
cerity, sent  for  them,  and  after  a  slight  repri- 
mand absolved  them,  but  upon  condition 
that  they  should  not  communicate  with  the 
king  till  he  had  satisfied  the  holy  see.  He 
allowed  them,  however,  to  speak  to  him  in 
order  to  reclaim  him. 

In  the  mean  time  the  king,  instead  of  put- 
ting himself  at  the  head  of  the  troops,  which 
the  Italian  lords  had  assembled  to  assist  him 
in  the  Avar  they  advised  him  to  declare 
against  the  pope,  repaired,  with  a  small  re- 
tinue, to  a  place  in  the  neighborhood  of  Ca- 
nusium, and  from  thence  sent  deputies  to 
the  pope,  to  acquaint  him  with  his  arrival  in 
Italy,  and  at  the  same  time  entreat  his  holi- 
ness to  absolve  him  from  the  excommuni- 
cation, since  he  had  for  that  purpose  under- 
taken so  long  and  so  difficult  a  journey  in  so 
severe  a  season.  The  deputies  added,  that 
it  was  not  out  of  any  zeal  for  religion,  but 
merely  out  of  spite  and  envy,  that  the  Ger- 
man lords  accused  him,  and  therefore 
begged  his  holiness  would  not  give  ear  to 
their  accusations.  The  pope  answered,  that 
it  was  against  the  laws  of  the  church  to  try 
a  person  accused  in  the  absence  of  his  ac- 
cusers ;  that  if  the  king  was  conscious  to 
himself  of  his  own  innocence,  he  needed  not 
be  afraid  to  appear  at  Augsburg  at  the  ap- 
pointed time,  and  that  he  would  there  give 
judgment,  after  hearing  both  sides,  accord- 
ing to  the  laws  of  the  church,  without  suf- 
fering himself  to  be  biassed  to  either  side  by 
affection  or  hatred.  The  deputies  replied 
that  the  king,  their  inaster,  did  not  decline 
the  judgment  of  his  holiness,  whom  he  knew 
to  be  a  most  uncorrupt  and  impartial  judge ; 
but  as  the  year  of  his  excommunication  was 
near  expiring,  and  the  lords  were  determined 
to  exclude  him  forever  from  the  throne,  if 
he  was  not  absolved  within  the  year,  he 
only  begged  to  be  absolved,  being  ready  to 
give  what  satisfaction  soever  his  holiness 
should  require,  and  willing  not  only  to  aa- 
2h2 


390 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Gregory  VII. 


The  king  treated  with  the  utmost  indignity.    Upon  what  terms  absolved.    The  pope  takes  the  sacrament  as 

a  proof  of  his  innocence. 


swer  his  accusers  at  the  time  and  place  he 
should  appoint,  but  to  keep  the  crown  or 
resign  it,  as  he  should  by  him  be  found 
guilty  or  innocent  of  the  crimes  laid  to  his 
charge.  The  king  could  offer  no  more  ;  but 
the  pope,  still  pretending  to  question  his 
sincerity,  could  not  be  prevailed  upon  to  grant 
the  absolution  he  so  earnestly  sued  for,  till 
the  countess  Mathilda,  Hugh,  abbot  of  Cluny, 
and  some  of  the  first  princes  of  Italy,  in- 
terposing in  his  favor,  look  upon  them  to 
answer  lor  his  performing  what  he  had  pro- 
mised. The  pope  yielded  at  last  to  their 
prayers  and  entreaties,  but  upon  condition 
that  the  king  should  deliver  up  to  him  his 
diadem,  with  all  the  other  ensigns  of  royalty, 
and  own  himself  unworthy  of  the  name  of 
king,  and  of  the  honor  that  was  due  to  that 
dignity.  To  this  condition  the  deputies  ob- 
jected, as  too  hard,  and  only  calculated  to 
drive  the  king  to  despair;  and  being  therein 
seconded  by  the  countess  Mathilda  and  the 
other  mediators,  the  pope  was,  in  the  end, 
with  much  ado,  prevailed  upon  by  them 
to  admit  the  king  to  his  presence.  "  If  he  is 
truly  penitent,"  he  said,  "  let  him  come, 
and  by  his  obedience  atone  for  his  long  dis- 
obedience to  the  decrees  of  the  apostolic 
see."  This  answer  was  no  sooner  commu- 
nicated to  the  king  than  he  flew  to  Canu- 
sium,  but  upon  his  arrival  at  the  first  gate 
of  the  castle,  (for  it  Avas  surrounded  by  a 
triple  wall,)  he  was  told  by  the  guards  that 
he  must  dismiss  all  his  attendants,  and  enter 
it  alone.  He  did  so,  not  without  some  re- 
luctance, as  he  thus  put  it  in  the  power  of 
his  avowed  enemy  to  keep  him  prisoner  and 
dispose  of  him  as  he  pleased.  The  first 
gate  being  shut,  he  was  required  at  the 
second  to  divest  himself  of  all  ensigns  of 
royalty,  to  put  on,  in  their  stead,  a  coarse 
woollen  tunic,  and  to  wait  barefooted  in  that 
garb,  in  the  month  of  January,  till  it  should 
please  the  pope  to  command  the  third  gate 
to  be  opened,  in  order  to  admit  him  to  his 
presence.  In  that  condition  he  returned, 
and  was  forced  to  wait  three  whole  days, 
fasting  from  morning  to  night,  and  im- 
ploring the  mercy  of  God  and  the  pope.  The 
hard-hearted  pope  showed  not  the  whole 
time  the  least  mark  of  compassion  ;  but  the 
persons  of  distinction,  who  were  with  him, 
greatly  affected  with  the  sufferings  of  the 
king,  and  touched  with  pity  in  seeing  so 
great  a  prince  reduced  to  so  deplorable  a 
state,  began  to  complain  of  the  unparalleled 
severity  of  Gregory,  more  becoming,  they 
said,  a  tyrant  than  an  apostolical  father  or 
judge.  Hereupon  the  countess  Mathilda, 
interposing  anew,  and  freely  acquainting 
the  pope  with  what  was  said  of  him  even 
by  his  friends,  prevailed  upon  him  to  suffer 
the  king  to  appear  before  him  the  fourth 
day,  when,  after  several  complaints  on  both 
sides,  Gregory  absolved  him  upon  the  fol- 
lowing conditions : 


1.  That  he  should  appear  at  the  time  and 
the  place  which  the  pope  should  appoint, 
to  answer,  in  a  general  diet  of  the  German 
lords,  the  charge  brought  against  him,  and 
should  own  the  pope  for  his  judge.  2.  That 
he  should  stand  to  his  judgment,  should 
keep  or  resign  the  crown  as  he  should  by 
him  be  found  guilty  or  innocent,  and  should 
never  seek  to  revenge  himself  upon  his  ac- 
cusers. 3.  That  till  judgment  was  given 
and  his  cause  was  finally  determined,  he 
should  lay  aside  all  badges  of  royalty,  should 
not  meddle,  upon  any  pretence  whatever, 
with  public  affairs,  and  should  levy  no 
money  upon  the  people  but  what  was  ne- 
cessary for  the  support  of  his  family.  4. 
That  all  who  had  taken  an  oath  of  allegiance 
to  him,  should  be  absolved  from  that  oath 
before  God  as  well  as  before  men.  5.  That 
he  should  for  ever  remove  from  his  presence 
■  Robert,  bishop  of  Bamberg,  Udalric  of 
Cosheim,  and  all  evil  counsellors  together 
with  them.  6.  That  if  he  should  clear  him- 
self of  the  crimes  laid  to  his  charge  and  re- 
main king,  he  should  be  ever  obedient  and 
submissive  to  the  pope,  and  concur  with 
him,  to  the  utmost  of  his  power,  in  reform- 
ing the  abuses  that  custom  had  introduced, 
against  the  laws  of  the  church,  into  his 
kingdom.  Lastly,  if  he  failed  in  any  of 
these  conditions,  his  absolution  should  be 
null,  he  should  be  deemed  guilty  of  the 
crimes  laid  to  his  charge  as  if  he  had  owned 
them,  should  never  again  be  heard,  and  the 
lords  of  the  kingdom,  absolved  from  their 
oaths,  should  be  at  full  liberty  to  elect  another 
king  in  his  room.  As  the  day  on  which  the 
king  had  been  excommunicated  the  year 
before  was  at  hand,  he  was  glad  to  submit 
to  those  terms,  hard  as  they  were,  in  order 
to  obtain  absolution.  He  signed  them  ac- 
cordingly, and  promised  upon  oath  to  ob- 
serve them,  especially  to  stand  to  the  judg- 
ment of  the  pope,  and  to  keep  or  lay  down 
the  crown  as  by  him  he  should  be  judged 
worthy  or  unworthy  to  wear  it.  The  pope, 
not  satisfied  with  the  king's  oath,  required 
the  countess  Mathilda,  and  the  rest  who 
had  interposed  in  his  favor,  to  swear  upon 
relics  that  he  should  perform  all  he  had 
promised.  This  request  was  readily  compUed 
with  by  all  but  the  abbot  of  Cluny,  who, 
being  forbidden  by  the  rules  of  his  monas- 
tery to  take  an  oath,  only  engaged  his  word 
for  the  king's  faithfully  observing  the  terms 
which  he  had  agreed  to.  Hereupon  Henry 
obtained,  in  the  end,  the  dear-bought  abso- 
lution, on  the  twenty-fifth  of  January  of  the 
present  year  1077. 

When  that  ceremony  was  over,  the  pope 
celebrated  mass,  and  desiring  the  king,  and 
all  who  were  present,  to  approach  the  altar 
after  consecration,  he  took  the  consecrated 
host  in  his  hand,  and  turning  to  the  king 
addressed  him  thus:  "I  long  ago  received 
letters  from  you  and  from  those  of  your 


Grerort  VII.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


391 


The  kin!?  declines  the  proof  of  the  pope's  innocence.  Tlie  Lonil>ard  lords  highly  provoked  at  the  mean  sub- 
mission of  the  king.  He  resolves  to  break  the  treaty  made  with  the  pope.  A  diet  appointed  to  meet  at 
Forcheim. 


party,  charging  me  with  having  raised  my- 
self to  the  apostoHc  see  by  simony,  and 
having  polluted  my  life,  before  as  well  as 
after  my  episcopacy,  with  other  crimes,  for 
which  1  ought,  according  to  the  canons,  to 
have  been  for  ever  excluded  from  holy 
orders :  and  though  I  could  disprove  these 
calumnies  with  the  testimony  of  those  who 
very  well  know  what  life  I  have  led  from 
my  infancy,  and  of  those  who  were  the 
authors  of  my  promotion  to  the  episcopal 
dignity ;  yet  that  I  may  not  be  thought  to 
rely  more  upon  the  judgment  of  men  than 
upon  that  of  God,  and  that  no  room  may  be 
left  for  the  least  suspicion  of  scandal,  let  the 
body  of  our  Lord,  which  I  am  going  to  take, 
be  this  day  a  proof  of  my  innocence;  let 
God  absolve  me  by  his  judgment  if  I  am 
innocent,  and  strike  me  suddenly  dead,  if  I 
am  guilty."  Having  spoken  this,  he  took 
part  of  the  host,  the  people  congratulating 
him  with  loud  shouts  of  joy  upon  his  inno- 
cence so  incontestably  proved.  But  the 
pope,  having  commanded  and  obtained  si- 
lence, addressed  the  king  anew  with  the  fol- 
lowing words :  "  Do,  my  son,  if  you  please, 
what  you  have  seen  me  do.  The  German 
lords  accuse  you  daily  to  us  of  many  enor- 
mous crimes,  for  which  they  say  you  ought 
not  only  to  be  removed  from  the  adminis- 
tration of  all  public  affairs,  but  excluded  for 
ever  from  the  communion  of  the  church, 
and  even  from  human  society.  As  I  wish 
you  well,  and  you  have  implored  the  pro- 
tection of  the  apostolic  see  in  your  distress, 
do  what  I  advise  you.  If  you  are  conscious 
to  yourself  of  your  own  innocence,  and 
know  that  you  are  falsely  and  maliciously 
accused,  deliver  the  church  from  that  scan- 
dal, and  yourself  from  all  perplexity,  as  the 
issue  of  human  judgments  is  very  uncertain. 
Take  the  other  part  of  the  host,  that  your 
innocence  thus  proved  may  silence  your 
enemies,  that  I  may  become  your  warmest 
friend,  and  the  German  lords  being  recon- 
ciled with  you  by  my  means,  you  may  be 
replaced  on  the  throne,  and  the  wished-for 
tranquillity  restored  to  the  state."  The 
king,  no  less  astonished  than  perplexed  at 
such  an  unexpected  proposal,  deliberated 
some  time  with  the  lords  and  bishops  about 
him,  and  then,  not  caring  to  undergo  such 
a  trial,  he  declined  it,  saying,  that  his  ene- 
mies would  pay  no  kind  of  regard  to  any 
thing  he  should  do  in  their  absence,  and 
therefore  desired  the  pope  to  leave  the  affair 
undetermined  till  the  time  of  the  general 
diet.' 

In  the  mean  while  the  Lombard  lords,  who 
had  encouraged  the  king  to  revenge  the  in- 
justice the  pope  had  done  him,  and  had 
offered  to  assist  him  in  so  just  an  undertaking 
to  the  utmost  of  their  power,  hearing  of  the 

'  Lambert.  Schafn.  Domnizo  in  Vit.  Mathild.  Pau- 
lusBernried.  in  Vit.  Greg.  &  Greg. lib.  iv.  ep.  12. 


treatment  he  had  met  with  from  the  pope 
at  Canusium,  and  the  terms  he  liad  agreed 
to,  began  to  complain  as  loudly  of  hitn  as  of 
the   pope   himself.     Tliey   reproached    him 
with  meanness,  treachery,  and  cowardice, 
in  forsaking  his  best  friends,  and  acting  in 
direct  opposition  to  their  unanimous  opinion 
and  advice,  in  order  to  be  absolved  from  the 
excommunication  of  a  man,  whom  the  bi- 
shops of  Italy  had  excommunicated  as  guilty 
of  simony,  of  murders,  adulteries,  and  many 
other  crimes.     So  great  was  the  indignation 
the  king's  mean  behavior  raised  in  most  of 
the  Lombard  lords,  that  they  even  resolved 
no  longer  to  acknowledge  iiim  lor  their  king, 
but  to  place  his  son,  yet  an  infant,  on  the 
throne;  to  carry  him  to  Rome,  and  cause 
him  to  be  there  crowned   emperor  by   the 
pope  whom  they  should  choose  in  the  room 
of  the  usurper  Hildebrand.     The  king  strove 
to  appease  them,  by  representing  to  them 
the  necessity  he  was  under  of  being  absolved 
within  a  limited  time,  which,  he  said,  the 
pope  had  availed  himself  of,  to  trample  upon 
him  in  the  manner  he  had  done.     But  find- 
ing that  many  of  the  Lombard  lords  daily 
forsook   him,  and   that  such   as  continued 
with  him  threatened  to  leave  him,  if  he  did 
not  break  the  shameful  treaty  he  had  made 
with  the  pope,  he  was  in  the  end  prevailed 
upon  to  break  it;   and  he  recalled  accord- 
ingly the  bishops,  as  well  as  the  laymen, 
whom  the  pope  had  obliged  him  to  dismiss, 
declared   that  he  would  not  appear  at  the 
diet  appointed  to  meet  at  Augsburg,  and  in- 
veighing, with  great  bitterness,  against  the 
pope  in  an  assembly  of  the  Lombard  lords, 
exhorted  them  to  revenge,  under  his  com- 
mand, the  injuries  they  had  received,  as  well 
as  he.  irom  the  usurper  of  the  apostolic  see. 
By  this  speech  the  king  regained  the  affec- 
tion of  all  the  Lombards,  his  army  was  daily 
reinforced  with  new  troops  flocking  to  him 
from  all  quarters,  and  he  soon   found  him- 
self in  a  condition  to  face  any  force  that  the 
pope's  friends  in  Italy  could  bring  against  him. 
The  pope  continued   all  this  while  with 
the    countess    Mathilda   at   Canusium,  not 
thinking  it  safe  to  venture  out,  and  much 
less  to  undertake  his  intended  journey  into 
Germany,  in  order  to  assist  at  the  diet  of 
Augsburg.     The  German  lords  therefore  ap- 
pointed a  diet  to  assemble  at  Forcheim,  in 
the  bishopric  of  Bamberg,  on  the  13th  of 
March,  in  order  to  deliberate  about  the  elec- 
tion of  a  new  king;  since  Henry  had,  by  a 
manifest  breach  of  the  treaty  made  with  the 
pope,  prevented  the  meeting  of  a  diet  at 
Augsburg,  and  thereby  forfeited  his  crown. 
This  their  design  they  immediately  commu- 
nicated to  the  pope,  desiring  him  to  send 
legates  to  assist  at  that  assembly  in  his  name, 
if  he  could  not  conveniently  be  present  at  it 
in  person.     Upon  that  intelligence  the  pope 
dispatched  a  cardinal,  named  Gregory,  to 


392 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Gregory  VII. 


Henry  declines  appearing  at  the  diet.     Rudolph,  duke  of  Suabia,  chosen  king.    Gregory  not  the  author  of  his 
election.    The  pope  enters  into  an  alliance  with  Robert  Guiscard  and  the  Normans. 


acquaint  the  king  witli  the  resolution  of  the 
German  lords,  and  press  hira  to  repair  to 
Forcheim  at  the  time  appointed,  that  his 
cause  might  be  there  finally  determined  by 
the  judgment  of  the  apostolic  see.  The 
king  answered,  that  as  he  had  never  been  in 
Italy  since  his  accession  to  the  crown,  he 
had  so  many  affairs  to  settle  there,  that  he 
could  not  possibly  leave  the  country  so  soon ; 
that  his  Italian  subjects,  who  had  long  wished 
to  see  him,  would  think  themselves  neglected 
and  despised,  should  he  continue  so  short  a 
time  with  them  ;  and,  besides,  that  the  time 
fixed  for  the  meeting  of  the  assembly  was  so 
near  ihat  he  could  not  be  present  at  it, 
though  nothing  detained  him,  upon  so  short 
a  notice. 

This  answer  convinced  the  pope  that  the 
king  was  determined  not  to  stand  to  the 
terms  of  the  agreement;  and  he  therefore 
sent  Bernard,  cardinal  deacon  of  the  Roman 
church,  and  Bernard  abbot  of  a  monastery 
of  six  hundred  monks  at  Marseilles,  with 
the  character  of  his  legates,  to  acquaint  the 
German  lords  therewith,  and  assist  at  the 
diet  in  his  name,  as  he  could  not  assist  at  it 
in  person,  all  the  passes  being  guarded  night 
and  day  by  the  king's  troops.  The  assem- 
bly met  soon  after  their  arrival,  and  the  pope's 
letters  being  read,  whereby  he  exhorted  all, 
who  had  the  welfare  of  (lie  state  at  heart,  to 
join  in  such  measures  as  should  seem  to 
them  the  most  expedient  at  so  critical  a 
juncture,  and  the  most  proper  to  procure  it, 
they  resolved  to  proceed,  without  further 
delay,  to  the  election  of  a  new  king,  and 
they  elected  accordingly,  with  one  consent, 
Rudolph  duke  of  Suabia,  but  upon  condition 
that  his  son  should  not  succeed  him,  unless 
he  was  chosen  by  the  people.  The  kingdom 
of  Germany,  as  we  may  observe  here  by  the 
way,  was  not  quite  hereditary,  the  nobles, 
bishops,  and  people  being  free  to  elect  which 
of  the  deceased  king's  sons  they  judged  the 
most  worthy  of  the  crown,  though,  generally 
speaking,  they  chose  the  eldest;  and  thus 
was  the  kingdom  of  Germany  hereditary, 
the  election  being  confined  to  the  royal 
family,  and  yet  elective,  since  the  people 
might  choose  which  of  the  king's  sons  they 
liked  best.  But  in  the  present  diet  at  For- 
cheim it  was  decreed,  that  the  election  should 
no  longer  be  restrained  to  the  royal  family, 
and  the  electors  should  elect  whomsoever 
they  thought  the  most  worthy  of,  and  the 
best  qualified  for,  so  great  a  trust.  Rudolph, 
thus  elected,  was  consecrated  by  the  arch- 
bishops of  Mentz  and  Magdeburg  in  the  pre- 
sence of  the  pope's  legates,  and  all  the  lords 
of  the  assembly,  who  acknowledging  him 
for  their  lawful  sovereign,  took  an  oath  of 
allegiance  to  him  as  such.' 

Some  modern  writers  will  have  Gregory 
to  have  been  the  chief  author  of  the  election 
and  promotion   of  Rudolph,  and  to  have 


confirmed  to  him  the  royal  dignity,  as  soon 
as  he  heard  that  the  German  lords  had 
chosen  him.  But  Gregory  himself  solemnly 
declares  in  one  of  his  letters  that  Rudolph 
was  chosen  unknown  to  him.  "  The  ultra- 
montane bishops  and  princes,"  says  he, 
"  hearing  that  he  (the  king)  did  not  perform 
what  he  had  promised,  and  despairing  of  his 
amendment,  chose  without  my  advice,  I  call 
upon  you  Peter  and  Paul  to  witness  it,  duke 
Rudolph  for  their  king,  who  immediately 
gave  me.nolice  of  his  election,  assuring  me 
that  he  had  been  forced  to  undertake  the 
government,  but  was  ready  to  obey  me  in 
all  things.'"  It  plainly  appears,  from  a  letter 
which  the  pope  wrote  to  his  two  legates  in 
Germany,  as  soon  as  he  heard  of  the  elec- 
tion of  Rudolph,  that  he  himself  was  at  a 
loss  to  determine  which  of  the  two  kings 
had  the  better  title  to  the  crown.  For  in  that 
letter  he  orders  the  legates  to  procure  from 
both  a  safe  conduct  for  him,  that  he  may 
come  into  Germany  and  determine  upon  the 
spot  which  of  the  two  had  justice  on  his 
side.  He  adds,  if  either  of  the  kings  shall 
oppose  this  our  resolution,  and  refuse  us  a 
free  passage  into  Germany,  we  command  yoti 
to  cut  him  off,  by  the  authority  of  St.  Peter, 
from  the  communion  of  the  church,  and  to 
withstand  him,  if  necessary,  even  at  the  ex- 
pense of  your  lives,  remembering  that  it  is 
idolatry  not  to  obey  the  apostolic  see ;  and  that 
the  blessed  Gregory  decreed  that  kings,  who 
presumed  to  trangress  its  commands,  should 
forfeit  their  dignity.  Acknowledge  him, 
therefore,  for  lawful  king,  who  shall  humbly 
obey  our  commands,  assist  him  to  the  utmost 
of  your  power ;  and  command,  in  our  name, 
the  bishops,  abbots,  clerks,  and  laymen, 
dwelling  in  these  parts,  to  serve  and  obey 
him  as  their  lawful  sovereign.^  This  letter 
is  dated  the  last  of  May,  1077. 

In  the  mean  time  Gregory,  sensible  that 
the  disagreement  between  him  and  the  king 
would  end  in  an  open  rupture,  and  that  the 
forces  of  Mathilda  alone  were  not  capable 
of  making  head  against  those  of  the  king, 
left  Canusium,  and  returning  to  Rome,  un- 
dertook from  thence  a  journey  to  Apulia, 
with  a  design  to  gain  Robert  Guiscard  and 
the  Normans  over  to  his  party.  Robert  met 
the  pope  at  Aquino,  and  a  treaty  was  there 
concluded  between  them  upon  the  following 
terms,  namely,  that  the  pope  should  absolve 
Robert  from  the  excommunication  which  he 
had  incurred,  by  laying  siege  to  Benevento, 
and  grant  him  the  investiture  of  the  duke- 
doms of  Apulia,  Calabria,  and  Sicily,  leaving 
his  claim  to  Salerno,  Amalfi,  and  part  of 
the  march  of  Fermo,  which  Robert  had 
seized,  unjustly  as  the  pope  pretended,  for 
the  present  undetermined ;  and  that  Robert 
should,  on  his  side,  swear  fealty  to  Gregory 
and  the  apostolic  see ;  that  he  should  assist 
him  to  the  utmost  of  his  power,  to  hold. 


«  Lambert  Schafn.  Paul.  Bernried.  in  Vit.  Greg.  c.  93. 


»  Greg.  1.  vii.  ep.  14. 


a  Idem,  1.  iv.  ep.  23. 


Gregory  VII.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


393 


Fourth  council  of  Rome — Several  bishops  excomniunicaied  and  deposed  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1078.]  Rudolph  de- 
feated by  Henry,  and  he,  in  hia  turn,  by  Rudolph.  Fifth  council  of  Rome — Berengarius  abjures  his  doctrine 
concerning  the  eucharist. 


acquire,  and  defend  the  rights  of  St.  Peter, 
should  protect  him  against  all  his  enemies, 
and  should,  upon  his  death,  if  he  survived 
him,  declare  for  the  person  who  should  be 
legally  chosen  by  the  cardinals,  the  clergy, 
and  (he  people  of  Rome.  This  treaty  was 
signed  and  sworn  to  by  Robert,  and  the  other 
Norman  chiefs.  Anna  Comnena,  Guillel- 
mus  Apuliensis,  and  Rich^dus,  monk  of 
Cluny,  who  flourished  about  the  middle  of 
the  following  century,  write,  that  Gregory 
promised,  on  this  occasion,  to  confer  the  im- 
perial dignity  upon  Robert,  or  his  son  Boe- 
miind,  and  that  this  was  one  of  the  articles 
of  the  treaty.' 

From  Apulia  Gregory  returned  to  Rome, 
and  there  in  a  council,  consisting  of  about 
an  hundred  bishops,  wliich  he  had  appointed 
to  meet  the  first  week  in  Lent  of  the  present 
year  1078,  he  excommunicated  and  deposed 
Tetald,  archbishop  of  Milan,  preferred  by 
the  king  to  that  see  while  his  predecessor 
was  still  living,  and  with  him  Arnold,  bi- 
shop of  Cremona,  convicted  of  simony, 
Guibert,  archbishop  of  Ravenna,  striving  to 
withdraw  himself  from  all  subjection  to  the 
apostolic  see,  and  Roland,  who  had  been  re- 
warded with  the  bishopric  of  Trevigi  for 
notifying  to  the  pope  the  decree  issued  by 
the  council  of  Worms  against  him,  and 
commanding  him,  in  their  name,  to  quit  the 
see  he  had  usurped.^  By  the  same  council 
all  ordinations  made  by  excommunicated 
persons  were  declared  null,  and  excommu- 
nications were  thundered  out  against  those 
who  detain  or  plunder,  or  anyways  injure, 
such  as  are  shipwrecked.  As  to  the  affairs 
of  Germany,  it  was  resolved  that  legates 
should  be  sent  thither  to  convene  an  as- 
sembly of  all  the  prelates  and  lords  of  the 
kingdom,  in  order  to  determine,  jointly  with 
them,  which  of  the  contending  parties  had 
justice  on  their  side.  This  resolution  the 
pope  immediately  communicated  to  the  Ger- 
man lords  and  bishops,  inviting  them  to 
assist  at  that  assembly,  as  they  tendered  the 
peace  and  welfare  of  the  church  as  well  as 
the  state,  and  declaring  those  cut  afT  from 
the  communion  of  the  church  who  should 
oppose  or  prevent  their  meeting  at  the  time 
and  place  his  legates  should  appoint.  "If 
any  one,"  says  he,  "  shall  attempt  to  pre- 
vent our  legates  from  executing  this  our 
resolution,  be  he  king,  archbishop,  bishop, 
duke,  count,  or  marquis,  we  bind  and  ana- 
thematize liim;  not  only  in  his  soul  but  like- 
wise in  his  body,  and  by  our  apostolic  au- 
thority deprive  his  arms  of  victory."  Thus 
Gregory ;  as  if  victories  were  at  his  disposal 
as  well  as  kingdoms.'' 

In  the  mean  time  Henry,  leaving  Italy, 


'  Anna  Comnena,  I.  i.  p.  32.     Guill.  Apul.  I.  iv.  p.  31. 
Richard,  apiid  Ptolemcum,  Lucent,  ad  ann.  1084. 
»  Cnnril.  t.  X.  p.  39<). 
'  Idem  ibid,  et  Greg.  I.  v.  ep.  15,  16. 

Vol.  II.— 50 


returned  with  the  troops  he  had  levied  there 
to  Germany,  and  meeting  Rudolph,  engaged 
him,  put  his  army  to  flight,  and,  improving 
the  victory,  made  himself  master  of  Suabia 
and  Bavaria,  that  had  declared  for  his  rival. 
In  this  battle  .several  persons  of  distinction 
on  the  side  of  Rudol|)h  were  slain  or  made 
prisoners.  Among  the  latter  were  Bernard, 
archdeacon  of  the  Roman  church,  Sigefrid, 
archbishop  of  Mentz,  and  Adelbert,  bishop 
of  Worms.  But  Henry  was  soon  after  de- 
feated in  his  turn  by  Rudolph,  and  obliged 
to  quit  the  countries  he  had  just  recovered. 
We  are  told  that  in  this  engagement  most 
of  the  German  as  well  as  the  Italian  lords, 
who  adhered  to  Henry,  were  either  killed  or 
taken,  and  that  the  archbishop  of  Magde- 
burg was  the  only  person  of  any  note  who. 
fell  on  the  side  of  Rudolph.' 

While  the  two  competitors  were  thus  con- 
tending in  the  field  for  the  crown,  Gregory 
assembled  another  council,  the  fifth  of  his 
pontificate,  at  Rome,  in  the  beginning  of 
November  of  the  present  year  1078.  At  this 
council  appeared  embassadors  both  from 
Henry  and  from  Rudolph,  sent  to  swear,  in 
their  name,  that  no  violence  should  be  of- 
fered to  the  legates  of  the  apostolic  see,  but 
that  they  should  be  suffered  to  hold  unmo- 
lested the  intended  congress.^  And  that  oath 
they  took  accordingly,  in  the  presence  of 
the  pope  and  the  council. 

As  the  famous  Berengarius  still  continued 
to  deny  the  real  presence  of  Christ  in  the 
eucharist,  and  daily  gained  over  many  to 
his  opinion,  he  was  summoned  to  the  pre- 
sent council,  and  required  to  give  an  account 
of  his  belief  with  respect  to  that  mystery. 
Fle  had  solemnly  abjured  his  doctrine,  as 
has  been  related  above,  in  a  council  held  by 
pope  Nicholas  II.  in  1059.  But  being  threat- 
ened by  the  present  council  with  excommu- 
nication, as  an  incorrigible  heretic,  in  main- 
taining and  propagating  a  doctrine  repugnant 
to  that  of  the  fathers,  and  condemned  by  the 
church,  he  owned  his  error,  begged  pardon 
of  the  council,  and  to  satisfy  them  of  his 
sincerity,  made  in  their  presence  the  follow- 
ing confession  of  faith  :  "  I  confess  the  bread 
in  the  eucharist  to  be,  after  consecration,  the 
true  body  of  Christ  that  was  born  of  the 
Virgin  Pflary,  that  sits  at  the  right  hand  of 
the  Father;  and  the  wine,  after  consecration, 
to  be  the  true  blood  that  flowed  from  the 
side  of  our  Lord  ;  and  what  I  pronounce 
with  my  mouth  I  believe  in  my  heart.  So 
help  me  God,  and  these  his  holy  Gospels." 
The  fathers  of  the  council  were  not  all  satis- 
fied with  this  confession;  and  Berengarius 
was  therefore  ordered  to  continue  at  Rome 
till  the  meeting  of  a  more  numerous  council, 
which  was  to  be  held  the  following  year. 


'  Chronograph.  Magdeburg.    Bertold.  in  Chron.  ad' 
ann.  1078. 


''  I'aulus  Bernried.  in  Vit.  Greg.  c.  10*2. 


394 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Gregory  VH. 


Sixth  council  of  Rome — Berengarius  again  abjures  his  doctrine  concerning  the  eucharist ; — [Year  of  Christ, 
1079.]  Embassadors  from  Henry  and  Rudolph  assist  at  this  council.  Both  promise  to  stand  to  the  judg- 
ment of  the  apostolic  see. 


when  his  doctrine  as  well  as  his  present  con- 
fession should  be  more  leisurely  examined. • 
The  council  met  in  the  month  of  February 
of  the  following  year,  1069,  and  the  ques- 
tion being  proposed,  whether  Christ  was 
"substantially"  or  only  "figuratively"  pre- 
sent in  the  eucharist,  the  greater  part  of  the 
bishops,  says  the  historian,  in  all  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty,  who  composed  that  assembly, 
maintained  the  bread  to  be  substantially  con- 
verted, by  the  operation  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
and  the  words  of  the  minister,  for  the  re- 
demption of  mankind.  Some,  struck  with 
blindness,  continues  the  historian,  pretended 
the  eucharist  to  be  but  a  type.  But  they, 
yielding  before  the  third  session,  agreed  with 
the  rest;  and  Berengarius,  the  author  of  that 
error,  owning  it  to  be  so,  made  the  following 
confession  of  faith  in  the  presence  of  the 
council :  "  I,  Berengarius,  believe  in  my 
heart,  and  confess  with  my  mouth,  that  the 
bread  and  wine  which  are  placed  upon  the 
altar,  are  changed  substantially  by  the  mys- 
tery of  the  sacred  prayer  and  the  words  of 
our  Redeemer,  into  the  true,  real,  and  vivi- 
fying flesh,  and  into  the  blood  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  and  that  after  consecration  it 
is  the  true  body  of  Christ  that  was  born  of 
the  Virgin  Mary,  that  was  offered  on  the 
cross  for  the  salvation  of  the  world,  and  sits 
at  the  right  hand  of  the  Father;  and  the 
true  blood  of  Christ  that  flowed  from  his 
side,  and  not  merely  a  type,  but  in  property 
of  nature,  and  in  real  substance,  as  is  set 
forth  in  this  writing,  which  I  have  read,  and 
you  have  heard.  Such  is  my  belief,  and 
henceforth  I  will  teach  nothing  contrary  to 
this,  my  confession.  So  help  me  God,  and 
these  his  holy  Gospels. "^  This  confession 
being  approved  by  all  who  were  present  at 
the  council,  the  pope  forbade  Berengarius  on 
the  part  of  God,  and  his  holy  apostles  Peter 
and  Paul,  ever  to  dispute  concerning  the 
mystery  of  the  body  and  blood  of  our  Lord, 
or  to  teach  any  thing  relating  to  it,  unless  it 
were  to  reclaim  those  whom  he  had  led 
astray.^  This  command  he  promised  to 
obey;  and  thereupon  Gregory,  not  ques- 
tioning his  sincerity,  wrote  the  following 
letter  in  his  favor :  "  Gregory,  servant  of  the 
servants  of  God,  to  all  the  faithful  of  St. 
Peter,  health  and  apostolical  benediction. 
We  think  it  incumbent  upon  us  to  let  you 
know  that  we  have  anathematized,  on  the 
part  of  God,  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost, 
and  of  the  blessed  apostles  Peter  and  Paul, 
all  who  shall  any  ways  presume  to  injure 
Berengarius,  son  of  tbe  Roman  church, 
either  in  his  person  or  his  possessions,  or 
call  him  a  heretic.  He  has  stayed  long  with 
us,  as  long  as  we  please;  and  now  we  send 

■  Anonymus  Chifllet.  &  Bertold.  ad  ann.  1078. 

'  Hugo  Flavin,  in  Chron.  Virdun.  p.  214.  Bertold. 
in  Chron.  ad  ann.  1079.  Regist.  Gregorian.  1.  vi.  post 
epist.  17. 

'  Hugo  Flavin,  ubi  supra. 


him  home  attended  by  our  trusty  Fulco." 
However,  Berengarius  returning  the  follow- 
ing year  to  France,  publicly  retracted  both 
the  confessions  he  had  made  at  Rome,  de- 
claring that  he  had  signed  them  out  of  fear, 
being  threatened  Avith  immediate  death  if 
he  did  not  yield.  Tortures,  racks,  and  death, 
are  arguments  that  few  have  courage  or  con- 
stancy enough  to  resist! 

To  this  council,  as  well  as  to  the  former, 
embassadors  were  sent  by  Henry,  and  by 
Rudolph,  to  answer  the  accusations  that 
their  enemies  might  bring  against  them. 
Those  from  Rudolph  complained  of  the  de- 
vastations committed  by  Henry  in  all  the 
countries  through  which  he  passed,  of  his 
sacrilegiously  plundering  churches  and  mo- 
nasteries, putting  some  bishops  in  irons  and 
murdering  others,  and  treating  all  as  rebels 
who  did  not  obey  him  as  king,  though  he 
had  forfeited  his  kingdom,  and  all  right  to 
the  crown,  by  his  disobedience  to  the  decrees 
of  the  apostolic  see.  Hereupon  most  of  the 
bishops,  without  so  much  as  hearing  the 
embassadors  of  the  king,  were  for  excom- 
municating him  anew,  as  well  as  all  who 
adhered  to  him,  and  declaring  Rudolph  the 
sole  lawful  king  of  Germany.  But  the  em- 
bassadors promising  upon  oath,  in  their 
master's  name,  that  about  the  feast  of  the 
Ascension  proper  persons  should  be  sent  to 
conduct  the  legates  of  the  apostolic  see  into 
Germany,  that  no  kind  of  violence  should 
be  offered  them  in  going  or  returning,  and 
that  the  king  would  submit  to  their  judg- 
ment, and  concur  with  them  in  settling  the 
affairs  of  the  church,  as  well  as  the  state,  as 
they  should  direct,  the  pope  was  prevailed 
upon  to  suspend  the  sentence  of  excommu- 
nication, and  leave  the  whole  to  be  deter- 
mined by  his  legates  in  the  ensuing  con- 
gress.' The  embassadors  of  Rudolph  took 
the  same  oath  in  his  name,  and  the  pope, 
upon  the  breaking  up  of  the  council,  named 
Peter,  cardinal  bishop  of  Albano,  and  Alt- 
man,  bishop  of  Padua,  to  assist  at  the  con- 
gress as  his  legates,  enjoining  them  to  deter- 
mine nothing  without  consulting  the  holy 
see.  At  the  same  time  Gregory  wrote  a 
circulatory  letter,  addressed  to  all  the  faithful 
of  the  Saxon  and  Teutonic  kingdoms,  com- 
manding them  to  forbear  all  hostilities,  since 
the  contending  parties  had  agreed  to  stand 
to  the  judgment  of  his  legates.^ 

It  was  at  this  time  in  most  places  cus- 
tomary for  archbishops  to  make,  at  their 
consecration,  a  promise  or  profession  of 
canonical  obedience  to  the  pope ;  that  is,  of 
such  obedience  as  was  enjoined  by  the 
canons.  The  like  profession  of  obedience 
was  made  by  all  bishops  to  their  metropoli- 
tans, and  by  all  metropolitans  to  their  pri- 
mates. But  Gregory,  who  had  nothing  less 
in  view  than  to  subject  all  bishops  to  him- 

>  Paul.  Bern,  ubi  supra.     >  Idem.  Bertold  in  Chron. 


Gregory  VII.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


395 


Oath  taken  in  the  council  of  Rome  by  the  archbishop  of  Aqiiilcia.  The  pope  requires  the  king  of  England  to 
pay  him  homage.  The  king's  answer.  Pays  no  regard  to  the  pope's  menaces.  The  pope  forbids  divine 
service  in  the  Sclavonian  language  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  1080.] 


self  and  his  successors,  as  absolute  nionarclis 
of  the  church,  changed  that  promise  into  an 
oath  of  allegiance,  much  the  same  with  that 
^vhich  emperors  and  other  sovereign  princes 
imposed  upon  their  feudatories  and  vassals. 
Thus  not  satisfied  with  the  usual  promise 
of  canonical  obedience,  he  obliged  Henry, 
the  new  archbishop  of  Aquiieia,  to  take  the 
following  oath  in  the  present  council:  "I 
shall  from  this  time  forward  be  faithful  to 
St.  Peter,  to  pope  Gregory,  and  his  suc- 
cessors, that  shall  be  chosen  by  a  majority 
of  the  cardinals.  I  shall  neither  advise  nor 
assist  in  faking  away  their  life,  in  dismem- 
bering, deposing,  nor  imprisoning  them.  I 
shall  come  to  their  synods  when  summoned 
by  their  nuncios  or  their  letters,  and  send 
deputies  if  I  cannot  come  in  person,  and  shall 
obey  the  canons  of  such  synods.  I  shall 
assist  in  maintaining  and  defending  the  Ro- 
man papacy  and  the  regalia  of  St.  Peter,  so 
far  as  is  consistent  with  my  order.  I  shall 
not  disclose  the  counsels  which  the  popes 
themselves  or  their  nuncios  shall  communi- 
cate to  me.  I  shall  treat  honorably  and  as- 
sist their  legates  coming  from  or  going  to 
Rome.  I  shall  not  knowingly  communicate 
with  those  whom  they  have  excommuni- 
cated by  name.  I  shall  assist  the  RomaTi 
church,  when  required,  with  a  military 
force.  All  this  I  shall  faithfully  observe, 
unless  exempted  from  that  observance  by  a 
dispensation  from  the  pope.'"  Could  a 
more  full  and  formal  allegiance  be  sworn  by 
any  subject  to  his  prince! 

As  the  payment  of  the  money  that 'was 
yearly  remitted  to  Rome  by  the  kings  of 
England  under  the  name  of  Peter-pence, 
had  been,  in  great  measure,  neglected  du- 
ring the  conqueror's  three  years'  absence  in 
Normandy,  Gregory  no  sooner  heard  of  his 
return  to  England,  than  he  sent  over  Hubert, 
subdeacon  of  the  Roman  church,  in  the 
quality  of  legate,  to  complain  of  that  neglect 
to  the  king,  and  at  the  same  lime  require 
him  to  take  an  oath  of  fealty  to  him.  The 
pope's  design  was  to  improve  that  charity, 
for  it  was  but  a  charity  or  pension,  into  a 
tribute.  But  the  king,  in  a  letter  which  he 
wrote  this  ypar  to  the  pope,  returned  a 
proper  answer  to  so  insolent  a  demand. 
"  Your  legate,"  said  he,  "  has  required  me 
to  promise  fealty  to  you  and  your  successors, 
and  desired  me  to  see  that  the  money  which 
my  predecessors  used  to  send  to  the  Roman 
church  be  more  punctually  remitted.  Of 
these  requests  I  have  granted  the  one  and 
refused  the  other.  I  would  not,  nor  ever 
will  I  pay  homage,  because  I  never  promised 
it;  and  1  do  not  find  that  my  predecessors 
ever  paid  it  to  yours.  As  for  the  money,  it 
was  not  collected  with  due  care,  during  the 
three  years  I  staid  in  France.    But  now  that 


1  Apud  Baron,  ad  ann.  1079. 


I  am  returned  to  my  kingdom,  I  send  you 
by  your  legate  Avhat  has  been  collected, 
and  shall  send  you  the  rest  by  archbishop 
Lanfranc's  legates."'  This  resolute  answer 
was  highly  resented  by  the  pope;  and  being 
at  the  same  time  informed  both  by  his  legale 
and  the  archbishop  of  Lanfranc,  that  the 
king  would  not  permit  any  of  his  bishops  to 
go  to  Rome,  though  summoned  thither  by 
the  apostolic  see,  he  recalled  his  legate,  or- 
dering him,  in  the  letter  he  wrote  to  him  on 
that  occasion,  to  let  the  king  know  that  he 
valued  not  his  money  without  the  honor; 
tliat  his  forbidding  archbishops  and  bishops 
to  visit  the  tombs  of  the  apostles  was  a  thing 
quite  unprecedented,  and  what  no  king  be- 
fore him,  not  even  pagan  kings,  had  ever 
been  so  impudent  or  irreverent  as  to  have 
attempted;  that  he  had  overlooked  many 
things  which  deserved  correction,  and  that 
if  the  king  did  not  alter  his  conduct,  he 
should  be  made  sensible  that  he  had  pro- 
voked the  wrath  of  St.  Peter.  In  the  same 
letter  he  requires  his  legate  to  invite,  and 
command  by  the  authority  of  St.  Peter,  two 
English  and  two  Norman  bishops  out  of 
each  archbishopric,  to  repair  to  Rome,  in 
order  to  assist  at  the  council  which  he  had 
appointed  to  meet  next  Lent.^  This  letter  is 
dated  the  2od  of  September,  1079.  The  le- 
gate left  England  soon  after,  but  the  kinsr, 
paying  no  kind  of  regard  to  the  pope's 
menaces,  kept  to  the  resolution  he  had  ta- 
ken ;  and  no  English  nor  Norman  bishops 
were  allowed,  during  his  reign,  to  go  to 
Rome,  though  frequently  summoned,  and 
even  threatened  with  suspension  if  they  did 
not  comply  with  the  summons. 

We  have  a  remarkable  letter  written  by 
Gregory  in  the  beginning  of  January  of  the 
following  year,  1080,  in  answer  to  one  he  had 
received  from  Vratislaus,  duke  of  Bohemia, 
desiring  leave  to  have  divine  service  perform- 
ed in  the  Sclavonian  tongue,  that  is,  in  the 
language  of  the  country.  That  letter  the  pope 
answered  in  the  following  words.  "  As  you 
desire  us  to  allow  divine  service  to  be  per- 
formed among  you  in  the  Sclavonian  tongue, 
know  that  I  can  by  no  means  grant  you 
your  request,  it  being  manifest  to  all  Avho 
will  but  reflect,  that  it  has  pleased  the  Al- 
mighty that  the  Scripture  should  be  with- 
held from  some,  and  not  understood  by  all, 
lest  it  should  fall  into  contempt,  or  lead  the 
unlearned  into  error.  And  it  must  not  be 
alledged  that  all  wefe  allowed,  in  the  primi- 
tive times,  to  read  the  Scriptures,  it  being 
well  known  that  in  those  early  times  the 
church  connived  at  many  things,  which  the 
holy  fathers  disapproved  and  corrected  when 
the  Christian  religion  was  firmly  establish- 
ed. We  therefore  cannot  grant,  but  abso- 
lutely forbid,  by  the  authority  of  Almighty 


'  Apud  Lanfranc,  ep.  7. 


^  Greg.  I.  Til.  ep.  1. 


396 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Gregory  VH. 


Divine  service  in  the  Sclavonian  language  allowed  by  other  popes.  Seventh  council  of  Rome  under  Gregory- 
Decree  against  lay  investitures  confirmed.  Henry  anew  excornmuuicated  and  deposed.  The  pope  deposed 
in  the  council  of  Brixen. 


God  and  his  blessed  apostle  Peter,  Avhat  you 
ask,  and  command  you  to  oppose  to  the 
utmost  of  your  power,  all  who  require  it.'" 
What  can  be  more  contradictory  to  the  com- 
mand of  our  Savior,  "search  the  Scrip- 
tures,"2  or  to  the  whole  fourteenth  chapter  of 
St.  Paul's  first  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians? 
Gregory  did  not,  it  seems,  know  that  two  of 
his  predecessors,  Hadrian  II.  and  John  VIII., 
granted  to  the  Moravians  what  he  could  not 
grant  to  the  Bohemians,  permission  to  per- 
form the  divine  service  in  their  native  lan- 
guage, the  Sclavonian  j'  nay,  St.  Cyril,  the 
apostle  of  the  Moravians,  obtained  a  decree 
of  Hadrian  II.  forbidding  any  bishops  or 
presbyters  to  be  ordained  in  Moravia,  who 
did  not  understand  the  language  of  the 
country,  and  therefore  could  not  perform  the 
functions  of  his  office  so  as  to  edify  the  peo- 
ple."*  The  permission  granted  to  the  Mora- 
vians by  these  two  popes  was  confirmed  to 
them,  notwithstanding  the  decree  of  Gre- 
gory, by  Innocent  IV.  in  1248.^ 

Gregory  held,  according  to  custom,  a  coun- 
cil in  Lent  the  present  year,  1080.  It  was 
the  seventh  he  had  held,  and  of  all  the  most 
numerous.  In  this  council  the  sentence  of 
excommunication  and  deposition  pronounced 
two  years  before  against  Tetald  of  Milan, 
Guibert  of  Ravenna,  Rcrland  of  Trevigi,  and 
several  other  bishops,  was  confirmed,  and 
a  new  decree  was  issued  forbidding  laymen, 
whether  emperors,  kings,  dukes,  marquises, 
or  counts,  to  grant  investitures  of  bishoprics, 
or  abbeys,  or  of  any  ecclesiastical  dignity 
whatever,  on  pain  of  excommunication,  and 
declaring  all  who  accepted  investitures  from 
them  excommunicated,  till  they  resigned  the 
dignities  to  which  they  had,  by  such  wicked 
means,  been  preferred.  As  Henry,  repent- 
ing the  promise  he  had  made  of  standing  to 
the  judgment  of  the  pope's  legates,  instead 
of  sending  embassadors  to  attend  them  into 
Germany,  kept  the  passes  all  guarded  to 
prevent  their  assisting  at  the  intended  as- 
sembly or  diet,  Gregory  excommunicated 
and  deposed  him  anew  in  the  present  coun- 
cil :  "  I  excommunicate  and  anathematize," 
were  the  words  of  the  sentence,  "  Henry, 
whom  they  call  king,  and  all  his  abettors  :  I 
again  deprive  him  of  the  kingdom  of  Ger- 
many and  Italy ;  divest  him  of  all  royal 
power  and  authority,  forbid  all  Christians 
to  obey  him  as  king,  and  absolve  all  who 
have  sworn,  or  shall  swear  allegiance  to  him, 
from  their  oath.  May  the  said  Henry  and 
his  abettors  have  no  strength  in  battle;  may 
he  never  gain  a  victory  so  long  as  he  lives. 
As  the  Germans  have  chosen  Rudolph  for 
their  king,  to  him  I  give  and  grant  that 
kingdom,  and  to  all  who  shall  steadily  ad- 
here to  him,  I  promise  absolution  from  their 


«  Greg.  1.  vii.  ep.  11.  a  John  v.  39. 

3  See  p.  292.  4  Vita  Cyril,  p.  22. 

'  Oderic.  Baynald.  ad  ann.  1248. 


sins,  and  all  blessings  in  this,  and  in  the  life 
to  come."  The  pope  in  this  sentence  ad- 
dresses himself  all  along  to  the  apostles  St. 
Peter  and  St.  Paul,  and  closes  it  thus  ;  "  now 
therefore,  blessed  apostles,  make  it  known 
to  all  the  world,  that  if  you  can  bind  and 
unbind  in  heaven,  you  can  take  away  and 
give  away  upon  earth,  empires,  kingdoms, 
principalities,  dukedoms,  marquisates,  earl- 
doms,- and  the  possessions  of  all  men  ac- 
cording to  their  deserts.  For  you  have  often 
taken  from  the  unworthy,  and  given  to  the 
worthy,  patriarchates,  primacies,  archbi- 
shoprics, bishoprics.  If  you  judge  spiritual 
matters,  what  power  must  we  allow  you  to 
be  vested  with  over  temporal  affairs!  If  you 
are  to  judge  the  angels  farabove  the  proudest 
princes  upon  earth,  how  great  must  your 
authority  be  over  their  slaves!  Let  the 
kings,  therefore,  and  princes  of  the  earth 
now  learn  how  boundless  and  uncontrolled 
is  your  power!  Let  them  dread  for  the 
future  to  disobey  the  commands  of  your 
church.  Let  your  vengeance  light  without 
delay  upon  Henry,  that  all  may  know  he 
falls,  not  by  chance,  but  by  your  power. 
May  God  confound  him,  '  that  his  spirit  may 
be  saved  in  the  day  of  the  Lord  Jesus.'"' 
Thus  did  Gregory  encourage  the  subjects  of 
a  Christian  prince  to  rebellion,  on  the  part 
of  the  apostles,  who  had  strongly  recom- 
mended subjection  and  obedience  to  the 
worst  even  of  heathenish  princes,  the  sworn 
enemies  and  persecutors  of  the  Christian 
name.  The  pope  having  thus  deposed 
Henry,  and  confirmed  the  election  of  Ru- 
dolph, sent  a  crown  of  gold  to  the  new 
king,  or  rather  usurper,  with  the  following 
inscription,  to  let  him  know  that  he  acknow- 
ledged him  for  king. 

"Petra  dedit  Petro,  Petrus  diadema  Rodulpho."* 
The  decree  excommunicating  and  deposing 
the  king,  is  dated  the  7th  of  March,  1080. 

As  the  king  found  himself,  at  this  time,  at 
the  head  of  a  powerful  army,  and  had  lately 
gained  considerable  advantages  over  the 
usurper  of  his  crown,  he  resolved,  as  soon 
as  he  was  informed  of  what  had  been  passed 
in  the  council  of  Rome,  to  keep  thence- 
forth no  measures  with  the  pope,  as  the 
pope  kept  none  with  him.  He  accordingly 
appointed  a  council  to  meet  at  Mentz,  in 
order  to  advise  with  the  bishops  of  his  party 
concerning  the  measures  he  should  pursue 
at  so  critical  a  juncture.  Nineteen  German 
bishops  met  at  the  place  and  time  appointed, 
the  last  day  of  May.  But  as  no  Italian  bi- 
shops assisted  at  this  council,  it  was  ad- 
journed to  a  place  nearer  Italy;  and  the  city 
of  Brixen,  in  Tyrol,  was  the  place  they 
chose.  Thirty  bishops  assembled  there  on 
the  25th  of  June  of  the  present  year,  with 


■  Paul.  Bernried.  c.  107. 

3  Otto  Frisingen.  de  gestis  Freder.  I.  1.  i.  c.  7.  Got- 
frid.  Viterb.  Chron.  parte  17. 


Gregory  VII.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


397 


Guibert  chosen  in  the  room  of  Oregory.    The  king  acquaints  the  pope  with  ihe  decree  of  his  deposition,  and 
also  writes  to  the  people  of  Rome.    The  pope's  letter  to  the  bishops  of  Apulia. 


almost  all  the  Italian  and  many  German 
princes,  all  highly  provoked  at  the  unprece- 
dented proceedings  and  insupportable  ty- 
ranny, as  ihey  justly  styled  it,  of  the  pope. 
At  tliis  council  the  king  was  present  in  per- 
son ;  and  it  was  by  all,  to  a  man,  agreed 
that  Gregory  should  be  deposed,  and  another 
ciiosen  in  his  room.  The  decree  of  his  depo- 
sition was  drawn  up  ;  and  he  was  there 
charged  with  having  raised  himself  by  ty- 
ranny to  the  pontifical  chair;  with  over- 
setting the  hierarchy,  and  making  himself 
sole  monarch  of  the  church;  with  encou- 
raging sedition  and  rebellion,  sowing  discord 
among  friends,  persecuting  a  peaceable  king, 
excommunicating  and  deposing  him,  and 
placing  a  perjured  rebel  on  his  throne.  In 
the  same  decree  they  call  Gregory  a  false 
monk,  a  necromancer,  a  soothsayer,  an  in- 
terpreter of  dreams,  one  possessed  with  a 
pythonical  spirit,  one  who  taught  evil  in- 
stead of  good,  falsehood  instead  of  truth,  a 
disciple  of  the  heretic  Berengarius,  a  heretic, 
an  infidel.  They  closed  the  decree  with  the 
following  words  :  "  We  therefore  declare, 
by  the  authority  of  Almighty  God,  the  said 
liildebrand  divested  of  the  pontifical  dignity ; 
and  if  he  does  not  quit  it  of  his  own  accord, 
let  him  be  condemned  forever.'"  Gregory 
being  thus  deposed,  the  bishops  of  the  coun- 
cil elected,  with  one  consent,  Guibert,  arch- 
bishop of  Ravenna,  in  his  room,  who  took 
the  name  of  Clement  III.  The  new  pope 
appeared  in  the  council  soon  after  his  elec- 
tion, in  tiie  pontifical  robes,  and  all  the  bi- 
shops prostrating  themselves,  together^  with 
the  king,  before  him,  kissed  his  foot,  and 
thus  acknowledged  him  for  lawful  pope.^ 

The  king  himself  chose  to  notify  to  the  pope 
his  deposition,  and  he  wrote  the  following 
letter  to  acquaint  him  with  it.  "  Henry,  king 
by  divine  ordination,  and  not  by  usurpation, 
to  Hiklebrand,  no  longer  pope,  but  a  i'alse 
monk.  You  deserve  to  be  thus  saluted,  after 
inlroducinc,  as  you  have  done,  the  utmost 
confusion  into  the  church,  and  amongst  all 
orders  of  men.  You  have  trampled  upon 
the  archbishops  and  bishops,  and  treated  the 
anointed  of  the  Lord  as  your  vassals  and 
slaves,  Sec.  All  this  we  have  borne  out  of 
the  regard  that  is  due  to  the  apostolic  see; 
but  you,  ascribing  it  to  fear,  have  presumed 
to  set  yourself  up  against  the  royal  dignity, 
and  tlireaten  to  take  it  from  us,  as  if  we  had 
received  it  from  you,  and  not  from  God,  who 
called  us  to  the  throne,  but  never  called  you 
to  the  chair;  you  owe  your  dignity  to  fraud, 
to  craft,  and  to  money  ;  your  money  pro- 
cured you  friends,  and  your  friends  opened 
you  the  way  to  the  chair  of  peace  with  the 
sword  ;  being  thus  raised  to  the  chair,  you 
have  made  it  your  business  to  sow  discord, 
to  disturb  the  public  tranquillity,  to  counte- 

'  Cenlins  Catnerarius  in  Censuali.  c.  3.  et  Daron.  ad 
ann.  1080.  a  Centius,  ibid. 


nance  disobedience  in  those  whom  all  are 
bound  to  obey.  You  have  not  even  spared 
me,  though  I  have  been,  unworthy  as  I  am, 
anointed  king,  and  am,  according  to  the  doc- 
trine taught  by  the  fathers,  to  be  judged  only 
by  God,  and  can  only  forl'eit  my  kingdom  by 
apostatizing  from  the  faith.  The  holy  bi- 
sliops  of  old  did  not  take  upon  them  to  de- 
pose the  apostate  emperor,  Julian,  but  left 
him  to  be  judged  and  deposed  by  God,  who 
alone  could  judge  and  depose  him.  Peter, 
who  Avas  a  true  pope,  commanded  all  men 
to  "  fear  God,  and  honor  the  king ;"  but 
you  do  neither,  and  your  not  honoring  me 
can  only  proceed  from  not  fearing  God.  St. 
Paul  anathematized  even  an  angel  from 
heaven  who  should  preach  any  other  gospel. 
We  therefore  command  you,  struck  with 
this  anathema,  and  condemned  by  the  judg- 
ment of  all  our  bishops,  to  quit  the  see  you 
have  imjustly  usurped  ;  let  another  be  raised 
to  the  throne  of  St.  Peter,  who  will  not  dis- 
guise his  wicked  attempts  with  the  mask  of 
religion,  but  teach  the  sound  doctrine  of  that 
holy  apostle.  I,  Henry,  by  the  grace  of  God 
king,  command  you,  with  all  my  bishops, 
to  come  down  from  the  throne.  '  Descende, 
descende,'  come  down,  come  down."' 

The  king  wrote  at  the  same  tinie  to  the 
clergy  and  people  of  Rome  to  acquaint  them 
with  the  deposition  of  the  monk  liildebrand, 
requiring  them  to  drive  him  by  force  from 
the  usurped  see,  if  he  did  not  quit  it  of  his 
own  accord,  and  to  receive  and  acknowledge 
for  lawful  pope  the  person,  whom  he  and 
his  bishops  had  placed,  with  one  consent, 
on  the  throne  in  his  room.  In  that  letter  he 
forbids  the  Romans  to  shed  the  wretched 
man's  blood,  as  life  will  be  more  painful 
than  death  to  a  man  of  his  ambition  and 
temper.^ 

What  answer  Gregory  returned  to  the 
king's  letter  history  does  not  inform  us,  nor 
whether  he  returned  any;  but  we  have  a 
letter  of  his  to  the  bishops  of  Apulia  and 
Calabria,  dated  the  21st  of  July  ol'  the  pre- 
sent year  1080,  wherein  he  tells  them,  that 
his  enemies,  and  the  enemies  of  the  church 
universal,  had  set  up  for  their  leader  and 
antichrist,  a  perjured  rebel  to  the  Roman 
church,  named  Guibert,  one  who  had  plun- 
dered the  church  of  Ravenna,  and  was  by 
all  good  men  abhorred  for  his  wickedness; 
that  none  had  assisted  at  that  assembly  of 
satan  but  men  of  the  most  infamous  cha- 
racters, whose  ordination  was  null  or  here- 
tical, and  that  he  did  not  at  alt  doubt  but  by 
the  prayers  of  St.  Peter,  who  overcame 
Simon  the  Magician,  he  should  soon  defeat 
the  wicked  attempts  of  the  new  Simon  and 
all  his  abettors;  nay,  it  is  said,  that  to  en- 
courage the  rebels  he  assured  them  that  a 
false  king  was  to  die  that  year,  that  his 
death  would  happen  before  the  festival  of  St. 


>  Apud  Baron,  ad  ann.  1080. 

21 


*  Idem  ibid. 


398 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Gregory  VII. 


Rudolph  killed.     Gregory  resolves  to  set  up  another  king.    The  pope's  letter  to  the  abbot  of  Monte  Cassino. 
Robert  Guiscard  renews  his  oath  to  assist  the  pope.     Eighth  council  of  Rome  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  1081.] 


Peter.'  By  a  false  king,  the  pope,  no  doubt, 
meant  Henry ;  but  his  prophecy  was  ful- 
filled in  Rudolph,  who  fell  in  a  battle  fought 
near  Mersburg  on  the  15th  of  June  of  the 
present  year.^  Of  this  battle  we  have  very 
different  accounts,  but  it  is  agreed  on  all 
hands,  that  Rudolph  being  obliged  to  retire 
on  account  of  his  wounds,  his  men,  missing 
him  and  believing  he  was  killed,  betook 
themselves  to  a  precipitate  flight,  and  left 
Henry  master  of  the  field.  Rudolph  was 
carried  to  Mersburg,  where  he  died  of  his 
wounds,  expressing  great  concern  at  his 
having  failed  in  the  allegiance  which  he  had 
sworn  to  Henry  his  master  and  lord.  As 
the  bishops  and  others  about  him  strove  to 
comfort  him  in  his  last  moments,  he  showed 
them  his  bloody  arm  (for  his  hand  was  cut 
off,)  saying,  I  have  justly  forfeited  the  hand, 
with  which  I  promised  allegiance  to  my 
lawful  sovereign,  and  my  life  with  my  hand ; 
but  the  pope  obliged  me  to  break  the  promise 
I  had  solemnly  made,  and  usurp  the  dignity, 
to  which  1  had  no  kind  of  right;  you  see  to 
what  end  such  an  attempt  has  brought  me; 
and  they,  whose  counsels  1  have  followed, 
may  hereafter  have  occasion  to  repent  their 
having  put  me  upon  it.'' 

The  news  of  the  defeat  and  death  of  Ru- 
dolph threw  the  Romans,  and  such  of  the 
Italians  as  adhered  to  Gregory,  into  the  ut- 
most confusion,  and  they  were  all  for  his 
being  reconciled  with  the  king  upon  the  best 
terms  he  could  procure,  in  order  to  prevent 
the  spilling  of  more  Christian  blood,  and  the 
dreadful  calamities  attending  so  destructive 
a  war.  They  represented  to  him  that  most 
of  the  German  and  all  the  Lombard  lords 
had  declared  for  the  king;  that  the  countess 
Mathilda  was  the  only  person  he  could  rely 
on  in  Italv,  but  as  she  was  not  able  to  with- 
stand alone  the  whole  force  of  the  Teutonic 
kingdom,  she  would  be  soon  reduced  to  the 
necessity  of  either  coming  to  an  agreement 
with  the  king  or  losing  her  dominions;  and 
that  his  holiness,  thus  left  to  the  mercy  of  a 
provoked  prince,  would  in  the  end  be  obliged 
to  submit  to  such  terms  as  he  should  be 
pleased  to  impose  upon  him.  Thus  Gre- 
gory's friends;  but  he,  quite  unaffected  with 
the  dangers  to  which  he  exposed  them  and 
even  his  favorite  countess  Mathilda,  nor  dis- 
couraged in  the  least  with  the  death  of  the 
king  whom  he  had  set  up,  resolved,  without 
the  least  hesitation,  to  set  up  another  in  his 
room.  And  he  wrote  accordingly  to  Altman, 
bishop  of  Passaw,  and  to  William,  abbot  of 
Hirsange,  both  men  of  great  interest  in  Ger- 
many, and  zealously  attached  to  his  see, 
exhorting  them  to  exert  their  utmost  endea- 


'  Hist.  Sa.xon. 

2  If  the  pope  believed  that  what  he  foretold  would 
come  to  pass,  he  must  be  looked  upon  as  a  false  pro- 
phet, and  as  an  im|)ostor  if  lie  did  not  believe  it. — (See 
Bavle  Diet.     Art.  Gre?.  VII.) 

»  Hemoldus  Chron.  Sclavor.  1.  i.e.  29. 


vors  in  keeping  those  who  had  declared  for 
the  late  king,  especially  Guelph,  duke  of 
Bavaria,  steady  in  their  obedience  to  the 
apostolic  see;  to  inform  him  what  succors 
they  can  supply  him  with  or  procure  for 
him,  and  to  persuade  the  German  lords  to 
proceed  to  the  election  of  a  new  king.  He 
advises  them  to  delay  for  some  time  the 
election,  rather  than  to  suffer  one  to  be 
elected  who  is  not  duly  qualified  for  so  high 
a  station,  or  is  not,  for  want  of  zeal  or  abili- 
ties, capable  of  maintaining  the  rights  and 
privileges  of  the  church;  and  he  sends  them 
the  form  of  the  oath,  which  they  must  re- 
quire the  person,  whom  they  should  choose, 
to  take;  and  it  is  as  follows;  "from  this 
time  I  shall  be  faithful  to  the  blessed  apostle 
Peter,  and  to  his  vicar  the  blessed  Gregory 
now  living.  Whatever  he  shall  command 
me  to  do  with  these  words,  'by  true  obedi- 
ence,' 1  shall  faithfully  perform  as  becomes  a 
Christian.  As  to  the  disposing  of  churclies, 
of  lands,  or  of  revenues,  that  have  been 
granted  to  St.  Peler  by  the  emperor  Con- 
stantine,  by  Charles,  or  any  men  or  women, 
1  shall  agree  with  the  pope  concerning  them, 
so  as  not  to  incur  the  guilt  of  sacrilege,  but 
shall  pay  due  honor  to  God  and  St.  Peter, 
and  shall  become  a  soldier  of  that  apostle 
and  his  vicar."'  To  require  this  oath,  was 
requiring  a  person,  who  should  take  it,  to 
acknowledge  himself  a  vassal  of  St.  Peter 
and  the  blessed  pope  Gregory. 

The  pope  wrote  at  the  same  time  to  De- 
siderius,  abbot  of  Monte  Cassino,  ordering 
him  to  remind  Robert  Guiscard  of  the  oath  he 
had  taken  to  defend  the  regalia  of  St.  Peter, 
and  engage  him  to  perform  what  he  had 
promised,  should  his  assistance  be  wanted.- 
The  countess  Mathilda  had  informed  the 
pope  that  a  treaty  of  marriage  was  on  foot 
between  the  king's  son  and  the  duke's  daugh- 
ter, which  gave  his  holiness  no  small  con- 
cern, as  he  apprehended  that  Robert  might 
think  himself  bound  by  that  treaty  to  declare 
for  the  king,  or  at  least  to  stand  neuter.  He 
therefore  enjoined  the  abbot  in  his  letter  to 
sound  the  present  disposition  of  the  Norman 
prince,  and  let  him  know  whether  he  might 
be  safely  relied  on.  What  answer  Deside- 
rius  returned  to  this  letter  we  know  not,  but 
from  Guillelmus  Apuliensis,  it  appears  that 
Gregory  went  at  this  time  in  person  into 
Apulia;  that  he  had  an  interview  with  the 
duke  at  Benevento,  and  that  the  duke  there 
renewed  the,  oath  he  had  taken  in  1077  to 
assist  the  pope,  by  whomsoever  attacked, 
and  maintain,  to  the  utmost  of  his  power, 
the  rights  of  his  see.' 

Gregory,  thinking  he  had  now  nothing  to 
fear  from  the  king,  assembled  the  following 
year,  1081,  a  council  at  Rome  in  the  begin- 
ning of  Lent;  and  in  that  council,  the  eighth 


»  Greg.  1.  viii.  ep.  3. 
3  Guill.  Apul.  1.  4. 


"Idem,  1.  viii.  ep.  4. 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


399 


Gregory  VII.] 

Henry  excommunicated  agiain.  lie  marches  into  Italy,  and  defeats  Mathilda,  and  besieges  Rome.  A  new 
king  chosen  hy  the  Saxons;— [Year  of  Christ,  10S2.]  Henry  reduces  the  Leonine  city.  The  ninth  council 
of  Home  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1083.] 


of  his  pontificate,  he  deposed  and  excom- 
municated anew  the  king,  and  all  who,  by 
adiiering  to  him  and  serving  him  as  king, 
encouraged  him  in  his  wicked  rebellion 
against  God  and  St.  Peter.  In  the  same 
council  the  sentence  of  excommunication 
was  again  thundered  out,  with  dreadful 
anathemas,  against  the  anti-pope  Guibert, 
and  such  as  received  or  owned  him  as  pope.' 
In  the  mean  time  Henry,  having  settled, 
after  the  late  victory,  his  German  afl'airs, 
set  out  with  his  army  for  Italy,  determined 
to  revenge  the  base  treatment  he  had  met 
with  from  Gregory,  to  drive  him  from  Rome, 
and  place  Guibert,  chosen  by  all  the  Lom- 
bard and  most  of  the  German  bishops,  on 
the  pontifical  throne.  He  was  joined,  upon 
his  entering  Italy,  by  most  of  the  Italian 
princes,  no  less  provoked  against  Gregory 
than  the  king  himself,  as  they  saw  a  war 
kindled,  by  his  wild  pretensions  and  obsti- 
nacy, in  the  bowels  of  their  country.  The 
king  met  not  with  the  least  opposition  till  he 
approached  Rome,  when  the  countess  Ma- 
thilda unexpectedly  appeared  at  the  head  of 
a  considerable  army,  and  offered  him  battle. 
A  battle  was  accordingly  fought,  and  the 
troops  of  Mathilda  giving  way  at  the  first 
onset,  she  was  obliged  to  save  herself  by  a 
precipitate  flight.  She  was  possessed  of 
more  extensive  territories  than  any  other 
sovereign,  besides  the  Normans,  in  all  Italy, 
divided  at  this  time  into  numberless  princi- 
palities. The  dukedom  of  Tuscany,  the 
cities  of  Mantua,  Parma,  Reggio,  Placentia, 
Ferrara,  Modena,  part  of  Umbria,  o(  the 
duchy  of  Spoleti,  of  the  march  of  Ancona, 
and  all  the  country  from  Viterbo  to  Orvielo, 
now  known  by  the  name  of  the  patrimony 
of  St.  Peter,  were  subject  to  her.  But  her 
subjects  were  not,  it  seems,  hearty  in  the 
cause;  nay,  they  looked  upon  her,  as  we 
read  in  one  of  the  pope's  letters,^  as  a  mad 
woman,  "  pro  insana  habent,"  for  espousing 
the  cause  of  the  apostolic  see  against  so 
powerful  a  prince. 

The  king,  having  thus  put  the  army  of 
Mathilda  to  the  rout,  approached  Rome, 
and  encamping  in  the  fields  of  Nero,  as  they 
are  called,  on  the  opposite  banks  of  the 
Tiber,  he  sent  parties  from  thence  to  lay 
waste  the  neighboring  country,  as  the  Ro- 
mans refused  to  open  the  gates  to  him.  But 
as  his  Germans  could  not  bear  the  heat  of 
the  climate,  and  summer  approached,  he 
thought  it  advisable  to  put  off  the  siege  to  a 
more  favorable  season,  and  return  to  Lom- 
bardy.  The  following  year  he  again  laid 
siege  to  Rome;  but  the  Romans  defending 
the  place  with  great  resolution  and  vigor 
during  the  winter  and  spring,  he  was  again 
obligt'd  by  the  heat  of  the  season  to  abandon 
the  enterprize  and  return  to  Lombardy. 
However,  he  left  garrisons  in  the  neigh- 


«  Concil.  torn.  x.  p.  399. 


•Greg.  1. viii.  ep.  .^. 


boring  castles  to  harrass  the  Romans,  and 
block  up  the  city  ;  and  the  anti-pope  Clement 
remained  at  Tivoli  with  a  body  of  troops  to 
scour  the  country,  and  intercept  the  provi- 
sions that  might  be  conveyed  into  the  city." 

In  the  mean  time  the  Saxons,  encouraged 
by  the  pope,  chose  count  Herman,  a  native 
of  Lorraine,  in  the  room  of  Rudolph;  and 
he  was  anointed  king  by  Sicefrid,  arch- 
bishop of  Mentz,  on  St.  Stephen's  day,  the 
twenty-sixth  of  December  of  tiie  present 
year.  Henry  no  sooner  heard  of  this  new 
election  than  he  marched  back  to  Rome, 
driving,  in  all  the  countries  through  which 
he  passed,  the  bishops  who  acknowledged 
Gregory  from  their  sees,  and  the  abbots 
from  their  abbeys.  As  he  approached  Rome, 
the  citizens,  already  reduced  to  great  straits 
for  want  of  provisions,  earnestly  entreated 
the  pope  to  hearken  to  an  accommodation 
with  the  king,  and  prevent  the  calamities 
with  which  they  were  threatened,  as  the 
city  must  sooner  or  later  fail  into  his  hands. 
The  king  was  not  averse  to  an  accommoda- 
tion, and  to  convince  the  pope  of  his  sin- 
cerity, he  set  at  liberty  Otto,  bishop  of  Ostia, 
and  afterwards  pope,  under  the  name  of 
Urban  II.,  whom  he  had  arrested.  He  even 
offered  to  acknowledge  Gregory  for  lav.'ful 
pope,  and  to  accept  from  him  the  imperial 
crown,  provided  he  absolved  him  from  the 
excommunication,  and  suffered  him  quietly 
to  enjoy  the  power  which  he  held  of  God 
alone,  from  whom  alone  he  had  received  it. 
Gregory  answered  in  general  terms,  that  he 
was  ready  to  absolve  him,  and  even  crown 
him  emperor;  but  as  he  had  offended  in 
many  things,  he  must  first  give  full  satis- 
faction to  God  and  the  church.  The  king, 
not  satisfied  with  this  answer,  laid  siege  to 
the  Leonine  city,  and  having  made  himself 
master  of  the  place,  notwithstanding  the 
vigorous  resistance  he  met  with,  began  to 
batter  the  walls  of  Rome  on  that  side. 

In  this  extremity,  the  Romans,  throwing 
themselves  at  the  pope's  feet,  and  repre- 
senting the  great  hardships  they  had  already 
suffered  for  adhering  to  him,  and  the  much 
greater  they  were  likely  to  suffer,  prevailed 
upon  him  to  assemble  a  council,  in  order  to 
settle  the  points  in  dispute  between  him  and 
the  king  by  the  advice  of  the  bishops,  who 
should  assist  at  that  assembly.  To  this 
Henry,  willing  to  come  to  an  agreement 
with  the  pope  upon  reasonable  terms,  readily 
consented,  and  forbearing  all  hostilities, 
promised,  upon  oath,  to  let  the  bishops  pass 
unmolested.  The  council  met  in  the  Late- 
ran  church  on  the  20th  of  November,  and 
consisted  chiefly  of  the  archbishops,  bishops 
and  abbots,  of  Campania  and  Apulia,  the 
only  bishops  in  Italy  that  sided  at  this  time 
with   the   pope;    but    as    Gregory    would 

•  Domnizo  Vit.  Greg.  Hugo  Flavin,  in  Chron.  ad 
ann.  1081. 


400 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Gregory  VH. 


Rome  taken  by  ihe  king  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1034  ;]— who  is  crowned  emperor  by  Guibert.  The  pope,  besieged 
in  the  casile  of  St.  Angelo,  is  delivered  by  Robert  Guiscard.  Gregory  leaves  Rome  and  retires  to  Salerno. 
Assembly  of  Berbac  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1085.]     Assembly  of  Quintilineburg. 


hearken  to  no  terras  that  the  king  could 
agree  to,  consistently  with  his  dignity,  the 
council  broke  up  the  third  day;  and  it  was 
with  much  ado  that  the  bishops  prevailed 
upon  him  not  to  excommunicate  the  king  a 
third  time,  though  then  master  of  the  Leonine 
city,  and  under  the  very  walls  of  Rome,  at 
the  head  of  a  powerful  and  victorious  army. 

The  king  allowed  the  bishops,  who  had 
assisted  at  the  council,  to  return  unmolested 
to  their  sees.  But,  provoked  beyond  mea- 
sure at  the  obstinacy  of  the  pope,  upon  their 
departure  he  invested  the  city  on  all  sides, 
and  began  to  baiter  the  walls  with  great  fury. 
But  finding  he  could  not  easily  master  the 
place  by  force,  he  had  recourse  to  bribery, 
and  a  large  sum  of  money  being  sent  him  at 
this  very  lime  by  Alexius  Comnenus,  em- 
peror of  the  East,  to  make  war  upon  Robert 
Guiscard,  with  that  money  he  bribed  some 
of  the  leading  men  in  Rome,  and  was  by 
them  admitted  into  the  city;  but  the  pope 
had  time  to  save  himself  by  retiring  to  the 
strong  castle  of  St.  Angelo.  The  king  en- 
tered Rome  on  the  21st  of  March,  attended 
by  Guibert,  whom  he  caused  to  be  enthroned 
the  very  next  day,  in  the  Lateran  palace, 
and  to  be  consecrated  the  following  Sunday, 
in  the  church  of  St.  Peter,  by  the  bishops  of 
Modena  and  Arezzo.  On* Easter-day,  which 
in  the  present  year,  1084,  fell  on  the  3lst  of 
March,  Clement  (the  name  Guibert  took  at 
his  election,)  crowned  Henry  emperor,  with 
the  approbation  of  the  Romans,  who  thence- 
forth acknowledged  him  for  emperor.' 

In  the  mean  time,  Robert  Guiscard,  hear- 
ing that  the  emperor  was  master  of  Rome, 
that  he  had  placed  Guibert  on  the  pontifical 
chair,  and  was  actually  besieging  the  castle 
of  St.  Angelo,  Avhither  Gregory  had  retired, 
put  himself,  without  delay,  at  the  head  of  a 
choice  body  of  troops,  and  marching  with 
all  possible  expedition  to  his  relief,  arrived  in 
a  few  days  in  the  neighborhood  of  Rome. 
At  his  approach  the  emperor,  who  had  sent 
the  best  part  of  his  troops  into  Lombardy,  to 
oppose  the  countess  Mathilda,  thought  it  ad- 
visable to  retire.  The  Romans,  however, 
who  had  declared  against  the  pope,  shut 
their  gates  against  the  Normans.  But  Robert, 
having  driven  them  from  the  walls,  made 
himself,  in  a  very  short  time,  master  of  the 
city,  and  setting  it  on  fire  in  several  places, 
marched,  without  opposition,  to  the  castle  of 
St.  Angelo,  took  the  pope  from  thence,  and 
carried  him  in  triumph  to  the  Lateran  palace.^ 

Gregory,  thus  set  at  liberty,  held  a  council, 
the  tenth  and  last  of  his  pontificate,  in  the 
Lateran  church  ;  and  in  that  council  he  again 
excommunicated  the  emperor,  Guibert  the 
anti-pope,  and  all  who  adhered  to  the  one  or 


'  Centius  Camer.  ad  ann.  1084.  Abbas  Ursperg. 
Henricj  Epist.  apud  Uacher.  torn.  ix.  Specileg.  Ber- 
told,  &c. 

iSigebext.   Bertold.    Centius  Caraerarius,  &c. 


the  Other.  This  sentence  he  caused  to  be 
published  in  France  by  Peter,  bishop  of 
Albano,  and  in  Germany  by  Otho,  bishop 
of  Porto,  his  two  legates.  As  the  Romans 
were  now  greatly  incensed  against  the  pope, 
whom  they  looked  upon  as  the  author  of 
the  many  calamities  they  had  sufl"ered,  and 
there  was  no  room  to  doubt  but  the  emperor, 
who  had  gained  some  new  advantages  over 
the  rebels  in  Germany,  would  soon  return  to 
the  siege  of  Rome,  it  was  thought  advisable 
by  duke  Robert,  as  well  as  by  Gregory  him- 
self, that  he  should  leave  that  city,  and  retire 
with  the  duke  to  Salerno.  They  left  Rome 
accordingly  together,  and  upon  their  depar- 
ture, the  Romans,  no  longer  awed  either  by 
the  pope  or  the  Normans,  declared  for  the 
emperor. 

In  the  mean  time  Otho,  the  pope's  legate 
in  Germany,  spared  no  pains  to  stir  up  the 
people  against  the  emperor,  and  .strengthen 
the  party  of  the  usurper  Herman.  With 
that  view  he  assembled  a  council  at  a  place 
in  Thuringia,  called  Berbac,  consisting 
chiefiy  of  such  of  the  German  hishops  as 
sided  with  Herman.  In  that  assembly, 
Gebehard,  archbishop  of  Saltzburg,  was  for 
having  it  defined  that  the  pope  was  vested 
with  a  power  over  all  the  princes  of  the 
earth,  and  might  therefore  lawfully  not  only 
excommunicate,  but  depose  them,  and  give 
their  kingdoms  to  others,  if  they  did  not  obey 
the  decrees  ofthe  apostolic  see.  But  VVicelin, 
who  had  been  lately  preferred  by  the  em- 
peror to  the  see  of  Mentz,  in  the  room  of 
Sigefrid,  maintaining  that  our  Savior  had 
granted  no  temporal  power  to  St.  Peter,  and 
consequently  that  the  pope,  as  his  successor, 
could  claim  none,  warm  debates  arose  be- 
tween the  bishops  of  the  opposite  parties, 
which  obliged  the  legates  to  dismiss  the  as- 
sembly.' 

The  same  year  another  council  was  as- 
sembled by  the  legate  at  Q,uintilineburg,  an 
abbey  in  the  neighborhood  of  Halberstad,  in 
Saxony.  As  this  assembly  was  entirely 
composed  of  bishops  who  adhered  to  the 
pope,  it  was  there  determined  that  all  were 
to  acquiesce  in  the  judgment  of  the  pope 
with  respect  to  temporal  as  well  as  spiritual 
matters,  and  that  all  men  were  to  be  judged 
by  him,  and  he  by  no  man.  This  determi- 
nation was  opposed  by  a  clerk  ofthe  church 
of  Bamberg,  named  Gunibert,  maintaining 
that  the  primacy,  or  the  power  claimed  by 
the  pope,  and  often  exercised,  was  an  usur- 
pation. But  he  was  driven  out  of  the  coun- 
cil, and  the  decree,  subjecting  all  men, 
whether  princes,  kings,  or  emperors,  to  the 
judgment  ofthe  apostolic  see,  passed  with- 
out opposition,  and  the  contrary  opinion 
was  at  the  same  time  condemned  as  he- 
retical.    Several  other  decrees  were  issued 

>  Bcrlold.  Uspergens.  ad  ann.  1085, 


Gregory  VII.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


401 


Council  of  Mentz.     Death  of  Gregory.     His  character.    The  dictatus,  or  maxims,  of  Gregory. 


by  this  council,  relating  to  the  invalidity  of 
ordinations  conferred  by  excommunicated 
persons,  to  the  marriages  of  priests,  which 
were  stricllv  forbidden,  to  the  observance  of 
Lent,  during  which  fast  all  were  ordered  to 
abstain  Irom  eggs,  cheese,  &c.,  and  lastly, 
sentence  of  excommunication  was  thun- 
dered out,  with  lighted  torches,  against  the 
anti-pope  Guihert,  and  eleven  other  bishops, 
who  were  all,  by  name,  suspended  from  the 
functions  of  their  office,  and,  with  their  ac- 
complices, cut  off  from  the  communion  of 
the  church,  till  they  resigned  the  dignities 
to  which  they  had  been  unlawfully  pre- 
ferred ;  that  is,  nominated  by  the  emperor. 
This  decree  was  signed  by  Herman,  their 
king;  by  the  archbishops  of  Saltzburg  and 
Magdeburg,  and  twelve  other  bishops.' 

The  emperor  no  sooner  heard  of  the  de- 
crees of  this  council  than  he  appointed  one 
to  meet  at  Mentz,  inviting  all  the  bishops  of 
his  party  to  assist  at  it,  and  retort  the  unjust 
anathemas  upon  those  who  had  thundered 
them  out  against  them.  At  this  council 
were  present  two  Roman  presbyters,  with 
the  character  of  legates  from  pope  Clement 
III.  the  archbishops  of  Mentz,  of  Cologne, 
of  Bremen,  twenty  bishops  from  Germany, 
and  many  from  France  and  from  Italy  ;  and 
by  them  Hildebrand,  who  styled  himself 
pope,  Otho  his  legate,  and  the  fourteen 
bishops  of  the  council  of  Quintilineburg 
were  deposed,  excommunicated,  and  anathe- 
matized, as  traitors  and  rebels,  and  all  for- 
bidden, on  pain  of  excommunication,  to 
communicate  with  them,  or  with  their  ac- 
complices. The  same  sentence  was  pro- 
nounced against  Herman,  and  all  who  ac- 
knowledged or  served  him  as  king.^ 

While  these  things  passed  in  Germany, 
Gregory  ended  a  life  which  his  boundless 
ambition  had  filled  with  troubles,  especially 
after  his  promotion  to  the  pontifical  throne. 
He  died  at  Salerno  on  the  25th  of  May  of 
the  present  year  1085,  having  held  the  see 
twelve  years  one  month  and  three  days. 
There  is  no  small  disagreement  amongst  the 
cotemporary  writers  with  respect  to  his  last 
sentiments  concerning  his  quarrel  with 
Henry.  Sigebert  writes,  that  sincerely  re- 
penting, in  his  last  moments,  what  he  had 
done,  he  absolved  that  prince,  with  his  last 
breath,  from  the  excommunication  which  he 
had  so  often  and  with  so  much  solemnity 
thundered  out  against  him,  and  all  his  fol- 
lowers.5  But  the  author  of  his  life,  who 
wrote  soon  after  his  death,  assures  us,  that 
being  asked,  when  past  all  hopes  of  recovery, 
whether  he  would  show,  before  his  depar- 
ture, any  indulgences  to  those  whom  he  had 


bert,  and  the  chief  persons,  who  have  en- 
couraged and  supported  them  in  their 
wickedness  with  their  assistance  or  coun- 
sels.' The  same  writer  tells  us,  that  the 
holy  pontiff  comforted  himself  in  his  last 
illness,  saying,  "  I  die  in  exile  because  I 
have  loved  justice  and  hated  iniquity;"  and 
that  lifting  up  his  eyes  to  heaven  before  he 
expired,  thither,  he  said,  "I  am  going,  and 
shall  incessantly  recommend  you,"  address- 
ing himself  to  the  bishops  and  cardinals  who 
were  present,  "  To  the  protection  and  favor 
of  the  Almighty."^  Indeed,  his  obstinately 
maintaining,  to  the  last,  what  he  had  done 
to  be  just,  suits  the  inflexible,  haughty,  and 
vindictive  temper  of  Gregory,  better  than 
his  humbly  owning  he  had  erred.  Being 
consulted  by  the  cardinals  about  his  succes- 
sor, and  desired  to  name  the  person  whom 
he  thought  the  most  capable  and  best  quali- 
fied to  oppose  the  wicked  attempts  of  the 
anti-pope,  he  recommended  three,  leaving 
them  at  full  liberty  to  choose  which  of  the 
three  they  pleased,  namely,  Desiderius  abbot 
of  Monte  Cassino,  Otho  archbishop  of  Ostia, 
and  Hugh  archbishop  of  Lyons;  and  the 
first  two  were  accordingly  chosen  the  one 
after  the  other. 

Gregory  was,  to  do  him  justice,  a  man  of 
most  extraordinary  parts,  of  most  uncommon 
abilities  both  natural  and  acquired,  and 
would  have  had,  at  least,  as  good  a  claim  to 
the  surname  of  Great,  as  either  Gregory  or 
Leo,  had  he  net,  led  by  an  ambition  the 
world  never  heard  of  before,  grossly  misap- 
plied those  great  talents  to  the  most  wicked 
purposes;  to  the  establishing  of  an  uncon- 
trolled tyranny  over  mankind,  of  making 
himself  the  sole  lord  spiritual  and  temporal 
over  the  whole  earth,  and  becoming  by  that 
means  the  sole  disposer,  not  only  of  all  eccle- 
siastical dignities  and  preferments,  but  of 
empires,  states,  and  kingdoms.  That  he 
had  nothing  less  in  his  view,  sufficiently  ap- 
pears from  his  whole  conduct,  from  his  let- 
ters, and  from  a  famous  piece  intitled  "Dic- 
tatus Papse,"  containing  his  maxims.  It  is 
to  be  met  with  after  the  fifty-fifth  letter  of 
the  second  book  of  Gregory's  letters,  and  the 
reader  will  there  find  the  following  proposi- 
tions, in  all  twenty-seven. 

1.  The  Roman  church  was  founded  by 
none  but  our  Lord. 

2.  The  Roman  pontiff  alone  should  of 
right  be  styled  universal  bishbp. 

3.  He  alone  can  depose  and  restore  bi- 
shops. 

4.  The  pope's  legate,  though  of  an  infe- 
rior rank,  is  in  councils  to  take  place  of  all 
bishops,  and  can  pronounce  sentence  of  de- 


excommunicated,  he  answered,  I  absolve  and  position  against  them. 


bless  all  who  firmly  believe  that  I  have  such 
a  power,  except  Henry,  whom  they  call 
king;  the  usurper  of  the  apostolic  see,  Gui- 

>  Bertold.  ubi  supra.        ^  Uspergen.  &l  BertoIJ.  ibid. 
3  Sigebert  ad  aim.  1085. 

Vol.  li.— 51 


5.  The  pope  can  depose  absent  bishops. 

6.  No  man  ought  to  live  in  the  same  house 
with  persons  excommunicated  by  him. 


'  Paul.  Bernried.  Vit   Greg.  c.  110. 
3  Idem  ibid.  c.  lOS. 

2l2 


402 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Gregory  VII. 


The  power  of  deposing  princes  first  claimed  by  Gregory.     That  claim  repugnant  to  the  example  of  Christ, 
temporal  power  granted  by  Christ  to  his  apostles. 


No 


7.  The  pope  alone  can  make  new  laws, 
can  establish  new  churches,  can  divide  rich 
bishoprics,  and  unite  poor  ones. 

8.  He  alone  can  wear  the  imperial  orna- 
ments. 

9.  All  princes  are  to  kiss  his  foot,  and  to 
pay  that  mark  of  distinction  to  him  alone. 

10.  His  name  alone  ought  to  be  comme- 
morated in  the  churches. 

11.  There  is  no  name  in  the  world  but 
his  ;  that  is,  as  some  understand  it,  he  alone 
is  to  be  styled  pope.  The  name  of  pope, 
formerly  common  to  all  bishops,  was  appro- 
priated, as  father  Paul  observes,  by  Gregory 
YII.  to  the  Roman  pontiff.' 

12.  It  is  lawful  for  him  to  depose  emperors. 

13.  He  can  translate  bishops  from  one  see 
to  another  when  thought  necessary. 

14.  He  can  ordain  a  clerk  in  any  church 
whatever. 

15.  A  clerk  ordained  by  him  must  not  be 
preferred  to  a  higher  degree  by  any  other 
bishop. 

16.  No  general  council  is  to  be  assembled 
without  his  order. 

17.  No  book  is  to  be  deemed  canonical 
but  by  his  authority. 

18.  His  judgment  no  man  can  reverse, 
but  he  can  reverse  all  other  judgments. 

19.  He  is  to  be  judged  by  no  man. 

20.  No  man  shall  presume  to  condemn 
the  person  that  appeals  to  the  apostolic  see. 

21 .  The  greater  causes  of  ail  churches  ought 
to  be  brought  before  the  apostolic  see. 

22.  The  Roman  church  never  has  erred, 
nor  will  she  ever  err  according  to  Scripture. 

23.  The  Roman  pontiff  canonically  elect- 
ed, becomes  undoubtedly  holy  by  the  merits 
of  St.  Peter,  according  to  the  testimony  of 
St.  Ennodius,  bishop  of  Pavia,  and  many 
of  the  fathers,  as  is  related  in  the  decrees  of 
pope  Symmachus. 

24.  With  his  leave  an  inferior  may  ac- 
cuse his  superior. 

25.  He  can  depose  and  restore  bishops 
without  assembling  a  synod. 

26.  He  is  not  to  be  deemed  a  catholic  who 
does  not  agree  with  the  Roman  church. 

27.  The  pope  can  absolve  subjects  from 
the  oath  of  allegiance  which  they  have  taken 
to  a  bad  prince. 

Some  writers,  I  know,  question  the  genu- 
ineness of  that  piece ;  but  it  is  admitted  as 
genuine  by  Baronius,  by  Panvinius,  by  the 
learned  De  Marca,  and  several  other  able 
critics,  and  the  sentiments  it  contains  are  to 
be  met  with  in  most  of  Gregory's  letters. 

Gregory  VII.  was  the  first  pope  that  claim- 
ed the  power  of  deposing  princes,  of  ab- 
solving their  subjects  from  their  oaths  of 
allegiance,  and  disposing,  as  sovereign  lord 
over  the  whole  earth,  of  empires,  kingdoms, 
and  states  at  his  pleasure.  That  such  a 
po\yer  was  vested  in  the  bishops  of  Rome 

'  Benefices  and  Revenues,  p.  58. 


was  unknown  to  the  world,  nay,  and  to 
those  bishops  themselves,  till  the  time  of  this 
pope;  that  is,  for  the  space  of  near  eleven 
hundred  years.  Hence  the  opinion  ascer- 
taining that  power  in  the  pope  has,  from  its 
author,  been  branded  not  only  by  protestant, 
but  by  many  Roman  catholic  writers,  with 
the  name  of  the  Hildebrandine  heresy.  And 
truly  no  heresy,  perhaps,  ever  was  broached 
more  repugnant  to  the  example  set  by  our 
Savior  to  his  church,  to  the  doctrine  taught 
by  his  apostles,  by  the  fathers,  nay,  by  the 
popes  themselves,  and  to  the  practice  of  the 
church  in  all  preceding  ages. 

And  in  the  first  place,  Christ  as  man,  as 
founder  and  head  of  the  church,  disclaimed 
all  temporal  power,  telling  Pilate  that  he 
was  indeed  king,  but  that  his  "  kingdom  was 
not  of  this  world;'  that  he  '"was  born  and 
came  into  the  v^'orld,"  not  to  establish  a  tem- 
poral kingdom,  but  "  to  bear  witness  unto 
the  truth,"  and  thus  found  a  spiritual  king- 
dom. Hence  he  fled  when  the  Jevi^s  would 
have  made  him  king;  and  being  asked  by 
one  to  speak  to  his  brother  that  he  would 
divide  the  inheritance  with  him,  he  answer- 
ed, "man,  who  made  me  a  judge  or  a  di- 
vider over  you?"2  Which  was  as  much  as 
to  say,  I  came  not  into  this  world  to  concern 
myself  with  temporal  afl'airs  :  apply  to  those 
whose  province  that  is.  From  these  pas- 
sages it  is  manifest  that  Christ  (as  man,  as 
founder  and  head  of  the  church)  disavowed 
all  temporal  power,  and  consequently  that 
his  vicars  and  ministers  act  in  direct  oppo- 
sition to  the  example  he  has  set  them,  in 
claiming  or  exercising  any  in  that  character. 
The  pope  pretends  to  be  Christ's  vicar  upon 
earth;  and  what  can  be  more  absurd,  as 
well  as  impious,  than  that  he,  as  such,  should 
claim  what  Christ  himself  ever  disclaimed; 
that  he  should  exercise  the  most  extensive 
power  that  ever  was  known  upon  earth, 
when  Christ  declined  exercising  any  what- 
ever; that  he  should  pretend  to  interpose  as 
supreme  judge  in  disputes  about  empires 
and  kingdoms,  when  Christ  thought  it  foreign 
to  his  divine  ministry  to  interpose  as  judge 
in  a  private  quarrel  between  two  brothers 
concerning  an  inheritance! 

But  though  Christ  exercised  no  temporal 
power  himself,  says  Bellarmine,  he  vested 
the  prince  of  the  apostles  St.  Peter,  and  in 
him  his  successors  in  his  see,  with  all  tem- 
poral as  well  as  spiritual  power,  leaving  both 
him  and  them  at  full  liberty  to  exert  it  when 
thought  expedient  or  necessary  for  the  good 
of  his  church.  But  of  such  a  monarchy  we 
meet  with  no  traces  in  Scripture ;  nay,  from 
Scripture  it  is  manifest  that  no  other  than 
spiritual  power  was  by  Christ  imparted  to 
the  apostles,  namely — 1.  The  power  of 
preaching  the  Gospel  all  over  the  world, 
and  baptizing  those  who  believed.    2.  The 


»  John  18  :  34,  36,  37. 


a  Luke  12:  13,14. 


Gregory  VII.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


403 


The  power  of  loosening  and  binding  no  other  than  that  of  remitting  or  retaining  sins,  and  common  to  all  the 
apostles.  All,  without  distinction,  subject  to  the  higher  powers.  Princes  owned  by  the  popes  themselves 
for  their  lords. 


power  of  '*  binding  and  loosening,"  or  of 
"remitting  sins  or  retaining  tliem."  3.  The 
power  of  consecrating  or  celebrating  the  eu- 
charist.  4.  The  power  of  excluding  those 
from  the  church  who  did  not  hear  the  church, 
or  treating  them  as  heathens  and  publicans, 
with  whom  the  Jews  never  conversed. 
These  are  all  different  branches  of  spiritual 
power;  and  no  mention  is  made  in  Scripture 
of  any  other  communicated  by  our  Savior 
to  St.  Peter  in  particular,  or  to  the  apostles 
in  general :  no  other  that  was  to  pass  from 
them  to  their  successors ;  for  the  power  of 
working  miracles,  of  healing  the  sick,  &,c., 
was  but  a  temporary  power,  and  died  with 
them. 

The  power  of  loosening  and  binding,  say 
the  sticklers  for  the  papal  monarchy,  was 
not  confined  to  spiritual,  but  extended  to  tem- 
poral matters,  even  to  the  absolving  of  sub- 
jects from  the  oaths  they  had  taken  to  wicked 
princes,  to  the  deposing  of  such  princes, 
and  giving  their  dominions  to  others.  Thus 
was  the  power  of  "  loosening  and  binding" 
understood  by  Gregory,  and  he  therefore 
addressed  the  two  apostles  St.  Peter  and  St. 
Paul,  when  he  deposed  the  emperor  Henry 
in  the  following  words ;  "  Go  therefore  most 
holy  piinces  of  the  apostles,  and  what  I 
have  said  confirm  by  your  authority,  that 
all  men  may  know  you  can  bind  and  loosen  : 
you  can  take  away  and  give  upon  earth 
empires  and  kingdoms."  Thus  Gregory. 
But  the  power  of  "loosening  and  binding" 
granted  to  the  apostles  in  these  words, 
"  whatsoever  ye  shall  bind  on  earth  shall  be 
bound  in  heaven,  and  whatsoever  ye  shall 
loose  on  earth  shall  be  loosed  in  heaven,"' 
was  understood  by  the  apostle  St.  John  as 
only  relating  to  the  remitting  or  retaining  of 
sins  ;  and  he  thus  explains  it,  "  whosesoever 
sins  ye  remit  they  are  remitted  unto  them, 
and  whosesoever  sins  ye  retain  they  are  re- 
tained;"^ and  thus  were  these  words,  "what- 
soever ye  shall,"  Sec,  understood  and  ex- 
pounded by  the  fathers,  all  to  a  man,  as  has 
been  shown  by  several  Roman  catholic,  as 
well  as  protestant  writers.  Add  to  this,  that 
according  to  the  fathers,  no  power  was  given 
to  St.  Peter  that  was  not  common  with  him 
to  the  rest  of  the  apostles  ;'  nay,  the  power  of 
"loosening  and  binding"  that  was  promised 
to  him  in  these  words,  "  and  I  will  give 
unto  thee  the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of  hea- 
ven ;  and  whatsoever  thou  shalt  bind  on 
earth  shall  be  bound  in  heaven,  and  what- 
soever thou  shall  loose  on  earth  shall  be 
loosed  in  heaven;"^  the  power,  I  say,  that 
was  promised  in  these  words  to  St.  Peter, 
was  granted  in  as  full  a  manner,  and  in  the 
same  terms  to   all  the  apostles ;  "  Verily  I 

'  Milt.  18  :  18.  a  John  20 :  i3. 

3  See  Cypr.  de  Unit.  Eccles.  Ilier.  in  Jovin.  i.  14. 
Aug.  cp.  165.  Chrys.  in  Gal.  2 :  8.  Orig.  in  Mat.  16. 
Ambrog.  in  Psal :  38.  Ic  de  Dig.  sac.  &,c. 

«Mat.  16:  19. 


say  unto  you,  whatsoever  ye  shall  bind  on 
earth  shall  be  bound  in  heaven ;  and  what- 
soever ye  shall  loose  on  earth  shall  be  loosed 
in  heaven."'  If  the  power  therefore  of 
"  loosening  and  binding"  includes  the  depos- 
ing, or  any  other  temporal  power  whatever, 
such  a  power  was  granted  to  all  the  apostles 
as  well  as  to  St.  Peter,  and  to  all  their  succes- 
sors as  well  as  his;  and  the  successors  of 
the  other  apostles,  that  is,  all  bishops  may,  by 
virtue  of  that  power,  depose  kings,  absolve 
their  subjects  from  their  oaths,  dispose  of 
kingdoms  and  empires,  as  well  as  the  succes- 
sors of  St.  Peter,  the  bishops  of  Rome.  This 
the  popes  will  not  allow  ;  and  it  is  therefore 
incumbent  upon  them  and  the  assertors  of 
the  temporal  monarchy,  which  they  claim 
as  the  successors  of  St.  Peter,  to  show  where 
any  power  whatever  was  granted  to  that 
apostle,  distinct  from  that  which  was  vested 
by  our  Savior  in  all  the  apostles. 

The  doctrine  of  pope  Gregory,  with  re- 
spect to  the  deposing,  or  to  any  other  tem- 
poral power  whatever  over  princes,  is  not 
more  repugnant  to  the  example  of  our  Sa- 
vior, than  it  is  to  the  doctrine  taught  by  his 
apostles,  nay  and  by  the  popes  themselves 
in  the  preceding  ages.  Thus  St.  Paul  teaches 
and  commands  subjection  to  "  the  higher 
powers  :"  "  Let  every  soul,"  says  that  apos- 
tle, "  be  subject  unto  the  higher  powers.^ 
Ye  must  needs  be  subject,  not  only  for 
wrath,  but  also  for  conscience'  sake:"^  and 
in  his  epistle  to  Titus,  "  Put  them  in  mind," 
says  he,  "to  be  subject  to  principalities  and 
powers,  to  obey  magistrates,  &c."-*  Here 
the  faithful  are  taught  and  commanded  to 
be  subject  to  the  "  higher  powers,  to  princi- 
palities, and  magistrates ;"  and  none  are  ex- 
cepted, no,  not  even  the  "  Prince  of  the  apos- 
tles;" nay,  he  too  requires  and  enjoins  sub- 
jection and  obedience  to  "  every  ordinance  of 
man"  in  terms  no  less  expressive  than  those 
of  St.  Paul:  "  Submit  yourselves,"  says  he, 
"  to  every  ordinance  of  man  for  the  Lord's 
sake:  whether  it  be  to  the  king  as  supreme; 
or  unto  governors,  or  to  them  tiiat  are  sent 
by  him  for  the  punishment  of  evil-doers, 
and  for  the  praise  of  them  that  do  well.  For 
so  is  the  will  of  God,  &c."^  I  shall  leave  the 
assertors  of  the  papal  monarchy  to  recon- 
cile the  "  subjection  to  the  higher  powers,  to 
principalities  and  magistrates,"  so  strictly  re- 
quired by  the  two  "Princes  of  the  apostles," 
as  an  indispensable  duty  incumbent  upon 
all  Christians,  with'the  pope's  pretending  to 
be  free  from  all  subjection  ;  nay,  and  to  "  sub- 
ject" all  princes  to  himself  as  supreme  lord, 
both  temporal  and  spiritual  over  them,  as  well 
as  their  principalities,  states,  and  kingdoms. 

The  popes,  before  Gregory,  looked  upon 
the  emperors  as  supreme  lords  in  temporals; 


'Mat.  18:18.  a  Paul,  ad  Rom.  13: 

'Paul.  ibid.  13:5.  «  Tit.  3:1. 

'Pet.  I  Ep.  2:  13,14,  15. 


404 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Gregory  VH. 


Obedience  and  subjection  even  to  wicked  princes  recommended  by  the  fathers  as  a  duty, 
unknown  to  the  world  till  the  time  of  Gregory  VII. 


The  deposing  power 


as  superior  to  all  men  in  worldly  power;  as 
holding  their  power  of  God  alone;  as  ac- 
countable to  none  but  to  God  for  their 
actions;  and  thought  themselves,  and  all 
ecclesiastics  as  weJl  as  laymen,  bound  to 
obey  their  ordinances.  "  You  are  vested 
with  a  dignity  above  all  men,"  said  pope 
Agapetus  to  the  emperor  Justinian;  "you 
have  none  upon  earth  above  you;  impose 
therefore  upon  yourself  the  necessity  of  ob- 
serving the  laws,  as  no  power  upon  earth 
can  force  you  to  it.'"  "As  your  power," 
said  pope  Gelasius  to  the  emperor  Anasta- 
sius,  "has  been  given  you  by  God,  even  the 
ministers  of  religion  and  the  prelates  of  the 
church  must  obey  you  in  worldly  affairs. "^ 
In  like  manner  does  pope  Symmachus  ex- 
press himself  in  expounding  the  words  of 
king  David,  "Against  thee  alone  have  I 
sinned."^  "David,"  says  he,  "was  king; 
and  knowing  that,  as  such,  he  was  liable  to 
be  punished  for  his  sin  by  none  but  by  God, 
he  said,  against  thee  alone,  &c.  Others  sin 
against  God  and  the  king,  but  the  king  has 
none  above  him  to  punish  him  for  his  sin, 
and  he  therefore  sins  against  God  alone. "^ 
Would  Symmachus  have  writ  thus  if  he 
had  known  himself  to  be  vested  wiih  the 
power  of  deposing  kings ;  that  is,  of  inflict- 
ing the  greatest  punishment  that  can  be 
inflicted  on  a  king?  Gregory  the  Great 
thought  himself  bound  to  obey  the  com- 
mands of  the  emperor,  even  when  to  him 
they  appeared  unjust,  and  inconsistent  with 
the  laws  of  the  church.  Thus,  being  com- 
manded by  ihe  emperor  Mauritius  to  publish 
a  law  forbidding  those  who  served  in  the 
army  to  embrace  a  monastic  life,  he  first 
caused  that  law  to  be  published  in  different 
parts  of  the  world  in  compliance  with  the 
emperor's  order,  and  then  remonstrated 
against  it,  thus  complying,  as  he  expresses 
himself,  with  the  duty  he  owed  to  his  lord 
the  emperor,  and  yet  not  neglecting  that 
which  he  owed  to  God,  as  he  apprehended 
the  law  to  be  displeasing  to  him.^  In  a  let- 
ter which  he  wrote  to  Theodore,  the  em- 
peror's physician,  he  complains  of  Mauri- 
tius for  not  allowing  his  soldiers  to  serve 
God,  who  had  raised  him  to  the  throne,  and 
vested  him  with  a  power  over  the  priest- 
hood as  well  as  the  soldiers.*  From  these 
passages,  and  many  more  might  be  alledged 
to  the  same  purpose  out  of  the  writings  of 
other  popes,  it  is  manifest,  that  the  best 
among  them  knew  of  no  temporal  power 
above  that  of  sovereign  princes,  but  thought 
themselves  no  less  bound,  than  the  meanest 
of  their  subjects,  to  obey  their  commands, 
even  when  they  appeared  to  them  repugnant 
to  the  laws  of  the  church. 

The  same   unreserved   obedience  to  the 


'  Agap.  in  Paroen.  ad  Justin.  Num.  1,  21,  27. 
aGelas.  ep.  8.  =Psal.51:4. 

*  Inno.  iii.  in  Psal.  51.  »  Greg.  1.  ii.  ep.  62. 

«  Greg.  1.  ii.  ep.  64. 


"  higher  powers,"  to  kings  and  princes,  even 
to  wicked,  pagan,  or  heretical  kings  and 
princes,  was  recommended  by  the  fathers  of 
the  church  as  an  indispensable  duty  in-- 
cumbent  upon  all  Christians  without  dis- 
tinction ;  and  the  reason  they  alledged  why  J 
the  same  obedience  ought  to  be  yielded  to  1 
bad  as  to  good  princes,  to  the  persecutors  as 
to  the  defenders  of  the  Christian  religion, 
was,  "  because  all  power  is  of  God ;  and 
therefore,  whosoever  resistelh  the  power, 
resisteth  the  ordinance  of  God  :"  adding  the 
charge  given  to  servants  by  St.  Peter :  "  Ser- 
vants, be  subject  to  your  masters  with  all 
fear,  not  only  to  the  good  and  gentle,  but 
also  to  the  froward  ;"■  and  from  thence  con- 
cluding, that  as  it  is  not  lawful  for  servants 
to  withdraw  their  obedience  and  subjection 
to  their  froward  masters,  so  neither  is  it 
lawful  for  Christians  to  withdraw  their  obe- 
dience and  subjection  to  the  "  powers  ordain- 
ed of  God,"  even  when  they  persecute  the 
church  instead  of  defending  it.^  They  knew 
not,  it  seems,  that  the  pope  was  supreme 
lord  over  all  the  princes  of  the  earth,  and 
that  he  could,  by  his  apostolic  authority, 
depose  thera,  and  bestow  their  dominions 
upon  whom  he  pleased,  else  they  would 
have  applied  to  him,  instead  of  declaring,  as 
they  did  when  persecuted  by  the  pagan  or 
Arian  princes,  that  they  had  no  resource  but 
in  sighs,  tears,  and  patience.^ 

That  Gregory  VII.  was  the  first  pope  that 
ever  exercised,  or  pretended  to  exercise,  the 
deposing  power,  or  indeed  any  other  tem- 
poral power  over  princes,  evidently  appears 
from  all  the  contemporary  writers.  For 
though  some  of  them,  adhering  to  the  pope, 
strove  to  justify  the  sentence  he  pronounced 
against  the  emperor,  all  agree  in  this,  that 
no  such  sentence  had  ever  been  pronounced 
by  any  pope  before,  and  that  it  struck  with 
its  novelty  the  whole  Christian  world.  "  I 
read  and  read  again  the  Gests  of  the  Roman 
kings  and  emperors,"  says  Otho  Frisingensis, 
"  but  do  not  find  that  any  of  them  besides 
the  present  (meaning  Henry  IV.)  ever  was 
divested  by  the  Roman  pontiffs  of  his  king- 
dom :"*  and  Sigebert,  "  the  popes  used  no 
other  but  the  spiritual  sword,  till  the  time 
of  Gregory,  the  last  of  that  name,  who  first 
employed  and  taught  other  popes  to  employ 
the  sword  of  war."*  Gregory  VII.  was  the 
last  of  that  name  when  Sigebert  wrote  this 
epistle  or  apology,  that  is,  in  1103.  Wal- 
tram,  bishop  of  Hamburg,  in  his  apology 
for  the  emperor,  written  in  1093,  calls  the  de- 
cree against  that  prince  a  "new  and  wicked 
attempt,"  and  in  two  books  proves  it  to  be 
repugnant  to   Scripture   and   tradition,  re- 


'  Pet.  1  Ep.  18. 

s  See  Dupin.  de  Antiq.  Eccles.  Discipl.  Dissert,  vii. 
p.  433,  et  seq. 

'  Nazian.  orat.  in  Julian.  Ainbros.  in  orat.  ad  Aux- 
ient.  &c. 

*  Otho  Frising.  in  Frag. 

»  Sigebert.  in  ep.  pro  Leodegar. 


Gregory  VII.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


405 


Instances  alleged  by  Gregory  to  support  his  claim  to  the  deposing  power  foreign  to  the  purpose. 

inconclusive. 


preaching  the  bishops,  who  stood  by  Gre- 
gory, with  acting  contrary  to  the  express 
command  of  God  and  the  practice  oF  the 
church  in  all  ages.'  Eberhard  archbishop 
of  Salizburg,  in  a  speech,  which  he  made  in 
the  diet  at  llatisbon,  in  tiie  time  of  Frederic 
II.  calls  "Hildebrand  the  founder  of  the 
empire  of  antichrist,  and  the  first  that,  under 
color  of  religion,  began  the  wicked  war, 
which  has  been,"  says  he,  "not  less 
wickedly  carried  on  by  his  successors." 
The  power  therefore  claimed  by  Gregory 
was  till  his  time  utterly  unknown  to  the 
whole  Christian  world;  nay  and  to  the  popes 
themselves,  else,  as  many  of  lliem  quarreled 
with,  and  some  were  persecuted  and  even 
deposed  by  princes,  they  would,  upon  such 
provocation,  have  exerted  their  power,  and 
deposed  them  in  their  turn.  But  even  the 
most  daring  among  them  contented  them- 
selves with  excommunications,  censures, 
and  interdicts  :  and  hence  the  opinion,  vest- 
ing any  temporal  power  in  the  pope  over 
sovereign  princes,  or  their  states  and  domin- 
ions, was  branded  by  Sigebert,  and  very  de- 
servedly, with  the  name  of  the  Hildebran- 
dine  heresy.^  And  truly  no  heresy  ever 
arose  in  the  church  more  pernicious  to  the 
peace,  tranquillity,  and  welfare  of  mankind, 
none  that  ever  occasioned  more  conspiracies, 
insurrections,  rebellions,  massacres,  assassi- 
nations; which  must  all  be  placed  to  the 
account  of  Gregory,  the  first  author  of  that 
seditious  and  impious  doctrine. 

Nothing  can  more  plainly  show,  that  the 
opinion,  ascribing  to  the  pope  the  deposing 
or  any  other  power  over  princes  in  temporal 
affairs,. is  destitute  of  all  foundation,  than 
the  instances  and  reasons,  upon  which  it 
•  :  founded  by  Gregory  himself,  the  first 
that  claimed  it.  The  first  instance  he  pro- 
duces is  that  of  king  Childeric,  whom  he 
supposes  to  have  been  deposed  by  pope 
Zachary.  But  nothing  is  more  certain  in 
history  than  that  Childeric  was  deposed  by 
the  lords  of  the  kingdom  for  his  incapacity, 
and  not  by  the  pope  on  account  of  any  crime 
cognizable  by  his  see,  as  I  have  hinted  above, 
and  proved  from  the  contemporary  writers 
in  the  life  of  that  pope.  The  other  instance 
alledged  by  Gregory  is  that  of  St.  Ambrose 
excommunicating,  as  he  says,  the  emperor 
Theodosius.  But  first,  that  bishop  pro- 
nounced no  sentence  of  excommunication 
against  the  emperor:  he  only  ordered  the 
doors  to  be  shut  when  he  offered  to  enter 
the  church,  nor  would  he  allow  him  to 
enter  it  till  he  had  performed  due  penance 
for  the  unjust  and  cruel  slaughter  of  the 
people  of  Thessalonica.  In  the  second  place 
Ambrose  did  not  attempt  to  divest  him  of 
his  power,  or  absolve  his  subjects  from  their 
oaths  of  allegiance  ;  so  that  this  instance  is 


quite  foreign  to  the  purpose.  Lastly,  had 
he  done  so,  it  would  follow  from  thence, 
that  the  deposing  power  was  vested  in  other 
bishops,  at  least  in  the  bishop  of  Milan  as 
well  as  in  the  bishop  of  Rome,  which  the 
advocates  for  the  papal  supremacy  will  not 
allow.  The  third  instance  is  that  of  a  privi- 
lege, supposed  to  have  been  granted  by  Gre- 
gory the  Great,  with  this  clause,  "if  any 
king,  priest,  judge,  or  any  secular  person 
whatever,  shall  knowingly  transgress  this 
our  constitution,  let  him  be  deprived  of  his 
power,  honor,  and  dignity."  But  that  pri- 
vilege is  now  generally  looked  upon  as  a 
mere  forgery,  foisted  into  that  pope's  letters 
after  his  time.  For  in  one  of  iiis  letters  it  is 
said  to  have  been  granted  to  an  hospital,' 
in  another  to  St.  Mary's  at  Autun,^  and  in  a 
third  to  St.  Martin's  in  the  suburbs  of  that 
city.^  Besides,  the  style  is  thought  by  the 
best  judges  to  be  very  different  from  that  of 
all  Gregory's  other  writings ;  and  even  they, 
who  allow  that  piece  to  be  genuine,  under- 
stand the  words  of  the  clause  as  only  impre- 
cating, "may  he  be  deprived  of  his  power," 
&,c ;  for  those  words  extend  to  priests  as 
well  as  to  kings,  and  consequently  to  the 
popes  themselves;  and  we  cannot  suppose 
that  Gregory  declared  them  also  to  be  de- 
prived of  their  dignity  in  case  they  trans- 
gressed that  privilege. 

To  these  instances  the  pope  adds  the  fol- 
lowing reasons.  1.  The  apostolic  see  has 
received  of  our  Savior  the  power  of  judging 
spirtual  matters,  and  consequently  that  of 
judging  temporal  concerns,  which  is  a 
power  of  an  inferior  degree.  2.  When  our 
Savior  said  to  St.  Peter,  "feed  my  sheep," 
when  he  granted  him  the  power  of  loosing 
and  binding,  he  did  not  except  kings.  3. 
The  episcopal  dignity  is  of  divine  institu- 
tion ;  the  royal  is  the  invention  of  men,  and 
owes  its  origin  to  pride  and  ambition.  As 
bishops  therefore  are  above  kings,  as  well 
as  above  all  other  men,  they  may  judge  them 
as  well  as  all  other  men.  Thus  reasons  Gre- 
gory, and  very  absurdly,  since,  allowing  all  he 
says  to  be  true,  we  could  not  conclude  from 
thence  any  power  to  have  been  granted  to  St. 
Peter  and  his  successors  that  was  not  grant- 
ed to  the  other  apostles,  and  in  them  to  all 
their  successors.  For  he  speaks  of  the  epis- 
copal dignity  in  general;  and  from  its  being 
superior  to  that  of  kings,  argues  a  power  in 
bishops,  and  consequently  in  all  bishops,  of 
judging  kings.  The  apostles  had  no  power, 
either  spiritual  or  temporal,  but  what  was 
communicated  to  them  by  our  Savior ;  and 
from  Scripture  it  appears  that  he  communi- 
cated to  them  the  one  and  not  the  other,  the 
spiritual  and  not  the  temporal,  which  he 
himself  always  disclaimed.  I  have  shown 
above,  that  the  power  of  "loosing  and  bind- 


«  Waltram.  Apol.  pro  Hcnr. 
»  Sigebert.  ad  ann.  1088. 


'  Greg,  epist.  lib.  ii.  ep.  10. 

3  Idem,  epist.  11.  'Idem,  epist.  12. 


406 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Gregory  VII, 


The  doctrine  taught  and  practised  by  Gregory  heretical.    Gregory  lays  claim  to  most  kingdoms  in  Europe. 

To  Spain. 


ing,"  was  no  other  thaa  that  of  remitting  or 
retaining  sins,  and  that  such  a  power  was 
granted  in  as  full  a  manner  to  all  the  apos- 
tles as  it  was  to  St.  Peter.  By  the  power  of 
"feeding  the  sheep"  of  Christ  was  under- 
stood, by  all  the  expounders  of  the  Scripture 
till  Gregory's  time,  the  power  of  instructing 
and  teaching;  and  that  power  was  by  our 
Savior  imparted  to  all  his  apostles  in  the  fol- 
lowing words;  "all  power  is  given  to  me 
in  heaven  and  on  earth ;  go  therefore  and 
teach  all  nations,  baptizing  them,  and  teach- 
ing them  to  observe  all  things,  whatsoever  I 
command  you;'"  and,  "go  into  all  the 
world,  and  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  crea- 
ture."^ The  apostles,  says  Chrysostom,  ex- 
plaining these  passages,  "were  all  in  com- 
mon entrusted  with  the  whole  world,  and 
had  the  care  of  all  nations."''  It  is  true,  as 
Gregory  observes,  that  when  Christ  said  to 
St.  Peter,  "feed  my  sheep,"  he  did  not  ex- 
cept kings,  the  apostle  being  commissioned 
by  those  words  to  feed,  that  is,  "to  teach 
every  creature,"  and  consequently  kings  as 
well  as  their  subjects.  To  feed  and  com- 
mand, to  be  shepherd  and  sovereign,  were 
synonymous  terms,  as  Gregory  understood 
them.  But  St.  Peter  himself  understood 
them  in  a  very  different  sense.  For,  in  his 
second  epistle  general,  hg  requires  the  over- 
seers to  "  feed  the  flock  of  God,"  but  for- 
bids them  to  assume  any  power  over  them, 
"neither  as  being  lords,"  says  he,  "over 
God's  heritage."  In  short,  the  words  "  feed 
my  sheep"  were  understood,  till  Gregory's 
days,  by  the  whole  church  as  only  relating 
to  spiritual  matters  ;  and  Bellarmine  himself 
has  not  been  able  to  produce  one  single 
writer  that  understood  them,  before  that 
pope's  time,  in  any  other  sense.  What  the 
pope  adds,  namely,  that  the  royal  power 
owes  its  origin  to  pride  and  ambition,  is  false 
and  repugnant  to  the  doctrine  of  St.  Paul, 
teaching,  that  "  there  is  no  power  but  of 
God,"  and  that  "the  powers  that  be  are 
ordained  of  God."^ 

Such  are  the  foundations  upon  which 
Gregory  built  the  most  extensive  monarchy 
that  ever  was  known  upon  earth,  namely, 
false  facts,  false  reasonings,  and  false  inter- 
pretations of  Scripture;  and  he  might  as 
well  have  found  the  pope,  as  did  Innocent 
III.,  vested  with  such  an  extraordinary 
power  in  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  where 
it  is  said  that  God  made  two  great  lights,  as 
in  any  of  the  passages  he  has  produced. 
And  now  to  conclude;  as  the  opinion  as- 
cribing to  the  pope  the  deposing,  or  any  other 
temporal  power  whatever  over  princes,  far 
from  haying  any  foundation  in  Scripture,  in 
reason,  in  history,  is  evidently  repugnant  to 
the  example  set  by  Christ  to  his  church,  to 
the  doctrine  taught  and  often  recommended 


'Mat.  28:19.  «  Mark.  16 :  15.    Luke  24:  47. 

'  Chrys.  Oper.  1.  viii.  p.  115 
*  Romans  13:  1,  2. 


to  all  Christians  without  exception,  by  his 
apostles,  by  the  fathers,  by  the  popes  them- 
selves, and  to  the  practice  of  the  church  in 
all  ages  till  the  time  of  this  Gregory  ;  and  has 
besides  occasioned  more  rebellions  against  the 
"  powers  ordained  of  God,"  more  slaughter 
and  bloodshed  than  any  heresy  we  read  of 
in  history;  may  it  not,  ought  it  not  to  be 
looked  upon  as  the  very  worst  heresy  that 
ever  arose  from  the  times  of  the  apostles  to 
this  day?  Should  a  man  teach  adultery, 
incest,  murder,  &c.  to  be  lawful,  he  would 
be  deemed  a  heretic  by  Christians  of  all  de- 
nominations, these  crimes  being  expressly 
forbidden  and  declared  unlawful  in  Scrip- 
ture. And  is  not  he  who  teaches  perjury, 
rebellion,  assassinations,  &c.  to  be  lawful, 
though  no  less  expressly  forbidden  in  Scrip- 
ture than  the  crimes  I  have  mentioned,  nay, 
who  commands  them  as  duties,  when  condu- 
cive to  the  support  of  his  usurped  power,  to 
be  branded  with  the  name  of  heretic?  The 
doctrine  taught  by  Gregory  Avas  greedily  em- 
braced, and  frequently  practised  by  his  suc- 
cessors, deposing  kings,  absolving  their  sub- 
jects from  their  allegiance,  encouraging  re- 
bellions, &c.,  as  we  shall  see  in  the  sequel; 
and  this  doctrine  they  still  hold,  as  is  manifest 
from  their  allowing  its  author  a  place  in  their 
calendar,  and  their  worshiping  him  as  a  saint. 
If  his  doctrine  be  an  error,  it  is  one  of  a  very 
high  nature,  of  most  dangerous  consequence, 
implies  great  arrogance,  injustice,  pride,  and 
ambition,  tends  to  involve  every  Christian 
kingdom  upon  earth  in  civil  wars,  rebel- 
lions, conspiracies,  &c.  And  how  can  they 
who  see  it  in  that  light,  as  many  Roman 
catholics  do,  and  must  consequently  look 
upon  the  pope  as  a  tyrant  and  an  usurper, 
nevertheless  communicate  with  him? 

Gregory,  not  satisfied  with  the  power  of 
pulling  down  and  setting  up  princes,  kings, 
and  emperors,  at  pleasure,  as  king  of  kings, 
monarch  of  the  world,  and  sole  lord,  both  spi- 
ritual and  temporal,  over  the  whole  earth, 
claimed  the  sovereignty  of  all  the  kingdoms 
of  Europe,  as  having  once  belonged  to  St. 
Peter,  whose  right  was  unalienable.  Thus, 
being  informed  in  the  very  beginning  of  his 
pontificate,  that  count  Evulus,  a  man  of 
great  wealth  and  power,  had  formed  a  de- 
sign of  recovering  the  countries  which  the 
Moors  had  seized  in  Spain,  and  was  levying 
forces  with  that  view,  he  sent  cardinal 
Hugh,  surnamed  the  White,  to  let  him  know 
that  Spain  belonged  to  St.  Peter  before  it 
was  conquered  by  the  Moors ;  that  though 
the  infidels  had  subdued  that  country,  and 
held  it  for  a  long  course  of  years,  the  rights 
of  St.  Peter  still  subsisted,  there  being  no 
prescription  against  that  apostle  or  his 
church,  and  that  he,  as  supreme  lord  of  the 
whole  kingdom,  not  only  approved  of  the 
count's  design,  but  granted  him  all  the  places 
he  should  recover  from  the  barbarians,  upon 
condition  that  he  held  them  of  St.  Peter  and 


Gregory  VII.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


40-3 


To  France,  Hungary,  and  the  islands  of  Corsica  and  Sardinia. 


his  see.  In  the  letter  which  lie  wrote  at 
this  time,  addressed  to  all  who  were  dis- 
posed to  join  in  driving  the  Saracens  out  of 
Spain,  he  forbids  any  to  enter  that  country 
who  is  not  resolved  to  hold  of  St.  Peter  what 
acquisitions  he  may  make,  as  he  had  rather 
it  should,  remain  in  the  hands  of  the  infidels 
than  that  the  holy  Roman  and  universal 
church  should  be  robbed  of  her  undoubted 
right  by  her  own  children ;'  that  is,  he  had 
rather  the  Christians  in  Spain  should  con- 
tinue under  the  oppressive  yoke  of  those  in- 
fidels, than  be  rescued  from  it  by  a  prince 
who  did  not  pay  homage,  as  a  vassal,  to 
the  apostolic  see.  This  letter,  dated  the  last 
of  April,  1073,  and,  consequently,  written  a 
few  days  after  his  election,  shows  what  sen- 
timents Gregory  brought  with  him  to  the 
pontifical  chair.  Four  years  after,  he  wrote 
again  to  the  kings  and  princes  of  Spain,  re- 
newing his  claim  to  their  respective  king- 
doms and  principalities,  as  having  belonged 
to  his  see  when  the  Saracens  seized  them, 
and  requiring  those  who  held  them,  to  pay 
the  tribute  they  owed  to  St.  Peter  as  their 
sovereign  lord.'^ 

As  to  France,  Gregory  pretended  that 
formerly  each  house  in  that  kingdom  paid 
at  least  a  penny  a  year  to  St.  Peter,  as  their 
father  and  pastor,  and  that  this  sum  was,  by 
order  of  Charlemagne,  collected  yearly  at 
Puy,  in  Velai,  at  Aix-la-Chapelle,  and  at  St. 
Giles.  For  this  custom  he  quotes  a  statute 
of  that  emperor,  lodged,  as  he  says,  in  the 
archives  of  St.  Peter's  church.  But  as  that 
statute  is  to  be  found  no  where  else,  it  is 
universally  looked  upon  as  a  forgery,  ar;,d  by 
some  even  thought  to  have  been  forged  by 
Gregory  himself.  However,  he  ordered  his 
legates  in  France  to  exact  thatsum,  and  insist 
upon  its  being  paid  by  all  as  a  token  of  their 
subjection  to  St.  Peter  and  his  see.^ 

Solomon,  king  of  Hungary,  being  driven 
from  the  throne  by  Geisa  his  cousin,  had 
recourse  to  the  emperor,  whose  sister  he 
had  married,  and  was  by  him  restored  to  his 
kingdom,  upon  condition  that  he  should 
hold  it  of  him  as  his  feudatory.  This  Gre- 
gory no  sooner  understood,  than  he  wrote  to 
Solomon,  claiming  the  kingdom  of  Hungary 
as  belonging  to  St.  Peter,  to  whom  he  pre- 
tended it  had  been  given  by  Stephen,  the 
first  Christian  king  of  the  country.  "The 
elders  of  your  country,"  said  he  in  his  letter 
to  the  king,  "will  inform  you,  that  the  king- 
dom of  Hungary  is  the  property  of  the  holy 
Roman  church,  sancta;  Romana^  ecclesia; 
proprium  est;  that  king  Stephen,  upon  his 
conversion,  offered  it  to  St.  Peter,  and  that 
the  emperor  Henry  of  holy  memory,  (mean- 
ing Henry  III.),  having  conquered  the 
country,  sent  the  lance  and  the  crown,  the 
ensigns  of  royalty,  to  the  body  of  St.  Peter. 
If  it  therefore  be  true  that  you  have  agreed 


«  Greg.  1.  i.  ep.  7. 
*  Idem,  viii.  ep.  35. 


5  Idem,  1.  iv.  ep.  28. 


to  hold  your  kingdom  of  the  kmg  of  the 
Germans,  and  not  of  St.  Peter,  you  will 
soon  feel  the  effects  of  the  apostle's  just  in- 
dignation ;  for  we,  who  are  his  servants  and 
ministers,  cannot  tamely  sufl'pr  the  honor 
that  is  due  to  him  to  be  taken  from  him 
and  given  to  others.'"  Solomon  was  again 
driven  out  by  Geisa,  which  Gregory  con- 
strued into  a  judgment  for  the  injustice  he 
had  done  to  St.  Peter,  telling  the  usurper 
that  the  prince  of  the  apostles  had  given  the 
kingdom  to  him,  as  Solomon  had  forfeited 
all  right  to  it  by  rebelling  against  the  holy 
Roman  church,  and  paying  that  homage  to 
the  king  of  Germany  which  was  due  to 
none  but  her  and  her  founder.^  Geisa,  thus 
countenanced  by  the  pope  in  his  usurpation, 
held  the  kingdom  of  Hungary  to  the  hour 
of  his  death,  which  happened  in  1077.  He 
was  succeeded  by  Ladislaus,  who,  to  avoid 
the  disturbances  Avhich  he  was  sensible  the 
pope  would  raise  and  foment  amongst  his 
subjects,  if  he  held  not  his  kingdom  of  him, 
immediately  acknowledged  himself  for  his 
vassal,  declaring  that  he  owed  his  power  to 
God,  and  under  him  to  none  but  St.  Peter, 
Avhose  commands  he  should  ever  readily 
obey,  when  signified  to  him  by  his  suc- 
cessors in  the  apostolic  see. 

The  two  islands  of  Corsica  and  Sardinia 
he  claimed  as  the  patrimony  of  St.  Peter,  pre- 
tending that  they  had  been  formerly  given, 
nobody  knows  when  nor  by  whom,  to  the 
apostolic  see.  Hence  he  no  sooner  heard 
that  the  Christians  had  gained  considerable 
advantages  in  Corsica  over  the  Saracens, 
and  recovered  great  part  of  that  island,  than 
he  sent  a  legate  to  govern  the  countries 
which  they  had  recovered,  as  the  demesnes 
of  his  see,  to  encourage  them  in  so  laudable 
an  undertaking,  and  assure  them  that  he 
would  assist  them,  to  the  utmost  of  his 
power,  with  men  as  well  as  with  money, 
till  they  had  reduced  the  whole  island,  pro- 
vided they  engaged  to  restore  it  to  the 
lawful  owner,  St.  Peter.'  As  to  Sardinia, 
he  wrote  to  Orzoch,  the  chief  judge,  that 
island  being  then  governed  by  judges,  to  let 
him  know  that  his  island  had  once  belonged 
to  St.  Peter,  as  Avell  as  the  neighboring 
island  of  Corsica;  that  the  Normans,  the 
Tuscans,  the  Lombards,  and  even  some  ul- 
tramontane princes,  had  applied  to  him  for 
leave  to  invade  it,  ofl"ering  to  yield  one  half 
of  the  country  to  him,  and  to  pay  homage 
for  the  other ;  but  that  he  had  not  hearkened, 
nor  would  he  hearkpn,  lo  any  proposals  of 
that  nature  till  he  knew  how  they  were  dis- 
posed towards  the  holy  see,  and  what  re- 
ception his  legate,  the  bearer  of  this  letter, 
should  meet  with.'*  Here  Gregory  claims 
the  sovereignty  of  the  island,  and  threatens 
to  let  loose  the  Normans,  the  Tuscans,  the 
Lombards,  and  with  them  the  ultramontane 


«  Greg.  lib.  ii.  ep.  1: 
'  Idem,  1.  V.  ep.  34. 


a  Idem,  ep.  2. 

<  Idem,  1.  viii.  ep.  10. 


408 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Gregory  VII. 


Gregory  lays  claim  to  Dalmatia,  Russia,  Denmark,  Poland,  Saxony,  and  England.    He  claims  the  same  power 
over  all  bishops  as  over  all  princes,  and  exercises  it  in  France. 


nations  against  the  natives,  if  they  did  not 
own  him  Tor  their  sovereign.  Baronius  tells 
us,  that  from  many  ancient  monuments  it 
appears  that  Sardinia  was  under  the  do- 
minion of  the  apostolic  see.'  But  not  one 
monument  has  he  been  able  to  produce  prior 
to  Gregory's  time,  nor  can  he  name  one 
pope  that  claimed  either  of  those  islands  be- 
fore him. 

Gregory,  claiming  the  power  of  setting  up 
as  well  as  pulling  down  kings,  in  order  to 
subject  Dalmatia  to  his  see,  conferred  the 
title  of  king  upon  Demetrius,  duke  of  that 
country,  obliging  him,  on  that  occasion,  to 
swear  allegiance  to  him  and  his  successors 
in  the  see  of  St.  Peter.  That  oath  the  pope's 
legate  required  upon  delivering  to  the  duke, 
in  the  pope's  name,  a  standard,  a  sword,  a 
scepter,  and  a  royal  diadem.  The  new  king 
at  the  same  time  promised  to  pay  yearly,  on 
Easter-day,  two  hundred  pieces  of  silver  to 
the  holy  pope  Gregory,  and  his  successors 
lawfully  elected,  as  supreme  lords  of  the 
kingdom  of  Dalmatia;  to  assist  them,  when 
required,  to  the  utmost  of  his  power;  to  re- 
ceive, entertain,  and  obey  their  legates;  to 
reveal  no  secrets  that  they  should  trust  him 
with ;  but  to  behave  on  all  occasions  as  be- 
came a  true  son  of  the  holy  Roman  church, 
and  a  faithful  vassal  of  the  apostolic  see.^ 

Demetrius  was  at  this'time  king  of  Russia, 
and  his  son  coming  to  Rome  to  visit  the 
tombs  of  the  apostles,  Gregory  made  him 
partner  with  his  father  in  the  kingdom,  re- 
quiring him,  on  that  occasion,  to  take  an 
oath  of  fealty  to  St.  Peter  and  his  successors. 
This  step  the  pope  pretended  to  have  taken 
at  the  request  of  the  son,  who,  he  said,  had 
applied  to  him,  being  desirous  to  receive  the 
kingdom  from  St.  Peter,  and  to  hold  it  as  a 
gift  of  that  apostle.  The  pope  added  in  his 
letter  to  the  king  that  he  had  complied  with 
the  request  of  his  son,  not  doubting  but  it 
would  be  approved  by  him  and  all  the  lords 
of  his  kingdom,  since  the  prince  of  the  apos- 
tles would  thenceforth  look  upon  their  coun- 
try and  defend  it  as  his  own.^  From  some 
of  Gregory's  letters  it  appears  that  Sueno, 
king  of  Denmark,  had  promised  to  subject 
his  kingdom  to  the  apostolic  see.  But  we 
do  not  find  that  this  promise  ever  was  ful- 
filled, either  by  him  or  his  son  and  successor. 
Gregory,  in  one  of  his  letters  to  Sueno, 
speaks  of  a  province  in  Italy  possessed  by 
heretics,  which  he  offers  to  him,  as  if  he 
had  a  right  to  dispose  of  the  property  of 
heretics,  and  invites  him  to  conquer  it."* 
Who  these  heretics  were,  or  where  they 
dwelt,  history  does  not  inform  us.  The 
Polanders  had,  from  the  time  of  their  con- 
version, sent  yearly  a  present  in  money  to 
St.  Peter,  namely,'  a  hundred  marks  of 
silver;  and  this  sum,  originally  a  charily, 
Gregory  exacted  under  the  name  of  tribute. 


«  Bar.  ad  ann.  1073. 
'  Greg.  I.  ii.  ep.  74. 


»  Idem,  ad  ann.  1076. 
«  Idem,  I.  ii.  ep.  51. 


due  to  him  and  his  successors  as  sovereign 
lords  of  the  country.'  As  for  Saxony,  he 
pretended  the  whole  country  to  have  been 
given  by  Charlemagne  to  St.  Peter,  as  soon 
as  he  conquered  it.^  But  such  a  donation 
was  never  heard  of  till  Gregory's  time.  I 
have  spoken  above  of  his  claim  to  the  king- 
dom of  England,  and  the  resolute  answer 
William  the  Conqueror  returned  to  his  le- 
gate. In  Italy,  the  Normans,  masters  of 
Apulia,  Calabria,  and  Sicily,  the  dukes  of 
Benevento,  Capua,  and  Aversa,  and  almost 
all  the  other  princes,  the  country  being  di- 
vided into  many  small  independent  princi- 
palities, were  obliged  to  acknowledge  them- 
selves vassals  of  the  apostolic  see,  and  swear 
allegiance  to  the  pope,  in  order  to  prevent 
their  dominions  from  being  invaded  by  their 
more  powerful  neighbors,  whom  Gregory 
never  failed,  when  occasion  offered,  to  stir 
up  against  them,  till  he  brought  them  into 
subjection  to  him  and  his  see. 

Gregory  pretending  that  all  power,  spi- 
ritual as  well  as  temporal,  centered  in  him, 
claimed  and  exercised  the  same  supreme, 
unlimited,  uncontrollable  authority  over  bi- 
shops and  the  other  ministers  of  the  church  in 
spiritual  matters,  as  he  did  over  emperors  and 
kings  in  temporal  concerns.  In  his  letters  in- 
numerable instances  occur  of  bishops  sum- 
moned to  Rome  from  all  parts,  to  give  an 
account  of  their  conduct,  and  there  either 
condemned  and  deposed,  or  absolved  and 
confirmed  in  their  sees.  He  sent,  in  like 
manner,  legates  a  Latere  into  France,  Ger- 
many, and  Spain,  with  full  powers  to  assem- 
ble councils,  to  summon  the  bishops  to  as- 
sist at  them,  to  suspend,  and  even  to  depose 
such  of  them  as  did  not  comply  with  that 
summons.  Thus  Hugh,  bishop  of  Die, 
having  in  1078  appointed,  as  the  pope's  le- 
gate, a  council  to  meet  at  Autun,  suspended 
the  archbishops  of  Reims,  Besanpon,  Sens, 
Bourges,  and  Tours,  and  excommunicated 
the  bishops  of  Paris  and  Chartres  for  not 
obeying  the  summons,  and  they  were  all 
obliged  to  travel  to  Rome  in  order  to  be  ab- 
solved by  the  pope ;  and  by  him  they  were 
accordingly  absolved,  but  upon  condition 
that,  returning  to  France,  they  asked  pardon 
of  the  legate.*  The  legate  held  several  other 
councils  in  France,  namely,  at  Poitiers,  at 
Avignon,  at  Meaux,  suspending,  excommu- 
nicating, and  deposing  such  of  the  clergy  as 
he  found  guilty  of  concubinage  or  simony  ; 
that  is,  such  as  were  married,  or  had  received 
the  investiture  of  benefices  from  laymen. 
Manasses,  archbishop  of  Reims,  was  the  only 
person  in  all  France  who  had  courage  enough 
to  oppose  the  arbitrary  proceedings  of  the 
pope's  legate.  But  he  was  deposed  in  a 
council  held  at  Lions  in  the  beginning  of 
the  year  1080;  and  the  sentence  pronounced 
by  the  legate  in  that  assembly  was  confirm- 


'  Greg.  1.  ii.  ep.  7.  «  Idem,  1.  viii.  ep.  25. 

'  Greg.  I.  ix.  ep.  15,  16.  &  1.  v.  cp.  17. 


Gregory  VII.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


409 


Gregory  exercises  the  same  power  over  all  bishops  as  over  all  princes  in  Spain,  Germany,  and  all  countries 

but  England.     He  is  canonized. 


firmed  by  the  pope,  who  wrote  immediately  to 
the  clergy  and  people  of  Reims,  to  the  suf- 
fragans of  that  metropolis,  and  to  the  king, 
requiring  them  no  longer  to  acknowledge 
Manasses  for  bishop  of  Reims,  but  to  drive 
him  from  that  see,  and  choose,  or  cause 
another  to  be  chosen  in  his  room.'  In  his 
letter  to  the  king,  Philip,  the  first  of  that 
name,  he  commands  him  on  the  part  of  St. 
Peter,  and  begs  him  on  his  own,  to  show 
no  marks  of  favor  to  Manasses,  once  bishop 
of  Reims,  but  deposed  for  his  enormous 
wickedness  by  the  judgment  of  the  apostolic 
see.  However,  we  find  Manasses  still  in 
possession  of  that  see  in  1 109,  that  is,  twen- 
ty-four years  after  the  death  of  Gregory.^ 

The  pope  exerted,  by  his  legates,  a  no  less 
despotic  power  over  the  Bishops  of  Spain, 
Germany,  and  all  other  countries,  except 
England  ;  where  his  legates  were  allowed  to 
assemble  no  councils,  nor  to  exercise  any 
kind  of  jurisdiction  whatever.  The  king 
would  not  even  suffer  any  of  the  English, 
nor  indeed  of  his  Norman  bishops,  to  go  to 
Rome,  though  summoned  thither  by  the 
pope,  to  receive  their  palls,  or  to  assist  at  his 
councils,  as  appears  from  several  of  Gre- 
gory's letters.  For  in  one  he  complains  of 
William,  the  new  archbishop  of  Rouen,  for 
not  applying  to  him  either  for  his  confirma- 
tion or  for  the  pall  f  in  another  he  reproaches 
the  Norman  bishops,  in  general,  with  dis- 
obedience to  the  commands  of  his  legates, 
in  refusing  to  assist  at  their  synods,  though 
invited  by  them,  and  ordered,  in  his  name, 
to  attend ;  and  adds,  that  he  had  not  seen 
the  face  of  one  Norman  bishop  since  his 
advancement  to  the  pontifical  throne.''  In 
1081  he  wrote  a  threatening  letter  to  Lan- 
franc.  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  wherein 
he  tells  him,  that  though  he  had  been  fre- 
quently invited  to  Rome,  upon  matters  that 
nearly  concerned  the  faith  and  religion,  he 
had,  out  of  pride  or  contempt,  declined  com- 
plying with  ihat  invitation;  that  he  had  not 
alledged,  nor  so  much  as  pretended  to  alledge, 
any  canonical  impediment ;  that  he  had  been 
too  long  suffered  thus  to  go  on  abusing  his 
patience;  but  if  he  did  not  appear  at  Rome 
by  the  feast  of  All  saints  next  ensuing,  and 
thus  atone  for  his  past  disobedience,  he 
should  be  excluded  from  the  protection  and 
favor  of  St.  Peter,  and  suspended  from  all 
the  functions  of  the  episcopal  office.*  But 
Lanfranc  chose  rather  to  obey  the  king  than 
the  pope,  who,  indeed,  continued  to  complain 
of  the  conduct  of  the  archbishop;  but,  un- 
willing to  quarrel  with  the  king,  contented 
himself  with  menaces  only:  nay,  his  legate 
in  France,  Hugh  bishop  of  Die,  having  sus- 
pended several  of  the  Norman  bishops  for 
not  assisting  at  his  councils,  Gregory  im- 


<  Greg.  I.  viii.  ep.  17,  18,  19,  20. 

9  Nichol.  Sucssior.  I.  i.  c.  26. 
»  fi'rep.  Rpisl.  I.  vii.  ep.  2. 
»  Idem  il)iil,  ep.  20. 

Vol.  II.— 52 


mediately  ordered  him  to  absolve  them ; 
directing  him,  at  the  same  time,  to  do 
nothing,  for  the  future,  that  might  exasperate 
the  king  of  England,  without  a  particular 
order  from  him.'  Thus  did  the  Norman 
and  English  bishops,  by  the  wise  and  reso- 
lute conduct  of  their  king,  enjoy  their  ancient 
privileges  and  former  liberty,  while  all  the 
bishops  around  them  were  forced,  through 
the  bigotry,  neglect,  or  incapacity  of  their 
princes,  to  submit  to  Gregory's  unjust  usur- 
pations. 

Gregory  has  been  styled  by  some,  and 
very  justly,  the  founder  of  the  papal  gran- 
deur. For  by  him  it  was  first  happily  dis- 
covered, that  God's  command,  enjoining 
"every  soul  to  be  subject  to  the  higher 
powers,"  did  not  extend  to  the  successors 
of  St.  Peter ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  that  oar 
Savior,  by  these  words,  "  feed  my  sheep," 
made  that  apostle,  and  those  who  were  to 
succeed  him  in  the  see  of  Rome,  supreme 
lords  and  monarchs  of  the  whole  earth  in 
temporals  as  well  as  in  spirituals  :  vesting 
them,  as  such,  with  an  unlimited  power  of 
pulling  down  princes,  kings,  and  emperors, 
if  they  disobeyed  their  commands,  and  set- 
ting others  up,  at  pleasure,  in  their  room. 
Such  extravagant  notions,  utterly  unknown 
to  all  Gregory's  predecessors,  as  well  as  to 
the  rest  of  mankind,  would,  one  would  ima- 
gine, have  been  universally  looked  upon, 
even  by  his  successors,  as  the  ravings  of  a 
man  quite  mad  with  ambition  ;  like  those  of 
the  madman  at  Athens,  who  had  persuaded 
himself  that  all  the  power  and  wealth  in  the 
world  were  his  own.  But  instead  of  that, 
the  succeeding  popes  have  not  only  adopted 
those  very  notions,  but  honored  Gregory,  by 
whom  they  were  first  broached,  with  a  place 
in  the  calendar,  and  yearly  celebrate  his 
festival  on  the  25th  of  May,  the  day  of  his 
death,  under  the  title  of  St.  Gregory  VII. 
pope  and  confessor.  Pope  Anastasius,  the 
fourth  of  that  name,  raised  to  the  see  in 
1322,  ordered  him  to  be  painted  in  a  church 
at  Rome  among  the  other  saints,  which 
pope  Gregory  XIII.  looked  upon  as  a  kind 
of  canonization,  and  therefore  caused  his 
name  to  be  inserted  in  the  Roman  Martyro- 
logy  in  1584.  However,  he  was  nowhere 
publicly  worshipped  as  a  saint  till  the  year 
1G09,  when  Paul  V.  by  a  special  bull,  per- 
mitted John  de  Guevara,  archbishop  of 
Salerno,  and  his  chapter,  to  solemnize  his 
festival.  Leave  was  afterwards  granted  by 
Alexander  VII.  and  Clement  XI.  to  several 
communities  to  honor  him  as  a  saint.  But 
Benedict  XIII.  ordered  him  to  be  acknow- 
ledged for  a  saint  by  the  whole  church  ;  and 
by  his  appointment  a  prayer  and  a  legend 
were  composed  to  be  every  where  used  on 
his  anniversary.  But  as  he  is  commended 
in  the  legend  for  his  invincible  constancy 


*Idem,  1.  ix.  ep.  1. 


«  Greg.  Epist.  1. 

2K 


i.\.  ep.  5. 


410 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Victor  III. 


Gregory's  writings.     Victor  chosen  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  1086.] 


aud  firmness  in  opposing  the  wicked  at- 
tempts of  the  emperor  Henry  (that  is,  for 
maintaining  his  undoubted  right  of  granting 
investitures),  for  his  resolution  and  intrepi- 
dity in  cutting  him  off  from  the  communion 
of  the  church,  depriving  him  of  his  kingdom, 
and  absolving  his  subjects  from  their  alle- 
giance, that  piece  has  been  forbidden  in  most 
Catholic  kingdoms  as  a  seditious  libel,  calcu- 
lated to  encourage  perjury,  sedition,  and  re- 
bellion.' To  worship  as  a  saint  the  pope, 
who  had  claimed,  and  had  been  sainted  for 
exerting,  the  deposing  power,  would  be 
acknowledging  that  power  in  his  see.^ 

As  to  the  writings  of  Gregory,  359  of  his 
letters  have  reached  our  times,  and  are  di- 
vided into  nine  books,  containing  those  he 
wrote  from  the  time  of  his  election,  in  April, 
1073,  to  1082.  Mention  is  made  by  some 
of  a  tenth  book,  which  is  no  more  to  be  met 
with;  and  the  eleventh,  as  they  call  it,  has 
but  one  letter  and  the  fragment  of  another. 
The  commentary  upon  the  seven  penitential 
Psalms,  commonly  ascribed  to  Gregory  the 
Great,  is  thought  by  some  to  be  the  work  of 
Gregory  VII.,  several  passages  in  that  piece 
being  levelled  against  an  emperor,  said  there 
to  have  revived  simony  in  the  church,  to  be 
the  author  of  a  dangerous  schism,  to  have 
wickedly  attempted  to  enslave  the  church, 
and  subject  even  the  apqstolic  see  to  his  em- 
pire. AH  this  they  understand  of  the  em- 
peror Henry  IV.,  and  probably  the  author 


of  the  commentary  meant  him.  But  as  that 
work  is  written  in  a  very  different  style  from 
that  of  Gregory  VII.,  we  can  from  thence 
only  conclude  it  to  have  been  composed,  as 
in  all  likelihood  it  was,  in  that  pope's  time. 
We  know  of  no  emperor  in  the  days  of 
Gregory  the  Great,  that  attempted  to  enslave 
the  church,  &c.,  nor  indeed  had  the  church 
yet  begun  to  claim  any  exemption  from  the 
secular  or  civil  power;  a  plain  proof  that 
the  piece  in  question  must  be  the  perform- 
ance of  a  writer  that  lived  in  much  later 
times.  A  commentary  in  manuscript,  writ- 
ten by  Gregory  VII.,  upon  the  gospel  of  St. 
Matthew,  is  said  to  be  lodged  in  the  library 
of  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  at  Lambeth. 
Gregory  was  buried  at  Salerno,  where  he 
died,  and  there  his  relics  are  worshiped  to 
this  day  in  the  cathedral  dedicated  to  St. 
Matthew,  whose  body  is  supposed  to  have 
been  discovered  in  that  city  in  1080.  Mar- 
silius  Columna,  preferred  to  the  archiepis- 
copal  see  of  Salerno  in  1574,  assures  uS  that 
he  saw  with  his  own  eyes,  and  touched 
with  his  own  hands,  "  propriis  oculis  inspexi- 
mus,  propriisque  manibus  contrectavimus," 
the  remains  of  the  holy  pontiff  Gregory, 
quite  entire,  with  all  his  pontifical  orna- 
ments yet  fresh,  though  near  five  hundred 
years  had  elapsed  since  he  was  buried ;' 
which  might  be  true,  were  Gregory  in  a 
very  different  place  from  that  in  which  he  is 
supposed  to  be  by  those  who  worship  him. 


VICTOR  III.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  FIFTY-SIXTH  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[Alexius  Comnenus,  Emperor  of  the  East. — Henry  IV.,  Emperor  of  the  Wcsl."] 


[Year  of  Christ,  10S6.]  Gregory,  being 
in  his  last  illness,  consulted  about  his  suc- 
cessor by  the  cardinals  who  attended  him, 
recommended  three  persons  to  their  choice, 
namely,  Desiderius,  abbot  of  Monte  Cassino, 
and  presbyter  cardinal  of  the  Roman  church ; 
Otho,  bishop  of  Ostia;  and  Hugh,  his  legate 
in  France,  whom  he  had  transferred  from 
the  see  of  Die  to  the  archiepiscopal  see  of 
Lyons,  all  three  men  of  his  own  principles, 
as  well  as  temper,  and  therefore  judged  by 


■  See  a  piece  entitled,  "  Avocat  du  Diable." 
"  In  the  church  of  St.  Severino  at  Naples,  Gregory 
is  to  be  seen  painted  among  the  other  popes  of  the 
Benedictine  order,  holding  a  crozier  or  pastoral  staff 
in  his  left,  and  a  huge  scourge  in  his  right  hand,  lilted 
up  in  a  lashing  posture,  with  imperial  and  royal  scep- 
ters and  diadems  under  his  feet,  to  show  that  he  was 
the  scourge  of  princes,  and,  in  a  manner,  trampled 
upon  emperors  and  kings:  and  lest  his  thus  treating 
ithe  higher  powers  should  be  thought  inconsistent  with 
true  sanctity,  over  his  head  are  written  in  large  capi- 
tals these  words,  "  Sanctus  Gregorius  VII."  But  it  is 
not  at  all  likely  that  princes  ever  will  be  brought  to 
allow  him  that  title,  or  suffer  sucli  a  saint  to  be  wor- 
shiped in  their  dominions. 


him  the  best  qualified  to  complete  the  work 
which  he  had  begun — that  of  subjecting  the 
temporal  to  the  spiritual  power,  and  the  one 
and  the  other  to  the  apostolic  see.  As  by 
naming  Desiderius  in  the  first  place,  he 
seemed  to  prefer  him  to  the  other  two,  the 
cardinals  met  at  Rome  soon  after  his  death, 
with  a  design  to  raise  him,  in  comphance 
with  the  recommendation  of  the  deceased 
pope,  to  the  pontifical  throne.  But  Deside- 
rius, finding  that  the  cardinals  and  the  rest 
of  the  clergy,  as  well  as  the  leading  men  in 
Rome,  were  resolved  to  choose  him,  and 
even  force  him  to  acquiesce  in  their  choice, 
he  privately  left  Rome  and  returned  to  his 
monastery.  The  cardinals,  determined  to 
choose  him  and  no  other,  earnestly  entreated 
him  to  return,  but  could  not  prevail  upon 
him  to  quit  his  monastery  till  the  month  of 
May  of  the  following  year,  1086,  when  the 


'  Marsil.  Colum.  de  Vit.  Gest.  &  Tranalat.  Math- 
Apost. 


Victor  III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


411 


Victor  declines  the  pontificate,  but  is  prevailed  upon  to  accept  it ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1087.]  Hugh,  archbishop 
of  Lions,  declares  against  him.  Victor  supported  by  the  countess  Mathilda,  lie  sends  a  fleet  against  the 
Saracens  of  Africa. 


cardinals  being  all  summoned  to  Rome,  in 
order  to  proceed  to  the  election  of  a  new 
pope,  he  was  in  the  end  persuaded  by  the 
prince  of  Salerno,  and  by  Roger,  duke  of 
Apulia  and  Calabria,  who  had  lately  suc- 
ceeded his  father,  Robert  Guiscard,  in  that 
dukedom,  to  comply  with  that  summons. 
Upon  his  arrival,  the  cardinals,  the  clergy, 
and  the  people  met  in  great  numbers,  and 
proclaimed  Desiderius  pope,  as  having  been 
chosen  by  Gregory,  his  predecessor,  of 
blessed  memory,  they  carried  him  by  force 
to  the  church  of  St.  Lucia,  to  acknowledge 
him  there  with  the  usual  ceremonies.  But, 
still  opposing  his  election,  he  would  not 
suffer  them  to  clothe  him  with  the  pontifical 
robes ;  and  the  fourth  day  after  he  was 
chosen  he  left  Rome,  quitted  at  Terracina 
the  red  cope,  one  of  the  ensigns  of  the  pon- 
tifical dignity,  which  they  had  forced  upon 
him,  and  again  withdrew  to  Monte  Cassino. 
He  was  thus  elected  and  owned  for  lawful 
pope,  under  the  name  of  Victor  III.,  on 
Whitsunday,  which,  in  1086,  fell  on  the 
24th  of  May.  He  continued  at  Monte  Cas- 
sino, protesting  against  his  election  as  null, 
since  he  had  not  consented  to  it.  But  a 
council,  consisting  of  the  bishops  of  Cam- 
pania, Apulia,  and  Calabria,  meeting  the 
following  year,  1087,  at  Capua,  to  redress 
some  abuses  that  prevailed  in  those  parts, 
Desiderius  repaired  to  it,  and  meeting  there 
duke  Roger,  with  the  princes  of  Capua  and 
Salerno,  he  was,  at  last,  in  a  manner,  forced 
to  yield  to  their  entreaties,  joined  to  the  tears 
of  all  the  bishops  of  that  assemby,  repre- 
senting to  him,  in  the  most  pathetic  terms, 
the  distressed  condition  of  the  church,  and 
the  dangers  to  which  he  exposed  it,  by  his 
obstinate  and  ill-timed  resistance.  He  re- 
sumed the  cope,  and  appearing  in  the  council 
with  the  other  ensigns  of  his  dignity,  he  al- 
lowed them  to  acknowledge  him  for  lawful 
pope.  This  happened  on  Palm  Sunday,  the 
21st  of  March.  From  Capua  the  pope  re- 
turned to  Monte  Cassino,  and  having  kept 
his  Easter  there,  set  out  from  thence  for 
Rome,  attended  by  the  princes  of  Capua  and 
Salerno.  Upon  his  arrival  in  that  city,  he 
found  the  church  of  St.  Peter  possessed 
by  his  rival,  Guibert.  But  he  being  soon 
driven  from  thence  by  the  forces  which  the 
two  princes  had  brought  with  them,  Victor 
was  consecrated  in  that  basilic  on  the  9th  of 
May,  1087,  two  years,  wanting  a  few  days, 
after  the  death  of  Gregory.  Thus  far,  Leo 
Ostiensis,  an  eye-witness  of  what  he  writes.' 
Victor,  having  spent  eieht  days  at  Rome, 
left  that  city  and  relumed  to  Monte  Cassino. 
Hugh,  archbishop  of  Lions,  had  approved 
of  the  election  of  Victor,  as  well  as  the  other 
cardinals  of  that  party.  But  having,  upon 
his  long  resistance,  conceived  hopes  that  he 

»  Leo  OslJen.  I.  iii.  c.  65—67 


never  would  accept  the  offered  dignity,  and 
consequently  that  he  himself  would,  in  all 
likelihood,  be  chosen,  as  he  had  been  re- 
commended by  Gregory,  he  was  so  pro- 
voked at  his  disappointment,  when  Victor 
consented  to  his  promotion,  that  he  declared 
against  him,  pretending  that  he  had  dis- 
covered many  things  relating  to  his  conduct, 
which  he  was  ignorant  of  when  he  approved 
his  election.  In  a  letter,  which  he  wrote  to 
the  countess  Mathilda,  he  charged  Victor  in 
particular  with  favoring  the  emperor,  with 
disapproving  the  decrees  and  censuring  the 
conduct  of  Gregory,  and  even  with  en- 
couraging the  emperor  under-hand  to  march 
to  Rome,  and  lay  waste  the  lands  of  the 
holy  Roman  church.'  But  the  countess, 
whom  Hugh  flattered  himself  he  should 
thus  gain  over  to  his  party,  coming  to  Rome 
at  the  head  of  her  army,  declared  for  Victor, 
drove  his  rival  Guibert  from  all  the  places 
he  held  beyond  the  Tiber;  and,  having  re- 
covered the  church  of  St.  Peter,  which  he 
had  retaken  upon  the  pope's  return  to  Monte 
Cassino,  she  invited  his  holiness  back  to 
Rome,  assuring  him  that  she  was  resolved 
to  support  him  to  the  utmost  of  her  power 
against  all  his  enemies;  and,  at  the  same 
time  expressing  great  desire  to  see  him. 
Victor  complied  with  the  invitation,  and 
was,  on  his  arrival,  received  by  the  countess 
and  her  army  with  all  possible  marks  of  re- 
spect and  esteem.  At  her  request  he  cele- 
brated mass  in  St.  Peter's,  at  which  she 
assisted,  with  all  the  chief  officers  of  her 
army,  who,  on  this  occasion,  received  the 
papal  benediction.  The  countess,  having 
had  several  conferences  with  the  pope,  left 
Rome,  in  order  to  stop  the  progress  of  the 
emperor's  arms  in  Lombardy.  She  was  no 
sooner  gone  than  the  partisans  of  Guibert 
made  themselves  masters  of  the  church  of 
St.  Peter,  and  most  of  the  places  which  she 
had  taken  from  them,  which  obliged  Victor 
to  quit  Rome  anew,  and  return  to  Monte 
Cassino.2 

As  the  Saracens  from  Africa  made  fre- 
quent descents  upon  the  coast  of  Italy,  com- 
mitting everywhere  dreadful  ravages,  and 
carrying  multitudes  of  people  into  captivity, 
Victor,  touched  with  compassion,  applied  to 
the  Italian  princes;  and  having  prevailed 
upon  them  to  enter  into  a  league  against  the 
common  enemy,  a  numerous  army  was 
raised,  and  sent  by  the  pope  to  Africa  with 
the  standard  of  St.  Peter,  and  remission  of 
all  the  sins  they  had  committed  till  the  day 
of  their  embarkation.  Upon  their  landing 
in  Africa  they  committed  as  dreadful  ravages 
there  as  the  Saracens  had  done  in  Italy,  put 
j  an  hundred  thousand  of  them  to  the  sword, 
:  laid  their  chief  city  in  ashes,  and  returned 
j  home  loaded  with  an  immense  booty.     We 

'  Chron.  Virdun.  torn.  Concil.  x.       '  Chron.  Cassin. 


413 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Victor  HI. 


Council  of  Benevento — Decree  against  lay  investitures.     Death  of  Victor. 


are  told  that  it  was  known  at  Rome  they 
had  gained  a  complete  victory  over  the  Sara- 
cens, the  very  day  on  which  the  battle  was 
fought;  which  plainly  shows,  says  the  his- 
torian, that  the  expedition  was  pleasing  to 
Godj'  that  is,  that  God  was  pleased  with 
the  massacre  of  so  many  thousands.  Of 
this  expedition  mention  is  made  by  Ber- 
tholdus,  and  the  glorious  success  that  at- 
tended it  is  by  him  chiefly  ascribed  to  the 
people  of  Genoa  and  Pisa,  both  states  being 
at  this  time  in  a  very  flourishing  condition, 
and  powerful  at  sea.  That  writer  adds,  that 
they  obliged  the  pagan  king  to  take  shelter 
in  a  strong-hold,  which  they  attacked  with 
such  fury,  that  the  king,  fearing  he  should 
fall  into  their  hands,  agreed  to  acknowledge 
himself  a  vassal  and  tributary  to  the  pope.^ 

Victor,  soon  after  his  return  to  Monte 
Cassino,  appointed  a  council  to  meet  at 
Benevento;  but  it  consisted  only  of  the  bi- 
shops of  Apulia,  Calabria,  and  the  neigh- 
boring countries.  However,  the  pope  as- 
sisted, and  presided  at  it  in  person.  In  that 
council  the  pope,  after  a  most  furious  in- 
vective against  Guibert,  as  the  forerunner 
of  anti-Christ,  as  a  ravenous  wolf  let  loose 
against  the  flock  of  Christ,  cursed,  excom- 
municated, and  anathematized  him  anew. 
In  the  next  place  the  pope,  having  ac- 
quainted the  bishops  of.  the  assembly  with 
the  behavior  of  Hugh,  archbishop  of  Lions, 
who,  he  said,  had  not  acknowledged  him, 
for  no  other  reason  but  because  he  had  ac- 
cepted the  pontifical  dignity,  which  the 
other  panted  after,  he  forbad  them  to  com- 
municate with  him,  or  with  Richard,  abbot 
of  Marseilles,  and  cardinal,  who  had  joined 
him  for  the  same  reason,  and  jointly  with 
him  endeavored  to  divide  the  church  with  a 
new  schism.  Lastly,  Victor,  to  show  him- 
self a  worthy  successor  of  Gregory,  re- 
newed in  this  council  the  decrees  that  pope 
had  made  against  lay  investitures,  and  the 
following-  decree  was  issued :  "  If  any  one 
shall  henceforth  receive  a  bishopric  or  abbey 
from  the  hand  of  a  layman,  let  him  not  be 
looked  upon  as  a  bishop  or  an  abbot,  nor 
reverenced  as  such.  We  deprive  him  of 
the  protection  of  St.  Peter,  and  forbid  him  to 
enter  the  church,  till  he  has  resigned  the 
place  which  he  has  accepted,  and  could  not 
accept  without  being  guilty  of  ambition  and 
disobedience,  which  is  idolatry.  And  this 
decree  extends  to  all  -inferior  dignities  and 
preferments  in  the  church.  If  any  emperor, 
king,  duke,  prince,  or  count,  or  any  other 
secular  person  whatever,  shall  presume  to 
dispose  of  any  ecclesiastical  dignity,  we  in- 
clude him  in  the  same  sentence ;  and  they 
too  are  included,  who  communicate  with 
such  bishops,  abbots,  and  clerks.  Let  no 
man  receive  the  communion  from  any  but  a 
catholic.     If  no  catholic  priest  is  to  be  found, 

>  Leo  Ost.  1.  iii.  c.  67. 

2  Bertbold.  in  Cbion.  ad  ann.  1088. 


it  is  belter  to  be  deprived  of  the  visible  com- 
munion, and  communicate  invisibly  with 
God,  than  to  be  separated  from  him  by  re- 
ceiving it  from  a  heretic.'"  The  pope  here 
supposes  the  receiving  of  any  ecclesiastical 
preferment  from  a  layman  to  be  simony  and 
heresy. 

While  the  council  was  sitting  the  pope 
was  taken  dangerously  ill ;  and  he  there- 
upon returned  in  great  haste  to  Monte  Cas- 
sino, attended  by  several  cardinals  and  all 
the  bishops  of  the  council.  As  his  illness 
increased,  he  ordered  the  monks  to  assemble 
in  the  chapter-house,  and  having  caused 
himself  to  be  carried  thither,  he  appointed 
Oderisius,  monk  of  that  monastery,  and 
deacon  of  the  Roman  church,  abbot  in  his 
room,  forbad  him  and  the  abbots  who  should 
succeed  him,  to  alienate  any  lands,  houses, 
or  tenements,  belonging  to  the  monastery, 
on  pain  of  excommunication,  and  com- 
manded all  the  monasteries  under  the  juris- 
diction of  Monte  Cassino  to  entertain,  once 
a  year,  at  dinner,  all  the  monks  of  that  mo- 
nastery. The  next  day  he  called  together 
the  bishops  and  cardinals,  and  after  a  pa- 
thetic speech  upon  the  distracted  state  of  the 
church,  he  warmly  recommended  to  them 
Otto,  or  Otho,  bishop  of  Ostia,  for  his  suc- 
cessor, as  one  whom  Gregory  himself  had 
nominated  to  succeed  him.  The  pope  then 
taking  Otto,  as  he  was  present,  by  the  hand, 
and  presenting  him  to  the  other  cardinals 
and  bishops,  said,  "Receive  him  in  my 
room,  and  place  him  in  the  Roman  see." 
He  then  ordered  his  grave  to  be  dug  in  the 
chapter-house,  and  died,  three  days  after, 
on  the  sixteenth  of  September,  1087,  having 
held  the  see  from  the  time  of  his  election, 
one  year,  and  from  his  consecration  five 
months  and  seven  days.^ 

Hugh  of  Flavigni,  who  was  no  friend  to 
this  pope,  writes,  that  he  was  struck  by  the 
hand  of  God  while  he  was  celebrating  mass 
in  St.  Peter's ;  and  that  to  atone  for  his  am- 
bition in  usurping  the  apostolic  see,  he  re- 
signed his  dignity  before  he  died,  and  order- 
ed the  monks  of  Monte  Cassino  to  bury  him 
as  abbot,  and  not  as  pope.'''  But  this  story 
is  of  a  piece  with  that  of  Trithemius,  as- 
cribing Victor's  death  to  poison,  which  he 
says  the  emperor  caused  to  be  mixed  with 
the  wine  of  the  sacrament.*  He  died,  ac- 
cording to  Sigebert,^  of  a  flux,  and,  as  we 
learn  from  his  epitaph,  in  one  of  the  chapels 
of  Monte  Cassino,  in  the  sixtieth  year  of  his 
age.  He  was  descended  from  the  illustrious 
family  of  the  dukes  of  Benevento,  embraced 
a  monastic  life  in  the  monastery  of  Cava, 
in  1050,  succeeded  pope  Stephen  IX.  as 
abbot  of  the  monastery  of  Monte  Cassino 
in  1058,  and  was  created  a  cardinal  by  pope 
Nicholas  II. ,  in   1059.     He  is  honored  by 


1  Leo  Ost.  1.  iii.  c.  71.  »  Idem  ibid, 

s  Hugo  Flavin,  in  Chron  Virdun. 
*  Trithem.  de  Viris  illust.  I.  iv.  c.  13. 
'  Bigebert  in  Chron.  ad  ann.  1086. 


Urban  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


413 


Election  of  Urban  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1088.]     His  birth,  education,  &c.    His  circulatory  letters. 


the  Benedictines  as  a  saint,  and  his  relics 
are  worshipped  to  this  day  in  the  magnifi- 
cent chapel  of  St.  Bartharius,  at  Monte  Cas- 
sino.  Victor  had  adopted  ail  the  maxims  of 
Gregory,  and  would  have  proved,  had  he 
lived  longer,  a  no  less  dangerous  enemy  to 
the  emperor. 

Victor  wrote,  while  he  was  abbot,  four 
books  of  dialogues  upon  the  miracles  of  St. 
Benedict,   and   the  other  monks  of  Monte 


Cassino.'  The  three  first  books  have  reached 
our  times,2  but  the  fourth  is  supposed  to  be 
lost;  and,  as  far  as  we  can  judge  from  the 
three  that  are  still  extant,  we  have  no  reason 
to  grieve  for  the  lossof  the  fourth.  Rewrote 
very  n)any  letters,  says  Petrus  Diaconus, 
after  his  promotion,  to  Philip,  king  of 
France,  and  to  Hugh,  abbot  of  Cluny."  But 
those  letters  have  all  undergone  the  same 
fate  as  his  Fourth  Book  of  Dialogues. 


URBAN  11. ,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  FIFTY-SEVENTH  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[Alexius  Comnenus,  Emperor  of  the  East. — Henry  IV.,  Emperor  of  the  West."] 


[Year  of  Christ,  1088.]  Victor's  death 
was  no  sooner  known  than  the  Romans, 
who  had  sided  with  him  against  Guibert, 
and  the  countess  Mathilda,  apprehending 
the  dangerous  consequences  of  a  long  va- 
cancy, dispatched  messengers  to  all  the  bi- 
shops of  their  party,  pressing  them  to  meet, 
as  soon  as  they  possibly  could,  in  what  place 
they  should  j  udge  the  most  proper,  it  not  being 
safe  for  them  to  come  to  Rome,  and  to  proceed, 
without  delay,  to  the  election  of  a  new  pope. 
Hereupon  it  was  agreed  by  the  cardinals 
who  had  attended  the  deceased  pope  at 
Monte  Cassino,  and  by  Oderisius,  abbot  of 
that  monastery,  that  they  should  assemble  at 
Terracina,  in  Campania,  the  first  week  in 
Lent  of  the  following  year,  1088.  Thi^  re- 
solution they  notified  to  all  the  bishops  and 
abbots  of  Apulia,  Calabria,  Campania,  and 
likewise  to  the  clergy  and  people  of  Rome, 
desiring  the  bishops  who  could  not  attend 
in  person,  to  send  deputies,  with  a  power, 
in  writing,  to  agree,  in  their  name,  to  the 
resolutions  that  should  be  taken  by  the  as- 
sembly for  the  good  of  the  church.  They 
met  at  the  time  and  place  appointed,  John, 
bishop  of  Porto,  representing  the  clergy,  and 
Benedict,  prefect  of  Rome,  the  laity  of  that 
city.  The  bishops  and  abbots  were  in  all 
forty,  and  it  was  agreed,  at  their  first  meet- 
ing, that  they  should  spend  three  days  in 
prayer  and  fasting,  beseeching  the  Almighty 
to  direct  them  in  their  choice.  They  met 
again  on  Sunday,  the  12th  of  March,  when 
Otto  was  unanimously  chosen,  and  placed 
on  the  bishop's  throne,  amidst  the  loud  ac- 
clamations of  all  who  were  present.  They 
named  him  Urban  II.,  and  after  his  election 
he  said  solemn  mass  in  the  church  of  St. 
Peterand  St.  Cesarius,  where  he  was  elected.' 

That  Otto,  or,  as  some  call  him,  Otho  and 
Odo,  was  born  in  the  province  of  Reims,  is 
agreed  on  all  hands,  but  whether  at  Chatil- 
lon  on  the  Marne,  or  at  Lageri,  or  in  the  city 


of  Reims,  is  uncertain,  some  calling  him  a 
native  of  one  of  these  places,  and  some  of 
another.  He  is  said  by  all  writers,  who  speak 
of  him,  to  have  been  brought  up  in  the 
church  of  Reims  under  the  famous  Bruno, 
founder  of  the  order  of  Carthusians,  and  at 
that  time  chancellor  of  that  church.  He 
was  afterwards  made  a  canon  of  the  church 
of  Reims  ;  but  tired  of  the  world  he  soon 
embraced  a  monastic  life  in  the  monastery 
of  Cluny,  and  was  there  appointed  prior  by 
the  famous  abbot  St.  Odo.  In  1078,  Gre- 
gory VII.,  who  had  been  acquainted  with 
him  while  he  lived  in  that  monastery,  called 
him  to  Rome,  raised  him  soon  after  to  the 
see  of  Ostia,  and  sent  him,  as  a  man  of  his 
own  principles  and  temper,  into  Germany, 
to  foment  and  improve  the  misunderstanding 
that  then  subsisted  between  the  emperor  and 
his  German  subjects. 

Urban  wrote  soon  after  his  election  cir- 
culatory letters,  addressed  to  all  the  faithful, 
to  acquaint  them  with  his  promotion,  and 
at  the  same  time  to  let  them  know,  that  he 
was  resolved  strictly  to  observe  all  the  re- 
gulations, and  inviolably  adhere  to  all  the 
decrees  of  his  predecessor  Gregory.  These 
letters  have  not  reached  us,  the  register  of 
Urban's  letters  being  lost;  but  express  men- 
tion is  made  of  them  by  Ordericus  Vitalis, 
who  tells  us,  that  Urban  wrote  letters  and 
sent  legates  into  all  the  parts  of  the  world  ; 
that  Henry,  prince  of  the  Germans,  was 
the  only  one  that  adhered  to  Guibert;  that 
the  French,  the  English,  and  all  other  nations 
upon  the  earth  acknowledged  Urban."*  But 
that  writer  was  certainly  misinformed  with 
respect  to  the  English,  nothing  being  more 
certain,  than  that  neither  of  the  pretenders 
to  the  papacy  was  owned  in  England  till 
several  years  after,  as  I  shall  have  occasion 
to  relate  in  the  sequel. 


Petrua  Diacon.  in  Chron.  Cassin.  1.  iv.  c.  2. 


«  PetriiR  Diac.  c.  18. 

»  Uibliothec.  Patrum,  torn.  18. 

4  Orderic.  I.  viii. 

2k2 


>  Idem  ibid. 


414 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES. 


[Urban  11. 


Urban  appoints  the  archbishop  of  Toledo  primate  of  all  Spain.  Council  of  Rome  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1089.] 
Council  of  Melfi.  The  marriage  of  Mathilda.  The  emperor  reduces  several  places  in  Italy  ;— [Year  of  Christ, 
1090.] 


The  pope  wrote  in  the  month  of  October 
of  the  present  year  to  Alphonsus  son  of 
Idelphonsus  V.  king  of  Leon  and  Castile,  on 
the  following  occasion.  That  prince  having 
in  1085  recovered,  after  a  long  siege,  the 
city  of  Toledo  from  the  Moors,  who  had  held 
it,  says  the  pope  in  his  letter,  for  the  space 
of  370  years,  he  appointed  all  the  lords, 
bishops,  and  abbots  of  his  kingdom  to  meet 
there,  in  order  to  choose  a  bishop  capable  of 
restoring  the  Christian  religion  to  its  ancient 
splendor  in  that  metropolis.  By  that  assem- 
bly was  unanimously  chosen  Bernard,  a 
monk  of  the  Benedictine  order,  a  man  held 
by  all  in  great  esteem  for  the  sanctity  of  his 
life  and  his  learning.  The  king,  pleased 
with  the  election,  endowed  the  church,  says 
the  historian,  very  richly,  and  in  1088  sent 
the  archbishop  to  Rome  for  the  pall,  en- 
treating his  holiness,  in  the  letter  he  wrote 
to  him  on  that  occasion,  not  only  to  grant 
him  the  pall,  but  to  appoint  him  primate  of 
all  Spain  and  Gothic  Gaul.  The  pope  re- 
ceived the  archbishop  with  all  possible  marks 
of  distinction,  gave  him  the  pall  when  he 
was  first  introduced  to  him,  and  a  few  days 
after  issued  a  bull,  restoring  to  the  see  of 
Toledo  all  the  privileges  that  it  had  ever 
enjoyed,  declaring  Bernard  primate  of  all 
Spain  and  Gothic  Gaul,  and  commanding 
all  the  bishops  in  those  parts  to  consult  and 
obey  him  as  such.'  This  bull  is  dated 
Anagni  1088,  the  first  year  of  lord  Urban's 
pontificate.  This  bull  the  archbishops  of 
Taracon  and  Narbonne  rejected  as  surrepti- 
tious, maintaining  that  the  archbishops  of 
Toledo  had  never  exercised  any  sort  of 
jurisdiction  in  the  other  provinces  of  Spain, 
as  they  were  supposed  to  have  done  in  that 
bull.  But  the  pope,  resolved  to  gratify  the 
king,  in  order  to  put  a  stop  at  once  to  that 
dispute,  declared  Bernard  his  legate,  vesting 
him  with  the  legatine  power  over  all  the 
provinces  of  Spain,  and  that  of  Narbonne.^ 
The  primacy,  granted  by  Urban  to  Bernard, 
was  confirmed  by  seven  popes  to  that 
bishop's  successors  in  the  see  of  Toledo,  but 
it  has  ever  been  disputed  by  the  Spanish 
bishops  and  the  archbishops  of  Narbonne.^ 

The  following  year  1089  Urban  assembled 
a  council  at  Rome,  said  to  have  consisted 
of  one  hundred  and  fifteen  bishops ;  and  by 
that  council  Guibert  was  excommunicated, 
and  with  him  the  emperor,  and  all  who  ad- 
hered to  the  one  or  the  other.  Thus  were 
all  the  bishops  of  Germany  but  five,  cut  off 
from  the  communion  of  the  church ;  for  at 
this  time  all  but  five,  namely,  those  of 
Wirceburg,  Passau,  Worms,  Constance,  and 
Metz,  adhered  to  Guibert  and  the  emperor. 
As  these  excommunications  produced  great 
confusion  in  Germany,  and  furnished  the 
malecontents   with  a  plausible  pretence  to 


'  Roderic.  I.  vi.  c.  23.  «  Concil.  torn.  x.  p.  459. 

=  See  Marca  Dissert,  de  Primatibus,  Num.  125. 


lake  up  arms  against  their  sovereign,  many 
of  Henry's  friends  advised  him  to  come  to 
an  agreement  with  the  new  pope,  and  for- 
saking Guibert  to  acknowledge  him.  The 
emperor  was  not  averse  to  a  reconciliation  ; 
but  the  bishops  of  his  party  were  all  to  a 
man  against  it,  sensible  that,  as  they  had 
received  their  bishoprics  from  him,  the  pope 
would  insist  on  their  resigning  them  ;  and 
thus  were  all  thoughts  of  a  reconciliation 
laid  aside. 

The  pope,  upon  the  breaking  up  of  the 
council  at  Rome,  left  that  city,  not  thinking 
himself  safe  there,  and  after  a  short  stay  at 
Terracina,  went  from  thence  to  Melfi,  in 
Apulia,  where  he  held  a  council,  at  which 
were  present  seventy  bishops,  twelve  abbots, 
Roger,  duke  of  Apulia  and  Calabria,  and  all 
the  Norman  lords.  By  this  council  the  de- 
crees of  Gregory  against  lay  investitures,  and 
the  marriage  of  the  clergy,  were  confirmed  ; 
and  it  was,  besides,  decreed  that  none  should 
be  admitted  to  orders  who  had  been  twice 
married ;  that  no  subdeacon  should  be  or- 
dained under  fourteen  years  of  age,  no  dea- 
con under  twenty,  and  no  priest  under 
thirty ;  that  no  person  of  servile  condition 
should  be  received  among  the  clergy ;  that 
abbots  should  exact  no  money  of  those  who 
take  the  monastic  habit;  that  laymen  might 
make  the  wives,  or,  as  they  are  called,  the 
concubines,  of  the  clergy,  slaves;  and  that 
the  sons  of  the  clergy  should  not  be  admitted 
into  the  sacred  order,  unless  they  embraced 
a  monastic  life.'  In  this  council  the  pope 
invested  Roger,  the  son  of  Robert  Guiscard, 
in  the  dukedom  of  Apulia  and  Calabria,  by 
delivering  to  him  the  standard  of  St.  Peter, 
after  he  had  sworn  allegiance  to  his  lord. 
Urban,  and  to  his  successors,  canonically 
elected.2  From  Melfi  the  pope  repaired  to 
Bari,  and  there,  at  the  request  of  duke 
Roger,  and  his  brother  Boamund,  conse- 
created  Elias,  lately  preferred  to  that  see. 

As  the  emperor's  party  gained  daily  new 
strength,  the  pope,  to  strengthen  his,  pro- 
posed to  Guelph,  duke  of  Bavaria,  a  mar- 
riage between  his  son,  named  likewise 
Guelph,  and  the  countess  Mathilda.  As  the 
countess  possessed  large  territories  in  Italy, 
the  duke  readily  agreed  to  the  proposal,  and 
so  did  Mathilda,  though  she  was  then  forty 
years  of  age,  merely  to  gratify  the  pope,  and 
engage  the  duke  of  Bavaria  in  his  interest; 
for  we  are  told  that  she  lived  with  her  hus- 
band as  with  a  brother."  The  emperor  no 
sooner  heard  of  this  marriage,  than  march- 
ing into  Italy,  he  attacked  and  reduced  several 
strong-holds  belonging  to  the  countess  in 
Lombardy,  and  the  city  of  Mantua  among 
the  rest,  after  an  eleven  months'  siege.  As 
many  were  killed  on  both  sides  in  this  war, 
Godfrey,  who  had  succeeded  Anselra  in  the 


«  Concil.  t.  X.  p.  478.       a  Bomuald.  Salem,  in  Chron. 
3  Bertold.  ad  ann.  1089. 


Urban  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


415 


Guibert  recalled  to  Rome.     Council  of  Benevento  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1091.]     Council   of  Troia  ;— [Year  of 
Christ,  109.'*.]     Conrad  rebels  against  the  emperor,  his  father. 


bishopric  of  Lucca,  applied  to  Urban  to 
know  how  he  should  deal  with  those  who 
had  killed  excommunicated  persons,  what 
penance  he  should  impose  upon  them,  or 
whether  he  should  impose  any.  The  pope 
answered  that  they  were  to  be  judged  ac- 
cording to  their  intention;  and  that  he  did 
not  hold  those  to  be  guilty  of  murder  who, 
burning  with  zeal  for  their  catholic  mother 
against  her  enemies,  had  happened  to  kill 
some  of  them  ;  but  nevertheless  that  some 
penance  should  be  enjoined  them,  in  com- 
pliance with  the  discipline  of  the  church, 
that  they  may  thus  atone  for  their  frailty  in 
case  they  had  not  been  actuated  by  zeal 
alone;'  which  was  declaring  that  any  man 
might,  with  a  safe  conscience,  put  those  to 
death  whom  the  pope  had  excommunicated, 
provided  he  was,  or  thought  he  was, 
prompted  to  it  by  zeal  for  the  church.  To 
this  hellish  principle  are  owing  so  many 
massacres  and  the  extirpation  of  whole  na- 
tions. The  reduction  of  Mantua  encouraged 
the  emperor's  friends  in  Rome;  and  they 
took  by  surprise  the  castle  of  St.  Angelo, 
recalled  Guibert,  and  put  him  again  in  pos- 
session of  St.  Peter's  church  and  the  Lateran 
palace. 

In  the  meantime  Urban,  continuing  in 
Apulia,  under  the  protection  of  duke  Roger 
and  the  other  Norman  princes,  held  a  coun- 
cil at  Benevento,  on  the  28th  of  March, 
1091.  By  this  assembly  the  anathemas 
against  Guibert  and  all  his  accomplices 
were  repeated,  and  the  following  regula- 
tions were  made  relating  to  the  discipline 
of  the  church,  namely,  that  for  the  future 
none  should  be  elected  bishops  who  were 
not  in  holy  orders,  that  is,  who  were  not 
priests  or  deacons ;  that  as  to  subdeacons, 
they  should  be  elected  very  rarely,  and 
never  consecrated  without  the  approbation 
of  the  pope,  as  well  as  the  approbation  of 
the  metropolitan  ;  that  no  layman  should  eat 
flesh  after  Ash-Wednesday  ;  that  the  faith- 
ful, laymen  as  well  as  clerks,  women  as 
as  well  as  men,  should,  on  that  day,  have 
their  heads  sprinkled  with  ashes,  a  cere- 
mony that  is  observed  to  this  day ;  that  no 
marriages  should  be  celebrated  from  Septua- 
gessima  till  after  the  octave  of  pentecost,  nor 
from  Advent  till  after  the  octave  of  the  epi- 
phany.* 

From  Benevento  Urban  repaired  to  Sa- 
lerno, where  he  consecrated  the  church  of 
the  Holy  Trinity,  and  from  Salerno  to  Troia 
in  Apulia,  in  which  city  he  held  a  council, 
consisting  of  about  one  hundred  bishops  ; 
and  by  them  marriages  within  the  forbidden 
degrees  were  declared  null,  and  they,  who 
had  contracted  such  marriages,  were  al- 
lowed, if  young,  to  marry  again;'  which  is 
contrary  to  the  doctrine  now  taught  and 
practised  in  the  church  of  Rome. 


In  the  mean  time  the  emperor  pursued, 
with  great  success,  the  war  in  Lombardy, 
against  the   united    forces   of  the  countess 
Mathilda  and  the  duke  of  Bavaria,  defeated 
them  in  the   field,   and  reduced  the  whole 
country  beyond  the  Po.     But  being  obliged 
to  return  to  Germany,  where  new  disturb- 
ances were  raised  by  the  friends  and  emis- 
saries of  the  pope,  he  left  his  son  Conrad  to 
carry  on  his  conquests  in  Lombardy  till  his 
return.     But  he  was  scarce  gone,  when  the 
young  prince,  gained  by  the  artful  insinua- 
tions of  Mathilda,  rebelled  against  his  father, 
and  taking  upon  him  the  title  of  king  of 
Italy,  was  crowned,  according  to  custom,  at 
Milan  by  Anselm,  archbishop  of  that  city.' 
Conrad  is  said  by  most  of  the  contemporary 
writers  to  have  been  instigated  to  this  un- 
natural and  highly  criminal  rebellion,  not 
by  the  pope,  but  by  the  countess.     How- 
ever that  be,  it  is  certain,  that  the  pope  ap- 
proved, if  he  did  not  advise  it.     For  upon 
the  archbishop's  refusing  to  crown  him  till 
he  was  absolved  by  the  pope  from  the  ex- 
communication which  he  had  incurred  by 
siding  with  his  father,  he  applied  to  Urban, 
and   was   by   him   immediately   absolved;* 
which  was  evidently  consenting  to  his  re- 
bellion, nay,  and  rewarding  it  with  the  king- 
dom of  Italy.     Dodechinus  and  Helmoldus, 
two  writers  who  lived  near  those  times,  but 
were  both  avowed  enemies  to  the  emperor, 
to  excuse  the  rebellion  of  his  son  tell  us, 
that  the  emperor,  having  conceived  an  irre- 
concileable  aversion  to  the  empress  Adelais, 
called  also  Praxedes,  ordered  several  of  the 
lords  of  his  court,  and  among  the  rest  his 
son  Conrad,  whom  he  had  by  his  first  wife 
Bertha,  to  ravish  her;  and  that  upon  his  re- 
fusing to  obey  so  wicked  a  command,  the 
unnatural  father  gave  out  that  he  was  not 
his  son,  but  the  son  of  a  Suabian  lord,  whom 
he  greatly  resembled.   This  aflfront,  say  those 
writers,  so  provoked  the  young  prince,  that, 
in  order  to   revenge  it,  he  took   up  arms 
against  his  father,  and  joined  his  enemies.^ 
We  read  in  other  writers,  that  the  emperor 
obliged  some  to  commit,  by  force,  the  crime 
of  adultery   with  the  empress,  hoping  he 
should,  by  that  means,  procure  a  divorce, 
and  from  the  acts  of  the  council  of  Placentia 
in  1095,  it  appears  that  Adelais  applied  to 
the  bishops  of  that  assembly  for  absolution 
from  the  impudicities  which  she  had  invo- 
luntarily committed.     But  none,  even  of  the 
emperor's  most  inveterate  enemies,  besides 
the  two  I  have  mentioned,  take  any  notice 
of  his  commanding  his  son  to  offer  any  vio- 
lence to  the  empress,  which  they  would  not 
have  passed  over  in  silence  had  it  been  true. 
To  this  crime  Aventinus  probably  alluded, 
when  he  wrote,  that  the  emperor's  enemies 
had  charged  him  with  crimes  that  were  not 
so  much  as  known  by  name  to  the  French 


«  Ivo,  part  XX.  c.  64. 

'  Gratiaii  35.    Guest,  v.  c.  4. 


»  Concil.  t.  X.  p.  484. 
Magisl.  Bent.  c.  41. 


>  Anct.  Anon.  Vit.  llenrici.        ^  Uodechin  in  Chron. 
'  Dudecliin.  et  llelmold.  ad  ann.  ]093. 


416 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Urban  H. 


Advantages  gained  over  the  emperor  in  Italy.     DietofUlin.     Urban  returns  to  Rome.     Recovers  the  Lateran 
palace.     Philip,  king  of  France,  excommunicated  by  the  pope's  legate. 


and  Germans,  and  could  only  be  met  with  in 
the  lives  of  the  Caesars  written  by  Suetonius.' 

The  party  of  Urban  and  Mathilda  being 
greatly  strengthened  by  the  rebellion  of  Con- 
rad, whom  many  of  the  Italian  lords  readily 
joined,  they  recovered,  jointly  with  the  forces 
of  the  duke  of  Bavaria,  Milan,  Cremona, 
Lodi,  Placentia,  and  most  other  places  that 
the  emperor  had  taken.  The  people  of 
Toul  and  Metz  drove  out  the  bishops,  whom 
the  emperor  had  preferred  to  those  sees.  In 
Germany  several  lords  followed  the  duke  of 
Bavaria,  and  declaring  against  the  emperor, 
appointed  a  diet  to  meet  at  Ulm,  in  order  to 
consult  together  about  the  measures  they 
should  pursue  against  the  schismatics  and 
rebels  to  the  holy  apostolic  see.  To  this 
assembly  the  pope  dispatched  Gebehard, 
bishop  of  Constans,  with  the  character  of 
his  legate.  In  this  diet,  which  is  said  to 
have  been  very  numerous,  it  was  agreed, 
that  they  should  in  all  things  obey  the  le- 
gate, and  act  according  to  his  directions.^ 

As  the  affairs  of  the  emperor  daily  de- 
clined, the  friends  of  Urban  in  Rome  drove 
out  Guibert,  recalled  him,  received  him  with 
all  possible  marks  of  joy,  and  put  him  again 
in  possession  of  the  church  of  St.  Peter, 
where  he  celebrated  mass  on  Christmas-day, 
1093.  But  Guibert's  party  still  held  the 
castle  of  St.  Angelo  and'the  Lateran  palace, 
and  the  pope  was  obliged  to  lie  concealed  in 
the  house  of  a  Roman  nobleman  named 
Frangipane.  In  the  mean  time  Geffrey, 
lately  chosen  abbot  of  the  Trinity  at  Ven- 
dome,  hearing  that  the  pope  was  reduced  to 
great  straits  for  want  of  money,  set  out  for 
Rome  in  disguise,  taking  with,,  him  a  con- 
siderable sum  to  lay  at  his  holiness's  feet. 
He  had  the  good  luck  to  reach  Rome  undis- 
covered; and  being  introduced  to  the  pope  in 
the  night,  he  found  him  not  only  quite  des- 
titute of  money,  but  overwhelmed  with  debt. 
The  arrival  of  the  abbot  proved  very  season- 
able; for  the  money  he  brought  with  him 
not  only  served  to  supply  all  the  pope's 
wants,  but  to  recover  the  Lateran  palace, 
which  Guibert  had  held  ever  since  the  year 
1084.  Guibert,  upon  his  leaving  Rome, 
had  committed  the  custody  of  the  Lateran 
palace  to  one  Ferruchius,  who,  betraying 
the  trust  reposed  in  him,  sent  privately  one 
of  his  friends  to  let  the  pope  know  that  he 
would  deliver  up  the  palace  to  him  for  a 
certain  sum  of  money.  As  his  demand  did 
not  exceed  the  sum  that  the  abbot  had  sup- 
plied him  with,  he  hearkened  to  the  pro- 
posal, paid  the  money,  and  got  possession 


Urban  was  easily  prevailed  upon  by  the 
countess  Mathilda  to  leave  Rome,  and  repair 
to  Lombardy,  in  order  to  encourage,  with 
his  presence,  those  who  had  declared  for 
him  in  those  parts.  He  passed  the  summer 
in  Lombardy  with  the  countess,  and  re- 
tiring as  winter  approached  to  Tuscany,  that 
belonged  to  her,  he  kept  his  Christmas  there, 
not  caring  to  come  to  Rome,  so  long  as  the 
castle  of  St.  Angelo  was  held  by  the  friends 
of  Guibert. 

In  the  mean  time  some  of  the  Gallican 
bishops,  and  Ivo  of  Chartres  among  the 
rest,  wrote  to  Urban,  begging  he  would  in- 
terpose his  authority,  and  remove  the  scan- 
dals which  their  king,  Philip,  had  given,  by 
his  new  marriage,  to  the  whole  nation. 
Philip  had,  under  color  of  consanguinity, 
dismissed  his  lawful  wife  Bertha,  by  whom 
he  had  Lewis,  who  afterwards  succeeded 
him  in  the  kingdom,  and  married  Bertrada, 
who  leaving  Fulco,  count  of  Anjou,  her 
lawful  husband,  had  taken  refuge  in  his 
court,  apprehending,  says  Ordericus,  that 
the  count  would,  in  a  short  time,  treat  her 
as  he  had  treated  his  two  former  wives.' 
This  marriage  gave  great  offence  to  the  bi- 
shops, and  the  pope  was  no  sooner  informed 
of  it  than  he  wrote  to  them,  commanding 
them  to  represent  to  the  king  the  enormity 
of  his  crime,  and  at  the  same  time  to  let  him 
know  that  unless  he  dismissed  Bertrada,  and 
recalled  Bertha,  he  would  proceed  against 
him  according  to  the  rigor  of  the  canons. 
But  the  bishops  not  bemg  able  to  prevail 
upon  him  to  part  with  Bertrada,  who  is  said 
to  have  excelled  in  beauty  all  the  women  at 
that  time  in  France,  the  pope,  who  had  re- 
ceived Hugh,  archbishop  of  Lions,  into 
favor,  though  excommunicated  by  his  pre- 
decessor, reinstated  him  in  the  legatine  dig- 
nity, which  he  had  enjoyed  in  France  under 
Gregory,  and  ordered  him  to  inquire  into 
the  king's  marriage  and  divorce,  and  to  pro- 
ceed in  that  affair  as  was  directed  by  the 
canons.  Hugh  no  sooner  found  himself  re- 
stored to  his  former  dignity,  than  assembling 
a  council  at  Autun  on  the  sixteenth  of  Oc- 
tober of  the  present  year  1094,  he  first  re- 
newed the  excommunication  against  the  em- 
peror, against  Guibert,  and  all  who  adhered 
to  the  one  or  the  other;  and  then,  after  ex- 
horting the  bishops  to  join  him  in  vindi- 
cating the  honor  of  God  and  his  church,  he 
thundered  out  the  sentence  of  excommuni- 
cation against  the  king  for  taking,  in  his 
lawful  wife's  life-time,  another  woman  to 
his  bed  as  his  wife.^    Hereupon  the  king 


of  the  palace,  where  he  was  immediately  j  sent  immediately  deputies  to  Rome  to  assure 
placed  in  the  pontifical  chair;  and  the  abbot  the  pope,  upon  oath,  that  though  he  had  not 
was  the  first  who  kissed  his  foot  after  his  en- 1  dismissed  Bertrada,  who  had  fled  for  shelter 


thronation^    As  the   castle   of  St.  Angelo 
was  still  in  the  hands  of  Guibert's  friends. 


>  Aventin.  1.  v.  a  Bertold.  in  Chron. 

»  Goffrid.  ep.  viii.  ad  Paschal  II. 


to  his  court,  he  had  no  longer  any  criminal 
commerce  with  her,  and  therefore  to  beg 
that  his  holiness  Avould  revoke  the  sentence 


«  Orderic.  1.  viii.  p.  699. 


9  Concil.  t.  X.  p.  463. 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


417 


Urban  II.] 

Council  of  Placentia  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  1095.]     Canons  of  this  council.    Intetview  of  the  pope  and  Conrad. 

Urban  owned  in  England. 


which  his  legate  had  too  rashly  pronounced 
against  him.  The  pope,  pleased  with  the 
submission  of  the  king,  and  probably  appre- 
hending he  might,  if  provoked,  declare  for 
his  rival,  suspended  the  sentence  for  the  pre- 
sent, that  he  might  have  time  to  satisfy  him, 
by  his  conduct,  of  the  sincerity  of  his  re- 
pentance. 

As  the  pope  daily  gained  ground,  he  ap- 
pointed a  council  to  meet  at  Placentia,  in  j 
the  midst  of  his  enemies,  inviting  to  it  all 
the  bishops  of  Italy,  Germany,  and  France. 
The  council  met  at  the  time  appointed, 
namely,  on  the  first  of  March,  1095,  and  is 
said  to  have  consisted  of  two  hundred  bi- 
shops, of  near  four  thousand  other  ecclesi- 
astics, and  thirty  thousand  laymen,  insomuch 
that  no  church  being  large  enough  to  con- 
tain such  a  multitude,  they  were  obliged  to 
meet  in  the  open  fields.  The  empress  Ade- 
lais  was  not  ashamed  to  appear  before  this 
numerous  assembly,  and  owning  that,  at 
the  command  of  her  husband,  she  had  been 
ravished  by  several  persons,  begged  the  pope 
and  the  council  to  absolve  her  from  the  sins 
which  she  had  committed  against  her  will. 
Absolution  was  readily  granted  to  her  by 
the  pope  and  all  the  bishops  of  the  council; 
and  she  thereupon  withdrew,  and  returning 
to  Germany  retired  to  a  monastery,  where 
she  spent  the  remaining  part  of  her  life.' 
Her  complaints  and  the  tears  she  shed  made 
so  deep  an  impression  upon  the  minds  of 
several  of  the  emperor's  friends,  that  they 
forsook  him.  Philip,  king  of  France,  had 
promised  to  assist  at  this  council;  but  not 
caring  to  have  the  affair  of  his  divorce 
brought  before  so  numerous  an  assembly, 
he  sent  embassadors  to  excuse  his  not  at- 
tending it  in  person,  pretending  that  he  had 
set  out  for  that  purpose,  but  had  been  pre- 
vented from  pursuing  his  journey  by  some 
unforeseen  affairs  of  the  utmost  importance. 
The  embassadors  begged,  in  the  king's  name, 
and  obtained,  that  the  sentence  pronounced 
against  him  by  the  legate  and  the  council  of 
Autun,  might  not  take  place  till  Whit-Sun- 
day. Hugh,  archbishop  of  Lions,  legate  of 
the  apostolic  see  in  France,  was  summoned, 
as  well  as  all  the  other  Gallican  bishops,  to 
the  council.  But  of  that  summons  he  took 
no  kind  of  notice,  we  know  not  why,  and 
he  was,  on  that  account,  suspended  by  the 
pope  and  the  bishops  of  the  council  from  all 
the  functions  of  his  office.  Alexius  Com- 
nenus,  emperor  of  Constantinople,  sent  a 
solemn  embassy  to  the  pope  and  the  other 
bishops  of  the  council,  to  represent  to  them 
the  deplorable  condition  which  the  Christian 
religion  was  reduced  to  by  the  infidels  in  the 
East,  and  implore  their  assistance  against 
the  common  enemy.  The  pope  warmly  es- 
poused the  cause  of  those  unhappy  perse- 
cuted Christians;  and  several  of  the  great 

>  Dodecbin.  ^d  ann.  1093. 

Vol.  II.— 53 


lords,  who  were  present,  promised,  upoa 
his  applying  to  ihem,  to  go  in  persoa  to 
their  relief. 

By  this  council  the  doctrine  of  Berenga- 
rius  was  condemned  anew,  and  it  was  de- 
fined that  the  bread  and  wine  in  the  eucha- 
rist  were,  by  consecration,  changed  truly  and 
substantially  into  the  body  and  blood  of  our 
Lord  ;  the  marriage  of  all  in  holy  orders  was 
declared  unlawful,  and  the  faithful  were 
strictly  forbidden  to  be  present  at  any  func- 
tions performed  by  such  of  the  clergy  as  had 
not  parted  with  their  concubines,  that  is, 
their  wives;  orders  conferred  by  Guibert, 
or  by  bishops  whom  the  pope  had  excom- 
municated by  name,  were  declared  null,  and 
the  usual  anathemas  were  thundered  out, 
with  lighted  candles,  against  Guibert,  usurper 
of  the  apostolic  see,  and  all  who  supported 
him  in  his  wicked  usurpation.' 

Upon  the  breaking  up  of  the  council,  the 
pope  from  Placentia  set  out  for  France,  not 
caring  to  return  to  Rome  so  long  as  his  ene- 
mies were  masters  of  the  castle  of  St.  An- 
gelo.  As  he  approached  Cremona,  he  was 
met  by  the  emperor's  son,  Conrad,  and  at- 
tended by  him,  as  his  equerry,  into  the  city. 
Urban  received  him  with  all  possible  marks 
of  esteem  and  affection,  acknowledged  him 
king  of  Italy,  and  exacted  of  him,  as  such, 
an  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  apostolic  see. 
The  pope  at  the  same  time  promised  to 
maintain  him  in  possession  of  the  kingdom, 
and  assist  him,  to  the  utmost  of  his  power, 
in  obtaining  the  imperial  crown,  but  upon 
condition  that  he  should  give  up  the  inves- 
titures.'^ From  Cremona  the  pope  pursued 
his  journey  to  France,  and  Conrad  repaired 
to  Pisa,  to  receive  there  the  daughter  of 
Roger,  duke  of  Sicily,  whom  his  friends  had 
obliged  him  to  marry,  in  order  to  engage,  by 
that  alliance,  the  assistance  and  protection 
of  the  Norman  princes  against  his  father. 

The  English  nation  had  not  yet  acknow- 
ledged either  of  the  pretenders  to  the  papal 
chair,  but  they  were  brought  this  year  by 
the  art  and  address  of  Urban  to  own  him. 
This  event  is  thus  related  by  Eadmer,  who 
lived  at  this  time,  and  was  secretary  to  arch- 
bishop Anselra,  whose  life  he  wrote.  That 
prelate  being  preferred  to  the  see  of  Canter- 
bury in  1093,  applied  the  following  year  to 
the  king,  William  Rufus,  for  leave  to  go  to 
Rome,  to  receive  the  pall  of  the  pope.  The 
king  asked,  "of  which  of  the  popes;"  and 
upon  Anselm's  answering,  "  of  Urban,"  the 
king  told  him  that  Urban  was  not  owned  for 
pope  in  England ;  that  by  the  laws  of  the 
kingdom  no  one  could  go  to  Rome,  or  ac- 
knowledge any  pope  without  the  king's 
leave,  and  that  to  deprive  him  of  that  right 
was  to  deprive  him  of  his  crow"i.  Anselm 
replied,  that  while  he  was  abbot  of  Bee,  he 
had  acknowledged  Urban  for  lawful  pope. 


>  Concil.  t.  Z.  p.  503. 


a  Bertold.  in  Chron. 


418 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Urban  U. 


Urban  in  France.     Council  of  Clermont.     Philip  of  France  excommunicated.     Canons  of  this  council. 


and  never  would  depart  from  the  obedience 
he  owed  him.  Your  subjection  to  Urban, 
replied  the  king,  is  incoasistent  with  that 
which  you  OAve  to  me  as  my  subject.  The 
archbishop  boldly  answered,  that  if  his  sub- 
jection to  the  pope  was  inconsistent  with 
that  which  he  owed  to  him  as  his  subject, 
he  would  rather  leave  England,  than  with- 
hold, for  one  single  moment,  his  obedience 
to  St.  Peter  and  his  vicar.  The  king  was 
already  highly  dissatisfied,  on  other  accounts, 
with  the  archbishop's  conduct;  and  being 
provoked,  beyond  measure,  at  his  present 
haughty  and  insolent  behavior,  he  resolved 
to  rid  himself  of  a  man  of  his  turbulent  and 
inflexible  temper.  In  order  to  that  he  sent 
privately  two  of  his  chaplains  to  Rome, 
charging  them  to  get  the  pope,  if  by  any 
means  they  could,  to  send  the  pall,  not  to 
the  archbishop,  but  to  him.  The  two  en- 
voys applied  to  Urban,  who,  upon  their  ac- 
quainting him  with  the  king's  request,  and 
assuring  him.  at  the  same  time,  that  if  it 
were  complied  with,  the  king  would  cause 
him  to  be  owned  by  the  whole  kingdom, 
readily  promised  to  send  over  the  pall  to  be 
disposed  of  as  the  king  should  think  good. 
The  pall  was  accordingly  sent  by  Walter, 
bishop  of  Albano,  who,  coming  to  England 
with  the  envoys,  avoided  seeing  the  arch- 
bishops as  he  passed  through  Canterbury, 
and  went  straight  to  theliing,  who  immedi- 
ately granted  him  an  audience.  In  that  au- 
dience the  legate,  who  was  a  man  of  great 
address,  taking  no  notice  of  the  pall,  nor 
speaking  a  single  word  in  favor  of  the  arch- 
bishop, assured  the  king  that  his  holiness 
was  disposed  to  grant  him  his  request,  and 
ready  to  gratify  him  in  every  thing  else  that 
lay  in  his  power,  provided  he  owned  him, 
and  caused  him  to  be  owned  by  all  his  sub- 
jects for  lawful  pope.  The  king  did  so,  not 
doubting  but  the  legate  would  faithfully 
perform  what  he  had  promised  in  the  pope's 
name,  and  that  the  pall  would  be  delivered 
to  him  with  full  power  to  dispose  of  it  to 
whom  he  pleased.  But,  instead  of  that,  the 
legate,  having  obtained  all  he  wanted,  un- 
dertook to  reconcile  the  king  to  the  archbi- 
shop ;  and  in  that  too  he  succeeded,  the 
king  restoring,  in  appearance,  the  archbi- 
shop to  his  favor,  lest  the  world  should 
know  that  he  had  been  so  grossly  imposed 
upon.  He  begged  that,  at  least,  the  pall 
might  be  delivered  to  him,  and  that  the 
archbishop  might  receive  it  from  his  hands. 
But  he  could  not  obtain  even  that  favor  of 
the  legate,  pretending  that  he  was  charged 
by  the  pope  to  dehver  it  to  him  with  his  own 
hand ;  and  he  went  accordingly  to  Canter- 
bury, and  there  delivered  it  to  him  with 
more  pomp  and  solemnity  than  usual.* 

We  left  Urban  on  his  journey  from  Cre- 
mona to  France.  He  arrived  at  Puy  in 
Velay  about  the  middle  of  August,  celebrated 


»  Eadmer,  Noor.  1.  i.  p.  25,  et  seq. 


there  the  festival  of  the  Assumption  of  the 
Virgin  Mary,  and  appointed  a  council  to 
meet  at  Clermont,  in  Auvergne,  on  the  18th 
of  November  of  the  present  year.  In  the 
mean  time  he  visited  several  places,  namely, 
Chaisedieu,  Tarrascon,  Avignon,  Ma9on  on 
the'Soane,  and  Cluny.  As  he  had  been 
prior  of  the  monastery  of  Cluny  he  con- 
tinued there  till  the  meeting  of  the  council, 
consecrated  the  high  altar,  confirmed  all  the 
privileges  granted  to  that  monastery  by  his 
predecessors,  and  added  some  new  ones  to 
them. 

As  the  time  appointed  for  the  council  to 
meet  drew  near,  the  po^^e,  leaving  Cluny, 
repaired  to  Clermont.  There  the  bishops 
all  met  for  the  first  time  on  Sunday,  the 
18th  of  November,  and  assisted  in  a  body  at 
divine  service.  The  next  day  they  assem- 
bled again,  Avhen  the  council  was  opened 
by  the  pope,  who  presided  at  it  in  person. 
It  consisted  of  twelve  archbishops,  eighty 
bishops,  and  ninety  abbots,  besides  an  in- 
finite number  of  the  inferior  clergy  and  lay- 
men, who  were  allowed  to  be  present.  The 
pope  had  invited  all  the  bishops  in  the  West 
to  this  council.  But  none  came  to  it  from 
Lorraine,  Germany, or  Hungary,  the  bishops 
in  those  parts  being  unwilling  to  disoblige 
the  emperor,  who  did  not  acknowledge 
Urban.  Neither  does  it  appear  that  any 
went  from  England,  the  king  being,  pro- 
bably, too  much  provoked  at  the  late  con- 
duct of  the  pope  and  his  legate  to  grant  them 
leave;  and  they  could  not  go  out  of  the 
kingdom  without  his  permission.  As  Philip, 
king  of  France,  had  not  yet  dismissed  Ber- 
trada,  the  sentence  of  excommunication  was 
pronounced  against  both  by  the  pope  in  the 
present  council.  But  we  do  not  find,  that 
the  king  was  less  respected  or  obeyed  while 
under  that  sentence,  than  he  was  before. 
Fulco,  the  husband  of  Bertrada,  was  so  in- 
censed against  the  king  for  detaining  her, 
that  he  caused  the  instrument  of  a  donation, 
which  he  made  this  year  to  the  monastery 
of  St.  Sergius  in  the  city  of  Anjou,  to  be 
closed  with  these  words;  "This  donation 
was  made  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1095,  in 
the  third  Indiction,  on  Saturday,  the  25th 
day  of  the  moon.  Urban  being  pope,  and 
France  contaminated  with  the  adultery  of 
the  worthless  king  Philip.'"  It  was  upon 
Fulco's  complaining  to  the  council  of  the 
injury  done  him  by  the  king,  that  the  pope 
excommunicated  him;  though  many,  who 
were  present,  endeavored  to  divert  him  from 
it,  apprehending  that  Philip,  provoked  at 
such  a  step,  might  declare  for  his  rival. 

By  this  council  thirty-two  canons  were 
issued,  whereof  the  following  are  the  most 
remarkable;  namely,  the  first,  forbidding 
priests,  deacons,  and  archdeacons,  to  keep 
concubines ;  that  is,  commanding  them  to 
part  with  their  wives,  on  pain  of  being  sus- 

>  Peiriskius  in  Regists. 


Urban  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


419 


The  "  Treuga  Dei."    The  primacy  of  Lions  confirmed.     The  criisade  projected  by  the  council  of  Clermont. 


pentled  from  all  the  functions  of  their  offices  ; 
the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth,  forbidding  the 
clergy  to  receive  investitures  from  laymen, 
and  kings  and  princes  to  give  investitures, 
as  was  ordained  by  pope  Gregory,  of  holy 
memory ;  the  seventeenth,  declaring  it  un- 
lawful for  a  bishop  or  a  priest  to  promise 
fidelity,  that  is,  to  take  an  oath  of  allegiance 
to  kings,  or  to  any  layman.  Thus  were 
priests  and  bishops  exempted  from  the  obli- 
gation of  obeying  their  lawful  sovereigns, 
while  bishops  were  required,  at  their  conse- 
cration, to  swear  obedience  to  the  pope. 
The  twenty-fifth  canon  forbad  the  sons  of 
priests,  deacons,  or  subdeacons,  to  be  admit- 
ted to  holy  orders,  unless  they  were  monks 
or  regular  canons.  By  the  twenty-eighth  it 
was  ordained,  that  they  who  received  the 
eucharist,  should  receive  the  body  and  the 
blood  separately.  By  this  canon  was  con- 
demned the  custom  lately  introduced  of  re- 
ceiving the  bread  dipt  in  the  wine,  as  con- 
trary to  the  institution  of  our  Saviour,  who, 
at  his  last  supper,  gave  the  bread  and  wine 
separately.  The  custom  of  receiving  the 
eucharist.  in  one  kind  only,  obtained,  at  this 
time,  in  some  places,  as  appears  from  Ro- 
dulph,  abbot  of  St.  Trudo,  who  wrote  in 
this  century ;'  and  it  was  afterwards  ap- 
proved, nay,  and  even  commanded  by  the 
council  of  Constans,  though  no  less  repug- 
nant to  the  institution  of  Christ,  who  ad- 
ministered the  eucharist  to  his  apostles  in 
both  kinds,  than  that  which  the  council  of 
Clermont  condemned. 

By  this  council  the  observance  of  what 
they  called  "  Treuga  Dei,"  or  "  Truge  of 
God,"  was  warmly  recommended,  and  the 
decrees,  made  by  several  provincial  councils 
concerning  it,  were  all  confirmed.  To  un- 
derstand what  was  meant  by  that  expression 
the  reader  must  know,  that  every  lord  and 
even  every  private  man,  especially  in  France, 
under  the  weak  government  of  their  later 
kings,  claimed  a  right  of  revenging,  by  force 
of  arms,  any  injury  that  was  done  them; 
which  filled  the  whole  kingdom  with  mur- 
ders and  rapines,  the  great  lords  being  con- 
stantly at  war  with  one  another,  and  sparing 
in  their  wars  neither  churches  nor  monas- 
teries. As  the  kings  were  not,  for  want  of 
power,  in  a  condition  to  put  a  stop  to  these 
civil  dissensions,  the  bishops,  who  suffered 
the  most  by  them,  as  they  were  not  allowed 
to  repel  force  by  force,  made  several  decrees, 
in  their  provincial  synods,  against  them,  de- 
claring it  unlawful  for  any  private  person 
whatsoever  to  do  himself  justice  by  force  of 
arms,  and  threatening  those  with  excommu- 
nication who  should  attempt  it.  But  no  re- 
gard was  had  by  the  parties  at  war  to  their 

'  The  abbot  wrote  in  verse  ;  and  his  words,  as  quoted 
by  Gropperus,  are, 

••  Flic  et  ibi  cautcla  fiat,  ne  presbyter  tPRris 
Aut  sanis  tribuat  laicis,  de  sanguine  Christi : 
Nam  fundi  posset  leviter  ;  simplexque  putaiet, 
Quod  non  sub  specie  sit  totus  lesus  utraque." 
Groppcr.c.44. 


decrees,  or  their  menaces,  till  the  year  1041, 
when  the  bishops,  despairing  of  being  ever 
able  to  root  out  entirely  so  destructive  a 
practice,  contented  themselves  with  bringing 
the  lords  to  consent  to  a  truce  for  certain 
days  in  the  week :  and  it  was  accordingly, 
with  their  approbation,  agreed,  that  no  hos- 
tilities should  be  thenceforth  committed  from 
Wednesday  evening  till  Monday  morning; 
that,  during  the  four  days  of  truce,  no  vio- 
lence whatever  should  be  used ;  and  that 
they,  who  offended  against  this  convention, 
should  be  punished  with  death,  or  excom- 
municated and  sent  into  exile.  This  agree- 
ment was  made  in  a  council  held  in  Aqui- 
taine  in  1041 ,  and  was  called  "  Treuga  Dei," 
or  "the  Truce  of  God,"  as  having  been 
suggested  by  God,  and  afterwards  approved 
by  exemplary  punishments,  miraculously 
inflicted,  as  was  believed,  upon  such  as 
transgressed  it.'  This  truce,  called  in  Latin 
"  Treuga,"  from  the  Spanish  word  "Tre- 
gua,"  as  some  conjecture,  was  confirmed  by 
the  present  council  of  Clermont,  and  after- 
wards by  the  council  of  Rome  under  Paschal 
II.  in  1102,  by  the  Lateran  under  Innocent 
II.  in  1 139,  and  by  the  Lateran  under  Alex- 
ander III.  in  1180.  By  these  councils  seve- 
ral holy  days  were  added  to  the  four  days  of 
each  week,  all  devastation  by  fire  was  for- 
bidden; and  clerks,  monks,  pilgrims,  mer- 
chants, husbandmen,  and  women,  were  ex- 
empted from  all  violence,  and  they  excom- 
municated, who  should  offer  them  any.  It 
is  to  be  observed,  that  the  decrees  of  these 
councils  related  to  the  wars,  that  the  barons 
or  other  private  persons  made  upon  one  an- 
other, and  not,  as  Baronius  imagined,  to 
wars  between  sovereign  princes. 

The  primacy,  which  Gregory  had  grant- 
ed to  Gebuin,  archbishop  of  Lions,  was 
confirmed,  by  the  present  council,  to  Hugh 
and  his  successors  in  that  see ;  and  Walter, 
bishop  of  Cambray,  was  suspended  from  all 
sacerdotal  and  episcopal  functions,  and 
threatened  with  an  anathema  if  he  did  not 
quit  that  see,  as  he  had  bought  it  of  the  em- 
peror, and  received  the  investiture  from  him, 
in  defiance  of  the  decrees  of  so  many  coun- 
cils. 

By  this  council  the  expedition  for  the  re- 
covery of  the  Holy  Land,  known  by  the 
name  of  the  "crusade,"  was  set  on  foot, 
and  it  is,  on  account  of  the  encouragement 
it  gave  to  that  wild,  chimerical,  and  de- 
structive undertaking,  the  most  famous  of 
all  the  councils  that  were  held  to  the  present 
time.  The  infidels  had,  as  has  been  ob- 
served above,  made  themselves,  in  a  few 
years,  masters  of  above  one  half  of  the  East- 
ern empire,  had  subdued  both  Cilicias,  Syria, 
Isauria,  Lycia,  Pisidia,  Lycaonia,  Cappado- 
cia,  Galatia,  the  one  and  the  other  Pontus, 
Bithynia,  with  part  of  Asia  Minor,  and  want- 
ed only  shipping  to  attack  the  imperial  city 

<  Glaber.  1.  ir.  c.  S. 


420 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Urban  H. 


The  crusade  set  on  foot  chiefly  by  means  of  Peter  the  Hermit.    The  pope  exhorts  all  to  take  the  cross, 
bishops  preach  the  crusade  in  their  respective  dioceses  with  great  success. 


The 


itself.  By  them  the  churches  and  monas- 
teries were  plundered  and  burnt,  the  priests 
and  monks  either  inhumanly  massacred  or 
condemned  to  perpetual  slavery,  and  the 
pilgrims,  who  came  to  visit  the  holy  sepul- 
chre, exposed  to  the  same  cruel  treatment.' 
Alexius  Comnenus,  at  this  time  emperor  of 
Constantinople,  sent  embassadors,  as  has 
been  said,  to  the  council  of  Placentia,  to  lay 
before  that  assembly  the  deplorable  condi- 
tion which  the  Christian  religion  was  re- 
duced to  in  the  East,  and  implore  their  as- 
sistance. The  pope  had  already  been  in- 
formed of  the  calamities  the  Christians  suf- 
fered under  the  yoke  of  those  barbarians, 
and  most  earnestly  pressed  to  relieve  them 
by  the  famous  hermit,  Peter,  whom  I  shall 
have  frequent  occasion  to  speak  of  in  the 
sequel.  He  was  a  native  of  the  diocese  of 
Amiens,  in  Picardy,  had  gone  in  pilgrimage 
to  visit  the  holy  places  at  Jerusalem,  accord- 
ing to  the  devotion  then  in  vogue;  and  as  he 
staid  some  time  in  that  city,  he  was  an  eye- 
witness of  the  inexpressible  miseries  the 
Christians  groaned  under  there,  and  besides 
found,  from  the  account  the  patriarch  Si- 
meon gave  him  of  the  state  of  affairs,  that 
the  whole  empire  would,  without  the  assist- 
ance of  the  western  princes,  in  a  very  short 
time,  fall  a  prey  to  the  sworn  enemies  of  the 
Christian  name.  Hereupon  the  Hermit, 
fired  with  zeal,  offered  to  sohcit  succors  of 
the  pope  and  all  the  western  princes  in  the 
patriarch's  name,  if  he  approved  of  it.  To 
this  the  patriarch  readily  agreed,  as  we  may 
well  imagine ;  and  the  new  commission  was 
confirmed  to  Peter  by  our  Savior  himself 
appearing  to  him  while  he  was  praying  in 
the  church  of  the  Resurrection.  Thus  Guil- 
lelmus  Tyrius,  or  William  archbishop  of 
Tyre,  in  his  history  of  the  holy  war;^  and 
Baronius  chooses  to  believe  him  rather  than 
those  who  will  have  the  Hermit's  commis- 
sion to  have  been  sent  him  from  heaven.' 
Peter  returned  by  sea  to  Rome,  and  hearing 
that  the  pope  was  in  that  neighborhood,  he 
immediately  went  to  him,  and  acquainted 
him  with  the  lamentable  state  of  religion  in 
the  East,  begged  he  would  interpose  his  au- 
thority, and  bring  all  the  Christian  princes 
in  the  West  to  enter  into  an  alliance  in  de- 
fence of  their  helpless  persecuted  brethren  in 
the  East.  The  pope  promised  to  promote,  in 
due  time,  so  holy  an  undertaking  to  the  ut- 
most of  his  power :  and  the  Hermit  passing, 
in  the  mean  while,  the  Alps,  visited  the 
courts  of  all  the  ultramontane  princes,  being 
charged  with  letters  to  them  from  the  patri- 
arch Simeon;  stirred  them  as  well  as  their 
subjects  every  where  up  to  the  defence  of 
the  places,  which  our  Savior  had  conse- 
crated with  his  presence,  and  promised  eter- 
nal rewards  to  those  who  should  be  the  fore- 


»  Guill.  Tyr.  I.  i.  c.  9. 
3  Baron,  ad  ann.  1095. 


a  Idem  ibid.  c.  xxi.  12. 


most  in  redeeming  them  from  the  sacrile- 
gious pollution  of  the  enemies  of  God. 

The  zeal  of  the  Hermit  was  seconded  by 
that  of  the  pope,  first  in  the  council  of  Pla- 
centia, and  afterwards  in  the  present,  that  of 
Clermont,  which  was  assembled  chiefly  to 
encourage  this  undertaking.  The  pope, 
therefore,  after  settling  what  related  to  the 
discipline  of  the  church,  laid  before  that  nu- 
merous assembly,  in  a  long  and  pathetic 
speech,  the  deplorable  condition  of  the 
Christian  religion  under  the  infidels  in  the 
East,  the  imminent  danger  it  was  in  of  being, 
in  a  very  short  time,  utterly  extirpated  all 
over  that  extensive  empire;  urging,  with 
great  vehemence,  the  indispensable  obli- 
gation incumbent  upon  all  Christians  to 
relieve  their  oppressed  brethren,  and  redeem 
the  holy  places,  which  Christ  had  sanctified  J 
with  his  birth,  his  actions,  and  his  death,  ^ 
from  the  sacrilegious  pollutions  of  his  sworn 
enemies;  assuring  them  of  victory,  as  they 
were  to  fight  under  the  conduct  and  com- 
mand of  Christ  himself,  and  the  great  God 
of  Armies  ;  declared  those  who  should  enlist 
in  so  holy  a  war  absolved  from  all  their  sins, 
promised  life  everlasting  to  such  as  should  . 

die  in  it,  &c.  The  pope  was  frequently  inter-  j 
rupted  in  his  speech  by  loud  cries  of  persons  1 
of  all  ranks  and  conditions  from  every  part 
of  that  numerous  assembly,  offering  them- 
selves ready  to  fly,  at  his  holiness's  com- 
mand, to  the  relief  of  their  persecuted 
brethren,  and  redeem  them,  even  at  the  ex- 
pense of  their  lives,  from  the  tyranny  they 
groaned  under.  Urban,  finding  that  the 
project  took  even  beyond  his  expectation, 
ordained  that  they  who  engaged  in  this  holy 
warfare  should  wear  a  red  cross  on  their 
right  shoulder,  to  show  under  whose  banner 
and  for  whom  they  fought;  extended  the 
"  Truce  of  God"  to  the  persons  and  effects 
of  all  who  served  in  this  expedition ;  and 
threatened  all  with  excommunication  who 
should  on  any  color  or  pretence  whatsoever 
molest  them,  or  any  who  belonged  to  them, 
till  their  return  from  the  Holy  Land.  He 
then  commanded  the  bishops  who  were  pre- 
sent to  publish,  to  preach,  and  promote,  to 
the  utmost  of  their  power,  the  holy  war,  in 
their  respective  dioceses  ;  and  closed  this  fa- 
mous council  on  the  28th  of  November, 
1095.' 

The  bishops,  in  obedience  to  the  pope's 
command,  made  it  their  whole  business  to 
preach  and  promote  the  intended  expedition 
in  all  the  cities,  towns,  and  villages  under 
their  jurisdiction,  and  so  magnified  it,  that 
men,  persuaded  that  the  taking  of  the  cross 
would  atone  for  every  sin,  and  so  answer 
all  the  purposes  of  repentance  and  a  holy 
life,  crowded,  without  distinction  of  age  or 
condition,  from  all  parts  to  serve  under  such 


•  Guill.  Tyr.  1.  i. 
I.  iv.  c.  11. 


c.  15.    PetruB  Diac.  Chron.  Casein. 


Urban  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


421 


Councils  held  by  the  pope  in  France  in  1095,  1096.    Urban  returns  to  Rome;— [Year  of  Christ,  1096.]    The 
cruBaders  begin  ttieir  march  into  the  East. 


princes  as  were  willing  to  put  themselves  at 
their  head.  This  infatuation  prevailed  so 
universally  in  the  Western  kingdoms,  that 
an  army  was  assembled  the  following  year, 
consisting  of  no  fewer  than  three  hundred 
thousand  men.'  Women,  and  even  children 
showed  no  less  eagerness  to  serve  in  this 
holy  war  than  men;  and  would,  had  they 
not  been  restrained,  have  doubled  the  num- 
ber of  those  already  too  numerous  armies. 
Several  great  lords,  seized  with  this  epi- 
demical phrenzy,  sold  their  lordships  and 
demesnes  at  half  their  value,  thinking  they 
only  wanted  a  little  ready  money  to  provide 
themselves  with  arms  and  conquer  king- 
doms in  the  East.  Thus  Godfrey  of  Buil- 
lon,  among  the  rest,  sold  that  lordship  to  the 
bishop  of  Liege,  whose  successors  possess 
great  part  of  it  to  this  day,  and  at  the  same 
time  the  castle  of  Stenay,  with  the  lands  be- 
longing to  it,  to  the  bishop  of  Verdun,  who 
likewise  purchased  of  Baldwin,  Godfrey's 
brother,  the  little  he  had  in  that  country. 
Thus,  while  the  temporal  princes,  says 
father  Maimbourg,  abandoned  their  territo- 
ries for  the  love  of  God,  the  clergy,  im- 
proving their  devotion  to  their  own  advan- 
tage, enriched  themselves  with  their  spoils. ^ 
This  design  was  first  formed  by  Gregory 
VII.,  as  has  been  observed  above;  and  so 
far  as  we  can  judge  from  the  principles  and 
views  of  that  pope,  as  well  as  from  the  use 
we  shall  see  his  successors  make  of  it,  we 
have  but  too  much  reason  to  believe  that  it 
proceeded  from  a  very  different  zeal  from 
that  for  religion,  or  for  the  relief  of  the  per- 
secuted Christians  in  the  East.  The  holy 
war,  as  it  is  called,  lasted  near  two  hundred 
years,  cost  perhaps  more  Christian  blood 
than  had  been  shed  before  in  all  the  wars 
the  Christians  had  made,  and  none  in  the 
end  gained  any  thing  by  it  but  the  church 
and  the  popes. 

The  pope  continued  in  France  after  the 
council  of  Clermont  in  November,  1095,  till 
the  latter  end  of  September,  1096,  visiting 
different  places,  consecrating  churches,  hold- 
ing councils,  and  preaching  every  where 
the  crusade.  He  held  a  council  at  Limoges 
in  December,  in  which  he  is  said  to  have 
deposed  Humbald,  bishop  of  that  city.  He 
held  two  other  councils,  the  one  at  Tours  in 
the  third  week  of  Lent,  the  other  at  Nismes 
in  July.  In  the  latter  he  absolved  king 
Philip,  who  had  dismissed  Bertrada,  from 
the  excommunication ;  forbad  lay  investi- 
tures, and  the  receiving  any  benefice  what- 
ever from  a  layman;  excommunicated  those 
who  should  presume  to  arrest  a  clerk  or  im- 
prison him,  and  declared  the  monks,  whom 
he  compared  to  angels,  being  himself  a 
monk,  qualified  to  exercise  the  sacerdotal 
functions;  and  as  they  had  renounced  the 


«  Spond.  Epist.  Baron,  ad  ann.  1095. 

>  Maimbourg.  Hist,  des  Croieades,  I.  i.  p.  46. 


world  to  serve  God  in  retirement,  more 
worthy  than  they,  who  lived  in  it,  of  the 
power  to  preach,  to  baptize,  to  absolve  men 
from  their  sins,  to  impose  penance,  and  ad- 
minister the  eucharist.i  The  pope  visited 
several  other  places,  namely,  Angiers,  Poi- 
tiers, Toulouse,  Saintes,  Bourdeaux,  and 
the  isle  of  Maguelore,  which  he  consecrated, 
absolving  those  from  all  their  sins  who  were, 
or  should  be  thenceforth  buried  there.  At 
Tours,  LTrban  performed,  on  the  fourth  Sun- 
day of  Lent,  the  ceremony  of  blessing  a 
golden  rose  filled  with  musk  and  balsam, 
which  he  wore  that  day,  and  then  gave  to 
Fulco,  earl  of  Anjou.  Some  will  have  the 
custom  of  blessing  a  golden  rose  on  the 
fourth  Sunday  in  Lent,  and  afterwards  send- 
ing it  to  some  prince,  or  person  of  great  dis- 
tinction, to  have  been  first  introduced  by 
this  pope.  But  from  a  bull  of  Leo  IX.  in 
1050,  it  appears  that  this  custom  obtained 
then.  For  by  that  bull  the  pope  grants 
many  privileges  to  a  monastery  of  women 
built  by  him  in  the  city  of  Bamberg,  and 
obliges  ihem  to  send  yearly  to  Rome  a 
golden  rose  to  be  blessed  by  him  and  his 
successors  on  the  fourth  Sunday  of  Lent,  or 
the  value  of  such  a  rose.^  From  France 
the  pope  returned  to  Italy,  in  the  latter  end 
of  September  of  the  present  year  1096,  staid 
some  time  at  Lucca,  and  went  from  thence 
to  Milan,  where  he  preached  to  an  immense 
multitude  of  people  come  from  all  parts  to 
hear  him,  showing,  in  his  discourse,  that 
the  lowest  clerk  is  greater,  and  more  to  be 
respected  than  the  greatest  king  :^  all  the 
popes  after  Gregory  having  made  it  their 
study  to  debase  princes  and  exalt  the  clergy. 
Urban  returned  soon  after  to  Rome,  and  was 
there  received  by  the  people,  the  clergy,  and 
the  nobility,  with  the  greatest  demonstra- 
tions of  joy,  the  friends  of  his  rival  Guibert 
being  obliged  to  save  themselves  in  the  castle 
of  St.  Angelo,  which  they  still  held.'* 

In  the  mean  time  the  crusaders  set  out  in 
vast  numbers  from  France,  Italy,  and  Ger- 
many, on  their  march  into  the  East.  The 
first  horde,  as  we  may  call  it,  consisting  of 
near  three  hundred  thousand  men,  marched 
off  in  three  distinct  bodies,  the  one  com- 
manded by  Peter  the  Hermit,  the  chief  pro- 
moter of  this  expedition,  the  other  by  a  monk 
named  Godescald,  and  the  third  by  "Gaul- 
terius  sine  habere,"  as  he  is  called  by  the 
contemporary  writers,  that  is  "moneyless 
Gualter."  As  the  eud  of  this  holy  under- 
taking was  to  extirpate  the  enemies  of  Christ 
and  the  Christian  religion,  the  crusaders, 
looking  upon  the  Jews  in  that  light,  began 
with  them,  and  in  passing  through  Germany, 
where  great  numbers  of  that  nation  resided, 
they  inhumanly  murdered  them  all  without 
distinction  of  sex  or  age.    We  are  told,  that 


'  Concil.  torn.  x.  p.  605. 

»  Theophvl.  Raynaud,  de  Rosa  Medians,  &r. 

'  Landulph.  in  Chron.  c.  28.         «  Bertold.  in  Chron. 

2L 


482 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Urban  H. 


The  behavior  of  the  crusaders  in  the  countries  through  which  they  passed.  They  arrive  at  Constantinople. 
Pass  the  Hellespont  and  are  all  cut  to  pieces  by  the  Turks.  Anselm,  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  goes  to 
Rome.     How  received  by  the  pope. 


at  Verdun,  Spire,  Worms,  Cologne,  and 
Mentz,  those  unhappy  wretches,  finding 
they  could  no  otherwise  avoid  falling  into 
the  hands  of  their  merciless  enemies,  barri- 
caded themselves  in  their  houses,  and  there 
killed  one  another;  that  the  mothers  cut  the 
throats  of  their  suckling  infants;  that  hus- 
bands and  fathers  put  to  death  their  wives 
and  children ;  and  that  none  of  them  escaped 
the  fury  of  the  holy  warriors,  but  such  as 
abjured  Judaism  and  embraced  Christianity.' 
As  the  crusaders  burnt,  plundered,  and  de- 
stroyed every  thing  in  the  countries  through 
which  they  passed,  and  even  massacred  the 
inhabitants  for  not  starving  themselves  to 
support  the  soldiers  of  Christ  with  plenty  of 
provisions,  the  people  flew  every  where  to 
arms  in  their  own  defence,  and  falling  upon 
those  free-booters,  made  such  havock  of 
them,  especially  in  Hungary  and  Bulgaria, 
that  the  Hermit,  upon  his  arrival  at  Con- 
stantinople on  the  1st  of  August  of  the  pre- 
sent year,  could  scarce  muster  twenty 
thousand  men.  He  was  there  joined  by  the 
other  two  bodies,  that  had  got  thither  before 
him,  but  were  greatly  weakened,  having 
suffered  no  less  for  the  disorders  they  com- 
mitted on  their  march  than  the  body  he 
commanded.  They  were  kindly  received  by 
the  emperor  Alexius,  who  ordered  them  to 
be  supplied  with  all  necessaries  ;  but  he  was 
against  their  crossing  the  Hellespont,  the 
Turks  being  masters  of  the  whole  country 
beyond  it,  till  they  were  reinforced  by  other 
bodies,  which,  he  heard,  were  on  their 
march  to  join  them.  The  Hermit  acquiesced ; 
but  his  men,  under  no  kind  of  discipline, 
began,  in  the  mean  time,  to  lay  waste  the 
neighboring  country,  to  plunder  and  set  on 
fire  the  houses  and  villas  of  the  Greek  lords, 
as  if  they  were  come  to  make  war  upon 
them,  and  enrich  themselves  with  their 
spoils ;  nay,  these  soldiers  of  Christ,  as  they 
called  themselves,  regardless  of  all  religion, 
and  prompted  by  the  love  of  booty,  which 
alone  had  induced  most  of  them  to  engage 
in  this  undertaking,  even  stript  the  churches 
of  the  lead,  with  which  they  were  covered, 
and  sold  it  to  the  Greeks  themselves.  In 
short  there  was  no  evil,  which  they  did  not 
commit,  "non  cessabant  agere  omnia  mala," 
says  an  anonymous  writer,  who  lived  at  this 
time,  approved  of  the  expedition,  and  was 
no  friend  to  the  Greeks.^  This  behavior 
made  the  emperor  change  his  mind;  and 
glad  to  get  rid  of  such  troublesome  guests, 
he  supplied  them  with  shipping  to  cross  the 
Hellespont,  little  caring  what  became  of 
them.  Being  landed  on  the  other  side  the 
Hellespont,  they  directed  their  march,  in 
two  bodies,  or  columns,  towards  Nice  in 
Asia  Minor,  the  one  commanded  by  Ray- 
mund  a  German  lord,  and  the  other  by  the 


Bertold.  in  Chron.  ad  ann.  1096.     Albert.  Agens. 
'  Anonym,  apud  Mabill.     Musaeum  Italic.  I.  i.  part  2. 


Hermit.  The  body  under  Raymund  was 
attacked  by  the  Turks,  at  a  castle  called 
Exceregorgos ;  and  they  were  all  cut  in 
pieces  with  their  general,  on  St.  Michael's 
day.  The  other  body  fared  no  better;  the  v 
Turks  fell  upon  them  at  a  place  called  I 
Cinitot,  not  far  from  Nice,  and  not  one  of  ' 
them  outlived  the  slaughter  of  that  day  be- 
sides their  general,  who  had  the  good  luck 
to  make  his  escape,  and  return  alone  to  Con- 
stantinople, where  he  was  looked  upon  as  a 
madman.  At  Cinitot  "Gualter  sine  habere," 
who  commanded  under  the  Hermit  as  his 
lieutenant-general,  was  killed,  with  several 
other  persons  of  distinction.'  The  Hermit 
had,  according  to  the  anonymous  historian, 
resigned  the  command  of  the  army  before 
that  unhappy  affair,  finding  that  his  men 
would  no  longer  obey  his  commands,  and 
was,  fortunately  for  him,  returned  to  Con- 
stantinople. Such  was  the  fate  of  the  first 
army  of  the  crusaders.  In  this  year  God- 
frey of  Bouillon,  and  his  brother  Baldwin 
went  into  the  East,  and  arrived  at  Constan- 
tinople on  the  1st  of  August.^ 

Urban  returned  to  Rome,  as  has  been 
said,  in  the  latter  end  of  the  year  1096,  and 
no  farther  mention  is  made  of  him  by  any 
of  the  contemporary  historians  till  the  year 
1098,  when  he  received  at  Rome,  with  ex- 
traordinary marks  of  kindness  and  esteem, 
Anselm,  archbishop  of  Canterbury.  That 
arrogant  prelate  having,  at  last,  obtained,  or 
rather  extorted  leave  from  the  king  (William 
Rufus)  to  go  to  Rome,  embarked  at  Dover 
about  the  middle  of  October  1097,  and  travel- 
ling through  France  in  the  habit  of  a  pil- 
grim, was  received  at  Lions  by  Hugh,  arch- 
bishop of  that  city,  with  all  the  respect  that 
was  due  to  his  character.  He  stayed  there 
till  Wednesday  before  Palm-Sunday,  and 
then  pursuing  his  journey  to  Rome,  was 
admitted,  the  day  after  his  arrival  in  that 
city,  to  the  pope,  who,  laying  aside  all  his 
pomp  and  grandeur,  treated  him,  in  a  man- 
ner, as  his  equal,  allotted  him  an  apartment 
in  the  Lateran  palace,  appointed  proper  per- 
sons to  attend  him,  nay,  and  ordered  the 
same  honors  to  be  paid  to  the  "  apostle  of 
another  world,"  as  he  called  him,  that  were 
paid  to  himself.  But  Anselm  was  soon 
obliged  by  the  excessive  heat  to  leave  Rome, 
and  retire  to  a  villa  that  belonged  to  a  mo- 
nastery in  the  diocese  of  Capua,  and  was 
situated  on  an  eminence  at  a  small  distance 
from  that  city.  He  was  invited  thither  by 
John,  formerly  monk  in  the  monastery  of 
Bee,  in  Normandy,  and  acquainted  with  him 
while  a  monk  in  the  same  monastery.  An- 
selm continued  there  till  the  arrival  of  the 
pope,  who  had  appointed  a  council  to  meet 
at  Bari  on  the  first  of  October  of  the  present 
year,  and  had  ordered  him  to  assist  at  it. 


>  MusEBum  Italic.  I.  part  2,  et  Chron.  Malleacens.  ad 
ann.  1097.  a  Idem  ibid. 


Urban  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


423 


The  monarchy  of  Sicily.     Council  of  Bari.     Anselm  distinguishes  himself  in  that  council. 


As  Roger,  duke  of  Sicily  and  Calabria,  and 
his  nephew  Roger,  duke  of  Apulia,  were 
then  besieging  Capua,  that  had  revolted 
from  the  Normans,  the  pope  went  with  An- 
selm  to  visit  those  princes,  who  rnet  them, 
at  some  distance,  attended  by  all  the  chief 
officers  of  the  army,  and  entertained  them 
some  days  in  their  camp  with  the  greatest 
magnificence.  The  pope  did  not  fail  to  in- 
terpose his  good  offices  in  behalf  of  the  be- 
sieged; but  upon  their  refusing  to  hearken 
to  the  terms  which  he  proposed,  he  retired 
with  Anselm  to  Aversa,  and  there  continued 
till  the  reduction  of  the  place,  when  he  went 
to  Salerno  to  take  his  le-ave  of  the  duke  of 
Sicily,  then  upon  the  point  of  returning  to 
that  island.' 

The  famous  bull  of  the  monarchy  of 
Sicily  is  supposed  to  have  been  granted  to 
the  (iuke  at  this  interview.  The  pope  had 
appointed  Robert,  bishop  of  Trani,  his  le- 
gale a  Latere  in  Sicily.  But  the  duke,  no 
stranger  to  the  authority  those  legates  as- 
sumed, and  the  disturbances  which  they 
frequently  raised,  earnestly  entreated  the 
pope  to  revoke  the  commission,  plainly  in- 
sinuating that  he  would  suffer  no  legate  in 
his  dominions.  As  the  duke  had  done  many 
signal  services  to  the  apostolic  see,  had 
driven  the  Saracens  quite  out  of  Sicily,  and 
subjected  all  the  churches  in  that  island  to 
the  see  of  Rome,  though  claimed  by  the  pa- 
triarch of  Constantinople,  the  pope  not  only 
recalled  the  commission  he  had  given  to  the 
bishop,  but,  to  engage  the  duke  still  more  in 
the  defence  of  his  see,  he  conferred  upon 
him  all  the  power  he  had  granted  to  his^le- 
gate,  declaring  him,  his  heirs,  and  his  suc- 
cessors, "legates  born,"  and  vested  with  le- 
gatine  power  in  its  full  extent.  The  bull, 
granting  this  unprecedented  privilege,  is 
dated  at  Salerno  in  the  month  of  July,  the 
seventh  Indiction,  and  in  the  eleventh  year 
of  pope  Urban,  that  is,  in  1098  ;  and  Baro- 
nius  has  inserted  it  at  length  in  the  eleventh 
volume  of  his  annals,  to  which  I  refer  the 
reader.  Though  this  bull  is  thought  by 
most  men  of  learning  to  be  entirely  ficti- 
tious, yet  the  kings  of  Arragon,  to  whom 
Sicily  was  subject  for  many  years,  claimed 
and  exercised  the  legatine  power  as  the 
successors  of  duke  Roger.  It  has  been  like- 
wise claimed,  and  sometimes  exercised  by 
all  the  princes  who  have  been  masters  of 
that  island  since  their  time;  and  even  in  our 
days  by  the  late  duke  of  Savoy.  For  Cle- 
ment XI.  having,  in  1715,  published  two 
bulls,  the  one  abolishing  the  monarchy,  as 
it  is  called,  and  the  other  establishing  a  new 
ecclesiastical  hierarchy  or  government,  the 
duke  banished  all  who  received  either;  and 
on  that  occasion  swarms  of  Jesuits  were 
sent  from  Sicily  to  Rome,  as  they  have  been 
lately  from  Portugal  to  Rome;  so  that  no 
change  was  made  in  the  ecclesiastic  polity. 


»  Eadmer.  Novor.  1.  ii.  c.  3. 


and  the  monarchy  still  subsists  in  its  full 
force.  In  virtue  of  Urban's  bull,  whoever 
is  master  of  Sicily  is  pope  of  that  kingdom, 
is  supreme  head  of  the  church  there,  has  a 
power  to  excommunicate  and  absolve  all 
persons  whatever,  ecclesiastics  as  well  as 
laymen;  and  cardinals  themselves  residing 
in  that  island,  to  preside  at  all  provincial 
councils,  and,  in  short,  to  exercise  all  juris- 
diction that  a  legate  a  Latere,  vested  with 
the  fullest  legatine  power,  can  exercise  ;  and 
this  extensive  jurisdiction  the  kings  of  Sicily 
may  exercise  by  their  lieutenants,  viceroys, 
and  governors.  It  is  to  be  observed,  that  as 
the  kingdom  of  Sicily  may  fall  to  females,  a 
woman  may  be  at  the  head  of  the  church  in 
Sicily  as  well  as  in  England;  which,  how- 
ever, is  a  standing  joke  with  the  Roman 
catholics,  and  even,  what  has  not  a  little 
surprised  me,  with  that  incomparable  his- 
torian Pietro  Giannoni,  though  he  finds  no 
fault  with  the  spiritual  monarchy  of  Sicily, 
including  more  power  than  any  king  of 
England  ever  claimed,  and  yet  liable  to  fall 
to  ilie  distaff,  as  it  actually  did  in  the  time 
of  Jane  of  Arragon  and  Castile. 

From  Salerno  the  pope  repaired  to  Bari, 
to  preside  at  the  council  which  he  had  ap- 
pointed to  meet  there  on  the  first  of  October 
of  the  present  year.  It  consisted  of  one 
hundred  and  eighty-three  bishops,  among 
whom  was  Anselm,  and  several  Greek  bi- 
shops, whom  Urban  had  invited  in  order  to 
attempt  a  reconciliation  between  them  and 
the  Latins,  who  Avanted  their  friendship  and 
assistance  to  carry  on  the  war  against  the 
infidels  with  the  wished-for  success.  The 
acts  of  this  council  have  not  reached  our 
times,  and  all  we  know  of  it  is,  that  the 
point,  which  had  been  so  often  debated,  was 
here  debated  anew,  namely,  whether  the 
Holy  Ghost  proceeds  from  the  Father  and  the 
Son,  or  from  the  Father  only ;  that  in  this 
dispute  Anselm  distinguished  himself  above 
all  the  rest,  and  silenced  the  Greeks  with 
passages,  not  from  the  fathers,  but  from  the 
scripture  alone ;  that  all  were  astonished  at 
his  profound  knowledge,  at  the  strength  and 
perspicuity  of  his  reasonings,  and  that  the 
pope  and  the  other  bishops  of  the  council 
vied,  in  a  manner,  with  each  other  in  com- 
mending and  extolling  him.'  William  of 
Malmsbury  writes,  that  Anselm,  out  of 
modesty,  sat  silent,  leaving  the  other  bishops 
to  dispute  with  the  Greeks,  till  the  pope, 
recollecting  that  he  was  present,  (for  in  the 
hurry  of  affairs  he  had  forgot  to  allot  him 
his  proper  place)  addressed  him  thus: — 
"Anselm,  archbishop  of  the  English,  our 
father  and  master,  where  are  you  ?"  That 
Anselm  rising  up  at  these  words,  the  pope 
bid  him  draw  near,  and  placing  him  by  the 
archdeacon  of  the  Roman  church,  who,  ac- 
cording to  the  custom  that  then  obtained,  sat 
before  him,  he  told  him  aloud  that  his  elo- 

Eadmer.  Novor.  1.  ii.  c.  9. 


424 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Urban  H. 

Anselm  diverts  the  pope  from  excommunicating  the  king.  The  pope  threatens  the  king  of  England,  but  is 
appeased.  Council  of  Rome;— [Year  of  Christ,  1099.]  The  cause  of  Anselm  warmly  recommended  by  one 
of  the  bishops. 


quence  and  knowledge  were  wanted  to  put 
an  end  to  the  present  dispute,  encouraged 
him  to  undertake  tiie  defence  of  the  church, 
his  holy  mother,  as  sent  by  God  for  that  pur- 
pose, and  satisfy  the  Greeks  that  the  opinion, 
which  they  so  obstinately  maintained,  was  not 
only  erroneous  but  heretical.  The  historian 
adds,  that  upon  the  bishops  of  the  council 
asking  who  he  was,  whom  his  holiness  thus 
distinguished,  and  whence  he  came.  Urban 
took  occasion  to  honour  Anselm  with  the 
title  of  "pope  of  another  world,"  extolling 
him  for  his  eminent  virtues,  for  his  humility, 
for  his  learning,  and  above  all  for  the  zeal 
with  which  he  had  maintained,  against  the 
king  of  England,  the  undoubted  rights  of  the 
apostolic  see.  Thus  Malmsbury  ;i  butEad- 
merus,  who  was  present,  is  silent  with  re- 
spect to  most  of  those  particulars.^  Anselm 
was  afterwards  prevailed  upon  by  his  friends 
to  publish  the  passages  and  arguments, 
which  he  alledged  in  this  council  against  the 
error  of  the  Greeks  ;  and  they  are  to  be  met 
with  in  his  treatise  upon  "  the  Procession  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,"  which  is  still  extant. 

As  Anselm  had  complained  to  the  pope 
of  the  king  of  England,  charging  him  with 
extorting  large  suras  from  the  churches  in 
his  dominions,  with  seizing  on  the  tempo- 
ralities of  his  bishopric*  after  his  departure, 
and  denying  bishops  leave  to  go  to  Rome, 
his  complaints  were  by  the  pope  laid  before 
the  council,  as  well  as  the  ill  treatment 
which  Anselm  pretended  to  have  met  with 
at  his  hands.  The  pope  added,  that  he  had 
admonished  the  king  three  times,  and  ex- 
horted him  to  alter  his  conduct,  but  that  no 
regard  had  been  paid  to  his  admonitions, 
and  that  he  therefore  applied  to  them  for 
their  advice.  The  bishops  answered  with 
one  voice,  that  since  his  holiness  had  ad- 
monished him  three  times,  and  he  had 
hearkened  to  none  of  his  paternal  and  re- 
peated admonitions,  nothing  now  remained 
but  to  strike  him  with  an  anathema,  that  he 
might  thus,  at  least,  be  retrieved  from  his 
wicked  ways.  At  these  words  Anselm, 
who  had  hitherto  kept  silence,  starting 
up,  threw  himself  at  the  pope's  feet, 
and  what  with  his  tears,  what  with  his 
prayers  and  entreaties,  prevailed  upon  him, 
in  the  end,  to  suspend  the  sentence.  Urban 
however  wrote  to  the  king,  reproaching  him 
with  his  behavior  towards  Anselm,  order- 
ing him  to  restore  the  temporalities  of  his 
see,  which  he  had  unjustly  usurped,  and  re- 
instate him  in  his  dignity.  Anselm  wrote  at 
the  same  time  to  the  king,  who  received  the 
pope's  letter,  but  would  not  receive  his; 
looking  upon  him  as  an  enemy  to  ilie  peace 
and  welfare  of  his  kingdom;  nay,  being  in- 
formed, that  the  bearer  of  those  letters  was 
the  archbishop's  servant,  he  swore  by  St. 


>  Malms,  de  Gest.  Pont.  Angl.  1.  i, 
0  Eadmer.  uhi  supra. 


Luke's  face,  his  usual  oath,  that  if  he  did 
not  immediately  leave  the  kingdom  he  would 
order  his  eyes  to  be  plucked  out.' 

From  Bari  the  pope  returned  with  An- 
selm to  Rome,  and  there  received,  in  the 
latter  end  of  December,  an  answer  from  the 
king  of  England  to  the  letter  he  had  written 
to  him  in  favor  of  the  archbishop.  As  in 
that  letter  the  king  rather  justified  than  ex- 
cused his  conduct,  the  pope  ordered  the  en- 
voy to  return,  without  delay,  to  England, 
and  tell  his  master,  in  the  name  of  St.  Peter, 
that  if  he  did  not  reinstate  the  archbishop  in 
all  his  possessions,  the  sentence  of  excom- 
munication would  be  inevitably  thundered 
out  against  him.  He  added,  that  he  had 
appointed  a  council  to  meet  at  Rome  the 
third  week  after  Easter,  and  therefore  de- 
sired the  king  would  acquaint  him,  before 
the  meeting  of  that  assembly,  with  his  final 
resolution.  But  the  envoy,  named  William, 
was  a  man  of  parts  and  address,  and  having 
brought  with  him  many  rich  and  valuable 
presents,  he  knew  so  well  how  to  dispose  of 
them,  that  he  not  only  obtained  leave  to  stay 
a  long  time  at  Rome,  but  prevailed  upon  the 
pope  to  suspend  the  sentence  with  which  he 
had  threatened  the  king,  till  Michaelmas, 
that  is,  for  nine  months  and  upwards.- 

In  the  mean  time  the  council  met  at  Rome 
on  Sunday,  the  third  week  after  Easter, 
which,  in  1099,  fell  on  the  last  day  of  April. 
They  assembled  in  the  church  of  St.  Peter, 
being  one  hundred  and  fifty  bishops,  besides 
other  ecclesiastics  of  all  ranks  and  degrees, 
and  an  infinite  multitude  of  laymen.  By 
this  council  were  confirmed  the  decrees  of 
the  two  former  councils  of  Placentia  and 
Clermont,  and  sentence  of  excommunication 
was  pronounced  by  the  pope  and  all  the  bi- 
shops who  were  present,  against  all  laymen 
who  should  presume  to  give  investitures, 
and  all  ecclesiastics  who  should  dare  to  re- 
ceive them,  or  ordain  those  who  had.  This 
sentence  extended  to  such  ecclesiastics  as 
did  homage  to  laymen  for  any  benefice  or 
preferment,  it  being  thought  beneath  the  of- 
fice and  the  dignity  of  the  clergy  to  serve 
laymen  as  their  slaves,  and,  in  a  manner,  as 
their  handmaids.  The  decrees  of  other 
councils  against  married  clerks  were  re- 
newed, and  all  were  forbidden  to  communi- 
cate with  them  till  they  had  dismissed  their 
concubines.^  As  the  church  was  greatly 
crowded,  and  the  continual  noise  of  some 
coming  in  and  others  going  out  prevented 
the  decrees  and  resolutions  of  the  assembly 
from  being  heard  by  all,  the  pope  ordered 
Reinger,  bishop  of  Lucca,  who  had  a  strong 
and  clear  voice,  to  stand  up  ai^d  read  them 
aloud.  The  bi.shop  obeyed,  but  stopping 
unexpectedly  in  the  midst  of  the  decrees, 
and  fixing  his  eyes  upon  the  numerous  audi- 

<  Eadmer.  ubi  supra.        a  Idem,  et  Malms,  ubi  supra. 
3  Concil.  t.  X.  p.  615. 


Urban  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


425 


Second  army  of  the  crusade.    Their  behavior. 


ence,  "  But  what  are  we  about,"  he  said, 
"  We  are  loading  those  with  new  ordinances 
who  submit  to  us,  but  afford  no  relief  to 
those  who  want  our  protection,  and  are 
come  to  implore  it.  The  whole  world  com- 
plains that  the  head  does  not  grieve  with  the 
members.  Behold,  one  sits  here  modestly 
and  silently  among  us,  but  his  silence  cries 
aloud :  he  has  been  stripped  of  every  thing 
he  possessed,  and  hoped  to  be  redressed 
here  :  But  this  is  the  second  year  of  his  be- 
ing among  us ;  and  what  relief  has  he  yet 
received?  No  relief  at  all.  Anselm  is  the 
person  I  speak  of^ — Anselm,  archbishop  of 
England."  Having  uttered  these  words,  to 
show  his  zeal  and  indignation,  he  struck  the 
ground  with  his  crosier,  fixing  his  eyes 
again  on  the  audience.  The  pope,  whom 
he  chieHy  seemed  to  point  at,  heard  him 
with  great  calmness,  and  when  he  had  done, 
calling  him  by  the  name  of  "brother  Re- 
inger,"  he  bid  him  give  himself  no  farther 
trouble,  for  a  remedy  should  be  found,  and 
in  due  time  applied.  The  bishop  replied, 
it  is  but  tit,  for  the  just  judge  will  not 
suffer  such  things  to  go  unpunished.  Re- 
inger  then  resumed  the  decrees.  The  histo- 
rian adds,  that  Anselm  had  no  share  in  this 
declaration,  but  on  the  contrary  was  greatly 
disturbed  at  it.' 

Jn   the  mean  time,  another  grand  army, 
consisting  of  better  disciplined  troops,  and 
commanded  by  more  experienced  officers, 
took  different  routes  into  the  East.     Among 
these  were  Robert,  duke  of  Normandy,  elder 
brotiier   of  William   Rufus,    to    whom  he 
mortgaged  his  dominions  for  the  necessary 
money  to  equip  himself  for  that  expedition.- 
Ilugh,    surnamed    the    Great,    brother    to 
Philip,  king  of  France,  count  of  Flanders; 
Boamond,    the   son   of  the  famous  Robert 
Guiscard  ;  his  nephew  Tancred  f  Raimund, 
count  of  Thoulouse,  lord  ofLanguedoc,  and 
great  part  of  Provence ;  and  many  other  per- 
sons of  great  distinction.    Raimund  led  near 
a  hundred  thousand  men  ;  Godfrey  of  Bou- 
illon  seventy   thousand  foot  and  ten  thou- 
sand horse;  Boamond  seven  thousand  horse 
completely  armed,  witli  some  infantry;  and 
the  other  princes  had  all  large  bodies  under 
their  command,  insomuch  tliat  this  second 
army    was    far   more   numerous    than    the 
first.     The  emperor  Alexius,  though  greatly 
alarmed  at  the  arrival  of  such  vast  armies  in 
his  dominions,  ordered   iheui  to  be  plenti- 
fully supplied  with  provisions,  and  markets 
to  be  erected  for   that  purpose  in  all  the 
places  through   which    they    passed.      He 
even  sent  interpreters,  who  understood  their 
different   languages,   to   prevent  any   mis- 
understanding between  them  and  the  natives. 
But  tiie  insolence  with  which  they  behaved 


daughter,  tells  us,  that  while  her  father  was 
one  day   silting  in   his  throne   at  a  public 
ceremony,  a  French  count  placed  himself  in 
the  throne  by  him,  telling  Baldwin,  brother 
to  Godfrey  of  Bouillon,  upon  his  taking  liim 
by  the  hand  to  remove  iiiin,  that  he  thought 
it  unmannerly  in   the   Greek  clown   to  sit 
down  in  the  presence  of  men  of  their  rank. 
His  words  were  interpreted  to  the  emperor, 
who,  instead  of  resenting  them,  only  smiled 
at  the   rusticity   of  the   count.'      Alexius, 
wisely  overlooking  their  haughty  behavior, 
and   the   many    disorders    they   committed 
while  in  the  neighborhood  of  Constantinople, 
treated  their  princes  with  the  greatest  gran- 
deur and  politeness,  especially    Boamund, 
whom  he  feared   the  most,  as  he  had  ex- 
perienced his  valor  in  the  war  which  his 
father  had  made  upon  the  empire  in  Epirus, 
where  he  gained,  in  1083,  a  complete  vic- 
tory over  the  imperial  army,  though  in  num- 
ber greatly  superior  to  his,  and  commanded 
by  the  emperor  in  person.     But  Boamund, 
in  spite  of  all  the  emperor's  civilities  and 
many  rich  presents  he  sent  him,  was  for 
beginning  the  war  with  the  siege  of  Con- 
stantinople, painting  the  emperor  as  a  crafty 
designing  man,  as  a  sworn  enemy  to  the 
Latin  name,  and  one  from  whom  they  had 
no  less  to  fear  than  from  the  infrdels  them- 
selves.    He  had  inherited  of  his  father  an 
aversion  to  the  Greeks,  had  engaged  in  this 
enterprise  merely  to  better  his  ibrtune,  his 
father  having  only  left  him  the  small  princi- 
pality of  Tarentum,  and  was  therefore  for 
enriching  himself  with  the  spoils  of  the  im- 
perial city.     But  his  proposal  was  rejected 
with  great  indignation   by  the  French,  de- 
claring that  they  had  left  their  country  and 
all  that  was  dear  to  them  to  make  war  upon 
the  infidels,  and  redeem  their  Christian  bre- 
thren from  the  tyranny  they  groaned  under; 
and  that  it  was  fit  they  should  live  in  amity 
with  them,  and  restoie  what  the  common 
enemy  had  taken  from  them.2     Boamund 
acquiesced,    and    an    agreement   was   con- 
cluded  between   them   and   Alexius,   who 
bound  himself  by  a  solemn  oath  to  assist, 
and  supply  them  with  provisions  so  far  as 
in  him  lay,  while  they,  on  their  side,  pro- 
mised to  abstain  from  all  hostilities  in  the 
countries  still  subject  to  the  Greek  empire.' 
Soon  after  this  agreement  the  emperor,  no 
less  impatient  to  get  rid  of  this  than  of  the 
first  army,  lost  no  time  in  supplying  them 
with  shipping  to  cross  the  Hellespont  into 
Asia  Minor,  and  take  the  field  against  the 
Turks,  masters  of  almost  that  whole  pro- 
vince.    They   were  found,  upon  a  muster 
after  their  landing,  to  amount  to  a  hundred 
thousand    horse,   and    near    five    hundred 
thousand  foot,  including  servants,  victualers. 


even  lo  the  emperor  himself,  can  scarce  be   priests,  and  women,  whom  those  pious  sol- 
conceived.     Anna  Comnena,  the  emperor's   diers  of  Christ  made  no  scruple,  as  the  his- 


'  Malmab.  1.  i. 

'  Anna  Coinnena,  1. 

Vol.  II.— 54 


'  Eadmer.  Novor.  1.  i 

;.  7. 


C.2. 


'  Ann.  Comnena,  1.  iv   c.  7. 
'  Orderic,  I.  \\. 

2  L  2 


'  Idem  ibid. 


426 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Urban  H. 


Urban's  death.    His  character.    The  Carthusian  order  founded. 


torian  informs  us,  criminally  to  converse 
with.i  The  Turks  drew  together  all  the 
forces  they  could  muster,  but  were  in  two 
pitched  battles  defeated  with  the  loss,  as  we 
are  told,  of  two  hundred  thousand  men, 
whereas  there  fell  on  the  side  of  (he  Chris- 
tians but  thirteen  thousand,  among  whom 
was  Monteil,  bishop  of  Puy  in  Auvergne, 
and  the  pope's  legate.^  Encouraged  with 
these  two  signal  victories,  they  invested  the 
city  of  Nice,  and  made  themselves  masters 
of  that  important  place  after  a  seven  weeks' 
siege.  This  happened  in  1097,  and  the 
same  year  they  laid  siege  to  Antioch,  which 
city  the  Turks  defended  with  great  resolu- 
tion and  intrepidity  for  the  space  of  eight 
months.  But  the  Christians  having  in  the 
mean  time  gained  a  third  victory,  as  com- 
plete as  either  of  the  other  two,  the  garrison 
was  thereby  so  disheartened,  that  they 
thenceforth  made  but  a  faint  resistance,  and 
the  place  was  carried  by  assault  on  Thurs- 
day the  3d  of  June,  1098."  The  city  of 
Antioch  Avas  taken  by  the  Turks  in  1089, 
and  the  princes  of  the  crusade  ought,  in 
justice,  to  have  restored  it  to  the  emperor, 
from  whom  the  infidels  had  taken  it.  But 
instead  of  returning  it  to  the  lawful  owner, 
they  all,  with  one  consent,  gave  it,  with  its 
fertile  territory,  to  Boamund,  who  had  no 
less  distinguished  himself  by  his  conduct 
than  his  courage.  No  wonder  that  the  em- 
peror was  not  so  hearty  in  their  cause  as 
might  have  been  expected,  when  he  found 
that  they  were  to  keep  the  countries  which 
they  conquered,  and  he  was  to  get  nothing 
by  their  victories.  Had  he  foreseen  the 
consequences  of  his  applying  to  the  pope 
for  relief,  he  would  have  contented  himself 
with  defending  his  dominions,  in  the  best 
manner  he  could,  with  his  own  forces.  The 
princes  of  the  crusade  continued  five  months 
at  Antioch  and  in  that  neighborhood,  to 
allow  some  respite  to  their  men,  quite  spent 
with  the  fatigues  they  had  undergone.  But 
they  took  the  field  again  early  in  the  spring ; 
and  having,  not  without  great  loss  of  men, 
reduced  several  strong-holds,  they  at  last 
approached  the  city  of  Jerusalem,  which 
was  invested  to  the  north  by  Robert  duke 
of  Normandy,  and  Robert  earl  of  Flanders, 
and. to  the  south  by  Raimund  count  of 
Thoulouse.  The  siege  lasted  five  months, 
and  the  city  was  taken,  in  spite  of  the  obsti- 
nate resistance  of  a  numerous  garrison,  by 
scalade,  on  Friday  the  15th  day  of  July, 
1099.  A  soldier,  named  Letot,  was  the  first 
that  scaled  the  wall,  and  duke  Godfrey  of 
Bouillon  the  second.  The  Turks  were  all 
massacred,  and  while  the  streets  were  yet 
streaming  with  their  blood,  a  solemn  pro- 
cession was  made,  to  return  thanks  to  the 
Almighty  for  the  recovery  of  the  holy  city 


»  Guill.  Tyr.  1.  i.  c.  17. 

I  Chron.  Malleac.  ad  ann.  1097 


'  Idem,  ann.  1098. 


and  the  holy  sepulchre.  They  spent  eight 
days  in  devotion,  and  in  massacres,  and 
then  proceeded  to  the  election  of  a  king  of 
Jerusalem,  when  Godfrey  of  Bouillon  was 
unanimously  elected.  He  accepted  the  dig- 
nity, but  rejected  the  diadem,  declaring  that 
he  would  not  wear  a  crown  of  gold  where 
his  Lord  had  worn  one  of  thorns.'  As 
Simeon,  the  Greek  patriarch  of  Jerusalem, 
died  during  the  siege,  in  the  isle  of  Cyprus, 
the  princes  of  the  crusade  appointed  one 
Arnulph,  a  Latin  clerk,  as  the  historian  calls 
him,  for  his  successor.^  John,  the  Greek 
patriarch  of  Antioch,  not  choosing  to  keep 
his  see  under  the  Latins,  though  he  had 
kept  it  under  the  Turks,  resigned  it  at  the 
end  of  two  years  after  the  reduction  of  the 
place,  and  retired  to  Constantinople.  Upon 
his  resignation  Bernard,  chaplain  to  the 
pope's  legate,  was  preferred  to  the  patri- 
archal see  of  Antioch  in  his  room.  And 
thus  were  two  of  the  patriarchal  sees  iti  the 
East  filled  with  Latins.  And  thus  far  of 
the  crusade,  to  the  taking  of  Jerusalem. 

Urban  did  not  live  long  enough  to  receive 
the  joyful  tidings  of  the  surrender  of  Jeru- 
salem. That  city  was  taken,  as  has  been 
said,  on  the  fifteenth  of  July,  1099,  and  the 
pope  died  at  Rome  the  same  year,  on  the 
29ih  of  the  same  month,  after  a  pontificate 
of  eleven  years,  four  months  and  eighteen 
days,  including  the  day  of  his  death.  He 
may  be  styled  another  Gregory  Vll. ;  for  he 
adopted  all  his  principles,  confirmed  all  his 
decrees,  and  pursued,  with  no  less  vigor 
than  Gregory  himself,  though  perhaps  with 
more  art  and  address,  the  grand  work  which 
that  pope  had  begun,  that  of  establishing  the 
temporal  as  well  as  the  spiritual  monarchy 
of  his  see.  He  was  buried  in  the  Vatican, 
and  his  tomb  being  discovered  in  later  times, 
the  following  epitaph  was  engraved  upon  it: 
"  Urbanus  II.,  auctor  expeditionis  in  infi- 
deles," — Urban  II.,  author  of  the  expedition 
against  the  infidels.  As  he  was  a  monk,  and 
a  great  friend  to  the  monkish  orders,  he  is 
highly  commended  by  them  for  his  eminent 
virtues,  and  even  said  to  have  wrought  some 
miracles.  But  his  miracles  have  gained  no 
credit  even  in  the  church.  For  though  he 
has  a  place  in  the  Benedictine  Martyrology, 
with  the  title  of  "blessed,"  he  has  never 
been  admitted  into  the  Roman.  In  this 
pope's  time,  and  in  1084,  was  founded  the 
order  of  the  Carthusians,  by  Bruno,  canon 
first  of  Cologne,  and  afterwards  of  Reims. 
They  were  called  Carthusians  from  the 
desert  to  which  Bruno  first  retired  with  his 
companions.  By  their  institution  they  are 
to  observe  perpetual  silence.  But  as  many 
of  them,  overcome  with  melancholy,  put  an 
end  to  their  own  lives,  Clement  XI.  dis- 
pensed, in  our  days,  with  the  observance  of 
silence  one  day  in  the  week. 


»  Guill.  Tyr.  1.  ix.  c.  9. 


a  Albert  Aquens,  1.  vi. 


Paschal  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


427 


Faschul. elected. 


His  birth,  education,  Slc.    Is  inTormed  by  the  princes  of  the  crusade  of  their  success 
bert  dies  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1100.] 


PASCHAL  II.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  FIFTY-EIGHTH  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[Alexius  Comnenus,  Emperor  of  the  East. — Henry  IV.,  Henry  V'.,  Emperors  nf  the  JVest.} 


[Year  of  Christ,  1099.]  Urban  dying  on 
the  twenty -ninth  of  July,  the  cardinals,  bi- 
shops, and  clergy  of  Rome,  with  the  heads 
of  the  people,  assembled  on  the  thirteenth 
of  August  in  the  church  of  St.  Clement,  to 
proceed  to  the  election  of  a  new  pope,  when 
cardinal  Rainerius,  or  Ragingerius,  was 
unanimously  elected.  When  he  found  they 
were  determined  to  choose  him,  he  privately 
withdrew,  and  concealed  himself,  hoping 
they  might,  in  the  mean  time,  prefer  an- 
other to  the  dignity,  of  which  he  thought 
himself  of  all  the  most  unworthy.  But  as 
he  did  not  conceal  himself  so  as  not  to  be 
discovered,  he  was  soon  brought  back,  and 
some  of  his  friends  crying  out,  when  he 
appeared  again  in  the  assembly,  *'  Paschal 
is  pope,  St.  Peter  has  chosen  him,"  the 
whole  assembly  resounded  with  the  same 
words,  and  he  was  immediately  carried  to 
the  Lateran  palace,  and  there  enthroned,  or 
placed,  Avith  the  usual  ceremony,  in  the 
pontifical  throne.  He  was  consecrated  the 
very  next  day,  that  is,  on  the  fourteenth  of 
August,  which  in  1099  fell  on  a  Sunday,  in 
the  church  of  St.  Peter,  by  the  bishops  of 
Ostia,  Porto,  Albano,  Lavici,  Praenesie,  and 
Nepi.'  Pandulphus  Pisanus,  who  wrote 
the  life  of  Paschal,  describes  here  the  cere- 
mony of  the  pope's  enthronation.  He  put 
on,  as  soon  as  elected,  a  scarlet  mantle,  the 
cardinals  wearing  then  only  purple,  as  all 
bishops  do  now,  and  a  cap  of  slate  being 
placed  upon  his  head,  he  went  in  that  attire, 
on  horseback,  from  the  place  of  the  election 
to  the  Lateran,  attended  by  the  electors,  and 
crowds  of  people  singing  hymns.  He  alighted 
at  the  south  gate  of  the  basilic,  and  sat  down 
in  a  chair  that  was  placed  there.  Then  en- 
tering the  palace,  he  came  to  two  chairs, 
and  being  there  girt  with  a  belt,  from  which 
hung  seven  keys,  and  seven  seals,  emblems 
of  the  sevenfold  grace  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
which  was  to  direct  him  in  loosing  and 
binding,  he  was  placed  first  in  the  one  and 
then  in  the  other;  and  the  ferula,  pastoral 
staff,  or  crosier,  was  delivered  to  him. 
Wlien  this  ceremony  was  over  he  was 
master  of  the  Lateran  palace,  and  allowed 
to  go  alone  into  those  apartments,  which 
none  but  the  Roman  pontiffs  were  allowed 
to  set  their  foot  in.  Thus  Pandulphus  Pi- 
sanus, who  adds,  that  Pasclial  was  crowned 
as   well    as    consecrated    in    the  Vatican ; 

'  Bertnld.  in  Chron.  ad  ann.  1099.  Pandulph.  Pisan. 
in  ejus  Vit. 


whereas  other  popes  were,  so  far  as  we  can 
learn  from  Anastasius  Bibliothecarius,  en- 
throned in  the  Lateran  palace,  consecrated 
in  the  Vatican,  and  from  thence  reconducted 
to  the  Lateran  and  crowned  there.'  We 
are  told  that  the  election  of  Paschal  was  mi- 
raculous; that  it  was  foreseen  by  a  holy 
bishop  named  Albert,  and  that  he  knew  by 
divine  revelation  that  Paschal  would  hold 
the  see  four  times  four  and  three,  that  is, 
nineteen  years  ;2  which  indeed  happened, 
but  the  prophecy  was  not  made  public  till  it 
was  fulfilled. 

Paschal  was  a  native  of  Tuscany,  the  son 
of  one  Crescentius,  and  being  brought  up 
from  his  infancy  in  the  monastery  of  Cluny, 
he  there  embraced,  while  yet  very  young, 
a  monastic  life.  He  was  afterwards  sent  to 
Rome,  by  his  abbot,  upon  some  affairs  re- 
lating to  the  monastery  ;  and  Gregory  VII., 
in  whose  pontificate  he  came,  finding  him, 
on  that  occasion,  to  be  a  man  of  uncommon 
parts,  kept  him  with  him,  and,  as  he  fully 
answered  his  expectation,  he  caused  him  to 
be  ordained  priest,  preferred  him  to  the  dig- 
nity of  cardinal,  and  made  him  abbot  of  St. 
Lawrence.'' 

The  princes  of  the  crusade  took  care  to 
acquaint  the  new  pope  with  the  success  that 
had  attended  their  arms  in  the  East,  by 
a  letter  directed  to  his  holiness,  to  all  the 
bishops,  and  to  all  the  faithful  in  general.'' 
Paschal  was  transported  with  joy  at  the 
news  of  the  reduction  of  the  holy  city,  and 
no  less  at  the  discovery  of  part  of  the  true 
cross,  and  the  lance  with  which  the  Roman 
soldier  pierced  our  Savior's  side.  But  he 
did  not  at  all  approve  of  the  election  of  Ar- 
nulph,  whom  they  had  preferred  to  the  pa- 
triarchal see  of  Jerusalem,  and  was  there- 
fore deposed  in  a  council  held  in  that  city  ; 
and  Diabert,  bishop  of  Pisa,  whom  the  pope 
had  appointed  Ills  legate  in  the  East,  was 
chosen  patriarch  in  his  room. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  second  year  of 
Paschal's  pontificate,  that  is,  in  September 
or  October,  1 100,  died  Guibert,  who  had  as- 
sumed the  name  of-Clement  III.,  and  being 
supported  by  the  emperor  and  the  imperial 
parly,  had  given  so  much  trouble  to  three 
popes,  namely,  Gregory  VII.,  Victor  III., 
and  Urban  II.  He  maintained,  at  least,  the 
name  of  pope  for  the  space  of  twenty  years. 


■  Annst.  in  Nich.  i. 

'  IJerlold.   in    Chron.  ad   ann.   1099.     Dodechin.   et 
Pandulph.  Pisan.  in  Vit.  Pasrh. 
'  Idem  ibid.  <  Dodechin.  ad  ann.  1100. 


428 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Paschal  II. 


Three  anti-popes.     Philip  of  France  excommunicated.     Anselm  returns  to  England. 


But  being  driven  from  Rome  by  the  Romans 
in  Urban's  time,  and  from  his  bishopric  of 
Ravenna  by  Paschal,  he  retired,  according 
to  some,  to  Citta  di  Castello ;  according  to 
others,  to  the  mountains  of  Abruzzo,  and 
died  suddenly.  He  is  allowed  even  by  his 
enemies  to  have  been  a  man  of  parts,  of 
great  address,  eloquence,  and  learning.' 
Guibert's  friends  no  sooner  heard  of  his 
death  than  they  chose  one  Albert  in  his 
room.  But  he  was  taken  the  very  day  of 
his  election,  and  confined  by  Paschal  to  the 
monastery  of  St.  Lawrence.  In  his  room 
was  chosen  a  Roman,  named  Theodoric, 
who  fared  not  much  better;  for  he  too  fell 
into  Paschal's  hands  one  hundred  and  five 
days  after  his  election,  and  was  shut  up  in 
the  monastery  of  Cava,  near  Palestrina. 
Lastly,  the  partisans  of  Guibert  elected  an 
archpriest  called  Magninulph,  who  took  the 
name  of  Silvester  IV.  But  Paschal's  party 
prevaihng,  Silvester,  though  he  wanted  not 
friends,  was  forced  to  leave  Rome,  and 
death  prevented  his  attempting,  as  he  in- 
tended, to  return  to  it.^ 

Paschal,  having  now  no  rival  to  contend 
with,  began  to  apply  himself  to  the  func- 
tions of  his  office;  and  being  informed  that 
Philip  of  France  had  recalled  Bertrada  to 
court,  and  lived  in  public  adultery  Avith  her, 
as  he  had  done  before,  he,sent  two  cardinals 
to  France,  John  and  Benedict,  with  the 
character  of  his  legates,  to  admonish  the 
king ;  and,  if  he  did  not  mend  upon  their  ad- 
monitions, to  cut  him  off  as  a  rotten  mem- 
ber from  the  body  of  the  church.  The 
legates,  on  their  arrival  in  France,  acquaint- 
ed the  king  with  their  commission  ;  but 
finding  that  he  paid  no  kind  of  regard  either  to 
their  exhortations  or  their  menaces,  they  left 
the  court,  and  repairing  to  Poitiers,  assem- 
bled a  council  there,  which  is  said  to  have 
consisted  of  one  hundred  and  forty  bishops. 
They  met  on  the  ISth  of  November  of  the 
present  year,  made  sixteen  canons,  calcu- 
lated to  redress  some  abuses  that  obtained  in 
the  Galilean  churches,  and  when  the  canons 
were  read,  one  of  the  legates  standing  up 
acquainted  the  assembly  with  the  endea- 
vours they  had  used,  by  his  holiness's  com- 
mand, but  used  in  vain,  to  retrieve  the  king 
from,  his  wickedness,  expressed  great  con- 
cern at  his  being  obliged  to  proceed  to  such 
extremities,  and  then,  with  the  approbation 
of  the  council,  pronounced  the  sentence  of 
excommunication  against  the  king,  and  at 
the  same  time  against  his  adulterous  concu- 
bine, Bertrada.'  At  this  council  was  pre- 
sent William,  Duke  of  Aquitaine,  who,  pro- 
voked at  their  presuming  to  excommunicate 
the  king,  ordered  his  servants  to  fall  upon 
them,  and  put  them  all,  without  mercy,  to 
the  sword.  The  order  would  have  been 
executed  had  not  the  members  of  the  coun- 


•  Usperg.  Dodechin.  &c. 
«  Concil.  t.  X.  p.  720,  721. 


-  Pindulph.  Sigebert. 


cil,  all  but  two  abbots,  disappeared  the  mo- 
ment it  was  given ;  and  these  the  duke 
spared  as  the  more  worthy  to  live  the  less 
they  valued  their  lives.' 

William  Rufus,  king  of  England,  being 
this  year  unfortunately  killed,  his  brother 
Henry  I.  got  possession  of  the  crown  in  the 
absence  of  Robert,  duke  of  Normandy,  his 
elder  brother  then  in  Palestine  ;  was  conse- 
crated at  London  by  Maurinus,  bishop  of 
that  city,  and  acknowledged  by  the  bishops 
as  well  as  the  nobility.  But  as  he  did  not 
doubt  that  his  brother  would  return,  and  I 
claim  the  crown  as  the  elder  of  the  two,  to  \ 
gain  the  pope,  or,  at  least,  to  prevent  him 
from  openly  espousing  the  cause  of  his 
brother,  in  whose  favor  he  knew  him  to  be 
greatly  prejudiced  on  account  of  his  en- 
gaging in  the  holy  war,  he  recalled  An- 
selm, than  which  he  could  do  nothing  more 
pleasing  to  the  pope,  and  reinstated  him  in 
his  see.  Of  this  step,  the  king  had  soon  oc- 
casion to  repent,  though  it  appeared  to  him 
of  two  evils  the  least.  For  Anselm  going 
to  court  a  few  days  after  his  arrival,  and 
being  there  required  to  do  homage  to  the 
king  after  the  example  of  his  predecessors, 
and  receive  his  archbishopric  from  his  hand, 
he  declared,  without  the  least  hesitation, 
against  the  one  and  the  other;  adding,  that 
if  the  king  was  resolved  to  receive  and  ob- 
serve the  decrees  of  the  apostolic  see,  no- 
thing should  interrupt  the  peace  and  har- 
mony between  them;  but  if  he  was  not,  he 
could  not  in  conscience  nor  in  honor  re- 
main in  England,  since  he  should  be  obliged, 
if  the  king  disposed  of  bishoprics  and  abbeys, 
to  deprive  himself  of  his  communion,  as 
well  as  of  the  communion  of  those  who  re- 
ceived them  at  his  hand.  This  resolution 
in  Anselm  was  entirely  agreeable  to  the  de- 
crees of  the  late  council  of  Bari,  at  which 
he  had  assisted,  forbidding,  upon  pain  of 
excommunication,  laymen  to  give  and  ec- 
clesiastics to  receive  investitures  from  them, 
or  to  do  them  homage.  The  king  well  knew 
that  his  predecessors  had  time  out  of  mind 
both  nominated  and  invested  all  the  bishops 
of  the  kingdom,  and  that  their  right  had 
never  been  disputed.  However,  as  he  was 
unwilling  to  quarrel  with  the  archbishop  at 
so  critical  a  juncture,  it  was  agreed  betweea 
them  that  both  should  send  to  Rome  to  con- 
sult the  pope,  and  the  point  in  dispute  should 
be  dropped  till  Easter  of  the  following  year, 
1 101.^  In  the  mean  time  the  king  marrying 
Mathilda,  the  daughter  of  Malcolm,  king  of 
Scotland,  by  his  queen  St.  Margaret,  An- 
selm performed  the  nuptial  ceremony,  and 
afterwards  consecrated  and  crowned  the 
queen. 

During  this  truce,  as  Eadmer  calls  it,  be- 
tween the  king  and  the  archbishop,  the 
pope,   knowing    that  the   archbishop  was 

>  Gaufred.  Grossin.  Vit.  Bernard. 
3  Eadmer,  1.  i.  c.  3. 


Paschal  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


429 


The  pope  attempts  to  introduce  the  legatine  power  into  England  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1101.]  The  legate  sent 
back.  England  invaded  by  the  duke  of  Normandy.  The  king  and  the  duke  reconciled  by  means  of  Anselm. 
The  envoys  of  Anselm  and  the  king  return  from  Rome.    The  pope's  letter  to  the  king. 


wholly  in  his  interest,  resolved  to  lay  hold 
of  so  favorable  an  opportunity  to  introduce 
the  legatine  power  into  England,  a  power 
above  all  other  power  but  that  of  the  pope 
himself.  Paschal  sent  over  accordingly 
Guido,  archbishop  of  Vienne,  afterwards 
pope  under  the  name  of  Calixtus  II.,  with 
the  character  of  his  legale  a  Lulcrc.  But 
this  was  a  thing  unheard  of  in  England, 
says  the  historian;  it  struck  all  with  adiTiira- 
tion;  and  as  no  power  had  ever  yet  been 
known  in  England  above  that  of  the  arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  all  declared  that  they 
would  own  no  other;  and  as  the  legate 
came,  so  he  returned,  being  by  none  ac- 
knowledged, or  allowed  to  exercise  any 
function  whatever  of  his  office.'  Legates 
had  been  sent  from  Rome  into  England 
long  before  this  time.  Gregory,  bishop  of 
Ostia,  and  Theophylact,  bishop  of  Todi, 
came  into  this  kingdom  in  the  reign  of  king 
OfTa,  in  the  year  786,  being  sent  by  Hadrian 
I.  to  inquire  into  the  state  of  the  English 
church ;  and  they  told  the  English  bishops, 
in  the  speech  which  they  made  to  them, 
that  they  were  the  first  priests  that  had  been 
sent  from  Rome  to  England  since  the  time 
of  Austin.2  But  it  does  not  appear  that 
those  legates  exercised,  or  even  claimed,  any 
power  over  the  English  bishops;  they  only 
assisted  them  with  their  advice  and  direc- 
tions.    In  the  pontificate  of  Alexander  II. 


of  the  king  his  brother,  and  claiming  the 
kingdom,  which  Henry  his  younger  brother 
had  seized,  as  his  inheritance,  landed  in 
England  with  a  considerable  ibrce,  deter- 
mined to  maintain  his  right  to  the  crown  by 
dint  of  arms.  Many  of  the  nobility  went 
over  to  him,  many  privately  favored  his 
cause,  and  much  blood  would  have  been 
shed  on  both  sides,  had  not  Anselm  been 
prevailed  upon  by  the  nobility  to  interpose. 
By  his  mediation,  as  well  as  by  the  address 
and  prudent  conduct  of  the  king,  the  two 
brothers  were  reconciled,  and  peace  was  re- 
stored to  the  kingdom.' 

In  the  mean  time  returned  the  envoys, 
sent  by  the  king  and  the  archbishop  to  Rome, 
with  a  long  letter  from  the  pope  to  the  king, 
calculated  to  prove  ecclesiastic  investitures 
to  be  the  incommunicable  right  of  the  apos- 
tolic see.  The  reasons  he  alledged  to  prove 
that  paradox  were,  1.  The  Lord  declares 
the  right  of  investing  bishops  to  be  his  alone, 
saying,  "I  am  the  door:"  if  kings  therefore 
pretend  to  be  the  door,  says  the  pope,  they 
who  enter  through  them  are  not  pastors, 
but  thieves.  2.  St.  Ambrose  would  not  suf- 
fer the  emperor  to  dispose  of  a  church,  tell- 
ing him  that  he  had  no  right  to  divine  mat- 
ters; that  emperors  might  dispose  of  palaces, 
but  the  disposing  of  churches  belonged  to 
the  bishops.  3.  God,  and  not  man,  is  the 
author  of  the  marriage  between  the  bishop 


and  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  William  ,  and  his  church.     4.  He   quotes  a  law  of 
the   Conqueror,    three    legates    came   from  i  Justinian  to  prove,  that  bishops  should  be 


Rome  to  England;  but  it  was  at  the  king's 
request  that  the  pope  sent  them,  and  they 
acted  only  as  directed  and  instructed  by  him, 
desirous  of  casting  upon  them  the  odium  of 
his  intended  innovations,  and  arbitrary  pro- 
ceedings against  the  English  in  favor  of  the 
Norman  clergy.  But  Guido  was  sent  by 
Paschal,  unknown  to  the  king  and  the  whole 
nation,  to   exercise   here  the  same   uncon- 


electod  by  the  people,  and  not  by  the  prince 
alone.^ 

These  reasons  are  all,  as  every  reader 
must  be  sensible,  evidently  unconcluding. 
For  in  the  first  place,  they  who  ordain  a 
bishop,  are  the  door  through  which  he  en- 
ters, and  not  the  prince,  who  by  investiture 
only  puts  him  in  possession  of  the  tempo- 
ralities  of  his   church.     All   bishops,    and 


trolled  power  over  all  persons,  laymen  as  j  among  them  many  of  great  sanctity  and 
well  as  ecclesiastics,  as  was  exercised  by  most  exemplary  lives,  had,  time  out  of  mind, 
the  legates  in  the  countries  that  had  unad-  received  investitures  from  the  princes,  under 
visedly  admitted  them.  It  is  to  be  observed,  I  whom  they  were  to  enjoy  the  temporalities 
that  Anselm,  however  zealous  for  the  papal  '  of  their  churches,  and  to  whom  or  to  their 
power,  did  not  in  the  least  interest  himself  !  predecessors  they  were  indebted  for  them, 
in  behalf  of  the  legate,  sensible  that  his  own  I  And  were  none  of  them  pastors?  Were 
power  and  authority  would  be  eclipsed  by  \  they  all  thieves?  The  emperors  were,  for 
his;  nay,  Eadmer,  who  was  his  secretary  j  several  ages,  the  door,  in  Paschal's  sense, 
and  inseparable  companion,  and  may  be  [  through  which  the  popes  themselves  en- 
therefore  supposed  to  have  spoken  his  senti-    tered;  for  they  were  not  to  be  ordained  till 


ments,  exclaims  against  the  legatine  power 
as  a  thing  altogether  unprecedented  in  Eng- 
land.' 

As  the  envoys,  .sent  to  Rome  by  the  king 
and  the  archbishop,  did  not  come  back  by 
Easter,  they  consented  to  prolong  their  agree- 
ment till  their  return.  In  the  mean  time 
Robert,  duke  of  Normandy,  returning  from 
the  Holy  Land  upon  the  news  of  the  death 


•  Eadmer,  1.  i.  c.  ."?. 
°  Eadmer,  ubi  supra. 


»  Concil.  Brit.  1.  i.  p.  292. 


their  election  was  confirmed  by  those  prin- 
ces :  and  were  they  too  all  thieves?  Was 
Gregory  VII.  himself  one,  who  was  not 
consecrated  till  the  emperor's  pleasure  was 
known?  The  instance  of  St.  Ambrose  is 
quite  foreign  to  the  purpose  ;  for  the  question 
was  not,  whether  the  emperor  had  a  right 
to  invest  bishops,  but  whether  he  could 
grant  a  church  to  the  Arians  that  belonged 

■  Eadmer,  in  Vit.  Anselm.  1.  ii. 
>  Ead.  Novor.  1.  iii.  c.  2. 


430 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Paschal  H. 


New  envoys  sent  to  Rome  by  the  king  and  the  archbishop.     Council  of  Rome  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1102.]     The 

emperor  excommunicated. 


to  the  catholics?  which  Ambrose  maintained 
he  had  no  power  to  do.  As  to  the  marriage 
of  bishops,  princes  did  not  pretend  to  marry 
them  to  their  churches,  but  only  to  put  them 
in  possession  of  the  dower  of  their  spouse. 
With  respect  to  the  law  of  the  emperor  Jus- 
tinian, the  method  of  election  was  different 
in  different  times  and  nations.  In  .some 
places  bishops  were  elected  by  the  people 
and  the  clergy  of  the  diocese,  and  the  bishops 
of  the  province.  In  other  places  they  were 
nominated  by  the  prince  only,  the  people 
acquiescing  in  his  nomination,  and  the  bi- 
shops of  the  province  ordaining  the  person 
whom  he  had  nominated,  unless  he  was  un- 
quahfied  by  the  canons,  in  which  case  they 
remonstrated  against  his  ordination.  In  the 
more  early  times  the  emperors  frequently 
named  the  person  whom  they  would  have 
preferred,  without  so  much  as  consulting 
the  people,  to  prevent  popular  tumults,  that 
often  ended  in  bloodshed.  Thus  was  Nec- 
tarius  nominated  by  the  elder,  and  Nestorius 
by  the  younger  Theodosius,  to  the  patri- 
archal see  of  Constantinople.  By  the  coun- 
cil of  Aries,  in  952,  it  was  ordained,  that 
upon  a  vacancy  the  bishops  of  the  province 
should  nominate  three,  and  the  people  and 
the  clergy  should  be  confined  in  their  choice 
to  one  of  the  three.  In  Spain,  about  the 
year  599,  the  people  and  clergy  were  al- 
lowed to  nominate  three,  and  the  metro- 
politan as  well  as  the  bishops  of  the  pro- 
vince were  to  cast  lots  which  of  the  three 
should  be  ordained.  The  pope  took,  it 
seems,  upon  trust  the  law  of  Justinian,  re- 
quiring bishops  to  be  elected  by  the  people. 
For  by  two  of  his  novels  the  common  people 
were  entirely  excluded  from  the  elections  on 
account  of  the  disturbances  they  raised,  and 
the  Optimates  alone,  that  is,  people  of  bet- 
ter rank,  were  allowed  to  concur  with  their 
suffrages.' 

The  reasons  alledged  by  the  pope  to  sup- 
port his  claim,  did  not,  we  may  well  sup- 
pose, satisfy  the  king  and  the  English 
nation.  On  the  contrary,  they  only  served 
to  show  the  weakness  of  his  cause.  The 
king  therefore,  knowing  he  had  justice  and 
immemorial  prescription  on  his  side,  sent 
for  Anselm,  and  told  him,  that  he  must 
either  do  him  homage,  as  his  predecessors 
had  all  done  before  him,  or  quit  the  king- 
dom ;  for  he  would  suffer  no  man  to  live  in 
his  dominions,  who  refused,  upon  any  pre- 
tence whatever,  to  pay  him  that  mark  of 
obedience  and  subjection.  Eadmer  writes, 
that  the  king  ordered  him  to  ordain  the 
bishops,  whom  he  should  nominate,  or  to 
leave  the  kingdom  that  moment,  and  that 
Aiiselm  boldly  answered,  he  would  do 
neither,  and  thereupon  retired  to  Canter- 
bury .^  As  the  king  had  all  the  bishops  as 
well  as   the   nobility   on    his   side,   no   less 

'  Novel.  123,  c.  i.  et  Novel.  127. 
'  Ead.  I.  iii.  c.  2. 


Steady  than  the  king  himself  in  asserting 
the  undoubted  rights  of  the  crown  against 
the  unjust  usurpations  of  the  pope,  he  was 
determined  not  to  yield.  But  not  caring  to 
proceed,  as  that  juncture,  to  extremities, 
and  willing  to  gain  time,  he  readily  hearkened 
to  the  advice  of  his  council;  which  was, 
that  new  envoys  should  be  sent  to  Rome 
both  by  him  and  the  archbishop  to  argue 
the  point  in  dispute  in  the  presence  of  the 
pope.  For  this  important  embassy  the  king 
chose  Gerard  archbishop  elect  of  York, 
Robert  bishop  of  Chester,  and  Herbert 
bishop  of  Thetford.  By  the  archbishop 
were  sent  two  monks,  Baldwin  and  Alex- 
ander, the  one  a  monk  of  Bee  in  Normandy, 
the  other  of  Canterbury.' 

While  these  things  passed  in  England, 
the  pope  was  wholly  intent  upon  making 
his  party  good  against  the  emperor  and  his 
adherents.  With  that  view  he  assembled  a 
great  council  at  Rome,  consisting  of  all  the 
bishops  of  Apulia,  Calabria,  Campania, 
Sicily,  Tuscany,  and  a  great  many  bishops, 
or  their  deputies,  come  from  beyond  the 
mountains.  They  met  in  the  Lateran  about 
the  latter  end  of  March,  and  the  pope  pre- 
siding in  person,  the  decrees  of  the  preced- 
ing popes,  especially  of  Gregory  VII.,  were 
all  confirmed,  and  on  Maundy-Thursday, 
being  this  year  the  3d  of  April,  the  sentence 
of  excommunication  was,  with  great  solem- 
nity, pronounced  against  the  emperor  by  the 
pope  himself  in  the  presence  of  an  immense 
multitude.  This  sentence  the  pope  ordered 
to  be  published  in  all  churches,  especially 
beyond  the  mountains,  that  none  might 
plead  ignorance,  and  thereupon  communi- 
cate with  the  person,  Avho  called  himself 
emperor,  and  by  that  means  partake  of  his 
wickedness.  In  the  same  council  the  pope 
exacted  the  following  oath  of  all  the  bishops; 
"  I  anathematize  all  heresies,  and  chiefly 
that  which  at  present  disturbs  the  peace  of 
the  church,  teaching  that  no  regard  is  to  be 
had  to  the  censures  and  anathemas  of  the 
church.  I  promise  obedience  to  lord  Paschal, 
pontiff  of  the  apostolic  see,  and  to  his  suc- 
cessors, in  the  presence  of  Christ  and  his 
church,  affirming  what  the  holy  universal 
church  affirms,  and  condemning  what  she 
condemns."^  As  anathemas  and  excom- 
munications were,  at  this  time,  thundered 
out  on  every  trifling  occasion,  men  began 
not  only  to  pay  no  kind  of  regard  to  them, 
but  to  teach,  that  no  kind  of  regard  ought  to 
be  paid  to  them ;  and  it  was  to  suppress 
that  heresy,  as  they  called  it,  that  the  pre- 
sent oath  was  drawn  up,  and  required  of  the 
bishops  of  the  council. 

As  all  who  received  the  pall  were  required, 
upon  receiving  it,  to  take  this  oath,  and  like- 
wise the  oath  that  was  prescribed  by  Gregory 
VII.,  of  which  t  have  spoken  above,*  ihe  arch- 


«  Ead.  1.  iii.  c.  2. 
'  See  p.  395. 


»  Abbas  Usperg.  in  Chron. 


Paschal  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


431 


The  pope's  letter  to  the  archbishop  of  Colocza.  Rapaciousness  of  the  apostolic  legatee.  The  English  return 
from  Rome,  but  disagree  in  the  account  of  their  negotiations.  Other  envoys  sent  to  Rome.  The  pope  writes 
by  them  to  the  king. 

bishop  of  Colocza,  in  Hungary,  refused  to  ion  the  just  rights  of  the  church  of  Christ; 


take  either,  when  both  were  sent  him,  soon  af 
ter  this  council,  together  with  the  pall,  alledg- 
ing  that  all  oaths  were  forbidden  in  the  gospel; 
that  none  were  ever  taken  by  the  apostles, 
and  none  prescribed  or  required  by  any  of 
the  general  councils.  The  archbishop  ob- 
jected chiefly  to  the  clause  in  the  oath 
prescribed  by  Gregory,  obliging  those  to 
whom  legates  or  nuncios  were  sent,  to  bear 
their  charges,  and  "supply  them  with  all 
necessaries  in  coming  and  returning."  For 
they  were,  for  the  most  part,  men,  as  the 
writers  of  those  times  witness,  of  an  insati- 
able avarice,  and  made  it  their  study  not  to 
promote  the  service  of  God,  but  to  plunder 
the  churches  and  enrich  themselves,  as  if 
they  had  been  sent  only  to  accumulate 
wealth,  and  carry  back  with  them  to  Rome 
the  treasures  of  Crccsus.'  The  pope,  in  his 
answer  to  the  archbishop's  letter,  explains 
the  use  of  the  pall,  extols  the  authority  of 
the  Roman  church,  because  she  gives  law 
to  all  other  churches,  and  authority  to  all 
councils.  As  to  the  oaths,  he  tells  the  arch- 
bishop that  they  are  lawful  when  necessary  ; 
that  it  is  not  for  his  own  private  interest  he 
requires  them,  but  to  preserve  the  unity  of 
the  church,  by  uniting  all  the  members  to 
the  head.  He  adds,  that  the  Saxons  and 
Danes  are  more  distant  from  Rome  than 
they,  (the  Hungarians,)  and  yet  receive, 
with  honor,  the  legates  of  the  apostolic  see, 
defray  the  expenses  of  their  journeys,  and 
cheerfully  furnish  them  with  whatever  they 
want. 

The  following  year,  1103,  the  envoys  of 
the  king  of  England  and  the  archbishop  of 
Canterbury  returned  from  Rome;  but  very 
different  were  the  accounts  they  gave  of 
their  negotiations  there.  The  three  bishops 
positively  affirmed  that  the  pope  had  de- 
clared to  them  that  he  would  allow  the  king 
to  grant  investitures,  and  would  not  excom- 
municate those  who  received  them  from  him, 
provided  he  gave  him  no  other  occasion  to 
complain  of  his  conduct.  The  two  monks  af- 
firmed, no  less  positively,  that  the  pope  had 
declared  the  quite  contrary  to  them,  and  ap- 
pealed to  the  letters  which  he  had  written 
by  them  to  the  archbishop,  and  by  the  bi- 
shop to  the  king.  The  letters  were  pro- 
duced, and  by  them  was  confirmed  what 
the  monks  had  attested.  For  the  pope,  in 
his  letter  to  the  king,  promised  him  an  invio- 
lable friendship,  provided  he  renounced  his 
pretensions  to  investitures,  laymen  being 
forbidden  by  his  holy  predecessors  as  well 
as  by  himself,  and  not  without  a  particular 
inspiration  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  to  give  them, 
and  ecclesiastics  to  receive  them  at  their 
hands.  In  his  letter  to  the  archbishop,  he 
encouraged  him  to  persevere  in  his  opposi 


tells  him  that,  in  the  council  which  he  had 
lately  held  in  the  Laleran,  he  had  renewed 
and  confirmed  the  decrees  of  his  predeces- 
sors, forbidding  lay  investitures,  and  that  he 
would  ever  religiously  adhere  to  their  ordi- 
nances; being  sensible  that  the  desire  of 
pleasing  laymen  was  the  source  of  all  si- 
mony, from  which  the  church,  he  said, 
never  could  be  free,  so  long  as  the  laymen 
were  allowed  to  dispose  of  bishoprics, 
abbeys,  and  other  ecclesiastical  preferments. 
Such  were  the  pope's  letters  to  the  king  and 
the  archbishop.  But  the  envoys  of  the  king 
maintained,  in  answer  to  these  letters,  that 
they  had  had  several  audiences  of  the  pope, 
at  which  the  envoys  of  Anselra  were  not 
present,  and  that  his  holiness  had  contra- 
dicted, by  word  of  mouth,  in  the  private 
conferences  they  had  with  him,  what  he 
said  in  his  letters,  but  that  he  would  commit 
nothing  to  writing,  lest  other  princes,  hear- 
ing of  his  condescension  and  indulgence  to 
the  king  of  England,  should  claim  the  same 
favors  as  due  to  them  as  well  as  to  him. 
The  lords  and  the  bishops  of  the  king's 
council  were  divided  upon  these  opposite 
reports.  Some  were  for  standing  to  the 
pope's  letters,  and  the  account  given  by 
the  archbishop's  envoys,  and  confirmed  by 
those  letters;  while  others  looked  upon  the 
testimony  of  three  bishops  as  an  irrefragable 
proof,  in  which  they  ought  all  to  acquiesce. 
Most  of  the  lords,  as  well  as  the  bishops, 
were  of  this  opinion,  and  Anselm,  not 
choosing  to  give  the  bishops  the  lie,  nor 
show  to  the  world  that  he  placed  more  con- 
fidence in  his  monks  than  in  them,  proposed 
the  sending  of  new  envoys  to  Rome,  pro- 
mising that  if  the  king  should,  in  the  mean 
lime,  grant  investitures,  he  would  neither 
look  upon  him,  nor  upon  those  who  re- 
ceived them,  as  excommunicated.  But  at 
the  same  time  he  declared,  that  he  would 
not  consecrate  them.  This  proposal  was 
readily  agreed  to,  and  in  the  mean  time  the 
controversy  lay  dormant.' 

Upon  the  departure  of  the  envoys  Anselm 
retired  to  Canterbury,  and  there  continued 
till  their  return,  which  happened  this  year. 
They  brought  with  them  a  letter  from  the 
pope  to  the  archbishop,  wherein  he  declared 
what  the  bishops  had  reported  was  notori- 
ously false,  "  We  take  Jesus  Christ,  said 
he  in  his  letter,  who  searches  the  reins  and 
hearts  of  men,  to  witness,  that  no  such 
criminal  thought,  as  we  have  been  charged 
with  by  our  brethren,  the  envoys  of  the 
king  of  England,  has  ever  entered  into  our 
mind  ;  and  God  forbid  we  should  ever  utter 
with  our  mouth  what  is  not  in  our  heart. 
As  to  the  bishops,  who  have  changed  truth 
into  falsehood,  we  exclude  them  Irom  the 


tion  to  all  who  should  attempt  to  encroach  .grace  of  St.  Peter  and  our  communion 


till 


>  Joan.  Salisbur.  Policrat.  1.  y.  c.  16. 


'  Eadoier. 


432 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Paschal  H. 


The  kine  tries  in  vain  to  gain  Anselni. 
William's  bold  speecii  to  the  pope. 


Sends  him  and  William  of  Warlewest  to  Rome  at  the  same  time. 
The  pope's  resolute  answer.     He  writes  again  to  the  king. 


they  repair  the  injury  they  have  done  to  the 
Roman  church.'"  Whether  the  envoys  or 
the  pope  spoke  the  truth,  I  shall  leave  the 
reader  to  judge. 

As  during  the  interval  between  the  de- 
parture and  return  ofthe  last  envoys,  Anselm 
refused  to  consecrate  some  bishops,  the 
king,  who  had  nominated  them,  went  in 
person  to  Canterbury,  to  try  whether  he 
could  by  any  means  get  the  better  of  his 
obstinacy,  and  gain  him  over  to  his  cause. 
He  represented  to  him  how  shameful  and 
dishonorable  it  would  be  in  him  tamely  to 
part  with  the  undoubted  rights  of  his  crown, 
which  his  predecessors  had  all  enjoyed  un- 
disturbed. He  even  descended  to  prayers 
and  entreaties,  begging  he  would  no  longer 
oppose  him,  as  he  could  not  but  know  that 
he  had  justice  on  his  side.  But  ail  was  in 
vain,  the  archbishop  remained  inflexible. 
The  king  therefore,  no  less  determined  to 
maintain  than  he  was  to  oppose  his  just 
claim,  resolved  to  deliver  himself  and  his 
kingdom,  as  soon  as  possible,  from  so  dan- 
gerous and  obstinate  a  bigot.  With  that 
view,  as  he  did  not  choose  to  proceed  to 
open  violence,  he  desired  that  Anselm  would 
go  himself  to  Rome,  and  try  whether  he 
could  obtain  of  his  holiness  what  he  had  re- 
fused to  others.  Anselm  understood  the 
meaning  of  this  proposal,  and  looking  upon 
his  being  sent  to  Rome,  at  this  juncture,  as 
an  honorable  exile,  desired  the  affair  might 
be  respited  till  the  meeting  of  the  bishops 
and  the  lords  at  Easter,  that  he  might  know, 
after  hearing  them,  what  answer  he  should 
return.  His  request  was  granted;  but  the 
advice  of  the  whole  assembly,  not  one  ex- 
cepted, concurring  with  the  desire  of  the 
king,  the  archbishop  consented,  though 
much  against  his  will,  to  undertake  that 
journey.  He  embarked  accordingly  at 
Dover  in  the  latter  end  of  April  of  the  pre- 
sent year  1103,  and  having  first  visited  the 
monastery  of  Bee  in  Normandy,  he  pursued 
his  journey,  by  land,  to  Rome.  The  pope, 
when  informed  of  his  arrival  in  that  city, 
sent  him  word,  that  to  recover  himself  from 
the  fatigue  of  so  long  a  journey,  he  would 
have  him  to  pass  that  and  the  next  day  in 
quiet,  in  the  lodging  that  was  allotted  to  him 
near  the  church  of  St.  Peter.  The  third 
day  Anselm  was  admitted  to  the  pope,  and 
received  by  him  with  all  possible  marks  of 
confidence  and  esteem.  As  the  king  placed 
no  confidence  in  the  archbishop,  and  his 
sending  him  to  Rome  was  only  a  pretence 
to  remove  him  out  of  the  way,  he  dispatched, 
at  his  departure,  William  Warlewest,  bishop 
elect  of  Exeter,  with  the  character  of  his  em- 
bassador to  the  pope,  knowing  that  he  would 
plead  his  cause  with  more  zeal  than  the 
archbishop,  should  he  even  undertake  it. 
A   day   being  fixed   by   the   pope  to  hear 


<  Eadmer. 


Anselm  and  the  bishop,  the  latter  harangued 
with  great  energy  and  eloquence  in  favor  of 
the  king,  urging  the  eminent  services  which 
the  kings  of  England  had,  in  all  times,  ren- 
dered to  the  apostolic  see;  their  having  ever 
been  distinguished,  on  that  account,  by  the 
Roman  pontiffs  above  all  other  princes  ;  the 
advantages,  which  Rome  had  always  reaped 
and  continued  to  reap  from  their  generosity, 
but  would  certainly  forfeit,  and  might  never 
afterwards  recover,  if  they  disobliged  the 
king.  The  bishop  represented  at  the  same 
time  how  dishonorable  it  would  be  for  the 
king  to  give  up  the  rights  of  the  crown, 
which  his  predecessors  had  all  enjoyed  un- 
disputed, and  transmitted,  with  the  crown, 
to  him.  This  speech  made  no  small  im- 
pression upon  all  who  were  present.  Some, 
however,  rose  up  to  answer  it;  but  the 
bishop  stopped  them  short,  saying  aloud, 
with  a  determined  air,  "Let  either  side  urge 
what  they  will,  I  would  have  all  here  pre- 
sent to  know,  that  the  king  of  England,  my 
master,  will  not  suffer  investitures  to  be 
taken  from  him,  were  it  even  to  cost  him  his 
kingdom."  At  these  words  the  pope  start- 
ing up,  and  fixing  his  eyes  upon  the  bishop, 
addressed  him  thus,  with  anger  and  resolu- 
tion in  his  countenance,  "If  your  king  will 
not,  as  you  say,  part  Avith  investitures,  were 
it  to  cost  him  his  kingdom,  I  would  have 
you  to  know,  before  God  I  say  it,  that  pope 
Paschal  will  not  suffer  him  to  keep  them 
with  impunity,  Avere  it  to  cost  him  his 
head."  These  words  were,  no  doubt,  put 
in  the  mouth  of  the  holy  father,  and  the 
wrath,  or  rather  rage,  with  which  he  uttered 
them,  was  put  in  his  heart  by  the  Holy  Ghost. 
However,  he  soon  returned  to  himself;  and 
at  the  pressing  instances  of  the  Romans, 
no  doubt,  apprehending  that  this  quarrel 
might  be  attended  with  the  loss  of  the  wealth 
Avhich  their  city  drew  from  England,  he 
allowed  the  king  to  retain  some  ancient 
usages  in  his  kingdom,  which,  it  seems,  he 
had  sued  for.  As  to  investitures,  he  abso- 
lutely forbad  them,  and  absolved  the  king 
from  the  excommunication  he  had  incurred 
by  granting  them ;  but  Avould  not  absolve 
those,  who  had  received  them  from  him,  till 
they  had  done  penance,  and  given  satisfac- 
tion for  so  enormous  a  crime.  It  is  observ- 
able, that  Anselm  spoke  not  a  single  word 
at  this  audience  either  for  or  against  the 
king's  claim.' 

Anselm  left  Rome  soon  after  this  occur- 
rence, on  his  return  to  England ;  and  the 
pope  gave  him,  at  his  departure,  a  letter,  or 
bull,  ^dated  the  16th  of  November,  1103, 
confirming  all  the  privileges  that  his  prede- 
cessors had  granted  to  his  see.  The  bishop 
staid  at  Rome,  under  pretence  that  he  had 
made  a  vow  to  visit  the  tomb  of  St.  Nicholas 
at  Bari,  a  saint  famous  in  those  days,  and 

«  Eadmer,  Novor.  1.  iii. 


Paschal  II.]  OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME.  433 

Anselm  forbidden  to  return  again  to  England.    Philip  of  France  absolved  from  the  ezcommunicationf;— [Year 
of  Christ,  1104.]     Oath  he  took  on  that  occasion. 


Still  famous  in  ours.  Bui  his  true  motive 
was  to  try  whetlier  he  could  persuade  the 
pope  to  grant  him,  in  the  absence  of  Anselm, 
what  he  had  not  been  able  to  obtain  while 
he  was  present.  But  he  found  that  Paschal 
meant  what  he  said,  "that  he  would  not, 
for  his  head,  part  with  investitures."  When 
the  bishop  took  his  leave,  the  pope  charged 
him  with  a  letter  for  the  king,  wherein  he 
begged,  entreated,  and  conjured  him,  as  he 
tendered  the  welfare  of  his  soul,  and  his 
own  happiness  in  this  lil'e  and  hereafter,  not 
to  claim,  as  his  right,  what  belonged  to  God 
alone;  repeated  what  he  had  said  in  his  for- 
mer letter,  namely,  that  Christ  alone  is  the 
door,  &.C.,  and  promised,  if  he  renounced 
what  he  could  not  claim,  in  conscience  or  in 
justice,  namely,  investitures,  to  take  him, 
and  his  new-born  son,  William,  into  the 
immediate  protection  of  St.  Peter  and  the 
apostolic  see,  and  to  look  upon  their  enemies 
as  enemies  of  the  Roman  church.'  In  the 
mean  time  Anselm,  pursuing  his  journey  to 
England,  arrived  at  Lions  a  little  before 
Christmas,  and  there  William  Warlewest, 
who  had  travelled  with  him  from  Placentia, 
where  heovertook  him,  to  that  city,  notified  to 
him,  agreeably  to  his  private  instructions,  the 
king's  resolution  in  the  following  words : 
"The  king  has  ordered  me  to  let  you  know, 
that  if  you  are  resolved  to  behave  towards 
him  as  your  predecessors  are  known  to  have 
behaved  towards  his,  he  will  receive  you 
willingly."  This  was  forbidding  him,  and 
so  Anselm  understood  it,  to  return  to  Eng- 
land, unless  he  was  resolved  to  submit  to 
the  king.  He  therefore  staid  at  Lions,  and 
was  there  entertained  by  cardinal  Hugh,  the 
archbishop,  as  if  he  had  been  archbishop 
and  lord  of  the  city.-  And  there  we  shall 
leave  him  for  the  present,  and  relate  what 
passed  in  the  mean  time  in  France. 

King  Philip  had  been  excommunicated 
by  Hugh,  archbishop  of  Lions,  in  a  council 
held  at  Autun  in  1094,  for  marrying  Ber- 
trada,  while  his  own  wife  and  her  husband 
were  still  living ;  and  this  sentence  was 
confirmed  by  pope  Urban  in  the  council  of 
Clermont,  in  1095.  But  he  was  absolved 
the  following  year,  1096,  by  the  same  pope, 
upon  his  dismissing  Bertrada,  and  promising 
to  break  off  all  correspondence  with  her. 
However,  he  recalled  her  in  1099,  and  co- 
habited with  her,  as  he  had  done  before; 
which  drew  upon  him  a  third  excommuni- 
cation in  1100.  Under  that  sentence  he 
continued,  no  less  respected  and  obeyed  by 
his  subjects,  even  by  the  bishops  and  the 
clergy,  as  if  no  such  sentence  had  been  pro- 
nounced against  him,  till  the  year  1104, 
when  he  applied  to  Paschal  for  absolution. 
Upon  his  application  the  pope  sent  Richard, 
bishop  of  Albano,  to  inquire,  upon  the  spot, 
whether  the  repentance  of  the    king,  who 


'  Eadmer  in  Vit.  Ansel. 

Vol.  II.— 55 


*  Idem,  Novor.  I.  iii. 


had  deceived  his  predecessors,  was  sincere, 
empowering  him,  if  it  was,  to  absolve  him, 
upon  condition  that  he  promised,  upon  oath, 
to  have  thenceforth  no  kind  of  intercourse 
with  Bertrada.  The  legale,  upon  his  arrival 
in  France,  assembled  a  council  at  Raugenci, 
about  ten  miles  from  Orleans,  at  which  were 
present  most  of  the  Galilean  bishops.  At 
this  council  the  king  appeared  in  person, 
and  applying  to  the  legate  and  the  other  bi- 
shops lor  absolution,  declared  that  he  was 
ready  to  swear  upon  the  Holy  Gospel,  ihat 
he  would  from  that  time  forward  avoid  all 
commerce  with  Bertrada,  and  never  see  or 
converse  with  her  alone.  Bertrada  too  was 
present,  and  she  offered  to  take  the  same 
oath  with  respect  to  the  king.  But  the  le- 
gate and  the  bishops  disagreeing,  the  coun- 
cil broke  up,  and  the  legate  left  the  place 
before  the  king  was  absolved.  The  pope 
was  no  sooner  acquainted  with  what  had 
passed,  than  he  wrote  to  the  bishops  of  the 
provinces  of  Reims,  Sens,  and  Tours,  or- 
dering them  to  meet  at  the  place  the  legate 
should  appoint,  if  he  was  still  in  France ; 
and,  if  he  had  left  that  kingdom,  to  follow, 
in  every  thing,  the  directions  of  Lambert, 
bishop  of  Arras,  and,  with  his  advice  and 
approbation,  absolve  both  the  king  and  Ber- 
trada. The  legate  was  gone,  and  in  his 
absence  Lambert  appointed  a  council  to 
meet  at  Paris  on  the  '2d  of  December,  in 
order  to  absolve  the  king,  provided  he 
took  the  oath  prescribed  by  the  pope.  That 
oath  Lambert  took  care  to  send  to  him  by 
John,  bishop  of  Orleans,  and  Galo,  bishop 
of  Paris,  that  he  might  know  beforehand 
what  the  council  would  require  of  him.  He 
read  it,  and  expressing  great  sorrow  and 
compunction  for  the  scandal  he  had  given, 
declared  he  was  willing  to  atone  for  his 
crimes,  and  convince  the  whole  world  of  his 
sincerity  by  taking  that  oath,  and  performing 
what  penance  soever  it  should  please  the 
church,  the  pope,  and  the  council,  to  impose 
upon  him.  Not  satisfied  with  this  declara- 
tion, he  walked  barefooted  to  the  place  of  the 
council,  and  there  laying  his  hand  upon  the 
Gospels,  pronounced  the  following  oath, 
addressed  to  Lambert  and  the  other  bishops: 
"Hear  you,  Lambert,  who  art  here  the 
representative  of  the  pope  ;  hear,  all  ye 
archbishops  and  bishops,  who  are  here  pre- 
sent, that  I,  Philip,  king  of  France,  shall 
henceforth  abstain  from  the  carnal  and  cri- 
minal commerce  which  I  have  hitherto  car- 
ried on  with  Bertrada,  and  sincerely  re- 
nounce that  crime.  I  shall  never  cohabit 
with  her,  nor  shall  I  ever  converse  with 
her,  except  in  the  presence  of  unsuspected 
witnesses.  All  this  I  promise  to  observe, 
without  fraud  or  deceit,  as  is  prescribed  in 
the  pope's  letters.  So  help  me  God,  and 
tliese  Holy  Gospels  of  Jesus  Christ."  The 
like  oath  was  taken  by  Bertrada ;  and  the 
sentence  of  absolution,  with  respect  to  both, 
2M 


434 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Paschal  H. 


The  archbishop  of  Treves  deposed  and  restored  in  a  council  at  Rome.  Council  of  Rome  ; — [Year  nf  Christ, 
1105.]  The  archbishop  of  Milan  cleared  from  simony.  Agreement  between  the  king  of  England  and  Anselm. 
The  king  gives  up  investitures. 


was  then  pronounced,  with  the  consent  of 
the  bishops,  by  Lambert,  in  the  name  of  the 
holy  pope.  Paschal.'  As  queen  Berta  died 
in  1094,  and  Fulco,  earl  of  Anjou,  had  mar- 
ried Bertrada  within  the  forbidden  degrees, 
without  a  dispensation  from  the  pope, 
Philip,  it  seems,  flattered  himself  that  the 
pope  might,  in  consideration  of  his  submis- 
sion, be  prevailed  upon  to  declare  her  mar- 
riage with  Fulco  null,  and  allow  him  to 
marry  her.  Thus  some  account  for  the 
king's  mean  behavior  on  the  present  occa- 
sion ;  nay,  some  are  of  opinion,  that  though 
Bertrada  was  as  nearly  related  to  the  king 
as  she  was  to  the  earl,  the  pope  dispensed 
with  the  king's  marrying  her.^  But  of  that 
marriage  no  notice  is  taken  by  any  of  the 
contemporary  writers. 

In  the  same  year  1104,  Paschal  held  a 
council  at  Rome.  But  all  we  know  of  that 
assembly  is,  that  Bruno,  archbishop  of 
Treves,  was  deposed,  and  restored  in  it  to 
his  dignity.  He  had  been  nominated  to 
that  see  by  the  emperor  in  1102,  and  had 
received  the  investiture  from  him.  Two 
years  after,  being  desirous  to  visit  the  tombs 
of  the  apostles,  he  went  to  Rome,  and  ar- 
rived in  that  city  while  the  council  was  sit- 
ting. The  pope  received  him  with  all  the 
marks  of  distinction  that  were  due  to  the 
metropolitan  of  the  first  province  of  Belgic 
Gaul.  But  as  he  had  been  nominated  by 
the  emperor,  had  received  the  investiture 
at  his  hands,  and  had  besides  consecrated 
churches,  and  promoted  clerks  before  the 
bull  was  sent  him,  which  were  all  enormous 
crimes  at  Rome,  he  was,  with  great  sev^erity, 
reprimanded  by  the  pope,  and  deposed,  with 
his  own  consent,  by  the  bishops  of  the  coun- 
cil. To  this  sentence  Bruno  readily  sub- 
mitted, delivering  up  to  the  pope  and  the 
council  his  pastoral  staff  and  ring,  but  the 
pope,  well  pleased  with  his  humility  and 
submission,  and  only  wanting  the  archbishop 
to  receive  the  ensigns  of  his  dignity  from 
him,  restored  them  to  him  the  third  day, 
and  at  the  same  time  gave  him  the  pall. 
However,  that  he  might  be  made  sensible  of 
the  heinousness  of  his  crime  in  receiving  the 
badges  of  his  sacred  dignity  from  the  hand 
of  a  layman,  he  was  ordered  by  the  pope 
and  the  council  to  forbear,  for  the  space  of 
three  years,  the  use  of  the  dalmatic,  an  or- 
nament worn  by  all  archbishops  in  the  cele- 
bration of  mass.^  This  penance  the  arch- 
bishop is  said  to  have  punctually  performed. 

The  following  year  the  pope  held  another 
council  in  the  Lateran  palace  during  Lent, 
at  which  were  present  most  of  the  bishops 
of  Italy;  and  by  all  Grosulanas,  archbishop 
of  Milan,  was  cleared  from  the  charge  of 
simony,  brought  against  him  by  a  priest  of 


>  Concil.  t.  X.  Ivo.  ep.  144. 
"  Blondel  Diatrib.  de  re;;.  Christ,  paragraph  10. 
3  Anonym.  Auctor.  Hist.  Trevir.  apud  Dacher.  Spic. 
torn.  sii. 


that  church  called  Liprand,  though  the  priest 
had  undergone,  with  great  solemnity,  and 
quite  unhurt,  the  ordeal  by  fire  to  prove  him 
guilty.  That  Liprand  had  undergone  that 
trial  was  proved  by  numberless  eye-wit- 
nesses ;  but  that  the  pope  and  the  council 
did  not  think  so  convincing  a  proof  of  his 
guilt,  as  the  testimony  of  several  persons, 
witnessing  the  sanctity  of  his  life,  was  of 
his  innocence.'  By  the  same  council  the 
sentence  of  excommunication  was  thun- 
dered out  against  the  count  of  Meulan  and 
his  accomplices,  said  to  have  persuaded  the 
king  of  England  not  to  part  with  investi- 
tures, which  they  called  an  enormous  crime. 
All  bishops  were  likewise  excommunicated 
who  had  received  investitures  from  the  king's 
hand.  But  the  sentence  against  the  king 
himself  was  delayed  till  the  arrival  of  the 
envoys,  whom  he  had  despatched  to  Rome, 
and  the  pope  expected  daily.  This  thepope 
himself  notified  by  a  letter  to  Anselm,  who 
was  still  at  Lions.^ 

In  the  mean  time  Anselm,  tired  with  the 
delays  and  slow  proceedings  of  the  court  of 
Rome  in  this  affair,  and  no  longer  expecting 
any  assistance  or  relief  from  thence,  left 
Lions  and  retired  to  a  place  that  belonged  to 
the  monastery  of  Cluny.  But  being  in- 
formed soon  after  his  arrival  there,  that 
Adela,  countess  of  Blois,  and  sister  to  the 
king  of  England,  lay  indisposed  in  the  castle 
of  Blois,  he  went  thither  to  pay  her  a  visit. 
The  countess,  who  was  quite  recovered  of 
her  late  illness,  received  him  with  the  great- 
est marks  of  respect  and  esteem,  and  being 
not  a  little  surprised  to  see  him,  as  she  had 
not  heard  of  his  leaving  Lions,  she  inquired, 
as  Avas  natural,  into  the  motives  of  his 
journey.  Anselm  answered  without  hesi- 
tation, that  he  was  come  to  excommunicate 
the  king  of  England  for  the  injury  he  had 
done  to  God  and  to  him.  He  had  no  such 
commission  from  the  pope,  nor  durst  he 
take  such  a  step  without  it.  But  he  knew 
that  the  fear  of  an  excommunication,  at  the 
present  juncture,  would  make  the  king 
hearken  to  an  accommodation,  and  agree  to 
it  almost  upon  any  terms.  And  so  it  hap- 
pened. For  the  king,  who  was  come  over 
into  Normandy  with  a  powerful  army,  to  sub- 
due that  country,  apprehending  that  the  ex- 
communication might,  at  so  critical  a  junc- 
ture, not  only  defeat  his  design,  but  be  at- 
tended with  more  fatal  consequences,  no 
sooner  heard  from  his  sister  of  Anselm's  in- 
tention, than  he  sent  for  him,  and  an  agree- 
ment was  concluded  between  them  upon 
the  following  terms :  That  the  king  should 
give  up  his  right  to  investitures,  and  An- 
selm should  be  allowed  to  return  to  Eng- 
land ;  but  should  not  excommunicate  those 
who  had  received  the  investiture  from  the 


»  haw.  Tulp.  c.  xi. 

^  Pasch.  ep.  100,  et  Eadmer,  Never.  1.  iv. 


Paschal  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


435 


Henry,  the  emperor's  younger  aon,  rebels  against  his  father.     Overruns  all  Saxony.    Assembles  a  council  at 

Northusum. 


king,  nor  exclude  them  from  his  conamu- 
nion.  Against  this  last  article  Anselm  urged 
the  decrees  of  the  late  popes,  forbidding  all 
communion  with  such  as  had  received  in- 
vestitures from  laymen.  It  was  tlierefore 
agreed  that  envoys  should  be  sent  on  the 
part  of  both  to  consult  the  pope  with  respect 
to  that  point,  and  to  have  their  agreement 
confirmed  by  him.  On  this  occasion  the 
king  restored  to  Anselm  the  temporalities  of 
his  see,  which  he  had  seized  at  his  departure 
from  England.  But  he  nevertheless  declined 
returning  till  the  sentiments  of  the  pope 
were  known  concerning  the  article  in  ques- 
tion.' This  agreement  was  not  executed 
till  two  years  after,  the  kin?  being  wholly 
intent  upon  the  conquest  of  Normandy. 

In  the  mean  time  the  emperor,  though 
excommunicated  and  anathematized  by  four 
popes  successively,  continued  still  to  assert 
his  right  to  that  invaluable  prerogative, 
which  the  king  of  England  so  meanly  gave 
up  through  fear  of  an  excommunication. 
But  what  wickedness,  what  treachery  or 
treason  will  not  a  pope  countenance,  if  not 
advise  and  command,  when  any  ways  con- 
ducive to  the  aggrandizing  of  his  see!  The 
emperor  had  two  sons,  Conrad  and  Henry. 
Conrad,  the  elder  of  the  two,  was  seduced 
by  the  partizans  of  Gregory  VII.,  and  not 
without  his  approbation,  as  has  been  shown, 
to  rebel  against  his  father  and  his  sovereign. 
But  he  dying  in  1102,  the  party  began  to 
tamper  with  the  younger  son  Henry.  He  had 
served  his  father  with  the  greatest  fidelity, 
and  gained  a  complete  victory  over  ,the 
countess  Mathilda  in  1080,  and  had,  upon 
the  rebellion  of  his  elder  brother,  been  taken 
by  the  emperor  for  his  partner  in  the  empire. 
But  the  ambitious  youth,  not  satisfied  with 
a  share  of  the  power,  readily  gave  ear  to 
the  wicked  suggestions  of  three  great  lords, 
zealous  partizans  of  the  pope,  Dezbold 
marquis,  Berenger  count,  and  Otto,  or  Otho 
a  nobleman  of  great  authority,  and  nearly 
related  to  him  on  his  mother's  side.  These 
three,  abusing  the  confidence  the  young 
prince,  at  this  time  in  the  twenty-second  or 
twenty-third  year  of  his  age,  placed  in  them, 
laid  hold  of  every  opportunity  to  stir  him  up 
against  his  father  as  an  enemy  to  the  church. 
The  pope  too,  says  Herimannus,  a  writer 
of  those  days,  wrote  artful  letters  to  him,  en- 
couraging him  to  rescue  the  church  and  the 
apostolic  see  from  the  servitude  they  groaned 
under,  and  restore  peace  and  tranquillity  to 
the  empire.  This  was  encouraging  him  to 
take  up  arms  against  his  father,  and  he  un- 
derstanding it  so  accordingly,  unexpectedly 
withdrew  from  court  with  his  three  above- 
mentioned  counsellors,  and  repaired  to  Ba- 
varia, where  the  pope  had  a  strong  party. 
He  there  publicly  abjured  the  heresy  pro- 

'Pasch.  ep.  100,  et  Eadmer,  Novor.  1.  iv. 


scribed  by  the  pope ;  that  is,  the  right  to 
give  investitures,  and  declared  himself  an 
obedient  son  of  the  apostolic  see.  This  de- 
claration drew  crowds  of  people  to  him  from 
all  parts,  especially  from  Suabia,  Saxony, 
and  Franconia ;  and  he  saw  himself  in  a 
very  short  time  at  the  head  of  an  army  ca- 
pable of  facing  his  father's  in  the  field.  To 
strengthen  his  party  still  more,  and  seduce 
such  of  the  emperor's  subjects  as  still  ad- 
hered to  him,  he  caused  manifestoes  to  be  dis- 
persed all  over  Germany,  protesting  therein, 
that  it  was  not  the  desire  of  reigning  that 
had  induced  him  to  take  up  arms  against 
his  father ;  that  he  had  nothing  in  his  view 
but  to  bring  about  a  reconciliation  between 
the  church  and  the  empire,  and  was  there- 
fore ready  to  obey  the  emperor,  as  the  mean- 
est of  his  subjects,  provided  he  submitted  to 
St.  Peter  and  his  successors,  and  got  him- 
self absolved  from  the  censures  he  had  in- 
curred by  his  obstinacy  and  disobedience. 
We  shall  see  in  the  sequel,  this  prince, 
more  disobedient  to  the  apostolic  see  than 
his  father,  pursuing  the  very  same  measures, 
and  with  more  vigor  and  better  success  than 
he  had  ever  done. 

Henry  overran,  in  a  very  short  time,  all 
Saxony,  and  having  made  himself  master 
of  all  the  strong-holds  in  that  county,  he 
kept  his  Easter  at  Q,uintilenburg,  and  was 
there  absolved  by  Rothard,  archbishop  of 
Mentz,  and  Gebehard,  bishop  of  Constance, 
the  pope's  legate  in  Germany,  from  the 
censures  he  had  incurred  by  obeying  his 
father,  and  adhering  to  him  against  St. 
Peter  and  his  church.  Was  not  this  de- 
claring the  duty  a  son  owes  to  his  father, 
and  subject  to  his  sovereign,  criminal  and 
worthy  of  excommunication,  where  either 
interferes  with  the  duty  and  obedience  that 
the  pope  claims  as  due  to  him?  Young 
Henry,  who  wanted  neither  parts,  nor  cun- 
ning, nor  address,  to  engage  the  pope  and 
all  his  party  still  more  in  his  interest,  ap- 
pointed a  council  to  meet  at  a  royal  villa  in 
Thuringia,  called  Northusum,  in  order  to 
redress  several  abuses  that  prevailed  in  the 
German  churches,  and  were  connived  at  by 
his  father.  The  council  met  in  the  week 
before  Whitsunday,  and  the  decrees  of  for- 
mer councils  against  simony,  and  the  mar- 
riage of  the  clergy,  were  all  confirmed  by  it, 
and  several  other  regulations  were  made 
relating  to  the  discipline  of  the  churches  in 
those  parts.  Henry. would  not,  out  of  an 
affected  humility,  assist  at  this  council,  till 
he  was  pressed  to  it  by  the  bishops;  and  he 
then  made  the  same  protestations  as  he  had 
done  in  his  manifestoes,  calling  God  to  wit- 
ness, that  it  was  not  done  to  deprive  his 
father  of  the  imperial  crown,  but  only  to 
oblige  him  to  submit  to  the  successor  of  St. 
Peter,  that  he  had  taken  up  arms  against 
him.     In  this  council  the  bishops  of  Hildes- 


436 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Paschal  H. 


Henry's  artful  conduct.  Reduces  several  places.  The  rebels  defeated  and  put  to  flight  by  the  emperor.  Henry 
gains  over  most  of  the  commanders  in  his  father's  army,  and  seizes  on  all  his  treasures.  The  emperor  at- 
tempts a  reconciliation  with  the  pope.     A  numerous  diet  meets  at  Mentz. 


heirn,  Paderborn,  and  Halberslat,  throwing 
themselves  at  the  feet  of  the  archbishop  of 
Mentz,  their  metropolitan,  owned  their  fault 
in  having  adhered  to  the  emperor,  and  re- 
ceived investiture  from  him  j  but  their  cause 
was  referred  to  the  pope. 

Henry,  upon  the  breaking  up  of  this 
council,  repaired  to  Mersburg,  and  there 
caused  Henry,  who  had  long  before  been 
appointed  archbishop  of  Magdeburg,  to  be 
ordained.  He  had  refused,  it  seems,  to  re- 
ceive investiture  from  the  emperor,  and  the 
bishops  dared  not  consecrate  him  till  he  had 
submitted  to  that  ceremony.  Thus  did 
Henry,  to  attain  his  ends,  tacitly  give  up  his 
right  to  investitures.  But  when  he  found 
himself  in  the  quiet  possession  of  the  im- 
perial crown,  he  obliged  the  pope  to  give  it 
up  in  his  turn.  From  Mersburg,  Henry 
marched  at  the  head  of  his  army  to  Mentz, 
with  a  design  to  reinstate  in  that  see  Rothatd, 
who  had  been  driven  from  it  by  the  em- 
peror for  adhering  to  the  pope.  Some 
writers  tell  us,  that  Henry  entered  the  city 
without  opposition,  and  restored  the  bishop 
after  an  eight  years'  exile.  But  others  say, 
that  the  young  prince,  finding  his  father  had 
shut  himself  up  in  the  city  with  a  numerous 
garrison,  did  not  think  it  advisable  to  lay 
siege  to  it.  Be  that  as  itwill,  he  made  him- 
self master  of  several  other  places,  and 
among  the  rest  of  Ntiremberg,  after  a  sieg-e 
of  two  months  obliging  the  inhabitants  every 
where  to  submit  to  the  pope,  that  is,  to  re- 
ceive the  decrees.  The  emperor,  having 
assembled  his  forces,  took  the  field,  and  en- 
gaging the  rebels  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Ratisbon,  put  them  to  flight,  pursued  them 
with  great  slaughter,  and  recovered  most  of 
the  places  they  had  taken,  restoring  every 
where  the  bishops  whom  they  had  driven 
out,  and  driving  out  those,  whom  they  had 
placed  in  their  room.  The  young  prince  is 
said  to  have  distinguished  himself  in  that 
action  above  all  the  rest;  but  having  never- 
theless the  good  luck  to  survive  it,  he  re- 
tired to  Saxony,  recruited  his  army  there, 
and  hearing  that  his  father  was  encamped 
on  the  banks  of  the  Regen,  he  came  and  en- 
caniped  on  the  opposite  side  of  that  river. 
It  was  not  his  design  to  venture  a  second 
engagement,  but  to  try  whether  he  could 
not  compass  by  treachery,  what  he  despaired 
of  being  able  to  obtain  by  dint  of  arms ; 
and  he  succeeded  therein  beyond  his  expec- 
tation. The  emissaries  he  sent  into  his 
father's  camp,  as  the  two  armies  were  only 
separated  by  the  river,  gained  over,  in  a 
very  short  time,  most  of  the  chief  com- 
manders ;  insomuch  that  the  emperor,  find- 
ing himself  forsaken  by  them  as  well  as 
their  vassals,  and  left  almost  alone,  was 
forced  to  save  himself  by  flight  from  falling 
into  the  hands  of  his  son.  Young  Henry, 
seeing  himself  now   master  of    the  field. 


marched  straight  to  Spire,  and  there  seized 
on  all  his  father's  treasures. 

The  emperor  finding  himself  thus  aban- 
doned even  by  those  whom  he  looked  upon  \ 
as  his  best  friends,  resolved  to  attempt  a  re- 
conciliation with  the  pope,  as  his  disagree- 
ment with  him  served  his  son  and  the  other 
rebels  with  a  pretence  to  deprive  him  of  his 
crown.  He  wrote  accordingly  to  Paschal,  ■ 
declaring,  in  his  letter,  that  he  was  ready  I 
to  submit  to  his  holiness  so  far  as  was  ' 
consistent  with  his  dignity,  and  to  pay  the 
same  obedience  to  him  that  had  been  paid 
by  his  predecessors  in  the  empire  to  his  in 
the  apostolic  see.  In  that  letter  he  taxes 
those  who  had  encouraged,  or  who  any 
ways  countenanced  the  unnatural  rebellion 
of  his  son,  with  treachery,  perjury,  and  an 
utter  contempt  of  all  laws  human  and  di- 
vine ;  assures  the  pope  that  he  has  nothing 
so  much  at  heart  as  to  establish  a  lasting 
peace  between  the  church  and  the  empire, 
and  by  that  means  prevent  the  unspeakable 
calamities  that  threatened  both  ;  desires  his 
holiness  to  let  him  know  whether  he  is  ready 
to  concur  with  him  in  so  meritorious  a  work, 
and  solemnly  declares,  in  the  close  of  his 
letter,  that  nothing  shall  be  wanting  on  his 
side,  that  can  be  reasonably  required  of  him, 
to  attain  so  desirable  an  end  as  the  unity  of 
the  church,  and  an  uninterrupted  harmony 
among  all  its  members  under  the  same  head. 

What  answer  the  pope  returned  to  the 
emperor's  letter  we  know  not,  nor  whether 
he  returned  any.  But  the  princes  of  the 
empire,  foreseeing  the  evils  that  would  in- 
evitably attend  a  war  between  the  father  and 
the  son,  agreed  to  meet  at  Mentz,  and  at- 
tempt a  reconciliation  between  them.  They 
met  accordingly  at  the  place  appointed  on 
Christmas  day;  and  it  was  one  of  the  most 
numerous  diets  that  had  ever  been  seen  in 
Germany,  all  the  German  lords  being  pre- 
sent, except  the  grand  duke  of  Saxony,  as 
he  is  called,  who  could  not  attend  on  account 
of  his  great  age.  The  emperor  came  in 
person  to  a  place  in  that  neighborhood  with 
a  design  to  lay  before  the  lords  of  the  empire 
the  cruel  treatment  he  had  met  with  from 
his  son,  and  leave  them  to  determine  whether 
the  father  should  submit  to  the  son,  or  the 
son  to  the  father.  But  the  prince,  appre- 
hending that  his  presence,  and  the  mean  con- 
dition to  which  he  was  reduced,  might  raise 
compassion  in  many,  and  prejudice  them  in 
his  favor,  resolved  to  prevent  his  appearing 
at  the  diet.  With  that  view  he  went  pri- 
vately to  the  place  where  the  emperor  had 
taken  up  his  abode,  and  being  admitted  to 
him,  threw  himself  at  his  feet,  and  begging 
pardon,  with  all  the  seeming  marks  of  a 
sincere  grief  for  his  past  conduct,  promised 
to  serve  him  thenceforth  with  all  the  fidelity 
that  was  due  from  a  subject  to  his  sovereign, 
and  all  the  duty,  obedience,  and  submission 


Paschal  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME.  437 

The  emperor  betrayed,  seized,  and  imprisoned  by  his  son.  Obliged  to  deliver  up  to  him  the  ensigns  of  the 
imperial  dignity.  Haughty  behavior  of  the  pope's  legates.  The  pope  approves  the  deposition  of  the  father, 
and  promotion  of  the  son.     Accbunt  of  the  deposition  of  the  emperor,  as  by  the  abbot  of  Usperg. 


that  was  owing  from  a  son  to  his  father. 
The  emperor  readily  forgave  him,  and  em- 
bracing him  with  many  tears,  only  told  him, 
that  were  a  father  ever  so  wicked,  heaven 
would  never  employ  a  son  to  call  him  to  an 
account  for  his  wickedness,  or  to  punish  it. 
They  then  set  out  together  for  Mentz,  the 
prince  pretending  to  have  come  on  purpose 
to  attend  his  father  to  the  diet.  They  had 
gone  but  a  little  way,  when  they  were  met 
by  messengers  upon  messengers,  pretend- 
ing, as  had  been  agreed  beforehand  between 
them  and  young  Henry,  to  have  been  sent 
by  the  emperor's  friends  at  Mentz  to  give 
him  notice  of  the  arrival  of  many  lords  from 
Saxony  and  Suabia  his  avowed  enemies, 
and  divert  him,  as  he  tendered  his  life  and 
liberty,  from  venturing  himself  among  them. 
This  raised  some  jealousy  in  the  emperor ; 
but  the  son  renewing,  in  the  most  awful 
manner,  the  protestations  he  had  made  of 
filial  duty  and  obedience,  and  declaring  that 
he  was  ready  even  to  lay  down  his  own  life 
for  his,  he  acquiesced  ;  and  placing  an  entire 
confidence  in  the  son,  retired  by  his  advice 
to  the  strong  castle  of  Binghen,  at  a  small 
distance  from  Mentz,  as  a  place  where  he 
might  bid  defiance  to  all  his  enemies.  But 
no  sooner  did  he  enter  the  castle  than  the 
gate  was  shut,  and  all  his  attendants  ex- 
cluded. The  perfidious  son  having  thus  by 
the  blackest  treachery  got  him  into  his 
power,  caused  him  to  be  closely  confined, 
and  placing  those  about  him  whom  he  knew 
to  be  his  most  bitter  enemies,  would  allow 
none  of  his  own  friends  or  servants  to  co«ie 
near  him.  When  he  had  been  thus  kept 
some  days,  insulted  by  his  enemies,  and 
ready  to  perish  with  hunger  and  with  thirst, 
for  he  was  scarce  allowed  the  necessary  food 
to  support  nature,  a  German  prince  named 
Wigbert,  came  from  his  son,  and  entering 
the  prison  told  him  abruptly,  that  he  must 
forthwith  deliver  up  all  the  ensigns  of  the 
imperial  dignity,  for  such  was  the  will  of 
the  princes  assembled  at  Mentz,  and  he 
could  no  otherwise  save  his  life  but  by  com- 
plying with  it.  He  was  now  in  their  power, 
and  thought  it  advisable  to  yield.  But  the 
son,  not  satisfied  with  his  thus  divesting 
himself,  as  it  were,  in  a  private  manner  of 
the  imperial  dignity,  repaired  with  the  lords 
of  his  party,  and  the  bishops  of  Constans 
and  Albano,  the  pope's  legates,  from  Mentz 
to  Ingelheim,  and  having  caused  his  father 
to  be  brought  thither  under  a  strong  guard, 
he  obliged  him  to  deliver  the  regalia  to  him 
in  the  presence  of  all,  with  his  own  hand. 
The  emperor  then  asked  whether  they  de- 
signed to  take  his  life  away  as  well  as  his 
dignity.  At  these  words  one  of  the  legates 
rising  up,  "you  have,"  said  he,  "justly  for- 
feited your  dignity  by  rebelling  against  the 
apostolic  see,  and  you  shall  no  otherwise 
escape  with  your  life  but  by  owning  that 


you  have  persecuted  Hildebrand  unjustly, 
that  you  have  unjustly  supported  Guibert, 
and  have  raised  and  carried  on  a  most  unjust 
persecution  against  the  apostolic  see  and  the 
whole  church."  The  emperor  begged  that 
he  might  be  allowed  to  plead  his  cause  in 
the  presence  of  his  friends  as  well  as  his 
enemies,  but  was  answered  by  the  legate, 
that  the  affair  must  be  finally  determined 
upon  the  spot,  and  if  he  did  not  own  him- 
self guihy,  and  unworthy  of  the  empire,  he 
might  be  made  to  atone  for  his  obstinacy 
with  his  life.  The  emperor  entreated  the 
legates  to  absolve  him,  at  least,  from  the  ex- 
communication ;  but  was  told  by  them,  that 
with  respect  to  his  absolution  they  had  no 
instructions  from  the  pope,  and  he  might, 
if  he  pleased,  go  to  Rome  for  it.  The  father 
being  thus  deposed  in  this  assembly,  the 
perfidious  and  rebel  son  was  acknowledged, 
by  all  who  composed  it,  for  sole  king  of  Ger- 
many, and  consecrated  as  such  by  the  pope's 
lejrates.  He  immediately  dispatched  six 
bishops,  and  some  of  the  great  lords  of  the 
empire,  to  acquaint  the  pope  with  the  result 
of  the  diet,  with  the  deposition  of  his  father, 
and  his  own  promotion  to  the  crown  in  his 
room ;  and  his  holiness  approved  and  con- 
firmed the  one  and  the  other  in  the  name  of 
St.  Peter;  which  was  approving  and  ratify- 
ing one  of  the  most  shocking  instances  of 
treachery,  perfidy,  treason,  and  rebellion, 
that  occurs  in  history. 

Such  is  the  account  which  the  emperor 
himself  gave  of  his  deposition  and  the  pro- 
motion of  his  son,  in  a  letter  which  he  wrote 
this  year  to  the  king  of  France,'  and  it  is 
entirely  agreeable  to  Avhat  we  read  in  the 
anonymous  writer  of  his  life,  who  lived  at 
this  time,  and  seems  to  have  been  an  eye- 
witness to  what  he  writes.  But  the  abbot 
of  Usperg,  supposed  by  Baronius  to  have 
likewise  writ  at  this  time,  though  nothing 
is  more  certain  than  that  he  was  not  yet 
born,  taking  no  notice  of  the  emperor's  im- 
prisonment in  the  castle  of  Binghen,  says, 
that  the  lords  of  the  diet,  hearing  that  he 
was  coming  to  plead  his  cause  in  person, 
and  apprehending,  as  he  had  a  strong  party 
at  Mentz,  his  presence  might  occasion  great 
disturbances  in  that  city,  went  all  in  a  body 
to  meet  him  at  Ingelheim,  and  there  deposed 
him  with  one  consent.  The  abbot  adds, 
that  when  he  delivered  the  regalia  to  his 
son,  he  wished  him  a  prosperous  reign,  and 
warmly  recommended  him  to  the  princes  of 
the  empire,  and  throwing  himself  at  the  feet 
of  the  bishop  of  Albano,  the  pope's  legate, 
as  soon  as  he  had  laid  down  the  ensigns  of 
his  dignity,  begged  and  conjured  him  to 
take  off  the  excommunication,  and  restore 
him  to  the  communion  of  the  church;  that 
the  laity,  touched  with  compassion,  all  in- 

«  Apud  Baron,  ad  ann.  1106. 
2  M   2 


438 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Paschal  H. 


The  emperor  escapes  from  the  place  of  confinement,  and  retires  to  Liege.  His  letter  from  thence  to  his  son. 
His  letter  to  the  king  of  France  ;  and  to  the  bishops  and  princes  of  Germany.  Answer  of  the  lords  of  the 
prince's  party  to  the  emperor's  letter.     The  emperor  dies,  and  his  body  dug  up  after  his  death. 


terceded  for  him;  but  that  the  legate,  unaf- 
fected with  the  prayers  and  entreaties  of  so 
great  a  prince  prostrate  at  his  feet  in  the  ut- 
most distress,  still  refused  him  the  so  much 
wished  and  so  humbly  sued  for  absolution, 
referring  him  to  the  pope.  Strange!  that 
what  melted  the  emperor's  enemies  among 
the  laity  into  mercy,  should  have  made  no 
impression  upon  his  enemies  among  the 
clergy;  for  that  the  abbot  seems  to  insinuate, 
saying,  that  "the  laity  were  touched  Avith 
compassion."  Upon  the  breaking  up  of  the 
diet,  Henry  retired,  says  the  same  writer,  to 
lead  a  private  life  at  the  place  which  his  son 
had  assigned  him  for  his  abode.  Thus  did 
this  great  prince's  quarrel  with  the  popes, 
and  his  maintaining  the  undoubted  rights  of 
his  crown  against  their  tyranny  and  en- 
croachments, cost  him  his  kingdom  ;  and  it 
would  have  cost  him  his  life  too,  had  he  not 
found  more  compassion  in  the  laity  than  in 
the  priesthood. 

He  had  not  been  long  at  the  place  of  his 
confinement,  when  he  was  privately  in- 
formed, by  some  of  his  friends,  that  his  son, 
not  satisfied  with  depriving  him  of  the  em- 
pire, was  resolved  to  deprive  him  of  his 
life,  or  at  least  to  keep  him  closely  confined 
so  long  as  he  lived.  That  intelligence  he 
received,  as  is  supposed,  from  Henry  of 
Limburg,  duke  of  Lower  Lorraine;  for  hav- 
ing made  his  escape  undiscovered,  as  soon 
as  he  received  it,  he  took  refuge  in  that 
prince's  territories,  and  was  entertained  by 
him  as  his  lawful  lord  and  sovereign.  As 
most  of  the  cities  in  those  parts  declared  for 
him,  and  among  the  rest  the  city  of  Liege, 
with  its  bishop,  Obert,  he  chose  that  city  for 
the  place  of  his  residence,  and  wrote  from 
thence  to  his  son,  to  the  king  of  France, 
and  to  the  princes,  archbishops,  and  bishops 
of  Germany.  In  his  letter  to  his  son  he  re- 
proaches him,  but  without  the  least  bitter- 
ness, with  treating  him,  his  sovereign  and 
his  father,  who  had  always  loved  him  with 
the  greatest  tenderness,  as  the  worst  of  his 
enemies;  declares  that  he  is  ready  to  pay  all 
the  respect,  obedience,  and  submission  to  the 
apostolic  see  that  can  be  reasonably  required 
of  him,  and  that  therefore  his  disobedience  to 
St.  Peter  and  his  vicar,  is  only  made  use  of 
by  his  enemies  as  a  cover  to  conceal  their 
wicked  designs  from  the  less  discerning; 
conjures  him  by  his  allegiance,  and  the  duty 
he  owes  to  him  as  his  prince  and  his  father, 
to  dismiss  the  evil  counsellors  about  him, 
and  follow  the  advice  of  one  whose  interest, 
welfare,  and  glory  are  linked  inseparably 
with  his;  and  closes  his  letter  with  putting 
him  in  mind  of  the  strict  account  he  must 
one  day  give,  perhaps  sooner  than  he  ex- 
pects, of  all  his  actions  at  a  tribunal  that  re- 
wards and  punishes  every  man  according  to 
his  deserts.  The  direction  of  this  letter  was, 
"  Henry,  emperor  of  the  Romans,  to  his  son 


Henry."  In  his  letter  to  PhiHp  of  France, 
whom  he  styles  king  of  the  Celtae,  he  gives 
the  above  account  of  his  sufferings,  and  of 
the  cruel  treatment  he  had  met  with  from 
his  son,  and  implores  his  assistance,  not  for 
his  own  sake  only,  but  for  that  of  all  princes 
as  well  as  his  own  ;  since  treason  committed 
against  him  was  committed  against  them 
all,  and  ought  to  be  resented  by  each  of 
them  as  committed  against  himself.  In  his 
letter  to  the  bishops  and  princes  of  Germany 
he  protests  that  he  wishes  for  nothing  so 
much  as  to  see  that  perfect  harmony  restored 
which  once  subsisted  between  the  church 
and  the  empire;  that  to  put  an  end  to  the 
present  troubles,  he  is  ready  to  give  what 
satisfaction  soever  the  pope  shall  require, 
and  ihey  shall  think  it  consistent  with  the 
dignity  of  the  head  of  the  empire  to  grant; 
and  that  with  respect  to  the  dispute  between 
him  and  the  apostolic  see,  which  alone  has 
occasioned  the  troubles  they  complained  of, 
he  is  willing  to  acquiesce  in  the  judgment 
and  decision  of  Hugh,  the  holy  abbot  of 
Cluny,  his  ghostly  father,  and  of  other  reli- 
gious persons,  who  free,  like  him,  from  all 
sinister  and  ambitious  views,  have  only  the 
public  welfare  at  heart. 

To  this  letter  the  lords  of  the  prince's 
party  returned  a  most  insulting  and  abusive 
answer,  charging  the  emperor  with  sacri- 
lege, perjury,  rapines,  conflagrations,  and 
even  with  apostacy  from  the  catholic  faith ; 
tax  him  with  applying  to  the  French,  to  the 
English,  and  the  Danes,  in  order  to  engage 
them  in  his  quarrel,  and  thus  complete  the 
ruin  of  the  empire ;  but  nevertheless  declare 
that,  to  leave  no  room  for  complaints,  they 
are  not  averse  to  the  assembling  of  another 
diet,  and  allowing  him  to  plead  his  cause  in 
person,  if  he  chose  it,  before  the  lords  and 
bishops  of  the  empire.  In  the  mean  time, 
the  son  laid  siege  to  the  city  of  Cologne,  that 
had  declared  for  the  emperor,  with  a  design 
to  march,  as  soon  as  he  had  reduced  it, 
against  the  people  and  city  of  Liege,  for 
affording  his  father  an  asylum.  But  the 
garrison  and  inhabitants  of  Cologne  repulsed 
the  aggressors,  in  their  repeated  attacks, 
with  so  much  bravery,  for  two  whole 
months,  that  the  prince  was  upon  the  point 
of  raising  the  siege,  when  he  received  the 
news  of  his  father's  death.  He  died  at 
Liege  on  the  7th  of  August  of  the  present 
year,  1106,  in  the  fifty-fifth  year  of  his  age, 
and  was  buried  with  great  funeral  pomp  by 
the  bishop  and  the  clergy  of  Liege.  But  the 
partisans  of  the  pope,  carrying  their  revenge 
even  beyond  the  grave,  caused  the  body, 
which  the  bishop  had  buried  in  consecrated 
ground,  to  be  dug  up  as  that  of  an  excom- 
municated person,  unworthy  of  a  place 
there.  It  was  dug  up  accordingly,  and,  by 
an  order  from  the  son,  sent  in  a  stone  coffin 
to  Spire,  where  it  remained  five  years  with- 


Paschal  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


439 


Council  of  Florence.     Council  of  Guastalla.     Lombardy  reunited  to  the  apostolic  see.     The  king  of  Germany 
resolves  to  maintain  his  right  to  investitureft. 


out  the  church.'  Thus  was  this  greatl 
prince,  Henry,  the  fourth  eraperor  of  that 
name,  in  defiance  of  all  laws,  human  and 
divine,  persecuted  to  his  grave,  and  beyond 
it,  by  his  own  subjects  and  his  own  chil- 
dren, with  the  approbation,  if  not  at  the  in- 
stigation, of  four  popes  successively,  for  not 
yielding  up  to  them  a  prerogrative  that  his 
predecessors  had  all  enjoyed  as  their  un- 
doubted right,  and  no  pope,  how  daring 
soever  and  ambitious,  had  presumed  to 
claim  till  the  time  of  that  incendiary,  Gre- 
gory VII.  Great  were  the  virtues  of  that 
unhappy  prince,  and  great  were  his  vices; 
but  he  is  better  known  by  his  misfortunes 
than  either  by  his  virtues  or  his  vices.  The 
pope,  imitating  the  zeal  of  those  who  had 
caused  the  emperor's  body  to  be  taken  out 
of  the  grave,  caused  the  body  of  the  anti- 
pope  Guibert,  dead  six  years  before,  to  be 
dug  up  and  thrown  into  the  river,  and  in  the 
same  manner  were  treated  by  his  holiness's 
partisans  the  bodies  of  all  the  bishops  who 
had  received  investitures  from  the  emperor's 
hand.^ 

The  pope  no  sooner  heard  of  the  death  of 
the  emperor,  than  he  set  out  for  Germany, 
being  invited  thither  by  the  embassadors  of 
the  new  king,  promising,  in  their  master's 
name,  an  entire  submission  and  obedience 
to  the  apostolic  see,  and  begging  his  holiness 
to  come  and  receive,  in  person,  the  homage, 
which  all  in  all  those  parts  were  ready  to  pay 
him.  On  his  arrival  at  Florence  he  was  in- 
formed, that  the  bishop  of  the  place  had 
maintained  that  the  antichrist  was  born,  and 
the  end  of  the  world  was  at  hand.  The 
pope  was  desirous  to  know  upon  what  the 
bishop  grounded  his  opinion,  and  therefore, 
stopping  a  few  days  at  Florence,  he  assem- 
bled the  neighboring  bishops,  and  held  a 
council  there.  But  the  novelty  of  the  sub- 
ject drew  such  crowds  to  the  place  where 
the  bishops  were  assembled,  and  the  noise 
was  so  great,  that  the  question  could  not  be 
debated,  and  the  council  broke  up.  How- 
ever the  pope  had  a  private  conference  with 
the  bishop,  and  finding  that  he  only  wanted 
to  make  himself  remarkable  by  holding  and 
preaching  that  opinion,  he  enjoined  him 
perpetual  silence  concerning  it.' 

From  Florence  the  pope  pursued  his 
journey,  and,  arriving  at  Guastalla  on  the 
Po,  he  held  another  council  there  on  the  22d 
of  October.  As  most  of  the  bishops  and  the 
clergy  in  Lombardy  had  adhered  to  the  late 
emperor,  and  had  been  ordained  by  bishops 
whom  he  had  nominated  or  invested,  it  was 
decreed  by  this  council,  that  all  thus  nomi- 
nated and  ordained  should  keep  their  re- 
spective stations,  and  exercise  the  functions 
of  their  office,  provided  they  were  neither 
usurpers,  nor  guilty  of  simony,  nor  of  any 
other  crime.     Another  decree  was  issued. 


importing,  that  the  heresies  which  had 
lately  prevailed,  being  now  extinct,  together 
with  their  author,  meaning  the  emperor,  it 
was  fit  that  the  church  should  recover  her 
ancient  liberty;  and  the  decrees,  restoring 
her  to  it,  shoultl  be  renewed,  confirmed,  and 
enforced.  After  this  preamble,  they  forbad 
laymen,  upon  pain  of  excommunication,  to 
give  investitures,  and  clergymen  to  receive 
any  at  their  hands,  on  pain  of  forfeiting  the 
benefices  and  dignities  which  they  had  thus 
received.  By  the  same  council  it  was  de- 
creed, that  the  whole  province  of  Emilia, 
containing  the  cities  of  Placentia,  Parma, 
Reggio,  Modena,  and  Bologna,  should  be 
no  longer  subject  to  the  see  of  Ravenna, 
which  had,  for  the  space  of  near  a  hundred 
years,  set  up  against  the  Roman,  and  usurp- 
ed its  lands  as  well  as  its  jurisdiction.  At 
this  council  were  present  the  embassadors 
sent  by  Henry,  King  of  Germany,  to  assure 
the  pope  anew  of  his  sincere  attachment  to 
the  apostolic  see,  and  his  earnest  desire  of 
maintaining  a  perfect  harmony  between  the 
church  and  the  empire.'  From  Guastalla 
the  pope  repaired  to  Parma,  at  the  request 
of  the  inhabitants,  and  there  ordained  Ber- 
nard bishop  of  that  city,  declared  his  see 
immediately  subject  to  the  Roman,  and  ap- 
pointed him  his  legate  over  all  Lombardy. 
Thus  was  all  Lotnbardy  re-united  to  the 
apostolic  see,  from  which  the  whole  coun- 
try, except  the  places  held  by  the  countess 
Mathilda,  had  been  separated  ever  since  the 
year  1080,  when  they  all  declared  for  the 
anlipope  Guibert,  chosen  that  year atBrixen.2 
The  king  and  the  German  lords,  conclud- 
ing that  the  pope  intended  to  keep  his 
Christmas  in  Germany,  met  at  Metz,  in  or- 
der to  receive  his  holiness  and  celebrate  that 
festival  with  him  there.  But  Paschal,  in- 
stead of  continuing  his  journey  to  Germany, 
took  unexpectedly  the  road  to  France,  pre- 
tending that  new  difficulties  were  started 
there  concerning  investitures,  Avhich  he 
wanted  to  remove  before  he  went  to  Ger- 
many. But  this  was  a  mere  pretence ;  for 
he  had  laid  aside  all  thoughts  of  going  to 
Germany,  and  putting  himself  in  the  power 
of  the  young  king,  who,  as  he  was  informed, 
seemed  determined  to  maintain  his  right  to 
investitures,  notwithstanding  all  his  protes- 
tations of  obedience,  and  subjection  to  the 
vicar  of  St.  Peter  and  his  see.  He  found 
himself  firmly  established  on  the  throne  by 
the  death  of  his  father,  and  thinking  he  no 
longer  wanted  the  assistance  of  the  pope, 
had  resolved  to  assert,  to  the  utmost  of  his 
power,  that  very  right,  the  asserting  of 
which  by  his  father  had  served  him  for  a 
pretence  to  take  up  arms  against  him,  and 
drive  him  from  the  throne.''    This  intelli- 


'  Uspcre.  ad  ann.  llOfi.  a  Idem,  ad  ann.  1105. 

>  Fandulpb.  Pisan.  Vit.  Pascli. 


«  TTsperR.  ad  ann.  1106.     Domnizo  in  Vit.  Mathild. 
'  Domnizo,  ibid. 

'  .SuKor  in  Vit.  Ludovic.  apud  Duchesn.  t.  iv.  p  288, 
et  Usperg. 


440 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Paschal  II. 


The  pope  goes  to  France  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  1107.]     Solemn  embassy  from  the  king  of  Germany  to  the  pope. 
The  king  maintains  his  right  to  investitures.    Lay  investitures  condemned  in  a  council  at  Troyes. 


gence  the  pope  received  from  persons  of 
known  zeal  for  the  apostolic  see,  and  there- 
fore, saying  with  a  deep  sigh  when  he  re- 
ceived it,  "  the  door  into  Germany  is  not 
yet  open  to  us,"  he  altered  his  design,  and 
taking  the  road  to  France,  arrived  at  Cluny 
a  little  before  Christmas,  which  he  kept  in 
that  monastery.  From  Cluny  he  set  out  for 
St.  Denis,  to  meet  there  Philip,  king  of 
France,  and  his  son  Lewis,  the  sixth  of  that 
name.  In  his  way  he  visited  a  great  many 
places  at  the  invitation  of  the  inhabitants, 
consecrating  churches  and  monasteries,  and 
celebrating  mass  with  the  same  pomp,  cere- 
monies, and  solemnity  as  he  did  at  Rome. 
On  the  fourth  Sunday  in  Lent,  Avhich,  in 
the  present  year,  1107,  fell  on  the  24th  of 
March,  he  was  at  Tours,  and  from  thence 
repaired  to  St.  Denis  attended  by  a  great 
number  of  bishops,  and  almost  all  the  no- 
bility of  France.  At  St.  Denis  he  had  an 
interview  with  the  two  kings,  who,  paying 
the  same  respect  to  him  as  to  St.  Peter  him- 
self, fell  on  their  knees  before  him.  But  the 
pope,  raising  them  up  with  his  hand,  ex- 
pressed great  satisfaction  at  the  reception  he 
had  every  where  met  with  in  their  domi- 
nions, commended  them  for  treading  in  the 
footsteps  of  their  ancestors,  the  defenders 
and  protectors  of  the  ajjostolic  see,  and  then 
entering  upon  the  motives  of  his  journey, 
told  them  that  he  was  come  to  implore  their 
protection  against  the  enemies  of  the  church, 
particularly  against  Henry,  king  of  Ger- 
many, who,  notwithstanding  the  obligations 
he  owed  to  the  Roman  see,  threatened  the 
church  with  the  same  calamities  that  it  had 
suffered  under  his  father.  The  two  kings 
assured  the  pope  that  he  should  find  them 
no  less  ready  to  assist  him,  when  called 
upon,  than  his  predecessors  had  found  the 
most  zealous  among  theirs  to  assist  them. 

In  the  mean  lime  Henry,  hearing  of  the 
pope's  journey  into  France,  and  not  doubt- 
ing but  he  had  undertaken  it  to  engage  the 
assistance  of  those  princes,  in  case  of  a  rup- 
ture between  him  and  the  apostolic  see,  con- 
vened a  diet  at  Mentz,  consisting  of  all  the 
lords  and  bishops  of  his  kingdom ;  and  by 
all  the  investing  of  bishops  and  abbots  was 
declared  a  right  inherent  in  the  crown,  and 
it  was  resolved,  that  a  solemn  embassy 
should  be  sent  to  the  pope,  to  put  an  end, 
if  possible,  in  an  amicable  manner,  to  that 
dispute.  For  this  embassy  were  chosen 
the  archbishop  of  Treves,  the  bishops  of 
Halberstat  and  Munster,  Albert,  great  chan- 
cellor of  the  empire,  and  many  other  persons 
of  the  first  rank  and  distinction.  They  met 
the  pope  at  Chalons  on  the  Marne,  and  in 
the  audience  they  had,  the  bishop  of  Treves, 
who  spoke  for  the  rest,  after  wishing  his 
holiness  all  prosperity  in  the  king's  name, 
and  offering  him  his  service,  so  far  as  was 
consistent  with  the  rights  of  his  crown, 
he  declared,  that  ever  since  the  time  of  Gre- 


gory the  Great  the  election  of  a  bishop  was 
notified  to  the  emperor  before  it  was  made 
public;  that  if  he  confirmed  it,  it  was  then 
published,  the  elect  was  ordained,  and  after 
ordination  applied  to  the  emperor,  and  was 
by  him  invested  with  the  crosier  and  the 
ring,  in  the  temporalities  of  his  see,  paying 
homage  for  them,  and  taking  the  usual  oath 
of  allegiance;  that  it  was  but  reasonable  he 
should  hold  upon  these,  and  no  other  terms, 
demesnes,  cities,  castles,  &c.,  that  were 
given  by  the  emperors,  and  depended  upon 
the  empire ;  and  that  the  king,  his  master, 
was  disposed  to  render  all  the  respect,  obe- 
dience, and  submission,  that  was  due  to  his 
holiness,  provided  his  holiness  was,  in  his 
turn,  disposed  to  render  unto  Caesar  what 
was  Caesar's.  The  bishop  of  Placentia 
answered  the  archbishop  in  the  pope's  name, 
that  the  church,  redeemed  by  the  blood  of 
Christ,  and  set  at  liberty,  ought  not  to  be 
enslaved  anew;  that  she  would  be  the 
prince's  slave,  if  she  could  not  choose  her 
own  ministers  without  his  consent;  that  the 
staff  and  ring  belonged  to  the  ahar,  and  con- 
sequently could  not  be  disposed  of  by  lay- 
men ;  and  that  it  was  highly  unbecoming, 
that  hands,  consecrated  by  the  body  and 
blood  of  Christ,  should  receive  the  ensigns 
of  their  dignity  and  power  from  hands  im- 
brued in  blood  shed  by  the  sword.  The 
bishop  was  going  on,  when  his  embassa- 
dors, interrupting  him,  said  aloud,  "  This 
is  not  the  place  where  we  are  to  decide  the 
dispute ;  the  sword  must  decide  it  at  Rome." 
With  these  menances  they  left  the  assem- 
bly abruptly,  and  returned  to  their  lodgings. 
The  pope  sent  some  of  the  bishops,  who  at- 
tended him,  to  confer  with  the  chancellor 
Albert,  in  whom  he  knew  the  king  reposed 
an  entire  confidence.  But  they  found  him 
no  less  determined  than  the  rest  to  maintain 
the  king's  right  to  investitures,  which,  he 
said,  all  the  other  emperors  and  kings  of 
Germany  had  enjoyed,  and  the  present  king 
was  determined  never  to  give  up.  The 
embassadors  set  out  the  next  day  on  their 
return  to  Germany :  and  the  pope  leaving 
Chalons,  repaired  first  to  Chartres,  where 
he  kept  his  Easter  with  Ivo,  the  celebrated 
bishop  of  that  city,  and  from  thence  to 
Troyes,  to  preside  at  a  council,  which  he 
had  appointed  to  meet  there.' 

The  council  met  about  the  end  of  May, 
consisted  of  most  of  the  bishops  of  France, 
Burgundy,  and  the  neighboring  countries; 
and  the  pope,  to  show  that  he  was  resolved, 
notwithstanding  the  menaces  of  the  Ger- 
mans, to  maintain  his  pretended  right  to  in- 
vestitures, caused  all  the  decrees  relating 
thereunto,  to  be  confirmed  by  the  assembly. 
This  the  king  of  Germany  foresaw,  and 
therefore  sent  embassadors  to  declare  to  the 
pope  and  the  council,  in  his  name,  that  ever 

«  Suger.  ubi  supra.    Usperg.  Orderic.  I.  ii.  p.  820. 


Paschal  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


441 


Agreement  between  the  king  of  England  and  Anaelni,  concerning  investitures. 


since  the  time  of  pope  Gregory  tlie  Great, 
his  predecessors  had  invested  bishops  with 
the  staff  and  the  ring;  that  this  prerogative 
had  been  confirmed  by  Charlemagne,  and  in 
him  to  all  his  successors,  by  pope  Hadrian 
I.,  and  that  he  would  not  suffer  his  right  to 
it  to  be  determined  by  the  subjects  of  another 
prince.  The  pope  would  not  allow  the  de- 
cree of  his  predecesor  Hadrian  to  be  genuine, 
but  nevertheless  granted  the  king  the  delay 
of  a  whole  year,  that  he  might,  when  most 
convenient  during  that  time,  go  to  Rome, 
and  there  plead  his  cause,  in  person,  before 
a  general  council,  which  should  be  con- 
vened to  hear  his  reasons  and  do  him  jus- 
tice. The  king  acquiesced ;  and  we  hear 
no  moie  of  this  dispute  till  the  year  1110, 
when  we  shall  have  occasion  to  resume  the 
same  subject. 

The  pope  found  the  king  of  England 
more  pliant  than  the  late  emperor,  or  the 
present  king  of  Germany.  Henry  had  de- 
clared, by  his  embassador  at  Rome,  as  has 
been  related  above,  that  he  would  not  for 
his  kingdom,  part  with  his  right  to  investi- 
tures. He  nevertheless  parted,  or  rather 
promised  to  part,  with  that  prerogative,  upon 
the  terms  I  have  spoken  of  above,  namely, 
that  Anselm  should  not  excommunicate 
those  who  had  received  investitures  from 
him,  nor  exclude  them  from  his  communion. 
As  Anselm  would  not  agree  to  these  terms 
without  consulting  the  pope,  envoys  were 
sent,  in  1105,  both  by  him  and  the  king,  for 
that  purpose,  to  Rome.  The  pope,  over- 
joyed to  hear  that  the  king  was  disposed  to 
renounce  investitures  upon  any  terms  what- 
ever, readily  agreed  to  those  he  demand&d, 
and  the  envoys  returned  in  HOG  with  the 
following  agreement,  namely,  that  bishops 
and  abbots  might  be  consecrated,  notwith- 
standing their  doing  homage  to  the  king 
upon  their  election ;  that  Anselm  should 
communicate  with  such  of  them  as  had,  till 
the  time  of  the  present  agreement,  received 
investiture  from  the  king;  and  that  thence- 
forth the  king  should  renounce  all  right  to 
investitures.  As  the  clergy  were  forbidden, 
by  the  decrees  of  Gregory  and  Urban,  to  do 
homage  to  princes.  Paschal  tells  Anselm  in 
a  letter  which  he  wrote  on  this  occasion, 
that  out  of  the  great  regard  he  had  for  the 
king  of  England,  he  connived  at  the  homage 
that  was  paid  him,  till  he  could  persuade 
him  to  give  it  up.  Anselm,  who  waited  in 
Normandy  for  the  return  of  the  envoys  sent 
to  Rome,  no  sooner  received  tlie  pope's  let- 
ter, containing  the  articles  which  he  was  to 
agree  to,  than  he  prepared  to  set  out  for 
England,  in  order  to  have  them  approved 
and  ratified  by  the  king.  But  he  was  taken 
ill,  and  in  the  mean  time  the  king  arrived  in 
Normandy,  to  pursue  the  conquest  which  he 
had  so  successfully  begun.  Before  he  took 
the  field,  he  went  to  the  monastery  of  Bee, 
whore  Anselm  still  continued,  not  being  yet 
Vol.  II.— 56 


well  recovered  from  his  late  indisposition. 
However,  upon  tlie  arrival  of  the  king,  he 
celebrated  mass  with  great  solemnity,  and 
in  the  conference  they  had  before  the  king 
left  the  place,  all  things  were  settled  to  the 
entire  satisfaction  of  ^both,  the  king  being 
pleased  with  the  pope's  allowing  the  bishops, 
abbots,  and  other  ecclesiastics  to  do  him 
homage;  while  Anselm  was  no  less  pleased 
with  the  king's  renouncing  a  right  of  the 
utmost  importance  to  the  apostolic  see,  and 
as  such  so  strongly  insisted  on  by  so  many 
popes.  On  this  occasion,  the  king,  at  the 
request  of  Anselm,  freed  all  the  churches  in 
England  from  the  heavy  impositions  which 
his  brother,  AVilliam  Rufus,  had  laid  upon 
them,  promised  never  to  touch  the  revenues 
of  vacant  sees,  to  return  to  Anselm  the 
whole  sum  that  had  accrued  from  the  in- 
come of  his  see  during  his  absence,  and,  as 
to  the  tax  laid  on  the  parochial  clergy,  to 
exact  nothing  of  those  who  had  not  yet  paid 
it,  and  exempt  such  as  had  already  paid  it, 
from  all  impost?  for  the  space  of  three  years 
All  differences  being  thus  composed,  An- 
selm set  out  on  his  return  to  England  in  the 
latter  end  of  August  or  the  beginning  of 
September,  1106;  and  the  king,  a  few  days 
after,  completed  by  a  signal  victory,  the  re- 
duction of  all  Normandy.  The  duke's  army 
was  entirely  defeated,  the  duke  himself  and' 
most  of  the  Norman  lords  were  taken  pri- 
soners, and  sent  to  England,  where  they 
were  shut  up  in  different  castles  till  death 
delivered  ihem.'  The  king  immediately  ac- 
quainted Anselm  with  his  victory,  ascribing 
the  success  of  as  unjust  a  war  as,  perhaps, 
was  ever  undertaken,  to  the  particular  pro- 
tection of  heaven.  It  is  to  be  observed,  that 
neither  the  pope  nor  Anselm  ever  once  of- 
fered to  divert  the  king  from  that  war,  unjust 
and  unnatural  as  it  Avas,  while  they  threat- 
ened him  with  excommunication,  and  left 
nothing  else  in  their  power  unattempted  to 
divert  him  from  giving  investitures ;  as  if 
they  had  thought  the  delivering  of  a  staff  and 
ring  to  a  bishop,  or  an  abbot,  more  criminal 
than  such  a  war,  and  the  shedding  of  so 
much  Christian  blood. 

The  king  did  not  leave  Normandy  till  a 
little  before  Easter,  1107,  being  employed  in 
settling  the  affairs  of  his  new  conquest.  He 
no  sooner  arrived  in  England  than  Anselm, 
desirous  of  having  the  above  agreement  ap- 
proved and  confirmed  by  the  whole  nation,, 
persuaded  the  king  to  assemble  for  that  pur- 
pose all  the  bishops,  abbots,  and  lords  of 
the  kingdom;  and  he  accordingly  appointed 
them  to  meet  on  the  1st  of  August,  1107. 
They  met  at  the  time  appointed,  in  the  king's 
palace  at  London,  and  the  affair  of  investi- 
tures was  warmly  debated  for  three  days 
j  together,  some  being  for  the  king's  investing 
I  bishops  and  abbots  with  the  staff  and  the 

I  '  Eadmcr,  Novor.  1.  iv.  c.  3. 


442 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Paschal  II. 


The  king  makes  a  formal  resignation  of  his  rights  to  investitures.  Paschal  returns  to  Rome.  Council  of  Be- 
neventum  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1108.]  Solemn  embassy  from  the  king  of  Germany  to  the  pone  :— FYear  of 
Christ,  1109.]  r  »-    .     l 


ring,  in  the  same  manner  as  they  had  been 
invested  by  his  two  immediate  predecessors, 
his  father  and  his  brother;  while  others, 
gained  by  the  artifices  of  Anselm,  but  more 
by  his  good  offices  in  persuading  the  king 
to  ease  the  churches  of  the  heavy  imposi- 
tions laid  upon  them,  approved  of  the  king's 
laying  aside  the  usual  method  of  investing, 
and  contenting  himself  with  the  homage  that 
the  bishops  and  the  abbots  were  allowed  to 
pay  him  upon  their  election.  But  the  king 
had  already  renounced  his  right  to  investi- 
tures, by  his  agreement  with  Anselm,  and 
therefore  made  a  formal  resignation  of  it  in 
the  present  council,  contrary  to  the  advice 
of  many  of  the  bishops  as  well  as  the  lords. 
The  council  being  ended,  several  sees,  that 
had  long  been  vacant  on  account  of  this  dis- 
pute, were  immediately  filled,  and  the  cere- 
mony of  investing  the  new  bishops,  by  the 
delivery  of  the  staff  and  ring,  was  omitted. 
Thus  were  no  fewer  than  six  bishop  ordain- 
ed, in  one  day,  by  Anselm,  and  Gerard 
archbishop  of  York,  "  after  they  had  been 
canonically  elected,"  says  the  historian,  "  by 
their  respective  churches;'"  which  words 
seem  to  insinuate  that  the  king  gave  up  his 
right  to  the  nominating  as  well  as  to  the  in- 
vesting of  bishops.  Thus  ended  this  con- 
troversy in  England,  the  king  tamely  part- 
ing with  one  of  the  most  undoubted  rights, 
and  most  valuable  prerogatives  of  his 
crown.  But  finding  that  the  king  of  Ger- 
many still  continued  to  assert  the  right  that 
he  had  given  up,  he  threatened  to  resume  it, 
complaining  to  Anselm  of  the  pope's  par- 
tiality in  requiring  him  to  resign  a  preroga- 
tive which  he  allowed  another  prince  to 
enjoy,  who  had  no  better  right  to  it.  Anselm 
acquainted  the  pope  with  the  king's  com- 
plaints; and  his  letter  was  immediately  an- 
swered by  Paschal  in  the  following  terms : 
"  Know  that  I  never  did,  that  I  never  will 
suffer  the  king  of  Germany  to  give  investi- 
tures. I  only  wait  till  the  fierceness  of  that 
nation  be  somewhat  tamed  :  but  if  the  king 
continues  to  follow  the  wicked  example  of 
his  father,  he  shall  feel,  in  due  time,  the 
weight  of  the  sword  of  St.  Peter,  which  we 
have  already  begun  to  draw."^  We  shall 
see,  in  the  sequel,  the  issue  of  this  dispute 
with  the  king  of  Germany,  and  in  the  mean 
time  return  to  Paschal,  whom  we  left  at 
Troyes  giving  audience  to  the  German  em- 
bassadors, in  the  council  which  he  held  in 
that  city. 

From  Troyes  Paschal  returned  to  Rome 
about  the  latter  end  of  the  present  year, 
1107,  and  was  there  received,  says  the  abbot 
of  Usperg,  by  all  ranks  of  men,  as  if  he  had 
returned  from  the  dead.  He  continued  at 
Rome  the  greater  part  of  the  following  year, 
1108 ;  and  during  his  stay  there,  restored  the 
see  of  Braga  to  the  metropolitan  dignity 


>  Continuator.  Ingul.  p.  126,. 


Tascii,  ep.  44. 


which  it  had  formerly  enjoyed,'  and  annulled 
the  marriage  of  Urraca,  daughter  of  Al- 
phonsus  VI.,  king  of  Castile  and  Leon,  with 
Alphonsus,  king  of  Arragon,  to  whom  she 
was  related  in  the  third  degree  of  consan- 
guinity. The  pope,  in  his  letter  to  Didicus, 
bishop  of  Compostella,  orders  him  to  com- 
mand Urraca,  in  his  name,  to  depart  from 
the  king  on  pain  of  being  excluded  from  the 
communion  of  the  church,  and  deprived  of 
all  secular  power.  However,  in  1110  she 
had  not  yet  obeyed  that  order,  as  appears 
from  a  grant  of  king  Alphonsus,  her  hus- 
band, to  the  monastery  of  St.  Mary  of  Bal- 
vanera,  bearing  that  date,  wherein  the  king 
calls  her  his  wife,  saying,  "  I  and  my  wife 
Urraca,  the  daughter  of  the  most  valiant  king 
Alphonsus,  and  related  to  me  by  blood,  who 
jointly  rule  with  royal  authority  from  the 
Pyrenean  mountains  to  the  reflux  of  the 
ocean,  grant,"  Stc^  From  Rome  the  pope 
repaired  to  Beneventum  to  hold  a  council 
there;  but  of  that  council  we  know  no  more 
than  what  we  read  in  the  chronicle  of  Pe- 
trus  Cassinensis,  namely,  that  Paschal  came 
to  Monte  Cassino  in  the  month  of  October 
of  the  present  year,  1108,  and  taking  with 
him  Bruno,  bishop  of  Segni,  and  abbot  of 
that  monastery,  went  from  thence  to  Bene- 
ventum, and  in  a  council  which  he  held 
there,  excommunicated,  as  his  predecessors 
had  done,  all  laymen  Avho  should  presume 
to  give,  and  all  clerks  who  should  receive 
investitures  at  their  hands  ;  and  besides  for- 
bad clerks  to  wear  lay  or  costly  habits.'' 
Paschal,  upon  his  return  to  Rome,  appoint- 
ed Gerard,  bishop  of  Angoulesme,  his  legate 
over  all  France,  who  is  said  to  have  held  no 
fewer  than  eight  councils  during  the  time 
of  his  legation,  and  to  have  reformed  many 
abuses  that  prevailed  in  those  churches.'* 
Paschal  entertained  a  very  high  opinion  of 
Gerard's  sanctity,  as  well  as  his  abilities. 
But  we  shall  see  him  adhering  to  an  anti- 
pope,  when  he  could  not  prevail  upon  the 
true  pope  to  confirm  to  him  his  legatine 
power. 

In  the  mean  time  the  young  king  of  Ger- 
many, desirous  of  having  an  end  put  to  the 
quarrel  between  him  and  the  pope,  and  not 
a  little  provoked  at  Paschal's  excommunicat- 
ing in  all  his  councils,  laymen  who  gave, 
and  ecclesiastics  who  received,  investitures 
from  them,  sent  Frederick,  archbishop  of 
Cologne,  Bruno,  archbishop  of  Treves, 
Heriman  of  Winceburch,  in  whom  he  re- 
posed great  confidence,  and  several  other 
German  lords,  with  the  character  of  his  em- 
bassadors to  Rome,  to  try  whether  they 
could,  upon  any  reasonable  terms,  conclude 
an  agreement  with  his  holiness,  and  restore 
by  that  means,  the  union  that  had  formerly 


»  Bernard,  in  Vit.  Gerald.         2  Sandoval,  fol.  120. 
3  Petrus  Cassin.    Chron.  lib.  iv.  c.  35. 
« Pasch.  ep.  37. 


Paschal  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


443 


Articles  of  the  treaty  concluded  between  the  pope  and  the  king.  Alliance  between  the  pope  and  the  Normans. 
Lateran  council ;— [Year  of  Chiist,  1110.]  The  king  sets  out  for  Italy.  Ratifies  the  treaty  concluded  by  bis 
embassadors. 


subsisted  between  the  apostolic  see  and  the 
empire.  The  pope  received  them  on  their 
arrival  at  Rome  with  all  possible  marks  of 
distinction,  declared  that  it  was  his  sincere 
desire  to  live  in  the  strictest  friendship  with 
his  beloved  son,  the  king  of  Germany,  and 
that  he  ever  should,  provided  the  king  on 
his  part  behaved  as  became  a  catholic  king, 
a  son  and  defender  of  the  church.  The  em- 
bassadors continued  at  Rome  all  this  year 
and  part  of  the  next,  negotiating  an  agree- 
ment between  the  pope  and  the  king;  and 
an  agreement  was,  in  the  end,  concluded 
upon  the  following  terms  :  that  the  emperor, 
(for  so  he  is  styled  by  Petrus  Diaconus,) 
should  renounce  all  right  and  title  to  investi- 
tures by  a  writing,  which  he  should  deliver 
to  the  pope  in  the  presence  of  the  clergy  and 
the  people ;  that  he  should  leave  the  churches 
free  with  their  oblations,  and  such  demesnes 
as  did  not  belong  to  the  empire  before  the 
church  possessed  them ;  that  he  should  ab- 
solve the  people  from  their  oaths,  which 
they  had  been  forced  to  take  against  their 
bishops;  that  he  should  restore  the  patri- 
monies and  possessions  of  St.  Peter,  as  was 
done  by  Charles,  Lewis,  Henry,  and  the 
other  emperors,  and  maintain,  to  the  utmost 
of  his  power,  the  said  apostle  in  possession 
of  them;  that  he  should  not  contribute,  by 
word  or  deed,  to  deprive  the  pope  of  his 
pontificate,  of  his  life,  his  limbs,  or  his 
liberty  ;  and  that  in  this  article  should  be  in- 
cluded Peter  of  Leo,  (that  is,  Peter,  the  son 
of  Leo,  a  man  of  great  power  in  Rome,  and 
zealously  attached  to  the  pope,)  his  chil- 
dren, and  such  others  as  the  pope  should 
name ;  and  lastly,  that  the  emperor  should 
deliver  to  the  pope  Frederic,  his  sister's  son, 
and  twelve  lords  of  the  empire,  who  are  all 
named  in  the  treaty,  as  he  says,  for  the  ob- 
servance of  these  articles.  The  pope,  on 
his  side,  engaged,  if  the  emperor  fulfilled 
what  he  had  promised,  to  order  the  bishops, 
who  should  be  present  at  his  coronation,  to 
resign  and  deliver  up  to  him  whatever  had 
belonged  to  the  crown  in  the  time  of  Lewis, 
Henry,  and  the  other  emperors  his  predeces- 
sors; to  forbid  them,  on  pain  of  e.xcommuni- 
cation,  to  usurp  or  claim  the  royalties,  that 
is,  cities,  duchies,  marquisates,  counties,  the 
right  of  coinage,  of  holding  markets,  levying 
taxes,  exacting  tolls  ;  to  give  him  no  trouble 
for  holding  the  lordships,  and  whatever  else 
had  belonged  to  the  empire ;  to  receive  him 
with  honour,  and  crown  him  in  the  same 
manner  as  his  predecessors  had  been  crown- 
ed by  other  popes;  and  lastly,  that  Peter  of 
Leo  should  continue  with  the  king  till  the 
pope  had  fulfi^lled  all  the  articles  of  this 
agreement.' 

As   the  pope  did  not  know  whether  the 
king  would  ratify  the  treaty  he  had  con- 

<  Petrus  Damian.  Chron.  Caesin.  lib.  ii.  c.  37. 


eluded  with  his  embassadors,  he  applied,  in 
the  mean  time,  to  the  Norman  princes  of 
Apulia  and  Calabria,  who  readily  engaged 
to  assist  him  with  all  their  forces,  and  to 
march,  at  a  moment's  warning,  to  his  assist- 
ance, by  whomsoever  attacked.  In  like 
manner  the  chief  and  most  powerful  citizens 
of  Rome  declared,  all  to  a  man,  that  they 
would  stand  by  his  holiness  to  the  last,  in 
case  the  agreement  between  him  and  the 
king  should  not  take  place.  The  pope,  thus 
encouraged,  held  a  council  in  the  Lateran 
palace,  and  there  excommunicated  anew  all 
laymen  who  should,  from  that  hour,  give  in- 
vestitures, and  all  ecclesiastics,  who  should, 
upon  any  pretence  whatsoever,  receive  them 
at  their  hands.  At  the  same  time  they  were 
suspended  from  all  the  functions  of  their 
office,  who  should  ordain  any  that  had  been 
thus  promoted.' 

The  king  was  no  sooner  informed  by  his 
embassadors  of  the  issue  of  their  negotia- 
tions Avith  the  pope,  than  he  resolved  to  go 
to  Rome,  in  order  to  be  crowned  there,  and 
put  the  finishing  hand  to  the  treaty,  which 
they  had  begun.  This  his  intention  he 
notified  to  the  stales  of  the  empire  in  a  gene- 
ral diet,  which  he  had  appointed  to  meet 
for  that  purpose,  at  Ratisbon,  inviting  all 
the  lords  and  princes,  who  were  present,  to 
attend  him,  in  the  most  splendid  manner 
they  could,  that  the  ceremony  of  his  coro- 
nation might  thus  be  rendered  the  more 
august.  He  set  out  from  Germany  in  the 
begining  of  August,  at  the  head  of  a  very 
numerous  army,  consistingof  thirty  thousand 
horse,  besides  foot,  and  entering  Italy  on  the 
day  of  the  assumption  of  the  Virgin  Mary, 
that  is,  on  the  15th  of  that  month,  he  obliged 
all  the  cities  and  countries  through  which 
he  passed  to  do  him  homage ;  and  such 
places  as  refused  to  admit  him  he  besieged, 
took,  and  laid  in  ashes,  and,  among  the  rest, 
the  two  cities  of  Novara  in  Lombardy,  and 
Arezzo  in  Tuscany.  As  the  season  was 
far  advanced,  and  his  army  had  suffered 
greatly  in  passing  the  Appenine  mountains, 
he  slopped  some  time  at  Florence,  kept  his 
Christmas  there,  and  after  the  holidays  re- 
sumed his  march,  and  arrived  at  Sutri.  He 
was  there  met  by  the  embassadors  he  had 
sent  to  Rome,  who  delivered  to  him  the 
treaty,  which  they  had  concluded  with  the 
pope.  As  by  one  of  the  articles  of  that 
treaty  the  bishops  were  to  deliver  up  to  the 
king  all  the  towns,  castles,  estates,  and  lord- 
ships, that  had  been  given  them  by  the  em- 
peror his  predecessor,  or  had  ever  belonged 
to  the  empire,  and  he,  in  exchange,  was 
only  to  renounce  the  right  of  delivering  to 
them  a  staff  and  a  ring,  he  immediately 
ratified  it,  and  swore  strictly  to  observe  every 
article  it  contained;  but  upon  condition,  that 

>  Concil.  t.  X. 


444 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Paschal  U. 


The  king  enters  the  Leonine  city; — [Year  of  Christ,  1111.]     How  received  by  the  pope.    His  interview  with 
the  pope.    He  arrests  the  pope.     The  Romans  strive  to  rescue  him.     Great  slaughter  on  both  sides. 


the  bishops  agreed  to  it  of  their  own  accord, 
or  that  his  hoUness  obliged  them  to  agree  to  it. 
The  treaty  being  thus  ratified  and  sworn 
to  by  the  king,  and  by  Peter  of  Leo  in  the 
pope's  name,  the  king  approached  the  city 
with  his  army,  and  encamped,  on  the  11th 
of  February,  1111,  at  a  small  distance  from 
the  walls.  The  next  day,  being  Q.uinqua- 
gesima  Sunday,  he  made  his  entry  into  the 
Leonine  city,  was  received  without  the  gate 
by  the  Jews,  under  it  by  the  Greeks,  and 
within  by  the  whole  Roman  clergy,  and  a 
hundred  nuns  with  burning  tapers  in  their 
hands;  when,  alighting  from  his  horse,  he 
was  attended  by  them,  and  an  infinite  mul- 
titude of  people,  with  loud  acclamations,  to 
the  Vatican.  The  pope  waited  for  him  upon 
the  steps  of  St.  Peter's  church,  which  the 
king  ascended,  and  prostrating  himself  be- 
fore him,  kissed  his  feet.  The  pope  raised 
him,  and  they  then  embraced  and  kissed 
each  other  three  times,  and  then  proceeded 
together,  the  king  holding  the  pope's  right 
hand,  to  the  silver  door,  one  of  the  doors  of 
St.  Peter's  church.      There  the   pope   ap- 


pope's  whole  conduct,  in  this  very  affair, 
was  a  manifest  contradiction  to  the  maxims 
which  he  inculcated  to  them,  and  that  he 
only  wanted  to  acquire  the  disputed  preroga- 
tive at  their  expense,  kept  to  the  resolution 
they  had  taken  in  spite  of  all  his  holiness's 
exhortations  as  well  as  menaces.  However, 
the  pope,  pretending  to  have  fulfilled,  on 
his  side,  all  the  articles  of  the  treaty,  chal- 
lenged the  king  to  fulfil  them  in  like  man- 
ner on  his.  This  occasioned  a  warm  dispute 
between  the  king  and  the  pope,  in  the  heat 
of  which  a  German  of  the  king's  retinue 
stepping  up  to  the  pope,  "  to  what  pur- 
pose," said  he  with  a  haughty  air,  "so 
many  speeches'?  What  have  we  to  do  with 
your  articles  and  treaties  1  Know  that  our 
lord  the  emperor  will  have  you  to  crown 
him,  without  any  of  your  articles  or  condi- 
tions, as  your  predecessors  crowned  Charles, 
Lewis,  and  Pepin."  The  pope  answered 
with  great  composure,  that  he  neither  c6uld, 
nor  would  crown  him,  till  he  had  executed 
the  treaty,  which  he  had  bound  himself  by 
a  solemn  oath  to  observe.     As  the  king  had 


pointed  him  emperor,  kissed  him  again,  and   ratified  the  treaty,  and  sworn  to  observe  it, 
the  bishop  of  Lavini  said  the  first   prayer  only  upon  condition  that  the  bishops  resigned 


over  him.  They  then  entered  the  church, 
and  coming  to  a  place  called  the  Porphyry 
Wheel,  the  pavement  being  inlaid  with  por- 
phyry in  circles,  they  both  sat  down  in  two 
chairs  placed  there  by  the  pope's  order, 
while  the  cardinals,  the  Roman  clergy,  and 
the  Germans,  stood  round  them.  Being 
thus  seated,  the  pope  desired  the  king  to  re- 
store to  the  church  her  just  rights,  and  re- 
nounce investitures,  pursuant  to  the  treaty, 
which  he  had  ratified  and  sworn  to  observe. 
The  king  answered,  that  as  he  had  engaged 
to  renounce  investitures,  upon  condition 
that  the  bishops  gave  up  to  him  all  the 
estates  and  lordships  which  they  held  of  the 
empire,  he  must  first  know  whether  they 
were  disposed  to  comply  with  that  condi- 
tion. He  accordingly  rose  up,  and,  leaving 
the  pope,  retired,  with  such  of  the  German 
and  Lombard  bishops  as  were  present,  to 
the  vestry,  to  confer  with  them  there.  As 
the  conference  lasted  a  long  time,  the  pope, 
weary  of  waiting,  sent  to  the  king  to  desire 
he  would  return  and  perform  what  he  had 
promised.  He  returned,  and  the  bishops 
with  him,  all  to  a  man  protesting  against 
the  treaty  and  declaring  that  they  would 
not  part  with  their  estates ;  that  the  pope  had 
no  right  to  dispose  of  them,  and  that  as  the 
emperor  had  given  them  to  the  church  they 
were  unalienable.  The  pope  strove  in  vain 
to  satisfy  them,  saying,  "  It  was  just  to  ren- 
der unto  Cffisar  the  things  that  were  Caesar's ; 
that  he,  who  serves  God,  ought  not  to  be 
taken  up  with  the  affairs  of  this  world ;  that 
the  use  of  arms,  and  consequently  the  pos- 
session of  castles  and  strong-holds,  is,  ac- 
cording to  St.  Ambrose,  foreign  to  the  office 
of  a  bishop."    The  bishops,  sensible  that  the 


their  lordships,  which  they  refused,  and 
would  not  by  the  pope  himself  be  prevailed 
upon  to  do,  he  was  so  provoked  at  the 
pope's  unfair  proceeding,  that  he  ordered 
his  guards  to  surround  him  that  moment, 
saying,  that  he  should  crown  him.  The 
pope,  however,  was  allowed  to  celebrate 
mass  as  it  was  Q,uinquagesima  Sunday  ; 
but  as  he  was  going  to  retire,  when  the  ser- 
vice was  ended,  the  soldiers  stopped  him, 
and  all  the  cardinals  who  were  with  him, 
and  kept  them  in  the  church  till  the  dusk 
of  the  evening,  when  they  were  all  con- 
veyed, under  a  strong  guard,  to  a  house  at 
a  small  distance  from  the  church.' 

In  the  mean  time  two  of  the  cardinals, 
John  bishop  of  Tusculum,  and  Leo  bishop 
of  Ostia,  having  made  their  escape,  and  got, 
in  the  disguise  of  two  plebeians,  into  Rome, 
inflamed  the  inhabitants  to  such  a  degree 
against  the  Germans,  that  they  flew  imme- 
miately  to  arms,  and  murdered  every  Ger- 
man they  met  in  the  streets,  who,  being  ig- 
norant of  what  had  happened,  were  either 
innocently  visiting  the  holy  places  out  of 
devotion,  or  viewing  the  rarities  of  the  city 
out  of  curiosity.  The  enraged  Romans  did 
not  stop  there,  but  passing  the  bridges  of 
the  Tiber  in  battle-array,  attacked  the  king 
with  such  fury,  that  it  was  with  great  diffi- 
cuhy  he  kept  his  ground.  The  Romans, 
however,  were  repulsed  at  last:  but  they 
soon  returned,  in  great  numbers,  to  the 
charge,  the  fight  was  renewed,  and  such 
was  the  slaughter  on  both  sides,  that  the 
Tiber  was  tinged  with  the  blood  of  the 
slain.     The  king  himself  was  wounded  in 


»  Acta  Vatican,  apud  Baron,  ad  ann.  1111,  et  Fetrus 
Diacon.  Cbron.  Cassin.  1.  4.  c.  38,  39. 


Paschal  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


445 


The  emperor  retired  from  the  Leonine  city,  taking  the  pope  and  cardinals  with  him.     The  pope  withstands  the 
menaces  of  the  emperor.    Yields  at  last. 


the  face,  was  unhorsed,  and  would  have 
fallen  into  the  hands  of  his  merciless  ene- 
mies, had  not  Otho,  count  of  Milan,  flying 
to  his  rescue,  given  him  his  horse,  and  thus 
enabled  him  to  put  himself  a^rain  at  the  head 
of  his  cavalry,  who  had  begun  to  give  way. 
The  count  was  taken,  and  carried  into  the 
city  by  the  Romans,  where  they  cut  him  to 
pieces,  with  the  utmost  barbarity,  and  threw 
his  mangled  members  to  the  dogs.  The 
Germans,  though  encouraged  by  the  king 
at  their  head,  were  driven  back  to  St.  Pe- 
ter's, and  even  from  their  quarters  in  that 
neighborhood,  which  the  Romans  plun- 
dered. But  the  Germans  filling  upon  them 
as  they  were  passing  the  bridge  of  St.  An- 
gelo,  loaded  with  the  booty,  a  dreadful 
slaughter  ensued,  the  booty  was  recovered, 
and  great  numbers  of  the  Romans  were 
either  slain  on  the  bridge,  or  forced  to  throw 
themselves   into   the  river,  where  they  all 

Eerished.  They  who  escaped  the  slaughter, 
eing  joined  by  others,  still  rallied,  and  the 
fight  lasted  till  night  coming  on  parted  the 
combatants.  In  the  mean  time  the  cardinal 
of  Tusculum,  having  assembled  the  Ro- 
mans, and  representing  to  them  in  an  in- 
flaming harangue  the  unworthy  treatment 
the  pope  had  met  with  from  the  Germans, 
and  the  obligation  they  were  under  of  res- 
cuing him  out  of  the  hands  of  his  enemies, 
even  at  the  expense  of  their  lives,  worked 
them  up  to  such  a  pitch  of  fury  and  rage, 
that  they  bound  themselves  by  a  solemn 
oath  to  resist  the  king  to  the  last  drop  of 
their  blood,  and  to  look  upon  all  as  thfir 
enemies  who  should  join  or  assist  him.  The 
cardinal  promised,  at  the  same  time,  remis- 
sion of  all  their  sins  to  such  as  should  die 
in  so  good  a  cause,  in  so  holy  a  war.' 

The  king,  informed  of  the  disposition  of 
the  Romans,  and  the  resolution  they  had 
taken,  thought  it  advisable  to  retire;  and  he 
left  accordingly  the  Leonine  city  in  the 
night,  carrying  with  him  the  pope,  the  car- 
diiiali,  and  several  of  the  Roman  nobility. 
The  king  strove,  on  his  march,  to  bring  the 
pope  to  his  terms ;  that  is,  to  crown  him 
without  requiring  him  to  give  up  investi- 
tures. But  finding  that  he  still  refused  to 
comply  with  these  terms,  he  caused  him  to 
be  stripped  of  his  pontifical  ornaments,  and 
bound  like  a  criminal.  The  cardinals,  and 
such  of  the  Roman  nobility  and  clergy  as 
were  taken  with  the  pope,  met  with  no  bet- 
ter treatment,  and  they  were  all  bound  and 
shut  up  in  different  prisons,  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  mount  Soracte,  where  the  king  first 
halted.  From  mount  Soracte  the  king  en- 
tered the  country  of  the  Sabins,  with  a  de- 
sign to  return  against  Rome.  Pie  left  the 
pope  with  the  two  bishops  of  Sabinia  and 
Porto,  and  four  cardinals,  under  a  strong 
guard,  at  a  castle  called  Terbicum,  and  the 


Fetrus  Diacon.  Cbron.  Casein.  1.  iv.  c.  38,  39. 


rest  of  the  cardinals  at  the  castle  of  Corco- 
disum,  places  now  utterly  unknown.  The 
pope  was  attended  by  some  German  lords, 
and  none  but  Germans  were  allowed  to 
come  near  him.  In  the  mean  time,  the 
king,  by  laying  waste  the  neighborhood  of 
Rome  with  fire  and  sword,  and  preventing 
any  supplies  of  provisions  from  being  con- 
veyed into  the  city,  had  reduced  it  to  the  ut- 
most distress.  But  the  Romans,  encouraged 
by  the  bishop  of  Tusculum,  still  refused  to 
submit,  nay,  and  rejected,  with  scorn,  the 
large  sums  with  which  the  king  attempted 
to  bribe  them.  Their  obstinacy  so  provoked 
the  young  prince,  that  he  ordered  the  pope, 
the  cardinals,  and  all  the  other  prisoners  to 
be  brought  to  his  camp,  and,  in  the  presence 
of  his  whole  army,  swore,  that  if  the  pope 
did  not  fulfil  the  articles  of  their  agreement, 
he  would  put  him  to  death,  and  all  who 
were  with  him.  The  pope,  not  in  the  least 
intimidated  Avith  these  menaces,  answered, 
that  he  was  in  the  king's  power,  and  he 
might  therefore  dispose  of  him  as  he  pleased ; 
but  that  he  would  rather  part  with  his  life 
than  what  was  dearer  to  him  than  life  itself, 
the  rights  of  his  see.  Hereupon  the  em- 
peror, finding  that  the  obstinacy  of  the  pope 
was  proof  against  his  menaces,  changed  his 
style,  and  offered  to  release  him  and  the  rest 
of  the  prisoners,  provided  he  renounced  his 
claim  to  investitures,  declaring  that,  by  that 
ceremony,  he  did  not  mean  to  confer  any 
spiritual  power,  authority  or  jurisdiction, 
but  only  to  convey  the  temporalities,  and  de- 
mesnes, that  depended  upon  the  empire. 
But  the  pope,  no  more  moved  by  the  offers 
of  the  emperor  than  by  his  threats,  still  re- 
turned the  same  answer.  However,  the 
cardinals  and  other  prisoners,  no  longer  able 
to  bear  this  captivity,  earnestly  besought 
him  to  have  pity  upon  them,  and  comply 
for  their  sakes,  if  not  for  his  own,  with  the 
demandsof  the  emperor.  They  represented 
to  him  the  deplorable  state  of  the  Roman 
church,  that  had  lost  almost  all  its  cardinals, 
the  miseries  that  so  many  men  of  the  first 
distinction  in  Rome  endured  in  the  prisons 
to  which  they  were  confined,  being,  for  their 
attachment  to  him  and  his  see,  snatched 
from  their  wives,  their  children,  their  country, 
and  from  every  thing  that  was  dear  to  them, 
and  the  imminent  danger  of  a  schism,  since 
the  emperor  would  not  fail  to  cause  another 
pope,  more  pliant,  to  be  chosen,  if  he  could 
not  obtain  from  him.  what  he  demanded. 
The  pope  long  withstood  the  prayers  and 
entreaties  of  all  his  friends.  But  as  they, 
laying  before  him  the  calamities  which  the 
church  was  threatened  with,  and  the  hard- 
ships that  they  were  forced  to  undergo,  gave 
him  no  respite;  he  yielded  in  the  end,  and 
bursting  into  tears,  "I  am  forced,"  he  said, 
"to  suffer  for  the  peace  and  liberty  of  the 
church,  what  I  had  rather  have  lost  my  life 
than  have  suffered." 

2  N 


446 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Paschal  II. 


Articles  agreed  to  by  the  pope  and  the  eroperor.    The  bull  granted  by  the  pope  to  the  emperor.    The  emperor 

crowned. 


The  pope  having  thus  consented  to  an 
agreement  with  the  emperor,  the  following 
articles  were  drawn  up  by  his  order,  and 
signed  by  ten  cardinals,  two  bishops,  and 
three  deacons :  •'  Pope  Paschal  shall  not 
molest  king  Henry  on  account  of  giving  in- 
vestitures to  the  bishops  and  abbots  of  his 
kingdom  ;  he  shall  not  concern  himself  with 
them,  nor  shall  he  ever  excommunicate  the 
king  for  granting  them,  or  for  any  injury  he 
had  done,  on  occasion  of  this  dispute,  to  him 
or  his  friends  and  adherents  ;  the  king  shall 
invest,  as  he  has  done  hitherto,  with  the 
crosier  and  the  ring,  the  bishops  and  abbots 
who  shall  have  been  elected  freely,  without 
simony,  and  with  his  approbation;  the  arch- 
bishops and  bishops  shall  consecrate  those 
whom  the  king  shall  have  thus  invested, 
and  none  shall  be  consecrated  till  he  has  in- 
vested them ;  the  pope  shall  crown  the  em- 
peror forthwith,  shall  assist  him  to  preserve 
his  kingdom,  and  shall  confirm  to  him,  by  a 
special  bull,  the  right  of  investing."  The 
articles  drawn  up  in  the  emperor's  name, 
and  sworn  to  by  the  archbishop  of  Cologne, 
the  bishops  of  Trent,  Spire,  Munster,  by 
Albert,  Chancellor  of  the  empire,  and  by 
eight  counts  and  marquises,  were  as  fol- 
lows :  "  I,  Henry,  on  Wednesday  or  Thurs- 
day next,  shall  set  at  liberty  pope  Paschal, 
and  all  the  cardinals,  bishops,  and  other  per- 
sons, as  well  as  hostages  who  have  been 
taken  with  him,  and  for  him;  and  shall 
cause  him  to  be  conducted  safe  to  the  gate 
of  the  Transliberine  city.  I  shall  not  hence- 
forth arrest,  or  cause  any  to  be  arrested, 
who  shall  be  faithful  to  pope  Paschal ;  and 
the  Roman  people,  as  well  as  the  inha- 
bitants of  the  Transliberine  city,  shall  enjoy 
peace  and  safety,  unmolested,  both  in  their 
persons  and  estates ;  I  shall  restore  the  patri- 
monies and  demesnes  of  the  Roman  church, 
which  I  have  taken,  shall  help  and  assist 
her  to  recover  and  to  hold  whatever  in  jus- 
tice belongs  to  her,  as  my  ancestors  have 
done,  and  shall  obey  pope  Paschal,  saving 
the  honor  of  my  kingdom  and  empire,  as 
the  catholic  emperors  have  obeyed  the  ca- 
tholic popes." 

These  articles  were  drawn  up  and  sworn 
to  in  the  emperor's  camp,  at  a  small  distance 
from  Rome.  The  emperor,  however,  dis- 
trusting, it  seems,  the  pope,  would  not  re- 
lease him  till  he  was  in  possession  of  the 
bull  confirming  to  him  the  right  of  investi- 
ture. Paschal's  secretary,  therefore,  and  his 
seal,  were  sent  for  from  Rome,  and  as  soon 
as  the  secretary  arrived,  the  bull  was  drawn 
up,  was  signed  by  the  pope,  and  sealed  with 
his  seal.  It  was  couched  in  the  following 
terms:  "Paschal,  bishop,  servant  of  the 
servants  of  God,  to  his  beloved  son,  Henry, 
king  of  the  Germans,  and  by  the  grace  of 
God,  emperor  of  the  Romans,  health  and 
apostolic    benediction.    As  your   kingdom 


has  been  always  distinguished  by  its  auach- 
ment  to  the  church,  and  your  predecessors 
have  deserved  by  their  probity  to  be  honored 
with  the  imperial  crown  at  Rome,  it  has 
pleased  the  Almighty  to  call  you,  my  be- 
loved son  Henry,  in  like  manner,  to  that 
dignity,  &c.  We  therefore  grant  to  you 
that  prerogative,  which  our  predecessors 
have  granted  to  yours,  namely,  that  you  in- 
vest the  bishops  and  abbots  of  your  kingdom 
with  the  staff  and  ring,  provided  they  shall 
have  been  elected  freely  and  without  simony, 
and  that  they  be  consecrated,  after  you  shall 
have  invested  them,  by  the  bishops,  whose 
province  it  is.  If  any  shall  be  chosen  by 
the  people  and  the  clergy  without  your  ap- 
probation, let  him  not  be  consecrated  till 
you  have  invested  him.  The  bishops  and 
archbishops  shall  be  at  full  liberty  to  conse- 
crate the  bishops  and  abbots  whom  you 
shall  have  invested.  For  your  predecessors 
have  so  endowed  and  enriched  the  church 
out  of  their  own  demesnes,  that  the  bishops 
and  abbots  ought  to  be  the  foremost  in  con- 
tributing to  the  defence  and  support  of  the 
state;  and  it  behoves  you,  on  your  parts,  to 
suppress  the  popular  dissensions  that  happen 
at  elections.  If  any  person,  whether  clerk 
or  layman,  shall  presume  to  infringe  this, 
our  concession,  he  shall  be  struck  with 
anathema,  and  shall  forfeit  his  dignity. 
May  the  mercy  of  the  Almighty  protect 
those  who  shall  observe  it,  and  grant  your 
majesty  a  happy  reign.'" 

AH  things  being  thus  settled,  the  pope 
was  set  at  liberty,  having  been  kept  pri- 
soner for  the  space  of  eight  weeks,  that  is, 
from  Q,uinquagesima  Sunday,  which  in  the 
present  year,  1111,  fell  on  the  12th  of  Feb- 
ruary, to  the  first  Sunday  after  Easter.  The 
pope  and  the  emperor  entered  the  Leonine 
city  together,  and  proceeding  straight  to  the 
church  of  St.  Peter,  the  emperor  was  there 
crowned  by  the  pope  on  Sunday,  the  i2th 
of  April,  with  the  usual  solemnity,  the  gates 
of  Rome  being  all  kept  shut  during  the 
ceremony,  to  prevent  the  Romans  and  the 
Germans  from  quarrelling  anew.  When 
the  ceremony  of  the  coronation  was  ended, 
the  pope  celebrated  mass,  and  coming  to  the 
communion,  divided  the  host,  took  one  part 
of  it  himself,  and  gave  the  other  to  the  em- 
peror, saying,  "We  give  you,  emperor 
Henry,  the  body  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
the  same  that  was  born  of  the  Virgin  Mary, 
and  suffered  on  the  cross,  as  we  are  taught 
by  the  holy  catholic  church ;  we  give  it 
you  in  confirmation  of  the  peace  we  have 
made  ;  and  as  this  part  of  the  vivifying  sa- 
crament is  divided  from  the  other,  so  may  he 
who  shall  attempt  to  break  this  agreement, 
be  divided  from  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and 
excluded  from   his    kingdom."     The    eni- 

<  Fetrus  Diacon.  Chron.  Cassin.  1.  iv.  c.  38,  39.  et  40. 


Paschal  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


447i 


The  emperor  returns  to  Germany.     The  pope   blamed 
council ; — [Year  of  Christ,  1112.] 


for  the  bull  eranted   to  the  emperor.    The  Lateran 
The  grant  of  the  pope  revoked. 


peror,  before  he  took  his  leave  of  the  pope, 
insisted  upon  his  delivering  to  him  the 
above  mentioned  bull  with  his  own  hand,  in 
the  sight  of  all  who  were  present.  This 
Paschal  declined  at  first,  but  was  in  the  end 
obliged  to  comply.  With  that  bull  the  em- 
peror returned  in  triumph  to  his  camp,  and 
soon  after  set  out  for  Germany.  The  pope, 
now  at  liberty,  entered  Rome,  where  such 
crowds  Hocked  from  all  quarters  to  see  him, 
and  congratulate  him  upon  his  deliverance, 
that  it  was  night  before  he  got  to  the  Late- 
ran  palace.' 

Paschal  met  with  a  very  different  recep- 
tion from  the  cardinals  who  had  remained 
in  Rome  during  his  imprisonment,  and  from 
the  clergy  in  general.  They  all  looked  upon 
him  as  one  who  had  sacrificed  the  right  of 
the  church  to  his  own  safety,  and  pressing 
him,  not  without  menaces,  to  revoke  imme- 
diately the  bull  he  had  granted,  and  declare 
null  all  he  had  done;  they  protested  to  his 
face  that  they  never  would  acquiesce  in  a 
grant  so  unjust,  and  so  prejudicial  to  the  in- 
terest and  honor  of  the  church,  and  so  openly 
repugnant  to  the  decrees  of  his  two  late  pre- 
decessors Gregory  and  Urban.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  cardinals  who  had  been  imprison- 
ed with  the  pope,  undertook  his  defence 
with  no  less  warmth,  representing  his  com- 
pliance with  the  demands  of  the  emperor  as 
a  necessary  measure  to  save  the  city  and 
inhabitants  of  Rome,  as  well  as  the  church, 
from  imminent  ruin.  But  their  reasons  were 
of  no  weight  with  the  cardinals  of  the  op- 
posite party,  who,  upon  the  pope's  going, 
we  know  not  upon  what  occasion,  into  Cam- 
pania, assembled  as  soon  as  he  was  gone, 
and  having  with  one  voice  declared  void  and 
null  all  his  concessions,  they  renewed  the 
decrees  against  lay  investitures,  and  with 
John  of  Tusculum,  and  Leo  of  Vercelli  at 
their  head,  condemned  all  who  should  act, 
or  should  support  any  who  acted  contrary 
to  those  decrees;  which  was  condemning 
the  pope  himself,  and  with  him  all  who  ad- 
hered to  him.  The  pope  being  informed  of 
what  had  passed,  wrote  to  the  cardinals  from 
Terracina,  blaming  their  indiscreet  zeal,  stri- 
ving to  convince  them  that,  by  yielding  he 
had  prevented  greater  evils,  and  promising 
lo  correct  the  evil  which  they  thought  he 
had  done.  This  letter  is  dated  the  5th  of 
July  of  the  present  year,  and  it  appeased  the 
cardinals  for  the  present.  But  Bruno,  bishop 
of  Segni,  and  abbot  of  Monte  Cassino,  once 
one  of  Paschal's  chief  favorites,  insisted  on 
his  not  only  revoking  the  bull,  but  excom- 
municating the  emperor  for  extorting  it  from 
hinm.  As  for  the  oath  he-had  taken,  Bruno 
maintained  it  to  be  null,  because  not  taken 
freely,  and  even  told  Paschal  in  the  very 
severe  letter  which  he  wrote  to  him  on  this 
occasion,  that  it  was  simony,  heresy,  and 

'  Petrus  Diac.  c.  41,  42.  et  Masson.  in  Not.  ad  Ivon. 


idolatry  for  a  layman  to  give,  and  for  a  clerk 
to  receive  investiture  at  his  hands,  and  that 
he  was  no  catholic  who  approved  of  the  one 
or  the  other.  As  this  was  telling  the  pope 
that  he  was  a  heretic,  or  an  abettor  of  heresy, 
he  highly  resented  it,  and  wrote  immediately 
to  the  monks  of  Monte  Cassino,  by  Leo 
bishop  of  Ostia,  and  a  monk  of  that  monas- 
tery, commanding  them  to  withdraw  all 
obedience  to  Bruno,  and  to  choose  forthwiih 
another  abbot  in  his  room.  The  monks 
obeyed  ;  and  Bruno  retiring  to  his  bishopric, 
led  there  a  most  religious  and  exemplary 
life  till  the  year  1125,  when  he  died,  and 
was  canonized  after  his  death  by  Lucius  11. 

Paschal  finding  his  conduct  was  censured, 
not  only  by  the  Roman,  but  by  most  other 
churches,  sincerely  repented  of  what  he  had 
done,  and  wanted  to  revoke  the  bull  he  had 
granted.  But  being  at  a  loss  how  to  recon- 
cile his  revoking  it  with  the  oath  never  to 
molest  the  emperor  on  account  of  investi- 
tures, he  appointed  a  council  to  meet  in  the 
Laieran,  in  order  to  advise  Avith  the  bishops 
of  different  nations  about  the  means  of  ob- 
serving that  oath,  and  yet  preserving  the 
liberty  and  rights  of  the  cliurch.  The  coun- 
cil met  on  the  28th  of  March,  1112;  con- 
sisted of  twelve  archbishops,  one  hundred 
and  fourteen  bishops,  fifteen  cardinal  priests, 
eight  cardinal  deacons,  a  great  number  of 
abbots,  and  ecclesiastics  of  all  ranks,  and 
the  pope  presided  at  it  in  person.  In  the 
three  first  sessions  of  this  council,  several 
regulations  were  made  relating  to  liie  disci- 
pline of  the  churcli,  and  in  the  fourth  the 
decrees  against  the  Guibertines,  that  is, 
against  those  who  had  adhered  to  the  anti- 
pope  Guibert,  suspending  ihem  from  all  ec- 
clesiastical functions,  were  renewed  and  con- 
firmed by  the  pope,  who  they  pretended  had 
absolved  and  restored  them.  In  the  fifth 
session  the  pope  gave  the  council  a  minute 
account  of  all  his  transactions  with  the  em- 
peror, from  the  time  he  was  taken  till  he 
was  set  at  liberty  ;  told  them  that,  to  prevent 
greater  evils,  he  had  granted  to  the  emperor 
the  privilege  of  investing  all  the  bishops  and 
abbots  of  his  kingdom ;  that  he  had  confirm- 
ed the  privilege  to  him  by  a  special  bull; 
that  though  it  was  extorted  by  force  and 
violence,  yet  as  he  had  sworn  to  observe  it, 
and  never  to  molest  the  emperor  on  account 
of  investitures,  he  would  not  excommuni- 
cate him ;  that  he  had  not  done  well  in 
granting  such  a  privilege — was  sensible  that 
it  ought  to  be  corrected,  but  that,  as  to  the 
manner,  he  left  it  to  the  judgment,  to  the 
prudence,  and  discretion  of  the  council.  The 
bishops  desired  they  might  be  allowed  to  de- 
liberate, and  that  the  deciding  of  so  impor- 
tant an  afn^ir  might  be  put  off  to  the  next 
day,  which  the  pope  readily  agreed  to. 

As  the  granting  of  investitures  was  by 
some,  and  by  Bruno  of  Segni  among  the 
rest,  deemed  heresy,  the  pope,  to  leave  no 


448 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Paschal  H. 


The  emperor  excommunicated  by  the  pope's  legate  in  France.  Embassy  from  the  empetor  Alexius  to  the 
pope  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  1113.1  The  emperor  excommunicated  in  several  councils; — [Year  of  Christ,  1114, 
1115.] 


room  for  such  an  imputation  (as  popes  were 
not  yet  thought  infallible)  made,  at  their 
meeting  the  next  day,  a  public  confession  of 
failh,  declaring  that  he  received  the  holy 
writings  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  the 
four  Gospels,  the  seven  canonical  epistles, 
the  canons  of  the  apostles,  the  four  general 
councils  of  Nice,  Constantinople,  Ephesus, 
and  Chalcedon,  as  the  four  gospels,  the  de- 
crees of  the  Roman  pontiffs,  especially  of 
Gregory  VII.  and  Urban  II.,  that  he  held 
what  they  had  held,  condemned  what  they 
had  condemned,  approved  what  they  had 
approved,  and  forbade  what  they  had  for- 
bidden, and  that  he  would  ever  persevere  in 
these  sentiments.  When  the  pope  had 
ended  his  confession  of  faith,  the  council 
took  his  bull  in  favor  of  the  emperor  into 
consideration,  and  very  different  were  their 
opinions  concerning  it.  But  that  of  Gerard, 
bishop  of  Angoulesme,  who  spoke  the  last, 
was  received  by  all  as  dictated  by  the  Holy 
Ghost,  namely,  that  as  the  pope  had  only 
promised  not  to  excommunicate  the  empe- 
ror, he  might  excommunicate  his  own  bull, 
and  thus  render  it  as  ineffectual  as  if  it  never 
had  been  issued.  As  his  opinion  was  ap- 
proved by  the  whole  council,  he  drew  it  up 
in  the  following  terms  ;  "  all  of  us,  who  are 
assembled  in  this  holy  council,  condemn  by 
the  authority  of  the  church,  and  the  judg- 
ment of  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  privilege  ex- 
torted from  the  pope  by  king  Henry,  and  that 
it  may  for  ever  be  void  and  null,  we  excom- 
municate the  said  privilege,  it  being  thereby 
ordained  that  a  bishop  though  canonically 
elected,  shall  not  be  consecrated  till  he  has 
received  investiture  from  the  king,  Avhich  is 
against  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  inconsistent 
with  canonical  institution."  When  this 
paper  was  read,  the  whole  council  cried  out 
with  one  voice,  "Amen,  amen;  fiat,  fiat.'" 
The  pope  would  not  excommunicate  the 
emperor,  but  he  suffered  him  to  be  every 
where  excommunicated  by  his  legates,  and 
confirmed  the  sentence  they  had  pronounced  ; 
which  was  the  same  thing  as  if  he  himself 
had  excommunicated  him,  since  their  sen- 
tence was  null,  unless  approved  and  con- 
firmed by  him.  Thus  Guido,  archbishop 
of  Vienne,  at  this  time  the  pope's  legate  in 
France,  having  assembled  all  the  bishops 
under  the  jurisdiction  of  his  see,  not  only 
confirmed  the  sentence  of  the  Lateran  coun- 
cil, but  declared  it  heresy  to  receive  investi- 
tures of  a  bishopric,  of  an  abbey,  or  of  any 
other  ecclesiastical  preferment  whatever  from 
the  hand  of  a  layman,  and  thundered  out 
the  sentence  of  excommunication  against  the 
emperor  for  the  violence  he  had  offered  to 
the  pope,  in  forcing  him  to  sign  a  detestable 
writing,  derogatory  to  the  undoubted  rights 
of  the  church,  and  inconsistent  with  the  de- 

»  Concil.  t.  X.  p.  767.     Anonym.  Hist.  Pont,  et  Concil. 
Engel.apud  Labeum.  Biblioth.  t.  ii.  p.  249. 


crees  of  his  predecessors.  The  archbishop 
sent  the  acts  of  this  council  to  the  pope, 
who,  with  a  manifest  breach  of  his  oath,  im- 
mediately confirmed  them.'  Baronius  writes, 
that  Paschal  was  Avith  great  difficulty  pre- 
vailed upon,  and  not  till  four  years  after,  to 
confirm  these  acts.^  But  from  the  acts  it 
appears,  that  the  council  was  held  in  Sep- 
tember, 1 1 12,  and  the  pope's  letter,  confirm- 
ing them,  is  dated  the  17lh  of  November  of 
the  same  year.'' 

The  following  year  1113,  a  solemn  em- 
bassy was  sent  by  the  emperor  Alexius 
Comnenus  to  Rome,  to  expre.ss  his  concern 
for  the  barbarous  treatment  his  holiness  had 
met  with  from  the  king  of  the  Germans,  and 
to  thank  the  Romans  in  his  name  for  the 
zeal  they  had  shown,  and  the  courage  they 
had  exerted  in  defence  of  their  common 
father.  The  embassadors,  who  were  all 
persons  of  the  first  rank  in  the  Greek  em- 
pire, added,  that  the  emperor,  their  master, 
proposed  to  come  himself,  or  to  send  his  son 
to  Rome,  to  receive,  after  the  example  of 
the  ancient  emperors,  the  imperial  crown  at 
his  holiness's  hand."*  The  pope  sent  with 
the  embassadors,  on  their  return  to  Constan- 
tinople, Chrysolanus,  archbishop  of  Milan, 
one  of  the  most  learned  men  of  his  age,  and 
thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  Greek 
tongue.  But  of  this  affair  no  further  men- 
tion is  made  in  history.  Alexius  was  great- 
ly alarmed  at  the  conquests  made  by  the 
Western  princes  in  the  East,  and  it  was, 
probably,  to  prevent  them  from  invading  his 
dominions  that  he  thus  courted  the  friend- 
ship of  the  pope. 

The  two  following  years  1114,  1115, 
several  councils  were  held  in  France  by 
Cono,  cardinal  and  bishop  of  Palestrina, 
sent  thither  by  the  pope  with  the  character 
of  his  legate  a  Latere,  namely,  one  at  Beau- 
vais,  another  at  Reims,  a  third  at  Chalons, 
a  fourth  at  Cologne,  and  by  all  the  emperor 
was  solemnly  excommunicated,  and  the  de- 
crees against  lay  investitures  renewed  and 
confirmed.  Another  council  was  appointed 
to  meet  at  Cologne,  and  several  archbishops, 
bishops,  abbots,  and  even  some  of  the  first 
lords  of  the  empire,  had  already  assembled 
in  that  city;  but  cardinal  Dieteric,  or  rather 
Theodoric,  who  was  to  preside  at  it,  dying 
on  his  way  from  Rome  to  Germany,  the 
German  bishops  chose  one  of  their  own 
body  to  represent  the  pope  in  his  room ;  and 
by  this  council  too  the  emperor  was  excom- 
municated, and  with  him  all  laymen,  by 
what  titles  soever  distinguished,  who  should 
thenceforth  give  investitures,  and  all  eccle- 
siastics, who  should,  in  defiance  of  the  de- 
crees of  so  many  councils,  receive  them  from 
a  lay  hand. 

In  the  council,  that  was  held  at  Chalons 


'  Concil.  t.  X.  p.  786. 
3  Concil.  t.  s.  p.  786. 


a  Bar.  ad  ann.  1112. 

♦  Chron.  Cassin.  1.  iv.  c.  46. 


Paschal  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


449 


The  pope's  legale  excommunicates  the  Norman  bishops 
England.     The  klng>reroonstrates  against  the 

about  the  middle  of  July,  1115,  the  legate] 
Cono  excommunicated  all  the  bishops  who, 
being  summoned  to  that  council,  had  not 
complied  with  the  summons,  and  the  bishops 
of  Normandy  in  particular,  who,  though 
three  times  summoned,  had  neither  appeared 
at  that,  nor  at  any  other  of  his  councils. 
This  step  highly  provoked  the  king  of  Eng- 
land, as  the  Norman  bishops  were  his  sub- 
jects, and  forbidden  by  the  same  laws,  as 
the  English  bishops,  to  assist  at  any  coun- 
cil, held  out  of  their  country,  without  his 
leave ;  and  he  resolved  to  resent  it  in  a 
proper  manner,  the  rather  as  he  had  not  yet 
digested  the  treatment,  which  he  had  met 
with  from  the  pope  in  the  dispute  about  in- 
vestitures, and  was  not  a  little  chagrined  by 
a  letter  that  he  had  received  a  little  before 
from  Rome.  That  letter  was  written  by 
Paschal  on  the  following  occasion  :  Anselm, 
archbishop  of  Canterbury,  dying  in  1109, 
that  see  remained  vacant  for  the  space  of 
five  years,  that  is,  till  the  year  1114,  when 
Rudolph,  bishop  of  Rochester,  who  had  the 
inspection  of  the  diocese  during  that  long 
vacancy,  was  chosen  to  succeed  the  deceased 
archbishop,  and  put  in  possession  of  the  see, 
without  the  approbation  or  even  the  know- 
ledge of  the  pope.  However  the  monks  of 
Canterbury,  by  the  king's  order,  sent  soon 
after  to  Rome  for  the  pall;  and  on  that  oc- 
casion the  king  wrote  as  well  as  they  to  the 
pope,  to  acquaint  his  holiness  with  the  trans- 
lation of  Rudolph  from  Rochester  to  Can- 
terbury. The  pope,  who  had  been  long  di- 
verted, by  his  quarrel  with  the  emperor, 
from  attending  to  the  affairs  of  England,  vTas 
greatly  surprised  to  hear  that  they  had  ap- 
pointed a  new  archbishop,  and  even  trans- 
lated him  from  another  see  to  that  of  Can- 
terbury, without  applying  to  him,  who  alone 
had  a  right  to  translate  bishops.  However, 
not  caring  to  quarrel  with  the  king  of  Eng- 
land at  so  critical  a  juncture,  he  granted  the 
pall,  but  sent  it  over  by  a  deputy  of  his  own ; 
and  chose  for  that  purpose  Anselm,  nephew 
to  the  late  archbishop  of  that  name,  who 
had  constantly  attended  the  English  deputies 
during  their  stay  at  Rome,  was  greatly  in- 
strumental in  procuring  the  pall,  and  had 
lived  several  years  in  England  in  his  uncle's 
life-time.  The  messengers  were  charged, 
on  their  return  to  England,  with  three  let- 
ters, one  for  the  monks  of  Canterbury,  an- 
other for  the  king,  and  a  third  for  the  king 
and  the  bishops  of  the  kingdom.  In  his  let- 
ter to  the  monks  he  reproaches  them,  with 
great  severity,  for  presuming  to  receive  a 
new  archbishop  without  acquainting  him 
with  it.  In  his  letter  to  the  king,  he  ex- 
presses great  surprise  and  no  less  concern 
at  St.  Peter's  being  denied,  in  iiis  kingdom, 
the  honor  that  is  due  to  him;  complains  of 
his  not  allowing  either  nuncios,  or  letters  of 
the  apostolic  see,  to  be  received  in  his  do- 
VoL.  II.— 57 


The  pope  complains  that  his  see  was  disregarded  in 
proceedings  of  the  legate.     Council  of  Tioia. 

minions  without  his  order  or  permission;  of 
his  suffering  no  appeals  to  be  made  to  Rome; 
and  in  the  close  of  his  letter  puts  him  in 
mind  of  the  contribution,  paid  by  his  sub- 
jects to  St.  Peter,  meaning  the  Peter-pence, 
which,  he  says,  was  so  carelessly  collected, 
that  the  Roman  church  received  not  half  of 
what  was  due.  His  letter  to  the  king  and 
the  bishops  of  England  is  dated  the  first  of 
April,  1115,  and  in  that  letter  he  tells  them 
that  when  Christ  divided  the  world  amongst 
his  apostles,  he  committed  Europe,  in  par- 
ticular, to  the  care  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul ; 
that  appeals  had  therefore,  at  all  times,  been 
made  from  different  provinces  of  Europe  to 
the  apostolic  see ;  that  all  matters  of  moment, 
concerning  bishops,  had  ever  been  referred 
to,  and  finally  determined  by,  the  judgment 
of  that  see  alone;  "but  you,"  he  added, 
"determine  all  affiirs  by  your  own  au- 
thority, call  councils  and  translate  bishops 
without  our  consent,  or  even  our  knowledge. 
If  you  preserve,  with  respect  to  these  points, 
the  regard  you  owe  to  the  prince  of  the 
apostles  and  his  see,  we  shall  cherish  you 
as  our  brethren  and  our  children;  but  if 
you  persist  in  your  obstinacy,  we  shall 
shake  off  the  dust  of  our  feet,  as  the  Gospel 
directs,  and  leave  you  to  the  judgment  of 
God  as  being  no  longer  members  of  the 
catholic  church,  but  deservedly  cut  off  from 
the  communion  of  the  faithful.'"  This  let- 
ter, and  the  sentence  of  excommunication 
pronounced  by  the  legate  against  the  Nor- 
man bishops,  greatly  exasperated  the  king, 
and  with  the  advice  of  the  bishops,  whom 
he  consulted  on  this  occasion,  he  resolved 
to  send  an  embassador  to  Rome,  with  an 
answer  to  the  pope's  letter.  As  he  intended, 
at  the  same  time,  to  remonstrate  against  the 
proceedings  of  the  legate,  as  derogatory  to 
the  privileges  granted  by  the  holy  see  to  his 
father,  his  brother,  and  himself,  he  chose 
the  famous  bishop  of  Exeter,  William  of 
VVarlewest,  though  blind,  for  that  embassy, 
as  he  was  well  known  to  the  pope,  and  one 
upon  whose  fidelity  and  abilities  the  king 
could  safely  rely.  The  bishop,  blind  as  he 
was,  went,  in  compliance  with  the  king's 
command,  to  Rome;  and  though  Eadmerus, 
as  well  as  all  other  writers,  is  quite  silent 
with  respect  to  his  negotiations  there,  yet, 
as  we  hear  of  no  farther  complaints  on  the 
king's  side,  the  bishop,  probably,  prevailed 
upon  the  pope  to  satisfy  him,  and  revoke 
the  sentence  of  his  legate  against  the  Nor- 
man bishops. 

The  pope  went  thi.s  year  into  Apulia,  and 
in  a  council  which  he  held  at  Troia,  consist- 
ing of  all  the  archbishops,  bishops,  and 
abbots  of  those  parts,  as  well  as  the  Norman 
and  other  lords,  the  Treuga  Dei  was  con- 
firmed, and  all  who  were  present  swore  to 

'  Pasch.  ep.  200,  205,  206.    Eadmer.  Novor.  1.  v. 

2n2 


450 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Paschal  H. 


The  Lateran  council ; — [Year  of  Christ,  1116.]  The  pope's  grant  condemned  by  him  and  the  council.  The 
pope  charged  with  heresy  by  some  bishops,  and  defended  by  others.  The  pojJe  refuses  to  excommunicate 
the  emperor.     Disturbances  in  Rome. 


observe  it,  and  forbear  all  hostilities  for  the 
space  of  three  years.'  From  Troia  the  pope 
repaired  to  Benevento,  and  having  there 
quieted  the  disturbances  that  prevailed 
among  the  chief  citizens,  aspiring  at  the 
government  of  the  city,  he  returned  to  Rome 
about  the  middle  of  October,  and  soon  after 
appointed  a  general  council  to  meet  there 
the  following  year  on  Monday,  the  third 
week  of  Lent,  summoning  all  the  bishops 
in  the  West  to  assist  at  it ;  or  if  prevented  by 
age,  indisposition,  or  any  other  canonical 
impediment,  to  send  deputies  to  assist  at  it 
in  their  name. 

The  council  met  in  the  Lateran  at  the 
time  the  pope  had  appointed,  that  is,  on  the 
6th  of  March  1116,  was  so  numerous  that 
some  have  styled  it  an  cEcumenical  council, 
and  the  pope  presided  in  person.  In  the 
two  first  sessions,  the  two  pretenders  to  the 
see  of  Milan,  Grosulanus  and  Jordanes, 
were  heard,  and  in  the  third  the  bishop  of 
Lucca,  complaining  of  the  Pisans  for  in- 
vading and  seizing  a  territory  which  he  said 
belonged  to  his  church.  As  the  bishops  of 
the  council  were,  with  respect  to  this  sub- 
ject, divided  in  their  opinions,  and  warm 
disputes  thereupon  ensued,  one  of  the  bi- 
shops, standing  up,  spoke  thus :  "  The 
pope,  our  lord  and  fatlter,  should  remember 
that  so  many  bishops  are  here  assembled, 
come  from  distant  countries,  and  through 
great  dangers  by  sea  and  by  land,  not  to 
wrangle  about  temporal  affairs,  but  chiefly 
to  know  what  are  his  sentiments,  and  what 
we  are  to  teach  when  we  return  to  our 
churches."  Then  the  pope  addressed  the 
council  in  the  following  words :  "After  the 
Lord  had  disposed  of  his  servant  as  he 
thought  meet,  and  delivered  me  and  the 
Roman  people  into  the  hands  of  the  king,  I 
saw  rapines,  devastations,  murders,  adul- 
tery, committed  daily  ;  and  it  was  to  deliver 
the  church  and  the  people  of  God,  from 
these  and  such  like  evils,  that  I  did  what  I 
did.  I  did  it  as  man,  because  I  am  but  dust 
and  ashes.  I  confess  I  did  wrong  ;  but  beg 
you  all  to  pray  to  God  to  forgive  me.  As 
for  that  cursed  writing,  which  was  drawn 
up  in  the  camp,  I  condemn  it,  with  an 
eternal  anathema,  that  its  memory  may  be 
for  ever  abhorred  and  detested  ;  and  I  desire 
you  all  to  do  so."  At  these  words  they  all 
cried  out,  "  fiat,  fiat," — be  it  so,  be  it  so. 

When  silence  was  made,  Bruno,  bishop 
of  Segni,  of  whom  I  have  spoken  above, 
rising  up,  "Let  us  all,"  he  said,  "return 
thanks  to  the  Almighty  that  we  have  heard 
pope  Paschal,  who  presides  at  this  council, 
condemn  with  his  own  mouth  that  privi- 
lege, which  is  heretical  as  well  as  iniqui- 
tous." "  If  the  privilege,"  said  here  one 
of  the  bishops,  "  be  heretical,  he  who 
granted  it  must  of  course  be  a  heretic." 


"A  heretic !"  replied  cardinal  Gaetan,  "  dare 
you  call  the  pope  a  heretic  in  the  face  of 
the  whole  council?  The  writing  he  gave 
was,  I  own,  bad,  but  it  contained  no  heresy." 
"  It  cannot,"  said  another,  "be  even  called 
bad,  since  it  was  given  to  deliver  the  people 
of  God  from  oppression,  which  is  a  good 
work  according  to  the  gospel,  requiring  us 
even  to  lay  down  our  lives  for  our  brethren." 
The  pope,  hearing  himself  charged  with 
heresy,  lost  all  patience,  and  commanding 
silence  with  his  hand,  addressed  the  bishops 
thus  :  "  Hear  me,  my  brethren  and  lords ;  the 
whole  world  knows  that  the  Roman  church 
was  never  infected  with  heresy,  nay,  that  all 
heretics  have,  by  this  rock,  been  dashed  to 
pieces ;  the  Arian  heresy,  that  had  prevailed 
for  the  space  of  three  hundred  years,  was 
here  extirpated ;  the  heresies  of  Eutyches, 
of  Sabellius,  of  Photinus,  and  all  other  he- 
resies and  heretics,  were  here  prescribed  and 
suppressed  ;  and  it  was  for  this  church  that 
our  Savior  prayed,  when  he  prayed  that 
Peter's  faith  might  never  fail."  Thus  ended 
the  third  session.  The  pope  did  not  assist 
at  the  fourth,  being  employed  in  giving  au- 
dience to  the  abbot  of  Cluny,  to  John  Caje- 
tan,  Peter  Leo,  governor  of  the  city,  and 
others  come  with  proposals  from  the  empe- 
ror, desirous  of  putting  an  end,  upon  honor- 
able terms,  to  the  present  dispute  between 
the  church  and  the  state. 

In  the  fifth  session  warm  disputes  arose 
between  the  friends  of  the  emperor  and 
Cono,  bishop  of  Palestrina.  The  bishop, 
Avho  had  excommunicated  the  king  in  all  the 
councils  which  he  had  held  while  legate  in 
France,  pressed  the  pope  to  pronounce  the 
same  sentence  against  him.  But  he  was 
therein  strongly  opposed  by  Cajetan,  urging 
the  promise  that  his  holiness  had  made,  and 
confirmed  with  his  oath.  The  pope  de- 
clared that  he  never  would  excommunicate 
the  emperor,  but  would  inviolably  observe 
the  promise  he  had  made.  However,  he 
confirmed,  which  was  a  manifest  breach  of 
that  promise,  the  sentence  that  Cono  and 
his  other  legates  had  thundered  out  against 
him,  and  all  who  adhered  to  him  ;  and  that 
sentence  was  renewed  by  all  the  bishops  of 
the  council.'  The  pope  was  obliged,  soon 
after  the  council  was  ended,  to  leave  Rome 
for  a  while,  and  retire  to  Setia,  now  Sezza, 
on  account  of  the  disturbances  that  were 
raised  by  the  son  of  the  late  prefect,  who 
had,  upon  his  father's  death,  usurped  the 
prefecture  of  the  city,  but  could  not  prevail 
upon  the  pope  and  some  of  the  chief  citi- 
zens to  acknowledge  him,  which  occasioned 
a  kind  of  civil  war.  But  they,  who  sup- 
ported him,  being  in  an  encounter  defeated 
by  the  opposite  party,  peace  was  restored  to 
the  city,  and  the  pope  returned  to  Rome.^ 


» Falcoin  Chron. 


«  Concil.  t.  X.  p.  806.    Usperg.  in  Chron.  ad  ann.  1116. 
3  Falco  in  Chron.  Benevent.  ad  ann.  1116. 


Paschal  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


451 


The  po|>e  attempts  to  introduce  the  legatine  power  into  England.  The  archbishop  of  Canterbury  sent  to  Rome 
to  remonstrate  against  that  attempt.  The  pope  confirms  all  the  privileges  of  the  see  of  Canterbury  ;— [Year 
of  Christ,  1117.]  Paschal  favors  the  archbishop  of  York  against  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury.  The  emperor 
sends  deputies  to  Rome  to  get  the  sentence  of  excommunication  revoked. 


As  Anselm,  nephew  to  the  late  archbi- 
shop of  Canterbury,  had  been  well  received 
in  England  when  he  brought  the  pall  to 
the  new  archbishop,  Paschal,  not  despairing 
of  being  able  to  introduce,  by  his  means,  the 
legatine  power  into  this  kingdom,  sent  him 
this  year  to  England  with  the  character  of 
his  legate.  Anselm  found  the  king  in  Nor- 
mandy, and  there  communicated  to  him  the 
pope's  letter,  appointing  him  legate  of  the 
apostolic  see  in  England,  and  vesting  him 
with  all  his  power.  The  king  entertained 
him  with  great  magnificence  at  Rouen,  but 
would  not  suffer  him  to  pass  over  into  Eng- 
land, without  the  advice  of  the  bishops  and 
lords  of  the  kingdom.  He  sent  them  accord- 
ingly immediate  notice  of  this  new  attempt 
of  the  pope,  and  the  arrival  of  the  legate  in 
his  Norman  dominions.  Upon  this  intelli- 
gence a  great  council  was  held  in  London 
in  the  presence  of  the  queen,  and  it  was 
unanimously  resolved  by  all  the  bishops, 
lords,  and  abbots  who  composed  it,  that  the 
archbishop  of  Canterbury,  whom  that  affair 
chiefly  concerned,  should  wait  upon  the  king 
in  Normandy,  and  remonstrate  against  such 
an  attempt,  as  contrary  to  the  customs  and 
laws  of  the  kingdom;  nay,  and  that  he 
should,  if  the  king  approved  of  it,  go  to 
Rome,  and  get  the  pope  to  recall  Anselm. 
This  province  the  archbishop  readily  under- 
took, as  he  was  extremely  desirous,  says  the 
historian,  of  visiting  the  tombs  of  the  apos- 
tles, and  he  accordingly  set  out  in  a  few 
days  on  his  journey.  The  king,  whom  he 
found  with  the  legate  at  Rouen,  entirely  ap- 
proved of  the  resolution  of  the  council ;  and 
he  thereupon  pursued,  with  Herebert,  bishop 
of  Norwich,  his  journey  to  Rome,  which 
city  the  pope  had  left  some  time  before  at 
the  approach  of  the  emperor,  and  was  then 
at  Benevento.  As  the  roads  were  infested 
by  parties  of  the  emperor's  army,  by  whom 
ail  were  seized  and  ill  used  who  went  to  the 
pope,  and  the  archbishop  was  already  greatly 
fatigued  with  his  long  journey,  he  staid  him- 
self at  Rome,  and  sent  messengers  with 
letters  to  the  pope,  to  acquaint  him  with  his 
arrival,  and  the  business  upon  which  he  was 
sent.  The  messengers,  of  whom  the  chief 
was  the  bishop  of  Norwich,  were  well  re- 
ceived by  the  pope,  and  having  satisfied  him 
that  the  sending  of  a  legate  into  England 
was  a  violation  of  the  privileges  granted  to 
the  see  of  Canterbury,  by  its  founder  Gre- 
gory the  Great,  they  obtained  a  letter  con- 
firming to  that  see  all  the  privileges  that  it 
had  ever  enjoyed.  The  address  of  the  letter 
was,  "Paschal,  bishop,  servant  of  the  ser- 
vants of  God,  to  his  venerable  brethren  the 
bishops  of  England,  and  to  his  beloved  son 
Henry,  illustrious  king,  health  and  apostolic 
benediction."  It  is  dated  Benevento  the  22d 
of  March.  I1I7.    This  letter  the  king  com- 


municated to  Anselm,  who  thereupon  left 
Normandy,  where  he  had  waited  so  long, 
and  returned  as  he  came.  The  king  would 
not,  it  seems,  even  give  him  leave  to  cross 
over  to  England  in  order  to  collect  the  money 
that  was  there  due  to  St.  Peter.' 

The  archbishop  returned  to  England  well 
pleased  with  the  success  that  had  attended 
his  negotiations  with  the  pope.  But  he  was 
soon  after  not  a  little  mortified  by  a  letter 
from  the  pope  to  the  king  in  favor  of  Thurs- 
tan,  archbishop  elect  of  York.  1  have  men- 
tioned above^  the  dispute  between  the  two 
English  archbishops  of  Canterbury  and 
York,  concerning  the  authority  of  the  former 
over  the  latter.  That  dispute  was  decided 
in  favor  of  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury  by 
a  council  held  here  in  1073,  at  which  pre- 
sided Hubert,  the  pope's  legate,  and  the 
decision  of  the  council  was  confirmed  by 
the  pope  himself,  Alexander  II.  However, 
Thomas,  who  was  then  archbishop  of  York, 
dying  in  the  present  year,  Thurstan,  his 
successor,  following  his  example,  refused  to 
make  canonical  profession  of  obedience  to 
Rudolph,  at  this  time  archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, and  Rudolph  refusing,  on  his  side,  to 
ordain  him,  the  king  obliged  Thurstan  to 
quit  his  see.  But  he,  applying  to  Paschal, 
procured  a  letter  from  him  to  the  king  in 
his  favor.  For  in  that  letter  the  pope  de- 
clared, that  he  would  preserve  inviolable  the 
privileges  of  the  see  of  Canterbury ,  but  would 
suffer  nothing  to  be  done  to  the  prejudice  of 
the  see  of  York,  and  therefore  begged  the 
king  to  restore,  by  all  means,  as  justice  re- 
quired, the  elect  to  his  see.''  Thus  was  the 
decree  of  Alexander,  in  a  manner,  reversed. 
But  of  the  further  proceedings  of  Thurstan 
I  shall  have  occasion  to  speak  in  the  follow- 
ing pontificate. 

In  the  mean  time  the  emperor,  hearing  of 
the  sentence  of  excommunication  thundered 
out  against  him  by  the  Lateran  council,  and 
desirous  of  coming  to  an  agreement  with 
the  pope,  who,  he  knew,  would  not  fail  to 
stir  up  his  subjects  against  him,  sent  depu- 
ties to  Rome  to  negotiate  a  peace,  and  re- 
store the  wished  for  union  between  the 
church  and  the  empire.  The  deputies,  put- 
ting the  pope  in  mind  of  the  promise  he  had 
made  never  to  excommunicate  the  emperor, 
begged  him  to  revoke  that  sentence.  But 
Paschal  answered,  that  he  had  kept  his 
word  though  given,  by  force,  that  he  had 
not  been  excommunicated  by  him,  but  by 
the  bishops  of  the  council,  and  that  he  there- 
fore could  not  take  off  the  excommunica- 
tion without  their  advice,  and  hearing  both 
parties.  The  emperor,  provoked  at  this 
answer,  resolved  to  return  to  Rome,  and  try 


'  Eadmer.  Novor.  1.  v.  p.  116.  117.  "  See  p.  376. 

»  Malmesb.  de  Gest.  Ang.  Pontiff.  1.  iii.    Eadmer.  I. 
V.  p.  121. 


452 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Paschal  II. 


The  emperor  goes  in  person  to  Rome,  and  the  pope  retiring  at  his  approach,  he  is  admitted  into  the  city.  Is 
crowned  anew  by  the  pope's  legate.  The  emperor  retires  to  Tuscany  and  the  pope  returns  to  Rome.  His 
death. 


whether  he  could  not  prevail  upon  his  holi- 
ness to  grant  to  him  what  he  refused  to  his 
deputies.  He  accordingly  set  out,  early  in 
the  spring  of  the  present  year  1117,  at  the 
head  of  a  numerous  army,  and  as  he  passed 
through  Lombard y,  took  possession  of  the 
dominions  of  the  countess  Mathilda,  dead 
two  years  before.  He  paid,  it  seems,  no 
kind  of  regard  to  the  donation,  which  that 
princess  was  said  to  have  made  to  the  Ro- 
man church  in  the  time  of  Gregory  VII., 
nor  does  it  appear  that  Paschal  ever  laid 
any  claim  to  the  extensive  territories  that 
she  had  possessed  in  Lombardy  as  well  as 
in  Tuscany.  The  pope,  hearing  that  the 
emperor  was  arrived  in  Lombardy  and  that 
he  intended  to  return  to  Rome,  left  that  city 
in  great  haste,  and  retiring  to  Apulia  put 
himself  under  the  protection  of  the  Norman 
princes,  who,  he  knew,  would  all  stand  by 
him,  whereas  many  of  the  Romans  had 
openly  declared  for  the  emperor.  In  the 
mean  time  the  emperor,  approaching  Rome 
at  the  head  of  his  army,  reduced  all  the 
strong-holds  in  that  neighborhood,  and  by 
that  means  distressed  the  Romans  to  such  a 
degree,  that  they  were  soon  obliged  to  open 
the  gates  and  admit  him  into  the  city.  He 
was  received  with  great  demonstrations  of 
joy  by  those  of  his  party,  especially  by 
Cencius  and  Ptolemy,  two  of  the  most 
powerful  citizens  of  Rome,  who  had  all 
along  steadily  adhered  to  him,  and  had,  on 
that  account,  been  excommunicated  by  the 
pope.  A  few  days  after  his  arrival  he 
assembled  the  Roman  clergy  in  the  church 
of  St.  Peter,  and  expressing  great  concern, 
in  the  speech  he  made  to  them,  a^the  pope's 
flight,  he  assured  them,  that,  in  returning  to 
Rome,  he  had  nothing  else  in  his  view,  but 
to  settle,  in  an  amicable  manner,  all  differ- 
ences between  the  church  and  the  empire, 
and  to  prevail  upon  his  holiness,  by  gentle 
means,  to  crown  him  anew,  as  his  former 
coronation  was  said  to  have  been  extorted 
by  force.  He  therefore  begged  that  favor 
of  them,  as  representing  the  pope  in  his  ab- 
sence. The  clergy  returned  answer,  that 
his  behavior  contradicted  his  words,  that  he 
was  come  with  an  armed  force,  that  he  had 
reduced,  by  dint  of  arms,  the  neighboring 
castles,  and  obliged  the  city  either  to  receive 
him,  or  to  perish  by  famine.  As  to  his  re- 
quest, they  told  him,  that  they  neither  could, 
nor  would,  grant  it  without  the  consent  and 
approbation  of  the  pope,  to  whom  they  re- 
ferred them.  Hereupon  the  emperor  ap- 
plied to  Maurice  Bourdin,  archbishop  of 
Braga,  whom  the  pope  had  sent,  as  a  man 
of  great  address  and  abilities,  with  the  cha- 


racter of  his  legate,  to  negotiate  a  peace. 
He  was  easily  prevailed  upon,  some  say, 
with  a  promise  of  the  pontifical  dignity,  to 
comply  with  the  emperor's  request;  and  he 
accordmgly  crowned  him  anew,  with  the 
usual  ceremonies,  in  the  Vatican  basilic,  in 
spite  of  the  opposition  he  met  with  from  the 
whole  Roman  clergy.'  Of  this  Paschal  wa« 
no  sooner  informed,  than,  assembling  a 
council  at  Benevento,  he  excommunicated 
Bourdin,  as  a  traitor  and  rebel  to  the  apos- 
tolic see,  declared  him,  as  such,  deprived 
of  his  dignity,  and  wrote  to  Bernard,  arch- 
bishop of  Toledo,  requiring  him  to  notify 
that  sentence  to  all  the  bishops  of  Spain, 
and  to  cause  another  to  be  preferred  to  the 
archiepiscopal  see  of  Braga,  which  Bourdin 
had  forfeited  by  his  treachery .^ 

In  the  mean  time  the  emperor,  leaving 
Rome  on  account  of  the  heat  of  that  climate, 
which  he  found  very  troublesome,  retired  to 
Tuscany,  and  the  pope  approaching  Rome 
upon  his  retreat,  recovered,  with  the  help 
of  the  Normans,  some  of  the  fortified  places 
that  were  held  by  the  Germans.  In  Cam- 
pania he  was  seized  with  a  dangerous 
malady,  and  thereupon  carried  to  Anagni, 
where  all  who  attended  him  despaired  of 
his  life.  However,  he  recovered,  and  re- 
pairing from  Anagni  to  Prasneste,  he  there 
consecrated  the  church  of  St.  Agapetus,  and 
not  only  assisted  at  the  long  service  of 
Christmas  eve,  but  attended  a  procession. 
From  Praeneste  he  marched  with  his  Nor- 
mans to  Rome,  and  entering  the  city,  when 
least  expected,  struck  such  terror  into  all  of 
the  Imperial  party,  that  some  either  fled,  or 
kept  themselves  concealed,  while  others 
chose  to  submit,  and  swear  fidelity  to  the 
apostolic  see  and  St.  Peter.  But  while  the 
pope  was  making  the  necessary  preparations 
to  reduce  his  enemies  by  force,  and  to  put 
the  city  in  a  state  of  defence  against  the  re- 
turn of  the  emperor,  he  fell  ill  again,  and 
died,  being  quite  spent  with  the  fatigues 
which  he  had  undergone,  in  a  i'ew  days.^ 
His  death  happened  on  the  21st  of  January, 
1118,  after  a  pontificate  of  eighteen  years, 
five  months,  and  seven  days.  He  was  em- 
balmed, was  clad  with  the  pontifical  orna- 
ments, and  deposited  in  a  marble  tomb  of 
curious  workmanship  in  the  Lateran  basilic* 
Of  this  pope  we  have  in  the  collection  of 
councils  a  hundred  and  seven  letters,  most 
of  them  relating  to  ecclesiastical  matters. 


«  Pandulph.  Pisan.  in  Vit.  Paschal  11.  Petrus  Diac. 
C.63. 

a  Gelas.  TI.  ep.  i-  ad  Gallor.  a  Pandulph.  Pisan. 

*  Joan.  Diacon.  Junior,  apud  Mabill.  torn.  ii.  Musei 
Italici. 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


453 


Gelasius  IL] 

Gelasius  II.  elected; — [Year  of  Christ,  1118.]    He  is  seized  and  barbarously  treated,  but  set  at  liberty  and 
crowned.    The  emperor  arrives  unexpectedly  at  Rome. 


GELASIUS  II.  THE  HUNDRED  AND  FIFTY-NINTH  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[Alexius  Comnenus,  Emperor  of  the  East. — Henry  V.,  Emperor  of  the  Wesl.} 


[Year  of  Christ,  1118.]  Paschal  II.  dying 
on  the  21st  of  January,  1118,  the  cardinals 
and  the  Roman  clergy  met  the  very  next 
day  in  the  Benedictine  monastery  at  Rome, 
called  the  Palladium,  and  having  sent  for 
John  of  Cajeta,  who  had  retired  to  Monte 
Cassino,  being  a  monk  of  that  monastery, 
they  chose  him,  with  one  consent,  on  the 
25th  of  the  same  month,  when  the  see  had 
been  vacant  but  three  days.  He  was  a  na- 
tive of  Cajeta  in  Campania,  was  come  of  an 
illustrious  family  in  that  city,  had  early  em- 
braced a  monastic  life  in  the  monastery  of 
Monte  Cassino,  under  the  famous  abbot 
Oderisius,  and  lived  there  till  Urban  II., 
hearing  of  his  great  piety  and  uncommon 
parts,  called  him  to  Rome,  and  having  soon 
found  him  equal  to  the  first  employments 
in  the  church,  he  first  preferred  him  to  the 
dignity  of  cardinal  deacon,  and  afterwards 
to  that  of  chancellor  of  the  holy  Roman 
church.  He  was  seized  with  his  predeces- 
sor Paschal  by  the  emperor,  was  carried 
with  him  out  of  Rome,  was  kept  with  the 
other  cardinals  closely  confined,  and  under- 
went great  hardships  till  the  pope  signed  the 
agreement,  spoken  of  in  his  life,  between 
him  and  the  emperor.  He  opposed,  'and 
was  the  only  person  that  opposed,  his  pro- 
motion to  the  pontifical  chair.  But  the  car- 
dinals, the  Roman  clergy  and  nobility,  being 
all  unanimous,  he  was  forced  to  submit; 
and  he  took  the  name  of  Gelasius  II.' 

The  election  of  Gelasius  alarmed  the  im- 
perial parly  in  Rome,  and  Cencius  Frangi- 
pani,  one  of  the  most  powerful  among  the 
Roman  nobility,  and  then  at  the  head  of 
that  party,  provoked  beyond  measure  at 
their  choosing  a  pope  without  the  consent, 
or  even  the  knowledge  of  the  emperor, 
broke  into  the  church  of  the  monastery  with 
a  troop  of  armed  men,  while  the  cardinals 
and  the  rest  of  the  clergy  were  performing 
the  ceremony  of  adoration,  and,  falling  upon 
the  pope,  beat  him  in  a  most  barbarous 
manner  till  he  was  all  over  blood  and  ready 
to  expire,  and  then  dragged  him  by  the  hair 
out  of  the  church,  as  he  was  not  able  to 
stand,  and  ordered  him  to  be  carried  to  his 
house,  where  he  confined  him,  in  that  con- 
dition, loaded  with  irons,  to  a  dark  dungeon. 
The  cardinals  and  the  clergy  fared  no  better 
than  the  pope  ;  many  of  them  were  danger- 
ously wounded.  Some  were,  after  the  most 
cruel  usage,  stripped  of  their  garments,  were 

<  Pandulpb  Pisanus  in  Vit.  Paschal  II.  prope  fin. 


left  for  dead,  and  thus  only  escaped  death. 
In  the  mean  time  the  opposite  party,  being 
informed  of  the  inhuman  treatment  the  new 
pope  had  met  with,  flew  to  arms,  and  sur- 
rounding in  great  numbers  the  house  of 
Frangipani,  with  Peter,  prefect  of  the  great 
city,  and  others  of  the  Roman  nobility  at 
their  head,  threatened  to  set  fire  to  it,  and 
put  all  in  it,  without  distinction,  to  the 
sword,  if  he  did  not,  that  moment,  release 
the  pope.  Frangipani,  not  finding  himself, 
in  a  condition  to  withstand  so  superior  a 
force,  set  the  pope  immediately  at  liberty ; 
and  from  his  house  he  was  carried  in  triumph 
to  the  Lateran,  and  there  crowned  with  the 
usual  solemnity.' 

All  disturbances  seemed  now  to  be  at  an 
end ;  the  pope  was  universally  acknow- 
ledged ;  bishops  came,  or  sent  deputies  from 
all  parts  to  congratulate  him  upon  his  acces- 
sion to  the  pontifical  throne;  and  great  pre- 
parations were  making  for  his  ordination,  as 
he  had  yet  only  received  deacon's  orders. 
But  his  tranquillity  was  short  lived,  and  the 
pope  found  himself,  when  he  least  expected 
it,  involved  in  new  troubles.  For  the  em- 
peror hearing  of  the  death  of  Paschal,  and 
the  election  of  Gelasius,  set  out  immediately 
from  Lombardy,  where  he  then  was,  and 
marching  night  and  day,  arrived  on  the  2d 
of  March,  quite  unexpected,  at  St.  Peter's. 
He  entered  the  Leonine  city  silently  in  the 
dead  of  the  night,  with  a  design,  as  was 
supposed,  to  seize  the  new  pontiflT,  and 
oblige  him  to  confirm  the  decree  of  his  pre- 
decessor concerning  investitures.  But  the 
pope  was,  that  very  night,  informed  of  his 
arrival ;  and  he  no  sooner  heard  of  it,  than 
quitting  the  Lateran  palace,  he  privately 
withdrew  to  the  house  of  one  of  his  friends 
on  the  banks  of  the  Tiber,  with  a  design  to 
embark  there  for  Cajeta,  now  Gaeta,  the 
place  of  his  nativity.  He  embarked  accord- 
ingly with  several  cardinals,  and  got  safe  to 
Porto  at  the  mouth  of  the  river.  But  the 
sea  running  very  high  he  was  forced  to  stop 
there ;  and  in  the  mean  time  the  emperor, 
being  informed  of  hfs  flight,  sent  a  body  of 
troops  to  apprehend  him  if  he  landed  at 
Porto,  and  bring  him  back  to  Rome.  Thus 
was  the  nope  obliged  to  continue  on  board 
the  remaming  part  of  this  day,  the  Germans 
discharging,  in  the  mean  time,  showers  of 
poisoned  arrows,  says  the  historian,  at  his 
holiness,  and  those  who  were  with  him. 

«  Pandulphus  Pisanus  in  Vit.  Paschal  II.  prope  fin. 


454 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Gelasius  n. 


The  pope  retires  to  Gaeta.  Embassy  from  the  emperor  to  the  pope,  and  the  pope's  answer.  Bourdin,  arch- 
bishop of  Braga,  elected  pope  by  the  imperial  party.  Gelasius  acquaints  the  Gallican  bishops  with  his  pro- 
motion, &c.     New  disturbances  in  Rome. 


Wheu  night  came  on  the  pope  landed  at 
some  distance  from  Porto,  where  the  Ger- 
mans waited  for  him.  But  as  he  was  ad- 
vanced in  years,  was  quite  spent  with  the 
fatigue  he  had  undergone,  and  not  able  to 
walk,  cardinal  Hugh  of  Alatri,  carried  him 
upon  his  shoulders  to  the  neighboring  castle 
of  St.  Paul  at  Ardea.  He  passed  that  night 
there  undisturbed,  and  the  next  day,  the 
Germans  retiring  upon  the  advice  that  he 
had  made  his  escape,  he  re-embarked,  put  to 
sea,  the  storm  abating,  and  arrived  at  Gaeta 
the  fifth  day  after  he  left  Rome.  He  was  re- 
ceived there  with  loud  acclamations  of  joy 
by  all  ranks  of  men  ;  and  the  Norman  princes 
no  sooner  heard  of  his  arrival  than  they  sent 
embassadors  to  congratulate  him  upon  his 
promotion,  and  offer  themselves  ready  to 
support  him  to  the  utmost  of  their  power.' 

In  the  mean  time  the  emperor,  finding  the 
pope  had  got  out  of  his  reach,  sent  embas- 
sadors to  invite  him  back  to  Rome,  and  at 
the  same  time  to  let  him  know  that  if  he  re- 
nounced, as  his  predecessor  had  done,  all 
right  to  investitures,  he  would  confirm  his 
election,  and  assist  in  person  at  his  consecra- 
tion, but  that  otherwise  he  would  cause 
another  to  be  chosen  in  his  room.  The  pope 
returned  answer  that  he  was  unalterably  de- 
termined never  to  parfwith  any  of  the  un- 
doubted rights  of  his  see  ;  that  it  was  owing 
to  force  and  violence,  and  not  to  choice,  that 
his  predecessor  had  renounced  them ;  that 
his  renunciation  was  consequently  null,  and 
his  successors  were  not,  in  justice,  bound  to 
confirnri  it.  He  added,  that  he  was  elected 
according  to  the  canons,  and,  therefore,  that 
his  election  wanted  no  farther  confirmation. 
Having  thus  dismissed  the  embassadors,  he 
was  ordained  on  the  9th  of  March,  which 
in  1118  fell  on  a  Saturday,  and  the  next  day 
consecrated  by  three  bishops,  Lambert  of 
Ostia,  Peter  of  Porto,  and  Vitalis  of  Albano.^ 

The  emperor,  highly  provoked  at  the  ob- 
stinacy and  insolent  answer  of  the  pope, 
caused  a  new  election  to  be  made,  when, 
upon  his  recommendation,  Maurice  Bour- 
din, archbishop  of  Braga,  was  elected,  under 
the  name  of  Gregory  VII.,  and  acknow- 
ledged by  all  of  the  imperial  party  for  lawful 
pope.  He  was  a  native  of  the  diocese  of 
Limoges ;  and  Bernard,  archbishop  of  To- 
ledo, finding  he  was  a  man  of  uncommon 
parts,  as  he  passed  through  France  on  his 
returti  from  Rome  to  his  see,  took  hini  with 
him  into  Spain,  and  soon  after  preferred 
him  to  the  dignity  of  archdeacon  of  his 
church.  He  was  afterwards  made  bishop 
of  Coimbra,  and  from  thence  translated,  in 
1109,  to  the  archiepiscopal  see  of  Braga. 
In  that  station  he  quarrelled  with  his  bene- 
factor the  archbishop  of  Toledo,  and  going  to 
Rome,  prevailed  on  pope  Paschal  to  exempt 

'  Pandulph  Pisanus  in  Vit.  Gelas.  Faler  Benevent. 
in  Chron.  a  Idem  ibid. 


his  see  from  all  subjection  to  that  of  Toledo. 
As  he  staid,  on  that  occasion,  a  long  lime  at 
Rome,  Paschal  appointed  him,  as  a  man  of 
great  address  and  abilities,  and  one  in  whom 
he  thought  he  could  confide,  to  negotiate,  in 
the  character  of  his  legate,  a  peace  with  the 
emperor.  But  he,  betraying  his  trust,  took 
part  with  the  emperor,  crowned  him  in  the 
Vatican,  and  was  on  that  account  excom- 
municated and  deposed  by  the  pope  in  a 
council,  as  has  been  before  related.' 

Gelasius  no  sooner  heard  of  what  had 
happened  at  Rome,  than  he  writ  to  the  bi- 
shops and  all  the  faithful  of  Gaul  to  ac- 
quaint them  with  his  promotion,  as  well  as 
with  the  intrusion  of  his  rival,  and  exhort 
them  to  maintain  the  unity  of  the  church  by 
adhering  to  him,  who  had  been  elected  ac- 
cording to  the  canons,  and  even  forced  to  bear 
so  heavy  a  burden.  In  that  letter  he  tells  the 
Gallican  bishops  that  Bourdin  was  intruded 
into  the  see  of  St.  Peter  the  forty-fourth  day 
after  his  own  election,  so  that  this  schism 
began  on  the  10th  day  of  March,  as  Gelasius 
was  chosen  on  the  25th  day  of  January. 
This  letter  is  dated  from  Gaeta  the  16th  day 
of  March  of  the  present  year  III8.2  The 
pope  wrote  at  the  same  time  to  Bernard, 
archbishop  of  Toledo,  ordering  him  to  cause 
another  archbishop  of  Braga  to  be  chosen 
in  the  room  of  Maurice,  and  to  the  Romans, 
exhorting  them  to  avoid  him  as  an  excom- 
municated person,  with  whom  they  could 
not  communicate  without  incurring  the  same 
excommunication.* 

The  emperor  continued  at  Rome  till  the 
beginning  of  June,  when  he  caused  himself 
to  be  crowned  anew  by  Bourdin  as  pope, 
having  been  crowned  by  him  the  preceding 
year  only  as  the  pope's  legate.*  The  cere- 
mony was  performed  with  great  solemnity 
in  the  church  of  St.  Peter  on  Whitsunday, 
the  2d  day  of  June,  and  the  emperor,  leaving 
Rome  a  few  days  after,  returned  to  Tus- 
cany. Upon  his  retreat  Gelasius  returned 
privately  to  Rome,  and  there  kept  himself 
concealed  till  the  21st  day  of  July,  the 
festival  of  St.  Praxedes,  when  he  was  pre- 
vailed upon  by  his  friends  to  celebrate  mass 
publicly  in  the  church  of  that  saint.  But 
the  service  was  scarce  begun,  when  a  troop 
of  armed  men,  with  Frangipani  at  their 
head,  broke  into  the  church  with  a  design 
to  seize  on  the  pope  a  second  time,  and  send 
him  prisoner  to  the  emperor.  They  met 
with  a  vigorous  resistance  from  the  pope's 
frieniJs  flocking  from  all  quarters  to  defend 
him  ;  and  the  fight  lasted,  with  great  slaugh- 
ter on  both  sides,  till  night  parted  the  com- 
batants. The  pope  had  the  good  luck  to 
make  his  escape,  undiscovered,  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  fray  ;  and  he  was  found  in  the 
evening  in  the  fields  adjoining  to  St.  Paul's 


»  See  p.  452. 

'  Concil.  c.  6.  p.  823. 


aConcil.  c.  6.  p.  817. 
*  See  p.  452. 


Gelasius  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


455 


Gelasius  reinstates  thf  see  of  Ravenna  in  its  former  jurisdiction.     Retires  to  Franre.     His  reception  there, 
seized  with  a  pleurisy.    Dies  at  Cluny  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1119.]     His  writings. 


church  without  the  walls  of  the  city.'  From 
thence  they  brought  him  back  to  Rome. 
But  as  the  imperial  party  prevailed  there, 
and  he  despaired  of  being  ever  able  to  drive 
out  his  rival  Bourdin,  he  resolved  to  quit 
not  only  Rome,  but  Italy,  and  retire  to 
France.  His  resolution  being  approved  by 
the  cardinals,  he  appointed  Peter,  bishop  of 
Porto  his  vicar,  disposed  of  all  the  other 
great  employments  to  those  who  had  distin- 
guished tliemselves  above  the  rest  in  his 
cause;  and  by  a  special  bull  restored  to  the 
see  of  Ravenna  the  jurisdiction  which  it  had 
enjoyed  to  the  time  of  his  predecessar  Pas- 
chal II.  over  all  the  bishoprics  of  Emilia. 
This  was  done  in  behalf  of  Gualterius,  at 
this  time  archbishop  of  Ravenna,  and  the 
first  archbishop  of  that  city  that  had  sided 
with  the  pope. against  the  emperor.^ 

The  pope  left  Rome  on  the  second  of 
September,  and  embarking  at  Ostiawith  six 
cardinals,  landed  at  Pisa,  and  there  conse- 
crated the  great  church  of  that  city,  erected 
the  see  into  a  metropolis,  and  subjected  to  it, 
as  such,  the  island  of  Corsica.  The  same 
title  as  well  as  jurisdiction  had  been  conferred 
on  the  bishop  of  Pisa  and  his  see  by  Urban 
II.,  but  his  bull  had  not,  it  seems,  taken 
place,  Peter,  at  this  time  bishop  of  Pisa, 
being  the  first  that  took  the  title  of  metro- 
politan, and  exercised  jurisdiction  over  the 
churches  of  Corsica.^  From  Pisa  he  pur- 
sued his  voyage  to  Genoa,  and  having  con- 
secrated there  the  church  of  St.  Lawrence, 
he  put  to  sea  again,  and  got  safe,  about  the 
5th  of  November  to  St.  Grilles  in  Provence. 
He  was  received  there  with  all  possible 
marks  of  respect  and  esteem  by  the  laity  as 
well  as  the  clergy,  and  visited  by  all  the 
bishops,  abbots,  and  nobility  in  that  neigh- 
borhood, who,  finding  him  m  great  distress, 
sent  him  large  sums  of  money,  that  enabled 
him  to  support  himself  according  to  his  high 
rank  and  dignity.''  Before  he  left  St.  Gilles 
he  confirmed  the  bulls  of  his  two  prede- 
cessors. Urban  II.  and  Paschal  II.,  grant- 
ing the  primacy  of  all  Spain  to  Bernard, 
archbishop  of  Toledo,  and  his  successor 
in  that  see.  Lewis,  surnamed  the  Gross, 
at  this  time  king  of  France,  no  sooner 
heard  of  the  pope's  arrival  in  his  dominions, 
than  he  sent  Suger,  monk  of  St.  Denis, 
with  rich  presents  to  assure  him  of  his 
protection,  and  his  sincere  desire  of  seeing 
him  firmly  established  upon  the  pontifical 
throne.  The  pope  afterwards  visited  several 
cities,  consecrating  churches,  or  ordaining 
bishops;  and  finding  the  discipline  and  ob- 
servance of  the  canons  in  some  places  greatly 
neglected,  he  appointed  a  council  to  meet  at 
Rheims  in  the  month  of  March  of  the  follow- 


ing year.  But  being  in  the  mean  time 
seized  with  a  pleurisy,  he  caused  himself  to 
be  carried  to  the  monastery  of  Cluny,  which 
was  not  far  distant  from  tlie  place  where  he 
was  taken  ill.  When  he  found  his  end  ap- 
proached, he  sent  for  the  cardinals,  and  be- 
stowing great  commendations  upon  Conon, 
bishop  of  Palestrina,  of  whom  frequent  men- 
tion has  been  made  in  the  preceding  pontifi- 
cate, he  recommended  him  to  them  for  his 
successor.  But  Conon  declaring  that  he 
would,  upon  no  consideration  whatsoever, 
take  that  burden  upon  him;  that  the  church 
wanted,  at  that  juncture,  the  support  of 
riches  and  temporal  power,  and  that  he 
therefore  recommended  to  their  choice  Guido, 
archbishop  of  Vienne,  a  prelate  not  more 
respected  for  his  known  prudence  and  emi- 
nent piety,  than  for  his  high  birth  and  tem- 
poral power.  The  pope  and  the  cardinals 
acquiesced  in  his  proposal,  and  they  sent 
immediately  for  Guido,  but  the  pope  ex- 
pired before  his  arrival.'  His  death  hap- 
pened on  the  29lh  of  January,  1119,  and 
consequently  when  he  had  held  the  see  one 
year  and  four  days,  as  he  had  been  elected 
on  the  25th  of  January  of  the  preceding 
year.  Thus  Hugh,  monk  of  Cluny,  who 
lived  at  this  very  time,^  and  after  him  all  the 
historians  and  chronologers,  except  Baronius 
and  Papebrock,  who  upon  the  authority  of 
his  epitaph,  which  they  ascribe  to  Peter  of 
Poitiers,  will  have  Gelasius  to  have  died 
after  a  pontificate  of  one  year  wanting  two 
days.  But  as  that  epitaph  contradicts  all 
the  contemporary  historians,  it  is  generally 
supposed  to  have  been  writ,  not  by  Peter  of 
Poitiers,  who  flourished  at  this  time,  but  by 
some  later  writer.  Sugerius  writes,  that 
pope  Gelasius  died  at  Cluny  of  the  gout, 
soon  after  his  arrival  in  France;  but  Pan- 
dulphus,  who  was  one  of  his  retinue,  says, 
that  he  died  of  a  disease,  which  the  Greeks 
call  pleurisy,^  and  takes  no  notice  of  his 
having  ever  been  afflicted  with  the  gout. 
He  was  buried  in  the  church  of  the  monas- 
tery of  Cluny,  and  has  been  honored  with 
a  place  in  some  Martyrologies,  but  not  in 
the  Roman.  He  wrote  in  prose  the  life  of 
Erasmus,  bishop  of  Gaeta  and  martyr,  and 
the  lives  of  Anatolia  and  Cesarius  in  verse. 
Both  these  works  were  published  at  Rome 
with  the  life  of  Gelasius  by  the  abbot  Con- 
stantine  Cajetan,  in  1639. 

In  the  pontificate  of  Gelasius,  and  on  the 
15th  of  August  1118,  died  the  emperor 
Alexius  Comnenus,'  in  the  seventieth  year 
of  his  age,  after  a  reign  of  thirty-seven  years 
four  months  and  fifteen  days.  He  was  suc- 
ceeded by  his  eldest  son  Calo  Johannes  or 
Joannes  Comnenus. 


»  Pandulph.  in  Vit.  Gelas.  a  Concil.  10.  p.  fcl8. 

'  t'ghi'll  Italia  Sacra,  c.  3.  p.  429. 
*  Pandulph.  in  Vit.  Gelas. 


»  Falco  Benevent.  in  Chron, 
3  Inf;i.  ad  Pontium  Abbat. 
'  Pandulph.  in  Vit.  Gelas. 


456 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Calixtus  II. 


Calixtua  II.  elected  at  Cluny.     His  birth  and  employment  before  his  election.    Holds  #  council  at  Toulouse. 
Council  of  Reims.    Canons  of  that  council.     Complaints  laid  before  the  council. 


CALIXTUS  II.  THE  HUNDRED  AND  SIXTIETH  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[Joannes  Comnenus,  Emperor  of  the  East. — Henry  V.,  Emperor  of  the  West."] 


[Year  of  Christ,  1119.]  The  cardinals, 
who  attended  Gelasius  at  Cluny,  had  re- 
solved, with  his  approbation,  to  choose  the 
archbishop  of  Vienne  for  his  successor,  and 
had  therefore  sent  for  him,  the  pope  being 
desirous  to  see  him.  But  the  pope  dying 
before  he  reached  Cluny,  he  was  unani- 
mously elected  by  all  the  cardinals,  who 
were  present,  the  day  after  his  arrival,  and 
named  Cahxtus  II.  His  election  happened, 
according  to  Onuphrius  and  Sigonius,  on 
the  1st  of  February,'  after  a  vacancy  of 
four  days,  as  we  read  in  some  catalogues, 
the  day  of  the  death  of  Gelasius  being  in- 
cluded in  that  vacancy,  as  well  as  the  day 
of  the  election  of  Calixtus.  His  election 
was  approved  and  confirmed  at  Rome  by 
all  but  those  who  adhered  to  the  anti-pope 
Bourdin.  He  was  the  son  of  William,  sur- 
named  the  Great,  count  of  Burgundy,  was 
uncle  to  Adelais  the  wife  of  Lewis  VI.,  at 
this  time  king  of  France,  and  nearly  related 
to  the  emperor.  Paschal  II.  appointed  him 
legate  of  the  apostolic  see  in  France  soon 
after  his  promotion  to  the  see  of  Vienne,  and 
sent  him  over  to  England  with  the  character 
of  his  legale  a  Latere.  But  he  was  not  ac- 
knowledged there,  nor  allowed  to  exercise 
any  power  whatsoever,  as  has  already  been 
related.2  In  1112  he  held  a  council  at  Vi- 
enne, and  in  that  council  he  excommuni- 
cated the  emperor  for  the  violence  he  had 
offered  to  the  pope  in  forcing  him  to  give 
up  investitures.^ 

Calixtus  returned,  soon  after  his  election, 
to  Vienne,  and  was  there  consecrated  by 
Lambert,  bishop  of  Ostia,  and  other  bishops, 
on  duinquagesima  Sunday,  which,  in 
1119,  fell  on  the  9lh  of  February.-*  From 
Vienne  the  pope  repaired  to  Toulouse,  and 
in  a  council,  which  he  assembled  there,  the 
sentence  of  excommunication  was  thundered 
oiit  against  a  sect  of  heretics  in  those  parts, 
condemning  the  eucharist,  the  baptism  of 
infants,  the  priesthood,  all  ecclesiastical  or- 
ders, and  lawful  marriages.  By  the  same 
council  laymen  were  forbidden,  on  pain  of 
excommunication,  to  seize  on  the  effects  and 
plunder  the  houses  of  deceased  bishops,  a 
custom  that  still  prevailed ;  and  all  monks, 
as  well  as  ecclesiastics  of  what  rank  soever, 
who  should  quit  their  profession,  or  let 
their  hair  and  beards  grow,  were  declared 


»  Onuph.  in  Chron.  et  Sigon.  de  regno  Italia,  1.  2. 

»  See  p.  429.  a  ibid.  p.  448. 

*  Historia  Vezel.  1.  1.    Dacher  Spicileg.  com.  3. 


excommunicated,  and  suspended  from  all 
the  functions  of  their  office.  At  this  council 
were  present  most  of  the  French  bishops, 
and  some  from  Spain,  and  it  sat  from  the 
6th  to  the  25th  of  June. 

The  pope,  leaving  Toulouse  upon  the 
breaking  up  of  the  council,  visited  several 
cities  in  France,  and  repairing,  about  the 
middle  of  October,  to  Reims,  opened  the 
council,  which  he  had  appointed  to  meet 
there.  To  this  assembly  bishops  came,  in 
compliance  with  the  pope's  invitation,  from 
all  the  western  provinces  ;  and  they  were  in 
all  fifteen  archbishops,  two  hundred  bishops 
and  upwards,  besides  an  infinite  number  of 
abbots  and  other  ecclesiastics  of  all  ranks. 
By  this  council  five  canons  were  issued,  and 
signed  by  the  pope  and  the  rest  of  the  as- 
sembly. By  the  first  all  simony  was  for- 
bidden, and  lay  investitures  by  the  second. 
By  the  third  all  were  excommunicated  who 
had  seized,  or  should  thenceforth  seize  lands 
belonging  to  the  church.  The  fourth  de- 
clared it  unlawful  for  any  ecclesiastic  to 
dispose,  at  his  death,  of  his  preferment,  or 
his  benefice,  or  to  require  any  thing  for  the 
administration  of  the  sacraments,  or  the  bu- 
rying of  the  dead ;  and  the  fifth  was  levelled 
against  such  priests,  deacons,  and  subdea- 
cons  as  were  married,  or  kept  concubines.* 

Lewis,  king  of  France,  came  in  person  to 
this  council,  attended  by  a  great  number  of 
French  lords,  to  complain  of  the  king  of 
England,  who,  he  said,  had  invaded  Nor- 
mandy, one  of  the  provinces  of  his  king- 
dom, had  seized  and  carried  into  England 
duke  Robert,  his  vassal,  and  there  still  kept 
him  closely  confined,  in  spite  of  the  frequent 
remonstrances  he  had  made  against  his  thus 
using  and  detaining  a  subject  of  France. 
Geffry,  archbishop  of  Rouen,  rose  up  to 
answer  the  king's  speech  ;  but  so  great  was 
the  noise  made  by  the  Galilean  bishops, 
that  he  could  not  be  heard ;  and  it  does  not 
appear  that  the  pope  or  the  council  any 
ways  concerned  themselves  with  that  affair. 
They  all  hearkened  with  great  attention  to 
Hildegarda,  countess  of  Poitiers,  complain- 
ing of  her  husband,  who  had  dismissed  her, 
and  taken  another  man's  wife  in  her  room. 
But  as  the  count  was  not  present,  having 
been  taken  ill,  as  was  pretended,  on  the  road, 
as  he  was  coming  to  the  council,  the  pope 
ordered  the  bishops  of  Aquitain  to  let  him 
know,  that  if  he  did  not  take  back  his  lawful 


»  Oderic.  Vital.  1.  12.    ConcU.  torn.  10.  p.  805. 


Calixtus  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


457 


Negotiations  between  the  pope  and  the  emperor.     The  emperor  exconiniunicated  by  the  council, 
archbishop  of  York,  ordained  by  the  pope. 


Thurstan 


wife  within  a  limited  time,  he  should  be  cut 
off  from  the  communion  of  the  church. 

The  emperor  had    promised  to  assist  at 
this  council,  and  contribute  all  in  his  power 
towards  re-establishing  the  ancient  harmony 
between  the  church  and  the  empire.     Some 
terms  of  agreement  had  been  already  pro- 
posed by  William,  bishop  of  Chaleurs,  and 
Pontius,  abbot  of    Cluny,    in   the    pope's 
name.     But  as  the  pope  claimed  the  invest- 
ing of  all  bishops  as  the  undoubted  right  of 
his  see,  the  emperor  dismissed  the  two  en- 
voys, saying  that  he  proposed  to  treat  with 
his  holiness  in  person  at  the  approaching 
council,  when  he  did  not  doubt  but  the  dif- 
ferences that  had  so  long  subsisted  between 
them  would    be    adjusted   to   their   mutual 
satisfaction,     lie  set  o-ut  accordingly  from 
Slrasburg  about  the  beginning  of  October, 
and  being  met  between  Verdun  and  Metz  by 
the  bishop  of  Ostia,  cardinal  Gregory,  and 
the  two  deputies  mentioned  above,  he  was 
assured   by    them   that    his    holiness   had 
nothing  more  at  heart  than  to  see  an  end  put, 
at  last,  10  the  present  disturbances,  but  could 
not  sacrifice  the  rights  of  his  see  to  his  own 
peace  and  tranquillity,  and  therefore  hoped 
that  the  emperor  would  not  insist  upon  his 
confirming  the  decree  renouncing   investi- 
tures that  had,  by  force  and  violence,  been 
extorted  from  his  predecessors.     Hereupon 
the   emperor,   declaring    himself  ready    to 
agree   to   any    terms   that   were  consistent 
with  the  imperial  dignity,  begged  he  might 
be  allowed  to  confer  with  his  holiness  in 
person  ;  and  appointed  the  castle  of  Mouson, 
about   the   distance    of    sixty    miles    from 
Reims,    for   the    place    of   their    meeting. 
Thither  the  pope  repaired,  upon  the  return 
of  his  deputies,  though  the  council  was  then 
sitting  ;  but  not  thinking  it  advisable  to  re- 
pair to  the  camp,  for  the  emperor  was  en- 
camped at  a  small  distance  from  the  castle, 
with  an  army  of  thirty  thousand  men,  he 
sent  three  bishops,  with  cardinal  John,  of 
Crema,  and  the  abbot  Pontius,  to  acquaint 
the  emperor  with  his  arrival,  and  excuse  his 
not  attending  him  in  his  camp,  as  he  was 
greatly  fatigued  with  the  journey.     At  this 
first  interview  the  cardinal  declared,  agree- 
ably to   his  instructions,  that   his   holiness 
was  ready   to  absolve  the  emperor,  and  all 
who  had  adhered  to  him,  from  the  excom- 
munication they  had  incurred;  that  he  had 
left  the  council,  and  was  come  for  that  pur- 
pose ;  but  absolutely  insisted  on  the  right  of 
investing  all   bishops,    as   an    unalienable 
right  of  the   apostolic   see.    The   emperor 
answered,   that  he   could   not  renounce  a 
right  which  his  predecessors  had  all  enjoyed 
time  out  of  mind,  without  the  consent  and 
approbation  of  the  lords  of  the  empire,  and 
that  if  the  pope  absolved  him  from  the  ex- 
communication, he  would,   on  his   return 
from  Germany,  assemble  a  general  diet,  and 
persuade  them,  if  by  any  means  he  could. 
Vol.  II.— 53 


to  approve  and  confirm  such  a  renunciation. 
From  this  answer  the  pope  concluded  that 
the  emperor  only  wanted  to  gain  lime,  and 
was  therefore  lor  returning  to  the  council 
the  very  next  day.  But  being  persuaded  by 
the  cardinals  who  attended  liim  to  send 
back  the  deputies,  in  order  to  know  the  em- 
peror's final  resolution,  he  removed  that 
night  to  a  castle  at  a  greater  distance  from 
the  camp,  and  from  thence  dispatched,  early 
next  morning,  the  bishop  of  Chalons  anil 
the  abbot  of  Cluny,  to  offer  the  emperor 
absolution,  in  his  name,  upon  condition  he 
renounced  investitures,  and  at  the  same 
time  to  let  him  know  that  he  expected  it  in 
vain  upon  any  other  terms.  The  emperor 
returned  the  same  answer  as  he  had  done 
the  day  before;  and  the  pope,  now  despair- 
ing of  being  able  to  carry  his  point,  set  out 
early  next  morning,  on  his  return  to  Reims. 
There  he  gave  llie  fathers  of  the  council  a 
minute  account  of  what  had  passed  between 
him  and  the  emperor,  which  so  inflamed 
them,  that  they  were  all,  to  a  man,  for 
thundering  out,  that  moment,  the  sentence 
of  excoiTimunication  against  the  emperor, 
and  all  who  obeyed  or  acknowledged  him 
as  such.  But,  by  the  advice  of  the  pope, 
that  affair  was  put  off  to  the  last  day  of  the 
council,  when,  upon  their  not  hearing,  in 
the  mean  lime,  from  him,  the  sentence  of 
excommunication  was  pronounced,  with 
great  solemnity,  agamst  Henry,  styling  him- 
self king  of  Germany  and  emperor;  against 
Bourdin,  whom  he  had  wickedly  intruded 
into  the  see  of  St.  Peter,  and  all  who  coun- 
tenanced or  supported  the  one  or  the  other. 
By  the  same  sentence  the  subjects  of  Henry 
were  not  only  absolved  from  their  oath  of 
allegiance,  but  forbidden,  on  pain  of  incur- 
ring the  same  excommunication,  to  obey 
him  as  their  lord  and  sovereign.  This  sen- 
tence was  pronounced  by  the  pope  himself, 
the  members  of  the  council  all  standing  up 
in  the  mean  time,  with  burning  tapers  in 
their  hands.' 

I  have  spoken  elsewhere  of  the  difference 
that  subsisted  at  this  time  between  the  two 
English  archbishops,  Rudolph  of  Canter- 
bury, and  Thurstan  archbishop  elect  of  York. 
Thurstan  refused  to  make  canonical  profes- 
sion of  obedience  to  Rudolph,  and  Rudolph 
refused,  on  that  account,  to  ordain  him.  As 
the  king  favored  Rudolph,  he  would  not 
suffer  Thurston  to  take  possession  of  his  see 
till  he  was  ordained,  and  had  made  the  pro- 
fession that  was  required  of  him  by  the 
archbishop  of  Canterbury.^  Thus  the  see 
of  York  remained,  in  a  manner,  vacant. 
As  the  king  of  England  (Henry  I.)  was 
in  Normandy  when  the  council  of  Reims 
met,  he  allowed  all  the  Norman  bishops  to 
repair  to  it,  and  such  of  the  English  bishops 
as  were  with  him;  and  Thurstan  among  the 


>  Orderic.  Vital.  1.  12,  et  Acta  apiid  Ilesson  ScUolast. 
Concil.  10.  •»  Sec  p.  ■101. 

2  0 


458 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Calixtus  n. 


Thurslan  banished  by  the  king.  'Interview  of  the  pope  and  the  king  of  England.  The  see  of  York  exempted 
from  all  subjection  to  that  of  Canterbury.  Calixtus  sets  out  for  Rome  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  1120.]  His  arrival 
and  reception  there.  Goes  into  Apulia.  The  anti-pope  taken,  ill  used,  and  confined  to  a  monastery; — 
[Year  of  Christ,  1121.] 


rest,  but  upon  condition  that  he  would  not 
ask,  nor  receive  consecration  from  the  pope. 
The  king  even  wrote  to  the  pope  himself  to 
acquaint  him  with  that  affair,  and  desire  he 
would  not  ordain  Thurstan,  though  he 
should  apply  to  hira  for  his  ordination.  But 
no  regard  was  had,  either  by  the  pope  or 
the  bishop,  to  the  desire  and  request  of  the 
king;  and  Thurstan  Avas  consecrated  by  the 
pope,  in  the  metropolitan  church  of  Reims, 
soon  after  his  arrival  in  that  city.  The  be- 
havior of  Thurstan  was  highly  resented  by 
the  king,  who  immediately  forbad  him  ever 
to  set  foot  again  in  his  English  or  Norman 
dominions.' 

From  Reims  the  pope  repaired,  as  soon 
as  the  council  broke  up,  to  Gisors,  in  Nor- 
mandy, to  meet  there  the  king  of  England, 
with  a  design,  it  seems,  to  mediate  a  recon- 
ciliation between  Henry  and  Lewis  king  of 
France.  The  two  kings  complained  of  each 
other,  and  the  pope  spared  no  pains  to  re- 
establish a  good  understanding  between 
them  ;  but  his  endeavors  were  not  attended 
with  the  wished  for  success.  At  this  inter- 
view Henry  obtained  of  the  pope  a  confir- 
mation of  all  the  privileges  that  his  father 
had  enjoyed,  especially  that  no  legate  should 
be  sent  into  England  or  Normandy  without 
his  leave.  Calixtus  did  not  forget  Thurstan 
on  this  occasion,  but  earnestly  pressed  the 
king  to  recall  him  from  exile,  and  restore 
him  to  his  see.  The  king  answered  that  he 
could  not  comply  with  his  holiness's  request, 
having  by  a  solemn  oath  put  it  out  of  his 
power  ever  to  recall  the  archbishop,  or  suffer 
him  to  set  foot  in  his  dominions.  "  But  I  am 
pope,"  replied  Calixtus,  "and  absolve  you 
from  your  oath."  The  king,  shocked  at  so 
unchristian  a  proposal,  desired  time  to  con- 
sider of  it;  and  he  sent  the  pope  word  soon 
after  he  left  Gisors,  that  he  could  not  prevail 
upon  himself  to  accept  the  absolution  which 
his  holiness  had  offered  him,  as  it  tended  to 
destroy  all  faith  among  men,  and  no  one 
would  trust  another  for  the  future,  or  rely 
upon  his  oath  or  promise,  if  oaths  and  pro- 
mises, however  solemn,  might  be  set  aside 
by  an  absolution.  He  added,  that  no  man 
should  learn  of  him  to  break  his  oath  or 
his  promise,  and  that  he  looked  upon  both 
as  indispensably  binding.^  However,  Thurs- 
tan was  afterwards  permitted  to  return  and 
take  undisturbed  possession  of  his  see;  but 
upon  condition  that  he  should  no  where  per- 
form divine  service  out  of  his  own  diocese, 
till  he  had  satisfied  the  archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury .=*  But  the  pope,  who  had  espoused 
the  cause  of  Thurstan,  declared  in  1120, 
the  see  of  York  quite  independent  upon  that 
of  Canterbury .4 

The  pope,  leaving  Gisors,  visited  several 


'  Eadmer,  Novor.  1.  5.        ^  idem  ibid.        ^  jjem  ibid. 
■"  Stubbs,  1.  6,  in  Actis  Pont.  Eborac.  apud  Selden, 
torn.  2.  p.  1716. 


cilies  in  France,  confirming  the  privileges 
that  his  predecessors  had  granted  to  those 
churches.  To  the  see  of  Vienne  he  sub- 
jected seven  provinces,  appointing  his  suc- 
cessors in  that  see  primates  over  those  pro- 
vinces, with  full  power  to  assemble  coun- 
cils, to  receive  appeals  from  the  bishops 
under  their  jurisdiction,  to  determine  causes, 
and  see  that  the  canons  were  every  where 
punctually  observed.  This  bull  is  addressed 
to  the  canons  of  the  church  of  Vienne,  was 
issued  at  Valence,  and  is  dated  the  26th  of 
February.'  From  Valence  the  pope  set  out 
for  Italy,  and  crossing  Provence  passed  the 
Alps,  and  entered  Lombardy,  whence  he 
pursued  his  journey  to  Lucca,  and  from 
thence  to  Pisa,  being  every  where  received 
with  all  possible  marks  of  respect  and  esteem. 
In  the  mean  time  Bourdin,  hearing  of  his 
arrival  at  Susa,  in  his  way  to  Rome,  left 
that  city  in  great  haste,  as  the  emperor  was 
then  in  Germany,  and  retired  to  Sutri,  where 
the  imperial  party  was  the  stronger  of  the 
two.  Upon  his  retreat  Calixtus  entered 
Rome  amidst  the  loud  acclamations  of  the 
Roman  people,  was  attended  by  the  clergy 
in  a  body,  and  the  nobility  to  the  Lateran 
palace,  and  there  placed,  with  great  solem- 
nity, upon  the  pontifical  throne.  His  entry 
into  Rome  happened  on  the  3d  of  June; 
but  not  thinking  himself  safe  there  so  long 
as  Bourdin,  whose  cause  some  of  the  most 
powerful  families  had  espoused,  was  master 
of  Sutri,  he  went  into  Apulia  to  implore  the 
assistance  of  the  Norman  princes  against  his 
rival.  He  arrived  at  Benevento  in  the  be- 
ginning of  August,  and  the  Norman  princes 
nosooner  heard  of  his  arrival,  than  they  came 
to  do  him  homage,  and  offer  him  what  troops 
he  wanted  to  drive  out  the  usurper  of  his 
see,  and  restore  peace  to  the  Roman  church. 
The  pope  confirmed  to  them  and  their  suc- 
cessors all  the  privileges  and  immunities  that 
had  been  granted  to  them  by  his  predeces- 
sors, gave  them  his  apostolical  benediction, 
and  leaving  Benevento,  returned  by  sea  to 
Rome  in  the  latter  end  of  this  or  the  be- 
ginning of  the  following  year.^ 

In  the  mean  time  a  strong  body  of  Nor- 
mans arriving  in  the  neighborhood  of  Rome, 
the  pope  sent  them,  under  the  command  of 
cardinal  John  of  Crema,  to  lay  siege  to 
Sutri,  held  by  Bourdin  and  his  followers. 
As  the  emperor  was  then  engaged  in  quell- 
ing some  disturbances  raised  by  the  parti- 
sans of  Calixtus  in  Germany,  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Sutri,  finding  they  must  submit  in 
the  end,  as  they  were  not  able  to  withstand 
alone  so  powerful  an  army,  seized  on  Bour- 
din as  soon  as  the  Normans  began  to  batter 
the  wall,  and  delivered  him  up  to  them. 
They  treated  him,  says  the  historian,  Avith 
the  utmost  barbarity,  and  carrying  him  to 


» Calixt.  ep.  5. 


a  Pandulph,  in  Vita  Calixi. 


Calixtus  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


459 


A  legate  sent  into  England.    How  received.     Agrf  (anient  between  the  pope  and  the  emperor  concerning  in- 
vestitures ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1122.] 


Rome,  placed  him,  as  they  approached  that 
city,  upon  a  camel  with  iiis  face  turned  lo 
the  tail,  which  they  made  him  hold  instead 
of  a  bridle,  put  a  moody  sheep's  skin  over 
his  shoulders  to  represent  him  as  pope  in 
his  scarlet  mantle,  and  conducted  him,  thus 
attired,  amidst  the  insulis  of  the  populace, 
into  Rome.  The  Roman  people  would  have 
torn  him  in  pieces,  but  the  pope  rescued 
him  out  of  their  hands;  sent  him,  under  a 
strong  guard,  to  the  monastery  of  Cava,  not 
far  from  Salerno,  and  ordered  him  to  be  there 
shut  up  in  a  cell.'  Thus  was  an  end  put  to 
the  schism,  after  it  had  lasted  near  three 
years.  Calixtus  caused  him  afterwards  to 
be  removed  from  the  monastery  of  Cava,  to 
a  strong  castle  situate  on  a  rock  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  the  city  of  St.  Germans;  and 
from  thence  he  was  removed  again  by  Ho- 
norius  II.,  the  successor  of  Calixtus,  to  the 
castle  of  Fumo  near  Alatri,  where  he  died.^ 
In  England  the  people  were,  it  seems,  di- 
vided with  respect  to  these  popes,  Bourdin 
being  acknowledged  by  some  under  the  name 
of  Gregory  VIII.,  and  Gelasius,  with  his 
successor  Calixtus  by  others.  But  the  king 
and  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury  owned 
first  Gelasius,  and  afterwards  Calixtus  for 
lawful  pope,  in  opposition  to  Gregory,  or 
Bourdin.^  Matthew  Paris  writes,  that  the 
anti-pope  Gelasius  dying,  Calixtus  was  law- 
fully chosen  in  his  room.  But  if  Gelasius 
was  an  anti-pope,  Bourdin  or  Gregory  was, 
according  to  that  writer,  tlie  true  pope;  and 
how  could  Calixtus  be  lawfully  elected  while 
the  true  pope  was  still  living. 

Calixtus  had  confirmed  to  the  king  of 
England,  as  has  been  related  above,  all  the 
privileges  enjoyed  by  his  father,  and  in  par- 
ticular that  no  legate  should  be  sent  into 
England  without  his  leave.  However,  upon 
the  reduction  of  Sutri  and  the  taking  of  his 
rival  there,  he  despatched  Leo,  monk  of 
Cluny,  with  the  character  of  his  legate,  to 
acquaint  therewith  the  kings  of  France  and 
England.  In  France  Leo  was  received  as 
the  pope's  legate,  and  allowed  to  act  agree- 
bly  to  that  character.  Having  discharged 
his  commission  there,  he  repaired  to  Nor- 
mandy, and  sent  from  tiience  to  acquaint  the 
king  with  his  arrival  in  his  dominions,  and 
desire  leave  to  come  into  England,  which 
tlie  king  readily  granted,  and  even  despatched 
Bernard,  bishop  of  St.  David's,  and  a  clerk 
named  John,  to  attend  him,  but  upon  condi- 
tion he  defrayed  his  own  expenses,  and 
came  rather  as  a  private  man  than  a  legate. 
Upon  his  arrival  at  court,  the  king  received 
him  with  all  possible  marks  of  honour,  ex- 
pressed great  satisfaction  at  the  success  that 
liad  attended  his  holiness  against  the  usurper 
of  his  see,  assured  him  of  his  entire  submis- 

>  Faico  in  Cbron.  Pandulph.  ubi  supra.    Abbas  Res- 
perg,  &.C. 
^  Aiionynms  Cassin. 
'  Eadiner,  Movor.  1. 6.   Mattbsus  Paris,  ad  ann.  1128. 


sion  and  obedience  to  the  successor  of  St. 
Peter ;  but  when  the  legate  began  to  enter 
upon  other  affairs,  he  told  him,  that  he  was 
not  then  at  leisure  to  attend  lo  matters  of 
that  nature ;  and  besides,  that  he  was  deter- 
mined to  maintain  the  privilege  that  Calix- 
tus himself  had  granted  to  him,  exempting 
his  kingdom  from  all  legatine  jurisdiction. 
With  this  answer  he  dismissed  the  legate, 
who  immediately  set  out  on  his  return  to 
Normandy,  finding  the  king  would  not  suffer 
him  to  exercise  in  England  any  jurisdiction 
or  power  whatsoever. 

The  pope  having  now  no  enemy  to. con- 
tend with  in  Rome,  resolved  to  leave  nothing 
unattempted,  on  his  side,  to  establish  a  last- 
ing peace  between  the  church  and  the  em- 
pire, and  he  despatched,  with  that  view, 
legates  into  Germany,  with  such  terms  as 
he  thought  the  emperor  and  the  German 
lords  who  sided  with  him  could  not  but 
agree  to.  The  legates  were  received  by  the 
emperor  with  the  greatest  marks  of  respect, 
and  assured  that  he  was  no  less  desirous 
than  his  holiness  himself,  to  put  an  end  to 
the  present  disturbances.  The  terms  they 
proposed  seemed  reasonable  enough,  and  a 
general  diet  was  appointed  to  meet  at  Wirts- 
burg,  when  they  were  to  be  communicated 
to  the  princes  of  the  empire.  The  diet  met 
accordingly,  not  at  Wirtsburgh,  but  at 
Worms,  as  a  more  convenient  place,  and 
the  terms  were  agreed  to,  by  the  whole  as- 
sembly, as  soon  as  proposed.  The  emperor 
demanded  that  no  bishop  or  abbot  should  be 
elected  without  his  previous  consent  or  appro- 
bation ;  that  the  elect  should  not  be  consecra- 
ted till  he  was  invested  by  him  with  the  pas- 
toral staff  and  ring,  and  that  he  should  swear 
allegiance  and  do  homage  to  him  for  the  fiefs 
and  lands  he  held  of  the  empire.  These 
prerogatives,  he  said,  his  predecessors  had 
enjoyed  time  out  of  mind  till  the  pontificate 
of  Gregory  VII.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
terms  proposed  by  the  pope  were  :  that  all 
bishops  and  abbots  in  Germany  should  be 
elected  in  the  presence  of  the  emperor  freely 
and  without  simony  ;  that  he  should  invest 
the  elect,  or  put  him  in  possession  of  his 
temporalities,  not  by  the  staff  and  ring, 
which  were  badges  of  spiritual  power,  but 
by  the  scepter ;  that  all  bishops  and  abbots 
should  do  homage  to  the  emperor  and  his 
successors  for  the  demesnes  they  held  of  the 
empire ;  and  that  as  such  as  were  conse- 
crated in  the  imperial  dominions  out  of  Ger- 
many should  be  invested  in  the  same  man- 
ner as  the  German  bishops,  within  six 
months.  As  it  appeared  to  the  emperor 
matter  of  the  utmost  indifference  whether 
bishops  were  invested  with  the  staff  and 
ring,  or  with  the  scepter,  so  long  as  he  was 
allowed  to  invest  them,  he  readily  agreed  to 
the  proposals  of  the  pope,  and  they  were 
immediately  drawn  up  in  writing,  and 
signed  by  the  pope's  legates,  by  the  emperor. 


460 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Calixtus  n. 


The  general  council  of  Lateran  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  1123.]     The  agreement  with  the  emperor  confirmed  by  that 
council.     Canons  of  the  Lateran  council.     Calixtus  dies  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  1124.]     His  writings. 


and  all  the  lords  of  the  diet.'  Thus  was  an 
end  put  at  last  to  this  long  and  bloody  con- 
test between  the  popes  and  emperors  about 
investitures.  The  emperor  never  pretended 
to  confer  any  spiritual  power  by  the  crozier 
and  the  ring.  But  Gregory  VII.  and  his 
successors,  looking  upon  them  as  emblems 
of  spiritual  power,  took  from  thence  occa- 
sion to  wrest  the  investing  of  bishops  out  of 
the  hands  of  princes,  and  declare  it  the  un- 
alienable right  of  their  see.  But  Calixtus, 
finding  the  emperor  was  determined  to 
maintain  at  all  events  the  right  he  claimed 
of  investing  bishops,  thought  it  expedient 
for  the  sake  of  peace  to  leave  him  in  the 
quiet  possession  of  that  right,  provided  the 
ceremony  of  investing  was  not  performed 
by  the  crozier  and  the  ring,  that  were  looked 
upon  as  sacred,  but  by  the  scepter,  a  badge 
of  temporal,  and  not  of  spiritual  power. 
The  diet  of  Worms  met  on  the  day  of  the 
nativity  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  that  is,  on  the 
8th  of  September  of  the  present  year,  1122.2 

Calixtus,  desirous  that  this  agreement 
should  be  known  to  the  whole  world,  and 
confirmed  by  a  general  council,  appointed 
one  to  meet  at  Rome,  in  the  Lateran,  on 
the  18ih  of  March  of  the  following  year 
1 123.  To  this  council  he  summoned  all  the 
■western  bishops,  and  likewise  the  abbots; 
and  his  summons  was*  complied  with  by 
three  hundred  bishops,  and  six  hundred 
abbots;  so  that  this  is  reckoned  the  ninth 
general,  and  is  the  first  Lateran  council;  no 
council  having  been  held  before  in  that 
church.  The  pope  presided  at  it  in  person ; 
and  in  the  first  session,  held  on  Mondav, 
the  29th  of  March,  he  acquainted  the  as- 
sembly with  the  agreement  concluded  be- 
tween him  and  the  emperor,  laid  before 
them  the  articles  of  that  agreement,  and 
earnestly  entreated  them  freely  to  declare 
their  sentiments  concerning  an  affair  which 
they  could  not  but  look  upon  as  of  the  ut- 
most importance.  The  articles  were  ac- 
cordingly carefully  examined  by  the  council, 
were  by  all  approved,  and  a  decree  was  is- 
sued in  the  name  of  the  pope  and  the  coun- 
cil confirming  them.  At  the  same  time  the 
empeior  was,  with  the  approbation  of  the 
whole  council,  absolved  by  the  pope  from 
the  excommunication  that  had  been  thun- 
dered out  against  him  by  the  council  of 
Reims.' 

By  this  council  seventeen  canons  were 
issued,  most  of  them  confirming  those  made 
by  other  councils.  By  the  sixth,  the  ordina- 
tions of  Bourdin,  after  his  condemnation, 
were  all  declared  null,  and  with  them  all 
ordinations  performed  by  those  whom  he 
had  ordained.    The  eleventh  grants  a  ple- 


>  Concil.  tom.  10.  p.  901. 
"Anselm  Gamblacensis  in  Chron. 
'  Concil  tom.  10.  p.  894. 


nary  indulgence  or  forgiveness  of  sins  to 
such  as  should  go  to  Jerusalem  to  assist  the 
Christians  against  the  infidels;  declares  their 
persons,  families,  and  effects,  to  be  under 
the  immediate  protection  of  the  apostolic 
see,  and  orders  all  who  had  taken  the  cross 
in  order  to  go  to  the  Holy  Land,  or  into 
Spain  against  the  Moors,  but  had  afterwards 
laid  it  aside,  to  resume  it  within  the  term  of 
one  year,  and  perform  what  they  had  pro- 
mised, on  pain  of  being  cast  out  of  the 
church,  and  having  all  divine  service  inter- 
dicted in  their  territories,  except  the  admin- 
istering the  sacrament  of  baptism  to  chil- 
dren, and  penance  to  persons  at  the  point 
of  death.  As  the  monks  were  become  very 
numerous,  and  encroached  more  and  more 
upon  the  rights  of  the  bishops  and  clergy, 
they  were  forbidden  by  the  seventeenth  canon 
to  admit  sinners  to  public  penance,  to  visit 
the  sick,  to  perform  unctions,  and  to  sing 
public  and  solemn  mass. 

The  following  year  Calixtus  died,  after  a 
pontificate  of  five  years,  ten  months  and 
twelve  days.  He  was  buried  in  the  Lateran 
church,  and  is  greatly  recommended  by  all 
the  contemporary  writers  for  his  generosity 
to  the  pdoT,  his  liberality  to  the  churches, 
his  strict  observance  of  the  canons,  and, 
above  all,  for  happily  putting  an  end  to  the 
misunderstanding  that  had  so  long  subsisted 
between  the  church  and  the  empire,  and  had 
been  attended  with  such  dreadful  conse- 
quences, and  so  much  bloodshed.  Of  this 
pope  we  have  thirty-six  letters,  and  among 
them  one  forbidding  divine  service  to  be 
performed  in  the  presence  of  William  the 
son  of  Robert,  count  of  Normandy,  and 
nephew  to  Henry  king  of  England,  till  he 
had  dismissed  the  daughter  of  Fulco,  count 
of  Anjou,  whom  he  had  married  within  the 
forbidden  degrees.'  By  another  he  sends, 
at  the  request  of  Boleslaus,  duke  of  Poland, 
Otto,  bishop  of  Bamberg,  to  preach  the 
Gospel  to  the  Pomeranians;  which  he  did 
with  such  success,  that  in  a  few  years  the 
pagan  superstitions  were  every  where  abo- 
lished in  that  country,  and  the  sacred  myste- 
ries of  the  Christian  religion  estabhshed  in 
their  room.^  Hence  Otto  has  a  place  in  the 
calendar  under  the  title  of  "  the  apostle  of 
the  Pomeranians."  The  other  letters  of 
Calixtus  relate  to  the  affairs  spoken  of  in 
his  life.  Besides  letters,  Calixtus  wrote  se- 
veral books ;  some  on  the  miracles  of  St. 
James  the  apostle,  which  are  preserved  in 
manuscript  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  and 
others  upon  other  subjects,  namely,  the 
lives  and  miracles  of  saints,  the  discovering 
of  the  body  of  St.  Turpinus,  archbishop  and 
martyr,  a  treatise  upon  unlawful  contracts, 
and  the  life  of  Charlemagne. 


«  Dacher.  Spicileg.  tom.  3.  p.  148. 

3  Vit.  Hon.  apud  Canis.  Antiq.  Lection. 


HoNORIUS    II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


461 


Election  of  Honorius.     Excommunicates  William  of  Normandy ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1125.]     Disturbances  at 
Cluny  quelled  by  Honorius.     Death  of  the  emperor  Henry  V.,  and  election  of  Lotharius. 


IIONOIUUS  IL,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  SIXTY-FIRST  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[Joannes  Comnenus,  Emperor  of  the  East. — Henrv  V.,  Emperor  of  the  West. — Lotharius, 

King  of  Germany. 1 


[Year  of  Christ,  1124.]  Upon  the  death 
of  Calixtus  two  were  chosen  to  succeed  him 
by  two  different  parties,  Theobald,  cardinal 
priest  of  St.  Anastasia,  by  the  one,  under 
the  name  of  Celestine,  and  Lambert,  bishop 
of  Ostia,  whom  they  named  Honorius  II. 
by  the  other.  But  the  party  of  Honorius 
prevailing,  Celestine  thought  it  adviseable 
to  resign,  and  laid  down  accordingly  all  the 
ensigns  of  the  pontifical  dignity.  His  resig- 
nation was  accepted ;  but  as  he  had  been 
elected  the  first,  and  the  election  of  Hono- 
rius was  therefore  judged  uncanonical,  he 
likewise  resigned,  but  was  re-elected,  with- 
out opposition,  and  consecrated  the  seventh 
day  after  the  decease  of  his  predecessor,  that 
is,  on  the  21st  of  December,  which  in  1124 
fell  on  a  Sunday.'  He  was  a  native  of  the 
province  of  Bologna,  was  preferred  by  Pas- 
chal II.  to  the  see  of  Veleiri,  and  afterwards 
to  that  of  Ostia,2  no  doubt  by  the  same  pope ; 
for  he  was  bishop  of  Ostia  when  Gelasius, 
the  successor  of  Paschal,  was  elected,  and, 
as  bishop  of  that  place,  one  of  the  three  that 
ordained  him  at  Gaeta.' 

Honorius  began  his  pontificate  with  thun- 
dering out  the  sentence  of  excommunica- 
tion against  William,  the  son  of  Robert 
count  of  Normandy,  who  instead  of  dismiss- 
ing the  daughter  of  Fulco  count  of  Anjou, 
whom  he  had  married  within  the  forbidden 
degrees,  not  only  continued  to  live  with  her, 
though  the  marriage  was  declared  null  by 
cardinal  John  of  Crema  the  pope's  legate, 
but  had  caused  the  letter,  which  the  legate 
had  writ  to  him  upon  that  subject,  to  be 
publicly  burnt;  and  the  messengers,  who 
brought  it,  to  be  thrown  into  jail,  and  even 
their  hair  and  beards  to  be  set  on  fire.*     The 

Eope  therefore  not  only  excommunicated 
im,  but  forbad,  as  his  predecessor  had  done, 
divine  service  to  be  performed  in  his  pre- 
sence, or  in  any  place  that  belonged  to  him, 
till  he  had  satisfied  the  apostolic  see. 

Great  disturbances  happened,  soon  after 
the  election  of  Honorius,  in  the  famous 
monasti'ry  of  Cluny.  Pontius  abbot  of  that 
monastery,  whom  I  have  had  frequent  occa- 
sion to  mention,  resigned  that  charge  in 
1122,  in  order  to  go  to  Jerusalem  and  visit 
the  holy  place  there.  He  returned  in  1125, 
and  repenting  his  resignation,  drove  out,  at 
the  head  of  a  troop  of  banditti,  Peter,  sur- 
named  the  Venerable,  who  was  then  abbot. 


•  Ceccan  in  Chron. 
>  See  page  454. 


»Pand«lph.  in  Vit.  Honor. 
*  Uacber  Spicileg.  torn.  3. 


and  took  again  possession  of  the  monastery, 
treating  the  monks,  who  did  not  acknow- 
ledge him,  with  the  utmost  barbarity.  Hono- 
rius, being  informed  of  these  disorders,  sent 
a  cardinal,  named  Peter,  to  Cluny,  with  the 
character  of  legate,  to  examine  into  that 
affair  upon  the  spot,  and  proceed  against 
Pontius  according  to  the  rigor  of  the  canons, 
if  he  did  not  immediately  resign  the  govern- 
ment of  the  monastery  to  Peter,  and  obey 
him  as  his  lawful  superior.  The  cardinal 
found  Pontius  in  possession  of  the  monas- 
tery and  of  all  the  lands  belonging  to  it; 
and,  upon  his  refusing  to  own  the  abbot 
Peter  for  his  superior,  the  sentence  of  ex- 
communication was  pronounced  by  the 
legate,  and  by  Hubald  archbishop  of  Lions, 
against  Pontius  and  all  the  Pontians,  that  is, 
all  who  adhered  to  him.  The  pope  after- 
wards summoned  both  parties  to  Rome,  and 
after  hearing  all  that  was  offered  on  either 
side,  declared  Pontius  a  sacrilegious  usurper, 
suspended  him  for  ever  from  all  ecclesiastical 
functions,  and  caused  him  to  be  shut  up  in 
a  tower  at  Rome  called  the  Seven  Halls, 
where  he  died  the  following  year.'  It  is  re- 
markable, that  in  the  Benedictine  martyro- 
logy  he  is  said  to  have  been  buried  at  Cluny, 
and  to  have  been  famous  for  his  sanctity 
and  learning,  though  the  abbot  Peter  tells  us 
as  an  eye-witness,  that  he  died  at  Rome 
under  the  sentence  of  excommunication,  and 
was  buried  there  near  the  church  of  St. 
Andrew  the  apostle.^ 

This  year  died  the  emperor  Henry  V. 
in  the  t%ventieth  year  of  his  reign,  and  the 
fifteenth  of  his  empire,  and  was  buried,  says 
Ordericus,  at  Spire  the  metropolis  of  Ger- 
many.^ As  he  left  no  issue  behind  him, 
three  princes  aspired  at  the  empire,  namely, 
Lotharius  duke  of  Saxony,  and  the  deceased 
emperor's  two  nephews  by  his  sister  Agnes, 
Conrad  duke  of  Franconia,  and  Frederic 
duke  of  Germany  or  Swabia.  The  death 
of  the  emperor  was  notified  by  the  arch- 
bishop of  Mentz  to .  all  the  bishops  and 
princes  of  the  empire,  and  by  him  they 
were  summoned  to  meet,  with  their  re- 
spective armies,  in  a  large  plain  adjoining 
to  the  city,  in  order  to  proceed  to  a  new 
election.  They  met,  in  compliance  with 
the  summons,  at  the  place  and  time  ap- 
pointed, the  24th  of  August,  when  Lotha- 
rius was  elected   by  a  great  majority;  and 

»  Petrus  Venerablis  de  Miraculis,  I.  2.  c.  13.     Orde- 
ric.  I.  12.  p.  871.         »  Idem.  ibid.         >  Idem.  p.  882. 
2  0  2 


462 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[HONORIUS  II. 


Legate  sent  by  Ilonorius  into  England.     Presides  at  a 
[Year  of  Ctirist,  1126.]     Tiie  pope  quarrels  with 


council.     The  archbishop  of  Canterbury  at  Rome  ;- 
Roger,  count  of  Sicily; — -[Year  of  Christ,  1127.] 


thus  was  the  kingdom  of  Germany,  and 
afterwards  the  empire,  translated  from  the 
Germans  to  the  Saxons.  Honorius  no 
sooner  heard  of  the  emperor's  death  than 
he  sent  the  cardinals  Eurard  and  Romanus 
with  the  character  of  his  legates  a  Latere,  to 
assist  at  the  election  of  a  new  king;  and  in 
their  presence  Lolharius  was  anointed,  or 
consecrated  with  the  usual  ceremonies  at 
Aix-la-Chapelle  by  Frederic  archbishop  of 
Cologne.'  It  is  to  be  observed,  that  Lotha- 
rius  was  only  elected  and  consecrated  as 
king,  the  title  of  emperor,  which  was  but  a 
bare  title,  not  having  been  conferred  upon 
him  till  the  year  1133,  as  we  shall  see  in 
the  sequel. 

At  this  time  Henry,  king  of  England,  was 
at  last  prevailed  upon  to  admit  a  legate  into 
this  kingdom,  and  allow  him  to  act  here  in 
that  character,  though  he  had  frequently 
declared,  that  no  legate  from  Rome  should 
ever  be  suffered  to  exercise  any  power  or 
jurisdiction  in  his  dominions.  13y  what 
motives  he  was  induced  to  alter  this  his 
resolution,  history  does  not  inform  us.  But 
while  he  was  in  Normandy  with  his  daugh- 
ter Mathilda,  or  Maud,  who  had  fled  to  him 
upon  the  death  of  the  emperor  her  husband, 
he  consented  to  the  coming  of  cardinal  John 
of  Crema  into  England,  with  the  character 
of  the  pope's  legate  a  Latere,  and  to  his 
exercising  all  the  power  and  jurisdiction 
annexed  to  that  character.  The  cardinal 
brought  letters  with  him  from  the  pope  ad- 
dressed to  the  laity  as  well  as  the  clergy  of 
this  kingdom,  requiring  them  to  receive  him 
with  all  the  respect  that  was  due  to  the  vicar 
of  St.  Peter :  and  he  was  every  where  re- 
ceived with  honors,  says  Dunelmensis,  in 
the  progress  he  took  througli  England,  no 
doubt  to  inquire  into  the  state  of  the  differ- 
ent dioceses  and  churches.  He  was  charged 
with  a  letter  for  David,  king  of  Scotland, 
which  he  delivered  that  prince  in  an  inter- 
view he  had  with  him  on  the  banks  of  the 
Tweed.  By  that  letter  the  pope  desired  the 
king  would  order  the  bishops  of  his  kingdom 
to  assist  at  the  councils  which  his  legate 
should  think  fit  or  necessary  to  assemble.^ 
On  his  return  to  London  he  held  a  council, 
at  which  he  presided,  and  there  were  present 
the  two  archbishops,  William,  who,  in  1122, 
had  succeeded  Rudolph  in  the  see  of  Can- 
terbury, and  Thurstan  of  York,  with  twenty 
bishops  and  forty  abbots.  Though  the  le- 
gate presided  at  this  council,  the  archbishop 
of  Canterbury  maintained  his  right  to  sum- 
mon the  bishops  to  it.  For  his  summons 
to  the  bishop  of  Landaff  runs  in  the  fol- 
lowing terms  :  "  William,  archbishop  of 
Canterbury  to  Urban,  bishop  of  Landaff. 
We  hereby  acquaint  you  that  John,  presby- 
ter cardinal  of  the  Roman  church  and  legate, 


intends  to  hold  a  council  by  our  appoint- 
ment, and  with  our  connivance,  at  London, 
on  the  nativity  of  the  ever-blessed  Virgin 
Mary.  We  therefore  command  you  to  meet 
us  at  the  said  place,  &c."'  The  council  sat 
three  days,  and  issued,  during  that  time, 
seventeen  canons,  calculated  to  redress  seve- 
ral abuses  that  had  crept  into  the  English 
churches.  By  the  4th  canon  the  clergy 
were  forbidden  to  receive  any  benefice  at  the 
hand  of  a  layman,  and  by  the  13th  all  in  or- 
ders were  commanded  to  observe  celibacy, 
and  suffer  no  women  to  live  in  the  same 
house  with  them,  but  their  relations.  We 
are  told  that  the  legate  inveighed  with  great 
bitterness  against  the  married  clergy  and 
their  wives,  showing  how  unbecoming  it 
was,  and  dishonourable  to  God,  for  a  priest 
to  rise  from  the  side  of  a  harlot,  and  conse- 
crate, with  his  impure  hands,  the  body  of 
our  Lord;  but  that  he  himself  was  caught 
the  following  night  in  bed  with  a  harlot.^ 
Thus  Huntingdon.  But  of  so  remarkable  a 
fact  no  mention  is  made  by  any  other  writer, 
not  even  by  any  of  the  many  enemies  that 
the  legate's  steadily  adhering  to  Innocent  II. 
against  the  anti-pope  Anacletus  II.  raised  up 
soon  after  against  him,  though  we  find  him 
reproached  by  them  with  pride,  avarice, 
and  tyranny,  in  the  exercise  of  the  power 
with  which  he  was  trusted.  The  following 
year  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury  went  to 
Rome  in  person,  to  complain  to  the  pope  of 
the  usurpations  of  his  legate,  and  ascertain 
the  right  granted  him  by  the  canons  of  the 
church  universal,  to  preside  at  all  councils 
held  within  the  limits  of  his  province.  The 
pope,  to  satisfy  him,  appointed  him  his  le- 
gate, vesting  him  with  all  the  power  an- 
nexed to  that  office  ;  and  that  commission 
the  archbishop  readily  accepted,  though  he 
could  not  but  know  that  he  thereby  owned 
the  very  power,  which  he  went  to  Rome  on 
purpose  to  oppose,  as  inconsistent  with  the 
canons  of  the  church  universal.''  Thus  did 
the  archbishop  undertake  a  journey  to  Rome 
to  remonstrate  against  the  legatine  power  as 
an  usurpation,  and  returned  home  vested 
with  that  power. 

The  following  year  1127,  an  affair  of 
greater  moment  employed  the  thoughts  and 
attention  of  the  pope.  William,  duke  of 
Apulia,  dying  at  Salerno  on  the  26th  of  July 
of  the  present  year  without  issue,  his  uncle 
Roger,  count  of  Sicily,  passed  over  into 
Italy,  upon  the  first  news  of  his  death,  with 
a  fleet  of  seven  ships  of  war,  and  arriving 
at  Salerno  declared  that  he  was  come  to 
take  possession,  as  the  next  heir,  of  his  late 
nephew's  dominions.  The  Salernitans  re- 
ceived and  acknowledged  him  for  their  sove- 
reign upon  certain  conditions;  and  their  ex- 
ample was  followed  by  the  inhabitants  of 


>  Orderic,  1.  12.  p.  882.    Otto  Frisingen.    GotfridVi- 
terb.  in  Chron. 
a  Simon  Dunelmens.  de  Gest.  Reg.  Angl.  ann.  1125. 


1  Concil.  Britan.  vol.  2.  p.  33.        a  Hunting.  1. 
3  Continuator  Florent.  ad  ann.  1125. 


HONORIUS  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


463 


Roger  excommunicated,  and  why.    The  pope  raises  an  army  and  marclies  against  him  ; — [Year  of  Christ, 
1128.]     Is  obliged  to  conclude  a  diBadvantageous  peace.     Honorius  dies  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1130.] 


Melfi,  of  Troia,  aud  of  all  the  other  cities  of 
Apulia,  and  he  was  every  where  proclaimed 
count  of  Sicily  and  duke  of  Apulia,  some 
cities  only  insisting  upon  his  confirming  the 
privileges  they  had  enjoyed  under  their  late 
duke,  which  he  did  very  readily.  In  the 
mean  while  the  pope,  hearing  at  the  same 
lime  of  the  death  of  duke  William,  and  the 
usurpation,  as  he  called  it,  of  count  Roger, 
flew  to  Benevento,  and  there,  without  any 
previous  notice,  thundered  out  the  sentence 
of  excommunication  against  the  usurper  of 
the  dukedom  of  Apulia,  and  all  who  should 
receive,  acknowledge,  or  assist  him.  Tiie 
pope  pretended  that  the  duke  had,  by  his 
last  will,  left  his  dominions,  and  whatever 
else  he  was  possessed  of,  to  St.  Peter.  But 
that  will  was  never  produced  ;  nor  did  Roger 
pay  any  regard  to  such  a  claim.  He  indeed 
endeavored  to  soften  the  pope  with  rich  pre- 
sents, and  even  offered  him  the  cities  of 
Troia  and  Monlefusco,  provided  he  took  off 
the  excommunication,  and  suffered  him 
quietly  to  enjoy  the  dominions  to  which  he 
had  an  undoubted  right  as  laAvful  heir  to  his 
nephew.  But  Honorius  would  hearken  to 
no  terms;  nay,  having  gained  over  to  his 
party  Robert  prince  of  Capua,  Grimoald 
prince  of  Bari,  and  several  other  lords  in 
those  parts,  he  held  a  council  at  Troia,  that 
city  having  declared  for  him,  and  there  ex- 
communicated Roger  anew,  with  all  his  ad- 
herents. Roger,  finding  the  pope  inflexible, 
resolved  to  make  good  his  claim  by  dint  of 
arms,  since  all  other  means  had  proved  in- 
effectual; and  having  accordingly  committed 
the  government  of  the  strong  places  in  Apli- 
lia  to  persons  in  whom  he  knew  he  could 
confide,  he  crossed  over  to  Sicily,  in  order 
to  levy  an  army  there.  At  the  same  time 
the  pope  ordered  the  princes  who  had  joined 
him,  to  raise  what  forces  they  could  in  their 
respective  dominions,  and  hold  them  in  rea- 
diness to  take  the  field,  and  march  against 
the  count  upon  the  first  notice  of  his  landing 
in  Apulia.  Honorius  then  returned  to  Rome 
to  engage  the  Romans  in  this  quarrel,  and 
procure  their  assistance.  But  in  the  mean 
time  Roger,  landing  at  Reggio  with  a  nu- 
merous and  well  appointed  army,  reduced 
several  places  that  had  revolted  from  him, 
put  to  flight  several  bodies  of  the  allies  at- 
tempting to  oppose  him,  and  approaching 
Benevento,  laid  waste  the  neighboring 
country,  and  threatened  the  city  itself  with 
a  siege.  Upon  this  intelligence  the  pope 
hastened  back  to  Apulia  with  three  hundred 
men,  the  Romans  having  yet  raised  no  more, 
and  having  assembled,  with  great  expedi- 
tion, the  troops  of  his  allies,  he  marched,  in 
person,  at  their  head,  against  the  enemy. 
He  was  for  venturing  an  engagement,  but 
Roger  wisely  declined  it,  sensible  that  his 
holiness's  army  must  soon  disperse  for  want 
of  subsistence,  as  he  had  laid  waste  all  the 
neighboring  country,  and  no  care  had  been 


taken  to  supply  them  with  the  necessary 
provisions.  And  so  it  happened ;  a  dreadful 
famine  began  soon  to  rage  in  the  camp  of 
the  allies,  and  most  of  the  princes  reluming 
thereupon  home  with  their  men,  the  pope 
was  obliged  to  retire  to  Benevento,  and 
leave  Roger  master  of  the  field.  As  Ho- 
norius now  found  that  he  could  neiliier  by 
force  of  arms,  nor  by  his  excommunication, 
oblige  Roger  to  part  wiih  so  valuable  an  in- 
heritance, he  became  more  tractable,  and 
began  to  hearken  to  the  overtures  made  by 
that  prince.  Roger  declared  in  the  several 
conferences  he  had  with  cardinal  Haymeri- 
cus,  and  Cencius  Frangipani,  sent  by  the 
pope  to  negotiate  a  peace,  that  he  would, 
upon  no  consideration  whatever,  part  with 
the  dukedom  of  Apulia,  as  he  had  not  ac- 
quired it  by  conquest,  but  by  right  of  in- 
heritance; but  that  he  was  ready  to  receive 
investiture  at  his  holiness's  hands,  to  swear 
allegiance  to  him  and  his  successors  in  the 
see  of  St.  Peter,  and  perform  all  the  other 
duties  that  had  been  performed  by  the  other 
dukes  his  predecessors.  To  these  terms  the 
pope  was  forced  to  agree ;  and  meeting 
Roger,  at  a  small  distance  from  Benevento, 
three  days  after  he  had  signed  them,  he  first 
received  his  oath  of  allegiance,  and  then  in- 
vested him,  with  great  solemnity  and  the 
usual  ceremonies,  in  the  dukedom  of  Apulia, 
saluting  him  with  the  title  of  great  count  of 
Sicily,  and  duke  of  Apulia.'  Thus  by  the 
prudent  conduct  of  Roger  ended  this  quarrel 
without  bloodshed,  and  he  by  adding-  Apulia 
and  Calabria  to  Sicily  became  by  far  the 
most  powerful  prince  in  Italy. 

Of  Honorius  I  find  nothing  else  recorded, 
worthy  of  notice,  besides  his  excommuni- 
cating Conrad,  duke  of  Franconia,  for  rais- 
ing disturbances  in  Germany  and  Italy 
against  Lotharius,  and  claiming  the  crown 
as  nephew  to  the  deceased  emperor,  though 
Lotharius  had  been  elected  by  a  majority, 
and  was  acknowledged  by  the  apostolic  see. 
With  Conrad  were  excommunicated  all 
who  adhered  to  him,  and  among  the  rest 
Anselm,  archbishop  of  Milan,  who  had 
crowned  him  king  of  Italy,  and  the  two  pa- 
triarchs of  Aquilea,  and  Grado,  or  Venice, 
who  acknowledged  him  as  such,  and  had 
persuaded  many  under  their  respective  ju- 
risdictions to  join  him.  The  pope  died  on 
the  14th  of  February,  1130,  having  governed 
the  Roman  church  five  years,  one  month, 
and  twenty-five  days,  and  was  buried  in  the 
Lateran  church.  Fiilco,  of  Benevento, 
places  his  death  on  the  1 4th  of  February, 
1 129 ;  but  with  that  writer  the  new  year 
begins  on  the  1st  of  March.  In  the  Collec- 
tions of  Councils  we  have  twelve  letters  of 
Honorius,  written  on  different  occasions, 
and  among  them  one  to  the  king  of  Den- 
mark, recommending  to  him  Gregory,  car- 


'  Alexander  Ablias  Celesin.  in  geEtis  Roger.     Fulco 
Benevent.  in  Chron. 


464 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Innocent  II. 


Council  held  at  London  in  the  pontificate  of  Honoriiis.    Innocent  II.  and  Anacletus  II.  elected. 

of  the  two  competitors. 


dinal  deacon,  ■whom  he  sent,  at  his  request, 
into  that  kingdom  with  the  character  of  le- 
gate, to  redress  several  abuses  that  pre- 
vailed in  those  churches.  By  another  he 
acquaints  Peter,  abbot  of  Cluny,  Avith  the 
death  of  Pontius,  whom,  he  says,  he  had 
caused  to  be  buried  in  consecrated  ground 
out  of  his  great  regard  for  the  monastery  of 
Cluny,  as  he  had  been  a  monk  of  that  mo- 
nastery. 

In  the  pontificate  of  Honorius,  and  on  the 
first  of  August,  1129,  a  great  council  was 
held  in  London,  at  which  presided  William, 
archbishop  of  Canterbury,  wuh  the  character 
of  the  pope's  legate,  and  were  present  all 
the  bishops  of  the  kingdom.  They  met 
chiefly  to  enforce  the  observance  of  the  ca- 
nons issued  by  other  councils  concerning  the 
celibacy  of  the  clergy  ;  and  such  of  them  as 
still  kept  concubines,  that  is,  as  were  mar- 
ried,   were   strictly   enjoined  to   put  them 


away  before  St.  Andrew's  day  next  ibllow- 
ing.  But  as  little  or  no  regard  had  been 
hitherto  paid  by  the  English  clergy  to  ca- 
nons on  that  subject,  the  archbishop  and  the 
council  recommended  the  affair  warmly  to 
the  king;  nay,  and  left  him  to  inflict  what 
punishment  he  thought  fit  upon  those  who 
did  not  comply  with  the  injunctions  of  the 
council.  They  flattered  themselves  that 
they  should  thus  engage  the  civil  power  in 
the  cause.  But  the  king,  instead  of  obliging 
the  married  clergy  to  dismiss  their  wives, 
made  them  pay  a  sum  of  money  for  leave 
to  keep  them,  and  by  that  means  filled  his 
coffers.  Thus  some  of  our  writers.'  But 
the  Saxon  chronographer  only  says,  that  the 
king  disappointed  the  expectation  of  the 
bishops,  and  gave  the  married  clergy  leave 
to  return  home,  for  they  had  been  all  sum- 
moned to  the  council,  and  to  live  with  their 
wives  as  they  had  done  before. 


INNOCENT  II.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  SIXTY-SECOND  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[Joannes  CoMNEitus,  Emperor  of  the  East, — Lotharius  II.,  Emperor  of  the  West.'] 


[Year  of  Christ,  1130.]  Honorius,  dying 
on  the  14th  of  February,  the  cardinals  who 
were  with  him,  sixteen  in  number,  to  pre- 
vent the  disturbances  which  they  foresaw 
would  be  raised  by  Peter,  cardinal  of  St. 
Mary's  beyond  the  Tiber,  who  aspired  to 
the  pontificate,  elected,  the  very  next  day, 
Gregory,  cardinal  of  St.  Angelo,  and  vested 
him  with  the  pontifical  ornaments  before 
the  death  of  Honorius  was  publicly  known. 
This  election  several  cardinals  and  bishops, 
and  almost  the  whole  body  of  the  Roman 
people,  clergy  and  nobility,  looked  upon  as 
uncanonical,  and  therefore  proceeding  to  St. 
Marks,  they  chose  there  the  cardinal  of  St. 
Mary's ;  and  both  were  consecrated  on  the 
same  day,  Gregory  in  the  church  of  St. 
Mary  the  Greater,  under  the  name  of  Inno- 
cent II.,  and  Peter,  who  took  the  name  of 
Anacletus  II.,  in  the  church  of  St.  Peter. 
Anacletus  had  certainly  a  majority,  which 
sways  in  all  elections,  and  yet  is  placed 
among  the  anti-popes ;  while  Innocent, 
clandestinely  elected  by  sixteen  cardinals 
only,  the  rest  of  the  clergy,  the  people,  and 
the  nobility,  having  had  no  share  in  his 
election,  is  honored  with  a  place  among  the 
lawful  popes. 

Innocent  was  a  native  of  Rome,  and  a  re- 
gular canon  of  St.  Austin,  but  made  cardinal, 
as  a  man  of  great  probity,  and  uncommon 
parts,  by  Urban  II.,  and  employed  in  several 
legations  by  his  two  immediate  predecessors 
Calixtus  and  Honorius.    He  is  said  to  have 


led  a  most  exemplary  life  from  his  infancy, 
to  have  been  of  a  most  humane  and  courte- 
ous disposition,  to  have  made  it  his  study  to 
oblige  all,  and  to  have  not  had  one  enemy 
till  the  time  of  his  election.^  He  was  with 
great  difficulty  prevailed  upon  to  accept  the 
pontifical  dignity,  and  would  have  resigned 
it,  had  he  not  been  dissuaded  from  it  by  the 
cardinals  of  his  party.^  The  writers  of 
those  times,  all  zealous  partizans  of  Inno- 
cent, paint  his  antagonist  in  very  different 
colors.  He  was  the  son  of  Leo,  and  there- 
fore called  in  Latin  Petrus  Leonis.  His 
family  was  one  of  the  most  wealthy  and 
powerful  families  in  Rome.  His  grand- 
father was  a  Jew,  possessed  of  immense 
weahh,  but  embraced  the  Christian  religion 
in  the  pontificate  of  Leo  IX.  who  allowed 
him  to  take  his  name.  He  was  sent  by  his 
father,  while  yet  a  youth,  into  France,  to 
acquaint  himself  with  the  customs  and  the 
manners  of  that  nation.  We  are  told  that 
he  abandoned  himself  there  to  all  manner  of 
wickedness  and  debauchery ;  that  there  is 
no  vice  of  which  he  was  not  guilty,  no 
crime  which  he  was  ashamed  to  commit, 
&c.  Thus  Arnulphus,  who  lived  at  this 
time,  and  wrote  a  short  account  of  the  pre- 
sent schism.  But  how  shall  we  reconcile 
what  we  read  of  Anacletus  in  that  writer, 
with  his  embracing  a  monastic  life  in  the 

>  Iluntingd.  I.  7.  p.  384.    Matth.  Paris,  and  Chron. 
Waverleiens. 
a  Atnulph  de  Schismate,  &c.  c.  4.        >  Idem  ibid. 


Innocent  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


465 


Innocent  retires  to  France.     Is  owned  there.     Is  waited  upon  by  the  kings  nf  France  and  England. 


monastery  of  Cluny  before  he  returned  to 
Rome,  with  his  being  preferred  by  pope 
Paschal  to  the  dignity  of  cardinal,  and  em- 
ployed by  him  as  well  as  by  Calixtus  in 
several  legations?  The  same  author  adds, 
that  he  was  known  to  have  a  criminal  con- 
versation with  his  own  sister  Tropsea  ;  that 
he  was  the  father  of  his  reputed  nephew  ; 
and  that  in  his  legations  he  led  about  with 
him  a  beauteous  young  woman  in  the  dis- 
guise of  a  clerk.'  However  that  be,  his 
party  prevailed  in  Rome,  and  he  was  ac- 
knowledged not  by  the  populace  only,  but 
by  several  cardinals,  by  many  of  the  clergy, 
and  the  whole  Roman  nobility  except  the 
two  families  of  Corsi  and  Frangipani:  inso- 
much that  Innocent  was  obliged  to  quit  the 
city,  and  retire  to  France,  the  usual  asylum 
in  those  days  of  distressed  popes.  Upon 
his  retreat  Anacletus,  now  master  of  Rome, 
stript  the  churches,  beginning  with  St. 
Peter's,  of  all  their  rich  ornaments,  of  all  the 
plate  and  treasure  he  found  in  them,  that 
he  might  thus  be  enabled  to  keep  the  Ro- 
mans steady  in  his  interest,  and  ascertain 
his  claim  against  his  rival,  and  all  who  should 
protect  or  assist  him.^ 

In  the  mean  time  Innocent,  embarking 
with  the  cardinals  of  his  party,  on  board  two 
galleys,  arrived  safe  at  Pisa,  and  was  re- 
ceived there,  as  well  as  in  all  the  other 
cities  of  Tuscany,  for  lawful  pope.  He 
staid  at  Pisa  the  greater  part  of  the  present 
year,  and  from  thence  sent  his  nuncios  into 
France  to  acquaint  the  bishops  with  his  pro- 
motion and  the  intrusion  of  Anacletus,  and 
exhort  them  to  espouse  his  cause,  as  he  had 
been  elected  the  fii-st,  and  had  been  even 
forced  to  take  upon  him  so  heavy  a  charge. 
The  king,  Lewis  VI.  would  not  acknow- 
ledge the  one  or  the  other  without  the  ad- 
vice of  the  bishops  of  his  kingdom  ;  and  he 
therefore  appointed  them  to  meet  at  Etampes 
between  Paris  and  Orleans,  to  examine  into 
the  claims  of  the  two  pretenders,  and  de- 
clare for  him  whose  title  appeared  to  them 
the  best  grounded.  At  this  assembly  was 
present  St.  Bernard,  the  famous  abbot  of 
Clairvaux,  held  by  all  in  high  reputation  for 
his  sanctity,  and  by  him,  as  he  had  espoused 
with  great  zeal  the  cause  of  Innocent,  the 
bishops  were  all  prevailed  upon  to  espouse 
the  same  cause;  and  Innocent  was  owned 
by  the  whole  assembly  for  lawful  pope." 
Upon  this  intelligence  the  pope  left  Pisa, 
and  embarking  anew,  landed  at  St.  Gilles  in 
Provence,  went  from  thence  to  Viviers,  to 
Pui  in  Auvergne,  and  to  Cluny,  where  he 
was  met  by  Suger,  abbot  of  St.  Denis,  sent 
by  the  king  to  acknowledge  him  in  his  name, 
and  congratulate  him  upon  his  safe  arrival 
in  his  dominions.  He  staid  eleven  days  at 
Cluny,  consecrated  their  new  church  during 
that  time,  and  at  his  departure  was  sup- 


>  Arnulph.  de  Schismate,  &e.  cap.  3. 

*  Idem,  ibid.  c.  4. 

*  Idem  c.  5.    Ernald  in  Vita.  S.  Bemardi. 

Vol.  II.— 59 


plied  by  the  abbot  with  sixteen  horses  or 
mules,  properly  accoutred,  to  pursue  his 
journey.' 

From  Cluny  the  pope  repaired  to  Cler- 
mont, and  there  held  a  council  consisting 
of  several  archbishops,  bishops,  abbots,  and 
the  cardinals  who  attended  him.  By  this 
council  several  canons  were  made,  confirm- 
ing those  that  had  been  issued  by  other 
councils.  At  Clermont  the  pope  was  ac- 
knowledged, to  his  unspeakable  satisfaction, 
by  Conrad  archbishop  of  Saltzburg,  and 
Eribert  of  Munster,  sent  for  that  purpose  by 
king  Lolharius.  He  then  proceeded  to 
Orleans,  and  was  met  at  St.  Benedict  on  the 
Loir  by  the  king,  by  the  queen,  and  the 
princes  their  children,  who  prostrating  them- 
selves at  his  feet  owned  him  for  the  true 
and  only  lawful  successor  of  St.  Peter,  and 
assured  him  of  their  assistance  and  protec- 
tion.^ In  the  mean  time  St.  Bernard  was 
using  his  utmost  endeavors  with  the  king  of 
England,  who  was  then  in  Normandy,  to 
get  Innocent  acknowledged  by  him  and  his 
subjects,  in  opposition  to  his  bishops  striving 
to  divert  him  from  it.  But  Bernard  pre- 
vailed in  the  end ;  and  the  king,  attended  by 
a  great  many  lords  and  bishops,  went  in 
person,  at  his  persuasion,  to  Charlres,  where 
Innocent  was  with  Geoffrey  bishop  of  that 
place,  and  throwing  himself  at  his  feet  pro- 
mised him  all  the  filial  subjection  and  obe- 
dience that  was  due  to  the  vicar  of  St.  Peter. 
The  king  invited  him  to  Rouen,  and  during 
his  short  stay  there  obliged  not  only  the 
lords  of  his  court,  but  even  the  Jews,  to 
make  him  rich  presents.^  In  the  mean  time 
Lotharius,  having  assembled  a  council  at 
Wirtzburg  in  Germany,  the  election  of  In- 
nocent was  approved  and  confirmed  by  the 
king  and  the  sixteen  bishops  who  composed 
that  assembly.''  St.  Bernard,  mentioning 
the  kings  who  adhered  to  Innocent,  says 
that  he  was  owned  by  the  kings  of  Germany, 
of  France,  England,  Scotland,  Spain,  and 
Jerusalem.^  But  if  David,  at  this  time  king 
of  Scotland,  acknowledged  Innocent  when 
St.  Bernard  wrote  that  epistle,  he  must  after- 
wards have  been  gained  over  to  the  opposite 
party;  for  the  king  of  Scotland  is  not  men- 
tioned by  WIgrin,  who  lived  at  this  time, 
and  names  all  the  other  kings  spoken  of  by 
St.  Bernard.^  Nay,  Richard  prior  of  Hagu- 
stald  tells  us  in  express  terms,  that  in  1138 
David  king  of  Scotland  was  persuaded  by 
Alberic,  bishop  of  Ostia  and  the  pope's 
legate  in  England  and  Scotland,  to  acknow- 
ledge Innocent  and  return  to  the  unity  of 
the  church,  from  which  he  had  been  long 
separated  by  adhering  to  the  apostate  Peter 
Leo  of  e.xecrable  memory.'' 

>  Petrus  Venerab.  de  Miracul.  I.  2.  c.  16.  Suger.  in 
Vita  Ludovici  VI.  Orderic.  1.  13.  p.  895. 

>  Super,  et  Ernald.  ubi  sup. 

»  Ernald.  ibid.  Malmcsbur.  et  Orderic. 

*  Chron.  Magdeburg,  inedit.  «  Bernard,  ep.  125. 

•  WIgrin  Bituric.  in  Pntriarchio  Biturlc.  c.  63. 
1  Richard  liagualald.  de  Gestis  Regis  Stephan. 


466 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Innocent  II. 


Roger,  count  of  Sicily,  sides  with  Anacletus,  who  confirms  to  him  the  title  of  king.    Innocent  acknowledged 
by  the  German  bishops  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1131.]     Crowns  Lotharius.     Visits  several  cities  in  France. 


Anacletus,  on  the  other  hand,  wrote  and 
sent  legates  to  all  the  Christian  princes  to 
acquaint  them  with  his  promotion,  and  the 
intrusion  of  Innocent,  who,  he  said,  had 
been  clandestinely  elected  only  by  a  few 
cardinals  in  a  corner,  and  in  the  dark,  before 
the  death  of  the  late  pope  was  publicly 
known  ;  whereas  he  had  been  chosen  by  the 
far  greater  part  of  the  cardinals,  by  the  whole 
Roman  clergy,  as  well  as  by  the  people  and 
nobility,  and  had  been  consecrated  at  the 
altar  of  the  prince  of  the  apostles,  in  the 
presence  of  several  bishops,  and  in  the  sight 
of  the  whole  city.  But  his  legates  Avere  no 
where  received,  nor  was  any  answer  re- 
turned to  his  letters.  Roger,  count  of  Sicily, 
and  duke  of  Apulia,  had  not  declared  for 
either  of  the  competitors;  and  to  him  there- 
fore Anacletus  resolved  to  apply  in  person, 
as  one  able  to  support  him  against  the  whole 
power  of  the  opposite  party.  With  that 
view  he  set  out  for  Benevento  in  the  begin- 
ning of  October  of  the  present  year,  and 
having,  upon  his  arrival  in  that  city,  invited 
the  count  to  an  interview,  it  was  agreed  that 
they  should  meet,  and  they  met  accordingly 
at  Avellino,  when  the  following  treaty  was 
concluded  and  signed  by  both,  namely,  that 
Anacletus  should  confirm  to  him  and  his 
successors  the  title  of  king,  which  he  had 
already  assumed,  and  with  that  title  all  the 
privileges,  immunities,  and  exemptions  en- 
joyed by  his  predecessors  in  Sicily  and 
Apulia;  and  that  he,  on  his  side,  should 
acknowledge  him  for  lawful  pope,  should 
support  him  with  the  whole  strength  of  his 
kingdom,  should  receive  investiture  at  his 
hands,  and  pay  yearly  to  him  and  his  suc- 
cessors five  hundred  schifati  (a  golden  coin) 
as  feudatory  of  the  apostolic  see.  From 
Avellino,  Anacletus  returned  to  Benevento, 
and  there  issued  the  bull  granting  to  Roger 
and  his  heirs  the  crown  of  the  kingdom  of 
Sicily,  Apulia,  and  Calabria,  upon  the  con- 
ditions mentioned  above.  To  the  kingdom 
of  Sicily  and  Apulia  he  added,  in  his  bull, 
the  principality  of  Capua,  Robert,  the  pre- 
sent prince,  having  declared  for  Innocent; 
and  likewise  the  city  and  dukedom  of  Na- 
ples, though  they  belonged  to  the  emperor 
of  the  East,  and  were  governed,  at  this  time, 
by  a  duke  under  him  in  the  form  of  a  repub- 
lic ;  thus  disposingof  the  dominions  of  other 
princes  as  if  they  were  his  own,  and  he 
had  a  right  to  bestow  them  upon  whom  he 
pleased.  This  bull  is  dated  the  27th  of 
September  of  the  present  year  1130.  With 
this  bull  the  new  king  returned  to  Sicily, 
and  was  there  crowned  at  Palermo  on  Christ- 
mas day  by  cardinal  Peter  de  Comitibus, 
sent  by  Anacletus  for  that  purpose  with  the 
character  of  his  legate  a  Latere.^  Roger, 
thinking  himself  suflaciently  authorized  by 


»  Fulco  in  Chron.  Orderic.  1. 13.  p.  895.  Petrus  Diac. 
).  4.  c.  97.  Otto  Prising.  I.  8.  c.  16.  el  Bulla  Anaclet. 
apud  Baron,  adhunc  ann. 


the  bull  of  Anacletus  to  seize  on  the  domi- 
nions of  the  duke  of  Naples  and  the  prince 
of  Capua,  invaded  them  with  a  powerful 
army,  and  having  driven  both  princes  out, 
added  their  territories  to  his  own.  Thus  he 
became  master  of  the  whole  country  that  is 
now  comprised  under  the  name  of  the  king- 
dom of  the  two  Sicilies ;  and  he  thenceforth 
styled  himself,  as  appears  from  his  diplomas, 
"  king  of  Sicily  and  Italy,  the  defender  and 
the  shield  of  Christians,"  his  dominions 
serving  as  a  barrier  against  the  Saracens.' 
From  Benevento,  Anacletus  returned  to 
Rome  in  the  beginning  of  the  following 
year,  1131,  and  was  there  received  with 
loud  acclamations  by  the  people,  who  went 
out  to  meet  him,  and  carried  him  in  triumph 
to  the  Lateran  palace. 

In  the  mean  time  Innocent,  having  visited 
several  cities  in  France,  repaired  to  Liege, 
being  invited  thither  by  king  Lotharius,  in 
order  to  be  acknowledged  by  the  German 
bishops,  whom  the  king  had  assembled  in 
that  city.  He  was  met  at  the  gate  by  the 
bishops  and  the  clergy  of  the  place  in  pro- 
cession, and  conducted  to  the  cathedral,  the 
king  walking  before  him  and  leading  his 
horse.  Innocent  was  owned  first  by  the 
king,  and  afterwards  by  all  the  bishops,  for 
lawful  pope,  and  Peter  Leo  declared  an 
usurper,  and  a  schismatic.  In  the  interview 
the  king  had  with  the  pope  he  proposed  the 
affair  of  investitures,  and  pressed  his  holi- 
ness to  restore  them  to  him  as  they  had  been 
enjoyed  by  his  predecessors  before  the  dis- 
pute concerning  them  began.  Such  a  pro- 
posal alarmed  the  cardinals,  apprehending 
that  Lotharius  might  treat  Innocent  as  the 
late  emperor  had  treated  Paschal.  For  he 
seemed  determined  to  recover  that  right,  and 
even  proceeded  to  menaces,  if  the  pope  did 
not  relinquish  it.  But  St.  Bernard,  who  was 
present,  interposed,  appeased  the  king,  and 
the  affair  was  dropped.^  On  this  occasion 
the  pope  crowned  the  king  with  great  so- 
lemnity, though  he  had  been  crowned  before 
by  the  archbishop  of  Cologne,  and  promised 
him  the  imperial  crown,  provided  he  under- 
took, as  became  him,  the  defence  of  the 
church.^ 

From  Liege,  Innocent  went  to  visit  the 
monastery  of  Clairvaux,  belonging  to  the 
Cistercians,  an  order  founded  by  St.  Ber- 
nard, at  this  time  abbot  of  that  monastery. 
The  pope  was  greatly  taken  with  the  edify- 
ing life  led  by  those  monks ;  but  as  they  ob- 
served strict  poverty,  and  his  retinue  was 
very  numerous,  he  staid  there  but  one  night. 
From  thence  he  proceeded  to  St.  Denis, 
near  Paris,  and  being  magnificently  enter- 
tained by  Suger,  abbot  of  that  wealthy  mo- 
nastery, he  celebrated  the  festival  of  Easter 
there,  which,  in  the  present  year,  fell  on  the 


'  Apud  Ughellum  Ital.  Sacra  ad  ann.  1132,  1137. 

s  Bernard!  Ep.  150. 

=  Ernald  in  Vita  S.  Bernard.   Otto  Frising,  1.  7.  c.  18. 


LVNOCENT   II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


467 


Council  of  Reims.     Lewis  VII.  of  France  crowned  by  tlie  pope.     Innocent  returns  to  Italy  ; — [Year  of  Christ, 
1132.]     The  see  of  Genoa  elected  into  a  metropolis;— [Year  of  Christ,  1133.] 


19th  of  April.   He  visited  several  other  mo- 
nasteries and  churches  in  France,  supply- 
ing, says  the  abbot  Suger,  his  own  wants 
out   of  their  own   abundance;'  for  he  re- 
ceived none  of   the   revenues  of    his  see, 
the   Romans,  and  with  them  the  king  of 
Sicily,  and  most  of  the  other  Italian  princes, 
having  declared  for  his  rival.     At  Paris  he 
was  received  by  the  king  with  extraordinary 
marks  of  respect  and  esteem,  and,  upon  his 
departure,   attended   by   him   and   his   son 
Philip  part  of  the  way.^     In  the  beginning 
of  October  he  consecrated  the  church  of  St. 
Medard,  at  Soissons,  and  from  thence  went 
to   Compeigne,   and    from    Compeigne    to 
Reims,  where  he  had  appointed  a  council  to 
meet  on  Si.  Luke's  day,  the  ISth  of  October. 
The   council   consisted   of  thirteen    archbi- 
shops, of  two  hundred  and  sixty-tliree  bi- 
shops, and  a  great  number  of  abbots,  monks, 
and  other  ecclesiastics,  and  the  pope  presided 
at  it  in  person.    By  this  nuinerous  assembly 
the  election  of  Innocent  was  confirmed,  and 
the  sentence  of  excommunication  thundered 
out  against  Anacletus,  and  all  his  adherents. 
Seventeen  canons  were  issued,  of  which  the 
fourth  strictly  enjoined  all  ecclesiastics,  from 
the  degree   of  subdeacon,  to  dismiss  their 
wives,  on  pain  of  being  suspended  fiom  all 
the  functions  of  their  office,  and  forfeiting 
their  benefices.     By  the  fifth  all  were  for- 
bidden to  be  present  at  the  mass  or  any  other 
sacred  function  performed  by  the  married 
clergy.^     On  the  29th  of  October,  the  king, 
Lewis  VI.,  came  to  the  council,  attended  by 
most  of  the  great  lords  of  his  kingdom,  and 
placing  himself,  after  he  had  kissed  his  boli- 
ness's  foot,  in  a  seat  by  him,  acquainted 
him  with  the  death  of  his  eldest  son  Philip, 
killed  by  a  fall  from  his  horse,  and  begged 
he  would  consecrate  his  younger  son,  Lewis, 
then  only  ten  years  old,  king  in  his  room. 
The  pathetic  speech  the  king  made  on  that 
occasion  drew  tears  from  the  whole  assem- 
bly.    The  pope  endeavored  to  assuage  his 
grief  by  exhorting  him  to  submit  to  the  will 
of  God,  and  reflect  that  he  had  blessed  him 
with   other   children   to   remain  after  him 
upon  the  earth,  while  he  had  taken  his  el- 
dest son  to  reign  with  him  in  heaven.     The 
pope,   to   comfort   the   king,    promised    to 
anoint  and  consecrate  his  son  Lewis  the  very 
day ;   and   the   ceremony  was   accordingly 
performed   on   the  25lh  of  October,  being 
Sunday,  with  the  utmost  pomp  and  magni- 
ficence, in  the  presence  of  the  whole  coun- 
cil, of  the  king,  of  the  queen,  and  the  whole 
French  nobility.*     Before  the  council  broke 
up,  the  pope  received  a  letter  from  king  Lo- 
tharius,  sent  to  him  by  IVorbert,  archbishop 
of  Magdeburg,  promising  him  anew  allsub- 


«  Suger  in  Vit.  Ludovic.  p.  318. 
'  Chronosraph.  Mauriniac. 
»  Suger  ibid.  Usperg.  in  Chron.et  Concil.  t. 
*  Suger.  ibid.    Chronograpb.  Mauriniac. 
in  Chron. 


jection  and  obedience,  and  assuring  him 
that  he  was  making  the  necessary  prepara- 
tions to  march  into  Italy  with  the  whole 
strength  of  iiis  kingdom.  He  likewise  re- 
ceived letters,  while  tiie  council  was  yet  sit- 
ting, from  Henry,  king  of  England,  from 
Alphonsus  VI.,  king  of  Arragon  and  Na- 
varre, and  from  Alphonsus  VII.,  king  of 
Castile,  all  owning  him  for  the  lawful  suc- 
cessor of  St.  Peter.'  The  council  ended 
with  the  canonization  of  St.  Godehard,  bi- 
shop of  Hildesheim,  in  Saxony,  who  died  ou 
the  4th  of  May,  1038,  and  was  said  to  have 
wrought  many  miracles  after  his  death. 

Innocent,  having  visited  several  other  cities 
in  France,  set  out,  at  last,  about  the  middle 
of  March,  1132,  on  his  return  to  Italy,  and 
having  crossed  the  mountains  of  Geneva, 
entered  Lombardy,  and  celebrated  the  feast 
of  Easter,  which  fell  this  year  on  the  10th 
of  April,  at  Asti :  from  thence  he  pursued 
his  journey  to  Placentia,  and  held  a  council 
there,  composed  of  the  bishops  of  Lombardy, 
of  the  province  of  Ravenna,  and  the  Lower 
March,  now  the  March  of  Ancona.  But 
none  of  the  acts  of  that  council  have  reached 
our  times.  In  the  mean  time,  Lolharius, 
arriving  with  his  army  in  Lombardy,  agree- 
ably to  his  promise,  held  a  general  assembly 
with  the  pope  and  the  Lombards,  to  dehbe- 
rate  with  them  concerning  the  most  effectual 
means  of  healing  the  present  divisions  in  the 
church.  The  assembly  met  in  the  latter  end 
of  August,  in  a  spacious  plain,  not  far  from 
Placentia,  called  Roncalia,  and  it  was  there 
resolved  that  the  king  should  march  strait  to 
Rome.  However,  he  passed  the  remaining 
part  of  this  year  in  Lombardy,  settling  his 
affairs  there,  as  many  of  the  Lombard  lords 
had  declared  for  Conrad,  crowned  king  of 
Italy  by  the  archbishop  of  Milan.  The 
pope,  therefore,  leaving  the  king  in  Lom- 
bardy, repaired  from  Placentia  to  Pisa,  in 
order  to  terminate  some  differences  that  had, 
for  a  long  lime,  subsisted  between  that  pow- 
erful republic,  and  the  no  less  powerful  re- 
public of  Genoa.  They  were  upon  the  point 
of  coming  to  an  open  rupture,  and  declaring 
war  against  each  other,  but  were  happily  re- 
conciled upon  the  terms  proposed  by  the  pope, 
which  both  parties  agreed  to,  and  swore 
faithfully  to  observe.  Innocent,  to  reward 
the  Genoese  for  their  ready  compliance 
with  the  conditions  he  proposed,  erected 
their  city  into  an  archbishopric,  gave  the 
pall  to  Syrus,  who  was  then  bishop,  ex- 
empted him  from  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
archbishop  of  Milan,  whose  suffragan  he 
was,  and  subjected  three  bishoprics  in  Cor- 
sica to  his  see.-  The  bull  granting  the  dig- 
nity of  metropolitan  to  Syrus  and  his  suc- 
cessors to  the  see  of  Genoa,  is  dated  the 
19ih  of  March,  1133. 


I.  p.  982. 
Dodechin 


'Suger,  ibid.     Chronograph.  Mauriniac.     Dodechin 
in  Chron.      ^  Chronograph.  Ilildensheini  ad  ann.  1132. 


468 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Innocent  II. 


Innocent  in  Rome.     Crowns  Lotharius  emperor.     The  emperor  returns  to  Germany,  and  the  pope  to   Pisa. 
Council  of  Pisa; — [Year  of  Christ,1134.]     Ramirus,  monk  and  priest,  made  king  of  Arragon,  and  marries. 


In  the  mean  time,  Lotharius,  having  set- 
tled his  affairs  in  Lombardy,  came  to  the 
pope  in   Tuscany,  and   it  was  agreed  be- 
tween  them,  that  the   king,   keeping    the 
highway  with  his  army,  should  march  di- 
rectly to  Rome,  but  that  the  pope  should 
pursue  his  journey  along  the  coast,  and  join 
the  king  at  Viterbo.    They  met  there  ac- 
cordingly, and  proceeding  together  to  Rome, 
encamped  together  at  St.  Agnes  at  a  small 
distance  from  the  walls.    The  next  day  they 
entered  Rome  without  opposition,  the  Ro- 
mans not  thinking  themselves  in  a  condition 
to  withstand  so  great  a  force,  and  the  king, 
encamping  on  Mount  Aventine,  conducted 
the  pope  from  thence  to  the  Lateran  palace, 
Anacletus  having  quitted  it,  and  retired  to 
the  castle  of  St.  Angelo.     In  the  mean  time 
the  Pisans  and  the  Genoese,  coming  to  the 
assistance  of  Innocent  with  a  powerful  fleet, 
obliged   Civita   Vecchia,  and  all  the  other 
cities  on  the  coast  to  submit  to  him.    Lotha- 
rius. having  thus  put  the  pope  in  possession 
of  the  Lateran,  claimed  the  promise  he  had 
made  to  crown  him  emperor;  and  that  cere- 
mony   Innocent  performed   with   great  so- 
lemnity,   crowning   at   the   same  time  the 
king,  and  his  queen  Richilda,  whom  he  had 
brought  with   him,  that  she  too  mi^ht  re- 
ceive the  imperial  crown  at  his  holiness's 
hands.     The  king,  wheh  upon  the  point  of 
receiving  the  imperial  crown,  took  the  fol- 
lowing oath,  tendered  to  him  by  the  pope  ; 
"  I,  king  Lotharius,  promise  and  swear  to 
to  you,  lord  pope  Innocent,  to  preserve  your 
life,  limbs,  and  the  lives,  limbs,  and  liberty 
of  your  successors;  to  defend  the  apostolic 
see  and  your  honor;  to  maintain  the  royalties 
of  St.  Peter,  which  you  now  possess;  and 
strive  to  the  utmost  of  my  power  to  recover 
those  that  have  by  violence  been  taken  from 
you."'  The  ceremony  of  the  coronation  was 
performed  on  the  4th  of  June,  in  the  Lateran 
church,  and  not,  as  was  usual,  in  St.  Peter's, 
that  church  being  then  held  by  Anacletus 
and  his  partisans.     The  pope,  to  reward  the 
emperor's  zeal  in  his  cause,  and  to  enable 
him  the  better  to  support  the  imperial  dig- 
nity, granted  to  him,  to  his  daughter,  and  to 
his  son-in-law,  Henry,  duke  of  Bavaria,  all 
the  demesnes  of  the  countess  Mathilda,  to  be 
held  by  them  during  their  lives,  upon  their 
swearing  allegiance,  and  paying  yearly  an 
hundred  pounds  weight  of  silver  to  the  apos- 
tohc  see.2    As  Anacletus  had  a  strong  party 
in  Rome,  and  was  protected  by  the  king  of 
Sicily,  the  emperor,  not  thinking  it  advisable 
to  lay  siege  to  the  castle  of  St.  Angelo  with 
the  forces  he  had  with  him,  returned,  after 
a  stay  of  seven  weeks  in  Rome,  to  Germany, 
and  at  the  same  time  Innocent,  no  longer 
safe  in  that  city,  left  it,  and  returned  to  Pisa.^ 
At  Pisa  Innocent  held  a  council,  at  which 
all  the  Western  bishops  are  said  to  have 

»  Apad  Baron.  «  Idem,  ad  ann.  1133. 

'  Chronograph.  Mauriniac  p.  383. 


been  present.'  By  this  council  Anacletus 
was  again  excommunicated  with  all  his  ad- 
herents ;  Alexander,  bishop  of  Liege,  ac- 
cused of  simony,  and  refusing  to  appear  and 
plead  his  cause  in  person  though  three  times 
summoned,  was  deposed,  which  so  affected 
him  that  he  died  of  grief  as  soon  as  he  heard 
it;  and  the  doctrines  taught  by  a  hermit 
named  Henry,  were  declared  heresies,  and 
condemned,  with  their  author  and  all  who 
taught  or  held  them.  These  errors  were, 
that  baptism  ought  not  to  be  administered  to 
infants,  but  only  to  the  adult  or  grown  per- 
sons ;  and  they  accordingly  re-baptized  all 
who  came  over  to  them;  that  churches  and 
altars  owed  their  origin  to  superstition,  and 
ought  therefore  to  be  destroyed,  and  this 
doctrine  they  put  everywhere  in  execution  ; 
that  crosses  ought  not  to  be  worshipped,  and 
should  therefore  be  removed  out  of  the  sight 
of  the  people  and  broken  in  pieces;  that 
mass  was  a  human  invention  and  a  super- 
stitious ceremony  ;  and  that  prayers  for  the 
dead  afforded  them  no  relief.  These  doc- 
trines the  Hermit  first  taught  in  Provence, 
afterwards  at  Lausanne,  and  at  last  in  the 
diocese  of  Mans,  where  he  acquired  great 
reputation  by  his  pretended  miracles,  and 
was  followed  by  crowds  of  people  of  all 
ranks.  But  being  opposed  by  Hildebert, 
bishop  of  that  city,  and  St.  Bernard,  sent  for 
that  purpose  by  the  pope,  he  was  forsaken 
by  most  of  his  followers;  and  being  appre- 
hended in  endeavouring  to  make  his  escape, 
he  was  delivered  up  to  the  archbishop  of 
Aries,  who  carried  him  with  him  to  Pisa, 
where  he  was  condemned  as  an  heretic  and 
obliged  to  recant.^  This  council  was  held 
on  the  30th  of  May,  1134. 

In  the  same  year  Alphonsus  VI.,  king  of 
Arragon,  dying  without  issue,  the  grandees 
of  the  kingdom,  to  avoid  a  civil  war  among 
the  many  pretenders  to  the  crown,  unani- 
mously chose  Ramirus,  the  deceased  king's 
brother,  though  a  professed  monk  and  priest, 
to  succeed  him,  and  taking  him  by  force  out 
of  his  monastery,  crowned  him,  and  obliged 
him  to  marry.  He  had  by  his  wife  a  daugh- 
ter named  Petronilla,  who  was  no  sooner 
born,  than  assembhng  all  the  lords  of  the 
kingdom,  he  told  them  that,  in  compliance 
with  their  request,  he  had  left  his  monastery, 
and  therefore  hoped  that  they,  in  their  turn, 
would  comply  with  his,  and  allow  him  to 
return  to  his  former  state  of  life,  since  no 
man  would  dispute  the  kingdom  with  his 
daughter,  and  they  consequently  cosld  have 
no  further  occasion  to  hinder  him  from 
re-embracing  the  profession  which  he  had 
chosen,  and  solemnly  vowed  to  die  in. 
As  he  expressed  great  concern  and  unea- 
siness of  mind  at  his  having  quitted  that 
profession,  the  assembly  was  prevailed  upon. 


«  Ernald  in  Vit.  S.  Bernard.  1.  2.  c.  2. 
«  Acta  Episcopor.    Cenomanen  apud  Mabill. 
lect,  torn.  3.  p.  341. 


Innocent  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


469 


The  king  of  Sicily  seizes  on  the  principality  of  Capua;  —  [Year  of  Christ,  1135.]     The  emperor  returns  to 
Italy; — [Year  of  Christ,  1136.]     And  reduces  most  places  in  Apulia  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  1137.] 


in  tlie  end,  to  consent  to  his  abdication. 
Having  therefore  betrothed  his  daughter, 
with  their  approbation,  to  the  son  of  the 
count  of  Barcelona,  afterwards  Ilaiinund 
IV.,  he  exchanged,  with  great  joy,  the 
crown  for  the  cowl.'  That  it  was  by  a  dis- 
pensation from  the  pope,  Ramirus  or  Rami- 
rez quitted  his  monastery  and  married,  is  as- 
serted, in  express  terms,  by  Robertus  de 
Monte,  who  wrote  at  this  lime.^  But  no 
notice  is  taken  of  such  a  dispensation  either 
by  Ordericus  Vitahs,  or  Guillehiius  Neubri- 
gensis,  both  contemporary  writers.  But  it 
is  very  certain  that  the  popes,  in  the  pre- 
ceding century,  had  taken  upon  them  to  dis- 
pense wilh  religious  vows,  and  that  they  who 
wan»d  such  dispensations,  appHed  to  them, 
as  has  been  shown  heretofore  in  this  volume.^ 
The  example  of  Innocent  II.,  granting  to 
Ramirus,  though  a  priest,  leave  to  marry, 
was,  upon  the  death  of  Sebastian  king  of  Por- 
tugal, in  the  sixteenth  century,  urged  in  favor 
of  Henry,  lawful  heir  to  the  crown,  though 
cardinal  priest,  and  at  that  time  archbishop 
of  Evora.''  If  Ramirus  quitted  the  monastic 
life  and  married  by  virtue  of  a  dispensation 
from  the  pope,  that  dispensation  did  not  en- 
tirely satisfy  him.  For  in  the  speech  he 
made  to  the  grandees,  upon  the  birth  of  his 
daughter,  he  begged  they  would  not  oppose 
his  return  to  the  monastery,  which  they  had 
forced  him  to  quit,  that  he  might  thus  atone 
for  what  he  had  done  against  his  conscience, 
and  die  in  peace.^  Natalis  Alexander,  and 
almost  all  the  modern  Spanish  writers,  will 
have  Ramirus  to  have  been  a  bishop,  and 
therefore  look  upon  the  story  of  his  marriage 
as  a  fable,  no  instance  occurring  yet  in  history 
of  a  dispensation  for  a  bishop  to  marry.  But 
by  all  the  contemporary  writers  he  is  only 
called  monk  and  priest;^  and  Surita  assures 
us,  that  he  had  seen  an  original  diploma 
signed  by  Ramirus  wilh  the  title  of  king  and 
priest,  rex  et  sacerdosJ 

Whilst  Innocent  was  still  at  Pisa,  Roger, 
king  of  Sicily,  having  gained  a  complete 
victory  over  Robert,  prince  of  Capua,  and 
Sergius,  duke  of  Naples,  who  had  revolted 
from  him,  seized  on  their  dominions,  and 
added  them  to  his  own,  as  having  been 
granted  to  him  by  Anacletus,  whom  he  ac- 
knowledged for  lawful  pope.  Robert,  thus 
driven  from  his  principality,  had  recourse  to 
Innocent,  who  sent  him  wiiii  cardinal  Gerard 
into  Germany  to  acquaint  the  emperor  with 
the  usurpation  of  Roger,  and  implore  his 
protection.  The  emperor  received  them  in 
a  very  kind  and  obliging  manner;  assured 
them  of  his  protection,  and  ordered  every 
thing  to  be  made  ready,  without  delay,  for 
his  march  into  Italy,  in  order  to  reinstate 


'  Orderic.  ad  hunc  ann.    Neubrig.  1.  2.  c.  10. 
»  In  Chron.  ad  ann.  1160.  »  See  p.  310. 

*  Spondanus  ad  nnn.  1578.         »  Neubrig.  ibid. 
«  Orderic.    Neubrig.  ubi  supra.     Roderic  Toletan.  1. 
C.  c.  I.     Gaufred.  Vosiens.  in  Chron.  c.  48. 
1  Surit.  Annal.  I.  1.  c.  53. 


the  prince  of  Capua  in  his  principality,  and 
Innocent  in  the  possession  of  his  see.  How- 
ever, he  did  not  enter  Italy  till  the  year  1 136, 
when  he  came  at  the  head  of  one  of  the 
most  numerous  and  powerful  armies  that 
had  been  seen  for  many  years  in  that  country. 
He  passed  all  that  year  in  Lombardy  settling 
his  affairs  there,  and  advancing,  in  the  begin- 
ning of  March  1137,  to  Viterbo,  had  there 
an  interview  wilh  the  pope ;  and  it  was 
agreed,  that  the  emperor  should  first  reduce 
the  March  of  Ancona,  that  had  declared  for 
Anacletus,  and  the  pope  in  the  mean  time 
march  against  the  cities  and  strong-holds  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Rome  with  three  thou- 
sand horse,  which  the  emperor  left  with  him 
under  the  conmiand  of  his  son-in-law  Henry, 
duke  of  Bavaria  and  Saxony,  surnamed  ilie 
Proud.  With  that  body  the  pope  and  the 
duke  made  themselves  masters  of  Albano, 
and  all  the  forts  around  Rome,  and  then 
marching  into  Campania  obliged  the  whole 
country  to  submit,  and  drive  from  their  cities 
those  who  were  known  to  be  the  most  at- 
tached to  Anacletus.  At  Capua  they  were 
received  by  the  inhabitants  with  loud  accla- 
mations of  joy,  and  Robert,  their  lawful 
prince,  was  reinstated  in  the  principality. 
At  Benevento  they  met  wilh  some  opposi- 
tion; but  Rosceman,  whom  Anacletus  had 
raised  to  that  see,  privately  withdrawing  lest 
he  should  fall  into  the  hands  of  Innocent, 
the  inhabitants  opened  their  gates  and  re- 
ceived Innocent  as  their  sovereign  and  law- 
ful pope. 

In  the  mean  time  the  emperor,  having  re- 
duced all  the  March  of  Ancona,  entered 
Apulia,  and  laid  siege  to  Bari,  where  he 
was  joined  by  the  pope,  the  duke  of  Bavaria, 
and  the  body  of  horse  under  their  command. 
During  the  siege,  which  lasted  forty  days, 
the  place  being  defended  by  the  troops  of 
the  king  of  Sicily,  the  pope  celebrated  the 
festival  of  Whitsunday,  (which  fell  in  the 
present  year  1 137  on  the  30th  of  May)  with 
great  solemnity,  in  the  camp.  Bari  sur- 
rendered at  last,  and  likewise  Salerno  with 
most  of  the  other  cities  of  Apulia,  Roger 
not  attempting  to  relieve  them,  but  saving 
his  men  in  order  to  retake  them  as  soon  as 
the  emperor  returned  to  Germany.  The 
surrender  of  Salerno  occasioned  a  misunder- 
standing between  the  pope  and  the  emperor. 
For  the  popes,  ever  since  the  time  of  Gre- 
gory VII.  had  claimed  that  city,  and  ex- 
cepted it,  as  belonging  to  the  apostolic  see, 
in  the  investitures  they  granted  to  the  dukes 
of  Apulia,  as  appears  from  all  their  bulls. 
But  upon  what  they  grounded  their  claim 
history  does  not  inform  us.  This  dispute 
was  left  for  the  present  undetermined;  but 
soon  after  another  arose  of  more  importance. 
As  the  emperor  had  reduced  the  far  greater 
part  of  Apulia,  it  was  agreed  between  him 
and  the  pope,  that  a  new  duke  should  be 
created  in  the  room  of  Roger,  who  had  been 
2P 


470 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Innocent  II. 


Disagreement  between  the  pope  and  the  emperor.  Rainulph  created  duke  of  Apulia.  Anacletus  dies ; — 
[Year  of  Christ,  1138.]  Victor,  elected  in  his  room,  resigns.  End  of  the  schism.  The  tenth  general,  and 
second  Lateran  council; — [Year  of  Christ,  1139.]     The  ordinations  of  Anacletus  declared  null. 


invested  in  that  dukedom  by  Anacletus. 
But  both  claimed  the  right  of  naming  and 
investing  the  new  duke.  The  emperor  pre- 
tended that  as  those  provinces  depended 
upon  the  empire,  he  had  a  right  to  inv^est 
with  them  whom  he  pleased.  The  pope, 
on  the  other  hand,  maintained,  that  as  they 
had  been  taken  by  the  Normans  from  the 
emperor  of  the  East,  they  did  not  depend 
upon  the  Western  empire,  that  the  Normans 
had  submitted,  of  their  own  accord,  to  the 
apostolic  see,  had  owned  themselves  vassals 
of  St.  Peter  and  his  successors,  and  as  such 
had  received  investiture  at  their  hands.  As 
the  pope  could  not  prevail  upon  the  em- 
peror, nor  the  emperor  upon  the  pope  to 
yield,  the  contest  lasted  a  whole  month,  and 
it  was  apprehended  they  would  come  to  an 
open  rupture  and  part.  But  the  following 
expedient  was  in  the  end  agreed  to  by  the 
contending  parlies;  namely,  that  the  pope 
should  elect  the  new  duke  with  the  appro- 
bation of  the  emperor,  and  both  should  in- 
vest him.  The  pope  nominated  Rainulph, 
count  of  Avellino,  who  had  married  Roger's 
sister,  but  had,  nevertheless,  been  driven  by 
him  from  his  dominions,  and  was  therefore 
one  of  his  most  inveterate  enemies.  His 
election  was  confirmed  by  the  emperor,  and 
he  was  solemnly  invesfed,  both  by  the  pope 
and  the  emperor,  with  the  dukedom  of 
Apulia  and  Calabria,  swearing  allegiance  to 
both.  The  pope  afterwards  consecrated  the 
duke  at  Benevento  in  the  presence  of  the 
archbishop  of  Aquilea  and  many  other 
bishops,  and  put  him,  on  that  occasion,  in 
mind  of  the  tribute  he  was  to  pay  yearly  as 
duke  of  Apulia  to  St.  Peter. 

The  emperor,  having  put  Rainulph  in 
possession  of  Apulia,  left  him  to  defend 
himself  against  the  king  of  Sicily,  and  set 
out  on  his  return  to  Germany.  Upon  his 
departure  the  pope  retired  to  Benevento, 
not  thinking  it  yet  safe  for  him  to  re- 
turn to  Rome,  as  his  rival  still  held  the 
castle  of  St.  Angelo.  But  the  death  of  Ana- 
cletus removed  all  his  fears.  He  died  on 
the  25th  of  January  in  the  present  year  1138, 
and  was  privately  interred  by  his  relations, 
who  ever  kept  his  burial  place  concealed, 
lest  his  body  should  be  dug  up  and  insulted, 
as  had  happened  to  pope  Formosus.i  The 
cardinals  of  his  party  and  his  relations  sent 
immediately  to  acquaint  king  Roger,  their 
protector,  with  his  death,  and  beg  leave  to 
elect  another  in  his  room.  As  the  king  was 
determined  to  repossess  himself  of  Apulia, 
he  readily  complied  with  their  request,  in 
order  to  keep  Innocent  employed  and  divert 
him  from  sending  any  assistance  to  the  new 
duke.  Upon  the  return  of  the  messenger 
from  Sicily,  the  cardinals  and  clergy  of  Ana- 
cletus's  party  chose,  about  the  middle  of 

»  Orderic.  1.  13.  p.  917.    Ernard.  1.  2.  c.  7. 


March,  Gregory,  cardinal  priest,  under  the 
name  of  Victor.  In  the  mean  time  Innocent 
returned  to  Rome,  and  Victor,  after  he  had 
borne  the  empty  title  of  pope  about  two 
months,  was  prevailed  upon  by  St.  Bernard 
to  quit  the  ensigns  of  the  pontifical  dignity, 
and  throw  himself  at  the  feet  of  Innocent. 
Hereupon  the  sons  of  Peter  Leo,  the  leading 
men  of  the  party  that  opposed  Innocent, 
tired  of  the  civil  dissensions  that  had  reigned 
so  long  in  Rome,  submitted  at  length,  and 
acknowledged  him  for  lawful  pope  on  the 
octave  of  Whitsunday,  which  in  the  present 
year  fell  on  the  29th  of  May.'  Thus  ended 
the  schism,  and  peace  was  everywhere  re- 
stored to  the  church.  In  the  latter  end  of 
this  year,  that  is,  on  the  4th  of  December, 
died  the  emperor  Lotharius,  at  a  village  in 
the  vale  of  Trent,  in  his  way  back  to  Ger- 
many.2  In  his  room  was  elected  by  the 
princes  of  the  empire,  and  crowned  king  of 
the  Romans  by  Theduin,  the  pope's  legate, 
Conrad,  nephew  to  Henry  V.  by  his  daugh- 
ter Agnes. 

Innocent,  having  now  no  enemy  to  con- 
tend with  in  Rome,  appointed  a  general 
council  to  meet  in  the  Lateran  on  the  fourth 
Sunday  in  Lent,  which  in  1139  fell  on  the 
2d  of  April.  All  the  bishops  in  the  West 
were  summoned  to  it,  and  it  was  the  most 
numerous  council  that  had  ever  been  held. 
For  we  are  told,  that  it  consisted  of  a  thou- 
sand bishops,  and  an  infinite  number  of 
abbots  and  other  ecclesiastics.^  From  Eng- 
land there  came  but  five  bishops,  among 
whom  was  Theobald,  preferred  the  preced- 
ing year  to  the  see  of  Canterbury,  and  only 
four  abbots,  the  king  (Stephen)  not  caring 
to  send  more  on  account  of  the  disturbances, 
Avhich  his  kingdom  was  threatened  with  at 
that  juncture.-*  By  this  council,  the  tenth 
general  and  the  second  held  in  the  Lateran, 
the  ordinations  made  by  Peter,  the  son  of 
Leo,  who  had  wickedly  intruded  himself 
into  St.  Peter's  chair,  were  all  declared  null, 
and  likewise  the  ordinations  made  by  those  j 
whom  he  had  ordained.  When  this  decree  I 
was  read  and  approved  by  the  council,  the  ' 
pope  calling  to  him,  by  their  names,  all  the 
bishops,  who  were  present  and  had  been 
consecrated  by  Anacletus,  he  snatched  their 
crosiers  from  their  hands,  their  rings  from 
off  their  fingers,  and  their  palls  from  their 
shoulders,  upbraiding  them,  in  very  sharp 
terms,  with  their  crimes;  and  declaring 
them  unordained  and  incapable  of  perform- 
ing any  function  whatever  of  the  episcopal 
or  sacerdotal  office.  By  the  same  decree 
they,  who  who  had  received  any  order  at 
the  hands  of  Gerard,  bishop  of  Angouleme,  ' 


«  Fulco  in  Chron.    Bernard  p.  320.  Anonym.  Cassin. 
ad  hunc  ann. 
a  Fulco  in  Chron.  et  Chronocraph.  Magdeburg. 

3  Otto  Prising.  1.  7.  c.  23.     Usperg.  ad  ann.  1139. 

4  Ricard.  Hagustald.  de  Gest.  Regis  Sleph. 


Innocent  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


471 


King  Roger  excommunicated.     Heretics  condemned  by  this  council.     Malachy  appointed  by  the  pope  his 
legate  in  Ireland.    Roger,  king  of  Sicily,  invades  Apulia. 


and  Anacletus's  lej^ate  io  France,  were  sus- 
pended from  all  sacred  functions,  and  de- 
barred from  ever  rising  to  a  higher  degree  in 
the  church.'  As  Roger,  king  of  Sicily,  had, 
upon  the  retreat  of  the  emperor,  invaded 
with  a  mighty  army  the  dukedom  of  Apulia 
given  by  the  pope  and  the  emperor  to 
Rainulph,  and  continued  to  assume  the  title 
of  king  bestowed  upon  him  by  Anacletus, 
the  council  thundered  out  the  sentence  of 
excommunication  against  him  if  he  did  not 
quit  that  title,  and,  disbanding  his  troops, 
leave  Rainulph  in  the  quiet  possession  of 
his  dukedom.-  By  the  twenty-third  canon 
of  the  present  council  the  opinions  of  Arnold 
of  Brescia  were  declared  repugnant  to  tiie 
doctrine  received  by  the  catholic  church, 
and  condemned  as  such.  Arnold  was  a 
native  of  Brescia,  had  studied  in  France 
under  the  famous  Peter  Abelard,  who  held 
many  heterodo.x  opinions,  and  upon  his  re- 
turn to  Italy  begun  to  sow  his  new  doctrine, 
a  doctrine  very  disagreeable  to  the  court  of 
Rome,  and  the  clergy  in  general.  For  he 
maintained  that  there  was  no  salvation  for 
the  monks,  ecclesiastics,  and  bishops  who 
possessed  any  property  ;  that  lordships,  es- 
tates, and  demesnes  belonged  to  the  laity, 
and  was  robbery  in  the  clergy  to  hold  them ; 
that  they  ought  to  lead  sober  and  frugal 
lives,  contenting  themselves  with  the  tithes 
and  the  voluntary  offerings  of  the  faithful; 
that  the  titles  of  worldly  grandeur,  which 
they  assumed,  ill  became  the  disciples  of 
the  meek  and  humble  Jesus;  and  that  they 
should  begin  the  reformation  of  manners, 
for  which  they  assembled  so  many  coun(?ils, 
with  reforming  their  own,  and  parting  with 
the  immense  wealth  they  possessed  as  their 
own,  though  the  property  of  the  laity.  As 
Arnold  was  a  man  of  great  eloquence  and 
address,  and  his  doctrine  was  every  where 
applauded  by  the  laity,  the  clergy  and  the 
monks  fell  into  the  utmost  contempt,  and 
became,  in  all  places  where  he  preached, 
the  public  object  of  ridicule,  even  the  women 
reproaching  them  with  preaching  one  doc- 
trine, and  practising  another;  with  making 
it  their  study  to  heap  up  riches,  while  they 
recommended  to  the  laity  the  contempt  of 
riches.  He  likewise  preached,  as  well  as 
the  hermit  Henry,  mentioned  above,  against 
infant  baptism,  the  mass,  the  eucharist,  and 
praying  for  the  dead.  Being  therefore  ac- 
cused by  his  own  bishop,  and  summoned  to 
the  council,  his  doctrines  were  condemned, 
and  he,  as  well  as  his  disciples  and  followers, 
enjoined  silence  by  the  pope  on  pain  of  ex- 
communication.^ The  same  opinions  were 
held  and  taught  by  Pefrus  de  Bruis,  who 
had  therefore  been  condemned  by  Calixtus 
II.  in  the  council  he  assembled  at  Toulouse, 


•  Collect.  Concil.  p.  1011,  et  Chron.  Mauriniac.  p. 
387. 
'  Fulco  in  Chron. 
>  Oibo  Frisiug.  de  Rebus  Qestia  Frederic.  1.  2.  c.  30. 


and  was  again  condemned  in  the  present 
council  with  his  followers,  under  the  name 
of  Petrobrusians.'  The  thirty  canons  is- 
sued by  the  Lateran  council  were  calculated 
to  abolish  the  abuses  that  had  prevailed  dur- 
ing the  schism.  In  the  council  of  Reims 
Innocent  canonized  St.  Godehard,  as  has 
been  related  above,  and  in  tlie  Lateran  he 
bestowed  the  same  honor  upon  Sturmius, 
the  first  abbot  of  Fulda,  who  was  raised  to 
that  dignity  in  744.  and  died  in  779. 

While  the  council  was  yet  sitting,  or  soon 
after  it  broke  up,  arrived  at  Rome  from  Ire- 
land Malachy,  now  St.  Malachy.  He  had 
been  made  bishop  in  1124.  But  as  he  had 
been  driven  from  his  see,  Celsus,  archbishop 
of  Armagh,  being  upon  his  death-bed,  sent 
his  crosier  to  him  as  his  successor,  "  tan- 
quam  sibi  successuro,"  says  St.  Bernard.^ 
Whether  he  was  any  otherwise  elected  we 
know  not;  but  in  the  present  year  he  went 
to  Rome  for  the  pall.  The  pope  received 
him  with  great  marks  of  respect  and  esteem, 
took  the  miire  from  off  his  own  head  and 
put  it  upon  his,  and  upon  his  departure, 
after  he  had  staid  a  month  at  Rome,  ap- 
pointed him  his  legate  for  all  Ireland,  but 
would  not  grant  him  the  pall  till  it  was  de- 
manded by  a  general  council,  which  he 
ordered  him  to  convene  on  his  return  home. 
Thus  St.  Bernard,  who  wrote  the  life  of  this 
holy  bishop.* 

In  the  mean  time  Roger,  determined  to 
recover  the  kingdom  of  Apulia  taken  from 
him  by  the  pope  and  the  emperor,  assem- 
bled a  powerful  army  in  Sicily,  and  landing 
at  Salerno  made  himself  rnaster  of  that  city, 
and  advancing  from  thence  to  Nocera,  Avel- 
lino,  Capua,  and  Benevento,  struck  every 
where  such  terror  into  the  inhabitants, 
threatening  to  lay  their  cities  in  ashes  if 
they  did  not  submit,  that  they  all  submitted, 
except  Capua,  without  opposition.  That 
city  held  out  some  time,  the  people  being 
greatly  attached  to  their  own  prince.  But 
the  king  made  them  pay  dear  for  their  re- 
sistance: for  having  taken  the  place  sword 
in  hand,  he  gave  it  up  to  be  plundered  by 
his  victorious  army,  who  spared  neither 
churches  nor  monasteries,  and  used  the  in- 
habitants in  a  most  cruel  manner.  While 
Roger  was  thus  employed,  Rainulph,  whom 
the  pope  and  emperor  had  invested  with  the 
dukedom  of  Apulia,  having  drawn  together 
a  chosen  body  of  troops,  and  reinforced  them 
with  the  garrisons  which  the  emperor  had 
left  in  several  cities,  took  the  field,  and 
marching  straight  up  to  the  king  offered 
him  battle,  determined  to  die  rather  than 
tamely  suffer  his  dukedom  to  be  taken  from 
him.  Roger  did  not  decline  the  offer,  and, 
an  engagement  thereupon  ensuing,  both 
armies  fought  for  several  hours  with  a  reso 


'  Vide  Natal.  Alexand.  llist.  Eccles.    Sec.  xi.  xii. 
cap.  4.  art.  7,  8. 
a  Bernard,  in  Vila  Malach.  c.  20.    '  Idem  ibid,  c.  16, 


472 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Innocent  11. 


The  pope  marcbet)  to  the  defence  of  Apulia.    Is  taken  prisoner,  with  several  cardinals 
with  the  king.     Terms  of  the  agreement. 


Concludes  a  peace 


lution  and  intrepidity  scarce  to  be  matched, 
the  two  cotntnanders  distinguishing  them- 
selves, during  the  whole  time  of  the  engage- 
ment, above  all  the  rest.  In  the  end  the 
king,  having  lost  the  better  part  of  his  army, 
was  forced  to  retreat,  which,  however,  he 
did  in  good  order,  leaving  the  duke  only 
master  of  the  field.  With  the  troops  that 
remained  he  garrisoned  the  places  he  had 
taken,  while  he  returned  to  Sicily  in  order 
to  raise  a  new  army  there.  But  duke 
Rainulph  dying  in  the  mean  time,  he  no 
sooner  heard  of  his  death,  than  crossing  over 
into  Apulia  with  what  troops  he  had  already 
raised,  he  soon  recovered  all  the  places  he 
had  lost,  and  meeting  with  no  opposition 
but  at  Bari  and  Troia,  both  which  cities  were 
defended  by  numerous  garrisons,  he  began 
to  look  upon  the  war  as  now  at  an  end. 

But  the  pope  unexpectedly  appeared  in 
Apulia,  at  the  head  of  an  army  raised  by 
him  in  Rome,  and  greatly  strengthened, 
after  his  arrival  in  Apulia,  with  the  troops 
that  had  served  under  the  late  duke.  Inno- 
cent was  jealous  of  the  overgrown  power  of 
Roger,  had  lately  excommunicated  him  in 
the  Lateran  Council,  and  could  not  bear  to 
see  him  possessed  of  a  country  in  which  he 
had  been  invested  by  his  rival,  Anacletus. 
Roger,  hearing  of  his  arrival,  sent  immedi- 
ately deputies  to  treat  of  an  accommodation, 
and  to  declare  to  his  holiness,  that  as  the 
dukedom  of  Apulia  belonged  to  him,  both 
by  right  of  inheritance  and  right  of  conquest, 
he  was  determined  never  to  part  with  it,  but 
would  defend  it  to  the  last  drop  of  his  blood, 
and  look  upon  all  as  his  enemies,  who 
should  oppose  him  in  recovering  what  had 
been  so  unjustly  taken  from  him;  but  that 
he  was  willing  to  receive  investiture  at  his 
holiness's  hands,  to  swear  allegiance  to  him, 
and  pay  to  the  apostolic  see  the  annual  sum 
of  six  hundred  schifati,  as  he  had  hitherto 
done.  The  deputies  were  courteously  re- 
ceived by  the  pope,  who  sent  two  cardinals 
to  treat  with  the  king.  But  as  they,  pursu- 
ant to  their  instructions,  insisted  upon  the 
king's  reinstating  Robert,  prince  of  Capua, 
in  his  principality,  which  Roger  would  not 
give  up,  the  treaty  was  broken  off,  and  the 
king  returned  to  the  siege  of  Troia,  which 
he  had  begun  before  the  arrival  of  the  pope. 
On  the  other  hand.  Innocent,  and  Robert, 
prince  of  Capua,  who  was  with  him,  laid 
siege  to  the  strong  castle  of  Gallucio,  which 
the  king  no  sooner  heard,  than  quitting  the 
siege  of  Troia,  he  hastened  to  the  relief  of 
the  place,  and  arrived  at  St.  Germano,  in 
that  neighborhood,  before  the  pope  had  any 
intelligence  of  his  march.  His  unexpected 
arrival  so  terrified  the  pope,  that  he  immedi- 
ately raised  the  siege,  and  retired  in  great 
confusion.  The  king  had  placed  in  ambus- 
cade a  chosen  body  of  a  thousand  horse  un- 
der the  command  of  his  eldest  son,  Roger, 


with  orders  to  attack  the  rear  of  the  pope's 
army,  and  if,  by  any  means  he  could,  take 
him  prisoner,  and  bring  him  to  his  camp. 
His  orders  were  executed  with  all  the 
wished-for  success;  the  rear  of  the  pope's 
army  was  put  to  flight,  at  the  first  onset, 
and  he  taken  prisoner,  with  cardinal  Haime- 
rius,  chancellor  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire, 
and  several  other  cardinals  and  persons  of 
distinction ;  but  Robert,  prince  of  Capua, 
had  the  good  luck  to  make  his  escape.  The 
prisoners  were  all  brought  to  the  king's 
camp  on  the  22d  of  July  of  the  present  year, 
1139.  The  king  sent  some  of  the  chief  of- 
ficers of  his  army  to  wait  upon  his  holiness 
as  soon  as  he  heard  of  his  captivity,  to  beg 
his  pardon  in  the  most  submissive  terms, 
and  entreat  him  to  hearken  to  an  accommo- 
dation. 

Innocent,  taken  with  the  generous  beha- 
vior of  the  king,  and  at  the  same  time  find- 
ing his  army  quite  disheartened  and  dis- 
persed, the  prince  of  Capua  fled,  and  the 
other  princes  in  those  parts,  all  awed  by  the 
army  of  the  conqueror,  agreed  to  the  terms 
which  the  king  had  proposed  from  the  be- 
ginning. He  first  absolved  him  from  the 
excommunication  he  had  thundered  out 
against  him  in  the  Lateran  council;  which 
he  had  no  sooner  done  than  Roger  went  in 
person,  with  his  children,  to  wait  upon  him, 
and  throwing  himself  at  his  feet,  begged  for- 
giveness, and  acknowledged  him  for  lawful 
pope.  In  the  next  place  the  pope  caused 
the  articles  of  the  agreement  to  be  drawn 
up,  granting  to  Roger,  to  his  heirs  and  his 
successors,  the  kingdom  of  Sicily,  the  duke- 
dom of  Apulia,  and  the  principality  of  Ca- 
pua, upon  condition  they  swore  allegiance 
to  the  vicar  of  St.  Peter  in  the  apostolic  see, 
received  investiture  at  his  hands,  and  owned 
themselves  feudatories  of  the  holy  see  by  the 
yearly  payment  of  six  hundred  schifati.  In- 
nocent, in  thus  disposing  of  the  principality 
of  Capua,  was  guilty  of  the  utmost  ingrati- 
tude as  well  as  injustice ;  for  Robert,  the 
lawful  prince,  was  still  living,  and  had,  with  j 
unshaken  constancy,  adhered  to  him  from  I 
the  beginning  of  the  schism,  and  opposed  ' 
his  rival.  But  the  popes,  looking  upon 
themselves,  ever  since  the  time  of  Gregory 
VII.,  as  lords  of  the  universe,  thought  they 
had  a  right  to  dispose  of  principalities  and 
kingdoms  at  their  pleasure,  and  were  ever 
ready  to  sacrifice  all  other  considerations  to 
the  grandeur  of  their  see.  The  terms  I  have 
mentioned  being  agreed  to  on  both  sides,  the 
pope  solemnly  invested  Roger,  by  delivering 
to  him  a  standard,  the  usual  ceremony  in 
the  kingdom  of  Sicily,  the  dukedom  of  Apu- 
lia, and  the  principality  of  Capua,  acknow- 
ledged him  for  king,  and  confirmed  to  him 
all  the  honors  that  were  due  to  the  royal 
dignity.  On  the  other  hand,  Roger  took  an 
oath  of  allegiance  to  Innocent  and  his  sue- 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


Innocent  II.] 

Innocent  returns  to  Rome.     Naples  and  the  other  cities  submit  to  Roger,  or  are  taken  by  force  ;- 
Christ,  1140.]     The  doctrine  of  Abelurd  condemned  in  the  council  of  Sens. 


473 


[Year  of 


cessors  lawfully  elected,  promising  to  pay  jdelermined  inviolably  to  observe  it,  they  ac 


the  yearly  sum  agreed  on  a.s  feudatory  of 
the  apostulic  see,  to  assist  the  pope  canoni- 
cally  elected,  when  his  assistance  should  be 
wanted,  and  to  maintain  the  royalties  of  St. 
Peter.  It  is  observable  that  Innocent,  in  the 
bull  which  he  issued  on  this  occasion,  takes 
no  noiice  of  the  grant  made  by  Anacletus, 
but  only  mentions  the  eminent  services  done 
to  the  church  by  Robert  Guiscard,  the  new 
king's  grandfather,  and  by  his  father,  Roger, 
count  of  Sicily,  who  had  driven  the  Saracens 
out  of  that  country,  and  then  adds,  that  he 
therefore  conhrmeil  to  him  the  dukedom  of 
Apulia,  which  his  predecessor,  Honorius, 
had  granted  him,  and  besides  allowed  him 
to  take  upon  him  the  title  of  "  king  of 
Sicily,"  as  that  country  was  formerly  a 
kingdom,  governed  by  its  own  kings.  In- 
nocent, in  his  bull,  makes  no  mention  of  the 
principality  of  Salerno,  and  consequently 
did  not  invest  him  in  that  principality  ;  nay, 
Anacletus  expressly  excepted  it,  pretending 
it  belonged,  as  well  as  Benevento,  to  the 
apostolic  see.  But  Roger,  paying  no  regard 
to  their  claim,  restored  Benevento,  which  he 
had  taken,  and  kept  Salerno,  which  we  do 
not  find  Innocent  complained  of,  though  he 


quiesced,  and  Roger  was  by  all  acknow- 
ledged for  lawful  duke  of  Apulia  and  king 
of  Sicily.' 

Roger,  having  thus  concluded  a  peace 
and  alliance  with  the  pope,  resolved  to  drive 
out  all  the  petty  princes  in  those  parts,  and 
add  their  principalities  to  his  new  kingdom. 
The  city  of  Naples,  upon  the  death  of  duke 
Sergius,  that  happened  this  year,  renouncing 
all  allegiance  to  the  emperors  of  the  East, 
submitted  to  Roger,  and  elected  one  of  his 
sons,  some  say  Roger  and  some  Anfusus, 
for  their  duke.  The  cities  of  Bari,  Troia, 
Brindifi,  and  Conversano  he  reduced  by 
force,  putting  some  of  their  princes  to  death, 
and  sending  others  over  to  Sicily,  where 
they  were  kept  closely  confined.  Thus,  be- 
fore the  end  of  the  year  1140,  he  became 
master  of  the  dukedoms  of  Apulia,  Calabria, 
Bari,  Naples,  Sorento,  Amalfi,  and  Gaeta,. 
of  the  two  Abruzzos,  and  that  whole  tract 
of  country  now  called  the  kingdom  of  Naples. 
These  provinces  did  not  at  first  compose 
another  kingdom,  but  were  parts  or  pro- 
vinces of  the  same  kingdom,  the  kingdom 
of  Sicily,  of  which  Palermo  was  the  me- 
tropolis.    Hence  the  emperor  Frederic  II. 


did  not  grant  him  the  investiture  of  that  in  all  his  constitutions,  by  the  kingdom  of 
principality.  The  Jesuit  Giannetasius,  in  .  Sicily  understands  not  only  that  island,  but 
his  History  of  Naples,  supposes  Innocent  to  all  the  provinces  on  the  other  side  of  the 
have,  on  this  occasion,  invested  Roger  in  Faro,  or  the  straits  of  Messina,  which  are 
that  dukedom.     But  of  Naples  no  mention   now  comprised  under  the  name  of  the  king- 


is  made  in  the  bull  of  Innocent,  transcribed 
by  Baronius  from  the  records  in  the  Vati- 
can;'  and  the  historian  must  have  con- 
founded the  bull  of  Innocent  with  thaf  of 
Anacletus,  spoken  of  above.  But,  allowing 
the  fact  to  be  true,  the  Jesuit  had  no  reason 
to  be  surprised  at  the  pope's  giving  away  a 
country  that  belonged  to  the  empire  of  the 
East,  as  he  could  not  but  know  that  the 
popes  had  given  Apulia,  Calabria  and  Sicily 
to  the  Normans,  though  they  belonged  to 
that  empire,  and  they  to  wiioin  he  gave 
tliose  provinces  had  no  better  title  to  them 
than  to  the  dukedom  of  Naples. 

The  pope,  having  thus  concluded  a  peace 
with  Roger  to  the  entire  satisfaction  of  that 
prince,  and  thereupon  recovered  his  liberty, 
took  his  leave  of  the  king,  and  repairing  to 
Benevento,  drove  from  thence  archbishop 
Rosceman,  preferred  to  that  see  by  Anacle- 
tus, and  hitherto  supported  by  the  king  of 
Sicily.  From  Benevento  Innocent  returned 
to  Rome,  and  on  the  29lh  of  September  en- 
tered that  city  in  a  kind  of  triumph.  How- 
ever, the  Romans  were  not  at  all  pleased 
■with  the  treaty  he  had  made,  but  pressed 
him  to  break  it  as  having  been  extorted,  and 
not  made  freely.  But  the  pope  declaring, 
that  he  was  persuaded  it  was  the  will  of 


dom  of  Naples,  and  mentioning  Naples  and 
Capua,  he  calls  them  cities  of  the  kingdom 
of  Sicily.^  In  process  of  time  the  kingdom 
of  Sicily,  comprehending  that  island  and  the 
present  kingdom  of  Naples,  was  called  the 
kingdom  of  Sicily  on  this  and  the  other  side 
the  Faro.  Thus  Clement  IV.  in  the  year 
12G5,  investing  Charles  of  Anjou  in  the 
kingdom  of  Naples  and  Sicily,  called  it 
"  Regnum  Sicilian  citra  and  ultra  Pharum." 
It  was  called  so  afterwards  by  other  popes 
and  emperors,  till  the  time  of  Alphonsus  I., 
who  styled  himself  king  of  both  Sicilies, 
rex  utriusque  Sicilies,  and  this  title  all  the 
princes  who  have  possessed  Sicily  and  Na- 
ples have  retained  ever  since  his  time. 

The  rapid  progress  Roger  made  in  the 
conquest  of  Apulia,  or  of  that  part  of  Italy 
which  we  now  call  the  kingdom  of  Naples 
(for  thus  was  the  word  Apulia  then  under- 
stood) gave  no  small  jealousy  to  Innocent. 
But  he  was  wholly  employed  in  hearing  the 
accusations  that  were  daily  brought  against 
Peter  Abelard,  and  his  disciple  Arnold  of 
Brescia.  The  chief  accusers  of  Abelard 
were  the  monks,  and  St.  Bernard  at  their 
head.  He  was  accused  of  teaching  the  same 
doctrines  that  were  taught  by  Arnold,  who 
was  supposed  to  have  learned  them  of  him.. 


God  he  should  be  taken  in  order  to  bring  |  As  Arnold  was  a  man  of  uncommon  address 
about  that  treaty,  and  that  he  was  therefore 

'  '  Fulco  Benevent.  ad  ann.  1138,  1139.     Petrus  Diac. 

1.  4.  e.  117.  1127,  1122.     Anonym.  Ciissin. 

Constil  Occupatis,  1.  1.  apud  Petr.  delle  Vigne.- 

2  p  2 


>  Raron.  ad  ann.  1139. 
Vol.  II.— 60 


474 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Innocent  II. 


Innocent  quarrels  with  the  king  of  France  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1141.]     Several  cities  revolt  from  the  pope  ;— 
[Year  of  Christ,  1142.]     He  dies;— [Year  of  Christ,  1143.] 


and  eloquence,  inveighed  with  great  bitter- 
ness in  his  public  speeches  against  the  gran- 
deur, the  wealth,  and  the  dissolute  lives  of 
the  clergy,  though  he  had  been  enjoined  si- 
lence by  the  pope  in  the  Lateran  council, 
the  ecclesiastics  joined,  almost  to  a  man, 
against  him,  and  at  the  same  time  against 
Abelard,  who  lived  with  him  in  the  greatest 
intimacy;  nay,  St.  Bernard,  the  great  saint 
of  tlie  age,  and  therefore  more  zealous  than 
the  rest,  was  for  having  them  both  put  to 
death,  and  that  advice  he  suggested  in  a  let- 
ter to  cardinal  Guido,  the  pope's  legate  in 
France.'  The  cardinal  transmitted  the  letter 
to  the  pope.  But  as  Innocent  was  not  so 
great  a  saint  as  Bernard,  he  contented  him- 
self with  ordering  them  to  be  apprehended, 
to  be  shut  up  separately,  and  their  books  to 
be  burnt.  The  pope's  letter  was  directed  to 
Samson  archbishop  of  Reims,  Henry  arch- 
bishop of  Sens,  and  Bernard.^  In  the  mean 
lime  several  propositions  being  extracted  out 
of  Abelard 's  works  by  WiUiam  abbot  of  St. 
Theodoric,  and  sent  to  Geoffrey  bishop  of 
Chartres,  as  a  specimen  of  the  errors  he 
taught,  he  begged  that  he  might  be  allowed 
to  defend  them  in  a  council  against  St.  Ber- 
nard, who  had  declared  them  repugnant  to 
the  doctrine  held  and  defined  by  the  church. 
The  archbishop  of  Sen^  thinking  it  incon- 
sistent with  the  laws  of  justice  and  the  prac- 
tice of  the  church  to  condemn  one  unheard, 
appointed,  in  compliance  with  his  request, 
a  council  to  meet  in  that  city  on  the  octave 
of  Whitsunday,  and  summoned  to  it  both 
Bernard  and  Abelard.  At  this  council  Henry 
of  Sens  presided,  and  were  present  Samson 
of  Reims,  and  all  the  suffragans  of  both  sees. 
The  king,  Lewis  VII.,  would  assist  at  it  in 
person,  attended  by  all  the  great  lords  of  his 
kingdom.  At  their  first  meeting  Bernard 
read  to  the  assembly  the  propositions  said  to 
have  been  extracted  out  of  Abelard's  works. 
But  as  it  did  not  appear  that  he  was  the 
author  of  the  book  in  which  these  proposi- 
tions were  said  to  be  contained,  the  council 
condemned  them,  but  passed  no  sentence 
upon  him.^  Of  this  great  man,  and  the  va- 
rious persecutions  he  underwent,  chiefly 
from  the  lewd  and  dissolute  monks,  the 
reader  will  find  a  full  account  in  Mr.  Bayle's 
Historical  Dictionary,  and  to  that  work  I 
refer  him. 

Innocent  had  always  professed  the  great- 
est regard  for  the  French  nation,  and  their 
king,  who  had  received  him  so  kindly,  and 
■supported  him  so  generously,  when  he  was 
driven  by  his  antagonist  out  of  Rome.  But 
in  1141  he  quarreled  with  the  king  on  the 
following  occasion  :  Alberic,  archbishop  of 
Bourges,  dying  in  1139,  some  of  the  clergy, 
after  a  vacancy  of  a  whole  year  and  three 
months,   were    for  electing  one  Cadurcus, 


'  Bernard,  ep.  196.  «  Apud  Baron,  ad  ann.  1140. 

3  Bernard,  ep.  189.    Otto  Frising.  1.  2.  c.  48.    Gaufrid. 
Vita  Bernardi,  1.  3.  c.  5. 


and  the  king  had  given  his  consent.  But 
others,  electing  in  the  mean  time,  without 
the  knowledge  of  the  king,  Peter,  a  relation 
of  Aimeric,  chancellor  of  the  Roman  church, 
and  the  pope's  chief  favorite.  Innocent  im- 
mediately ordained  him,  as  he  was  then  at 
Rome,  and  suspended  Cadurcus.  Hereupon 
the  king,  highly  provoked  at  the  pope's  ap- 
pointing a  bishop  in  his  kingdom  without 
his  approbation,  or  even  his  knowledge, 
would  not  suffer  the  new  archbishop  to  take 
possession  of  his  see,  nor  even  to  set  foot  in 
his  dominions.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
pope,  determined  to  support  him  against  the 
.king  and  the  laws  of  the  kingdom,  put  all 
France  under  an  interdict,'  or  rather  forbad 
divine  service  to  be  any  where  performed  in 
the  presence  of  the  king.^  This  interdict 
lasted  till  the  pontificate  of  Celestine  II., 
chosen  in  1143.  The  monk  Heriman, 
speaking  of  this  interdict,  says  that  the 
king  was  deprived  by  the  pope  of  his  Chris- 
tianity.3 

Innocent  was  wholly  employed,  during 
the  last  two  years  of  his  life,  in  reducing 
several  cities,  attempting  to  withdraw  them- 
selves from  all  subjection  to  the  apostolic 
see,  and  recover  their  ancient  liberty.  These 
wereTivoIi,  Palestrina,  Tusculum  or  Fras- 
cati,  and  Albano.  The  Romans  undertook 
the  reduction  of  Tivoli,  and  laid  siege  to  it. 
But  they  were  most  shamefully  put  to  flight 
in  a  sally  made  by  the  Tiburtines,  which 
obliged  the  pope  to  march  against  them  in 
person ;  and  he  reduced  them  at  last  by  fa- 
mine rather  than  by  force.  The  Romans 
themselves,  a  little  before  the  death  of  Inno- 
cent, shook  off  the  yoke,  and  refusing  to 
obey  Innocent  as  their  prince,  restored  the 
senate,  created  their  own  magistrates,  and 
would  obey  no  other  ;  nay,  they  even  invited 
and  pressed  Conrad  to  come  and  take  pos- 
session of  the  capital  of  the  empire,  which 
the  popes  had  no  sort  of  right  to.  Conrad 
was  rather  inclined  to  espouse  the  cause  of 
the  pope  against  the  rebellious  Romans  ; 
but  the  war  he  was  at  that  juncture  engaged 
in  prevented  him  from  sending  any  troops 
into  Italy.  Roger,  king  of  Sicily,  had  already 
ordered  a  body  of  troops  to  march  to  his  as- 
sistance. But,  in  the  mean  time,  Innocent, 
greatly  affected  with  these  disturbances,  fell 
ill,  and  died  on  the  23d  of  September  1143, 
after  a  pontificate  of  thirteen  years,  seven 
months,  and  nine  days,  reckoning,  as  he  did, 
in  all  his  bulls,  the  years  he  held  the  see 
from  the  day  of  his  election.  He  was  buried 
in  the  Lateran,  in  a  marble  coffin,  which 
had  been  the  emperor  Hadrian's,  says  Joan- 
nes Diaconus  the  younger;  and  adds,  that 
the  roof  of  that  church  falling  in  his  time, 
he  repaired  it  with  beams  sent  him  for  that 
purpose  by  Roger,  the  glorious  and  power- 

•  Chron.  Mauriniac.  1.  3.  p.  386. 

a  Radulph.  de  Dicet.  in  Abbreviat.  Chron.  p.  609. 

>  Heriman.  apud  Dactier.  Spicileg.  tom.  12. 


Celestine  II.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


47S 


Celestine  II.  elected.    Absolves  the  king  of  France  from  the  interdict.    Dies; — [Year  of  Christ,  1144.] 


ful  king  of  Sicily.'  His  body  was  afterwards 
translated  from  the  Lateran  to  the  church 
of  St.  Mary,  beyond  the  Tiber,  which  he 
repaired,  or  rather  rebuilt  from  the  founda- 
tion, as  appears  from  his  epitaph  that  is 
still  to  be  seen  there.^  We  have  many  let- 
ters of  this  pope,  granting  new  privileges  to 
several  bishops,  abbots,  and  monasteries,  or 
confirming  the  old  ones;  which  are  to  be 
met  with  in  the  Collection  of  Councils.  1 
must  not  forget  the  curious  picture  which 
Innocent  caused  to  be  drawn  of  the  corona- 
tion of  the  emperor  Lotharius.  In  that  pic- 
ture the  pope  was  represented  sitting  in  the 


pontifical  chair,  and  Lotharius  receiving, 
upon  his  knees,  the  imperial  crown  at  his 
hand,  with  the  following  inscription  : 

'■  Rex  venit  ante  fores,  jiirans  prins  urbis  honores, 
Post  homo  fit  Papie,  recepit,  quo  danie,  coronam." 

The  words  "  homo  fit  Papa;,"  he  becomes 
the  pope's  man,  import  that  the  emperor 
became  the  pope's  vassal  or  feudatorv.  But 
this  picture  was  suppressed  in  the  time  of 
the  emperor  Frederic  I.  In  the  pontificate 
of  Innocent,  and  in  the  month  of  April, 
1141,  died  Joannes  Comnenus,  emperor  of 
the  East,  after  a  reign  of  24  years,  and  was 
succeeded  by  his  son,  Manuel  Comnenus. 


CELESTINE  II.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  SIXTY-THIRD  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[Manuel  Comnenus,  Emperor  of  the  East. — Conrad  III.,  King  of  Germany.'] 


[Year  of  Christ,  1143.]  Innocent  was 
succeeded  by  Celestine,  the  second  of  that 
name,  called  before  his  election  Guido  de 
Castello.  He  was  a  Tuscan,  cardinal  of  St. 
Mark,  and,  in  the  year  1140,  legate  of  the 
apostolic  see  in  France.  For  it  was  to  him 
St.  Bernard  applied,  in  that  year,  against 
Arnold  of  Brescia  and  Abelard,  as  has  been 
said  above.  The  new  pope  immediately 
acquainted  Peter,  surnamed  the  Venerable, 
abbot  of  Cluny,  and  the  other  monks  of  that 
monastery  with  his  promotion,  telling  them, 
that  he  was  elected,  the  third  day  after  the 
death  of  his  predecessor,  by  the  cardinals, 
priests,  and  deacons — by  his  brethren  the 
bishops  and  sub-deacons,  amid  the  acclama- 
tions of  the  clergy  and  the  Roman  people." 


'  Apud  Mahill.  torn.  2.  Mussei  Ital. 

'  It  is  as  follows  :  "  Hie  requiescunt  venerabilia  ossa 
sanctissiiniE  meraoria;  Domini  Innoeentii  Pape  secun- 
dl  de  d(imo  Paparesconim,  qui  pr;Bsentem  eculesiani, 
ad  honorein  Dei  Genetricis  Mariie,  sicut  est,  4  fun- 
damenlis  sumptibus  propriis,  renovavlt.  S.  A.  D. 
MCXLII.,ctan.D.  MCXLVIII."  The  work  was  begun 
by  the  pope,  as  appears  from  Victorellus,  (Ciacon.  in 
Innocent  II.)  and  completed,  after  his  death,  by  his 
lirnther,  Peter  bishop  of  Albaiio  :  and  thus  are  the 
two  dates,  1142  and  IMS,  understood  by  Giaconius. 

'  Celest.  ep.  apud  Daclier.  Spicileg.  torn.  4.  ct  Concil. 
torn.  10.  p.  1031. 


As  Innocent  died  on  the  23d  of  September, 
and  Celestine  was  chosen  on  the  third  day 
after  his  predecessor's  death,  his  election 
must  have  happened  on  the  26th  of  Sep- 
tember. 

His  promotion  was  no  sooner  known  in 
France,  than  the  king  sent  embassadors  to 
beg  he  w^ould  take  off  the  interdict,  which 
he  had  been  put  under  by  Innocent.  Celes- 
tine received  the  embassadors  with  extraor- 
dinary marks  of  kindness,  and  rising  from 
his  chair,  as  soon  as  they  had  acquainted 
him  with  the  business  upon  which  they 
were  sent,  he  gave  his  benediction  to  the 
kingdom  of  France,  and  to  all  in  it;  and 
thus  absolved  the  king  and  all  his  subjects 
from  the  interdict.'  On  the  other  hand,  the 
king  was  persuaded  by  St.  Bernard  to  re- 
ceive Peter,  and  suffer  him  to  hold  the  see 
of  Bourges.  Celestine  is  commended  by  the 
contemporary  writers  for  his  humanity,  and 
many  other  good  qualities ;  but  he  had  not 
time  to  exert  them  :  for  he  died  on  the  9th 
of  March  of  the  following  year,  1144,  hav- 
ing held  the  see  only  five  months  and  thir- 
teen days. 

«  Chron.  Maurin. 


476 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


Lucius  II.  elected. 


Roger,  king  of  Sicily,  quarrels  with  Lucius.     The  Romans  persist  in  their  rebellion 
cius  attempts  to  subdue  them. 


[Lucius  H. 

Lu- 


LUCIUS  II.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  SIXTY-FOUETH  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[Manuel  Comnenus,  Emperor  of  ihe  East. — Conrad  HI.,  King  of  Germany.'] 


[Year  of  Christ,  1144.]  In  the  room  of 
Celesline  was  elected,  alter  a  vacancy  of 
three  days,  Gerard  Caccianemicus,  and 
called  Lucius  II.  He  was  a  native  of 
Bologna,  and  a  regular  canon  of  St.  Austin, 
was  made  cardinal  by  Honorius  II.,  and 
treasurer  of  the  Roman  church  by  Innocent 
II.'  He  sent,  a  few  days  after  his  election, 
Alberic,  bishop  of  Ostia,  into  France,  with 
the  character  of  legate  a  latere,  and  Haime- 
lus,  bishop  of  Tusculum,  with  the  same 
character  into  England.^  But  Haimerus 
staid,  it  seems,  a  very  short  time  here,  the 
affairs  of  the  kingdom  being  then  in  great 
confusion  ;  for  we  find  him  acting  this  very 
year  as  legate  in  France,  Alberic  being  re- 
called from  thence  to  Rome.' 

Roger,  king  of  Sicily,  quarreling  with 
Lucius,  we  know  not  upon  what  provoca- 
tion, seized  on  several  places  belonging  to 
the  apostolic  see,  and  among  the  rest  on 
Terracina,  plundered  the  monastery  of  Monte 
Cassino,  and  likewise  the  church,  and  laid 
waste  all  Campania.  But  in  an  interview 
he  had  with  the  pope,  a  peace  was  con- 
cluded, and  the  king,  restoring  all  the  places 
he  had  taken,  returned  to  Sicily.  Thus 
Ceccanus,  and  the  anonymous  Casinensis, 
two  contemporary  writers  :■*  and  this  is  all 
we  know  of  that  quarrel. 

The  Romans,  persisting  in  the  rebellion 
which  they  had  begun  in  the  time  of  Inno- 
cent, acknowledged  Lucius  for  lawful  pope, 
but  would  not  own  him  for  their  sovereign  ; 
maintaining,  that  the  clergy,  from  the  high- 
est to  the  lowest,  ought  to  be  satisfied  with 
the  tithes  and  the  voluntary  oblations  of  the 
faithful,  and  that  to  possess  lordships,  es- 
tates, or  temporal  dominions,  was  incon- 
sistent with  their  profession.  This  doctrine 
the  Romans  had  learned  of  Arnold  of  Bres- 
cia, and  they  are  therefore  frequently  called 
by  the  contemporary  writers  Arnoldists. 
They  paid  all  due  regard  to  Lucius  as  their 
bishop,  but  assembling  soon  after  his  elec- 
tion in  the  capitol,  they  vested  the  patrician 
dignity  in  one  of  their  own  body,  namely,  in 
Jordan,  the  son  of  Peter  Leo,  and  submitted 
to  him  as  their  prince.  At  the  same  time 
they  seized  all  the  revenues  as  belonging  to 
their  prince,  put  other  officers  in  the  room 
of  those  who  had  been  appointed  by  the 

«  Sigon.  de  Regn.  Ital.  1.  11.  et  Mabill.  in  Itiner. 
Italic,  p.  199.  a  Chron.  Maurin.  p.  387. 

3  Dacher.  Hist.  Vezel.  1.  1.  p.  473. 

'Ceccan.  ad  ann.  1144,  et  Anonym.  Casin.  ad  ann. 
1143. 


pope,  and  issued  edicts  in  the  style  of  the 
ancient  senate.  Lucius,  not  finding  himself 
in  a  condition  to  oppose  them,  wrote  a  very 
submissive  letter  to  Conrad,  imploring  his 
protection.  The  Romans  loo,  on  their  side, 
earnestly  pressed  that  prince,  both  by  let- 
ters and  frequent  embassies,  to  come  and 
take  possession  of  the  metropolis  of  the  em- 
pire, which  they  had  rescued  from  the 
slavery  it  had  long  groaned  under,  and 
were  ready  to  deliver  up  to  him,  as  their 
liege  lord  and  sovereign.  In  one  of  their 
letters  they  tell  Conrad,  that  they  have  taken 
all  the  fortified  houses  in  Rome,  and  either 
pulled  them  down,  or  keep  them  for  him ; 
that  they  have  been  opposed  by  the  pope, 
by  the  Frangipani,  the  Ptolemies,  the  sons 
of  Peter  Leo,  except  Jordan,  and  by  many 
other  powerful  families  in  Rome,  but  were 
now  absolute  masters  of  the  city,  and  would 
open  their  gates  to  him  as  soon  as  he  ap- 
peared before  them.  They  entreat  him  to 
fix  his  residence  at  Rome,  and  restore  that 
city,  which  had  been  the  seat  of  the  empire 
till  it  was  usurped  by  the  popes,  to  its  an- 
cient splendor.  To  estrange  Conrad  from 
the  pope,  they  added,  that  they  were  in- 
formed he  had  entered  into  an  alliance 
against  him  with  Roger,  king  of  Sicily, 
granting  him  the  crozier  and  the  ring,  and 
allowing  him  to  wear  the  dalmatic,  the 
mitre,  and  the  sandals,  badges  of  the  impe- 
rial dignity.  But  Conrad  paid  no  kind  of 
regard  to  their  repeated  invitations,  their 
letters,  and  their  embassies :  on  the  con- 
trary, he  received  with  the  greatest  marks 
of  respect  Guido,  cardinal  and  chancellor  of 
the  Roman  church,  sent  by  Lucius  to  crave 
his  assistance,  and  expressed  great  concern 
at  his  not  being  in  a  condition  to  lend  him 
any.' 

Lucius,  despairing  of  relief  from  the  king 
of  Germany,  whom  he  looked  upon  as  the 
protector  of  the  Roman  church,  and  no 
longer  able  to  bear  with  the  haughty  be- 
havior of  the  senate  and  their  patrician, 
treating  him  as  their  subject,  resolved  to  at- 
tempt the  recovery  of  his  temporal  power 
with  the  assistance  of  the  friends  he  had  still 
remaining  in  Rome  and  in  that  neighbor- 
hood. Having  accordingly  assembled  a  body 
of  troops,  he  put  himself  at  their  head,  and 
marched  to  the  capitol,  while  the  senate  were 
sitting  there  with  their  prince  or  patrician. 
His  design  was  to  drive  them  from  thence 


>  Otto  Prising.  1.  7.  c.  31.    Sigon.  de  Regn.  Ital.  1. 11. 


EUGENIUS  III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


477 


Lucius  is  killed  in  attempting  to  subdue  the  Romans  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1145.]  Some  of  his  bulls.  Eugenius 
III.  elected.  Obliged  to  quit  Rome.  Embassadors  from  the  Christians  in  the  East.  Lewis  of  Fr&nce 
resolves  to  go  in  person  to  their  assistance. 


•with  ignominy,  and  take  possession  of  the  ' 
place.     But  he  met  with  a  vigorous  resist- 
ance  from   the   Roman   people,   his  troops 
were  repulsed,  and   he,  in    endeavoring  to  ; 
encourage    them,   so    grievously    wounded 
with  a  stone,  that  he  died  a  few  days  after.' 
His  death   happened  upon  the  25th  of  Fe- 
bruary  1145,  after  a  pontificate  of  eleven  | 
months   and   fourteen    days;    and    he    was 
buried  in  the  Lateran  church,  where  he  had 
lived  many  years  regular  canon  of  that  order 
founded  by  St.  Austin.-     He  was  cardinal  j 
of  the   church,  called  the    Holy  Cross   in  j 
Jerusalem,  which  he  rebuilt,  while  yet   a  i 
cardinal,  and  enriched  with   many  posses-  i 
sions.*  I 

Lucius,  by  a  bull  dated  from  the  Lateran 
the  15th  of  May,  confirmed  that  of  Urban  II.  '. 


subjecting  all  the  bishops  of  Brittany  to  the 
archbishop  of  Tours,  and  commanding  them 
to  obey  him  as  their  metropolitan.  How- 
ever, he  allowed  GeofTry,  bishop  of  Dol,  who 
claimed  that  dignity,  to  wear  the  pall  as  long 
as  he  lived,  and  to  be  under  the  immediate 
jurisdiction  of  the  pope  alone.  He  likewise 
confirmed  to  Raimund,  archbishop  of  Toledo, 
the  primacy  over  all  Spain,  which  had  been 
granted  to  his  see  by  Urban  II.,  but  was 
disputed  by  the  Spanish  bishops.  As  the 
monastic  discipline  was  greatly  decayed  in 
the  monastery  of  St.  Sabas,  in  Rome, 
founded  by  Gregory  the  Great,  Lucius  wrote 
to  Peter,  abbot  of  Cluny,  ordering  him  to 
send  thirteen  of  his  monks  to  reform  that 
monastery,  subjecting  it  by  his  letter  to  Peter 
and  his  successors  for  ever. 


EUGENIUS  III.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  SIXTY-FIFTH  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[Manuel  Comnenus,  Emperor  of  the  East. — Conrad  III.,  Frederick  uEnobarbus,  Kings  of 

Germany.'] 


[Year  of  Christ,  1145.]  The  cardinals, 
assembling  in  the  church  of  St.  Cesarius  the 
second  day  after  the  death  of  Lucius,  that  is, 
on  the  27th  of  February,  chose,  with  one 
consent,  Bernard,  a  native  of  Pisa,  abbot  of 
St.  Anastasius,  monk  of  the  Cistercian  ord^r, 
and  disciple  of  St.  Bernard,  and  enthroning 
him  with  the  usual  ceremonies  in  the  La- 
teran palace,  gave  him  the  name  of  Euge- 
nius 111.''  But  the  Romans  flying  to  arms, 
and  declaring  that  they  would  not  suffer  him 
to  be  consecrated,  until  he  resigned  all  tem- 
poral and  contented  himself  with  the  spiritual 
dominion,  he  privately  withdrew  from  Rome, 
in  the  night  between  the  1st  and  2d  of  March, 
to  a  castle  in  that  neighborhood  called  Mon- 
ticelli,  and  from  thence,  the  next  day,  to  the 
famous  Benedictine  monastery  of  Farfa  in 
Sabina,  distant  twenty-five  miles  from  Rome. 
The  cardinals  followed  him  thither;  and  he 
was  consecrated,  in  the  church  of  that 
monastery,  on  the  4th  of  March,  which  in 
the  present  year,  1145,  fell  on  a  Sunday.^ 
He  staid  at  Farfa  only  a  few  days  after  his 
consecration,  but,  not  daring  to  return  to 
Rome,  he  went  to  Viterbo,  and  continued 
there  eight  months. 

During  his  stay  at  Yiterbo,  embassadors 
arrived  there,  sent  by  the  Christian  princes 
in  the  East  to  acquaint  him  and  the  West- 
ern princes,  especially  Conrad,  king  of  Ger- 
many, or,  as  he  was  now  called,  of  the 

'  Gotfrid.  Vitirb.  in  Chron.  p.  512. 
a  .Muliill.  Mu.-(.  Iial.  torn.  2.        » Idem  ibid. 
*  Anonym.  Cusin.     Otto  Prising.  Chron.  I.  7.  c.  31. 
»  Idem  ibid,  et  Annal.  Waverlciens.     Collect.  O.xo- 
Diens.  torn.  2. 


Romans,  and  Lewis,  king  of  France,  with 
the  taking  of  Edessa  in  Mesopotamia  by  the 
Turks,  and  implore  their  assistance.  That 
city  was  betrayed  to  the  enemy  by  one  of 
the  citizens ;  who,  to  be  revenged  on  San- 
guinus,  prince  of  the  place,  for  debauching 
his  daughter,  admitted  the  Turks  into  a 
tower  adjoining  to  the  walls  where  he  lived. 
From  thence  they  sallied  out  on  Christmas 
night,  1144,  while  the  inhabitants  were  all 
intent  upon  their  devotions,  opened  the  gates 
to  the  rest  of  the  army,  and  thus  by  treachery 
became  masters  of  one  of  the  strongest  and 
most  opulent  cities  in  the  East,  alter  they 
had,  for  several  months,  attempted  in  vain 
to  reduce  it  by  force.  The  inhabitants  were 
all,  men,  women,  and  children,  put  to  the 
sword,  or  carried  into  captivity. '  Some 
writers,  and  among  the  rest  Baronius,  fol- 
lowing Dodechinus,  place  the  taking  of 
Edessa  at  the  year  1145.  But  witli  that 
writer  Christmas  day  was  the  first  day  of 
the  new  year. 

The  pope,  alarmed  at  the  loss  of  Edessa, 
wrote,  as  soon  as  he  heard  of  it,  to  Lewis 
the  Vllth  of  France,. pressing  him  to  go  in 
person  to  the  assistance  of  the  Christians  in 
the  East,  and  confirming  to  those  who  should 
attend  him  in  that  expedition,  all  the  privi- 
leges that  had  been  granted  by  his  predeces- 
sors, especially  by  Urban  11.,  to  such  as  en- 
gaged in  that  holy  war.  This  letter  is  dated 
from  Vetralla,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Vi- 
terbo, the  first   of  December.     Lewis  had 


'  Dodechin.  ad  ann.  1145. 
WUliel.  Tyrius,  1.  16.  n.  3. 


Otto  Prising.  I.  7.  c.  30. 


478 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[EUSENIUS  III. 

The  pope  obliges  the  Romans  to  submit,  and  returns  to  Rome.  Obliged  to  leave  Rome  anew  and  fly  to 
France  ;—[ Year  of  Christ,  1146.]  Holds  a  council  at  Treves.  The  pope  arrives  in  France  •'—[ Year  of 
Christ,  1147.]     Holds  a  council  at  Paris.  '     *■ 


been  already  persuaded  by  St.  Bernard  to 
march  in  person  to  the  relief  of  the  Christians 
in  the  East,  had  declared  this  his  intention 
to  the  lords  of  his  kingdom  in  an  assembly 
held  this  year  at  Bourges  on  Christmas  day, 
and  appointed  them  to  meet  again  in  Vezelay 
the  following  year  on  Easier  day,  when  he 
was  to  take  the  cross,  in  order  to  set  out  for 
the  Holy  Land,  as  soon  as  he  had  settled, 
jointly  with  them,  the  affairs  of  the  king- 
dom.' Some  writers  tell  us,  that  the  king 
undertook  this  expedition  by  way  of  penance, 
which  he  imposed  upon  himself  for  having 
set  fire  to  the  cathedral  church  of  Vitriacum 
or  Vitri,  on  which  occason  thirteen  hundred 
persons  who  had  taken  refuge  in  that  church 
perished  in  the  flames.^ 

In  the  mean  time  the  pope,  weary  of  his 
stay  at  Viterbo,  resolved  to  bring  the  Ro- 
mans, at  all  events,  back  to  their  duty,  and 
in  order  to  that,  employ  both  his  spiritual 
and  temporal  arms  against  them.  He  began 
with  his  spiritual,  and  thuncJered  out  with 
great  solemnity  the  sentence  of  excommuni- 
cation against  Jordan,  the  patrician,  and  all 
who  adhered  to  him.  But  the  Romans  pay- 
ing no  regard  to  his  excommunications  and 
anathemas,  he  entered  into  an  alliance  with 
the  Tiburtines,  their  inveterate  enemies, 
raised  troops  at  Viterbo' and  in  the  few  cities 
that  had  declared  for  him,  and  marching  ] 
with  them  to  Rome,  reduced  that  city  in  a 
very  short  time  to  such  straits  that  they 
were  obliged  to  submit,  and  sue  for  peace; 
and  a  peace  was  concluded  upon  the  fol- 
lowing terms:  1.  That  they  should  abolish 
the  patriciate.  2.  That  they  should  restore 
the  governor  of  Rome,  and  the  other  magis- 
trates to  their  former  dignity  and  power. 
3.  That  the  senate  should  hold  their  places 
and  authority  of  the  pope  alone.  And, 
lastly,  that  the  authors  of  the  present  troubles 
should  be  forgiven,  and  all  who  had  been 
concerned  in  them."  These  terms  being 
agreed  to,  Eugenius  entered  the  city  in  a 
kind  of  triumph,  and  celebrated  the  festival 
of  Christmas  in  the  Lateran,  attended  by  a 
great  many  bishops,  by  most  of  the  Roman 
nobility,  and  the  whole  Roman  clergy. 

A  perfect  tranquillity  now  reigned  in 
Rome.  But  it  was  short-lived.  The  Ro- 
mans, highly  provoked  against  the  Tibur- 
tines, pressed  the  pope  to  pull  down  the 
strong  walls  of  that  city  ;  and  upon  his  re- 
fusing to  comply  with  so  unjust  a  demand, 
they  began  to  make  such  warlike  prepara- 

«  Odo  de  IMogilo  de  Prefectione  Ludovic  VII.  1.  1. 
Chron.  Maurin.  ad  ann.  1146. 

"  Chron.  Cister.  in  edit,  apud  Chifflet.  in  Prefat.  ad 
libros  Odon.  de  Diogil.  et  Robert  de  Monte. 

Valesius  supposes  the  whole  city  to  have  been  burnt 
by  the  king,  and  to  have  taken  from  thence  the  name 
of  "  Vitri  le  Brul6  ;"  but  it  was  afterwards  rebuilt  bv 
Francis  I.  upon  the  banks  of  the  Marne,  and  called 
••Vitriacum,"  or  "  Victoriacum  Francisci,  Vitri  le 
Francois." — (Vales,  ch.  not.  Galliarum.) 

»  Otto  Frising.  1.  7.  c.  31,  34. 


tions,  and  proceeded  to  such  threats  against 
him,  as  made  him  resolve  to  quit  Rome 
anew,  and  seek  an  asylum  in  France,  as 
many  of  his  predecessois  had  done,  against 
the  fury  of  his  enemies  in  Italy.  He  ac- 
cordingly first  retired  from  the  Lateran 
palace,  and  from  Rome  to  the  Transtyberine 
city,  and  setting  out  from  thence  a  few  days 
after,  he  went  first  to  Siena,  then  to  Brescia, 
and  from  Brescia  to  Treves,  where  he  held 
a  council,  at  which  were  present  many 
bishops,  and  among  the  rest  the  archbishop 
of  Mentz,  invited  by  the  pope  to  examine 
the  writings  of  Hildegardis,  foundress  of  the 
monastery  of  Bingen,  said  to  have  been  dic- 
tated to  her  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  The  writ- 
ings were  carefully  examined  by  the  coun- 
cil, were  approved  by  all  who  composed  it, 
especially  by  St.  Bernard,  and  she  was  al- 
lowed by  the  pope  to  publish  whatever  the 
Holy  Ghost  should  reveal  to  her.'  By  the 
same  council,  Henry,  abbot  of  Fulda,  Avas 
deposed,  being  accused  by  his  monks,  and 
found  guilty  of  mal-administration.^ 

The  pope  continued  three  months  at 
Treves,  and  then  entering  Burgundy,  visited 
the  monastery  of  Cluny,  confirmed  to  those 
monks  all  the  privileges  that  had  been  grant- 
ed to  them  by  other  popes,  and  repairing 
from  thence  to  Dijon,  was  met  there  and  re- 
ceived with  the  greatest  marks  of  respect  by 
the  king  on  Mid-lent  Sunday,  and  the  fol- 
lowing Monday  consecrated,  in  his  presence, 
the  cathedral  church  of  that  city.^  From 
Dijon  the  king  returned  to  Paris :  but  the 
pope  went  first  to  Auxerre,  and  from  thence 
to  Paris,  to  keep  his  Easter  there  with  the 
king,  which  in  11 47  fell  on  the  20ih  of  April. 
Eugenius,  during  his  stay  at  Paris,  held  a 
council,  in  which  was  at  last  determined  the 
dispute  that  had  subsisted  ever  since  the 
year  1140,  concerning  the  election  of  the 
archbishop  of  York.  For  Thurstan  dying 
in  that  year,  William,  the  son  of  Emma, 
sister  to  king  Stephen,  and  treasurer  of  that 
church,  was  chosen  by  one  part  of  the 
canons,  and  Murdach,  a  Cistercian  monk, 
and  abbot  of  Fountain  abbey,  by  the  other. 
They  were  both  men  of  untainted  characters, 
both  worthy  of  and  equal  to  that  dignity. 
But  William,  having  the  majority  on  his 
side,  took  possession  of  the  see.  The  oppo- 
site party,  encouraged  by  St.  Bernard,  as 
Murdach  was  a  monk  of  his  order,  applied 
to  Rome,  pretending  that  William  had  been 
nominated  by  the  king  before  he  was  elected 
by  the  chapter.  The  pall  was  therefore  re- 
fused to  him,  both  by  Innocent  II.  and  his 
successor,  Celestine  II.,  though  he  had  been 
consecrated  by  Henry,  the  king's  brother, 
bishop  of  Winchester,   and   legate  of  the 

I      «  Trithem.  in  Chron.    Theodot  in  Vit.  St.  Hiidegard. 
et  Concil.  tom.  10.  p.  1128. 
»Annal.  Trevir.  apud  Brouver.  N.  700. 
»  Chron.  Divion.  apud  Labb.  Biblioth.  tom.  1,  et  ad 
ann.  1147. 


EUGENIUS    III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


479 


William,  arclibishop  of  York,  deposed. 


Guislebert,  bishop  of  Poitiers,  accused  of  heresy. 
[Year  of  Ctirist,  1148.] 


Council  of  Reims ; 


apostolic  see  in  England.'  This  refusal  was  ' 
chieHy  owing  to  the  furious  letters,  quite 
unwortliy  of  a  saint,  written  by  St.  Bernard 
to  both  popes  against  the  archbishop  of 
York.  His  partiality  for  Murdach,  who| 
had  been  his  disciple,  inclined  him  to  be-' 
lieve  every  false  report  that  was  spread  j 
abroad  by  William's  enemies,  and  proclaim 
them  to  the  world  for  undoubted  truths. 
However  Lucius  II.,  better  informed  than 
his  two  predecessors,  sent  the  pall  to  the 
archbishop  by  his  legate,  cardinal  Hicmar. 
But  as  he,  says  the  historian,  taken  up  with 
afi'airs  that  were  less  necessary,  according 
to  his  custom,  neglected  to  go  to  London 
and  receive  it  until  Lucius  died,  and  as  the 
dispute  about  his  election  was  in  the  mean 
time  revived,  the  legate  thought  it  advisable 
to  carry  the  pall  back  to  Rome.^  However 
William  kept  his  see,  exercising  all  the 
functions  of  his  office  Avithout  the  pall,  till 
the  present  year  1147,  when  he  was  deposed 
by  Eugenius  in  the  council  of  Paris,  (and 
not  of  Reims,  as  some  have  writ,)  because 
he  had  been  nominated  by  the  king,  as  was 
asserted  by  St.  Bernard,  before  he  was  elect- 
ed by  the  clergy.  This  was  done  by  the 
pope  against  the  opinion  of  the  greater  part 
of  the  cardinals,  who  were  present  at  the 
council ;  and  the  sentence  of  deposition  was 
read  by  Alberic,  bishop  of  Ostia.  "  We 
depose  William,  archbishop  of  York,"  were 
the  words  of  the  sentence,  "  and  divest  him 
of  the  pontifical  dignity,  because  he  was 
nominated  by  Stephen,  king  of  England, 
before  his  canonical  election."  We  stall 
see  him  in  the  sequel  not  only  restored  to 
his  dignity,  but  honored  with  a  place  in  the 
calendar.  He  was  a  prelate  of  a  most  un- 
exceptionable character,  but  having  a  monk 
of  the  Cistercian  order,  and  a  disciple  of  St. 
Bernard,  for  his  competitor,  he  had  that 
saint  for  his  enemy,  and  by  him  the  pope 
was  entirely  governed.  Baronius' and  Al- 
ford<  both  own  that  Bernard  was  imposed 
upon,  and  take  a  great  deal  of  pains  to  ex- 
cuse him.  William  being  thus  deposed,  the 
pope  ordered  a  new  election  to  be  made, 
when  two  were  again  elected,  namely,  Mur- 
dach, and  Hilary  bishop  of  Chichester,  and 
recourse  being  had  upon  this  double  election 
to  the  pope,  who  was  gone  from  Paris  to 
Auxerre,  he  confirmed  that  of  Murdach, 
though  Hilary  had  the  majority  on  his  side, 
and  performed  the  ceremony  of  his  conse- 
cration himself.  William,  upon  his  return 
to  England,  repaired  to  Winchester,  and 
continued  there  with  his  friend  Henry,  bi- 
shop of  the  place,  till  the  death  of  the  pope.^ 

•  Iloveden  in  Steph.  ad  ann.  1140.  p.  485.  Giiillel. 
Neiibrig.  1  3.  c.  17.  Ilagustaldens.  ad  ann.  1143;  et 
Serlo  in  Hist.  Fontancns.  Cffinob.  Monastic.  Anglican. 
p.  7.^3,  et  74.').  '  Ilagustald.  ad  ann.  1140. 

'  Itaron.  in  Appendice  ad  ann.  1140. 

*  Alford.  nd  ann.  1143. 

»  (Jorvas.  in  Chron.  Ilaguslald.  1148.  Cliron.  Mail- 
rosens.  ad  ann.  1147. 


Thus  did  the  pope  take  the  advantage  of  the 
unhappy  divisions  that  reigned  at  this  time 
in  England,  to  extend  his  authority,  and 
regulate  elections  at  his  pleasure. 

By  the  same  council  was  begun  the  ex- 
amination of  the  doctrine  of  Gislebert  of 
Poiree.  He  was  reckoned  one  of  the  most 
learned  men  of  his  time,  had  spent  the  best 
part  of  his  life  in  teaching  philosophy  and 
divinity,  which  he  did  in  different  cities  of 
France  with  great  applause,  and  was  in  his 
old  age  preferred  to  the  see  of  Poitiers.  He 
had  advanced  in  his  writings,  as  well  as  by 
word  of  mouth,  several  propositions  that 
gave  offence,  and  among  the  rest  the  four 
following.  1.  That  the  properties  of  the 
three  divine  persons  are  not  the  three  divine 
persons  themselves.  2.  That  the  divine 
essence  is  not  God.  3.  That  the  divine 
nature  was  not  incarnate,  but  only  the  per- 
son of  the  son.  4.  That  the  divine  persons 
can  be  the  predicant  of  no  proposition. 
Gislebert  being  charged  with  having  ad- 
vanced these  propositions  in  a  discourse  he 
made  to  the  clergy  of  his  diocese,  and  with 
having  held  and  taught  them  before  his  pre- 
ferment, the  pope  summoned  him  to  the 
present  council,  to  give  an  account  of  his 
doctrine.  He  complied  with  the  summons; 
but  after  a  long,  tedious,  and  unintelligible 
dispute  between  him  and  St.  Bernard,  con- 
cerning the  essence,  the  nature,  and  the 
properties  of  the  divinity,  and  the  three 
divine  persons,  the  pope,  tired  with  their 
jargon,  referred  the  decision  of  the  points  in 
dispute  to  a  general  council,  which  he  in- 
tended to  assemble  the  following  year  at 
Reims.' 

As  great  complaints  were  brought  to  the 
pope  of  the  irregular  lives  led  by  the  secular 
canons  of  St.  Genevieve,  he  prevailed  upon 
the  king,  before  he  left  Paris,  to  introduce 
twelve  monks  of  Cluny  in  their  room,  allow- 
ing the  present  canons  to  enjoy  their  pre- 
bends during  their  lifetime.  But  the  pope 
afterwards,  at  the  request  of  the  canons 
themselves,  granted  their  house  and  their 
lands,  not  to  the  monks,  but  the  regular 
canons  of  St.  Victor.^ 

The  pope,  leaving  Paris,  visited  several 
cities  in  France,  and  repairing,  on  the  20th 
of  March  1148,  to  Reims,  opened,  on  the 
22d  of  that  month,  the  council  which  he 
had  appointed  to  meet  there.  It  was  very 
numerous,  most  of  the  bishops  of  Spain, 
of  France,  and  of  Germany  being  present, 
as  they  had  been  all  invited  to  it  by  the 
pope's  circulatory  letters,  directed  to  all 
primates,  metropolitans,  and  their  suffra- 
gans. The  king  of  England  (Stephen,) 
greatly  provoked  at  the  conduct  of  the  pope 
in  the  affair  of  the  arclibishop  of  York, 
would  allow  none  of  his  bishops  to  attend 


>  Otto  Prising.  1.  1.  c.  .lO. 

-  Eugen.  ep.  27  et  32,  inter  Sugcrianas. 


480 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[EUGENIUS  ni. 


Eon,  a  madman,  brought  before  the  council.     Some  of  his  disciples  burnt  alive.     The  doctrine  of  Gislebert 
condemned.    The  pope  sets  out  on  his  return  to  Italy. 


that  assembly,  and  not  only  forbad  Theobald, 
archbishop  of  Canterbury,  to  stir  out  of  the 
kingdom,  but  ordered  the  ports  to  be  guarded 
lest  he  should  attempt  it.  However,  the 
archbishop,  fearing  God,  says  Gervasius, 
more  than  the  king,  embarked  undiscovered 
in  a  crazy  boat,  and  got  safe  to  France,' 
where  he  assistetl  at  the  council.  But  upon 
his  return  lo  England  the  king  sent  him 
quickly  back  to  France.  At  the  first  meet- 
ing of  the  council  one  Eon  was  brought  be- 
fore them,  a  native  of  Brittany,  who  hearing 
these  words  read  in  the  exorcism,  "  per 
eum,  qui  judicaturus  est  vivos  et  mortuos  et 
seculum  per  ignem,"  and  not  distinguishing 
between  Eon  and  eum,  persuaded  himself 
that  he  was  the  judge  of  the  quick  and  the 
dead,  and  that  he  was  owned  for  such  by 
the  church.  So  gross  was  the  ignorance 
that  prevailed  at  this  time  among  the  people, 
that  he  found  himself  followed,  in  a  very 
short  time,  by  multitudes;  and  out  of  them 
he  chose  his  apostles,  his  disciples,  his 
angels  and  archangels,  his  cherubims  and 
seraphims.  The  French  lords,  in  whose 
territories  he  preached,  spared  no  pains  to 
undeceive  the  misled  people,  and  apprehend 
their  mad  leader.  But  in  spite  of  all  their 
endeavors  the  number  of  his  followers  in- 
creased daily,  all  ready  to  defend  him  at  the 
expence  of  their  lives.*  He  was,  however, 
arrested  in  the  end,  Avith  some  of  his  chief 
disciples,  by  the  archbishop  of  Reims,  and 
brought  to  the  council.  Upon  the  pope's 
asking  him  who  he  was,  he  answered,  with- 
out betraying  the  least  fear,  I  am  the  judge 
of  the  quick  and  the  dead,  and  on  the  last 
d*y  shall  judge  the  world  by  fire.  He  held 
with  both  his  hands,  when  he  was  presented 
to  the  council,  a  huge  forked  club,  and  being 
interrogated  by  the  pope  whether  it  was 
mysterious,  and  what  mystery  it  expressed? 
It  represents,  he  replied,  a  very  great  mys- 
tery ;  for  so  long  as  I  hold  up  the  forked  end, 
God  possesses  two  parts  of  the  world,  and  I 
no  more  than  the  third  :  but  if  I  hold  up  the 
other  end,  two  parts  of  the  world  will  be 
mine,  and  the  third  alone  will  be  left  to  God. 
His  answer  was  received  by  the  whole 
council  with  a  loud  laugh,  and  he  declared 
a  madman  rather  than  a  heretic.  However, 
to  prevent  him  from  continuing  to  seduce 
the  ignorant  multitude,  and  to  undeceive 
those  whom  he  had  already  seduced,  Suger, 
abbot  of  St.  Denis,  whom  the  king,  who 
was  gone  to  the  holy  land,  had  left  regent 
of  the  kingdom,  was  ordered  to  keep  him 
closely  confined,  which  occasioned  his  death 
in  a  very  short  time.  Some  of  his  disciples 
recanted,  while  others  chose  rather  to  die  in 
the  flames  than  renounce  their  errors.^ 
Neubrigensis  tells  us,  that  he  was  informed 

«  Gervas.adann.  1147,  et  Thomas  Cantuar.epist.  136. 
a  Otto  Prising.  1.  1.  c.  54,  55.    Guillel.  Neubrig.  1.  1. 
0.  19. 


[  by  a  person  worthy  of  credit,  who  was  pre- 
I  sent  at  their  execution,  that  one  of  them, 
while  they  were  carrying  him  to  the  stake, 
commanded  the  earth,  with  a  loud  and  im- 
perious voice,  to  open,  and  swallow  up  his 
wicked  persecutors,  as  it  had  formerly  swal- 
lowed up  Dathan  and  Abiram.'  The  abbot 
regent  would  have  acted  a  more  humane 
and  a  more  Christian  part,  had  he  treated 
them  like  madmen,  and  caused  ihem  to  be 
confined  with  their  teacher,  as  no  less  mad 
than  he,  and  worthy  of  no  greater  punish- 
ment. 

In  this  council  was  resumed  the  dispute 
between  Gislebert  and  his  accusers,  con- 
cerning the  four  propositions  mentioned 
above;  Gislebert  maintaining,  and  St.  Ber- 
nard, his  chief  antagonist,  impugning  them 
with  great  subtilty  and  endless  passages  out 
of  the  fathers;  till  the  cardinals,  weary  of 
the  controversy,  put  an  end  to  it,  saying  we 
have  heard  what  has  been  offered  on  both 
sides,  and  shall  therefore,  upon  mature  de- 
liberation, determine  what  is  and  what  is 
not  to  be  believed.  As  the  cardinals  seemed, 
by  these  words,  to  take  upon  themselves  the 
deciding  of  the  controversy,  the  Galilean  bi- 
shops highly  resented  ii,  and  having  gained 
over  St.  Bernard  to  their  party,  they  drew 
up  and  signed  a  confession  of  faith  dia- 
metrically opposite  to  that  of  Gislebert,  de- 
claring that  they  would  ever  adhere  to  it 
without  the  least  addition  or  alteration.  This 
confession  and  declaration  they  sent  by 
Hugh,  bishop  of  Auxerre,  and  Milo,  bishop 
of  Terouane,  to  the  abbot  Suger,  begging 
him  to  present  it  to  the  pope  and  the  cardi- 
nals. The  abbot,  finding  it  signed  by  ten 
archbishops,  by  a  great  number  of  bishops 
and  abbots,  and,  among  the  rest,  by  St.  Ber- 
nard, readily  complied  with  their  request; 
and  the  pope,  after  perusing  and  examining 
it,  jointly  with  the  cardinals,  approved  all 
the  articles  it  contained.  He  afterwards 
sent  for  Gislebert,  and  having  made  him  re- 
tract his  four  propositions,  he  condemned 
them,  and  forbad  his  book  to  be  read  or 
copied  till  it  was  corrected  by  the  Roman 
church.^ 

The  council  being  ended,  the  pope  left 
Reims,  and  having  visited  the  two  monaste- 
ries of  Clairvaux  and  Citeaux,  set  out  on 
his  return  to  Italy.  On  his  journey  he  re- 
ceived letters  from  Roger,  king  of  Sicily, 
acquainting  him  with  the  signal  advantages 
he  had  gained  over  the  emperor  of  the  East. 
For  having  no  enemy  to  contend  with  in 
Italy,  and  being  greatly  incensed  against  the 
emperor  Manuel  Comnenus,  who  had  caused 
his  embassador  at  Constantinople  to  be  ar- 
rested and  imprisoned,  he  resolved  to  re- 
venge that  aflfront.     Having,  with  that  view. 


•  Guillel.  Neubrig.  I.  1.  c.  19. 
a  Idem,  c.  55.  57.    Vit.  St.  Bernard,  et  Bernard,  in 
Cantic.  Serm.  80. 


EUGENIUS    III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


481 


Victories  of  Roger,  king  of  Sicily.  The  pope  returns  to  Rome  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1149.]  Is  obliged  to  quit 
that  city  anew; — [Year  of  Christ,  1150.]  Privileges  granted  by  Eugenius  to  the  archbishop  of  Cologne. 
Four  metropolitans  established  in  Ireland  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  1151.] 


equipped  a  powerful  fleet,  he  sent  it  against 
Corfu  under  the  command  of  George  of  An- 
tioch,  his  high  admiral,  who  soon  reduced 
both  the  city  and  the  island  of  that  name. 
From  thence  the  fleet  steered,  by  the  king's 
order,  to  the  coast  of  Greece;  and  before  the 
end  of  the  summer  made  themselves  masters 
cf  Corinth,  Thebes,  Athens,  and  the  whole 
country,  except  a  few  inland  ports.  They 
brought  home  with  them  all  the  silk  manu- 
I'acturers  they  found  in  Greece;  and  thus 
was  the  art  of  manufacturing  silk  first  intro- 
duced into  Sicily  and  Italy.'  In  the  two 
preceding  years,  1146,  1147,  Roger  had 
made  war  upon  the  infidels  in  Africa,  had 
reduced  the  cities  of  Tunis  and  Tripoli, 
with  all  the  other  strong  holds  on  that  coast, 
and  obliged  them  to  submit  to  the  payment 
of  a  yearly  tribute,  which  they  paid  to  him 
and  his  son  William  for  the  space  of  thirty 
years.  We  are  told,  that  being  elated  with 
these  successes,  he  caused  the  following 
verse  to  be  engraved  upon  his  sword: 
Appulus  et  Calaber,  Siculus  mihi  servit  et  Afer.' 
The  pope,  pursuing  his  journey  to  Italy, 
arrived  at  Vercelli  in  the  beginning  of  June, 
as  appears  from  a  letter  he  wrote  from 
thence  to  the  abbot  Suger.*  From  Vercelli 
he  proceeded  to  the  neighborhood  of  Rome, 
staid  some  time  at  Tusculum,  and  having 
subdued  the  Romans  with  the  assistance  of 
Roger,  king  of  Sicily,  he  returned  to  Rome. 
Thus  Ceccanus,  a  contemporary  writer ;"" 
and  from  his  words  it  appears,  that  the  Ro- 
mans, persisting  in  their  rebellion,  would 
not  receive  the  pope,  and  that  he  thereupon 
applied  to  the  king  of  Sicily,  and  with  the 
forces  he  sent  him  obliged  them  to  submit. 
But  he  was  forced  to  leave  Rome  again  in 
the  beginning  of  the  following  year,  the  Ro- 
mans being  stirred  up  against  him  by  Arnold 
of  Brescia  then  in  Rome.  At  his  instigation 
they  seized  on  all  the  revenues,  discharged 
the  prefect  and  other  magistrates  whom  the 
pope  had  appointed,  and  put  others  in  their 
room,  maintaining,  that  as  the  apostles  had 
no  lordships,  no  temporal  dominions,  their 
successors  ought  to  have  none.  The  pope 
therefore  leaving  Rome  abruptly,  retired  to 
Campania,  and  continued  there  till  the  year 
1152.  He  was  visited  soon  after  his  flight 
from  Rome  by  Peter,  surnamed  the  Vene- 
rable, abbot  of  Cluny,  come  to  complain  of 
a  lord  of  Burgundy,  who  had  built  a  strong 
castle  over  against  his  monastery.  The 
pope  received  the  abbot  with  the  greatest 
marks  of  esteem,  and  at  his  requesj  com- 
manded the  count,  upon  pain  of  excommu- 
nication, to  level  the  castle  with  the  ground.'^ 
Robertus  de  Monte  writes,  that  the  count. 


«  Otto  Prising,  de  Gest.  Frederic.  1. 1.  c.  33.    Robert, 
de  Monte,  ad  ann.  1145. 
^  Geopraph.  Nubiens.  p.  88. 
'  Inter  Sugetianas,  32. 
*  Ceccanus  in  Chron.  ad  ann.  1149. 
»  Petrua  Venerab.  Epislolar.  1.  6.  ep.  46, 

Vol.  Il.-Cl 


Hugh,  surnamed  Discalceatus,  or  bare-foot- 
ed, refused  to  obey  the  pope's  command,  and 
that  an  anathema  being  thereupon  thun- 
dered out  by  the  pope  against  the  castle,  it 
sunk,  and  a  lake  of  an  unfathomable  depth 
sprung  up  in  the  place  where  it  stood.'  This 
story  Baronius  has  copied,  and  relates  it  as 
a  fact  not  to  be  doubted.^  But  from  one  of 
the  abbot's  letters,  it  appears  that  the  count 
razed  the  castle  by  virtue. of  an  agreement 
with  the  monastery,  and  sold  to  the  abbot 
the  ground  upon  which  it  stood.^ 

While  Eugenius  was  at  Segni,  Arnold, 
archbishop  of  Cologne,  came  to  sue  for  a 
confirmation  of  the  privileges  that  had  been 
granted  to  his  see  by  the  preceding  popes. 
He  met  with  a  most  kind  reception,  and  ob- 
tained not  only  a  confirmation  of  all  the  pri- 
vileges enjoyed  by  his  predecessors,  but 
several  new  ones,  namely,  that  thenceforth 
he  should  be  subject  to  no  primate,  but  to 
the  pope  alone;  that  in  all  councils  and  as- 
semblies he  should  hold  the  first  place  after 
the  pope  or  his  legate;  that  he,  and  no  other 
unless  deputed  by  him,  should  crown  the 
king  within  the  limits  of  his  province.  All 
the  other  privileges  he  confirmed;  and  these 
were,  that  he  should  wear  the  pall  at  the 
usual  times  and  functions;  that  he  should 
have  the  cross  carried  before  him;  should 
ride  upon  a  white  horse  caparisoned  with  a 
scarlet  cloth;  and  that  seven  presbyters  and 
as  many  deacons  and  subdeacons  of  the 
great  church  of  St.  Peter  at  Cologne  should 
be  styled  cardinals,  and  be  allowed  to  wear, 
in  celebrating  mass,  the  mitre,  the  dalmatic, 
and  the  sandals.'* 

The  following  year  the  pope  sent  John 
Paparo,  or  Papyrius,  presbyter,  cardinal,  and 
legate  of  the  apostolic  see  into  Ireland,  with 
four  palls,  for  four  bishops  of  that  kingdom, 
namely,  of  Armagh,  Dublin,  Cashel,  and 
Tuam.  He  landed  at  Tinmouth,  and  from 
thence  wrote  to  David,  king  of  Scotland,  to 
acquaint  him  with  his  arrival,  as  well  as 
with  the  business  upon  which  he  was  sent, 
and  beg  leave  to  pass  through  his  kingdom 
in  his  way  to  Ireland.  The  king  upon  the 
receipt  of  his  letter,  sent  his  chancellor  to 
wait  upon  him  at  Hagustald,  in  Northum- 
berland, and  went  in  person,  with  his  son 
Henry,  to  receive  him  at  Carlisle,  enter- 
tained him  a  very  magnificent  manner  the 
short  time  he  contined  in  his  dominions,  and 
at  his  departure,  appointed  some  of  the  chief 
lords  of  his  kingdom  to  attend  him  to  the 
place  of  his  embarkation.  On  his  arrival  in 
Ireland,  he  disposed  of  the  palls  as  he  had 
been  directed,  namely,  to  the  four  bishops 
mentioned  above.^  And  thus  were  four 
archbishoprics  established  this  year  in  the 


'  Robert  de  Monte,  ad  ann.  1145. 

2  Baron,  ad  ann.  1150.        '  Petrus  Venerab.  ep.  45. 

*  Eugen.  ep.  10.  torn.  10.  Concil. 

•  Juan.  Uagusiald.  ad  ann.  1150. 

20. 


482 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[EUGENIUS  in. 


Scandalous  behavior  of  Jordan,  the  pope's  legate.     Eugenius  returns  to  Rome.     Death  of  Conrad,  and  elec- 
tion of  Frederic.     Treaty  of  agreement  between  the  pope  and  the  new  l?ing. 


kingdom  of  Ireland.  The  legate,  during  his 
stay  in  that  country,  introduced  the  ecclesi- 
astic laws  relating  to  marriage,  till  then  un- 
known to  that  people.!  The  legate  had 
come  the  year  before  into  England,  in  his 
way  to  Ireland  ;  but  the  king  relusing  him  a 
safe  conduct,  unless  he  promised  upon  oath 
to  attempt  nothing  to  the  prejudice  of  his 
kingdom,  he  was  piqued  at  such  a  propo- 
sal, and  returned  to  Rome,  whence  he  was 
sent  back  this  year  with  orders  to  pass 
through  Scotland.2  Upon  this  legate  great 
encomiums  are  bestowed  by  St.  Bernard,  in 
a  letter  to  the  cardinal  of  Ostia.  But  in  the 
same  letter  he  exposes  the  scandalous  con- 
duct of  Jordan  de  Ursini,  sent  at  the  same 
time  to  Conrad,  king  of  Germany.  "  Your 
legate,"  says  the  saint,  "  has  passed  from 
one  nation  to  another,  leaving  everywhere 
behind  him  the  traces  of  the  most  shameful 
conduct.  From  the  foot  of  the  Alps  and 
the  Teutonic  kingdom,  the  apostolic  man 
has  filled  all  the  churches,  not  with  the  Gos- 
pel, but  with  his  sacrileges.  In  Germany, 
in  France,  and  in  Normandy,  as  far  as 
Rouen,  he  has  plundered  the  churches,  and 
preferred  comely  youths  to  the  first  dignities. 
Some  have  redeemed  themselves,  with  large 
sums,  from  his  visits.  To  those  whom  he 
could  not  visit  he  sent  delegates  to  extort 
from  them  what  they  cotild.  He  has  made 
himself  the  public  talk  in  the  schools,  in  the 
courts,  and  even  in  the  streets.  The  secu- 
lars and  the  religious,  the  rich  and  the  poor, 
the  monks  and  the  clergy,  all  speak  ill  of 
him.  He  is  abhorred  by  all,  and  by  none 
more  than  by  those  of  his  own  profession. 
John  Papero,  on  the  contrary,  is  praised  by 
all,  and  he  has  every  where  done  honor  to 
his  ministry.  Communicate  this  letter  to 
the  pope,  and  let  him  do  what  he  thinks  fit 
to  be  done  with  such  a  man.  As  for  myself, 
I  have  discharged  my  conscience.  How- 
ever, I  cannot  help  adding,  with  my  usual 
freedom,  that  the  pope  would  do  well  to  dis- 
charge his  conscience  too  by  purging  his 
court.  I  had  resolved  to  be  silent  upon  this 
subject,  but  the  prior  of  Mont-dieu  has  en- 
couraged and  pressed  me  to  write,  and  I 
must  let  you  know  that  the  public  says  more 
than  I  have  done."* 

The  pope  had  continued  in  Campania 
ever  since  the  beginning  of  the  year  1150  ; 
had,  with  the  assistance  of  the  Normans  of 
Capua,  reduced  several  places,  and  among 
the  rest  the  cities  of  Terracina  and  Albano. 
But  in  the  latter  end  of  the  present  year  he 
was,  by  virtue  of  an  agreement  between 
him  and  the  Romans,  allowed  to  return  to 
Rome.4  But  what  were  the  articles  of  that 
agreement  history  does  not  inform  us.     In 


»  .Joan.  Hagustald.  ad  ann.  1150. 

2  Idem  ibid,  et  Chron.  Mailrosens.  ad  ann.  1151. 

3  Bernard,  ep.  290. 

'  Anonym.  Casin.  ad  ann.  1151.  et  Ceccan.  ad  ann. 
1152. 


the  mean  time  died  Conrad,  king  of  Ger- 
many, commonly  styled  emperor,  though 
the  disturbances  that  prevailed  in  Rome  as 
well  as  in  Germany,  prevented  him  from 
undertaking  a  journey  to  that  city,  and  re- 
ceiving the  imperial  crown.  He  had  a  son, 
named  Frederic ;  but  upon  his  death-bed  he 
recommended  to  the  princes  of  the  empire 
his  brother's  son,  called  likewise  Frederic, 
and  surnamed  .52nobarbus,  or  Barbarossa, 
from  the  color  of  his  beard,  as  one  in  every 
respect  equal  to  so  great  a  trust.  He  was 
accordingly  elected  at  Frankfort,  on  the  4tli 
of  March  of  the  present  year,  and  crowned 
on  the  9ih,  which  in  1152  fell  on  a  Sunday. 
That  the  institution  of  the  seven  electors  by 
Gregory  V.,  in  996,  is  a  mere  invention, 
evidently  appears,  as  we  may  observe  here 
by  the  way,  from  Gualther,  surnamed  Ligu- 
rinus,  a  famous  poet  who  lived  at  this  time. 
For  he  tells  us  that  all  the  chief  lords  of  the 
kingdom  met  at  Frankfort,  and  there  chose 
Frederic.  The  election  therefore  was  not,  so 
late  as  the  twelfth  century,  yet  confined  to 
seven,  or  to  any  fixed  number.'  Frederic 
was  no  sooner  elected  than  he  dispatched 
Hilinus,  bishop  elect  of  Treves,  and  Ever- 
hard,  bishop  of  Bamberg,  into  Italy,  to  ac- 
quaint the  pope,  the  Romans,  and  all  the 
Italian  princes  with  his  election.  But  no 
legate  from  the  pope  assisted  at  this  diet,  nor 
had  he  any  share  either  in  the  election  or 
the  coronation  of  the  new  king.  He  ex- 
pressed great  satisfaction  at  the  choice  the 
German  princes  had  made,  and,  in  order  to 
establish  a  lasting  peace  between  the  church 
and  the  empire,  desired  that  a  congress 
might  be  held,  and  articles  of  agreement  be 
drawn  up  and  signed  by  both  parties.  To 
this  proposal  the  king  readily  consented ; 
and  deputies  were  appointed  both  by  him 
and  the  pope  to  assist  at  the  intended  Con- 
gress, By  the  pope  were  named  five  cardi- 
nals, and  one  abbot,  namely,  Bruno,  abbot 
of  Claravalla,  a  famous  monastery  of  the 
Cistercian  order  at  a  small  distance  from 
Milan.  The  king  sent  five  deputies,  namely, 
the  two  bishops  of  Hamburg  and  Constance, 
and  three  counts.  Where  they  met,  whether 
in  Italy  or  Germany,  we  know  not,  but  the 
articles  of  their  agreement,  copied  by  Baro- 
nius  from  an  ancient  manuscript  in  the 
Vatican  library,  entitled  Centius  Cameralis, 
were  as  follows:  1.  That  the  king  should 
neither  conclude  a  peace  nor  a  truce  with 
Roger,  king  of  Sicily,  nor  with  the  Romans, 
without  the  consent  and  approbation  of  Eu- 
genius or  his  successors.    2.  That  he  should. 


»  The  poet's  words  are  as  follow  : 
"  Acturi  sacra  de  successore  corona 
Conveniunt  proceres,  totius  viscera  regni, 
Sede  satis  nota,  rapido  quas  proxima  mogo,  &c." 
(Ligurin.  de  rebus  gestis  Fred.  I.  1.  1.) 
By  these  last  words  he  means  Frankfort   on  the 
Maine,  where  all  the  lords  of  the  kingdom,  and  not 
seven  only,  met  to  choose  a  successor  to  the  crown. 
To  this  day  the  electors  meet  there  to  elect  an  emperor. 


EUGENIUS    III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


483 


Misunderstanding  between  the  pope  and  the  new  king.    Eugenius  dies; — [Year  of  Christ,  1153.]    He  canonized 

the  emperor,  Henry  I. 


to  the  Utmost  of  his  power,  oblige  the  Ro- 1 
mans  to  submit  to  the  pope  for  the  time] 
being,  and  hve  in  the  same  subjection  to  him 
as  they  had  done  to  his  predecessors,  during 
the  hundred  years  last  past.  3.  That  he 
should  preserve  and  maintain,  against  all 
men,  the  royalties  of  St.  Peter,  and  the  rights 
of  the  Holy  Roman  Church,  and  assist 
her,  with  the  whole  strength  of  his  king- 
dom, to  recover  what  she  had  lost.  4.  That 
he  should  grant  no  territories  on  this  side 
the  sea  to  the  Greek  emperor,  and  should 
drive  him  from  them  without  delay,  if  he 
happened  to  usurp  any.  The  pope,  on  his 
side,  encaged  to  grant  to  the  king,  the  impe- 
rial crown,  when  it  suited  his  affairs  to  come 
to  Rome  and  receive  it ;  to  assist  him,  as  far 
as  in  him  lay,  to  maintain  the  imperial  dig- 
nity ;  to  restrain,  with  the  censures  of  the 
church,  those  who  should  presume  to  diso- 
bey him,  and  even  to  cut  them  off  from  the 
communion  of  the  church,  if  they  did  not 
submit,  and  give  him  due  satisfaction  ;  and, 
lastly,  to  grant  no  territories  on  this  side  the 
sea  to  the  Greek  emperor  j  and  if  he  invaded 
any,  to  employ  the  arms  of  St.  Peter  against 
him.'  These  articles  were  signed  by  several 
bishops,  abbots,  marquisses,  and  counts, 
and  are  dated  the  23d  of  March,  4152. 

Thus  a  lasting  peace  seemed  to  be  estab- 
lished between  the  church  and  the  empire. 
But  a  lew  months  after  the  conclusion  of 
this  treaty,  a  misunderstanding,  that  would, 
probably,  have  been  attended  with  very  bad 
consequences,  had  Eugenius  lived, arose  be- 
tween him  and  the  king,  upon  the  i'ollowing 
occasion :  Frederic,  archbishop  of  Magde- 
burg, dying,  the  electors,  not  able  to  agree 
among  themselves  in  the  choice  of  his  suc- 
cessor,applied  to  the  king,  who,  having  at- 
tempted in  vain  to  reconcile  ihem,  in  order  to 
put  an  end  to  the  dispute,  recommended  a  third 
person,  namely,  Guicman,  bishop  of  Celts, 
and  prevailed  upon  one  of  the  parties  to  elect 
him.  Hereupon  the  opposite  party  had  re- 
course to  the  pope,  pretending  that  Guicman 
had  not  been  canonically  elected,  but  intruded 
by  the  authority  of  the  prince,  contrary  to  the 
.canons  forbidding  princes  to  interfere  in  elec- 
tions, and  declaring  such  as  have  been  pro- 
cured, or  influenced  by  them,  to  be  null. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  king  maintained, 
that  by  the  agreement  between  Paschal  II. 
and  the  emperor  Henry  V.,  the  prince  was 
empowered,  when  the  electors  were  divided, 
to  fill  the  vacant  see  by  his  own  authority, 
and  that  the  elect,  by  what  majority  soever 
elected,  was  not  to  be  ordained  till  he  had 
received  investiture  at  the  prince's  hand  by 
the  scepter.*  That  right  the  pope  would  not 
dispute ;  but  neither  would  he  allow  it  to  be 
lawful  for  a  prince  to  translate  a  bishop 
from  one  see  to  another ;  and  therefore  in- 
sisted upon   their  proceeding  to  a  new  elec- 


>  Baron,  ad  ann.  1152. 

1  Otto  Prising,  de  Gestis  Fred.  1. 1.  206. 


tion,  and  sending  Guicman  back  to  his  see. 
But  as  Frederic  had  already  granted  him  the 
investiture,  and  his  election  had  been  con- 
firmed by  most  of  the  German  bishops  and 
archbishops,  he  continued,  in  spite  of  the 
menaces  of  the  pope,  to  keep  possession  of 
his  see.  The  pope,  therefore,  not  thinking  it 
advisable  to  apply  immediately  to  the  king, 
wrote  a  very  sharp  letter  to  those  bishops, 
reproaching  them  with  countenancing  a 
manifest  breach  of  the  canons,  and  com- 
manding them  not  only  to  abandon  the 
cause  of  the  intruded  bishop,  but  to  divert 
the  king  from  supporting  him,  since  they 
could  not  but  know  that  translations  were 
strictly  forbidden  by  the  laws  of  God,  as 
well  as  of  the  church,  unless  absolutely  ne- 
cessary for  the  service  of  God,  or  the  good 
of  the  church. •  The  pope's  letter  is  dated 
the  17th  of  August,  1152. 

This  quarrel  would,  in  all  likelihood,  have 
ended  in  an  open  rupture  between  the  pope 
and  the  king,  as  neither  the  bishops  who 
interposed,  nor  the  two  legates  sent  by  the 
pope  the  following  year  into  Germany, 
could  prevail  upon  Frederic  to  yield.  But 
Eugenius  died  in  the  mean  time,  on  the  8th 
of  July,  1153,  after  a  pontificate  of  eight 
years,  four  months,  and  ten  days.  He  died 
at  Tivoli,  but  his  body  was  carried  from 
thence,  attended  by  the  Roman  clergy,  and 
buried  with  great  funeral  pomp  before  the 
high  altar  in  St.  Peter's  church.  Eugenius 
is  greatly  commended  by  the  contemporary 
writers,  and  said  by  many,  who  lived  in 
Rome  at  the  time  of  his  death,  to  have 
wrought  many  miracles  immediately  after  it, 
of  which  some  of  them  pretend  to  have  been 
eye-witneses  ;  nay,  Heniiqueshas  published 
a  small  treatise  upon  the  miracles  of  Euge- 
nius, "  De  Miraculis  Eugenii,"  which,  he 
says,  were  all  copied  from  a  contemporary 
writer  and  an  eye-witness.  He  has  not, 
however,  been  honored  with  a  place  in  the 
Roman  calendar,  though  the  Cistercians 
have  thought  him  worthy  of  a  place  in  theirs. 

By  this  pope  was  canonized  Henry,  the 
first  emperor  of  that  name,  who  died  1024. 
The  reasons  alleged  by  the  pope  for  ranking 
him  amongst  the  saints,  and  allowing  his 
anniversary  to  be  yearly  solemnized,  are, 
that  he  founded  the  church  of  Bamberg,  and 
many  others ;  that  he  repaired  some  episco- 
pal sees ;  was  very  generous  to  the  poor ;  had 
been  the  chief  means  of  the  conversion  of 
Stephen,  king  of  Hungary,  and  his  whole 
kingdom;  had  observed,  what  we  read,  he 
says,  of  very  few,  a  perfect  continence  even 
in  wedlock,  and  had  wrought  many  mira- 
cles after  his  death.  He  adds,  that  though 
the  church  of  Bamberg  should  have  applied 
to  a  general  council,  to  have  the  memory  of 
their  founder  celebrated  among  the  saints,  he 
has  thought  himself  sufficiently  authorized 
by  the  holy  Roman  church,  from  which  the 


Otto  Prising,  de  Gestis  Fred.  I.  c.  8. 


484 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[EUGENIUS   in. 


Eugenhis  instituted  the  academical  degrees.     Presbyter  John  first  heard  of  in  the  West.     Deputies  from  the 
patriarch  of  Armenia.     Eugenius  a  zealous  promoter  of  the  crusade. 

lead  his  victorious  army  to  the  assistance  of 
the  church  of  Jerusalem  ;  that  he  had  even 
set  out  on  his  march  with  that  design,  and 
advanced  as  far  as  the  banks  of  the  Tigris, 
but  not  finding  vessels  to  convey  his  army 
over  that  river,  he  pursued  his  march  far  to 
the  north,  Avhere  he  was  told  that  he  might 
cross  it  in  winter  upon  the  ice ;  that  he  con- 
tinued some  years  in  those  northern  parts, 
but  that  the  river  never  freezing,  and  many 
of  his  men  dying  in  a  climate  to  which  they 
were  not  accustomed,  he  was  obliged  to  drop 
his  design,  and  return  to  his  own  kingdom. 
Such  is  the  account  the  bishop  of  Gabula 
gave  of  the  renowned  Presbyter  John,  as  re- 
lated by  Otto  Frisingensis,  who  saw  the 
bishop  at  Viterbo,  where  the  pope  received 
him.'  Of  this  prince  and  priest,  I  shall  have 
occasion  to  speak  of  in  the  sequel. 

With  the  bishop  of  Gabula  came  depu- 
ties from  the  bishops  and  the  patriarch  of 
Armenia,  who  styled  himself  "the  catholic," 
that  is,  the  "  universal  patriarch,"  having, 
as  he  pretended,  a  thousand  bishops  and  up- 
wards under  his  jurisdiction.  The  deputies 
told  the  pope  that  they  were  sent  to  consult 
him  concerning  some  rites,  in  which  they  dif- 
fered from  the  Greeks,  and  were  all  ready  to 
acquiesce  in  his  judgment.  But  they  con- 
cealed the  more  material  points,  in  which 
they  disagreed  with  the  Latins  as  well  as 
with  the  Greeks,  and  by  thus  imposing  upon 
the  pope  were  admitted  to  his  communion. 
Being  invited  by  the  pope  to  assist  at  mass, 
celebrated  by  him  with  great  solemnity  on 
the  day  of  the  dedication  of  St.  Peter's 
church,  one  of  them,  a  bishop,  afterwards 
declared,  that  he  had  observed  a  beam  of 
light  upon  the  pope's  head,  and  two  doves 
ascending  and  descending,  during  the  whole 
time  of  the  service,  without  being  able  to 
discover  any  place  through  which  they  could 
have  entered.  This  vision  was  of  a  piece 
with  the  tale  they  told  the  pope  of  a  nation 
bordering  upon  Armenia,  where,  they  said, 
all  the  new-born  children  exhaled  an  insup- 
portable stench,  from  which  they  were  deli- 
vered as  soon  as  washed  with  the  water  of 
baptism  in  Armenia,  though  all  other  reme- 
dies had  proved  ineffectual.^ 

Eugenius  was  a  zealous  promoter  of  the 
crusade — and  by  him,  and  St.  Bernard,  his 
chief  agent  and  encourager  of  that  unhappy 
war,  to  a  degree  of  infatuation,  the  emperor 
Conrad,  and  Lewis  VII.,  of  France,  were 
both  persuaded  to  march  in  person,  at  the 
head  of  numerous  armies,  against  the  infi- 
dels in  the  East.  They  both  set  out  in  1147, 
the  emperor  from  Ratisbon,  and  the  king 
from  St.  Denis,  where  he  received  the 
cross  and  the  standard  from  the  pope's  own 
hand.  Relying  upon  the  encouragement 
given  them  by  St.  Bernard,  whom  they 
looked  upon  as  divinely  inspired,  and  upon 


acts  of  all  councils  receive  their  validity,  to 
grant  them  their  request,  after  advising  with 
the  archbishops  and  the  bishops  who  were 
with  him  at  the  time.  The  pope  here  plainly 
owns,  that  the  canonizing  of  saints  proper- 
ly belonged  to  a  general  council ;  but  yet  the 
succeeding  popes,  nay,  the  very  next  but 
one,  pretended  that  to  canonize,  was  the  pe- 
culiar privilege  of  the  apostolic  see,  and  re- 
served it  as  such  to  himself  and  his  succes- 
sors, as  we  shall  see  in  the  sequel. 

In  the  time  of  Eugenius  III.  was  made  by 
Gratian,  a  native  of  Chiusi  in  Tuscany,  and 
monk  of  the  monastery  of  St.  Felix  in  Bo- 
logna, the  famous  Collection  of  Canons  that 
form  the  canon  laws.  That  collection  was 
first  published  in  1 151 ;  and  Eugenius  order- 
ed all  causes  to  be  tried,  in  the  ecclesiastical 
courts,  by  the  canons  it  contained.  He  like- 
wise instituted,  in  order  to  encourage  that 
study,  the  degrees  of  bachelor,  of  licentiate, 
and  of  doctor;  degrees  mentioned  by  no 
writer  before  Gratian's  time.  But  they  were 
soon  after  introduced  at  Paris  by  Peter  Lom- 
bard, commonly  known  by  the  name  of  *'  the 
Master  of  Sentences,"  and  bestowed  upon 
students  in  divinity  as  well  as  in  canon  law.' 
Gratian  collected  all  the  ancient  canons,  and 
Lombard  all  the  sentences  of  the  ancient 
fathers,  whence  he  w^as^  distinguished  with 
the  name  I  have  mentioned.  Both  flourish- 
ed at  the  same  time,  but  were  not  brothers, 
as  some  have  pretended,  the  one  being  a 
native  of  Chiusi  in  Tuscany,  and  the  other 
of  Novara  in  Lombardy.  Peter  Lombard, 
whom  we  may  style  the  author  of  school 
divinity,  was,  after  he  had  taught  divinity 
for  several  years  in  Paris,  preferred  to  that 
see ;  but  he  resigned  it  before  his  death, 
which  happened  in  1164,  as  appears  from 
his  epitaph,  that  is  still  to  be  seen  in  the 
church  of  St.  Marcellus,  in  the  suburbs  of 
Paris,  written  partly  in  Roman,  partly  in 
Gothic  letters,  as  was  usual  in  those  days.^ 

In  the  pontificate  of  Eugenius,  the  name 
of  Presbyter  John,  or,  as  we  call  him,  Pres- 
ter  John,  was  first  heard  of  in  the  West. 
The  bishop  of  Gabula,  in  Syria,  sent  to  im- 
plore the  assistance  of  the  Christian  princes 
upon  the  taking  of  Edessa  by  the  Infidels, 
as  has  been  related  above,  gave  the  follow- 
ing account  of  him  to  the  pope,  namely,  that 
he  was  a  presbyter  or  priest,  a  Christian, 
but  a  Nestorian ;  that  his  subjects  all  pro- 
fessed the  same  religion,  and  were  of  the 
same  sect ;  that  his  kingdom  lay  beyond  Per- 
sia and  Armenia  in  the  most  distant  parts  of 
the  East;  that  he  had  lately  made  war  upon 
the  Persians,  Assyrians,  and  Medes;  that 
he  had  gained  a  complete  victory  over  their 
joint  forces  in  a  battle  that  lasted  three  days, 
and  made  himself  master  of  Ecbatana.  He 
added,  that  Presbyter  John  had  intended  to 


>  Sigon.  de  ep.  Bononiens.  1.  2.  et  Buleeus  Hiat.  Uni- 
Tersitatis  Paris,  torn.  2.  p.  699. 

>  Nicroeus  in  Henric.  Guniavensi. 


>OttoFris.  1.  7.  c.  33. 


3  Idem  ibid. 


Anastasius  IV.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 485 

Anastasius  elected.    Composes  the  ditTerence  hfltween  Frederic  and  the  apostolic  see  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1154.] 
Restores  William,  archbishop  of  York,  to  his  see. 


their  numerous  armies,  they  promised  them- 
selves certain  victory,  and  the  utter  extirpa- 
tion of  all  the  enemies  to  the  Christian  name. 
But  it  happened  quite  otherwise.  For  be- 
fore the  end  of  the  year,  the  emperor  lost  no 
fewer  than  thirty  thousand  men,  chiefly  by 
sickness  and  famine;  and  the  king's  army 
fared  not  much  better,  many  dying  of  the 
hardships  they  underwent,  and  many  de- 
serting to  avoid  them,  insomuch  that  having 
spent  two  whole  years  in  the  Holy  Land  and 
done  nothing  in  all  that  time,  they  returned 
home  with  the  small  remains  of  their  two 
great  armies.  Thus  Odo  de  Diogelo,  who 
lived  at  this  time,  and  wrote  seven  books 
upon  the  expedition  of  Lewis  VII.  to  the 
Holy  Land.  And  what  we  read  in  that 
writer  is  confirmed  by  Gaufridus,  who 
flourished  at  the  same  time,'  and  by  a  letter 
from  the  king  himself  to  the  abbot  Suger, 
whom  he  had  left  one  of  the  regents  of  the 
kingdom,  during  his  absence.^ 

In  the  year  1151.  Eugenius  granted  a  di- 
vorce to  Lewis  VII.  from  Eleonora,  the 
daughter  of  William  IX.,  duke  of  Aquitain, 


upon  his  swearing  that  she  was  related  to 
him  within  the  forbidden  degrees,  though 
he  had  lived  with  her  as  his  lawful  wife, 
ever  since  the  year  1137,  and  had  two  daugh- 
ters by  her.  She  was  no  sooner  divorced 
from  the  king,  than  Henry,  duke  of  Nor- 
mandy, and  afterwards  king  of  England, 
married  her,  and  had  by  her  a  very  numer- 
ous, and  no  less  illustrious,  issue,  name- 
ly, four  sons,  Henry,  Richard,  and  John, 
afterwards  kings  of  England,  and  Geoffry, 
count  of  Britanny,  and  as  many  daughters; 
of  whom  the  eldest  married  the  king  of  Cas- 
tile, and  from  her  was  descended  Blanche, 
queen  of  France,  and  mother  to  St.  Lewis  ; 
the  second  was  married  to  Alexius,  emperor 
of  Constantinople;  the  third  to  the  duke  of 
Saxony,  by  whom  she  had  Otto,  afterwards 
emperor  ;  and  the  fourth  to  the  count  of  Tou- 
louse, whose  grand-daughter  by  her  was 
married  to  Alphonsus,  count  of  Poitiers, 
and  brother  to  St.  Lewis.'  Of  this  pope 
we  have  eighty-eight  letters  in  the  Collec- 
tion of  Councils,  and  some  besides  in  other 
writers. 


ANASTASIUS  IV.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  SIXTY-SIXTH  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[Manuel  Comnenus,  Emperor  of  the  East. — Fred.  jEnobarbus,  King  of  Germany.'] 

that  moment.  The  cardinal  obeyed,  but 
died  of  grief,  as  is  supposed,  in  his  way  to 
Rome.  The  following  year  Frederic  sent 
embassadors  to  Rome,  and  with  theraGuic- 
man  himself,  to  inform  the  pope,  by  word 
of  mouth,  in  what  manner  he  had  been 
elected,  and  to  demand  the  pall.  Anastasius 
admitted  them  immediately  to  his  presence, 
and  having  heard  them  with  great  attention, 
he  not  only  approved  and  confirmed  the 
election  of  the  new  archbishop,  but  granted 
him  very  readily  the  pall.  This  complai- 
sance in  the  pope  gave  great  offence  to  many, 
says  the  historian,  and  they  began  to  look 
upon  him  as  a  man  of  little  or  no  resolution.^ 
But  what  dreadful  disturbances  would  have 
been  avoided,  had  the  pride  and  obstinacy 
of  his  successors  allowed  them  to  follow  his 
example ! 

William,  who  had  been  elected  archbishop 
of  York,  but  deposed  in  the  council  of  Paris 
by  Eugenius,  as  has  been  related  above, 
hearing  of  that  pope's  death,  and  at  the 
same  time  of  the  death  of  his  avowed  enemy 
St.  Bernard,  hastened  to  Rome,  though  far 
advanced  in  years,  to  have  his  cause  re- 
examined before  the  new  pope,  who,  from 
the  beginoing,  had  stood  his  friend.    Anasta- 


[Year  of  Christ,  1153.]  Eugenius  dylngl 
on  the  8th  of  July,  of  the  present  year.  Con- ' 
rad,  bishop  of  Sabina,  by  birth  a  Roman, 
and  the  son  of  one  Benedict,  was  chosen  the 
very  next  day  in  his  room,  and  enthroned 
under  the  name  of  Anastasius  IV.  He  was, 
so  far  as  we  can  gather  from  the  contempo- 
rary writers,  a  regular  canon,  and  not  a  I3e- 
nedictine  monk,  as  is  asserted  by  Trithemi- 
us,  who  flourished  long  after  his  time,  and 
died  in  1516.' 

Anastasius  was  no  sooner  consecrated, 
than  being  a  lover  of  peace,  and  desirous  to 
prevent,  so  far  as  in  him  lay,  any  new  quar- 
rels between  the  church  and  the  empire,  he 
dispatched  cardinal  Gerard  into  Germany  to 
terminate  the  cause  depending  between 
Frederic  and  the  apostolic  see,  with  respect 
to  the  translation  of  Guicman  from  Celts  to 
Bamberg.  Tlie  cardinal  was  received  by 
the  king  with  all  the  respect  that  was  due  to 
his  character,  and  they  celeorated  the  festival 
of  Christmas  together  at  Bamberg.  But 
Gerard  taking  upon  him  to  act  more  im- 
periously, and  talk  in  a  higher  strain  than 
the  king  could  bear,  he  drove  him  from  his 
presence,  and  ordered  him  to  quit  Germany 


«  Gaiifrid.  Chron.  apud  Lubb.  torn.  2. 
*  Inter  Sngerianas  Epist.  ep.  39. 
>  TriUiem.  in  Chron.  Uirsaug. 


«  Nangius  in  Chron.  ad  ann.  1152. 
9  Otto  Fris.  in  Kred.  1.  2.  c.  10. 
2  (l2 


486 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Anastasius  IV. 


Anastasius'  bull  in  favor  of  the  Hospitalers. 


sius  received  him  with  all  possible  marks  of 
friendship  and  esteem,  and  news  being 
brought,  soon  after  his  arrival,  of  the  death 
of  Murdach,  whom  Eugenius  had  preferred 
to  the  see  of  York  in  his  room,  he  was  re- 
stored to  that  see,  and  received,  at  the  same 
time,  the  pall,  which  he  had  never  been  able 
to  obtain  of  Eugenius.  On  Easter-eve,  1 154, 
he  arrived,  on  his  return  from  Rome,  at 
Winchester,  where  he  had  lived  ever  since 
the  time  of  his  deposition  with  Henry  bishop 
of  that  city,  and  going  from  thence  to  take 
anew  possession  of  his  see,  was  received 
with  the  greatest  demonstrations  of  joy  by 
all  ranks  of  people.  But  their  joy  was 
quickly  converted  into  grief  by  the  death  of 
their  good  bishop,  happening  soon  after  his 
return,  that  is,  on  the  8ih  of  June  of  the 
present  year.'  He  was  a  prelate  of  a  most 
unexceptionable  character,  and  all  the  con- 
temporary writers  speak  of  him  as  a  man  of 
a  most  exemplary  hfe,  of  great  sweetness  of 
temper,  and  universal  benevolence  f  all  but 
St.  Bernard,  who  being  strongly  prejudiced 
against  him  in  favor  of  Murdach,  a  monk 
of  his  own  order,  represented  him  to  pope 
Eugenius,  whom  he  entirely  governed,  as 
one  quite  unworthy  of  the  episcopal  dignity, 
and  thus  procured  his  deposition.  Tlie 
epithets  that  saint  bestowed  upon  him  in  his 
letters  to  the  pope  and  to  others,  especially 
in  his  three  hundred  and  eightieth  letter,  are 
no  proofs  of  an  extraordinary  sanctity.  As 
St.  Bernard  was  now  dead,  Anastasius,  sen- 
sible of  the  injustice  done  by  his  predecessor 
to  the  archbishop,  restored  him  to  his  see, 
and  as  he  was  said  to  have  wrought  some 
miracles  after  his  death,  Honorius  III.  by 
way  of  further  reparation,  solemnly  canoni- 
zed him  in  1226,  and  his  festival  is  kept  to 
this  day  in  the  church  of  Rome  on  the  8th 
of  June,  the  day  of  his  death.  Thus  was 
one  and  the  same  person  judged  by  one  of 
the  infallible  popes  unworthy  of  a  place 
among  the  bishops,  and  by  another  worthy 
of  a  place  amongst  the  saints  in  heaven ! 

In  the  same  year  Anastasius  issued  a  bull 
at  the  request  of  Raymund  de  Podio,  master 
of  the  knights  of  the  hospital  at  Jerusalem, 
commonly  known  by  the  name  of  Hospi- 
talers, confirming  to  them  all  the  privileges 
that  had  been  granted  to  them  by  his  prede- 
cessors, and  besides  exempting  their  lands 
at  Jerusalem  and  every  where  else  from  the 
payment  of  tithes,  as  those  lands  were  be- 
queathed to  them  for  the  support  of  the  pil- 
grims and  the  poor.  By  the  same  bull  he 
forbids  all  bishops  to  publish  interdicts,  sus- 
pensions, or  excommunications  in  any  of 
the  churches  belonging  to  their  order,  allows 
them  to  have  divine  service  performed  in 
their  churches  with  the  doors  shut,  even  in 
places  that  are  under  a  general  interdict ;  to 
receive  priests  and  clerks  to  officiate  in  their 
churches,  from  what  diocese  soever  they 
come,  and  to  keep  them  even  without  the 


consent  of  their  respective  bishops,  as  being 
subject  to  none  so  long  as  they  continue  with 
them,  but  to  their  chapter  and  the  apostolic 
see;  to  have  their  churches  and  altars  con- 
secrated, their  clerks  ordained,  and  the  sa- 
craments administered  by  the  bishop  of  the 
diocese,  if  he  is  willing  to  perform  those 
functions  without  fee  or  reward  ;  but  if  he 
requires  the  least  acknowledgement,  to  em- 
ploy, by  the  authority  of  the  apostolic  see, 
what  other  bishop  they  shall  think  fit :  and 
lastly,  he  confirms  to  them  all  the  lordships, 
lands, and  territories  they  possess  orevershall 
acquire  on  either  side  of  the  sea,  in  Asia  or 
in  Europe,  but  forbids  the  knights,  after  they 
have  taken  the  cross,  and  made  their  pro- 
fession, to  return  to  the  world,  or  even  to 
embrace  any  other  religious  institution,  under 
color  of  leading  a  more  regular  life.'  This 
bull  is  dated  the  21st  of  October  of  the  pre- 
sent year.  The  order  of  the  hospitalers, 
now  known  by  the  name  of  the  Knights  of 
Malta,  which  island  was  given  them  by  the 
emperor  Charles  V.  had  its  first  beginning 
on  the  following  occasion.  The  Amalphitan 
Normans,  trading  to  the  East,  having  with 
rich  presents  gained  the  caliph  of  Egypt, 
obtained  leave  of  him  to  build  a  church  and 
a  monastery  for  the  Latins  near  the  church 
of  the  holy  sepulchre,  which  was  afterwards 
called  St.  Mary  of  the  Latins.  In  this  mon- 
astery they  placed  Latin  monks,  whose 
business  it  was  to  take  care  of  the  poor  and 
sick  pilgrims.  But  as  the  monastery  was 
not  large  enough  to  contain  all  the  pilgrims 
resorting  to  the  holy  places,  the  abbot  built, 
out  of  the  contributions  and  voluntary  offer- 
ings of  the  faithful,  a  hospital  with  a  chapel 
in  honor  of  St.  John  Baptist.  In  process  of 
time,  when  the  Christians,  in  1099,  became 
masters  of  Jerusalem,  one  Gerard,  who  had 
long  attended  the  sick  and  the  poor  in  that 
hospital,  bound  himself  by  a  solemn  vow  to 
continue  in  that  state  of  life  so  long  as  he 
lived.  His  example  was  soon  followed  by 
many  others ;  and  they  took  a  white  cross 
which  they  wore  on  their  breast,  for  the 
badge  of  their  order.  Such  is  the  account 
Gulielmus  Tyrius  and  Jacobus  de  Vitriaco 
give  us  of  the  institution  of  the  religious 
order  of  the  knights  hospitalers,*  founded  in 
the  latter  end  of  the  eleventh,  or  the  begin- 
ning of  the  twelfth  century.  But  those 
writers  were  both  certainly  mistaken  in  sup- 
posing their  first  chapel  to  have  been  dedi- 
cated to  St.  John,  surnamed  Eleemosynarius, 
or  the  almoner,  bishop  of  Alexandria;  it 
being  manifest  from  several  donations  made 
to  that  hospital  in  the  twelfth  century,  that 
St.  John  Baptist,  and  not  the  patriarch  of 
Alexandria,  was  the  patron  of  their  order. 
For  they  are  all  said  to  have  been  made  "  to 
God,  to  St.  John  Baptist,  and  to  the  Hos- 
pital at  the  Holy  Sepulchre.'"' 


Neubrig.  1.  2.  c.  26. 


3  Idem  ibid. 


1  Concil.  torn.  x. 

9  Tyrius  1.  18.    De  Vitriac.  in  Hist.  Hierosolym.  c.  64. 
3  Apud  San-Marthanos  in  archiepis.  Arclatens.  et  in 
Monast.  Anglican,  p.  509,  510, 


Hadrian  IV.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


487 


Anastasius  dies.    The  election  of  Hadrian  IV.    His  adventures  before  his  promotion. 


Anastasius  died  after  a  pontificate  of  one 
year,  four  months,  and  twenty-nine  days,' 
and  consequently  on  the  2d  of  December  of 
the  present  year  1154,  as  he  was  elected  on 
the  9th  of  July  1153.  The  continuator  of 
Otto  Frisingensis  says  no  more  of  him  than 
that  he  was  well  versed  in  the  affairs  of  the 
court  of  Rome.  His  readily  yielding  to 
Frederic,  in  the  affair  of  the  church  of  Bam- 
berg, shows  him  to  have  been  desirous  of  a 
good  understanding  between  the  church  and 
the  empire.  He  was  buried  in  the  Lateran 
church  in  a  tomb  of  porphyry  of  exquisite 
workmanship,  in  which  had  lain  the  body 
of  St.  Helena,  mother  to  the  emperor  Con- 


stantine.  But  the  tomb,  that  stood  in  a 
church  which  Constantine  had  caused  to  be 
built  without  the  walls  of  the  city,  being 
plundered  by  thieves,  and  the  body  carried 
off  in  the  time  of  Innocent  II.,  Anastasius 
ordered  that  monument  to  be  brought  into 
the  city  and  placed  in  the  Lateran  church, 
in  order  to  his  being  buried  there,  as  he  was 
a  regular  canon  of  that  church.'  The  body 
of  St.  Helena  is  now  worshipped  in  the 
church  of  the  Franciscans  at  Rome  called 
Ara  Cocli;  but  how  they  came  by  it,  or 
when,  neither  they  nor  any  body  else  can 
tell. 


HADRIAN  IV.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  SIXTY-SEVENTH  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[Manuel  Comnenus,  Emperor  of  the  East. — Fred.  ./Gnobarbus,  Emperor  of  the  West.'] 


[Year  of  Christ,  1154.]  In  the  room  of 
Anastasius  was  chosen  the  day  after  his 
death,  that  is,  on  the  third  of  December, 
Nicholas  Breakspear,  an  Englishman,  born 
at  St.  Albans,  the  son  of  a  clerk  named 
Robert,  and  at  the  time  of  his  election  cardi- 
nal bishop  of  Albano.  He  was  enthroned 
and  crowned  as  soon  as  elected,  and'on  that 
occasion  he  took  the  name  of  Hadrian  IV. 
William  of  Newburg,  who  flourished  at  this 
time,  gives  us  the  following  account  of  his 
adventures,  and  his  rise  from  the  lowest 
condition  to  the  papal  dignity.  His  father, 
embracing  a  monastic  life  in  the  monastery 
of  St.  Albans,  left  Nicholas,  though  yet  very 
young,  to  shift  for  himself.  Being  thus  aban- 
doned and  destitute  of  all  support,  he  lived 
upon  the  broken  victuals  of  the  monastery, 
till  his  father,  ashamed  to  see  him  daily  in 
the  crowd  of  common  beggars,  deprived 
him  even  of  that  support,  and  reproaching 
him  in  very  sharp  terms  with  his  indolence, 
bid  him  betake  himself  to  some  profession, 
and  earn  his  bread  with  the  sweat  of  his 
brow.  As  he  was  now  grown  up,  and 
ashamed  to  dig,  or  to  beg  from  door  to  door, 
in  his  own  country,  he  went  to  France  to 
try  his  fortune  there.  He  travelled  from  one 
city  to  another  in  that  kingdom,  but  met 
with  nothing  that  answered  his  expectation 
till  he  came  to  St.  Rufus,  a  famous  monas- 
tery of  the  regular  canons,  that  stood  then 
without  the  walls  of  Avignon  in  Provence. 
Being  admitted  into  that  monastery  as  a 
servitor,  he  soon  gained  the  good  will  of  all 
the  canons  by  his  modest  and  obliging  be- 
havior, and  the  great  readiness  he  showed, 
on  all  occasions,  to  execute  their  commands : 
insomuch  that  they  received  him,  a  few 


'  Codex  Vatican.  Onupb,  Sigon.  &c. 


years  after,  into  the  order.  As  he  was  a 
man  of  quick  parts,  of  great  eloquence,  and 
unwearied  diligence,  he  applied  himself  to 
the  study  of  the  sacred  sciences,  and  distin- 
guishing himself  above  all  the  rest,  was,  in 
consideration  of  his  extraordinary  merit, 
unanimously  chosen  by  the  canons  to  suc- 
ceed their  abbot  William,  in  1137.  The 
monastery  stood  in  great  need  of  a  reforma- 
tion, and  the  new  abbot,  a  strict  observer  of 
the  rule  himself,  by  rigorously  exacting  the 
same  strict  observance  of  all  the  rest,  diso- 
bliged them  as  much  as  he  had  obliged  them 
before.  They  entered  into  a  combination 
against  him,  and  inventing  many  calumnies 
to  blacken  his  character,  accused  him  to 
pope  Eugenius  III.,  Avhich  obliged  him  to 
undertake  a  journey  to  Rome.  The  pope, 
taken  with  his  modesty  and  the  moderation 
he  showed  in  ansAvering  the  various  accu- 
sations brought  against  him,  and  at  the 
same  time  fully  convinced  of  his  innocence^ 
reconciled  his  accusers  with  him,  and  dis- 
missed them.  But  the  abbot  still  insisted 
upon  the  strict  observance  of  the  rules  of  the 
monastery,  and  new  calumnies  were  there- 
fore invented  and  brought  to  Rome  against 
him.  The  pope  heard  his  accusers,  and 
when  they  had  done,  "I  know,"  he  said, 
"  who  raises  this  storm ;  it  is  Satan.  Go  and 
choose  one  with  whom  you  can  or  rather 
will  live  in  peace;  he,  of  whom  you  thus 
complain,  shall  be  no  longer  burthensome 
to  you."  Having  thus  dismissed  the  sedi- 
tious canons,  he  kept  their  abbot  with  him, 
preferred  him  to  the  see  of  Albano,  and 
made  him  cardinal.  Thus  William  of  New- 
burg f  and  what  he  writes  we  likewise  read 

■  Joan.  Diac.  junior  in  Lib.  de  Eccles.  Lateran  et 
Raspon.  de  eadem  Eccles.  p.  77. 
a  Neubrig.J.  2.  c.  6. 


488 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Hadrian  IV. 


Henry  II.  of  England  writes  to  the  new  pope;— [Year  of  Christ,  1155.]  New  disturbances  raised  in  Rome  by 
Arnold  and  the  Arnoldists.  Arnold  banished,  and  peace  restored.  Frederic  subdues  the  rebels  in  Lombardy, 
and  marches  to  Rome. 


in  Matthew  Paris,  in  his  lives  of  the  abbots 
of  St.  Albans.'  In  1148  Breakspear,  (Brek- 
spere,  or  Breskpear,  as  he  is  called  by  some) 
now  cardinal  and  bishop  of  Albano,  was 
sent  by  Eugenius  III.  into  Norway  and 
Sweden  with  the  character  of  legate.  In 
Norway  he  erected  the  city  of  Nidrosia,  now 
Drontheim,  into  an  archiepiscopal  see;  and 
it  was  the  first  archbishopric  established  in 
Norway.  In  Sweden  he  raised  the  see  of 
Upsal  to  the  dignity  of  a  metropolis,  that 
city  being  then  the  metropolis  of  the  king- 
dom, and  appointed  Henry,  then  bishop  of 
Upsal,  metropolitan  and  primate  of  all  Fin- 
land.2  Henry,  the  seventh  bishop  of  Upsal, 
■was  afterwards  martyred,  and  is  honored  by 
the  church  of  Rome  as  a  martyr  on  the  19th 
of  January,  the  day  of  his  martyrdom. 
Upon  the  death  of  Eugenius,  Breakspear 
returned  to  Rome,  and  Anastasius,  who 
succeeded  him,  dying  after  a  short  pontifi- 
cate, he  was  preferred,  with  one  consent,  by 
the  whole  body  of  the  people  and  the  clergy 
to  the  vacant  see. 

The  promotion  of  Hadrian  was  no  sooner 
known  in  England,  than  Henry,  the  second 
of  that  name,  who  had  succeeded  Stephen 
in  the  latter  end  of  the  year  1154,  wrote  a 
very  obliging  letter  to  the  new  pope,  con- 
gratulating him  upon  his  promotion,  and 
expressing  great  satisfaction  to  see  one  born 
in  his  dominions  judged  worthy  of,  and 
raised  to  so  high  a  station.  He  suggests  to 
his  holiness,  as  being  trusted  with  the  care 
of  all  churches,  to  choose  such  ministers  as 
•  are  capable  of  assisting  him  in  the  discharge 
of  his  office,  men  of  known  integrity,  free 
from  avarice,  and  lovers  of  justice,  without 
any  regard  to  their  nobility,  wealth,  or 
power ;  recommends  to  him  the  bestowing 
of  ecclesiastical  preferments  only  upon  men 
of  worth  and  merit,  and  exhorts  him  to  exert 
his  whole  power  and  authority  in  assisting 
the  Christians,  engaged  in  war  with  the  in- 
fidels in  the  East.^ 

As  Hadrian  had  not  yet  engaged  the  pro- 
tection of  any  one  of  the  Christian  princes, 
but  was,  as  a  stranger,  utterly  unknown  to 
them  all,  the  Romans,  thereby  encouraged 
to  revolt  anew,  refused  to  acknowledge  him 
■  for  their  lawful  sovereign,  nay,  and  sent 
some  of  the  chief  men  of  their  party  to  let 
him  know,  that  it  was  his  province  to  ad- 
minister the  sacraments,  to  ordain  priests 
and  bishops,  and  exercise  other  spiritual 
and  ecclesiastic  functions ;  but  as  to  the 
temporal  power,  it  was  lodged  in  the  Roman 
senate,  and  they  were  determined  to  recover 
it  at  all  events,  to  shake  off  the  yoke  which 
they  had  so  long  groaned  under,  and  rein- 
state themselves  in  their  ancient  privileges 
and  liberties,  which  had  been  so  unjustly 

1  Matt.  Paris,  in  Roberto  Abbate. 

«  Joan.  Magnus  Hist.  Goth.  1.  18.  c.  18. 

'  Petrua  Blesens.  ep.  163. 


invaded  by  his  predecessors.    They  therefore 
advised  him  to  part  voluntarily  whh  his  ill- 
gotten  power,  lest  they  should  be  obliged  to 
proceed  to  force  and  violence.    But  Hadrian, 
who  was  not  a  man  to  be  easily  intimidated, 
drove  the  deputies  from  his  presence  with- 
out deigning   to   return   them   an  answer. 
Hereupon  Arnold  of  Brescia,  who  had  been 
obliged  to  quit  the  city  in  the  pontificate  of 
Eugenius,  was  recalled;  and  by  his  furious 
declamations   against  the   power    and   the 
wealth  of  the  clergy,  and  the  unhallowed 
use  they  made  of  both,  so  stirred  up  and  in- 
censed the  populace  against  them,  that  the 
pope,  not  thinking  himself  safe  in  Rome, 
retired  to  the  Leonine  city.    During  his  stay 
there,  Gerard,  cardinal  presbyter  of  St.  Pu- 
dentiana,  going  to  wait  upon  him,  was  at- 
tacked by  the  populace,  and  beaten  till  he 
was  ready  to  expire.     The  pope,  provoked 
beyond  measure  at  the  insult  offered  to  him 
in  one  of  his  cardinals,  put  immediately  the 
whole  city  under  an  interdict,  which  lasted 
till  Holy  Wednesday,  that  in  1155  fell  on 
the  23d  of  March.     As  no  divine  service 
could  be  performed  during  that  time,  the 
clergy  prevailed  at  last,  with   much   ado, 
upon  some  of  the  leading  men  to  submit; 
and  their  example  was  soon  followed  by  the 
rest.     But  Hadrian  would  not  take  off  the 
interdict,  till   the  senators  promised   upon 
oath  to  banish  Arnold,  and  all  who  adhered 
to  him,  from  Rome  and  the  Roman  territo- 
ries, if  they  did  not  return  to  their  duty,  and 
obey  him  as  their  sovereign.'     Thus  was    „; 
Arnold  driven  again  from  Rome ;  and  the 
churches   being  all  opened  the  next  day, 
Maundy-Thursday,    the    sacred    functions 
were  resumed  to  the  great  joy  of  the  people, 
and  a  perfect  tranquiUity  restored  to  the  city. 
In  the  meantime  Frederic,  having  reduced 
several  cities  in  Lombard y  that  refused  to 
submit  to  him,  and,  among  the  rest,  Milan, 
Asti,  Tortona,  and  Coira,  which  three  last 
he  entirely  destroyed,  advanced   to   Pavia, 
the  ancient  seat  of  the  Lombard  kings,  and 
was  there,  on  the  10th  of  April  of  the  pre- 
sent year,  crowned  king  of  Lombardy  by 
Peter,  bishop  of  that  city.^    Having  thus 
subdued  the  rebellious  Lombards,  he  set  out 
from  Pavia,  as  soon  as  the  ceremony  of  the 
coronation  was  over^  on  his  march  to  Rome, 
in  order  to  receive  there  the  imperial  crown 
at  the  hands  of  the  pope.     As  he  advanced 
with  uncommon  expedition,  and  at  the  head 
of  a  numerous  and  victorious  army,  Hadrian, 
apprehending  that  he   came  rather  as  an 
enemy  than  as  a  friend,  sent  two  cardinals, 
James  of  St.  John  and  St.  Paul,  and  Gerard 
of  St.  Pudentiana,  now   recovered  of  his 
wounds,  both  priests,  and  one  cardinal  dea- 
con, Gregory  of  St.  Mary  in  Porticu,  to  dis- 
cover the  king's  true  design,  and  treat  with 


>  Codex  Vatican,  apud  Bar.  ad  ann.  1145. 
a  Otto  Fris.  1.  1.  c.  12—19.    Ligurin.  1.  3. 


Hadrian  IV.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


489 


End  of  Arnold  of  Brescia.     Interview  between  the  pope  and  the  king.     How  the  popa  was  received  by  the 
king.     Embassadors  sent  by  the  Romans  to  the  king. 


him  olan  agreement  whereof  he  gave  them 
the  heads,  or  chief  articles,  in  writing. 
They  found  the  king  encantped  at  St.  Qui- 
rico  in  Tuscany,  and  being  received  and  en- 
tertained by  him  in  his  tent  with  the  greatest 
marks  of  honour,  they  acquainted  him  with 
their  commission,  and,  in  tlie  first  place, 
begged  the  king  would  cause  Arnold  of 
Brescia,  who  had  been  taken  by  Gerard, 
cardinal  of  St.  Nicholas,  but  rescued  by  the 
vice-counts  of  Campania,  to  be  delivered  up 
to  them.  The  king  complied  with  their  re- 
quest, and  Arnold  being  sent  under  a  strong 
guard    to   Rome,  and  consigned    to   Peter, 

f)refect  or  governor  of  the  city,  he  was,  by 
lis  order,  publicly  executed,  and  his  body 
being  burnt,  the  ashes  were  thrown  into 
the  Tiber,  lest  the  superstitious  multitude 
should  worship  them  as  relics.'  Gunther, 
who  was  at  this  time  with  the  king,  de- 
scribes the  unhappy  end  of  Arnold  in  the 
verses  which  the  reader  will  find  at  the  bot- 
tom of  the  page.2 

As  the  king  had  sent  Arnold  and  An- 
selm,  the  one  archbishop  of  Cologne,  the 
other  of  Ravenna,  to  treat  with  tiie  pope 
before  the  arrival  of  the  three  cardinals  men- 
tioned above,  he  Avould  not  enter  upon  any 
negotiation  with  the  Roman  deputies  till  the 
return  of  his  own.  The  same  circumspec- 
tion was  used  by  the  pope;  for  he,  on  his 
side,  declined  to  treat  with  the  envoys  of  the 
king  till  he  had  learnt  of  his  own  how  he 
was  disposed,  and  in  the  mean  time  retired, 
as  he  suspected  his  design,  to  the  fortress  of 
Civila  Castellana,  deemed,  in  those  days, 
impregnable.  But  the  deputies  of  the'  pope 
and  the  king  happening  to  meet  on  the  road, 
as  they  were  returning  to  their  respective 
courts,  they  agreed  to  go  together  to  the 
king,  then  encamped  at  Viterbo.  Frederic 
received  the  three  cardinals  with  the  same 
marks  of  honor  as  he  had  done  before,  and 
to  leave  no  room  for  the  suspicion  that  the 
pope  seemed  to  entertain  of  him,  he  caused 
the  relics  of  some  saints,  the  cross,  and  the 
gospels  to  be  brought  into  his  tent,  and  ap- 
pointed one  to  swear  upon  them  in  his 
name,  and  promise  to  preserve  entire  the 
life,  the  limbs,  the  liberty  and  the  honor  of 
pope  Hadrian,  and  the  cardinals.  The 
three  cardinals  returning  to  the  pope,  ac- 
quainted iiim  with  what  had  passed,  and  he 
thereupon  agreed  to  crown  Frederic  em- 
peror, wiien  his  affairs  allowed  him  to  repair 
to  Rome  for  that  purpose,  but  in  the  mean 
time  desired  they  might  have  an  interview. 
The  king,  therefore,  advancing  with  his 
army  to  Sutri,  encamped  there,  and  the 
pope,  leaving  Civita  Castellana,  came  as  far 


1  OttoFris.  1.  2.  c.  2.    Ligurin.  1.  3. 

9  tinde  etiam  tandem  (ncqtie  enim  reor  esse  silendum) 
Ne  de  funcsto  repetatur  postea  serino, 
Jiidicio  cleri,  nostro  sub  principe  victus, 
Appensiisqiie  cnici,  flammaque  creniante  solutus 
In  fineres,  Tiberine,  tiias  estsparsiis  in  iindas, 
Ne  slolidx  plebis  quern  fecerit  improbus  error, 
Mattyris  ossa  nova  ciiieresve  foveret  bonore. 

Vol.  II.— C2 


as  Nepi  to  meet  liim,  whence  he  proceeded 
the  ne.xt  day  to  the  king's  camp,  attended  by 
a  great  number  of  cardinals  and  bishops. 
At  his  entering  the  camp  he  Avas  received 
by  all  the  chief  princes  of  the  empire  and 
olficers  of  the  army,  and  by  them  conducted 
on  horseback  to  the  king's  tent,  where  he 
dismounted.  As  the  king  did  not,  on  that 
occasion,  hold  the  stirrup,  the  cardinals, 
distrusting  him,  left  the  pope,  and  flying 
back  to  Civila  Castellana,  shut  themselves 
up  in  that  fortress.  Hadrian,  thus  aban- 
doned by  the  cardinals  and  the  greater  part 
of  his  retinue,  was  not  a  little  disturbed. 
But  dissembling  his  fear,  he  entered  the  tent 
and  placed  himself  in  the  chair  of  stale,  that 
was  there  prepared  for  him.  Being  thus 
seated,  the  king,  prostrating  himself  before 
him,  kissed  his  foot,  but  when  he  rose  up  to 
receive  the  kiss  of  peace,  the  pope  refused 
it,  because  he  had  not  paid  him  the  honor 
that  was  due  to  him,  and  had  been  paid  to 
his  predecessors  by  all  the  preceding  empe- 
rors, out  of  the  regard  they  had  for  the  two 
princes  of  the  apostles.  The  king,  thinking 
it  inconsistent  with  the  royal  dignity  to 
serve  the  pope  himself  in  the  quality  of 
equerry,  maintained  that  he  was  under  no 
obligation  of  performing  that  office.  The 
next  day  was  wholly  spent  in  conferences 
relating  to  this  point,  the  ancient  records 
were  searched;  some  men  of  rank,  much 
advanced  in  years,  who  had  attended  the 
emperor  Lotharius  in  the  interview  he  had 
with  pope  Innocent  in  1132,  were  examined,, 
and  it  appearing  from  their  testimony,  as 
well  as  from  the  records,  that  it  was  cus- 
tomary for  kings  and  emperors  to  hold 
the  stirrup  while  his  holiness  mounted  his 
horse,  or  dismounted,  the  king,  loth  to  diso- 
blige the  pope  at  that  juncture,  acquiesced 
by  the  advice  of  the  princes  of  the  empire, 
and  the  next  day  complied  with  that  cus- 
tom, and  attended  his  holiness  in  the  si^ht 
of  the  whole  army,  for  the  distance  of  a 
stone-cast  as  his  equerry,  and  he  was  then 
admitted  to  the  kiss  of  peace.'  Had  they 
gone  little  more  than  a  century  farther  back 
in  searching  the  records,  they  would  have 
found  that  the  popes,  instead  of  pretending 
to  be  thus  served  by  the  emperors,  thought 
it  their  duty  to  serve  and  obey  them  as  their 
liege  lords  and  sovereigns.  But  the  volun- 
tary submissions  of  some  princes  were,  in 
process  of  time,  exacted  by  the  popes  of  alL 
as  a  duty. 

In  the  mean  time  the  Romans,  hearing 
that  the  king  was  advancing  with  his  army 
to  Rome,  in  order  to  receive  the  imperial 
crown  at  the  hands  of  the  pope,  sent  a  so- 
lemn embassy  to  offer  him  the  empire  in 
their  name,  pretending  that  they  alone  had  a 
right  to  dispose  of  it.  They  met  the  king  be- 
tween Sutri  and  Rome,  and  being  admitted 

'  Otto  Fris.  I.  1.  c.  21 ;  et  Codex  Vatican-  apud  Baron, 
ad  ann.  1155. 


490 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Hadrian  IV. 


The  embassadors'  speech.    The  king's  answer.    Frederic  crowned  emperor. 


to  his  presence,  they  extolled,  in  a  pompous 
harangue,  the  valor  of  their  ancestors,  en- 
larged on  the  conquests  they  had  made, 
magnified  the  wisdom  and  prudence  with 
which  they  had  governed  the  conquered 
world;  and  then  deploring  the  miserable 
state  they  were,  in  the  end,  reduced  to,  that 
of  slaves  to  priests  and  clerks,  begged  he 
would  assist  them  in  shaking  off  so  galling 
a  yoke.  They  added,  that  they  had  made 
him,  though  a  stranger,  a  citizen  of  Rome  ; 
that  they  were  sent  by  the  senate  and  the 
Roman  people  to  offer  him  the  imperial 
crown,  and  to  obtain  of  him,  in  return,  a 
confirmation  of  all  their  ancient  privileges, 
with  a  promise,  upon  oath,  to  restore  the 
senate  and  the  equestrian  order  to  their  for- 
mer splendor  and  authority ;  that  upon  his 
engaging  to  defend  them  to  the  utmost  of 
his  power,  against  all  their  enemies,  he 
should  be  acknowledged  by  them  for  their 
prince,  and  as  such  received  in  the  capitol 
by  their  officers,  paying  to  the  said  officers 
on  that  occasion,  in  compliance  with  the 
ancient  custom,  five  thousand  pounds  weight 
of  silver.  They  were  going  on,  when  the 
king  interrupting  them,  "  You  have  told  us," 
he  said,  "great  things  of  the  valor  and  the 
wisdom  of  your  ancestors ;  but  in  your  ha- 
rangues I  discover  no  traces  of  that  wisdom 
Avhich  you  have  so  mtkch  extolled  in  them. 
They  have,  I  own  it,  performed  great  feats 
with  their  valor.  The  Romans  were,  it 
must  be  allowed,  men  worthy  of  the  high 
encomiums  you  have  bestowed  upon  them; 
they  were,  I  say,  with  the  words  of  one  of 
your  own  poets,"  (probably  alluding  to  the 
words  in  Virgil,  "fuimus  Troes");  "but 
Rome  has  experienced,  as  well  as  other 
cities,  the  sad  vicissitudes  of  fortune.  From 
your  Rome,  or  rather  from  my  Rome,  the 
seat  of  the  empire  was  translated  into  the 
East,  and  with  your  plenty  the  hungryGreek" 
("  Grasculus  escunens,"  Juvenal's  words,) 
"  was  fed  for  many  years.  Your  Rome 
Avas  afterwards  subdued  by  the  Lombards 
was  taken  from  them  by  the  Franks,  and 
has  been  transmitted  to  us  by  the  two  glori- 
ous emperors,  Charles  and  Otto.  Rome, 
therefore,  is  mine,  and  not  yours  ;  and  it  be- 
longs not  to  you,  but  to  me,  to  dispose  of  it. 
It  is  true  you  have  invited  me  to  your  city ; 
but  it  was  to  defend  you  against  your  ene- 
mies, not  being  able  to  defend  yourselves. 
You  implored  my  protection,  and  I  came  to 
protect  you.  I  am,  by  inheritance,  the  law- 
ful owner  and  lord  of  your  city,  and  you,  in 
offering  it  to  me,  only  offer  me  what  is,  in- 
dependently of  you,  my  OAvn.  You  seem  to 
confide  in  the  Sicilian,"  (or  the  king  of 
Sicily ;)  "  but  he  shall,  in  due  time,  be  made 
to  pay  dear  for  his  temerity.  As  to  the 
oaths  you  require,  it  does  not  at  all  become 
subjects  to  prescribe  laws  to,  or  exact  oaths 
of,  their  sovereigns.  I  am  your  lord,  and 
shall  never  deny  you  my  protectioa  whea  I 


think  it  my  duty  to  protect  you,  without 
binding  myself  to  it  by  an  oath.  You  say 
I  must  pay  a  certain  sum  of  money  to 
your  officers,  when  you  admit  me  as  your 
prince  into  the  capitol.  Here  again  you 
forget  that  I  am  your  lord  and  master.  But 
I  do  not ;  and  therefore  will  not  be  directed 
by  you  in  the  distribution  of  my  favors  ;  but 
shall  bestow  them  upon  whom  I  please, 
without  consulting  you."  The  king  was 
provoked  at  the  Romans  pretending  to  be  a 
free  people,  and  to  have  the  power  lodged  in 
their  senate  of  bestowing  a  city  which  his 
ancestors  had  conquered,  upon  whom  they 
pleased.  And  it  is  to  be  observed,  that  he 
speaks  all  along  of  Rome  as  belonging  to 
him  alone,  of  himself  as  the  sovereign  lord 
of  that  city,  and  of  the  Romans  as  his  vas- 
sals, without  ever  taking  the  least  notice  of 
the  power  claimed  by  the  popes  over  Rome 
and  the  Romans. 

The  Roman  deputies  being  dismissed  by 
the  king,  hastened  back  to  Rome,  promising 
to  return  with  the  answer  of  the  senate  and 
their  fellow-citizens.  But,  as  they  were  no 
more  heard  of,  the  pope  advised  the  king  to 
be  upon  his  guard,  not  doubting  but  they 
would  disturb  and  prevent,  if  by  any  means 
they  could,  the  ceremony  of  the  coronation. 
A  body,  therefore,  of  a  thousand  chosen 
horse  were  detached  from  the  king's  army 
that  very  night,  with  orders  to  seize  on  the 
Leonine  city,  and  the  church  of  St.  Peter, 
where  the  ceremony  Avas  to  be  performed. 
This  they  effected  under  the  conduct  of  car- 
dinal Octavian,  before  day-break,  without 
the  least  opposition.  At  day-break  the  pope 
and  the  king,  marching  at  the  head  of  the 
army  in  battle  array,  entered  the  Leonine 
city,  and  having  placed  strong  guards  at  all 
the  gates,  they  proceeded  together  to  St.  Pe- 
ter's, where  the  ceremony  of  the  coronation 
Avas  performed  without  the  least  disturbance. 
"He  received  the  imperial  crown,"  says 
Otto  Frisingensis,  "  in  the  fourth  year  of  his 
reign,  in  the  month  of  June,  and  on  the  18th 
day  of  that  month,  amidst  the  loud  acclama- 
tions of  all  who  were  present."'  And  Fre- 
deric himself,  in  a  letter  to  that  historian, 
says,  "  Mass  being  celebrated  at  the  altar  of 
the  holy  apostles  Peter  and  Paul,  in  honor  of 
the  blessed  Virgin  Mary,  because  it  was  Sa- 
turday, he  placed  the  imperial  crown  upon 
my  head."^  In  the  year  1155  the  18th  of 
June  fell  on  Saturday." 

The  ceremony  of  the  coronation  being 
ended,  the  emperor  returned  Avith  the  pope 
to  his  camp.  They  Avere  scarce  gone  when 
the  Romans,  provoked  at  the  pope's  dispo- 


'  Otto  Prising.  1.  1.  c.  22.        a  Apud  Otton.  1.  1. 

'  Gunther,  the  Ligurine  poet  takes  notice  of  the  time 
coronation  in  the  following  lines : 

"  Hos  Regi  titulos,  hos  clari  nomen  honoris 
Quartus  ab  ingressu  regnorum  contulit  annus, 
Plusque  fere  medio  Juvenum  se  mensis  agebat, 
Ut  quarto  decimo  prodiret  Julius  ortu. 
Postea  gemmiferani  Ueta  cervice  coronam 
Ipse  ferens,  incedit  equo,  &c."— (Ligurin.  I.  4.) 


Hadrian  IV.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


49t 


The  Romans  fall  upon  the  Germans,  but  are  defeated. 
Takes  and  destroys  the  city  of  Spoleti 


The  emperor  leaves  the  pope  in  possession  of  Tivoli. 
Character  of  Roger,  king  of  Sicily. 


sing  of  the  imperial   crown  without  their 
consent,  sallied  from  the  castle  of  St.  Ange- 
lo,  of  wliich  they  were  masters,  fell  upon  the 
Germans  whom   the   emperor  had   left   to 
keep  possession  of  the  Vatican,  and  over- 
powering them  with  numbers,  drove  them 
from  thence,  and  pursued  them  to  the  camp. 
The   Germans   flew  immediately  to   arms, 
and  an  engagement  ensued  that  lasted  several 
hours  with    great   slaughter  on    both   sides. 
But  the  Germans  prevailed  in  the  end,  and 
the  Romans  quitting  the  field,  saved  them- 
selves within  the  gates  of  the  city.     In  their 
flight  many  of  them  were  taken,  and  brought 
to  tlie  emperor;  but  the  pope  interposing  in 
their  behalf,  they  were  forgiven   and   sent 
hack  unliurt.     The  emperor  was  soon  after 
obliged,  by  the  violent  heat  of  the  climate, 
to  quit  the  neighborhood  of  Rome,  and  the 
pope,   not  caring  to  put  himself  into   the 
power  of  the  Romans,  thought  it  advisable 
to  continue  with  him.     He  therefore  accom- 
panied him  into  Sabina,  and  arriving  on  the 
eve  of  the  festival  of  St.  Peter,  at  the  Luca- 
nian  bridge,  the  army  halted  there,  and  the 
festival  was  celebrated  the  next  day  by  the 
pope  and  theemperor  with  the  greatest  solem- 
nitv.'  During  their  short  stay  there  deputies 
arrived  from  Tivoli,  sent  by  their  fellow-citi- 
zens  to  offer  the  keys   of  their  city  to   the 
emperor,  as  their  lawful  lord  and  sovereign. 
Frederic  accepted    the  keys,  but   the    pope 
claiming  the  city  of  Tivoli  as  bplonging  to 
the  Roman  church,  and  urging  the  oath  of 
allegiance  they  had  taken  to  St.  Peter  and 
his  successors  in  the  apostolic  see,  he  re- 
turned the  keys  by  the  advice  of  the  princes 
who  were  with  him,  and  bid  the  Tiburiines 
obey  the  pope  as  their  lord  and  father,  but 
with  this  clause,  "  Saving  in  all  things  the 
imperial  right."     The  letter  he  wrote  to  the 
Tiburtines  upon  the  return  of  their  deputies 
has  reached  our  times,  and  is  as  follows  : — 
"  Frederic,  by  the  grace  of  God,  emperor  of 
the  Romans,  ever  Ausustus,  to  the  citizens 
of  Tivoli,  greeting.     We  will  have  you  to 
know,  that  out  of  our  regard  for  the  blessed 
Peter,  prince  of  the  apostles,  we  leave  the  city 
of  Tivoli  lo  our  beloved  and  most  reverend 
father,  pope  Hadrian,  saving  in  all  things 
the  imperial  ri^ht,  'salvo  super  omnia  jure 
imperiali.'     We,  therefore,  absolve  you  all 
and   each   of  you  from  the  allegiance  you 
have  lately  sworn  to  us,  and  command  you 
to  assist,  serve,  and  obey  the  venerable  pope, 
saving    in    all   things  the   imperial  right."^ 
Thus  Frederic  left  the  pope  in  posspssion  of 
the  city,  but  took  care  not  to  yield  up  the 
right  he  himself  might  have  to  it.     As  the 
Romans  were  his  avowed  enemies,  he  was 
unwilling,  says  the  anonymous  historian,  to 
di-^oblige  tlie  pope,  lest  his  holiness  should 
stir  up  against  him  the  prince  of  Capua,  the 
duke  of  Apulia,  and  the  king  of  Sicily.' 

»  Codex  Vatican,  apud  Bar.  ad  ann.  1155. 
!>  Ibid.  '  Idem  ibid. 


As  in  the  emperor's  army  many,  not  able 
to  bear  the  heat  of  the  climate  in  Italy,  fell 
daily  sick,  and  many  died,  he  resolved  to 
march  back  to  Germany.  In  his  way  he  took 
the  city  o.f  Spoleti  by  assault,  in  six  hours 
lime,  though  defended  by  a  numerous  garri- 
son and  near  a  hundred  towers.  That  city, 
depending  upon  its  situation,  and  the  strength 
of  its  walls,  had  not  only  resumed  its  ancient 
liberty,  but  thrown  into  prison  the  messen- 
gers sent  by  the  emperor  to  bring  them  back 
to  their  duty.  Having,  therefore,  taken  the 
place  by  storm,  he  gave  it  up  to  be  plundered 
by  his  soldiers,  who  found  an  immense  booty 
in  it,  and  then  levelled  it  with  the  ground. 
At  Ancona  he  was  met  by  two  Greek  prin- 
ces, Palffiologus  and  Maroducus,  sent  by  the 
emperor  Manuel  Comnenus,  to  propose  an 
alliance  with  him  against  William,  who  had 
succeeded  his  father  Roger,  in  the  kingdom 
of  Sicily.  The  Greek  embassadors  offered 
the  emperor  an  immense  sum  of  money, 
provided  he  returned  with  his  army,  and 
entering  Apulia,  made  war  upon  their  com- 
mon enemy.  But  the  sickness  that  reigned 
among  his  troops  not  allowing  him  to  com- 
ply with  their  request,  nor  accept  their  of- 
fers, he  dismissed  them  with  many  kind  ex- 
pressions, and  pursued  his  march  into  Ger- 
many. Thus  the  emperor  himself  in  a  letter 
to  Otto.' 

William,  the  only  surviving  son  of  Roger, 
was  at  this  time  king  of  Sicily.  Roger  died 
in  Palermo,  which  city  he  had  made  the 
metropolis  of  his  kingdom,  on  the  last  day 
of  January  11.51,  in  the  fifty-eighth  year  of 
his  age  :  a  short  life  for  the  many  noble  ac- 
tions he  performed.  For  not  satisfied  with 
the  two  kingdoms  of  Sicily  and  Apulia  or 
Italy,  comprising  all  the  provinces  that  com- 
pose the  present  kingdom  of  Naples,  he  add- 
ed to  his  Sicilian  and  Italian  dominions  the 
islands  of  Malta  and  Corfu,  the  greater  part 
of  Greece,  the  cities  of  Tripoli,  Tunis,  and 
Hyppo,  in  Africa,  and  obliged  the  Saracen 
princes  in  those  parts  to  pay  him  a  yearly 
tribute.  He  was  no  less  prudent  in  council 
than  brave  in  the  field;  was  a  great  admirer 
of  all  men  of  merit,  of  all  who  had  any 
Avays  distinguished  themselves,  whether  by 
the  arts  of  peace  or  of  Avar,  by  the  sword  or 
by  learning,  inviting  them  from  the  most 
distant  countries  to  his  court,  and  raising 
them  to  the  first  honors  of  his  kingdom  ; 
was  by  no  losses  disheartened,  by  no  suc- 
cesses elated  ;  was  never  known  to  have  de- 
parted from  the  laws  of  the  strictest  equity 
and  justice  in  the  government  of  his  king- 
dom; and,  in  short,  was  for  his  military 
skill,  his  wisdom,  and  other  eminent  virtues, 
looked  upon,  even  by  his  enemies,  as  the 
greatest  prince  of  the  age  he  lived  in.^  Thus 
the  writers  who   lived  in  those  times,  or 


'  Ep.  ante,  lib.  1. 

a  Falcand.  Hist,  de  Sicilise  calamitatibus,  et  Peregrin, 
p.  260.  ad  Anonym.  Cassin. 


492 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Hadrian  IV. 


Roger  is  succeeded  by  his  son  William.     Quarrels  witli  the  pope.     Is  excommunicated, 
and  the  pope.    Tlie  king  reduced  to  great  straits. 


War  between  him 


nearest  to  them.  St.  Bernard  indeed,  in 
some  of  his  letters,  speaks  of  Roger  as  a  ty- 
rant and  usurper.  But  these  names  the  saint 
bestowed  upon  him  for  no  other  reason  but 
because  he  sided  with  Anacletus,  and  no 
longer  than  he  continued  to  support  him. 
For  he  no  sooner  acknowledged  Innocent, 
than  of  the  very  worst  of  princes  he  became, 
in  the  opinion  of  Bernard,  the  very  best,  and 
was  as  such  commended  by  him  in  some  of 
his  letters.  Roger  spent  the  two  last  years 
of  his  life  in  erecting  a  stately  palace  for  his 
successors  in  the  city  of  Palermo,  and  build- 
ing several  churches,  which  he  richly  en- 
dowed, one  especially  at  Messina  and  ano- 
ther at  Bari,  both  in  honor  of  St.  Nicholas, 
bishop  of  Mira.  Roger  had,  by  his  many 
wives,  a  numerous  issue;  but,  to  his  great 
grief,  all  but  William  died  before  him.  He 
had  appointed  William  duke  of  Naples  and 
prince  of  Capua,  but  upon  the  death  of  his 
other  children  he  took  him,  in  1152,  for  his 
partner  in  the  kingdom,  and  caused  him  to 
be  crowned  with  the  usual  ceremonies  at 
Palermo.  His  father  dying  in  11.54,  he  be- 
came sole  master  of  his  extensive  dominions, 
but  soon  showed,  says  the  historian,  (hat  he 
had  inherited  his  power  and  not  his  virtues.' 
For  he  immediately  discharged  all  his  fa- 
ther's ministers,  and  either  banishing  or  con- 
fining them,  put  his  own  favorites,  men 
quite  unexperienced,  in  their  room;  which 
greatly  disobliged  and  estranged  from  him 
some  of  the  most  powerful  families  of  his 
kingdom.  He  had  been  crowned  in  his  fa- 
ther's lifetime,  but,  nevertheless,  upon  his 
death,  he  caused  that  ceremony  to  be  per- 
formed anew  in  the  presence  of  all  the  bi- 
shops and  barons  in  his  dominions,  whom 
he  summoned  for  that  purpose  at  Palermo. 
He  was  crowned  by  Hugh,  archbishop 
of  Palermo,  on  Easter-day  1154,  and  Ha- 
drian being  in  the  latter  end  of  that  year 
preferred  to  the  apostolic  see,  William  sent, 
in  the  beginning  of  the  ensuing  year,  em- 
bassadors to  Rome,  to  congratulate  his  holi- 
ness upon  his  promotion,  and  at  the  same 
time  to  obtain  a  confirmation  of  the  privi- 
leges granted  by  his  predecessors  to  the  de- 
ceased king.  The  embassadors  met  with  a 
very  cold  reception  from  the  pope,  nor  could 
they  prevail  upon  him  to  grant  them  their 
request,  Hadrian  pretending  that  the  king 
ought  not,  as  feudatory  of  the  Roman 
church,  to  have  taken  the  crown  without 
the  consent  of  the  apostolic  see.  In  the 
mean  time  the  new  king,  crossing  over  into 
Apulia  to  settle  his  affairs  there,  landed  at 
Salerno  ;  and  during  his  stay  in  that  city  ar- 
rived Henry,  cardinal  of  St.  Nereus  and  St. 
Achilleus,  sent  by  Hadrian  to  complain  of 
his  having  caused  himself  to  be  crowned, 
and  assumed  the  title  of  king  without  first 


»  Falcand.  Hist,  de  Siciliae  calamitatibus,  el  Peregrin, 
■p.  260.  ad  Anonym.  Cassin. 


applying  to  the  apostolic  see,  and  taking  the 
usual  oaths  as  vassal  of  the  Roman  church. 
The  cardinal  brought  a  letter  with  him  from 
the  pope  to  the  king;  but  the  king,  finding 
himself  only  styled  in  that  letter,  lord  of  Si- 
cily, returned  it  immediately  to  the  cardinal, 
and  ordered  him  to  depart  that  moment  his 
dominions.  This  Hadrian,  the  cardinals, 
and  the  whole  Roman  clergy  highly  resent- 
ed, as  if  the  king  intended  to  withdraw  him- 
self from  all  subjection  to  the  holy  see.  The 
sentence  of  excommunication  was  therefore 
thundered  out,  vi^ith  great  solemnity,  against 
him  ;  his  subjects  were  absolved  from  their 
oath  of  allegiance,  and  he  declared  a  rebel 
and  an  enemy  to  St.  Peter  and  his  church. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  king,  being  obliged 
to  return  to  Sicily,  to  quiet  some  disturban- 
ces there,  appointed  Ascletinus,  archdeacon 
of  Catania,  high  chancellor  and  governor  of 
Apulia,  with  orders  to  raise  an  army,  and 
lay  siege  to  Benevento.  The  chancellor 
having,  in  compliance  with  his  orders, 
drawn  together  what  forces  he  could,  advan- 
ced to  Benevento,  and,  destroying  all  before 
him  with  fire  and  sword,  laid  close  siege  to 
the  place.  But  despairing,  on  account  of 
the  vigorous  resistance  he  met  with  from  the 
inhabitants,  of  being  able  to  reduce  it  with 
the  troops  he  had  then  with  him,  he  aban- 
doned the  enterprise,  and  marching  into  the 
territories  of  Rome  took  and  burnt  Ceppera- 
no,  Bacucco,  Frusinone,  and  Acre,  and  on 
his  march  back  into  Apulia  levelled  with  the 
ground  the  walls  of  Aquino,  Pontecorvo, 
and  of  several  other  castles  belonging  to  the 
monks  of  Monte  Cassino ;  nay,  as  those 
monks  had  declared  for  the  pope,  he  obliged 
them  to  quit  the  monastery,  leaving  only 
twelve  to  take  care  of  the  church.' 

In  the  mean  time  a  report  of  the  king's 
death  being  spread  abroad,  the  barons  who 
had  been  banished  by  him  or  his  father,  all 
returned,  and  being  encouraged  by  the  pope, 
caused  almost  a  general  insurrection  in  the 
kingdom  of  Apulia.  As  the  king  was  under 
the  sentence  of  excommunication,  his  sub- 
jects, whom  the  pope  had  absolved  from 
their  allegiance,  flocked  daily  in  such  crowds 
to  the  rebels,  that  the  chancellor  was  obliged 
to  quit  the  field,  and  leave  them  in  posses- 
sion of  all  the  open  country.  Having  now 
no  enemy  to  contend  with,  they  reduced 
most  of  the  strong  holds  in  Apulia,  Cala- 
bria, and  Abruzzo;  insomuch  that  the  cities 
of  Naples,  Salerno,  and  Amalfi,  with  a  few 
castles,  were  the  only  places  that  still  held 
out  for  the  king.  They  took  care  to  ac- 
quaint Hadrian  with  their  unexpected  suc- 
cess, and  his  holiness  thereupon  leaving 
Rome,  hastened  to  Benevento,  in  order  to 
be  at  hand  to  encourage  the  rebel  army,  and 
put  himself   at  their   head,   should   it   be 


1  Anonym.  Vatican,  et  Cassin.    Ceccan.  in  Chron. 
ad  ann.  1155. 


Hadrian  IV.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


493 


William  sues  for  peace,  but  in  vain.    The  terms  he  offered.    Gains  a  complete  victory  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  1156.] 
Besieges  the  pope  in  Benevento,  who  is  obliged  to  sue  for  peace. 


thought  necessary.  While  he  was  at  Bene- 
vento, embassadors  arrived  there  from  Con- 
stantinople with  proposals  of"  an  alliance  be- 
tween his  holiness  and  the  emperor  Manuel 
against  their  common  enemy  William,  who 
styled  himself  king  of  Sicily.  The  proposals 
were,  that  their  master  should  pay  to  the 
pope  five  thousand  pounds  weight  of  gold, 
and  send  a  sufficient  number  of  troops  to 
drive  William  quite  out  of  Italy,  and  that 
the  pope,  on  his  side,  should  cause  three 
maritime  cities  in  Apulia  to  be  delivered  up 
to  those  troops  upon  their  landing.  To  these 
terms  the  pope  readily  agreed,  being  in- 
censed beyond  measure  against  William  for 
ravaging  the  lands  of  the  church;  and  he 
wrote  at  the  same  time  to  the  emperor  Fre- 
deric, inviting  him  to  enter  into  that  alliance.' 
The  general  revolt  of  the  cities  of  Apulia, 
and  the  powerful  confederacy  that  was  ne- 
gotiating between  the  pope  and  the  two  em- 
perors, so  terrified  the  king,  that  he  resolved 
to  conclude  a  peace  with  Hadrian  upon  any 
terms;  and  he  sent  accordingly  embassadors 
to  Benevento,  where  the  pope  then  was, 
with  such  conditions  as  bethought  his  holi- 
ness, however  provoked,  could  not  reject. 
For  he  promised  to  restore  all  the  places  he 
had  taken,  to  cede  the  three  cities  of  Padula, 
Mecrone,  and  Montefosco  to  the  apostolic 
see,  to  be  held  for  ever  by  Hadrian  and  his 
successors,  to  oblige  the  rebellious  Romans 
to  acknowledge  and  obey  him;  and,  lastly, 
to  pay  to  the  apostolic  see,  by  way  of  repa- 
ration for  the  losses  it  had  sustained  in  the 
present  war,  the  same  sum  of  money  that 
had  been  offered  by  the  Greek  emperor. 
The  king  required  no  more  than  that  the 
pope  would  absolve  him  from  the  excom- 
munication, and  grant  him  the  investiture 
of  the  kingdoms  of  Sicily  and  Apulia,  upon 
his  swearing  allegiance  to  him  and  his  suc- 
cessors in  the  apostolic  see.  These  were 
more  advantageous  terms  than  the  pope  had 
reason  to  expect ;  and  he  was  for  accepting 
them  without  the  least  alteration.  But  he 
was  opposed  by  the  greater  part  of  the  cardi- 
nals, who  would  hearken  to  no  terms,  and, 
at  their  instigation,  a  resolution  Avas  taken 
to  carry  on  the  war  with  the  utmost  vigor 
till  William  was  driven  quite  out  of  Italy.'^ 
Baronius  is  of  opinion  that  those  cardinals 
were  all  partizans  of  the  emperor  Frederic, 
and  were,  as  such,  for  crushing  the  king  of 
Sicily,  lest  the  pope  should  find  in  that 
prince  a  protector  in  case  of  a  rupture  be- 
tween him  and  the  emperor.^  However 
that  be,  had  the  kingdom  of  Apulia  been  re- 
covered f>om  the  Normans,  a  bloody  war 
would  have  thereupon  unavoidably  ensued 
in  Italy  between  the  two  emperors,  those 
provinces  being  claimed  by  both  as  part  of 
their  respective   empires.     Besides,  it  was 


'  Anonym.  Vatican. 
5  Idi-m  an  ann.  1 155. 
>  Bur.  ad  aim.  1155. 


Guill.  Tyr.  1.  18.  c.  2. 


not  the  interest  of  the  pope  to  have  either 
for  a  neighbor. 

The  king  finding,  to  his  great  surprise, 
that  his  terms  were  rejected,  resolved  to  die 
in  the  field  rather  than  to  part  with  so  many 
rich  provinces,  which  his  ancestors  had  ac- 
quired at  the  expen.'ie  of  their  blood.  Having 
therefore  raised,  with  incredible  expedition, 
a  powerful  army  in  Sicily,  he  embarked  at 
Messina,  and  landing  without  opposition  at 
Salerno,  marched  straight  to  Brundusium, 
now  Brindisi,  where  the  troops  sent  by  the 
Greek  emperor  were  encamped,  and  putting 
himself  at  the  head  of  the  veterans  that  had 
served  under  his  father,  attacked  the  Greeks 
with  such  fury,  that,  not  able  to  stand 
the  shock,  they  fled  at  the  first  onset.  The 
kins  then  laid  close  siege  to  Brundusium, 
whither  many  of  the  Greek  officers  had  fled 
with  some  of  the  rebellious  barons;  and, 
having  soon  made  himself  master  of  the 
place,  put  all  the  Greeks  in  irons,  and  either 
deprived  the  barons  of  their  sight,  or  caused 
their  heads  to  be  struck  ofT.  The  king  got 
on  this  occasion  an  immense  booty,  all  the 
money  the  Greeks  had  brought  with  them 
for  the  pope,  and  to  defray  the  expenses  of 
the  war.  From  Brundusium  the  kin<r  led 
his  victorious  army  against  the  city  of  Bari, 
that  had  revolted  and  rased  the  magnificent 
castle  which  his  father  had  built  there.  As 
he  approached  the  city,  the  inhabitants  went 
out  unarmed  to  meet  him,  and  sue  for  mercy. 
He  spared  their  lives,  and  would  not  suffer 
the  city  to  be  plundered.  But,  observing 
the  ruins  of  the  castle,  "I  shall  not,"  he 
said,  "spare  your  houses,  as  you  have  not 
spared  mine.''  He  then  ordered  them  to 
depart  with  their  effects  in  two  days  time. 
They  implored  the  king's  mercy  with  floods 
of  tears;  but  he  was  inflexible,  and  setting, 
at  the  end  of  two  days,  his  whole  army  to 
work,  the  famous  city  of  Bari  was  in  a  short 
time  reduced  to  a  heap  of  rubbish;  its  strong 
walls,  that  had  stood  so  many  sieges,  its 
stately  palaces,  and  even  its  magnificent 
churches  being  levelled  with  the  ground. 
The  fate  of  Bari  struck  such  terror  into  the 
other  cities,  that  they  all  returned,  of  their 
own  accord,  to  their  duty.' 

In  the  mean  time  Hadrian  kept  himself 
shut  up,  with  several  of  the  rebel  barons,  in 
the  city  of  Benevento,  not  daring  to  venture 
out,  lest  he  should  fall  into  the  hands  of 
some  of  the  king's  parties,  that  made  fre- 
quent incursions  to  -the  very  gates  of  that 
city.  At  last  the  king  appeared,  Avith  his 
whole  army,  before  the  place,  and  investing 
it  on  all  sides,  began  to  batter  the  walls 
night  and  day  with  such  violence,  that  the 
pope,  sensible  they  could  not  hold  out  much 
longer,  and  despairing  of  relief,  thought  it 
advisable  to  capitulate.  He  therefore  sent 
three  cardinal  priests  to  the  king's  camp  to 


'  Guillelm.  Tyr.  I.  18.  c.  8.    Anonym.  Vatican,  et 
Cassin. 

2R 


494 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Hadrian  IV. 


Terms  upon  which  the  peace  was  granted.     Complaints  against  the  hospitalers. 


sue  for  peace,  namely,  Hubald  of  St.  Prax- 
edes,  Julius  of  St.  Marcellus,  and  Roland  of 
St.  Mark,  chancellor  of  the  Roman  church. 
The  king  received  them  with  the  greatest 
marks  of  respect,  and  declaring  himself 
ready  and  desirous  to  live  in  peace  with  the 
apostolic  see,  he  appointed  five  persons  to 
settle  the  articles  jointly  with  them,  namely, 
Majo,  his  high  admiral,  or,  as  he  was  styled, 
Magnus  Admiratus  Admiratorum,  Hugh 
archbishop  of  Palermo,  Romuald  archbishop 
of  Salerno,  William  bishop  of  Calano,  and 
Marinus  abbot  of  Cava.  After  several  con- 
ferences the  following  conditions  were  agreed 
on  :  That  the  pope  should  absolve  the  king 
from  the  excommunication ;  that  he  should 
grant  him  investiture  by  delivering  to  him 
three  standards,  one  for  the  kingdom  of 
Sicily,  another  for  the  kingdom  of  Apulia, 
and  the  third  for  the  principality  of  Capua; 
that  he  should  acknowledge  him  for  lawful 
lord  of  the  dukedom  of  Naples,  of  the  prin- 
cipality of  Salerno,  (which  the  popes  had 
hitherto  claimed  as  belonging  to  their  see,) 
of  the  March  of  Ancona,  and  of  all  the  cities, 
lands,  and  territories,  which  he  was  pos- 
sessed of  at  that  time.  On  the  other  hand 
the  king  was  to  forbear  all  further  hostilities, 
to  SAvear  allegiance,  as  his  predecessors  had 
all  done,  to  the  apostolic  see,  and  to  pay 
yearly,  as  i'eudatory  of  the  Roman  church, 
six  hundred  schifati  for  Apuha  and  Cala- 
bria, and  five  hundred  for  the  March.  To 
these  some  other  articles  were  added,  that 
gave  great  ofl'ence  to  the  cardinals  who  were 
not  shut  up  with  the  pope  in  Benevento, 
that  is,  who  were  out  of  all  danger.  These 
articles  were,  that  from  the  kingdom  of 
Sicily  no  appeal  should  be  made  to  Rome 
without  the  king's  leave ;  that  no  apostolic 
legate  should  be  sent,  without  his  leave, 
into  that  kingdom;  and  that  in  elections  the 
clergy  should  be  free  to  elect  whom  they 
pleased,  but  should  notify  the  election,  be- 
fore it  Avas  made  public,  to  the  king,  who 
should  confirm  it,  if  the  elect  was  not  in 
confederacy  with  his  enemies,  nor  thought 
by  him,  on  other  accounts,  unworthy  of  the 
station  to  which  they  had  preferred  him. 
By  this  article  the  king  became  absolute 
master  of  all  elections ;  and  I  do  not  find  that 
either  the  pope,  or  any  of  the  cardinals  who 
were  whh  him,  objected  to  any  of  these  ar- 
ticles, however  derogatory  to  the  pretended 
rights  of  the  apostolic  see.  The  conditions 
upon  which  peace  Avas  to  be  restored  be 
tween  the  pope  and  the  king,  being  thus 
settled,  Hadrian  confirmed  them  by  a  bull, 
dated  at  Benevento  in  the  month  of  June 
1 156,  and  in  that  bull  he  bestows  great  com 
mendations  upon  the  king,  and  declares  over 
and  over  that  it  has  not  been  extorted  from 
him  by  fear  or  by  force,  but  was  issued 
while  he  was  quite  free  and  safe  in  the  city 
of  Benevento.  This  the  king  probably  in- 
sisted upon,  lest  the  concessions  should  be 


afterwards  declared  void  and  null,  as  not 
being  voluntary;  for  so  it  had  happened  in 
the  dispute  between  Paschal  II.  and  the  em- 
peror Henry  V.  The  terms  being  thus 
agreed  upon,  the  king  coming  to  the  church 
of  St.  Marcian,  without  the  walls  of  Bene- 
vento, was  there  received  by  the  pope,  and 
prostrating  himself  before  him  was  first  ab- 
solved from  the  excommunication,  and  then 
solemnly  invested  with  three  standards  in 
the  kingdoms  of  Sicily  and  Apulia  and  the 
principality  of  Capua.'  With  the  pope  were 
many  of  the  rebel  barons,  who,  at  his  insti- 
gation, had  taken  up  arms  against  their 
lawful  sovereign.  But  his  holiness  was  too 
anxious  about  his  own  safety  to  insist  upon 
any  terms  for  them,  and  he  left  them  to  the 
mercy  of  the  king,  who  either  put  to  death 
such  of  them  as  fell  into  his  hands,  or  de- 
prived them  of  their  sight.  Among  the  lat- 
ter was  Robert,  the  brave  prince  of  Capua, 
who  had  been  unjustly  driven  from,  his  do- 
minions by  king  Roger,  and  had  recovered 
them  on  occasion  of  the  present  disturbances. 
He  had  the  good  luck  to  make  his  escape 
out  of  Benevento  undiscovered,  but  was  ap- 
prehended by  one  of  his  own  vassals  as  he 
was  crossing  the  Garigliano  to  get  into  the 
territories  of  the  church,  and  delivered  up  to 
the  king,  who,  having  caused  his  eyes  to  be 
put  out,  confined  him  to  a  prison  in  Pa- 
lermo, where  he  soon  died.^ 

During  these  disturbances  in  Apulia 
landed  at  Hydruntum  (now  Otranto)  in 
Calabria,  Fulcher,  patriarch  of  Jerusalem, 
with  six  other  bishops,  come  to  remonstrate 
against  the  privileges  granted  to  the  knights 
hospitalers  by  the  late  pope,  and  in  particu- 
lar against  their  being  exempted  from  pay- 
ing tithes.  As  they  were  going  to  Rome, 
which  city  the  pope  had  not  yet  left  when 
they  landed,  the  king  of  Sicily  would  not 
grant  them  a  safe-conduct ;  so  that  they  were 
obliged  to  re-embark,  and  pursue  their  voyage 
by  sea  to  Ancona.  There  they  landed,  and 
travelling  to  Rome  found  that  the  pope  had 
set  out  a  few  days  before  for  Benevento. 
They  followed  him,  and  overtaking  him  at 
Ferentino,  acquainted  him  with  the  motives 
of  their  long  journey,  which  the  patriarch 
told  him  he  had  undertaken,  though  near  a 
hundred  years  old.  They  charged  the  hos- 
pitalers with  abusing,  in  a  strange  manner, 
the  privileges  granted  them  by  the  apostolic 
see;  with  openly  insulting  the  bishops,  and 
the  patriarch  himself,  as  having  no  power 
over  them ;  with  engrossing  to  themselves 
all  the  benefactions  and  offerings  of  the 
faithful,  &c.  They  therefore  entreated  his 
holiness  to  revoke  or  at  least  curtail  the  many 
unprecedented  immunities  and  exemptions, 
which  they  had  surreptitiously  obtained  of 
his  predecessor.     The  affair  was  disputed. 


«  Guill.  Tyr.  1.  18.  c.  8.  et  apud  Baron,  ad  ann.  1156, 
in  actis  Hadrian. 
2  Falcand.  et  Anonym.  Cassin.  ad  ann.  1156. 


Hadrian  IV.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


495 


Beginning  of  Ihe  quarrel  between  the  pope  and  the  emperor  j — [Year  of  Christ,  1157.]     The  pope's  letter  to 
the  emperor,  gives  great  otTence  to  the  German  princes. 


for  several  days,  in  the  presence  of  the  pope, 
but  left  undetermined,  Hadrian  having  been 
gained  over,  says  the  historian,  with  rich 
presents,  to  the  party  of  the  hospitalers,  as 
well  as  all  the  cardinals  but  two,  namely, 
Octavian  of  St.  Cecilia,  and  John  of  Si. 
Martin.  "  Of  all  the  cardinals  these  two 
alone  preferred  justice  to  money  :  the  rest, 
all  sons  of  Bosor,  followed  Balaam."  Thus 
William  archbishop  of  Tyre.'  But  that 
writer  was,  perhaps,  not  a  little  prejudiced 
in  favor  of  the  patriarch  against  the  hos- 
pitalers. For  Petrus  Blesensis,  who  lived 
at  this  time,  speaking  of  cardinal  Octavian 
on  occasion  of  his  assuming  the  pontifical 
dignity  in  opposition  to  Alexander  III.  in 
1159,  says,  that  he  had  spent  his  whole  life 
in  heaping  up  wealth  to  disturb  the  peace 
of  the  church.-  It  is  to  be  observed,  that 
the  archbishop  of  Tyre,  jealous  of  the  privi- 
leges enjoyed  by  the  hospitalers,  betrays 
throughout  his  history  no  small  prejudice 
against  them,  and  all  who  favored  them. 

The  peace  concluded  by  the  pope  with 
the  king  of  Sicily  was  highly  displeasing  to 
the  emperor ;  and  he  no  sooner  heard  of  it, 
than,  provoked  at  his  entering  unknown  to 
him  into  a  treaty  with  an  avowed  enemy  of 
the  empire,  he  forbad  all  archbishops,  bi- 
shops, and  other  ecclesiastics  in  his  domin- 
ions to  accept  of  the  pope  any  dignity  or 
benefice,  or  to  go  to  Rome  upon  any  pre- 
tence whatsoever.  In  the  mean  time  the 
see  of  Verdun  becoming  vacant,  Albertus  de 
Mercy,  the  bishop  elect,  applied,  pursuant 
to  that  injunction,  to  the  emperor  for  investi- 
ture, and  received  it  at  his  hands,  without 
so  much  as  acquainting  the  pope  with  his 
election.  This  Hadrian  as  highly  resented 
as  Frederic  had  done  his  making  peace  with 
the  king  of  Sicily.  The  pope  was  at  the 
same  time  displeased  with  Frederic  on 
another  account.  Eskilus,  archbishop  of 
Lunden  in  Sweden,  had  been  taken,  as  he 
returned  from  Rome,  by  robbers  in  the  ter- 
ritories of  the  empire,  had  been  stript  of  all 
he  had,  and  was  by  them  still  kept  in  cap- 
tivity. As  the  emperor  had  taken  no  notice 
of  so  notorious  a  breach  of  the  law  of  nations, 
had  caused  no  search  to  be  made  after  the 
criminals  in  order  to  bring  them  to  condign 
punishment,  and  deliver  the  archbishop  out 
of  their  hands,  Hadrian  sent  the  two  cardi- 
nals, Roland  of  St.  Mark,  chancellor  of  the 
holy  Roman  church,  and  Bernard  of  St. 
Clement,  to  complain  to  him,  in  his  name, 
of  the  remissness  with  which  he  had  acted 
on  that  occasion,  and  to  get  the  archbishop 
immediately  set  at  liberty,  and  all  his  effects 
restored  to  him.  The  two  cardi(ials  being 
admitted  to  the  emperor's  presence,  and  by 
him  very  graciously  received,  addressed  him 
with  the  following  words :    "  Our  blessed 


■niiill.  Tyr.  1.18.  c.  3,  et  c.  8. 
'  Tetrus  Blesens.  ep.  48, 


father  pope  Hadrian  and  the  whole  college 
of  cardinals  of  the  holy  Roman  church, 
salute  you,  he  as  your  lather,  and  tliey  as 
your  brethren."  They  then  delivered  a  let- 
ter with  this  address,  "  Hadrian  bishop,  ser- 
vant of  the  servants  of  God,  to  Frederic 
illustrious  emperor  of  the  Romans,  health 
and  apostolic  benediction."  To  some  ex- 
pressions in  this  fatal  letter  was  owing  the 
rupture  that  ensued  between  the  church  and 
the  empire,  and  the  endless  mischiefs  that 
arose  from  thence  to  both.  For  in  that  let- 
ter the  pope  taxed  the  emperor,  in  very  sharp 
terms,  with  conniving  at  the  sacrilege,  as  he 
called  it,  committed  in  his  dominions  ;  with 
granting  impunity  to  the  criminals,  and,  in  a 
manner,  countenancing  so  atrocious  a  crime, 
instead  of  employing,  as  he  ought  to  have 
done,  the  sword  that  was  put  into  his  hand 
for  the  punishment  of  evil-doers.  "  And  in 
what,"  added  Hadrian  in  his  letter,  "have 
we  ever  disobliged  you  ?  We  are  not  con- 
scious to  ourselves  of  having  done  any  thing 
whatever  that  could  give  you  the  least 
offence.  We  have  ever  loved  you,  with  the 
greatest  tenderness,  as  our  son  and  a  most 
Christian  prince.  You  cannot  have  forgot 
with  what  joy  your  mother  the  holy  Roman 
church  received  you  ;  with  what  kindness 
and  affection  she  entertained  you,  and  how 
willingly  she  conferred  upon  you  the  im- 
perial crown,  and  with  it  the  plenitude  of  all 
power  and  honor.  We  do  not  repent  our 
having  complied  in  all  things  with  your 
desire  ;  nay,  we  should  rejoice,  had  we  con- 
ferred greater  benefits  upon  you,  considering 
the  many  advantages  that  would  accrue 
from  thence,  both  to  us  and  the  church. 
As  you  seem  therefore  to  overlook  so  heinous 
a  crime,  to  the  reproach  of  the  church  uni- 
versal as  well  as  of  your  empire,  we  appre- 
hend some  evil-minded  persons  have  made 
it  their  business  to  sow  the  seeds  of  dissen- 
sion between  us."' 

This  letter  being  read  aloud,  and  faithfully 
interpreted  by  Rainald,  chancellor  of  the 
empire,  for  the  sake  of  those  who  understood 
not  the  Latin,  the  German  princes,  who  at- 
tended the  emperor,  were  all  greatly  shocked 
at  the  harsh  terms  and  the  acrimony  which 
they  thought  they  discovered  in  it,  but  much 
more  at  the  pope's  saying,  that  "  the  holy 
Roman  church  had  conferred  the  imperial 
crown  upon  the  emperor  with  the  plenitude 
of  all  power  and  honor,  and  that  he  should 
rejoice  had  he  conferred  greater  benefits  upon 
him."  They  understood  these  words  as  if 
the  pope  pretended  the  imperial  crown  to  be 
his  gift,  and  the  empire  to  be  a  fief  of  the 
church.  They  took  that  to  be  the  pope's 
meaning,  says  the  historian,  because  they 
knew  it  was  rashly  asserted  by  some  Ro- 
mans, that  the  city  of  Rome  and  the  king- 
dom  of  Italy    were   held   by  the   German 


'  Roderic  in  Frederic.  I.  I.  c.  8. 


496 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Hadrian  IV. 


The  emperor  complains  of  the  pope  in  a  letter  to  the  German  princes  and  bishops.    The  pope  writes  to  the 

German  bishops. 


princes  as  a  gift  of  the  popes,  and  they  had 
taken  care  to  transmit  that  notion  to  pos- 
terity, not  only  in  their  writings,  but  in  pic- 
tures, representing  the  emperor  Lotharius 
receiving  the  imperial  crown,  on  his  knees, 
with  an  inscription  importing  it  to  be  a  gift 
of  the  pope.'  The  German  lords  therefore, 
understanding  the  words  of  the  pope's  letter 
in  the  sense  I  have  mentioned,  were  all  filled 
with  the  utmost  indignation,  and  one  of  the 
pope's  legates,  instead  of  softening  those  ex- 
pressions and  striving  to  appease  the  em- 
peror and  the  princes,  added  fuel  to  the 
fire,  addressing  the  princes,  in  the  height  of 
their  resentment,  with  the  following  words: 
"  Of  whom  then  does  your  emperor  hold  the 
empire,  if  he  holds  it  not  of  our  lord  the 
pope?"  Words  that  so  provoked  Otto, 
count  Palatine  of  Bavaria,  that  drawing  his 
sword  he  would  have  made  the  legate  pay 
dear  for  his  presumption,  had  not  the  em- 
peror, who  kept  his  temper,  interposed  and 
saved  him.  However,  he  sent  immediately 
both  the  legates  back  to  their  lodgings,  at- 
tended by  some  of  his  guards  to  screen  them 
from  any  further  insults,  and  ordered  them 
to  depart  next  morning  and  return  to  Rome 
without  turning  any  where  to  the  right  or 
the  left,  or  calling  upon  any  bishop  or  abbot 
in  their  way.^ 

Tlie  legates  being  thus  dismissed,  the  em- 
peror wrote  a  circulatory  letter  to  all  the 
princes  and  bishops  of  the  empire,  to  ac- 
quaint them  with  what  had  passed  at  this 
conference  or  interview  with  the  pope's  le- 
gates. "  As  the  Almighty,"  said  he  in  his 
letter,  "from  whom  all  power  is  derived  in 
heaven  and  in  earth,  has  committed  to  us, 
his  anointed,  the  government  of  the  empire, 
and  commanded  us  to  maintain  with  our  arms 
the  peace  of  the  church,  it  is  with  great 
grief  we  are  forced  to  complain  to  you,  that 
the  disagreement  between  the  church  and 
the  empire,  with  which  we  are  at  present 
threatened,  is  to  be  charged  upon  the  head 
of  the  church,  and  that  from  thence  flows 
the  venom  that  is  likely  to  infect  the  whole 
body."  He  then  informs  them  of  the  con- 
tents of  the  pope's  letter ;  of  the  arrogance 
of  the  legates,  whom  he  styles  "  iniquitous 
priests ;"  of  the  danger  to  which  one  of  them 
exposed  himself  by  his  unheard  of  insolence, 
of  being  killed  upon  the  spot,  and  his  being 
delivered  by  him  from  present  death.  The 
emperor  assures  the  princes  and  bishops  of 
the  empire,  that  several  letters  were  found 
upon  the  legates  sealed  and  signed,  but  all 
mere  blanks,  to  be  filled  up  by  them  as  they 
thought  fit,  and  made  use  of  to  plunder  with 
impunity,  according  to  their  custom,  the 
churches  of  Germany,  to  strip  the  altars,  to 
carry  off  the  sacred  vessels,  and  flay  the 
crosses,  "cruces  excoriare,"  that  is,  to  pull 
off  the  gold  and  silver  that  covered  them  : 


«  See  p.  475. 


3  Badevic.  in  Frederic.  1.  1.  c.  8. 


and  it  was  to  prevent  this  sacrilegious  prac- 
tice, says  the  emperor,  and  to  leave  them 
no  opportunity  of  poisoning  the  minds  of 
his  loyal  subjects,  that  he  had  commanded 
them  to  return  to  Rome  the  way  they  came, 
without  ever  turning  out  of  the  high  road. 
He  closes  his  letter  with  these  words  :  "  As 
by  the  election  of  the  princes  we  hold  the 
kingdom  and  the  empire  of  God  alone,  as 
St.  Peter  commands  all  to  "  fear  God  and 
honor  the  king,"  whoever  shall  say,  that  we 
have  received  the  imperial  crown  of  the 
pope  pro  beneficio,  as  a  benefit  or  gift,  he 
impugns  the  Divine  institution,  contradicts 
St.  Peter,  and  is  a  liar."' 

In  the  mean  time  the  two  legates  having 
acquainted  the  pope,  on  their  return  to 
Rome,  with  the  treatment  they  had  met 
with  from  the  emperor  and  the  German 
princes,  the  cardinals  and  the  whole  body 
of  the  Roman  clergy  were  divided  into  two 
opposite  parties.  Some  declaring  for  the 
emperor,  laid  the  whole  blame  upon  the  le- 
gates;  while  others  excusing  them,  encour- 
aged the  pope  to  resent,  as  he  ought,  the  af- 
front offered  to  his  legates,  and  in  them  to 
him.  But  Hadrian  not  thinking  it,  on  the 
one  hand,  advisable  to  break  with  the  em- 
peror, whom  he  found  determined  to 
maintain  the  rights  of  his  crown  ;  and,  on 
the  other,  unwilling  to  condemn  his  legates, 
only  guilty  of  indiscretion  in  the  transport 
of  their  zeal,  resolved  to  try  whether  he 
could,  by  some  means  or  other,  pacify  the 
emperor,  and  thus  divert  the  impending 
storm.  To  obtain  that  desirable  end  he  be- 
thought himself  of  writing  to  the  German 
bishops,  who  were  then  with  the  emperor, 
and  engage  them  to  interpose  their  good 
offices  with  their  sovereign  in  behalf  of  the 
apostolic  see.  He  wrote  accordingly  to  these 
prelates,  giving  them,  in  the  first  place,  an 
account  of  the  reception  his  legates,  two  of 
the  most  respectable  cardinals  of  the  Roman 
church,  had  met  with  from  his  beloved  son 
the  emperor.  He  tells  them,  that  the  legates 
were  received  the  first  day  with  all  the  re- 
spect that  was  due  to  their  character,  but 
that  the  next  day,  when  the  letters  they  had 
brought  were  read,  his  highness,  exasperated 
beyond  measure  by  some  expressions  they 
contained,  threw  out,  in  his  wrath,  such 
reproaches  upon  him  and  his  legates,  as 
he  was  ashamed  to  repeat,  drove  them 
with  ignominy  from  his  presence,  and  or- 
dered them  forthwith  to  depart  his  domi- 
nions ;  nay,  and  issued  upon  their  departure 
an  edict,  as  he  was  informed,  forbidding  any 
in  his  dominions  going  to  Rome,  and  had 
even  placed  guards  upon  the  frontiers,  with 
orders  to  stop  those  who  should,  upon  any 
pretence  Avhatsoever,  undertake  that  journey, 
He  therefore  exhorts,  and  earnestly  entreats, 
the  bishops  to  exert  their  zeal  in  a  cause 

'  Radevic.  in  Frederic.  1.  1.  c.  8. 


Hadrian  IV.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


497 


The  Ceriiian  bishops  answer  the  pope's  letter.    The  pope  sends  legates  with  another  letter  to  the  emperor : — 

[Year  of  Christ,  1158.] 


I 


that  concerned  them  as  much  as  him,  to 
divert  his  beloved  son  Frederic  from  heark- 
ening lo  the  counsels  of  those  who  deliglited 
in  nothing  so  much  as  in  strife  and  cunien- 
tion,  to  demand  satisfaction,  in  his  name, 
for  the  blasphemies  that  Reinald,  chancellor 
of  the  empire,  and  Otlo,  count  Palatine  of 
Bavaria,  had  vomited  out  against  his  legates, 
and  their  common  mother  the  holy  Roman 
church,  and  to  let  them  all  know  that  the 
Roman  cliurch  is  founded  upon  a  rock,  that, 
in  defiance  of  all  the  storms  that  may  be 
raised  against  her,  will  remain  unshaken  to 
the  end  of  the  world.' 

To  this  letter  the  bishops  returned  a  no 
less  strong  than  respectful  answer:  "We 
know,"  said  they,  "  that  the  Church  of  God 
is  founded  upon  a  solid  Rock,  and  that  no 
storms  will  ever  shake  it.  But  our  courage, 
we  own,  fails  us  when  such  storms  arise  as 
that  which  we  are  at  present  threatened 
with.  We  are  not  a  little  disturbed  at  what 
has  lately  passed  between  your  holiness  and 
your  most  religious  son,  our  lord  and  empe- 
ror ;  and,  if  Providence  does  not  interpose, 
it  may  be  the  source  of  endless  evils.  The 
whole  empire  was  shocked  at  the  expres- 
sions contained  in  your  letter.  The  emperor 
could  not  hear  them  with  patience,  nor 
could  the  princes  of  the  empire.  As  for  us, 
we  dare  not,  nor  can  we  defend  them,  as 
they  contain  things  never  before  heard  of. 
However,  we  have  received  your  letter  with 
due  respect,  and,  pursuant  lo  your  com- 
mand, admonished  our  lord  the  emperor, 
who  returned  us  the  following  answer,  an 
answer  wortliy  of  a  truly  catholic  prince. 

"  '  Two  things  are  to  be  religiously  observ- 
ed in  the  government  of  our  empire,  the 
holy  laws  of  the  emperors,  and  the  good 
customs  of  our  predecessors  and  forefathers. 
We  will  keep  within  these  bounds;  we  will 
yield  all  due  respect  to  the  pope,  but  our 
crown  Ave  hold  of  God  alone.  The  arch- 
bishop of  Mentz  votes  the  first  in  the  elec- 
tion, and  after  him  the  other  princes  every 
one  according  to  his  rank.  We  receive  the 
royal  unction  from  the  archbishop  of  Co- 
logne, and  the  imperial  from  the  pope. 
Every  thing  else  is  superfluous,  and  pro- 
ceeds from  evil,  or  from  the  evil  one,  ex 
abundanti  est,  a  malo  est.  We  have  not, 
out  of  contempt  for  our  most  beloved  and 
most  reverend  father,  obliged  the  cardinals 
to  depart  our  territories,  but  have  not  suffer- 
ed tliem  to  proceed  to  other  parts  of  our  do- 
minions with  the  scandalous  papers  found 
in  their  custody.  We  have  not,  by  edict, 
stopped  sucli  as  go  to,,  or  come  from  Italy  ; 
nor  will  we  stop  any  going  to  Rome  in  pil- 
grimage, or  for  their  necessary  affairs,  with 
the  testimony  and  permission  of  their  bi- 
shops. We  only  intend  to  obviate  the  en- 
croachments, that  the  churches  of  our  king- 
dom all  groan  under,  and  the  entire  decay 


»  Radcvic.  in  Frederic.  I.  1. 

Vol.  II.— G3 


c.  8. 


of  monastic  discipline  is  owin^  to.  God 
exalted  the  church  by  means  of  the  empire, 
and  the  church  wants  to  destroy  the  empire ; 
which  we  believe  comes  not  from  God. 
They  began  with  a  picture;  (the  picture  of 
Lotharius,  spoken  of  above;)  from  the  pic- 
lure  they  proceeded  to  writings,  and  the 
writings  are  quoted  as  a  sufficient  authority. 
But  such  things  Ave  Avill  nol  suffer;  Ave  will 
forfeit  our  crown  rather  than  suffer  it  to  be 
thus  vilified  and  debased.  Let  the  picture 
therefore  be  effaced  ;  let  the  writings  be  re- 
tracted, lest  they  should  afford  matter  of  eter- 
nal discord  between  the  empire  and  the 
priesthood.' 

"All  this,"  add  the  bishops,  "we  have 
heard  from  the  emperor  himself,  and  many 
things  besides  concerning  the  peace  you 
have  made  with  the  king  of  Sicily,  and  o{her 
treaties,  which  Ave  dare  not  enlarge  upon. 
As  for  the  satisfaction,"  continue  the  bi- 
shops, "  which  you  require  of  the  chancel- 
lor and  the  count  palatine  of  Bavaria,  the 
latter  is  gone  into  Italy  to  make  the  neces- 
sary preparations  there  for  the  emperor's 
Italian  expedition,  and  the  chancellor  never 
said  any  thing  but  what  tended  to  maintain 
peace  and  concord;  nay,  he  screened  your 
legates  from  the  fury  of  the  populace,  as  all 
who  Avere  present  have  attested,  and  thus 
saved  their  lives."  The  bishops,  in  the  close 
of  their  letter,  beg  and  conjure  his  holiness 
to  write  ancAV  to  the  emperor,  and  by  all 
means  to  soften  the  expressions  that  had  so 
offended  him  in  his  former  letter,  that  the 
church  might  enjoy  a  lasting  peace  and  tran- 
quillity, and  the  empire,  at  the  same  time, 
retain  its  ancient  dignity.' 

As  Frederic  was  then  upon  the  point  of 
marching  Avith  a  poAverful  army  into  Italy, 
the  pope  readily  embraced  the  advice  of  the 
German  bishops,  and  in  compliance  Avith  it 
wrote  another  letter  in  a  very  different  style 
from  that  of  the  former,  and  sent  it  by  Henry 
and  Hyacinth,  the  one  cardinal  priest,  and 
the  other  cardinal  deacon,  both  men  of  great 
prudence  and  discretion,  and  by  long  expe- 
rience thoroughly  acquainted  Avith  matters 
of  that  nature.  The  two  legates  Avent  first 
to  Ferrara,  being  informed  that  the  envoys, 
sent  by  the  emperor  to  the  states  of  Lom- 
bardy,  were  in  that  city.  But  finding  they 
Avere  gone  from  thence  to  Modena,  they  fol- 
loAved  them  thither,  and  upon  their  acquaint- 
ing them  with  their  commission,  Avhich, 
they  said,  Avas  to  negotiate  a  peace,  were 
alloAved  to  pursue  their  journey.  From 
Trent  they  took  along  Avith  them  Albert, 
bishop  of  the  place,  a  man  universally  re- 
spected, as  a  safeguard,  apprehending  that 
as  the  pope  and  the  emperor  were  at  A'ari- 
ance,  they  might,  under  that  pretence,  be 
plundered  and  otherwise  ill  used  by  robbers, 
as  they  passed  the  mountains.  But  the  bi- 
shop AA-as  no  protection.    For  tAvo  powerful 


>  Radevic.  1.  I.  c.  16. 

2  R  2 


498 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Hadrian  IV. 


The  pope's  legates  are  robbed  and  taken,  but  rescued.     Hadrian  retracts  in  his  second  letter  what  he  had 
writ  in  his  first,  and  appeases  the  emperor.     They  quarrel  anew.     Occasion  of  their  quarrel. 


counts  in  iho^e  parts,  Frederic  and  Henry, 
falling  upon  the  legates  among  the  moun- 
tains, stript  them  of  all  they  had,  put  them 
and  the  bishop  loo  in  irons,  and  kept  them 
thus  confined  till  the  brother  of  cardinal 
Hyacinth,  a  nobleman  of  Rome,  came  and 
delivered  himself  up  to  them,  as  a  hostage 
for  the  payment  of  the  ransom  they  required 
for  the  legates.  As  for  the  bishop,  he  was 
miraculously  delivered  out  of  their  hands, 
says  the  historian,  but  has  not  thought  fit  to 
let  us  know  in  what  manner.  The  two 
counts  were  soon  made  to  pay  dear  for  this 
robbery:  for  Henry,  duke  of  Saxony  and 
Bavaria,  thinking  it  reflected  disgrace  upon 
the  empire  to  let  such  an  open  violation  of 
the  law  of  nations  pass  unpunished,  entered 
the  territories  of  the  counts,  destroying  all 
before  him  with  fire  and  sword,  rescued  the 
hostage,  and  obliged  them  to  restore  all  they 
had  taken,  and  give  the  legates  full  satisfac- 
tion for  the  ill  usage  they  had  met  with.' 

The  legates  pursued  their  journey,  as 
soon  as  they  were  set  at  liberty,  to  Augs- 
burg, where  the  emperor  was  assembling 
his  forces,  in  order  to  pass  into  Lombardy, 
and  reduce  some  cities  that  had  revolted 
there.  Being  admitted  to  the  emperor's 
presence,  and  asked  what  tidings  they 
brought,  they  answered.with  great  modesty 
and  respect,  "  The  bishop  of  the  Holy  Ro- 
man Church,  the  father  in  Christ  of  your 
excellence,  salutes  you,  as  the  most  dear 
and  most  favorite  son  of  St.  Peter ;  our  vene- 
rable brethren,  your  clergy  and  the  cardi- 
nals salute  you  as  lord  and  emperor  of  the 
city  and  the  world,  '  lanquam  dominum  et 
imperatorem  urbis  et  orbis.'"  They  then 
presented  their  letter  to  the  einperor,  who 
delivered  it  to  Otlo,  bishop  of  Frisiugen,  to 
read  and  interpret  it  to  him.  The  contents 
of  the  pope's  letter  were,  that  he  was  greatly 
concerned  to  hear  that  his  excellence  had 
taken  amiss,  and  resented,  without  just 
cause,  some  expressions  in  his  former  letter; 
that  by  the  word  "  beneficium,"  though  un- 
derstood by  some  as  importing  a  fief,  he 
meant  no  more  than  "bonum  factum,"  a 
good  deed,  the  two  words  of  which  that  one 
word  is  composed ;  and  that  by  using  that 
word  in  speaking  of  the  ceremony  of  the 
coronation,  he  did  not  mean  that  the  impe- 
rial crown  was  a  gift  or  benefit  of  his,  but 
that  to  crown  him  was  a  good  deed.  He  in 
like  manner  explained  the  words,  "  we  have 
conferred  upon  you  the  imperial  crown," 
pretending  he  only  meant  that  he  put  the 
crown  upon  his  head,  the  words  "  contuli- 
mus"  and  "imposuimus"  being,  according 
to  his  holiness,  synonymous  terms.  That 
the  sense  in  which  the  emperor  understood 
the  words  "contulimus  tibi  insigne  impe- 
rialis  coronse,"  "  we  have  conferred  upon 
you  the  imperial  crown,"  is  the  plain,  natu- 


>  Radevic.  c.  17.  21. 


ral  and  obvious  meaning  of  those  words, 
is  very  certain ;  the  person,  that  confers  a 
dignity  being  evidently  the  disposer  or  the 
fountain  of  the  dignity  he  confers  ;  and  it  is 
no  less  evident  from  the  context,  that  the 
pope  used  the  said  words  in  the  sense  that 
the  emperor  put  upon  them  :  for  in  his  letter 
he  boasted  of  his  having  "  conferred  the  im- 
perial crown  upon  him,  and  with  it  the 
plenitude  of  all  power  and  honor,"  words  J 
that  plainly  import  more  than  his  barely  1 
performing  the  ceremony  of  the  coronation. 
However,  as  the  pope  had  thus  explained 
his  words,  the  emperor,  looking  upon  that 
explanation  as  a  tacit  retractation  of  what 
he  had  said  in  his  former  letter,  (and  so  it 
really  was,)  acquiesced,  and  after  mentioning 
some  articles  to  the  legates  which  he  thought 
should  be  settled,  and  I  shall  have  occasion 
to  speak  of  hereafter,  he  gave  them  the  kiss 
of  peace  for  themselves,  and  for  their  absent 
brethren,  the  clergy  of  the  Roman  church, 
and  the  cardinals,  and  dismissed  them, 
overjoyed  at  the  success  of  their  negotia- 
tions, with  many  rich  presents.' 

The  good  understanding  between  the 
pope  and  the  emperor  was  but  short-lived ; 
and  they  quarrelled  again  the  very  next 
year,  1159,  on  the  following  occasion  :  The 
emperor,  entering  Italy,  obliged  all  the  lords 
in  those  parts,  as  well  as  the  bishops,  to 
supply  his  army,  according  to  ancient  cus- 
tom, with  forage;  to  acknowledge  him  for 
their  liege  lord,  of  whom  they  held  their 
lordships,  and  to  do  homage  to  him  as  such. 
At  the  same  time  the  see  of  Ravenna,  be- 
coming vacant  by  the  death  of  Auselm, 
Guido,  the  son  of  count  Guido,  one  of  the 
emperor's  favorites,  was  unanimously  elected 
by  the  clergy  of  the  place  and  the  people  in 
his  room.  The  emperor,  therefore,  dis- 
patched the  bishop  of  Vercelli  to  the  pope, 
to  acquaint  him  with  the  election,  and  beg 
his  holiness  to  confirm  it.  But  Hadrian, 
oflTended  at  the  emperor's  requiring  the  bi- 
shops to  supply  his  army  with  forage,  and 
much  more  at  his  insisting  upon  their  doing 
homage  to  him  as  their  liege  lord,  would  not 
grant  the  confirmation  he  sued  for ;  nay,  he 
declared  the  election  to  be  null,  because  the 
elect  was  subdeacon  of  the  Roman  church, 
and  could  not  be  translated,  without  his 
previous  permission,  to  any  other  church. 
This  refusal  oflTended  the  emperor ;  but  dis- 
sembling his  discontent,  he  sent  Herman, 
bishop  of  Verdun,  to  satisfy  the  pope  that 
such  a  translation  was  not  forbidden  by  the 
canons,  and  to  persuade  him  to  consent  to 
it.  But  Hadrian,  instead  of  granting  the 
emperor's  request,  though  pressed  to  it  with 
great  earnestness  by  the  bishop,  wrote  a 
letter  to  him,  mild  in  appearance,  says  the 
historian,  but  in  effect  very  sharp,  com- 
plaining of  the  homage  he  exacted  of  the 

1  Radevic,  1.  1.  p.  23. 


Hadrian  IV.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


499 


The  pope  writes  anew  to  the  emperor  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1159.]     The  emperor's  answer.     Terms  of  agree- 
ment proposed  by  the  pope.    Rejected  by  the  emperor. 


bishops,  and  reproaching  him  with  ingrati- 
tude. This  letter  the  pope  sent  by  a  mean 
and  unknown  person,  wiio  disappeared  be- 
fore it  was  read.  Such  treatment  was  highly 
resented  by  Frederic,  and  to  be  even  with 
the  pope,  he  ordered  his  secretary  to  place 
his  own  name  before  the  pope's  in  all  the 
letters  he  should  thenceforth  write  to  him, 
K  and  to  address  him  in  the  singular,  and  not 
■  in  the  plural  number,  as  was  then  usual  in 
speaking  or  writing  to  persons  of  great  dis- 
tinction. The  emperor's  answer  to  tlie  let- 
ter that  was  delivered  to  him  by  an  unknown 
person,  has  not  reached  our  times,  but  Ha- 
drian's answer  to  that  letter  has  ;  and  he  bit- 
terly complains  in  it  of  his  beloved  son  as 
wanting  in  the  respect  that  was  due  to  St. 
Peter  and  the  holy  Roman  church,  by 
placing  his  own  name  before  that  of  the 
apostle's  vicar  upon  earth,  which,  he  says, 
cannot  be  excused  from  insolence,  or  rather 
arrogance.  He  tells  the  emperor,  that  as 
God  has  promised  long  life  to  those  who 
honor  their  parents,  so  has  he  threatened 
with  death  the  man  that  shall  curse  his 
father  or  his  mother,  meaning  himself  and 
the  Roman  church;  puts  him  in  mind  of  the 
fealty  he  had  promised  and  sworn  to  St. 
Peter  and  to  him  at  the  time  of  his  corona- 
tion ;  pretends  his  requiring  homage  of  the 
bishops  to  be  inconsistent  with  their  rank 
and  dignity,  as  well  as  with  the  royalties  of 
St.  Peter,  they  being  all  called  in  scripture 
Gods  and  the  sons  of  God  ;  complains  of  his 
excluding  the  legates  of  the  apostolic  see 
not  only  from  the  churches,  but  even  from 
the  cities  of  his  kingdom,  and  concludes 
with  exhorting  him  to  repentance,  and  even 
threatening  him,  if  he  does  not  alter  his 
conduct,  with  the  loss  of  his  crown.' 

To  this  letter  Frederic  returned  the  fol- 
lowing answer,  still  placing  his  own  name 
before  the  pope's :  "  We  have  ever  honored 
our  parents,  that  is,  those  to  whom  we  owe 
our  life  and  our  crown,  and  therefore  fall 
not  under  the  sentence  pronounced  in  Scrip- 
ture against  the  man  that  shall  curse  his 
father  or  mother.  As  for  the  homage  we 
require  of  the  bishops,  which  you  pretend  to 
be  derogatory  to  the  royalties  of  St.  Peter,  I 
should  be  glad  to  know  what  royalties  pope 
Silvester  had  or  claimed  in  the  time  of  the 
emperor  Constantine.  That  prince  gave 
peace  and  liberty  to  the  church;  and  what 
has  your  papacy  that  is  not  owing  to  the 
generosity  of  the  emperors?  Consult  tlie 
annals,  and  you  will  there  find  what  we  say 
to  be  true.  We  see  no  reason  why  we 
should  not  exact  our  royalties,  and  homage, 
and  allegiance  of  the  bishops.  They  are 
gods,  and  the  sons  of  God,  but  they  hold  of 
us  what  they  possess.  He,  who  had  re- 
ceived nothing  from  men,  paid  tribute  for 
himself  and  St.  Peter;  and  you  would  have 


>  Kadevic.  1. 1.  c.  18. 


the  bishops  and  the  clergy,  who  hold  of  us 
all  they  have,  to  be  free  from  all  tribute. 
But  they  shall  either  return  what  they  have 
received  and  hold  of  us,  or  give  to  Cassar 
what  is  Caesar's.  We  shut  our  churches 
and  our  cities  against  your  cardinals  and 
legates,  because  we  have  found  them  to 
be  not  preachers,  but  free-booters ;  'non  prae- 
dicatores  sed  praedatores;'  not  lovers  of 
peace  but  of  prey,  not  reformers  of  the 
world,  but  insatiable  collectors  of  gold. 
When  we  shall  see  them  behave  as  they 
ought,  we  shall  not  grudge  them  their  salary 
and  necessary  subsistence.  Your  quarrel- 
ing with  the  laity  about  matters  that  con- 
cern not  religion,  is  inconsistent  with  true 
meekness  and  humility,  and  too  plainly 
shows  that  pride  haih  found  its  way  even 
to  the  see  of  St.  Peter.'" 

In  the  mean  time  several  German  bishops, 
and  among  the  rest  Everard,  archbishop  of 
Bamberg,  apprehending  that  the  present 
misunderstanding  between  the  pope  and  the 
emperor  would  soon  end  in  an  open  rup- 
ture, wrote  most  respectful  letters  to  Ha- 
drian, entreating  hiu),  as  he  tendered  the 
peace  of  the  church,  to  send  proper  persons 
to  negotiate  a  reconciliation  before  the  em- 
peror proceeded,  as  they  believed  he  would, 
to  extremities.  Hadrian,  in  compliance  with 
their  advice,  sent  four  cardinals  to  treat  with 
Frederic,  who  was  still  in  Lombardy.  But 
the  terms  they  proposed  were  such  as  they 
themselves  could  not  well  expect  he  would 
ever  agree  to.  These  were,  I.  That  the  em- 
peror should  send  no  officers  or  magistrates 
to  act,  in  his  name,  at  Rome,  that  city  and 
all  its  royalties  belonging  to  the  apostolic 
see.  II.  That  no  forage  should  be  exacted 
of  the  bishops  in  Italy,  except  on  occasion 
of  the  emperor's  coming  to  receive  the  im- 
perial crown  at  Rome.  III.  That  in  Italy 
the  bishops  should  swear  allegiance  to  the 
emperor,  but  should  not  be  required  to  do 
him  homage.  IV.  That  the  messengers  and 
envoys  sent  by  the  emperors  should  not 
lodge  in  the  palaces  of  the  bishops.  V. 
That  he  should  restore  all  the  possessions 
of  the  Roman  church,  and  pay  tribute  for 
the  cities  of  Ferrara,  Massa,  Figuruola,  for 
the  demesnes  of  the  countess  Mathilda,  for 
the  dukedom  of  Spoleti,  and  the  islands  of 
Corsica  and  Sardinia.^ 

The  emperor,  however  provoked  at  such 
exorbitant  demands,  kept  his  temper,  and 
with  great  calmness  returned  the  following 
answer  to  the  legates  :  "  I  am,  by  the  grace 
of  God,  Roman  emperor,  and  as  such  must 
have  power  and  authority  in  Rome,  else  the 
name  of  Roman  emperor  would  be  but  an 
empty  title.  I  shall  not  oblige  the  bishops 
of  Italy  to  do  me  homage,  if  they  choose  to 
hold  nothing  of  me.  If  the  pope  tells  them 
that  they  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  king, 

«  Radevic.  1.  L  c.  18.  »  Idem  ibid. 


500 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Hadrian  IV. 


Death  of  Hadrian.     His  writings.     His  letter  to  Henry  H.,  king  of  England. 


they  must  not  take  it  amiss,  if  I  tell  them, 
that  they  have  nothing  to  do  with  fiefs  and 
territories,  with  lands  and  possessions.  We 
shall  not  complain  if  our  envoys  are  ex- 
cluded from  the  palaces  of  bishops,  that 
stand  upon  their  own  ground.  But  if  they 
stand  upon  our  ground,  they  are  ours,  all 
edifices  belonging  to  the  owner  of  the  ground 
upon  which  they  have  been  erected."  At 
the  same  time  B'rederic  renewed  his  com- 
plaints against  the  pope  for  entering  into  an 
alliance  with  the  Greek  emperor,  and  con- 
cluding a  peace  with  the  king  of  Sicily  un- 
known to  him,  when  he  had  promised  to  do 
neither  without  his  consent.'  However,  he 
readily  agreed  to  a  proposal  that  was  made 
by  some  of  the  German  bishops,  namely, 
that  a  congress  should  be  held,  at  which  six 
bishops  should  assist  chosen  by  him,  and 
six  cardinals  appointed  by  the  pope ;  that 
the  points  in  dispute  should  be  settled  by 
them,  and  both  parties  should  acquiesce  in 
their  judgment  and  decision.  But  the  pro- 
posal was  rejected  by  the  pope,  declaring, 
that  he  would  stand  to  the  agreement  con- 
cluded between  the  emperor  and  his  prede- 
cessor pope  Eugenius,  and  hearken  to  no 
other.  By  one  of  the  articles  of  that  agree- 
ment Frederic  solemnly  promised  to  defend 
and  maintain,  against  all  men,  the  rights  of 
the  Roman  church,  and  the  royalties  of  St. 
Peter.  But  that  treaty,  he  said,  was  no 
longer  binding,  the  pope  having,  by  a  mani- 
fest breach  of  one  of  the  articles,  made  peace, 
unknown  to  him,  with  the  king  of  Sicily, 
and  an  alliance  with  the  emperor  of  Con- 
stantinople, both  his  avowed  enemies.^  Thus 
all  intercourse  was  broken  oflT  between  the 
pope  and  the  emperor,  and  no  hopes  left  of 
a  reconciliation.  But  Hadrian  in  the  mean 
time  died,  and  left  to  his  successor  the  diffi- 
cult task  of  composing  the  troubles  which 
he  had  raised.  Such  is  the  account  Rade- 
vicus,  canon  of  Frisingen,  who  lived  and 
wrote  at  this  very  time,  and  is  generally 
looked  upon  as  addicted  to  no  party,  gives 
us  of  the  first  seeds  of  discord  between  the 
emperor  Frederic  and  the  apostolic  see,  that 
rent  the  Roman  church  into  two  opposite 
parties,  and  produced  four  different  schisms, 
of  which  I  shall  have  occasion  to  speak  in 
the  next  pontificate. 

Hadrian  died  on  the  1st  of  September  of 
the  present  year  1159,  after  a  pontificate  of 
four  years,  eight  months,  and  twenty-nine 
days.  He  died  at  Anagni,  but  his  body  was 
brought  from  thence  to  Rome,  and  buried 
on  the  4th  of  the  same  month  in  the  church 
of  St.  Peter.*  His  death  was  occasioned  by 
a  squinancy,"*  which  probably  gave  rise  to 
the  fable  related  by  Conrad  of  ITrsperg, 
namely,  that  having  excommunicated  the 
emperor  Frederic,  a  few  days  after  a  fly  got 

>  Radevic.  1.  2.  c.  31.  a  Idem  ibid. 

2  Ceccan.  In  Chron.  ad  ann.  1159.  Chron.  Reicher- 
eperg.  « Guill.  Tyr.  1. 18.  c.  26. 


into  his  throat  as  he  was  drinking  at  a 
fountain,  and  could  by  no  remedies  be  re- 
moved till  he  expired.  But  no  notice  is 
taken  by  any  of  the  contemporary  writers 
of  his  having  excommunicated  the  emperor; 
nay,  Dodechinus  tells  us,  in  express  terras, 
that  Hadrian  designed  to  excommunicate 
the  emperor  for  his  unlawful  marriage,  but 
was  prevented  by  death  from  pronouncing 
that  sentence.  Frederic  had  dismissed  his 
lawful  wife  and  married  Beatrix,  daughter 
to  Rainald,  count  of  Burgundy  ;  and  by  that 
marriage,  the  marriage  Dodechinus  speaks 
of,  Frederic  acquired  the  county  of  Bur- 
gundy.' Hadrian  exhorted  him,  but  in  vain, 
to  dismiss  Beatrix,  and  recall  his  lawful 
wife,  and  would  have  excommunicated  him, 
says  that  writer,  had  he  lived  longer. 

Of  all  the  writings  of  Hadrian,  which  I 
have  not  had  occasion  to  speak  of  in  his  life, 
the  letter  he  wrote  to  Henry  II.,  king  of 
England,  is,  perhaps,  the  most  worthy  of 
notice.  That  prince  being  invited  by  the 
inhabitants  of  Ireland  to  take  possession  of 
that  island,  acquainted  the  pope  with  his 
design  of  invading  it,  in  order  to  extend  the 
bounds  of  the  church;  to  have  that  ignorant 
and  unpolished  people  instructed  in  the  truth 
of  the  Christian  religion;  to  extirpate  vice, 
and  plant  virtue  in  its  room  ;  and  to  facilitate 
that  undertaking,  he  begged  the  advice  and 
favor  of  the  apostolic  see,  promising  the 
yearly  pension  of  a  penny  to  St.  Peter  from 
every  house  in  the  island.  The  pope  in  his 
answer  to  the  king  greatly  commended  so 
pious  and  laudable  a  design,  told  him  that 
not  only  Ireland,  but  all  the  islands  that  had 
received  the  Christian  faith,  undoubtedly 
belonged  to  St.  Peter  and  the  holy  Roman 
church,  as  the  king  himself  well  knew,  and 
that  he,  therefore,  granted  him  his  petition, 
and  approved  his  design  of  invading  Ireland 
for  the  above  purposes,  and  making  himself 
master  of  that  island,  upon  condition  of  his 
causing  a  penny  a  house  to  be  yearly  paid 
to  St.  Peter,  and  his  preserving  entire  the 
rights  of  those  churches.^  From  the  pope's 
letter  it  does  not  appear  that  the  king  applied 
to  him  as  supreme  lord  of  all  the  Christian 
islands,  for  leave  to  invade  Ireland.  He  only 
begged  the  advice  and  the  favor  or  counte- 
nance of  the  apostolic  see,  or  desired  to  be 
advised  and  favored,  or  countenanced,  in  that 
undertaking,  by  the  apostolic  see,  that  the 
execution  of^  his  design  might  by  that  means 
be  facilitated — "ad  id  convenientius  exe- 
quendum,  consilium  apostolicae  sedis  exigis 
et  favorem,"  are  the  words  of  the  pope's 
bull  or  letter.  However,  Hadrian  construed, 
it  seems,  the  king's  begging  his  favor  and 
advice  into  his  acknowledging  him  for  lord 
of  all  the  islands  converted  to  the  Christian 


•  Auctar  Affligemens. 

3  Cod.  Vatican,  apud  Bar.  ad  ann.  1159.  torn.  x. 
Concil.  Radulph.  de  Dicet.  in  Imagin.  Hist.  p.  529. 
Matth.  Paris  ad  ann.  1159.  Girald  Cambrens.  1.  2.  c. 
10,  &c. 


Hadrian  IV.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


501 


Private  conversation  between  the  pope  and  John  of  Salisbury. 


religion,  and  applying  to  him  as  such,  for 
leave  to  invade  Ireland.  It  were  to  be  wished 
that  Hadrian  had  told  us  upon  what  he 
grounded  his  undoubted  claim  to  Ireland, 
and  to  all  the  other  islands  that  had  em- 
braced the  Christian  faith.  But  neither  he 
nor  his  successors  have,  to  this  day,  thought 
fit  to  let  the  world  into  that  secret.  What 
the  king  and  the  pope  meant  by  saying  that 
the  end  of  the  intended  expedition  against 
Ireland  was  "to  extend  the  bounds  of  the 
church,"  I  know  not.  The  Christian  faith 
had  been  planted  in  Ireland  many  ages  be- 
fore, and  they  had  at  this  time  a  settled 
church,  governed  by  its  proper  bishops  and 
metropolitans,  who  had,  a  few  years  before, 
received  their  palls  from  Rome,  and  they 
were,  for  aught  appears  to  the  contrary,  as 
orthodox  in  their  faith,  as  regular  in  their 
discipline  as  most  other  nations.  As  the 
pope's  letter  bears  no  date,  De  Diceto  sup- 
poses it  to  have  been  written  in  1154.  But 
as  Henry  II.  was  crowned  king  of  England 
in  the  latter  end  of  December  1154,  he 
could  not  possibly  receive  letters  from  the 
pope  that  year.  M.  Paris  places  it  under 
the  year  1155,  and  it  might  have  been  writ- 
ten that  year,  though  the  king  did  not  un- 
dertake the  intended  expedition  till  sixteen 
years  after,  that  is,  till  the  year  1171,  which 
induced  the  Jesuit  Alford  to  question  the  au- 
thenticity of  the  letter,  especially  as  no  no- 
tice is  taken  of  it,  as  he  supposes,  by  M. 
Paris,  nor  by  some  of  the  more  ancient 
English  writers.  But  Alford  had  not  it 
seems  read  M.  Paris,  or  had  forgot  what  he 
had  read  in  that  author.  For  he  mentions 
the  letter  in  express  terms  as  written  in  1 155, 
and  De  Diceto,  as  well  as  Giraldus  Cam- 
brensis,  both  contemporary  writers,  speak 
of  it,  nay,  Giraldus  sets  it  down  at  length,' 
and  takes  notice  of  it  in  several  places  of  the 
account  he  gives  us  of  his  transactions  in 
England,  and  in  his  book  on  the  Conquest 
of  Ireland.  The  authenticity  therefore  of 
Hadrian's  letter,  or  privilege,  as  Geraldus 
calls  it,  cannot  be  disputed.  Hadrian  is  said 
to  have  written  a  catechism  for  the  use  of  the 
people  of  Norway  and  Sweden  ;  a  book  upon 
his  legation  into  those  countries,  and  an- 
other upon  the  conception  of  the  Virgin 
Mary. 

I  cannot  omit  here  the  account  we  read 
in  the  famous  John  of  Salisbury,  afterwards 
bishopof  Chartres,  of  a  conversation  he  had 
with  this  pope,  as  it  will  give  us  an  insight 
into  the  manners  of  the  Roman  clergy  and. 
the  court  of  Rome  in  his  time.  John  went 
into  Apulia  to  see  Hadrian,  his  countryman, 
while  he  was  carrying  on  the  war  there 
with  William,  king  of  Sicily,  and  staid  three 
months  with  him  at  Benevento.  As  the 
pope  admitted  him  to  his  intimacy,  he  de- 
sired him  one  day  to  tell  him  freely  what 

>  Girald.  CambreDs.  de  Rebus  &  se  Gestia,  1.  2.  c.  11. 


opinion  the  Avorld  entertained  of  him  and  the 
Roman  church.  John,  using  the  liberty  the 
pope  allowed  him,  told  his  holiness  that 
since  he  wanted  to  know  what  the  world 
thought  of  the  Roman  church  he  would  not 
dissemble,  but  tell  him  with  all  the  freedom 
of  a  friend  what  he  had  heard  in  the  differ- 
ent provinces,  through  which  he  had  travel- 
led, and  began  thus:  "They  say,  holy  fa- 
ther, that  the  Roman  church,  the  mother  of 
all  churches,  behaves  towards  other  churches 
more  like  a  step-mother  than  a  true  mother; 
that  scribes  and  pharisees  sit  in  her,  laying 
heavy  weights  upon  men's  shoulders,  which 
they  themselves  touch  not  with  a  finger; 
that  they  domineer  over  the  clergy,  but  are 
not  an  example  to  the  flock,  nor  do  they 
lead  the  right  way  to  life  ;  that  they  covet 
rich  funiture,  load  their  tables  with  silver 
and  gold,  and  yet,  out  of  avarice,  live  spa- 
ringly ;  that  they  seldom  admit  or  relieve  the 
poor,  and  when  they  relieve  them,  it  is  only 
out  of  vanity  they  do  it;  that  they  plunder 
the  churches,  sow  dissensions,  set  the  clergy 
and  the  people  at  variance,  are  not  affected 
with  the  miseries  and  sufferings  of  the  afflict- 
ed, and  look  upon  gain  as  godliness  and 
piety  ;  that  they  do  justice,  not  for  justice 
sake,  but  for  lucre ;  that  all  things  are  venal ; 
that  for  money  you  may  obtain  to  day  what 
you  please,  but  the  next  day  you  will  get 
nothing  without  it.  I  have  heard  them  com- 
pared to  the  devil,  who  is  thought  to  do  good 
when  he  ceases  from  doing  mischief — I  ex- 
cept some  few  who  answer  the  name  of  pas- 
tors, and  fulfil  the  duty.  The  Roman  pontifl' 
himself  is,  they  say,  a  burden  to  all  almost 
insupportable.  All  complain,  that  while 
the  churches  that  the  piety  of  our  ancestors 
erected,  are  ready  to  fall  or  lie  in  ruins, 
while  the  altars  are  neglected,  he  builds  pa- 
laces, and  appears  gorgeously  attired  in  pur- 
ple and  gold.  The  palaces  of  the  priests  are 
kept  clean,  but  the  church  of  Christ  is  co- 
vered with  filth.  They  plunder  whole  pro- 
vinces, as  if  they  aimed  at  nothing  less  than 
the  wealth  of  Cra>sus.  But  the  Almighty 
treats  them  according  to  their  deserts,  often 
leaving  them  a  prey  to  the  very  refuse  of 
mankind  ;  and  while  they  thus  wander  out 
of  the  way,  the  punishment  they  deserve 
must  and  will  overtake  them,  the  Lord  say- 
ing, 'with  what  judgment  ye  judge,  ye  shall 
be  judged  ;  and  with  what  measure  ye  mete, 
it  shall  be  measured  to  you  again.'  This, 
holy  father,  is  what,  people  say,  since  you 
want  to  know  it.  When  I  had  done,"  con- 
tinues our  author,  "  the  pope  asked  me  my 
opinion.  I  answered,  that  I  was  at  a  loss 
what  to  do  ;  that  I  should  be  deemed  a  liar, 
or  a  sycophant,  if  I  alone  contradicted  the 
people  ;  and  that  on  the  other  hand  it  would 
be  no  less  a  crime  than  treason  for  me  to 
open  my  mouth  against  heaven.  However, 
as  Guido  Clemens,  cardinal  presbyter  of  St. 
Pudentiana,  agrees  with  the  people,  I  will 


502 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


Alexander  HI. 


Some  particular  actions  of  Hadrian.    Alexander  III.  elected. 


not  presume  to  disagree  with  him;  and  he 
says,  that  double-dealing,  contrary  to  the 
simplicity  of  the  dove,  prevails  in  the  Ro- 
man church,  and  with  it  avarice,  the  root  of 
all  evil.  This  he  said  not  in  a  corner,  but 
publicly  in  a  council,  at  which  pope  Eu- 
genius  presided  in  person.  However,  I  will 
take  upon  me  to  say,  that  I  have  no  Avhere 
met  with  ecclesiastics  of  greater  probity,  or 
who  abhor  avarice  more,  than  in  the  Roman 
church.  Who  can  but  admire  the  contempt 
of  riches  and  the  disinterestedness  of  Ber- 
nard of  Rennes,  cardinal  deacon  of  St. 
Cosma  and  St.  Damian?  The  man  is  not 
yet  born,  of  whom  he  received  any  trifle  or 
gift.  What  shall  1  say  of  the  bishop  of 
Praeneste,  who,  out  of  a  tenderness  of  con- 
science, would  not  receive  even  what  was 
his  due.  Many  equal  Fabricius  himself  in 
gravity  and  moderation.  Since  you  press 
and  command  me,  and  I  must  not  lie  to  the 
Holy  Ghost,  I  will  speak  the  truth:  we 
must  obey  your  commands,  but  must  not 
imitate  you  in  all  your  actions,  &c.  Why 
do  you  inquire  into  the  lives  of  others,  and 
not  into  your  own  ?  All  applaud  and  flatter 
you,  all  call  you  lord  and  father ;  if  father, 
why  do  you  expect  presents  from  your 
children?  If  lord,  why  do  you  not  keep 
your  Romans  in  awe^and  subjection,  k.c.1 
You  are  not,  father,  in  the  right  way.  Give 
freely  what  you  have  received  freely.  If 
you  oppress  others,  you  will  be  more 
grievously  oppressed  yourself.  When  I 
had  done  speaking,"  adds  John  of  Salisbury, 
"the  pope  smiled,  commended  me  for  the 
liberty  I  had  taken,  and  ordered  me  to  let 
him  know  immediately  whatever  I  might 
hear  amiss  of  him.'"     Hadrian  owned  many 


things  his  friend  had  told  him  to  be  true,  ex- 
cused others,  and  to  justify  the  enormous 
contributions  exacted  by  the  Roman  church 
of  all  other  churches,  he  had  recourse,  not 
to  Scripture,  but  to  the  fable  in  ^sop  of  the 
members  mutinying  against  the  stomach. 
But  his  holiness  would  have  found  it  a  diffi- 
cult task  to  show,  that  the  Roman  church, 
like  the  stomach,  kept  little  or  nothing 
for  herself,  but  distributed  what  she  received 
amongst  her  members,  and  only  employed 
it  for  the  good  of  the  whole  body. 

Hadrian  purchased  some  territories  and 
several  castles  for  the  Roman  church,  re- 
paired some  churches,  made  rich  presents 
to  others,  but,  far  from  enriching  his  rela- 
tions, he  suffered  his  mother,  even  while  he 
was  pope,  to  be  maintained,  among  the 
other  poor,  by  the  church  of  Canterbury.' 
He  attempted  a  reconciliation  between  the 
Roman  church  and  the  churches  in  the  East, 
and  sent  legates  to  the  emperor  Manuel  to 
negotiate  with  him  and  his  bishops  the  in- 
tended union.  But  Basilius  Acridanus 
archbishop  of  Thessalonica,  a  prelate,  at 
that  time,  in  great  repute  all  over  the  East 
for  his  piety  and  learning,  was  of  opinion 
that  the  pope  and  the  emperor  might  remove 
all  the  obstacles  to  a  perfect  union,  without 
troubling  the  bishops,  as  the  two  churches 
agreed  in  the  main  points,  and  only  differed 
with  respect  to  some  rites  that  were  not  at 
all  material.2  But  the  pope  was  diverted 
from  proceding  in  this  affair  by  his  quarrel 
with  the  emperor.  Hadrian,  in  the  begin- 
ning of  his  pontificate,  appointed  the  bishop 
of  Lunden  primate  of  all  Sweden,  and  that 
dignity  was  confirmed  to  the  see  of  Lunden 
by  pope  Innocent  III.^ 


ALEXANDER  III.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  SIXTY-EIGHTH 
BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[Manuel  Comnenus,  Alexius  Comnenus,  Emperors  of  the  East. — Frederic  ^Enobarbus, 

Emperor  of  the  Wesi.~\ 


[Year  of  Christ,  1159.]  The  cardinals 
and  bishops  at  this  time  in  Rome,  having 
performed  the  exequies  of  the  deceased  pope 
on  the  4th  of  September,  met  the  next  day 
in  the  church  of  St.  Peter,  and  having  de- 
liberated three  days  about  the  election  of  a 
proper  person  to  succeed  him,  all  but  three, 
at  the  end  of  the  third  day,  unanimously 
elected  Roland,  chancellor  of  the  Roman 
church,  a  native  of  Siena  in  Tuscany,  and 
cardinal  presbyter  of  St.  Mark  ;  so  that  the 
see  was  vacant  only  six  days.  Brompton, 
saying  it  was  vacant  twenty  days,  must 
have  computed  the  vacancy  from  the  death 


'  Joan.  Sabisb.  Policrat.  1.  6.  c.  24. 


of  Hadrian  on  the  1st  of  September,  to  the 
consecration  of  Alexander  (for  he  took  that 
name  at  his  election)  that  did  not  happen  j 
till  the  20th  of  that  month.  Alexander  was  ■ 
originally  canon  of  Pisa,  but  Eugenius  III. 
being  taken  with  his  parts,  his  eloquence 
and  learning,  during  his  stay  in  that  city, 
carried  him  with  him  to  France,  and  on  his 
return  to  Italy  made  him  first  cardinal  deacon 
of  St.  Cosmas  and  St.  Damian,  afterwards 
cardinal  presbyter  of  St.  Mark,  and  lastly 
chancellor  of  the  Roman  church.     He  was 


'  Epiat.  XXIV.  Alexandri  III.,  ad  Thorn.  Cantuarien- 
seni. 

2  Hadrian.  Epist.  VII.  et  Jus  Graecq-Roman  apud 
Baron.  '  Innocent  III.  1.  1.  c.  421. 


AI-EXA^rDER  III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


503 


Viclor  III.  elected  in  opposition  to  Alexander  III.     Both  consecrated.     E.xcommunications  thundered  out  on 
both  sides.     Victor's  letter  to  the  German  bishops,  &c. 


one  of  the  three  cardinals,  sent  by  Hadrian 
in  1156,  to  conclude  the  ignominious  peace 
I  have  spoken  of  above  with  William,  king 
of  Sicily. 

The  cardinals,  who  dissented  from  the 
rest,  were  Octavian  of  St.  Ca;cilia,  John  of 
St.  Martin,  and  Guido  of  St.  Calixtus,  and 
by  the  two  last  the  first  was  elected  under 
the  name  of  Victor  III.  The  other  cardi- 
nals^ paying  no  regard  to  their  opposition, 
ordered  the  senior  deacons,  whose  province 
it  was,  to  clothe  Alexander,  as  lawfully 
elected,  with  the  scarlet  mantle,  one  of  the 
badges  of  the  pontifical  dignity.  Hereupon 
Octavian,  who  had  all  along  aspired  at  the 
pontificate,  falling  upon  Alexander,  tore  the 
mantle,  in  a  great  rage,  from  off  his  shoul- 
ders. But  a  senator  of  the  opposite  party 
snatching  it  that  moment  from  him,  he 
called  to  his  chaplain  for  the  mantle  he  had 
brought  with  him :  for  he  had  prepared  one 
beforehand,  and  he  appareled  himself  with 
it  in  such  a  hurry,  that  the  cape,  instead  of 
covering  his  head,  hung  down  behind ; 
which  made  the  whole  assembly  break  into 
a  loud  laughter,  and  pleasantly  compare  the 
mantle,  put  on  the  wrong  way,  to  his  elec- 
tion. In  the  mean  time  the  church-doors 
being  opened,  which  the  senate  had  caused 
to  be  kept  shut  till  the  election  was  over,  a 
troop  of  armed  men,  hired  by  Octavian, 
whom  I  shall  henceforth  call  Victor,  broke 
in  sword  in  hand,  and  struck,  with  dreadful 
menaces,  such  terror  into  the  cardinals  and 
bishops,  that  they  all  fled,  with  the  elect, 
into  a  strong  tower  of  the  church,  and  tkere 
they  were  kept  nine  days  closely  besieged 
by  Victor  and  some  of  the  senators,  whom 
he  had  gained  with  rich  presents  to  his  party. 
Victor,  having  in  the  end  made  himself 
master  of  the  tower,  caused  all  who  were 
shut  up  in  it  to  be  conveyed  from  thence  to 
a  more  painful  prison  on  the  opposite  side 
the  Tiber,  flattering  himself  that  he  should 
thus  oblige  them  to  annul  the  election  of 
Alexander  and  elect  him.  This  raised  a 
general  outcry  among  the  people ;  and  bal- 
lads were  sung  in  the  public  streets  by  the 
women  and  children,  exposing  Victor,  whom 
they  nicknamed  Smanta  Compagno,  because 
he  had  dismantled  Alexander,  to  contempt 
and  ridicule.  This  encouraged  Hector  Fran- 
gipani,  and  some  other  noblemen  of  Rome, 
to  attempt  the  rescue  of  Alexander  and  his 
cardinals.  The  people  seconded  them  in  the 
attempt ;  and  Victor  was  forced,  on  the 
third  day  of  their  confinement,  to  set  them' 
at  liberty.  They  passed  through  Rome, 
Alexander  not  thinking  it  advisable  to  be 
consecrated  there,  as  many  of  the  senators 
adhered  to  his  rival,  by  birth  a  Roman,  and 
descended  from  one  of  the  most  noble  and 
powerful  families  of  the  place.  He  was  at- 
tended to  the  gate  by  vast  crowds  of  people 
with  loud  acclamations  and  the  ringing  of 


bells,  and  there  dismissing  the  multitude,  he 
pursued  his  journey  to  Nympha,  about  the 
distance  of  ten  miles  from  Rome,  accom- 
panied by  the  cardinals  and  bishops  who 
had  elected  him,  by  several  Roman  senators, 
and  by  all  the  officers  of  the  apostolic  see. 
He  arrived  at  Nympha  on  the  eve  of  St. 
Matthew,  or  the  20th  of  September,  and  the 
20th  of  that  month  falling,  in  1159,  on  a 
Sunday,  he  was  consecrated  the  same  day  by 
the  bishop  of  Ostia  and  five  other  bishops  in 
the  presence  of  many  other  cardinals,  of 
bishops,  abbots,  and  priors,  of  many  Roman 
senators,  of  all  the  officers  of  the  papal  court, 
and  an  infinite  multitude  of  people.  On  the 
other  hand  Victor,  having  with  great  diffi- 
culty gained  over  to  his  party  three  bishops, 
namely,  Imar  cardinal  bishop  of  Tusculum, 
Ubald  bishop  of  Ferentino,  and  the  bishop 
of  Melfi  in  Apulia,  who  had  fled  from  his 
see,  and  lay  concealed  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Ancona,  he  was  by  them  consecrated  in 
the  monastery  of  Farfa,  on  the  first  Sunday 
of  October,  that  is,  on  the  4th  of  that  month. 
Such  is  the  account  we  read  of  this  double 
election  in  a  manuscript  lodged  in  the  Va- 
tican library,  and  supposed  to  have  been 
written  at  the  time;  and  with  that  manu- 
script the  contemporary  writers  all,  or  almost 
all,  agree,  only  differing  in  some  circum- 
stances quite  immaterial.' 

Alexander  was  no  sooner  consecrated  than 
he  published  a  monitory,  threatening  Octa- 
vian, usurper  of  the  apostolic  see,  and  all 
who  adhered  to  him,  with  excommunica- 
tion, if  they  did  not  return  to  the  unity  of  the 
church  before  the  octave  of  his  consecration, 
that  is,  before  the  27th  of  September.  A 
monitory  to  the  same  purpose  was  issued 
by  Victor  against  Alexander,  and  they  both 
thundered  out  the  sentence  of  excommuni- 
cation at  the  same  time  against  one  another, 
Alexander  styling  Victor  an  apostate  and  a 
schismatic,  and  Victor  retorting  the  same 
names  upon  Alexander.  Victor  well  knew, 
that  the  emperor  Frederic  was  no  friend  to 
Alexander,  but  bore  him  a  grudge  on  ac- 
count of  his  having  advised  pope  Hadrian 
to  make  peace  with  the  king  of  Sicily.  He 
therefore  took  care  to  acquaint  him  imme- 
diately with  his  own  election,  and  implore 
his  protection  by  a  letter  with  this  address : 
"Victor,  servant  of  the  servants  of  God,  to 
our  venerable  brethren,  the  patriarchs,  arch- 
bishops, bishops,  abbots,  dukes,  marquisses, 
counts,  and  all  the  princes  in  the  court  of 
the  most  serene  and  invincible  emperor  of 
the  Romans,  our  lord  Frederic,  health  and 
apostolic  benediction."  In  that  letter  he 
gives  a  very  different  account  of  his  election 
from  that  we  read  in  all  the  contemporary 
writers.     For  he  says  that  he  was  elected 

«  Codex  Vatican,  apud  Bar.  ad  ann.  1156.  Alexand. 
III.  in  Epistola  ad  llononiens.  Chron.  Ueichersperg. 
Anonym.  Casain.  Radevic.  1. 2.  c.  54.  Neubrig.  1.  2.  c.  9; 


504 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Alexander  HI. 


Letter  of  the  cardinals  of  Victor's  party.     Legates  sent  by  Alexander  to  the  emperor.    How  received.     The 
cardinals  of  Alexander's  party  write  to  the  emperor. 


by  the  cardinals,  priests,  and  deacons,  by  the 
bishops,  by  the  Roman  clergy,  senate,  and 
people,  and  that  on  the  first  Sunday  of  Octo- 
ber he  was  as  canonically  consecrated  as  he 
had  been  elected  ;  entreats  them  to  acquaint 
the  emperor  therewith,  as  he  is  the  fountain 
of  all  power  and  dignity,  and  by  all  means 
to  divert  him  from  receiving  any  letters,  or 
hearkening  to  any  envoys,  that  may  be  sent 
by  Roland,  heretofore  chancellor  of  the  Ro- 
man church,  an  open  enemy  to  the  empire, 
and  a  sworn  friend  to  William,  king  of 
(Sicily,  who  had  wickedly,  and  in  defiance 
of  the  canons,  intruded  himself  into  the 
apostolic  see,  when  he  had  possessed  it 
during  the  space  of  twelve  days,  quite  un- 
disturbed.' 

At  the  same  time  the  cardinals,  who  ad- 
hered to  Victor,  wrote  a  letter  with  the  same 
address,  namely,  "  To  the  patriarchs,  arch- 
bishops," &c.,  and  the  substance  of  their 
letter  was,  that  in  the  time  of  the  late  pope 
the  cardinals,  that  is  we,  say  they,  were  di- 
vided among  ourselves  on  occasion  of  the 
peace  made  with  the  king  of  Sicily,  some 
disapproving  it,  and  others,  whom  the  king 
had  gained  with  rich  presents,  declaring  for 
it;  that  the  partisans  of  the  king  were  very 
pressing  with  the  pope  to  have  him  excom- 
municate the  emperor  jjnder  some  pretence 
or  other;  and  pretences,  they  said,  plausible 
enough  were  not  wanting,  but  that  being 
therein  strongly  opposed  by  the  emperor's 
friends,  they  acquiesced  till  Victor,  then  car- 
dinal Octavian,  was  sent  on  a  legation  into 
Germany,  when  the  pope  retiring,  in  his 
absence,  to  Anagni,  with  no  other  cardinals 
but  the  king's  avowed  friends,  and  the  em- 
peror's declared  enemies,  they  bound  them- 
selves by  a  solemn  oath  to  oppose  the  em- 
peror on  all  occasions,  as  an  enemy  to  the 
church,  and  to  prefer  none  to  the  apostolic 
see  who  had  not  taken  that  oath,  nay  they 
obliged  all  the  neighboring  bishops  to  swear, 
that  they  would  not  consecrate  the  elect,  be 
who  he  would,  unless  he  was  of  the  king's 
party ;  that  Hadrian  dying  soon  after,  the 
cardinals  of  the  king's  faction,  fourteen  in 
number,  mindful  of  their  oath,  chose  the 
chancellor  Roland;  and  the  opposite  party, 
consisting  of  nine  cardinals,  unanimously 
concurred  with  their  sufTrages  in  the  election 
of  cardinal  Octavian,  as  the  most  proper 
person  to  procure  and  maintain  peace  and 
concord  between  the  church  and  the  empire. 
They  added,  that  their  election  was  approved 
and  confirmed  by  the  greater  part  of  the 
Roman  clergy,  of  the  senators,  nobility,  and 
people,  and  that  the  elect  was  enthroned 
and  put  in  possession  of  the  apostolic  see 
with  the  usual  ceremonies  amidst  the  loud 
acclamations  of  all  ranks  of  men.^  Thus 
the  cardinals  of  Victor's  party  ;  and  it  is  to 
be  observed  that  even  according  to  their  ac- 


«  Radevic.  I.  2.  c.  50. 


5  Idem  ibid. 


count  Alexander  had  a  majority,  fourteen 
cardinals  against  nine.  But,  if  the  contem- 
porary historians  are  to  be  credited,  he  was 
elected  by  two  cardinals  only,  the  two  I 
have  mentioned  above.  Had  he  had  nine 
cardinals  on  his  side,  it  is  not  to  be  doubted 
but  they  would  have  all  signed  the  above 
letter ;  and  it  is  only  signed  by  five,  of  whom 
three  are  said  by  the  writers  I  have  quoted 
above  to  have  been  afterwards  gained  over 
by  the  counts  of  Tusculum,  to  whom  Octa- 
vian was  nearly  related. 

On  the  other  hand,  Alexander  despatched, 
immediately  after  his  election,  legates  to  ac- 
quaint the  emperor  with  his  promotion  as 
well  as  the  intrusion  of  Octavian,  and  put 
him  in  mind  of  the  obligation  he  lay  under, 
as  Roman  emperor,  to  maintain  the  unity 
of  the  Roman  church.  As  Frederic  was 
strongly  prejudiced  against  Alexander,  and 
looked  upon  him  as  wholly  attached  to  the 
king  of  Sicily,  whose  Italian  dominions  he 
intended  to  invade  as  soon  as  he  had  quieted 
the  disturbances  in  Lombardy,  he  would 
not,  at  first,  admit  the  legates  to  his  presence, 
nor  receive  the  letters  with  which  they  were 
charged ;  nay,  if  what  Baronius  has  tran- 
scribed out  of  the  Vatican  manuscript  writ- 
ten at  this  time  be  true,  he  was  so  trans- 
ported with  rage  to  hear  Roland  was  elected, 
that  he  ordered  the  legates,  who  brought 
him  that  unwelcome  intelligence,  to  be 
hanged,  and  his  order  would  have  been  exe- 
cuted before  he  returned  to  himself,  had  not 
duke  Welpho  and  the  duke  of  Saxony  inter- 
posed, and  not  only  appeased  him,  but  pre- 
vailed upon  him  to  grant  the  legates  an  au- 
dience, and  even  hear  their  letters  read : 
but  he  returned  no  pleasing  answer  to  them.i 

The  cardinals  of  Alexander's  party,  not 
discouraged  by  the  reception  the  legates  had 
met  with,  wrote  to  Frederic,  giving  him,  in 
their  letter,  an  account  of  the  election  of 
Alexander,  and  the  intrusion  of  Victor,  the 
very  same  account  that  I  have  given  above 
from  the  contemporary  writers.  They  recom- 
mend the  elect  to  him  as  one  equal  to  the 
high  station  to  which  he  has  been  raised, 
and  worthy  of  his  protection,  which  they 
most  earnestly  implore,  to  prevent  the  un- 
speakable evils  that  arise  from  parties  and 
factions  in  the  church  as  well  as  the  stale. 
In  the  close  of  their  letter  they  complain  of 
Otto  count  Palatine,  who  had,  it  seems, 
openly  espoused  the  cause  of  Victor,  and 
obliged  the  inhabitants  of  Campania  and  the 
patrimony  of  St.  Peter  to  acknowledge  him 
for  lawful  pope.  This  letter  was  signed  by 
twenty-two  cardinals ;  which  plainly  shows, 
that  of  the  cardinals  Alexander  had  a  great 
majority  on  his  side.'^ 

The  emperor,  finding  the  accounts  of  the 
two  opposite  parties  so  contradictory,  would 


'  Apud.  Baron,  ad  ann.  1159. 

^  Idem  ibid,  et  Authores  ut  supra. 


Alexander  III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


505 


Frederic  resolves  to  have  the  affair  determined  in  a  council,  and  sends  two  bishops  to  summon  the  competi- 
tors to  it.     Alexander's  answer  to  the  two  bishops. 


not  take  upoa  him  to  determine  whose 
claim  was  the  best  grounded,  says  Rade- 
vicus ;  but  resolved,  in  compliance  with  the 
advice  oi'the  bishops  and  princes  who  were 
with  him,  to  leave  the  decision  of  so  im- 
portant a  point  to  the  church,  to  assemble 
lor  that  purpose  a  council,  which  he  was 
persuaded  he  had  power  to  do,  as  it  had 
been  done  by  his  predecessors,  Justinian, 
Tlieodosius,  Charlemagne,  Ike,  and  to  sum- 
mon the  two  competitors  to  plead  their 
cause  in  person  before  the  bishops  who 
should  compose  thai  assembly.  Pursuant  to 
this  resolution  the  emperor  dispatched  the 
two  bisliops,  Daniel  of  Prague,  and  Her- 
man of  Verdun,  with  letters  to  acquaint 
both  pretenders  with  his  design  of  assem- 
bling a  council  at  Pavia  on  the  octave  of  the 
Epiphany,  and  require  them  to  be  present 
at  the  time  and   place  appointed,  that  the 


the  Lord  of  lords,  he  must  not  take  it  amiss 
if  we  choose  to  obey  God  rather  than  man. 
He  intends,  you  say,  to  assemble  a  council, 
in  order  to  inquire  into  the  lawfulness  of 
our  election,  requires  us  to  repair  it,  and  will 
have  us  to  acquiesce  in  the  decision  of  that 
assembly.  But  in  thus  summoning  a  coun- 
cil without  the  knowledge  of  the  Roman 
pontiff,  he  has  departed  from  the  custom  of 
his  predecessors,  and  gone  far  beyond  the 
bounds  of  his  power  in  commanding  us  to 
repair  to  it,  as  if  he  had  any  authority  over 
us.  Our  Lord  granted  to  iSt.  Peter,  and  in 
him  to  the  Roman  church,  this  privilege, 
that  she  should  judge  tiie  causes  of  all 
churciies,  and  be  judged  by  none  herself; 
and  this  privilege  has  been  hitherto  main- 
tained inviolable.  It  is  therefore  to  us  matter 
of  the  greatest  surprise  and  astonishment, 
that  of  all  men  he,  upon  whom  it  is  incum- 


schism,  which  the  church  was  threatened  j  bent  to  defend  that  privilege,  should  be  the 


with,  might  thus  be  stifled  in  its  birth.  The 
address  of  the  emperor's  letter  to  Alexander 
was,  "  Frederic,  by  the  grace  of  God,  em- 
peror of  the  Romans,  ever  Augustus,  to  Ro- 
land, chancellor,  and  the  other  cardinals, 
who  have  elected  him  Roman  pontiff."  The 
two  bishops  found  Alexander  at  Anagni, 
and  he  was  sitting  in  council  with  the  car- 
dinals at  the  time  of  their  arrival.  They  en- 
tered the  place  where  the  council  was  held, 
and  showing  him  no  particular  mark  of  dis- 
tinction, acquainted  hiiu  willi  their  conmiis- 
sion,  and  delivered  to  him  the  emperor's 
letter,  commanding  him,  in  the  name  of  the 
church,  to  attend  the  council  that  was  to 
meet  at  Pavia,  on  the  octave  of  tlie' Epi- 
phany, and  finally  to  determine  whose  elec- 
tion was,  and  whose  was  not  canonical. 
They  added,  it  was  the  emperor's  will  and 
pleasure,  that  both  parties  should  acquiesce 
in  the  judgment  and  decision  of  that  assem- 
bly. So  unexpected  a  message,  and  so 
bluntly  delivered  by  the  two  bisliops,  threw 
Alexander  and  his  cardinals  into  the  utmost 
confusion.  On  the  one  hand,  they  were 
afraid  to  disoblige  so  powerful  a  prince,  and 
on  the  other  they  apprehended,  that  to  obey 
his  commands  was  to  betray  the  liberty  of 
the  church.  This  they  thought  the  greater 
evil  of  the  two,  and  therefore,  after  a  long 
consultation  among  themselves,  they  agreed, 
all  to  a  man,  to  stand  by  Alexander,  even  at 
the  expense  of  their  lives,  and  not  suffer  his 
title  to  be  questioned  or  disputed  by  any  man 
or  any  assembly  of  men  whatever.  Here- 
upon Alexander,  encouraged  by  the  unani- 
mity  and   steadiness   of  the   cardinals,   re- 


first  to  attack  it.  We  cannot  bear  it,  nor- 
will  we.  Canonical  tradition  and  the  au- 
thority of  the  fathers  will  not  allow  us  to 
appear  before  a  lay  court,  and  be  judged  by 
it.  It  would  be  criminal  in  us,  capable  of 
provoking  the  divine  vengeance,  to  suffer, 
through  ignorance  or  pusillanimity,  the 
church  to  be  enslaved,  wiien  our  lord  has 
made  her  free;  and  we  are,  therefore,  deter- 
mined to  maintain  her  freedom  at  the  ex- 
pense of  our  lives,  as  our  fathers  have  done 
before  us.'"  Could  Alexander  be  ignorant 
of  the  many  incontestable  instances  that 
occur  in  history  of  both  parties  applying, 
upon  a  double  election,  to  the  secular 
princes,  and  standing  to  their  judgment,  or 
the  judgment  of  the  councils,  which  they 
convened  on  the  occasion?  The  dispute 
between  Boniface  and  Eulalius,in  419,  was 
decided  in  favor  of  the  former  by  a  council, 
which  the  emperor  Honorius  assembled  in 
Ravenna,  where  he  then  resided.^  In  like 
manner  was  the  schism,  occasioned  by  the 
double  election  of  Symmachus  and  Lauren- 
tius,  in  498,  terminated  by  Theodoric,  then 
king  of  Italy.  Both  parties  agreed  to  appeal 
to  him,  though  an  Arian,  and  to  stand  to  his 
judgment;  and  he,  after  examining  into  the 
pretensions  of  both,  adjudged  the  see  to 
Symmachus.^  It  was  not,  therefore,  "  inau- 
ditum  aseculo,"  a  thing  never  heard  of  since- 
the  beginning  of  the  world,  that  in  contested 
elections  the  parties  should  apply  to  and  be 
judged  by  secular  princes.  Boniface,  though 
lawfully  elected,  did  not  decline  the  judg- 
ment of  Honorius,  nor  did  Symmachus  that 
of  Theodoric,  pretending  that  the  pope  can 


turned  the  following  answer  to  the  two  bi-  j  be  judged  by  no  power  upon  earth.     Were 


shops  :  "  We  acknowledge  the  emperor  for 
the  patron  and  defender  of  the  Holy  Roman 
Church,  and  we  intend  to  honor  him,  as 
such,  above  all  the  princes  of  the  earth,  so 
far  as  is  consistent  with  the  honor  of  the 
King  of  kings.  But  if  the  honor  he  requires 
is  incompatible  with  the  honor  we  owe  to 
Vol.  II.— 64 


that  maxim  admitted,  divisions,  arising  in 
the  church  from  a  double  election,  could 
never  be  healed ;  for  the  competitors  would 
both  pretend,  and  so  would  their  successors. 


«  Cod.  Vatican,  et  Radeyic.  ubi  supra. 

a  See  vol.  I.  p.  162.  »  See  vol.  I.  p.  296. 

2  S 


506 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Alexander  III. 


The  two  bishops  acknowledge  Victor.  The  emperor  appoints  a  council  to  meet  at  Pavia;— [Year  of  Christ, 
1160.]  The  chapter  of  St.  Peter  write  to  the  council  in  favor  of  Victor.  Several  witnesses  appear  in 
favor  of  Victor. 


to  have  been  lawfully  elected,  and  plead  the 
privilege  of  being  judged  by  no  power  upon 
earth.  In  speaking  of  the  general  councils 
held  in  the  first  eight  centuries,  I  have  shown 
that  they  were  all  assembled  by  the  em- 
perors, some  with  and  some  without  the 
knowledge  of  the  pope,  and  consequently 
that  Alexander  departed  from  the  truth  in 
saying  that  Frederic  departed  from  the  cus- 
tom of  his  predecessors  in  summoning  a 
council  without  the  knowledge  of  the  Roman 
pontiff. 

The  two  bishops,  highly  provoked  at 
Alexander's  answer  and  haughty  behavior, 
went  straight  to  Segni,  where  Victor  was, 
and  prostrating  themselves  before  him,  ac- 
knowledged him  for  lawful  pope.  Their  ex- 
ample was  followed  by  Otto,  count  Palalin, 
who  commanded  a  body  of  German  troops 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Rome,  which  greatly 
encouraged  the  partisans  of  Victor.  In  the 
mean  while  the  bishops  assembled  at  Pavia 
on  the  12th  of  January,  the  time  appointed 
by  the  emperor  for  the  meeting  of  the  coun- 
cil. But  they  did  not  sit  till  the  5th  of  Fe- 
bruary, Frederic  being  engaged  in  the  siege 
of  Crema,  which  city  he  took  and  burnt  on 
the  27th  of  January.  He  then  repaired  to 
Pavia,  and  the  sessions,began  on  the  5th  of 
February.  To  this  council  the  emperor  in- 
vited all  the  bishops  of  ijie  empire,  and  those 
likewise  of  France,  England,  Hungary,  and 
Dacia.  But  fifty  only,  and  they  from  his 
German  or  Italian  dominions,  complied 
with  his  invitation.  As  to  the  number  of 
abbots  and  other  dignitaries  of  the  church, 
they  were  too  many  to  be  counted,  says  Ra- 
devicus,  who  was  present.  The  emperor, 
on  his  arrival  at  Pavia,  assembled  the  bi- 
shops, and  having  exhorted  them  to  implore 
the  Divine  assistance,  in  an  affair  that  so 
nearly  concerned  the  church,  with  fasting 
and  prayer,  he  fixed  the  5lh  of  February  for 
their  first  meeting.  On  that  day  he  came  in 
person  to  the  assembly,  attended  by  most  of 
the  princes  of  the  empire,  and  having  taken 
his  place,  he  spoke  thus,  addressing  himself 
to  the  members  of  the  council :  "  Though  I 
have  an  undoubted  right  to  assemble  coun- 
cils, especially  when  the  church  is  in  dan- 
ger, (for  the  emperors  Constantine,  Theo- 
dosius,  and  Justinian  are  known  to  have 
done  so,  and  in  latter  time  Charlemagne  and 
Otto,)  yet  I  leave  the  determining  of  this 
great  affair  to  your  prudence  and  discretion. 
God  has  vested  you  with  the  power  of  judg- 
ing us,  and  you  are  not  to  be  judged  by  us 
in  matters  that  relate  to  God.  As  you  are 
therefore  responsible  to  God  alone  for  your 
conduct  in  the  present  affair,  behave  your- 
selves accordingly."  Having  spoken  thus  he 
withdrew,  lest  he  should  influence  the  judg- 
ment of  the  bishops  with  his  presence.' 

»  Radevic.  c.  62.  64. 


The  emperor  being  retired,  deputies  ap- 
peared before  the  council,  sent  by  the  chap- 
ter of  St.  Peter's  in  Rome,  with  a  letter  to 
the  emperor  and  the  fathers  of  the  council, 
containing  pretty  much  the  same  account  of 
what  had  passed  at  the  election  as  the  five 
cardinals  of  Victor's  party  had  given  in  their 
letters,  which  I  have  spoken  of  above.  They 
say,  that  the  cardinals  being  shut  up  in  the 
church  of  St.  Peter,  and  not  able  to  agree 
among  themselves,  at  the  end  of  the  third 
day  Otio,  deacon  of  St.  Gregory,  Adebald, 
cardinal  of  the  holy  apostles,  and  John  the 
Neapolitan,  starting  up,  offered  the  scarlet 
mantle  to  the  chancellor  Roland ;  but  they 
were  stopt  by  the  wiser  and  better  cardinals — 
"  saniori  et  raeliori  parte  cardinalium  :"  that 
at  the  noise  this  occasioned,  the  Roman  cler- 
gy breaking  info  the  church,  and  surround- 
ing Otto,  cried  all  with  one  voice,  "  Choose 
lord  Octavian,  who  alone  can  give  peace  to 
the  church:"  that  thereupon,  at  the  request 
of  the  Roman  people,  and  with  the  consent 
of  the  whole  Roman  clergy,  and  the  chapter 
of  St.  Peter,  cardinal  Octavian  was  elected 
a  saniori  parte  cardinalium,  was  clothed  with 
the  scarlet  mantle,  and  placed  in  the  chair 
of  St.  Peter,  all  who  were,  present  singing, 
in  the  mean  time,  the  Te  Deum,  and  crowd- 
ing to  kiss  his  foot:  that  the  elect  was  car- 
ried in  triumph  to  the  Lateran  palace,  the 
people  crying  aloud  in  their  language,  (the 
same  that  they  speak  now,)  "  Papa  vittore 
santo  Pietro  lo  elegge."  They  added,  that 
the  election  of  Octavian  was  not  opposed 
nor  contested  by  the  chancellor,  nor  by  any 
of  his  friends  till  twelve  days  after,  when 
the  cardinals  of  his  party  arriving  with  hira, 
in  their  flight  from  Rome,  at  a  place  called 
Nero's  Cistern,  they  there  delivered  to  him, 
as  if  he  had  been  elected  and  not  Octavian, 
the  scarlet  mantle  with  the  pall  and  the  stole. 
For  the  truth  of  what  they  asserted  in  their 
letter  they  appealed  to  Otto,  count  Palatin, 
to  Guido,  count  of  Blanderata,  and  to  Here- 
bert,  the  emperor's  envoy,  men,  said  they, 
whose  testimony  could  not  be  questioned.' 
The  contents  of  this  letter  were  attested  by 
nine  archpriests,  by  a  great  many  priests, 
deacons,  and  subdeacons  of  the  Roman 
church,  by  the  prefect  of  the  city,  by  several 
senators,  and  men  of  the  first  rank  in  Rome. 
At  the  same  time  other  witnesses  appeared 
and  declared,  that  they  had  heard  pope  Had- 
rian say,  "  Cardinal  Octavian,  whom  I  have  ■ 
sent  into  Lorabardy,  will  excommunicate  | 
the  Milanese ;  but  I  have  ordered  them  to 
pay  no  regard  to  his  excommunications,  and 
to  withstand  the  emperor  to  the  utmost  of 
their  power."  The  city  of  Milan  revolted 
from  the  emperor  in  Hadrian's  time,  and,  as 
was  believed,  at  his  instigation.  But  Fre- 
deric reduced  it  in  1162,  and  levelled  it  with 


»  Radevic.  c.  67. 


Alexander  III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


507 


Tbe  election  of  Victor  approved  by  the  council.    The  emperor  requires  hia  German  and  Italian  subjects  to 
acquiesce  in  the  decision  of  the  council. 


the  ground.  The  same  witnesses  deposed, 
that  Hadrian  had  said  in  their  hearing, 
"  The  cardinals  have  all  given  me  iheir 
word,  that  upon  my  death  they  will  not  elect 
cardinal  Ociavian."  They  added,  that  two 
cardinals  (whom,  by  the  way,  they  should 
have  named)  refused  to  vote  for  Ociavian, 
saying,  "They  had  promised  upon  oath  to 
elect  none  but  the  chancellor  Roland.'" 

The  council  spent  seven  days  in  examin- 
ing these  and  other  witnesses,  and  Alex- 
ander not  appearing  in  the  mean  time, 
though  thrice  summoned,  as  was  required 
by  the  canons,  they  confirmed  the  election 
of  Victor,  and  declared  that  of  the  chancellor 
Roland,  as  they  styled  him,  to  be  null;  since 
he,  distrusting  his  cause,  had  declined  the 
judgment  of  the  church.  This  sentence 
they  immediately  communicated  to  the  em- 
peror, who  not  only  approved  of  it,  but 
went  that  moment,  attended  by  all  the  bi- 
shops of  ilie  council,  to  the  monastery  where 
Ociavian  lodged,  conducted  liim  from  thence 
to  the  church  of  St.  Syrus,  held  his  stirrup 
as  he  dismounted  from  his  horse,  led  him 
by  the  hand  to  the  altar,  and  there,  falling 
down  before  him,  kissed  his  foot;  and  the 
bishops  of  the  council,  as  well  as  the  princes 
of  the  empire,  followed  his  example.  This 
happened  on  the  12th  of  February,  the  first 
Friday  in  Lent,  and  the  next  day  the  council 
met  again,  and  with  burning  torches  ex- 
communicated, anathematized,  and  delivered 
up  to  Satan  the  chancellor  Roland,  as  a 
schismatic,  with  all  who  adhered  to  him. 
Thus  the  bishops  of  the  council  in  their  cir- 
culatory letter,  signed  by  the  patriarch  of 
Aquilea,  and  eleven  archbishops  with  their 
suffragans.^  But  these  subscriptions  are  not 
to  be  relied  on.  For  amongst  the  names  of 
the  archbishops,  who  are  said  to  have  signed 
ihe  decree  of  the  council,  we  find  that  of  the 
archbishop  of  Treves.  But  in  a  private  let- 
ter from  the  archbishop  of  Bamberg  to  the 
archbishop  of  Saltzburg  it  is  expressly  said, 
that  the  archbishop  of  Treves  llid  not  con- 
sent to  the  decree  of  the  council,  though  his 
suffragans  all  did.^  From  the  same  letter  it 
appears,  that  the  deputies  from  the  kings  of 
France  and  England  declared  in  the  council, 
that  their  masters  were  determined  not  to 
acknowledge  the  one  nor  the  other  till  they 
had  heard  from  the  emperor ;  and  yet  we  find 
the  decree,  as  it  was  published  by  the  coun- 
cil, subscribed  by  the  deputies  of  Henry  king 
of  England. 

The  emperor  took  care  to  acquaint  the 
whole  world  with  what  had  passed  at  the 
council ;  and  messengers  were  immediately 
dispatched,  with  the  sentence  they  had  pro- 
nounced to  the  kings  of  Spain,  France, 
England,  Denmark,  Hungary,  Bohemia, 
and  even  to  Manuel,  emperor  of  Constanti- 


'  Radevic.  c.  67.  ^  Apud  Baron,  ad  ann.  1160. 

'  Badevic.  1.  2.  c.  72. 


nople.     At  the  same  time  he  wrote  to  the 
bishops  of  Germany,  who  had  not  been  pre- 
sent at  the  council,  requiring  them  to  ac- 
quiesce in  the  judgment  of  their  brethren 
who   had  examined   the   affair,  during  the 
space  of  seven  days,  with  the  greatest  at- 
tention, and   decided   it  upon  the  matures! 
deliberation.     In    that   letter   he  lays  great 
stress  upon   the  conspiracy  formed  against 
the  empire  by    Hadrian,  and   most  of  the 
cardinals,    with    Roland    the   chancellor  at 
their   head;    assures   the  bishops,  that  the 
cardinals,  two  or  three  excepted,  had  bound 
themselves  by  a  solemn  oath  to  oppose  him 
on  all  occasions,  to   adhere  to  the  king  of 
Sicily,  and  to  prefer  none  to  the  apostolic 
see  who  had  not  taken  that  oath;  that,  pur- 
suant to  their  oath,  they  had  stirred  up  the 
cities  of  Lombardy,  and  Milan  in  particular, 
to  rebel  against  him,  and  encouraged  them 
to  persist  in  their  rebellion.     This,  he  said, 
he  knew  to  be  true;  for  having  promised  to 
pardon  the  Milanese  upon  condition  they 
submitted  and  swore  allegiance  to  him,  and 
sent  the  archbishop  of  Tarantasia,  the  abbots 
of  Clairvaux  and  Morimond,  and  ten  other 
abbots  to  conclude  an  agreement  with  them, 
they  did  not  dissemble,  but  openly  declared, 
that  they  were  bound  by  an  oath  they  had 
taken  to  the  pope  and  the  cardinals,  to  make 
no   peace   with   the   emperor   unknown    to 
them.     The  emperor  added,  that  the  rebels 
being  told  bv  the  archbishop  and  the  abbots 
that  pope  Hadrian   was   dead,   and   conse- 
quently that  their  oath  was  no  longer  bind- 
ing, they  immediately  replied,  if  the  pope  is 
dead,  we  are  bound   to  the  cardinals,  and 
they  to  us.     Frederic   further  told   the  bi- 
shops, that  several  letters  had  been  inter- 
cepted, undoubted  evidences  of  the  wicked 
designs  and  intrigues  carried  on  by  Roland, 
and  the  cardinals  his  associates,  against  the 
empire.     He  owns,  that  the  chancellor  was 
elected  by  the  greater  part  of  the  cardinals, 
most  of  them  being  bound  by  oath  to  elect 
one   who  should   oppose   the  emperor  and 
adhere  to  the  king  of  Sicily.'     It  is  to  be  ob- 
served, that  though  pope  Nicholas  II.  in  a 
council  held  at  Rome  in   1059,  issued  a  de- 
cree confining  the  election  of  the  pope  to 
the  cardinals,  as  has  been  related  in  the  life 
of  that  pope,  yet  the  Roman  people  and  the 
inferior  clergy  still  continued  to  claim  a  share 
in  all  elections,  maintaining  that  the  pope 
could  not  deprive  them  of  a  privilege  which 
they  had  enjoyed  ever  since  the  foundation 
of  the   apostolic    see;   and    they   were   not 
wholly  excluded  from  concurring  with  their 
suflVages  in  the  election  of  a  new  pope  till 
the  pontificate  of  Lucius  III.,  raised  to  the 
see  in  1181.     The  majority  therefore  of  the 
cardinals  was  no  proof,  at  least  at  this  time, 
of  the  canonicalness  of  an  election,  and  it  is 
hard  to  determine,  in  the  present  case,  which 


«  Radevic.  I.  2.  c.  71. 


508 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Alexander  HI. 


The  bishops  who  did  not  conform  to  the  council  driven  from  their  gees.  The  Cisterian  order  driven  out  of 
the  empire.  Alexander  gains  several  kings.  Excommunicates  the  emperor.  Alexander  acknowledged  by 
the  kings  of  France  and  England ;— [Year  of  Clirist,  1161.] 


of  the  two  competitors  had  a  majority  of  the 
clergy  and  the  people,  thai  is,  of  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Rome,  on  his  side.  Besides,  the 
emperor  and  his  friends  maintained  the 
election  of  Alexander  to  be  null  on  another 
account,  namely,  because  it  was  not  free, 
the  cardinals  being  bound,  by  an  unlawful 
oath,  to  elect  one  who  should  adhere  to  the 
king  of  Sicily  against  the  empire.  For  that 
such  a  conspiracy,  or  compact,  was  a  mere 
invention,  as  some  have  pretended,  is  alto- 
gether incredible. 

Tlie  election  of  Alexander  being  declared 
null,  and  that  of  Victor  being  confirmed  by 
the  council,  the  emperor  ordered  an  edict  to 
be  issued,  as  soon  as  the  assembly  broke  up, 
commanding  all  his  German  and  Italian  sub- 
jects to  acknowledge  Victor,  and  no  other, 
for  lawful  pope,  on  pain  of  perpetual  banish- 
ment. With  that  edict  great  numbers  of  the 
German  and  Italian  bishops  readily  com- 
plied; and  they  who  did  not  were  driven 
from  their  sees,  and  sent,  as  enemies  to  the 
empire,  into  exile.  The  Cistercian  order 
was,  at  this  time,  one  of  the  most  flourishing 
orders  of  the  church,  had  many  archbishops 
and  bishops,  seven  hundred  abbots  and  up- 
wards, and  an  infinite  number  of  monks, 
dispersed  over  all  the  kingdoms  in  the  West; 
and  in  a  general  assembly  held  at  Cister- 
cium,  or  Cisteaux,  the  whole  order  resolved 
to  espouse  the  cause  of  Alexander.  This 
resolution  was  chiefly  owing  to  Peter,  one 
of  the  order,  and  archbishop  of  Tarantasia 
in  the  Aples  Pennine,  which  see  has  been 
since  translated  to  Monasterium,  now  Mon- 
tiers  en  Tarantaise.  As  they  declared  all  to 
a  man  for  Alexander,  they  proved  a  great 
support  to  his  cause.  But  Frederic  drove 
the  whole  order  out  of  his  dominions,  seized 
their  monasteries,  and  disposed  of  their  es- 
tates to  men  of  other  religious  orders.'  Ec- 
clesiastics of  all  ranks,  who  adhered  to  Alex- 
ander, met  with  no  better  treatment,  which 
occasioned  great  confusion  and  endless  dis- 
turbances throughout  the  empire. 

In  the  mean  time  Alexander,  by  the  ad- 
vice of  Arnulph  bishop  of  Lizieux,  dis- 
patched legates  a  Latere  into  all  parts,  to 
contradict  the  false  reports  that  were  every 
where  spread  of  his  election  by  the  envoys 
of  the  emperor.  By  these  legates  the  kings 
of  Spain,  Denmark,  Hungary,  Bohemia, 
Jerusalem,  and  even  the  emperor  Manuel, 
with  the  whole  body  of  the  clergy  of  the  im- 
perial city,  were  gained  over  to  Alexander; 
and  in  a  council,  held  this  year  at  Nazarat, 
he  was  acknowledged  by  the  churches  of 
Antioch  and  Jerusalem.^  The  kings  of 
France  and  England  declined  espousing  for 
the  present  the  cause  of  either  of  the  com- 
petitors. Henry,  king  of  England,  was  in- 
clined to  favor  Alexander;  but  being  then  at 


»  Ilelmold.  Chron.  Flavor,  c  91. 

2  Guill.  Tyr.  1.  18.  c.  29;  et  Concil.  torn.  10.  p.  1404. 


war  with  Lewis,  king  of  France,  he  appre- 
hended that  should  he  declare  openly  for 
him,  the  emperor  might  resent  such  a  step, 
and  join  in  the  alliance  against  him.  How- 
ever he  did  not  forbid  his  subjects  to  write 
to  Alexander,  or  to  receive  letters  from  him.* 

Alexander  wrote  several  letters  to  the  em- 
peror, striving  to  persuade  him  to  abandon 
the  protection  of  Victor.  But  Frederic  re- 
turning no  answer  to  them,  resolved,  being 
thereunto  encouraged  by  all  the  cardinals  of 
his  party,  to  thunder  out  the  sentence  of  ex- 
communication against  him  ;  and  according- 
ly on  Maundy  Thursday,  which,  in  IIGO, 
fell  on  the  24th  of  March,  he  declared  Fre- 
deric, styled  emperor  of  the  Romans  and 
king  of  Germany,  a  persecutor  of  the  church, 
and  an  enemy  of  St.  Peter,  and  as  such  so- 
lemnly excommunicated  him  with  all  his 
adherents,  and  absolved  his  subjects,  after 
the  example  of  Gregory  VII.,  from  the  oath 
of  allegiance  they  had  taken  to  him.  At  the 
same  time  Octavian  was  excommunicated 
and  anathematized  anew,  and  ail  were  de- 
livered up  to  the  devil  who  acknowledged 
him,  or  any  ways  countenanced  him  in  his 
wicked  usurpation.^ 

The  following  year,  1161,  a  peace  being 
concluded  between  the  kings  of  France  and 
England,  a  council  was  assembled  by  the 
former  at  Beauvais,  and  another  by  the  lat- 
ter at  Neuf  Marche,  or  Newmarket,  in  Nor- 
mandy, about  six  leagues  distant  from  Beau- 
vais, to  examine  the  pretensions  of  the  two 
competitors  to  the  papal  chair,  and  by  both 
assemblies  Alexander  was  received  for  law- 
ful pope ;  the  king  of  England,  who  had  been 
long  at  a  loss  which  of  the  two  he  should 
acknowledge,  having,  in  the  end,  been  gain- 
ed over  to  his  party  by  Arnulph,  bishop  of 
Lisieux,  and  the  abbot  Philip,  held  in  great 
esteem  for  his  sanctity.^  However,  as  few 
bishops  were  present  at  the  council  of  Beau- 
vais, and  at  that  of  Neuf  Marche  none  but 
the  bishops,  abbots,  and  barons  of  Norman- 
dy, both  princes  agreed  to  assemble  another 
at  Toulouse,  and  invite  to  it  all  the  bishops 
of  their  respective  dominions.  At  this  coun- 
cil both  kings  assisted  in  person,  and  were 
present,  besides  an  hundred  bishops  and  a 
great  number  of  abbots,  legates  from  the  two 
pretenders  and  embassadors  from  the  emperor 
and  the  king  of  Spain.  The  two  cardinals, 
Guido  of  Crema,  and  John  of  St.  Martin, 
were  sent  by  Victor,  and  the  cardinals  Hen- 
ry of  Pisa,  John  of  Naples,  and  William  of 
Pavia,  by  Alexander.  Guido  of  Crema 
spoke  the  first,  and  pleaded  with  great  elo- 
quence the  cause  of  Victor.  But  all  he  said 
being,  in  the  opinion  of  the  whole  assembly, 
fully  answered  and  confuted  by  William  of 

'  Epist.  Abbatis  Philip,  apud  Dacher.  Spicileg.  torn. 
2.  p.  458;  et  Epist.  Arnulph.  Luxoviens.  Episcop.  apud 
Baron  ad  ann.  1159. 

2  Acta  Alexandri.  apud  Baron,  ad  ann.  1160. 

'  Spicileg.  Dacher.  torn.  2.  p.  458. 


Alexander  III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


509 


Alexander  is  excommunicated  by  the  council  of  Lodi.  Retires  to  France  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  116*2.]  The  em- 
peror endeavors  to  divert  the  king  of  France  from  receiving  him.  The  election  of  Victor  approved  by  the 
German  bishops.     Alexander  at  Paris  ;  how  received  there  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  1163.] 


Pavia,  Alexander  was,  with  one  consent, 
proclaimed,  by  all  but  the  emperor's  embas- 
sadors, lawful  pope,  and  the  sentence  of  ex- 
communication at  the  same  time  thundered 
out  against  Victor  and  all  his  adherents.' 

About  the  same  lime  Victor,  supported  by 
the  emperor,  appointed  jointly  wiih  him  a 
council  to  meet  first  at  Pavia,  afterwards  at 
Cremona,  and  lastly  at  Lodi,  where  it  was 
held  on  the  festival  of  St.  Gervasius  and 
Protasius,  that  is,  on  the  20th  of  June.  At 
that  council  the  emperor  assisted  in  person 
with  all  the  lords  of  his  court,  with  all  the 
chief  officers  of  his  army,  and  a  great  num- 
ber of  German  princes,  bishops,  abbots,  and 
other  dignitaries  of  the  church,  and  by  all 
the  election  of  Victor  was  confirmed,  that  of 
Alexander  was  declared  null,  and  he  ex- 
communicated as  an  usurper  of  the  apostolic 
see.  At  the  same  time  were  excommunica- 
ted the  archbishop  of  Milan,  and  the  bishops 
of  Placentia  and  Brescia,  for  adhering  to 
Alexander,  and  for  the  same  reason  the  con- 
suls of  those  three  cities.^ 

In  the  mean  time  Alexander  not  thinking 
himself  safe  at  Rome  nor  even  in  Italy,  where 
the  party  of  Victor,  supported  by  the  empe- 
ror, was  by  far  the  stronger  of  the  two,  re- 
solved to  fly  for  lefuge  to  France,  as  several 
of  his  predecessors  had  done  before  him. 
However,  before  he  left  Italy  he  solemnly 
canonized  Edward,  surnamed  the  Confessor, 
at  the  request  of  the  king  and  the  people  of 
England.  That  ceremony  he  performed  at 
Anagni,^  and  repairing  from  thence  to  Pales- 
trina  embarked  there  wiih  his  retinue'  on 
board  four  galleys,  sent  by  the  king  of  Sicily 
to  convey  him  to  France  by  sea,  as  he  could 
not  travel  thither  by  land  without  passing 
through  the  territories  of  the  empire.  The 
galleys  were,  by  a  violent  storm,  driven 
against  some  rocks  and  greatly  damaged  at 
their  first  putting  to  sea.  But  being  soon 
refitted,  Alexander  pursued  his  voyage,  and 
arriving  at  Genoa  on  the 2lst  January,  1162, 
was  there  received  with  all  possible  marks 
of  honor  and  respect.  lie  continued  at  Ge- 
noa till  Passion-Sunday,  that,  in  11G2,  fell 
on  the  25th  of  March ;  and  being  obliged  by  a 
storm  to  put  in  at  a  small  island,  he  celebra- 
ted there  the  feast  of  Easter,  and  on  the  1 1  th 
of  April,  arrived  at  Maguelone,  and  from 
thence  repaired  to  the  neighboring  city  of 
Montpellier,  which  he  entered  on  a  white 
horse  in  his  pontifical  ornaments,  attended 
by  all  the  nobility  of  the  country,  and  among 
the  rest  by  the  lord  of  Montpellier,  who,  on 
that  occasion,  attended  his  holiness  as  his 
equerry.  During  his  stay  in  that  city  two 
archbishops  and  six  bishops  came  to  wait 
upon  him,  and  in  a  council,  consisting  of 
these  prelates  and  other  bishops  who  had 


«  Guill.  Neubrig.  I.  2.  c.  9.     Gerhohus  de  Investigat. 
Antichristi,  I.  Let  Concil.  torn.  10.  p.  1406. 
5  Otto  Morena  in  Chron.  Ludens.  ad  ann.  1161. 
s  Bulla  Canonizat.  apud  Surium.  I.  3. 


attended  hiin  from  Italy,  he  again  excom- 
municated his  rival  with  all  his  adherents.' 

In  the  mean  time  the  emperor,  hearing 
that  Alexander  was  arrived  in  France,  wrote 
to  Hugh,  bishop  of  Soissons  and  chancellor 
of  that  kingdom,  in  the  following  terms ; 
"  Frederic  by  the  grace  of  God  emperor  of 
the  Romans,  and  ever  August,  to  his  beloved 
friend  Hugh,  bishop  of  Soissons  and  chan- 
cellor to  the  king  of  the  Franks,  greeting. 
We  have  been  informed,  that  Roland,  here- 
tofore chancellor,  being  driven  by  our  faithful 
subjects  from  Rome  and  all  the  places  in 
that  neighborhood,  has  exposed  himself  with 
his  schismatic  followers  to  the  dangers  of 
the  sea,  in  order  to  infect  the  kingdom  of 
the  Franks  with  his  schism,  and  extort  from 
the  inhabitants  immense  sums  for  the  pay- 
ment of  his  immense  debts.  We  therefore 
beg  you  will  by  all  means  divert  the  king 
from  receiving  him,  as  he  is  an  avowed 
enemy  to  God  and  the  empire  ;  or  any  of  his 
cardinals  or  nuncios,  lest  an  enmity,  at- 
tended with  fatal  consequences,  should 
thence  arise  between  the  two  nations."^ 
Frederic,  finding  that  his  menaces  had  not 
the  wished-for  effect,  proposed  the  assem- 
bling of  a  council,  at  which  he  and  the  king 
should  assist  in  person,  with  all  bishops  and 
chief  lords  of  their  respective  dominions; 
that  he  should  bring  Victor  with  him  to  the 
council,  and  the  king  Alexander;  and  that 
both  should  stand  to  the  decision  of  thai 
assembly.  To  this  proposal  the  king  agreed, 
and  they  were  to  meet  on  the  29ih  of  August, 
at  St.  John  de  Laune  in  Burgundy,  then  a 
frontier  town.  But  Alexander  refusing  to 
appear  at,  or  be  judged  by  a  council,  con- 
sisting of  the  bishops  of  two  nations  only, 
the  king  took  occasion  from  the  emperor's 
not  coming  at  the  precise  time  to  recede 
from  his  agreement,  and  to  leave  the  place 
with  all  his  bishops.  The  German  bishops 
however  met,  and  by  them  the  election  of 
Victor  was  confirmed,  and  Alexander  de- 
clared an  intruder  into  the  apostolic  see,  and 
as  such  solemnly  excommunicated.^ 

In  the  mean  time  Alexander  having  passed 
the  winter  in  Aquitaine,  set  out  from  thence 
in  the  beginning  of  Lent  for  Paris,  being  in- 
vited thither  by  the  king,  Lewis  VII.,  who 
met  him  at  the  distance  of  two  leagues  from 
the  city,  attended  by  all  the  chief  lords  of 
the  kingdom,  dismounted  from  his  horse  as 
soon  as  his  holiness. appeared,  and  having 
kissed  his  foot,  walked  about  a  hundred 
paces  holding  his  stirrup.  At  the  gate  of 
the  city  he  was  met  by  the  clergy  in  a  body, 
and  by  them  conducted,  in  procession,  to  the 
chief  church  amidst  the  loud  acclamations 
of  an  infinite  multitude  of  people,  flocking 
from  all  quarters  to  receive  his  blessing. 
During  his  stay  at  Paris  he  consecrated  the 

'  Alex.  Epist.  31.         »  Apud  Duchesm.  1.  4.  p.  579. 
'  Idem  ibid,  p.  412. 

2   S   2 


510 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Alexander  HI. 


Council  of  Tours. 


Decree  of  this  council  against  llie  Albigenses.     Quarrel  between  Henry  II.  of  England, 
and  Thomas  Becket,  archbishop  of  Canterbury. 


golden  rose,  according  to  custom,  on  mid- 
lent  Sunday,  and  sent  it  to  the  king,  cele- 
brated the  festival  of  Easter  with  great  so- 
lemnity, and  then  taking  leave  of  the  king, 
repaired  to  Tours,  where  he  had  appointed 
a  council  to  meet  on  the  19th  of  May  of  the 
present  year  1163.  At  this  council  were 
present  most  of  the  bishops  of  France  and 
England,  and  many  from  Spain,  Italy,  Scot- 
land, and  Ireland,  in  all  one  hundred  and 
twenty-four,  with  seventeen  cardinals,  and 
four  hundred  and  fourteen  abbots.  Among 
those  from  England  was  Thomas  of  Canter- 
bury, preferred  the  year  before  to  that  see. 
He  came  three  days  before  the  meeting  of 
the  council,  and  was  received  at  some  dis- 
tance from  the  city  by  all  the  other  bishops, 
nay,  and  by  all  the  cardinals  but  two,  who 
remained  with  the  pope,  that  his  holiness 
might  not  be  left  quite  alone.' 

We  know  no  more  of  the  acts  of  this 
council  than  that  the  decrees  of  the  council 
of  Pavia  were  annulled  by  it;  that  the  elec- 
tion of  Alexander  was  approved,  with  one 
consent,  by  all  the  bishops,  Avho  composed 
it;  and  Victor  excommunicated  with  all  who 
acknowleged  him,  or  should  thenceforth 
support  him  in  his  unjust  usurpation.  By 
one  of  the  ten  canons  of  this  council  all  were 
forbidden,  on  pain  of  excommunication,  to 
have  any  intercourse  with  those,  "who 
taught  or  professed  a  damnable  heresy  long 
since  sprung  up  in  the  territory  of  Tou- 
louse." In  the  decree,  that  pretended  heresy 
is  said  to  have  spread  like  a  cancer,  to  have 
infected  all  the  neighboring  country,  and  to 
gain  daily  ground.  All  are  therefore  for- 
bidden to  harbor  them  in  their  houses,  to 
suffer  them  in  their  cities,  to  buy  any  thing 
of  them,  or  sell  any  thing  to  them ;  that  being 
thus  deprived  of  all  the  comforts  of  life,  they 
may  be  compelled  to  repent  of  their  errors 
and  renounce  them.^  These  are,  it  must  be 
owned,  convincing  arguments;  and  yet 
those  heretics  were  not  convinced  by  them, 
as  we  shall  see  in  the  sequel.  We  have 
the  following  account  of  them  in  the  annals 
of  the  abbey  of  Margan  :  "  Some  false  pro- 
phets arose  about  this  time,  and  retired  to 
the  territory  of  Perigord,  pretending  to  lead 
apostolic  lives,  and  imitate  the  manners  of 
the  apostles  ;  they  preach  without  intermis- 
sion, walk  barefooted,  kneel  seven  times  a 
day,  and  as  often  in  the  night;  they  receive 
money  of  nobody,  eat  no  meat,  drink  no 
wine,  use  with  sobriety  the  food  that  is 
given  them  :  to  give  alms  is  not,  they  say, 
meritorious,  because  none  should  possess 
what  enables  them  to  give  any  ;  they  decline 
receiving  the  holy  communion,  despise  the 
mass,  are  ready  to  die,  and  suffer  any  tor- 
tures for  their  law ;  they  seem  to  work  some 
miracles,  for  they  change  water  into  wine, 
restore  the  blind  to  their  sight,  and  make  the 


deaf  hear:  they  who  come  to  them,  be  they 
ever  so  illiterate,  acquire  such  wisdom  in 
eight  days  time  as  to  be  convinced  by  no 
arguments  or  examples ;  they  have  twelve 
masters  besides  their  prince  or  chief,  who  is 
named  Poncius.'"  This  account  agrees 
with  that  we  read  in  the  monk  Heriberi  of 
the  heretics  of  Perigord,  with  this  differ- 
ence only,  that  they  are  said  by  Heribert  to 
kneel  a  hundred  times  a  day,  and  in  the 
annals  of  Margan  but  seven  times.^  These 
heretics,  to  speak  in  the  style  of  the  writers 
of  those  times,  were  first  called  Waldenses 
from  Peter  Waldus,  a  citizen  of  Lyons,  and 
a  leading  man  among  them,  but  were  after- 
wards known  by  the  names  of  Cathari, 
Patarini,  Publicani,  Apostolici,  Boni  Ho- 
mines, Agennenses,  the  Perigordian  Here- 
tics, the  Poor  of  Lyons,  and  lastly,  the 
Albigenses,  from  the  city  of  Albi  in  Lan- 
guedoc,  where  they  chiefly  prevailed.  That 
name  was  first  given  them  by  the  prior 
Guafredus,  who  speaking  in  his  chronicle, 
finished  in  1184,  of  pope  Alexander  III., 
says  that  a  little  before  his  death  he  sent 
Henry,  bishop  of  Albano,  against  the  Albi- 
gensian  heretics  or  the  Albigenses,^  the 
name  they  are  now  commonly  known  by. 

Upon  the  return  of  the  archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury from  this  council  to  England,  a 
grievous  quarrel  broke  out  between  him  and 
the  king,  Henry  II.,  which  greatly  disturbed 
the  peace  of  the  kingdom,  and  after  a  seven 
years'  contest  ended  in  the  death  of  that  pre- 
late. The  point  in  dispute  was  the  liberty 
of  the  church;  that  is,  in  other  words, 
whether  the  clergy  were  a  body  separate 
and  independent  on  the  civil  power,  or 
whether  the  king  had  any  authority  over 
ecclesiastic  persons,  and  in  ecclesiastical 
causes.  For  the  clergy,  availing  themselves 
of  the  weakness  of  the  preceding  reign,  that 
of  king  Stephen,  and  of  the  civil  disturb- 
ances, that  made  it  necessary  for  both  par- 
ties to  court  their  favor  and  connive  at  their 
encroachments,  had  confined  every  cause  in 
which  they  were  concerned  to  their  own 
courts.  This  exemption  from  all  civil  just- 
ice naturally  produced  the  most  grievous 
disorders.  For  as  the  church  disclaimed 
the  power  of  condemning  to  the  loss  of  life 
or  limbs,  as  unbecoming  the  ministers  of  the 
mild  Jesus,  they  could  only  fine  and  impri- 
son the  greatest  offenders,  or  punish  them 
with  the  loss  of  their  benefices,  and  degra- 
dation; punishments  not  adequate  to  the 
crimes  that  many  of  the  clergy  committed  at 
this  time,  nor  sufficient  to  restrain  others 
from  committing  them.  They  frequently 
escaped  even  these  punishments,  the  pre- 
lates of  the  church  being  more  intent  upon 
screening  the  offenders  from  civil  justice, 
than   correcting  their   vices.     No  wonder. 


'  De  Diceto  in  imaginib.  Hist.  p.  535.    Vita  S.  Thorn. 
c.  14.  aConcil.  torn.  x. 


»  Inter  Scriptores  quinque  Hist.  Anglican, 
a  Mabill.  Analect.  1.  3.  p.  467. 
3  Gaufred.  in  Chron.  p.  326. 


Alexander  III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


511 


Henry  resolves  to  subject  the  clergy  to  the  civil  power.  Alexander  resides  at  Sens.  Victor  dies  ; — [Year  of 
Christ,  1104.]  Paschal  III.  chosen  in  his  loom.  Alexander  invited  back  to  Rome.  His  return  and  recep- 
tion; — [Year  of  Christ,  1165.] 


therefore,  that  as  in  these  days  the  clergy 
were,  for  the  most  part,  men  of  no  birth  or 
education,  orders  being  conferred  upon  ail 
wlio  asked  them,  Henry  should  have  found, 
in  11G3,  that  above  a  hundred  murders  had 
been  commiited  by  ecclesiastics  since  his 
accession  to  the  throne  in  11 5  i,  that  is,  in 
the  space  of  nine  years.  This  evil,  now 
become  quite  insupportable,  the  king  re- 
solved to  redress,  and,  in  order  to  that,  sub- 
ject the  clergy  (o  the  civil  power,  from 
which  they  had  withdrawn  themselves,  and 
make  no  distinction  between  them  and  the 
laity  when  guilty  of  the  same  crime.  But 
as  the  work  I  am  engaged  in  is  of  too  great 
an  extent  to  admit  of  a  full  detail  of  the  va- 
rious steps  the  king  took  and  steadily  pur- 
sued for  the  space  of  near  seven  years  to 
carry  so  laudable  a  design  into  execution;  of 
the  opposition  he  met  with  from  the  invin- 
cible obstinacy  of  the  archbishop;  of  his  ne- 
gotiations at  Rome,  and  the  artful  proceed- 
ings of  that  court  in  the  course  of  so  long  a 
dispute,  1  shall  refer  my  readers  to  the  "  his- 
tory of  the  life  of  Henry  II.  by  a  noble  and 
very  eminent  writer."  They  will  there  find 
that  famous  controversy,  and  the  many 
curious  events  attending  it,  displayed  at 
length  and  set  in  the  clearest  light,  with 
some  very  interesting  particulars,  not  yet 
communicated  to  the  public  by  any  his- 
torian. 

To  return  therefore  to  Alexander  at  Tours ; 
as  it  was  not  safe  for  him  to  go  back  to 
Rome,  Lewis  left  him  at  full  liberty  to 
choose  for  his  residence  which  city  he  liked 
best  in  all  his  dominions,  and  to  all  the  rest 
he  preferred  Sens,  in  Champagne,  on  ac- 
count of  its  pleasant  situation,  and  the  fer- 
tility of  the  neighboring  country  :  and  there 
he  resided,  governing  the  church  as  if  he 
were  at  Rome,  from  the  oOth  of  September, 
llGo,till  his  return  to  Italy  in  1165.'  Dur- 
ing his  stay  at  Sens,  his  rival  Victor  died  at 
Lucca  on  the  22d  of  October  11G4,  and  was 
buried  by  his  friends  in  a  monastery  without 
the  walls  of  the  city,  the  canons  of  the 
cathedral  and  those  of  St.  Fridian  declaring 
that  they  would  rather  quit  their  churches 
than  suffer  one  to  be  buried  in  them,  whom 
they  believed  to  be  buried  in  hell.^  He  is 
painted  by  those  of  Alexander's  party  in  the 
blackest  colors  ;  but  his  friends  speak  of  him 
as  a  saint,  and  will  even  have  him  to  have 
wrought  miracles  after  his  death.  We  are 
told  that  Alexander  weeped  when  news  was 
brought  him  of  his  death,  and  severely  repri- 
manded the  cardinals  for  expressing  joy  on 
that  occasion.3  Victor  died,  but  the  schism 
did  not  die  with  him.  For  the  cardinals  whom 
he  had  created,  meeting  as  soon  as  they 
had  performed  his  exequies,  chose  Henry, 


«  Neubrig.  1.  2.  c.  15.  Cliron.  Petri  VIvi  ad  ann.  1163. 
3  Epist.  ud  Thoni.  Caniuar.  apud  Baron,  ad  anu.  1161. 
3  Ibid. 


bishop  of  Liege,  to  succeed  him;  and,  upon 
his  declining  the  offered  dignity,  Guido,  car- 
dinal of  Crema,  who  very  readily  accepted 
it,  and  took  the  name  of  Paschal  111.  The 
emperor  confirmed  his  election,  and  he  was 
thereupon  enthroned  by  Rainald,  archchan- 
cellor  and  archbishop  elect  of  Cologne,  and 
consecrated  by  the  above  mentioned  bishop 
of  Liege  on  the  26th  of  April,  which  in  11G4 
fell  on  a  Sunday.' 

In  the  mean  time  Alexander's  afiairs  took 
a  very  favorable  turn  in  Italy.  P'or  Julius, 
cardinal  bishop  of  Palestrina,  whom  the 
pope  had  appointed  his  vicar  in  Rome,  dying 
this  year,  John,  presbyter  cardinal  of  St. 
John  and  St.  Paul,  who  succeeded  him  in 
that  oflSce,  found  means,  as  he  was  a  man 
of  uncommon  parts  and  great  address,  to 
gain  over  several  of  the  Roman  nobility  to 
his  party.  At  the  same  time  news  being 
brought  to  Rome  of  the  death  of  Victor,  the 
whole  Roman  clergy,  and  with  them  the 
greater  part  of  the  people,  declared  for  Alex- 
ander, flattering  themselves  that  they  should 
thus  at  last  put  an  end  to  the  schism,  and  the 
disorders  that  attended  it.  The  cardinal 
vicar,  therefore,  finding  the  clergy  thus  dis- 
posed, as  well  as  the  people  and  the  nobility, 
assembled  them  in  the  Laleran  palace,  and 
it  was  there  agreed  that  a  solemn  embassy 
should  be  sent,  in  their  name,  to  assure 
Alexander  of  their  submission,  and  invite 
him  back  to  Rome.  With  that  invitation 
the  pope,  tired  of  his  exile,  readily  complied, 
and  having  caused  a  collection  to  be  made 
all  over  France,  to  defray  the  expenses  of 
his  journey,  as  the  emperor  had  seized  the 
revenues  of  his  see,  he  set  out  from  Sens 
after  Easter,  1165,  arrived  at  Montpellier  in 
the  latter  end  of  June,  and  remained  there 
till  the  23d  of  August,  when  he  embarked 
for  Italy. ^  The  emperor  had  laid  every 
where  snares  for  him,  wanting  to  get  him 
into  his  power.  But  he  happily  escaped 
them  by  steering  his  course  to  Sicily  without 
touching  at  any  port  in  Italy.  He  arrived  at 
Messina  in  November  of  the  present  year, 
and  was  there  received  by  William,  king  of 
Sicily,  with  all  possible  marks  of  honor, 
was  entertained,  during  his  short  stay  there, 
with  the  greatest  magnificence,  and  supplied, 
on  his  departure,  with  five  well-appointed 
galleys,  that  conveyed  him  safe  to  Ostia.  He 
landed  there  on  the  22d  of  November,  and 
from  thence  was  attended  the  next  day  to 
the  Lateran  palace  by  the  clergy,  in  a  body, 
by  the  senators,  and  immense  crowds  of 
people,  flocking  from  all  parts  to  see  and 
acknowledge  him.^  Alexander  being  thus 
restored  to  his  see,  wrote  a  few  days  after  to 
Henry,  archbishop  of  Reims,  and  his  sufl'ra- 


'  Trithem.  in  Chron.  HIrsang. 

»  Petrus  Ulesens.  Ep.  170.     Epist.  Ale.xand.     Concil. 
t.  X.  p.  1347. 
>  Acta  Alesand.  apud  Baron,  ad  ann.  1165. 


512 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Alexander  IH. 


Council  of  Wirtzburg.     Embassadors  from  England  at  the  diet  of  Wirtzburg.    Take  the  same  oath  as  was 

taken  by  the  rest. 


gans,  to  acquaint  them  with  his  safe  arrival 
at  Rome,  and  the  reception  he  had  met  with 
from  men  of  all  ranks  and  conditions.  He 
tells  them  in  that  letter  that  he  had  escaped 
many  great  dangers,  and  that  the  senators, 
the  nobility,  the  clergy,  and  the  people,  had 
done  to  none  of  his  predecessors  more  honor 
than  they  had  done  to  him.' 

The  emperor,  hearing  that  the  Romans 
had  declared  for  Alexander,  and  invited  him 
back  to  Rome,  resolved  to  have  his  new 
pope,  cardinal  Guido,  of  Crema,  or  Paschal 
III.,  acknowledged,  at  least  by  all  his  Ger- 
man subjects.  With  that  view  he  appointed 
an  assembly  to  meet  at  Herbipolis,  or  Wirtz- 
burg, inviting  to  it  all  the  princes,  bishops, 
and  abbots  of  the  empire.  The  emperor  as- 
sisted at  it  in  person,  and  with  him  about 
forty  bishops  and  princes  of  the  empire,  and 
all  were  required,  after  they  had  owned  Pas- 
chal for  lawful  pope,  to  swear  upon  the  gos- 
pels and  relics  brought  into  the  assembly  for 
that  purpose,  that  they  never  would  acknow- 
ledge Roland,  meaning  Alexander,  for  law- 
ful pope,  nor  any  of  his  party  that  might 
be  chosen  to  succeed  him  ;  that  upon  the 
death  of  Paschal  they  would  elect  one,  who 
had  adhered  to  him  and  opposed  the  usurper 
Roland,  and  that  when  the  emperor  died 
they  would  prefer  one  to  the  crown  who  had 
taken  that  oath,  and  never  consent  to  the 
election  of  any  other.  This  oath  the  em- 
peror himself  took  the  first,  and  after  him  all 
the  bishops  and  princes  of  the  empire  who 
were  present ;  and  it  was  decreed,  that  it 
should  be  taken  by  all  ranks  of  men  through- 
out the  empire,  on  pain  of  their  being  deemed 
public  enemies,  and  forfeiting,  as  such,  all 
the  honors  and  possessions  they  enjoyed. 
This  decree  the  emperor  notified  in  a  circu- 
latory letter  to  all  the  princes,  bishops,  and 
abbots  of  the  empire,  insisting  on  their  unre- 
served compliance  with  it,  and  commanding 
the  bishops  to  exact  of  all  under  their  juris- 
diction the  oath  as  prescribed  by  the  council.- 

While  the  diet  was  yet  sitting,  John  of 
Oxford  and  Richard  of  Ivelchester,  embas- 
sadors from  the  king  of  England,  arrived  in 
Germany,  and  hearing  that  the  emperor 
was  holding  a  diet  at  Wirtzburg,  they  both 
repaired  to  it,  having  been  sent  by  the  king, 
provoked  beyond  measure  at  the  pope's  es- 
pousing the  cause  of  Becket,  to  treat  of  an 
union  with  the  emperor  against  him.  They 
were  introduced  to  the  assembly  by  Reinald 
or  Reginald,  archbishop  of  Cologne,  a  lead- 
ing man  of  the  anti-pope's  party;  and  it  is 
not,  I  think,  to  be  doubted  that  they  took 
the  same  oath  that  was  taken  by  the  em- 
peror and  the  rest  of  the  diet.  For  the  em- 
peror, in  the  circulatory  letter  which  he 
wrote  to  the  whole  empire  as  an  authentic 
account  of  what  passed  on  this  important 

»  Concil.  t.  X.  p.  1370. 

'  Codex  Vatican.  1.  1.  Ep.  70.  apud  Bar.  ad  ann.  1166. 
Chron.  Reichersperg.  et  Trilhem.  in  Chron.  Hirsang. 


occasion,  after  naming  several  princes  of 
the  empire,  who  had  bound  themselves  by 
the  above-mentioned  oath,  adds  :  "  Besides, 
the  embassadors,  sent  to  us  by  our  illustrious 
friend  Henry,  the  glorious  king  of  England, 
have  publicly  sworn  to  us  in  the  presence 
of  the  whole  diet,  and  upon  the  relics  of 
saints,  in  their  master's  name,  that  he  will 
ever  adhere  to  us  with  his  whole  kingdom, 
will  ever  acknowledge  lord  Paschal,  whom 
we  acknowledge,  and  will  do  nothing  more 
to  support  the  schismatic  Roland."'  In  a 
letter  written  to  the  pope  by  a  person  that 
was  present  at  the  diet,  but  did  not,  it  seems, 
think  it  safe  to  set  his  name  to  his  letter,  and 
therefore  sent  it  with  this  direction,  "To 
pope  Alexander  a  certain  friend  of  his" — 
Alexandro  papag  quidam  amicus  ejus — a  very 
minute  account  is  given  of  the  transactions 
of  that  assembly,  and  among  other  things  it 
is  there  said,  that  "  the  embassadors  of  the 
king  of  England  took  publicly,  in  their  mas- 
ter's name,  the  same  oath  that  the  emperor 
had  taken. "2  They  are  reproached  with  the 
same  oath  in  the  life  of  Becket;"  and  Becket 
himself,  in  the  letter  he  wrote  to  the  pope  to 
let  him  know  that  he  had  excommunicated 
by  name  the  two  embassadors,  mentions, 
among  the  other  motives  that  had  induced 
him  to  it,  "  the  oath,  which  his  holiness 
knew  they  had  taken  at  the  emperor's  diet."-* 
On  the  other  hand  the  archbishop  of  Rouen 
pledges  his  word  in  a  letter  he  wrote  to 
Henry,  cardinal  presbyter  of  the  saints  Ne- 
reus  and  Achilleus,  "that,  neither  by  him- 
self, nor  by  his  embassadors,  had  the  king 
given  any  oath  or  promise  to  the  emperor, 
that  he  would  acknowledge  the  anti-pope 
and  leave  the  church."  He  adds,  that  both 
he  and  the  empress  had  written  to  the  king, 
desiring  him  to  clear  himself  from  that  im- 
putation as  soon  as  he  possibly  could.^  And 
the  bishop  of  London  in  a  letter  to  the  pope 
assures  his  holiness,  that  "the  king  perse- 
vered unshaken  in  his  fidelity  to  St.  Peter 
and  to  him,  and  had  declared  that  he  had 
not  withdrawn  his  regard  from  his  holiness, 
nor  ever  intended  to  do  it."^  Thus  the  two 
bishops.  But  it  is  to  be  observed  that  they 
knew  only  by  report  what  they  asserted; 
and  I  am  inchned  to  believe,  that  the  em-  i 
bassadors,  finding,  upon  their  return  home,  -J 
that  the  king  thought  they  had  gone  too  far, 
and  did  not  approve  what  they  had  done, 
they  publicly  denied  it,  and  thus  imposed 
upon  the  two  prelates.  They  were  not  or- 
dered by  the  king  to  take  that  oath ;  for  he 
could  know  nothing  of  such  an  oath  when 
they  received  their  instructions.  But  being 
sent  to  treat  of  an  union  between  their  master 
and  the  emperor  against  Alexander,  they 
thought  they  might  take  the  same  oath  that 
was  taken  by  all  who  joined  the  emperor 


'  Codex  Vatican.  Ep  70.  apud  Bar.  ad  ann.  1166, 
"  Ibid.  Ep.  72.        3  L.  2.  c.  20.        *  Epist.  138. 
»  Epist.  102.  6  Ep.  70,  71. 


Alexander  III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


513 


The  emperor  reduces  several  cities  in  Italy,  and  arrives  with  his  army  before  Rome  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1167.] 
Embassadors  from  the  new  liing  of  Sicily  to  the  pope.     Alexander  flies  from  Rome. 


against  liirn.     As  ihe  taking  of  tliat  oaih 
was  therefore  their  deed  and  not  the  king's, 
h&was  not  bound  to  observe  it;  and  as  he 
.1  .  e^  not  approve  of  such  an  oath  nor  confirm 
;!    ^tj  tl'^  ^^'^'^  bishops  might  have  said  with 
ijj     (ruth,  that  "neither  by  himself,  nor  by  his 
embassadors,  had  the  king  sworn  or  pro- 
mised to  acknowledge  the  ami-pope,  or  to 
withdraw  his  regard  from  his  holiness."    As 
for  the  testimony  of  John  of  Oxford,  one  of 
the  embassadors,  denying  the  fact  upon  oath 
to  the  pope,  he  was  too  good  a  minister,  too 
true  to  the  interest  of  his  master  and  his 
own,  to  speak  the  truth  when  it  interfered 
with  the  one  or  the  other;  and  instances  are 
-      not  wanting  to  justify  Becket  and  his  friends, 
calling  him,  as  they  commonly  did,  "John 
the  liar  of  Oxford." 

As  many  cities  of  Italy  had  revolted  at  the 
instigation  of  the  pope,  Frederic,  apprehend- 
ing a  general  revolt,  resolved  to  march  in 
person  against  them,  to  drive  Alexander 
from  Rome,  and  put  Paschal  in  possession 
of  that  city  and  the  apostolic  see.  With  that 
view  he  set  out  in  the  month  of  November 
of  the  present  year  for  Italy,  and  arriving  at 
Roncaglia,  held  there  a  general  diet  of  the 
states  of  Lonibardy,  in  which  Roland  was 
declared  an  usurper,  and  it  was  decreed  that 
he  should  be  driven  from  the  see  he  had 
usurped,  and  Paschal  be  placed  in  it  in  his 
room.  The  emperor  kept  his  Christmas  in 
Lombardy  ;  and  on  the  ISth  of  January 
11G7,  began  his  march  to  Rome.  As  he 
passed  through  the  cities  of  Bologna,  Tmola, 
Faenza,  and  Forli,  he  exacted  large  sums 
of  the  inhabitants,  thus  punishing  tliem, 
though  they  made  no  resistance,  for  espous- 
ing the  cause  of  Alexander.  The  city  of 
Ancona  stood  a  long  siege,  but  capitulated 
in  the  end  and  was  spared,  when  reduced  to 
the  utmost  distress,  upon  their  promising  to 
pay  a  very  large  sum,  and  delivering  up 
fifteen  hostages  for  the  payment  thereof. 
From  Ancona  the  emperor  pursued  his 
march  to  Rome,  being  pressed  by  messen- 
gers upon  messengers  from  Paschal,  who 
resided  at  Viterbo,  to  advance  with  his  army 
to  that  city,  and  take  him  with  him  to  Rome, 
still  held  by  his  antagonist,  the  usurper  Ro- 
land. Frederic  had  sent,  in  the  month  of 
June  of  the  preceding  year,  part  of  his  army 
under  the  command  of  Christian,  chancellor 
of  the  empire  and  archbishop  of  Mentz,  to 
block  up  the  city  of  Rome,  and  prevent  the 
inhabitants  from  being  supplied  with  provi- 
sions by  the  neighboring  country.  At  the 
approach  of  that  body,  the  Romans  unex- 
pectedly sallying  out,  fell  upon  them  with 
great  resolution  and  intrepidity ;  and  a 
bloody  engagement  thereupon  ensued.  But 
the  Romans  were,  after  a  most  obstinate  re- 
sistance, forced  to  give  way,  and  driven 
back  into  the  city  with  the  loss  of  six  thou- 
sand killed  upon  the  spot,  and  many  thou- 
VoL.  II.— 05 


sands  made  prisoners  in  their  retreat.'  la 
the  beginning  of  August  1167,  the  emperor 
arrived  with  his  whole  army  before  Rome, 
which  obliged  the  pope  to  retire  from  the 
Laleran  palace  to  a  tower  belonging  to  the 
family  of  the  Frangipani,  by  far  the  most 
powerful  family,  after  that  of  the  Leoni,  at 
this  time  in  Rome. 

In  the  mean  time  arrived  at  Rome,  embas- 
sadors from  William  II.,  king  of  Sicily,  who 
had  succeeded  his  father,  William  I.,  the 
preceding  year.  They  were  .sent  by  the 
young  prince,  who  was  then  only  in  the 
fourteenth  year  of  his  age,  to  acknowledge 
Alexander  for  lawful  pope,  and  do  homage 
to  him,  as  such,  in  his  name.  They  brought 
witii  them  very  large  sums  from  their  mas- 
ter to  relieve  the  pope  in  his  present  un- 
happy circumstances,  and  came  with  several 
galleys  to  convey  him  safe  to  Sicily,  or  to 
whatever  other  kingdom  he  chose  to  repair 
to.  The  money  he  distributed  among  his 
friends,  in  order  to  its  being  employed  by 
them  in  gaining  over  his  enemies,  but  sent 
back  the  galleys,  not  doubting  but  the  empe- 
ror would  soon  be  obliged,  by  the  extraordi- 
nary heat  of  the  season  and  the  climate,  to 
quit  the  neighborhood  of  Rome,  and  retire 
to  Lombardy.  But  he  continued  in  his 
camp,  harassing  the  Romans  with  daily 
attacks,  and  when  he  had  thus  quite  tired 
them  out,  he  caused  the  following  proposal 
to  be  made  to  them  in  his  name;  namely. 
That  both  pretenders  should  be  obliged  to  lay 
down  the  dignity  they  both  claimed  ;  and  a 
third  person  be  elected  with  the  approbation 
and  consent  of  the  two  opposite  parties. 
The  emperor  promised,  upon  their  agreeing 
to  this  proposal,  to  grant  a  lasting  peace  to 
the  Roman  church,  to  set  at  liberty  the  pri- 
soners he  had  taken,  and  thenceforth  to  leave 
the  Roman  clergy  for  ever  free  to  choose 
whom  they  pleased.  The  proposal  was  well 
received  by  the  people,  and  many  among 
them  even  thought  that  the  pope  ought  to 
agree  to  it  for  their  sake,  seeing  they  had  al- 
ready suffered  so  much  in  his  cause.  This 
disposition  in  the  people,  and  not  in  the 
people  alone,  but  in  some  of  the  clergy,  and 
most  of  the  nobility,  so  alarmed  the  pope, 
that  he  escaped  from  Rome  by  night  in  the 
disguise  of  a  pilgrim,  and  arriving  undis- 
covered at  Gaeta,  he  there  reassumed  the 
pontifical  habit,  and  pursued  his  journey  to 
Benevento.  But  before  he  left  Rome,  he 
solemnly  excommunicated  the  emperor  in  a 
council,  convened  f'or  that  purpose  in  the 
Lateran,  divested  him  of  the  royal  and  im- 
perial dignity,  and  absolved  his  subjects  from 
their  allegiance,  till  he  repented  of  his  wick- 
edness, and  was  reconciled  with  the  church.^ 
Baronius  places  this   council   at  the  year 


'  Acerbus  Morena  ad  ann.  1167.    Anonym.  Casain. 
Ceccan.  ad  eund.  ann.  '  Joan.  .Salisb.  Ep.  89. 


514 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Alexander  III. 


Contagion  in  the  emperor's  army.    He  returns  to  Lombardy.     Embassy  from  the  emperor  of  Constantinople 
to  the  pope ; — [Year  of  Christ  1168.]     Death  of  Paschal  III.,  and  election  of  Calixtus  III. 


1168.  But  from  the  contemporary  writers 
it  is  manifest  that  Alexander  left  Rome  in 
August,  1167,  and  did  not  return  to  that  city 
till  the  year  1172. 

The  flight  of  Alexander  was  no  sooner 
publicly  known,  than  Paschal,  leaving  Vi- 
lerbo,  repaired  to  the  emperor's  camp  before 
Rome,  and  was  there  received  with  all  pos- 
sible marks  of  honour  by  the  emperor,  by 
the  bishops  and  princes  who  attended  him, 
and  the  whole  army.  As  Frederic  had  re- 
duced the  Leonine  city,  and  had  got  posses- 
sion of  the  church  of  St.  Peter,  Paschal  cele- 
brated mass  there  with  great  solemnity  on 
Sunday,  the  30th  of  July,  and  on  the  foliow- 
ing  Tuesday,  the  1st  of  August,  crowned, 
with  the  usual  pomp  and  ceremonies,  the 
emperor  as  well  as  the  empress  Beatrix, 
who  had  attended  her  husband  in  this  expe- 
dition.' 

The  Romans,  finding  that  Alexander  had 
fled  and  forsaken  them,  thought  it  advisable 
to  accept  the  terms  offered  by  the  emperor, 
and  all  accordingly,  except  the  family  of  the 
Frangipani,  and  some  few  more,  took  the 
oath  of  allegiance  to  Frederic,  and  acknow- 
ledged Paschal  for  lawful  pope.     But  in  the 
meanwhile  the  emperor  was  obliged  by  a 
great  mortality,  or  plague,  that  broke  out  in 
his  army,  suddenly  to  quit  the  neighborhood 
of  Rome.     For  on  the  2d  day  of  August,  the 
day  after  the  coronation,  fell  a  most  violent 
shower,  and  the  sun  shining  out  with  an 
extraordinary  heat  after  the  shower,  such  a 
mortality  began  to  prevail  in  the  army  that 
the  living  were  scarce  able  to  bury  the  dead. 
Many  dropped  down  dead  while  they  were 
walking  about  seemingly   in  good  health, 
and  many  were  found  every  morning  dead 
in  their  tents.     Persons  of  distinction  fared 
no  better  than  the  common  men;  for  of  the 
same  contagion  died  Frederic   son  of  the 
late  emperor  Conrad,  duke  Guelph  son  of 
duke  William,  the  archbishop  of  Cologne, 
Alexander  bishop  of  Liege,  and  with  them 
many  other  bishops  and  princes  of  the  em- 
pire.2    Thus   the    continuator  of   Acerbus 
Morena.     For  Morena  himself  was  seized 
with  the  raging  distemper,  and  having  ob- 
tained leave  of  the  emperor  to  return  to  Lodi, 
his  native  country,  he  died  at  Siena  in  his 
way  thither.^    Frederic   finding  the  conta- 
gion continued  to  rage  with  the  same  vio- 
lence,  and  apprehending   the   loss  of  his 
whole  army,  left  Paschal  in  the  Leonine 
city,  and  decamping  from  before  Rome  on 
the  6th  of  August,  set  out  on  his  march  to 
Lombardy.     But  most  of  the  cities  in  that 
country  having,  at  the  instigation  of  the 
pope,  entered   into   a  confederacy  against 
him,  and  seized  on  the  passes  in  the  moun- 
tains, he  was  obliged  to  march  a  great  way 
about,  having  the   marquis  Malespina  for 
his  guide,  and  he  did  not  reach  Pavia  till  the 


11th  of  September.  From  Pavia  he  led  the 
small  remains  of  his  army  against  the 
Milanese,  who  were  at  the  head  of  the  con- 
spiracy, and  then  employed  in  rebuilding 
their  city,  which  he  had  levelled  with  the 
ground  five  years  before,  and  had  forbidden 
any  building  to  be  ever  raised  on  the  same  spot. 
But  the  Milanese,  meeting  him  as  he  ap- 
proached the  place,  put  the  few  troops  he 
had  with  him  to  flight,  and  obliged  him  to 
lay  aside,  for  the  present,  all  thoughts  of  in- 
terrupting them  in  the  work  they  had  begun.' 
While  Alexander  resided  at  Benevento, 
he  received  a  solemn  embassy  from  Manuel 
Comnenus,  emperor  of  Constantinople,  who 
hearing  of  the  quarrel  betwixt  him  and  the 
emperor  Frederic,  of  his  having  excommu- 
nicated and  deposed  that  prince,  sent  one  of 
the  chief  officers  of  his  court,  promising  to 
assist  his  holiness  with  afl  the  forces  of  his 
empire,  and  even  to  bring  about  an  union 
between  the  two  churches,  provided  he  con- 
ferred upon  him  the  empire  of  the  West, 
which  he  had  taken  from  Frederic.  This 
proposal  the  pope  communicated  to  the 
bishops,  cardinals,  and  Roman  noblemen 
who  were  with  him,  and  by  their  advice  re- 
turned the  following  answer  to  the  Greek 
embassador :  That  he  was  greatly  obliged  to 
his  master,  and  returned  him  his  most  sin- 
cere thanks  for  so  kind  an  offer;  that  he 
wished  for  nothing  so  much  as  to  see  a  per- 
fect harmony  restored  between  the  two 
churches;  but  as  to  what  he  desired,  it  was 
an  affair  of  the  utmost  importance,  would 
be  attended  with  insurmountable  difficulties 
and  endless  dissensions,  whereas  he  was 
bound  by  his  office  to  be  the  author  of  peace, 
and  not  of  discord.  With  this  answer  he 
dismissed  the  embassador,  refused  the  very 
rich  presents  he  had  brought  with  him,  and 
soon  after  sent  two  cardinals  to  negotiate  a 
reconciliation  between  Constantinople  and 
Rome.^  But  their  negotiations  proved  all 
unsuccessful. 

On  the  20th  of  September  of  the  present 
year  died  Paschal  of  a  cancer  after  a  few  days 
illness.  He  died  at  St.  Peter's ;  for  he  kept 
possession  of  that  church  and  the  Leonine 
city  even  after  the  retreat  of  the  emperor ; 
many  of  the  Romans  having  declared  for 
him,  and  taken  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  the 
emperor.''  In  the  year  1165  the  emperor 
caused  Charlemagne  to  be  canonized  by 
Paschal  at  the  request,  as  we  read  in  the 
emperor's  diploma,  of  Henry,  king  of  Eng- 
land."*  And  he  is  honored  in  most  places  as 
a  saint ;  but  as  he  w^as  canonized  by  an 
anti-pope,  the  Roman  church  only  connives 
at  the  honours  that  are  paid  him.  In  the 
room  of  Paschal  was  immediately  substi- 
ted,  by  those  of  his  party,  one  John,  abbot 


'  Acerb,  Moren.  ibid.    Chron.  Relchersperg. 
'  Morena  ibid.  '  Continuator  Moren. 


'  Epist.  26.  1.  2.  inter  Epist  Thomte  Cantuar. 
"^  Acta  Alexandri.  apud  Baron,  ad  ann.  1168. 
"  Ceccan.  in  Chron.  ad  ann.  1168. 
'  Apud  BoUand.  ad  Diem  28.  Jan. 


Alexander  III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


515 


The  emperor  obliged  to  leave  Italy  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1169.]     Alexandria  built.     Alexander  sets    out  from 
Benevento  on  his  return  to  Rome.     Murder  of  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury. 


of  Slrutn,  and  bishop  elect  of  Albano,  to 
■whom  they  gave  the  name  of  Calixtus  III. 
His  election  was  confirmed  by  the  emperor, 
and  he  was  acknowledged  by  all  who  had 
acknowledged  Paschal.  But  the  Romans 
soon  after  declared  again  for  Alexander, 
being  no  longer  awed  by  the  emperor,  who, 
having  lost  his  whole  army  in  Lombardy, 
was  obliged  to  hasten  back  to  Germany. 
As  his  troops  were  either  cut  in  pieces  by 
the  confederates  of  Lombardy,  or  swept  off 
by  the  plague  that  still  raged  among  them, 
he  was  forced  to  fly  in  the  disguise  of  a 
valet,  and  having  obtained  leave  of  Hubert, 
or  Humbert,  count  of  Morienne  and  Savoy, 
to  pass  through  his  territories,  he  got  thus 
disguised,  wiih  great  difficulty,  back  to  Ger- 
many. He  left  Italy  in  the  month  of  March 
of  the  present  year,  and  the  people  of  Cre- 
mona, Milan,  and  Placentia,  meeting  upon 
the  news  of  his  flight  at  a  place  called 
Rovereta,  resolved  to  build  a  city  there  and 
fortify  it,  in  order  to  stop  the  Germans  upon 
their  first  entering  Italy.  That  work  they 
began  on  the  1st  of  May  this  year,  and 
being  assisted  by  the  inhabitants  of  all  the 
neighboring  villages,  they  carried  it  on  with 
such  ardor  and  alacrity,  that,  before  a 
twelvemonth  was  at  an  end,  it  became  a 
complete  city,  and  had  no  fewer  than  fifteen 
hundred  inhabitants.  They  gave  it,  out  of 
respect  to  pope  Alexander,  the  name  of 
Alexandria.  The  inhabitants  boasted  of  the 
strength  of  the  place  :  but  the  Germans,  in 
opposition  to  them  and  by  way  of  contempt, 
called  it  Palearis,  or  "  a  fortress  of  strj\,w," 
and  it  is  known  in  Italy  to  this  day  by  the 
name  of  Alessandria  della  Paglia.' 

The  pope's  last  letters  concerning  the  af- 
fair of  Becket  are  all  dated  at  different  pla- 
ces, his  holiness  being  then  on  the  road  from 
Benevento  to  Rome,  whither  he  had  been 
invited  by  the  greater  part  of  the  citizens  and 
the  nobility.  Before  he  left  Benevento  the 
inhabitants  of  the  new  built  city  of  Alexan- 
dria sent  their  consuls,  or  chief  magistrates, 
to  subject  themselves,  their  city,  and  its  ter- 
ritory 10  the  apostolic  see,  and  to  promise 
the  payment  of  a  yearly  tribute  to  Alexan- 
der anil  his  successors  for  ever.  The  instru- 
ment of  this  donation,  as  it  is  called,  was 
signed  by  the  consuls  in  the  name  of  the  in- 
habitants, and  by  sixteen  cardinals.^  The 
pope  was  met  at  Veroli,  his  first  stage  from 
Benpvento,  by  the  niece  of  the  Greek  empe- 
ror Manuel  Comnenus,  attended  by  a  great 
number  of  Greek  bishops  and  other  persons 
of  the  first  rank  in  the  empire.  She  was  to 
be  married  to  Odo  Frangipani,  one  of  the 
chief  lords  of  Rome,  and  the  emperor  had 
desired  that  the  marriage  ceremony  might 
be  performed  by  the  pope,  who  performed  it 
accordingly  with  great  solemnity.^      Upon 


«  Acta  Alcxand.  apud  Ughel.  Italia  Sacra,  I.  4. 
>  Idem  ibid.  =■  Ceccan.  in  Chron. 


Alexander's  arrival  at  Tusculum,  the  inha- 
bitants, who  had  driven  out  Rayno,  their 
lawful  lord,  for  adhering  to  the  emperor 
Frederic,  made  a  free  gift  of  their  city  to  St. 
Peter  and  his  lawful  successors  in  the  apos- 
tolic see,  which  was  afterwards  confirmed 
by  Rayno  himself.'  As  the  emperor  had 
still  a  powerful  party  in  Rome,  Alexander 
remained  at  Tusculum  all  this  and  great  part 
of  the  following  year.  For,  from  his  letters, 
it  appears  that  he  kept  his  Easter  there, 
which,  in  1171,  fell  on  the  28th  of  March. 

At  Tusculum  Alexander  received  the 
news  of  the  death  of  the  archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury, inhumanly  murdered  in  his  own 
cathedral.  As  that  obstinate  prelate  con- 
tinued, even  after  his  reconciliation  with  the 
king,  and  his  return  to  England,  to  act  in 
the  same  arbitrary  manner  as  before,  Henry, 
who  was  then  in  Normandy,  being  informed 
of  his  furious  proceedings,  broke  out,  in  the 
transport  of  his  passion,  into  these  words : — 
"  I  am  very  unhappy  that  among  the  many 
whom  I  have  obliged  and  maintain,  there  is 
not  one  that  has  courage  enough  to  revenge 
the  affronts  I  daily  receive  from  a  turbulent 
priest."  From  these  hasty  expressions  his 
servants  concluding  that  he  really  wanted  to 
get  rid  of  the  man  who  gave  him  so  much 
uneasiness,  and  reproached  them  with  in- 
gratitude and  cowardice  in  tamely  suffering 
him  to  be  so  grossly  insulted  by  one  of  his 
subjects,  four  gentlemen  of  his  bedchamber, 
Reginald  Fitz-Urse,  William  de  Tracy, 
Hugh  de  Moreville,  and  Richard  Brilo,  re- 
solved to  make  the  archbishop  atone  with 
his  blood  for  the  trouble  he  had  already 
given  to  his  sovereign,  and  prevent  his  cre- 
ating him  any  further  uneasiness.  Pursuant 
to  this  resolution,  they  crossed  over  to  Eng- 
land, unknown  to  the  king,  at  least  without 
communicating  to  him  their  design,  and  be- 
ing there  joined  and  assisted  by  some  of 
Becket's  most  inveterate  enemies,  they  rush- 
ed into  the  cathedral,  where  he  was  assisting 
at  Vespers,  or  evening  prayers,  and  paying 
no  regard  to  the  sacredness  of  the  place,  dis- 
patched him  with  repeated  blows  at  the  high 
altar.  As  for  the  particular  circumstances 
attending  so  horrid  and  shocking  a  murder, 
some  of  them  not  commonly  known,  and  the 
resolution,  firmness,  and  constancy  truly  he- 
roic, and  Avorthy  of  a  much  better  cause, 
with  Avhich  the  archbishop  encountered 
death,  I  shall  refer  the  reader  to  the  full  de- 
tail he  will  find  of  the  whole  in  I  he  life  of 
Henry  II.  quoted  above,  and  here  only  ex- 
hibit the  portrait  of  so  famous  a  prelate  in 
the  colors  in  which  it  has  been  drawn  by 
the  noble  author  of  that  work. 

"  Thus  fell"  (these  are  his  lordship's  own 
words,  after  relating  the  inhuman  and  bar- 
barous manner  in  which  he  fell)  "  Thomas 
Becket,  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  on  the 

>  Acta  Alex.    Anonym.  Cassin. 


516 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Alexander  HI. 


Character  of  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury.  The  news  of  his  death  ;  how  received  by  the  pope  ; — [Year  of 
Christ,  1171.]  The  king  sends  embassadors  to  Rome  to  vindicate  his  innocence.  The  reception  they  met 
with. 


29th  of  December  ia  the  year  1170,  being 
the  fifty-third  of  his  age,  a  man  of  as  great 
talents  as  any  of  the  age  he  lived  in,  and  for 
courage,  fortitude,  and  intrepidity  inferior  to 
none  we  read  of  in  the  annals  of  the  church. 
As  to  his  character  in  other  respects,  every 
reader  may  judge  of  it  from  his  conduct,  a 
conduct  not  only  inconsistent  with,  but  dia- 
metrically opposite  to  that  subjection  to  the 
higher  powers  which  is  so  much  recom- 
mended to  all  in  Holy  Writ.  The  haughty 
prelate,  possessed  with  a  notion  of  the  sa- 
cerdotal and  archiepiscopal  dignity,  had,  it 
seems,  nothing  less  in  his  view,  than  to 
share  the  sovereignty  with  his  sovereign, 
and  to  make  himself,  under  his  lord  the 
pope,  as  absolute  a  monarch  over  the  clergy 
of  all  ranks  and  degrees,  as  the  king  was 
over  the  laity.  Had  he  shed  his  blood  in 
the  cause  of  God  and  religion,  the  resolu- 
tion, courage,  and  resignation  with  which 
he  suffered,  would  entitle  him  to  a  place 
among  the  most  illustrious  martyrs.  But  as 
he  laid  down,  or  rather  threw  away,  his 
life  to  maintain  the  papal  usurpations,  in 
direct  opposition  to  the  laws  of  his  country, 
and  his  duty  as  a  subject,  he  ought  rather 
to  be  looked  upon  as  a  traitor  and  a  rebel 
than  a  martyr,  the  title  with  which  Rome, 
in  whose  service  he  dfed,  has  honored  and 
distinguished  him ;  for  it  is  not  what  a  man 
suffers,  but  the  cause,  in  which  he  suffers, 
that  makes  him  a  martyr — non  martyrem 
facit  psena,  sed  causa.  Had  Becket  coolly 
thought  it  his  duty  to  support,  even  at  the 
expense  of  his  life,  the  exorbitant  power 
claimed  by  Rome,  which  seems  altogether 
incredible  in  a  man  of  his  understanding, 
that  would  indeed  excuse  his  opposing  all 
means  calculated  to  reduce  that  power.  But 
what  can  be  alleged  to  justify  or  excuse  the 
methods  he  pursued  in  his  opposition,  the 
cunning  and  falsity  with  which  he  acted  on 
several  occasions,  as  we  have  seen,  his 
haughty  and  insolent  behavior  not  only  to 
his  brethren,  but  to  his  sovereign,  and  the 
spirit  of  revenge,  scarce  governable  by  the 
pope  himself,  which  he  betrayed  throughout 
the  course  of  this  long  dispute  ?" 

The  death  of  the  archbishop  was  first  no- 
tified to  the  pope  by  the  French  king,  Lewis 
VII.,  who  no  sooner  heard  of  it  than  he  dis- 
patched messengers  to  Rome  with  letters 
containing  an  account  of  so  barbarous  a 
murder  with  all  its  aggravating  circum- 
stances, and  exciting  his  holiness  to  draw 
the  sword  of  St.  Peter  and  revenge  it.  Alex- 
ander was  so  affected  with  it,  that,  shutting 
himself  up  for  the  space  of  near  eight  days, 
he  would  transact  no  business,  nor  admit 
any  person  whatever  to  his  presence  except 
his  domestics.  William,  archbishop  of  Sens, 
the  pope's  legate  in  France,  and  Thibaut, 
or  Theobald,  earl  of  Blois,  wrote  much  to 
the  same  purpose  as  the  king,  being  both 


most  zealously  attached  to  Becket  and  his 
cause.'  On  the  other  hand  Arnold,  bishop 
of  Lizieux,  wrote  strongly  in  favor  of  the 
king,  assuring  the  pope  that  the  murder 
was  committed  altogether  unknown  to  him; 
that  far  from  commanding  or  approving  so 
wicked  an  attempt,  he  expressed  the  greatest 
sorrow  when  he  was  informed  of  it,  betook 
himself  to  his  room,  and  there,  abstaining 
for  the  space  of  three  days  from  all  nourish- 
ment, would  admit  none  to  comfort  him; 
insomuch  that  they  began  to  apprehend  that 
the  death  of  the  archbishop  would  be  the 
occasion  of  his.  He  closed  his  letter  with 
entreating  his  holiness  to  punish  the  guilty 
according  to  the  enormity  of  their  crime,  but 
to  spare  the  king,  who,  he  assures  him,  was 
free  from  all  guilt.^  This  letter  was  written 
in  an  assembly  of  bishops,  and  signed  by  all 
who  were  present. 

At  the  same  time  the  king,  not  doubting 
but  his  enemies  would  charge  the  death  of 
the  archbishop  upon  him,  dispatched  a 
solemn  embassy  to  the  pope  to  vindicate  his 
innocence,  and  divert  his  holiness  from  pro- 
ceeding, at  their  instigation,  to  any  censures 
against  him  or  his  kingdom.  The  embassa- 
dors with  great  difficulty  got,  some  sooner, 
some  later,  to  Tusculum,  having  been 
obliged  to  take  different  routs  after  their 
entering  Italy,  and  to  travel  over  rocks  and 
mountains  at  a  distance  from  the  highway, 
the  public  roads  being  all  strictly  guarded 
by  the  imperialists  under  the  command  of 
count  Macarius,  who  suffered  none  to  pass 
that  were  going  to  the  pope  or  to  Rome. 
The  embassadors,  sparing  no  fatigue,  had 
travelled  night  and  day,  and  exposed  them- 
selves to  the  greatest  dangers,  in  order  to 
reach  Tusculum  before  Maundy  Thursday, 
as  they  apprehended  that  the  pope  would  on 
that  day  (the  day  on  Avhich  excommunica- 
tions were  then,  as  they  still  are,  thundered 
out)  excommunicate  the  king,  if  they  arrived 
not  in  time  to  prevent  it.  But  upon  their 
arrival  they  found  the  pope  so  prejudiced 
against  the  king,  that  he  would  neither  see 
nor  hear  them.  However,  he  was  in  the 
end  with  great  difficulty  prevailed  upon  by 
the  king's  friends  in  the  college  of  cardinals 
to  grant  an  audience  to  two  of  them,  the 
abbot  Vallace  and  the  archdeacon  of  Lizieux, 
as  less  suspected  of  partiality  to  the  king 
than  the  rest.  They  were  heard  in  a  full 
consistory,  but  when  they  mentioned  the 
king  in  saluting  the  pope  in  his  name,  the 
whole  assembly  cried  out,  "  forbear,  forbear," 
as  struck  with  horror  at  hearing  his  name, 
and  they  were  immediately  dismissed.  How- 
ever, they  obtained,  by  means  of  the  cardi- 
nals in  the  king's  interest,  a  private  audience 
of  his  holiness  in  the  evening  of  the  same 
day,  when   they  ingenuously   owned  that 


Epist.  78,  81,  82. 1.  5. 


a  Epist.  79. 


Alexander  III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


517 


The  pope  resolved  to  excommunicate  the  king.     By  what  means  diverted  from  it.     Two  legates  a  Latere  sent 
into  Normandy.     Their  first  interview  with  the  king. 


from  some  hasty  expressions,  dropt  by  thei 
king  in  his  wrath,  the  assassins  might  have 
concluded  that  he  wanted  to  be  delivered 
from  one  who  created  him  so  much  uneasi- 
ness, but  assured  his  holiness,  that  their 
master  was  no  otherwise  accessary  to  his 
death.  At  the  same  time  they  confirmed  all 
the  bishop  of  Lizieux  had  said  in  his  letter. 
The  same  things  they  repeated  in  a  full  con- 
sistory. But  in  spite  of  all  their  remon- 
strances, of  all  they  could  offer  to  vindicate 
the  king's  innocence,  it  was  resolved  by  a 
great  majority  in  the  consistory,  that  on  the 
approaching  Thursday  the  sentence  of  ex- 
communication should  be  solemnly  pro- 
nounced against  the  king  by  name,  and  that 
all  his  dominions  in  France  as  well  as  in 
England  should  be  put  under  an  interdict. 
This  resolution  was  privately  communicated 
by  some  of  the  king's  friends  in  the  consis- 
tory to  the  English  embassadors,  who,  dread- 
ing the  consequences  that  would  attend  it  if 
carried  into  execution,  left  nothing  in  their 
power  unattempted  to  divert  the  pope  from 
proceeding  to  such  extremities.  But  their 
endeavors  proving  all  ineffectual,  they  re- 
solved, after  much  consultation  among  them- 
selves, to  save  the  king  and  the  kingdom  at 
their  own  peril,  pretending  that  they  had 
orders  from  their  master  to  swear  in  his 
name,  that  in  this  affair  he  would  stand  to 
the  judgment  of  his  holiness,  and  would 
personally  take  that  oath,  if  his  holiness  re- 
quired him  to  take  it.  This  they  imparted 
to  such  of  the  cardinals  as  they  could  con- 
fide in,  who,  highly  approving  of  it,  imme- 
diately notified  the  pretended  order  to  the 
pope;  and  a  consistory  being  thereupon 
called,  it  was  determined,  that  the  embassa- 
dors should  take  that  oath,  and  that  the  sen- 
tence of  excommunication  against  the  king, 
and  of  interdict  against  the  kingdom,  should 
be  suspended  for  the  present.  The  pope 
and  the  cardinals  well  knew,  that  they 
should  reap  much  greater  advantages  from 
the  king's  submitting  to  their  judgment, 
than  from  any  sentence  they  could  thunder 
out  against  him  or  his  kingdom  ;  and  there- 
fore upon  the  embassadors  taking  the  above 
mentioned  oath  in  the  king's  name,  which 
they  did  in  the  presence  of  the  pope  and  all 
the  cardinals,  the  pope,  sparing  the  king  and 
the  kingdom,  contented  himself  with  so- 
lemnly excommunicating  all,  who  had  been 
any  ways  concerned  in,  or  had  consented  to 
the  death  of  the  archbishop,  and  all  who 
should  knowingly  receive  them  into  their 
territories,  or  afford  them  any  relief  or  assis- 
tance whatever.'  This,  sentence  was  pro- 
nounced on  Maundy  Thursday,  which  in 
the  present  year,  1171,  fell  on  the  25th  of 
March. 

The  bishops  of  Worcester  and  Evreux, 
two  of  the  embassadors  (for  they  were  in  all 


EpiBt.  83.  I.  5.    See  the  Life  of  Henry  II. 


nine)   did    not   reach    Tusculum   till   after 
Easter,  having  been  obliged  to  travel  a  great 
way  about  to  avoid  the  Germans  that  guarded 
the  roads.     They  had  a  public  audience  of 
the  pope  soon  after  their  arrival,  and  upon 
their  confirming  what  the  others  had  said  to 
exculpate  the  king,  the  pope  resolved,  with 
the  advice  of  the   cardinals,  to   send    two 
legates  a  Latere  into  Normandy,  with  full 
power  to  absolve  the  king  from  any  censure 
he  might  have  incurred  if  they  found  him 
innocent  of  the  murder;  and  if  guilty,  to 
proceed  to  the  censures  of^  the  church  against 
him  and  his  kingdom.     The  persons  chosen 
for  this   legation   were    Theodine   cardinal 
presbyter  of  St.  Vitalis,  and  Albert  cardinal 
presbyter  of  St.  Lawrence  in  Lucina,  at  this 
time  chancellor  of  the  holy  Roman  church, 
and  afterwards  raised  to  the  apostolic  see 
under  the  name   of  Gregory  VIII.      The 
legates  arrived  early  next  year  in  Normandy, 
and  the  king,  who  was  then  engaged  in  the 
conquest  of  Ireland,  no  sooner  heard  of  their 
arrival  than  he  hastened  back  to  England, 
and  from  thence  to  Normandy,  where  he  met 
the  legates  at  a  place  called  Gorne,  and  was 
received  by  them  with  all  possible  marks  of 
respect  and  esteem,  nay,  and  with  the  kiss 
of  peace.     The  next  day    they   proceeded 
together  to  Savigni,  where  the  king  had  ap- 
pointed the  archbishop  of  Rouen,  and  all  the 
other  bishops  as  well  as  barons  to  meet  him. 
At  this  assembly  the  legates,  in   the  first 
place,  required  the  king  to  take  the  oath  that 
his  emba.ssadors  had  taken  in  his  name  at 
Tusculum.     The  embassadors  had  writ  lo 
the  king  to  acquaint  him  with  the  oath  they 
had  taken,  and  to  beg  he  would  excuse  their 
taking  it,  as  they  could  by  no  other  means 
divert  the  pope  from  excommunicating  him, 
and  interdicting  all  his  dominions.     Whe- 
ther the  king  approved  of  what  they  had 
done  we  know  not.     But  at  this  assembly 
he  peremptorily  refused  to  take  that  oath, 
and  finding  that  the  legates  as  peremptorily 
insisted  upon  his  taking  it,  he  abruptly  left 
the  assembly,  saying,  he  would  return  to 
Ireland,  whither  he  was  called  by  affairs 
of  the   greatest   importance.     The  legates, 
alarmed  at  his  sudden  departure,  and  want- 
ing to  bring  the  affair,  upon  which  they 
were  sent,  to  a  happy  issue,  applied  to  the 
bishops  of  Lizieux  and  Salisbury,  and  the 
archdeacon  of  Poitiers,  in  whom  they  knew 
the  king  entirely  confided;  and  he  was  by 
them  prevailed  upon  to  suspend  his  return 
to  Ireland,  and  meet  the  legates  again.     He 
met  ihem  accordingly  at  Avranches  ;  and  at 
this  second  meeting  there  appeared  a  change 
in  his  whole  conduct  as  remarkable  as  it 
was  unaccountable,  such  a  change  as  sur- 
prized the  legates  themselves,  and  all  the 
bishops  and     barons   who    were    present. 
For,  tamely  complying  with  every  thing  the 
legates  required  of  him,  he  not  only  swore 
upon  the  gospels,  at  their  request,  that  he 
2  T 


518 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


Alexander  HI, 


The  king  is  absolved  by  the  legates.    Becket  canonized  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1173.] 


had  neither  commanded  the  death  of  the 
archbishop,  nor  consented  to  it,  nor  approved 
of  it,  but  took,  without  the  least  hesitation, 
without  betraying  the  least  unwillingness, 
the  very  oath,  which  he  had  rejected  with 
the  utmost  indignation  but  a  few  days  be- 
fore, namely,  that  he  would  perform  what 
penance  soever  the  legates  should  impose 
upon  him,  and  give  them  what  satisfaction 
they  should  think  fit  to  require. 

As  Becket  lost  his  life  in  the  cause  of 
Rome,  the  legates,  availing  themselves  of 
the  present  disposition  of  the  king  to  make 
him  pay  dear  for  the  blood  of  their  martyr, 
imposed  upon  the  penitent  prince,  now  at 
their  mercy,  the  following  penance,  than 
which  they  could  scarce  have  imposed  one 
heavier,  had  he  owned  himself  guilty  of  the 
crime,  of  which  they  had  made  him  swear 
he  was  innocent.  I.  That  he  should  main- 
tain, at  his  own  expense,  for  the  space  of  a 
twelve  month,  two  hundred  men,  to  be  em- 
ployed against  the  infidels  in  the  Holy  Land, 
and  that  the  sum  necessary  for  that  purpose 
should  be  settled  by  the  knights  templars.  II. 
That  he  should  take  the  cross  at  Christmas 
next  ensuing,  should  go  in  person  to  the  Holy 
Land,  should  serve  there  three  years,  unless 
dispensed  with  by  the  pope.  III.  That  he 
should  abolish  all  the  evil  customs  that  had 
been  introduced  into  th^  church  in  his  time. 
IV.  That  appeals  should  be  made  freely  to 
the  pope  in  ecclesiastical  causes ;  that  the  king 
should  neither  hinder  them  himself  nor  per- 
mit others  to  hinder  them;  but  if  any  should 
be  suspected  of  having  evil  designs  against 
the  king  or  the  kingdom,  they  should  give 
security  before  they  departed  out  of  his  domi- 
nions. V.  That  he  should  never  forsake  pope 
Alexander  nor  his  lawful  successors,  so  long 
as  they  behaved  towards  him  as  a  catholic 
king.  And,  lastly,  that  he  should  make  full 
restitution  of  all  the  possessions  enjoyed  by 
the  church  of  Canterbury  a  twelvemonth 
before  the  archbishop  incurred  his  displea- 
sure; should  receive  into  favor  all  the  arch- 
bishop's friends,  the  laity  of  both  sexes,  as 
well  as  the  clergy,  and  restore  to  them 
whatever  they  had  forfeited  on  his  account. 
These  articles  were  all  agreed  to  by  the 
king,  and  he  not  only  bound  himself  by  a 
solemn  oath  upon  the  Holy  Gospels  to  ob- 
serve them,  but  obliged  king  Henry,  his 
son,  to  take  the  same  oaih,  and  promise  to 
fulfil  the  enjoined  penance,  so  far  as  it  was 
not  personal,  if  he  himself  should  be  pre- 
vented by  death  from  completing  it.  And 
now  the  legates,  highly  satisfied  with  the 
behavior  of  the  king,  absolved  him  from  the 
censures  he  was  supposed  to  have  incurred 
by  being  in  some  degree  accessory  to  the 
death  of  the  archbishop.  All  this  happened 
on  th*  Sunday  preceding  the  festival  of  the 
Ascension,  1172,  and  the  king,  as  well  as 
his  son,  renewed  the  same  oath  and  the 
same  promises  in  a  council  of  all  the  bi- 


shops and  abbots  of  Normandy,  assembled 
at  Avranches,  on  the  27th  of  September  of 
the  present  year.'  It  is  to  be  observed  that 
the  king  only  promised  to  abolish  the  un- 
lawful customs  that  had  been  introduced  in 
his  time,  which  no  ways  affected  the  cus- 
toms that  were  the  original  cause  of  the 
quarrel  between  the  archbishop  and  him. 
For  these  customs  had  obtained  long  before 
he  came  to  the  crown,  and  were  only  revived 
and  confirmed  in  his  reign.  Indeed  the  im- 
portant article  of  appeals,  to  which  Rome 
had,  till  this  time,  but  a  very  precarious 
title,  was  given  up;  so  that  in  the  end,  the 
pope  gained  more,  as  has  been  observed  by 
the  learned  author  of  King  Henry's  Life,  by 
the  death  of  Becket,  than  he  probably  would 
have  done  by  all  the  attempts  of  his  life. 

The  affair  being  thus  ended,  the  legates, 
entirely  satisfied  with  the  behavior  of  the 
king,  returned  triumphant  to  Rome,  carry- 
ing with  them  part  of  the  brains  of  their  new 
martyr  that  was  scattered  over  the  floor  of 
the  church,  and  his  bloody  cassoc,  which  are 
supposed  to  be  still  preserved,  and  on  the 
day  of  his  festival  are  exposed  to  public 
view  in  the  basilic  of  St.  Mary  the  Greater, 
at  Rome.  He  had  deserved  loo  well  of  the 
church,  or  rather  of  the  court,  of  Rome,  not 
to  be  honored  with  a  place  in  their  calendar. 
To  make  the  world  therefore  believe  that  the 
cause  of  that  court  was  the  cause  of  God, 
miracles  without  number,  more  stupendous 
than  any  wrought  by  our  Savior  or  the 
apostles,  were  said  and  believed  to  be  daily 
wrought  at  the  tomb  of  the  new  martyr.  Of 
these  miracles  the  legates  gave  the  pope  a 
particular  account  on  their  return  from  Nor- 
mandy, and  upon  their  report,  though  it  was 
but  a  hearsay  report,  for  they  never  set  foot 
in  England,  the  pope,  being  then  at  Segni, 
assembled  all  the  bishops  and  abbots  of  Cam- 
pania, and  with  their  consent  and  approba- 
tion, declared  Thomas,  archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury, worthy  of  a  place  in  the  calendar, 
said  mass  in  his  honor  on  the  21st  of  Feb- 
ruary, and  ordered  his  festival  to  be  kept 
yearly  on  the  29th  of  December,  the  day  of 
his  death.  On  that  day  it  is  still  kept  with 
great  solemnity  at  Rome,  and  the  cardinals, 
with  all  who  belong  to  the  congregation  of 
the  ecclesiastical  immunity,  assist  at  high 
mass  in  the  church  of  the  English  College 
dedicated  to  St.  Thomas  of  Canterbury, 
whose  picture  is  there  to  be  seen  over  the 
high  altar  with  a  sabre  stuck  in  the  crown 
of  his  head.  The  canonization  of  the  new 
saint,  the  pope  notified  to  the  clergy  of  Can- 
terbury by  a  private  letter,  and  to  the  whole 
church  by  a  letter  addressed  to  all  the  faith- 
ful, both  dated  at  Segni  the  12th  of  March 
of  the  present  year.^ 

The  emperor  Frederic  continued,  during 
this  long  contest  between  the  pope  and  the 


»  Epist.  88,  89. 1.  5.       .a  See  the  life  of  Henry  11. 


Alexander  III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


519 


The  emperor  besieges  Alexandria,  but  is  obliged  to  raise  the  siege  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  1174.]  His  army  defeat- 
ed;—[Year  of  Christ,  1175]  Concludes  a  peace  with  the  pope ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1176.]  Congress  held 
at  Venice;— [Year  of  Christ,  1177.] 


king  of  England,  to  oppose  Alexander  to  the 
utmost  of  his  power.  In  Germany,  Guido 
of  Creraa,  or  Paschal  III.,  was  almost,  uni- 
versally acknowledged  for  lawful  pope,  and 
upon  his  death  in  1168,  the  abbot  of  Struma, 
under  the  name  of  Calixtus  III.  But  on  the 
other  hand  the  allied  cities  of  Lombardy 
continued  to  adhere,  with  great  steadiness, 
to  Alexander.  Frederic  therefore,  having  in 
1174  spent  the  whole  year  in  military  pre- 
parations, entered  Lombardy  at  the  head  of 
a  powerful  army,  in  the  latter  end  of  that  or 
the  beginning  of  the  following  year,  with  a 
design  to  reduce  those  cities,  and  march  a 
second  time  from  Lombardy  to  Rome.  He 
began  with  the  siege  of  the  new-built  city  of 
Alexandria.  But  so  vigorous  was  the  op- 
position he  met  with  from  the  inhabitants, 
that  he  was  obliged  after  four  months  to 
abandon  the  enterprise.  We  are  told,  that 
the  emperor  having  treacherously  attacked 
the  city,  notwithstanding  the  truce  he  had 
concluded  with  the  besieged,  during  the  holy 
week,  he  was  repulsed  with  great  slaughter; 
and  that  St.  Peter,  to  whom  they  had  made 
a  free  gift  of  their  city,  was  seen  heading 
them  upon  a  while  horse,  probably  the  same 
white  horse  upon  which  Pollux  was  seen 
many  ages  before  heading  the  Romans.  The 
emperor  despairing,  after  this  check,  to  re- 
duce the  place,  raised  the  siege  on  Easter- 
day,  and  retired  with  his  army  to  Pavia.  As 
the  army  of  the  Lombards,  far  more  nu- 
merous than  his,  was  ready  to  fall  upon 
him,  he  pretended  to  be  desirous  of  nego- 
tiating a  reconciliation  with  the  pope,  and 
sent  embassadors  with  some  proposals  to  be 
examined  by  the  cardinals,  begging  that 
should  they  be  approved  of,  legates  might 
be  sent  to  treat  of  an  entire  agreement  be- 
tween the  church  and  the  empire.  The 
pope  suspected  the  sincerity  of  the  emperor, 
as  if  he  only  wanted  to  extricate  himself  out 
of  his  present  difficulties.  However,  he  sent 
the  bishops  of  Porto  and  Oslia  with  the  car- 
dinal of  St.  Peter  ad  Vincula  to  treat  with 
him  as  legates  of  the  apostolic  see,  and  in 
the  mean  time  ordered  the  Lombards  to  ab- 
stain from  all  hostilities.  The  emperor  re- 
ceived the  legates  with  all  possible  marks  of 
respect ;  but  as  he  only  wanted  to  gain  time, 
he  soon  broke  off  the  treaty,  and  being  rein- 
forced with  fresh  supplies  from  Germany, 
he  fell  unexpectedly  upon  the  allied  army. 
The  combat  was  most  obstinate  and  lasted 
many  hours,  great  numbers  falling,  and 
among  them  persons  of  the  first  rank,  on 
both  sides.  At  last  victory  declared  for  the 
allies;  the  emperor's  army  was  forced  to 
give  way,  and  the  emperor  himself  obliged 
to  retire,  with  the  remains  of  his  broken 
forces,  to  Modena. 

Frederic  now  despairing  of  being  ever 
able  to  subdue  the  rebellious  Lombards,  be- 
gan seriously  to  think  of  concluding  a  peace 


with  the  pope.  With  that  view  he  sent 
three  of  the  chief  men  of  the  empire,  name- 
ly, the  bishop  of  Magdeburg,  the  archbishop 
of  Mentz,  and  the  bishop  elect  of  Worms, 
to  treat  with  the  pope,  who  then  resided  at 
Anagni,  about  an  agreement  between  the 
church  and  the  empire.  They  had  several 
conferences  with  the  pope  and  his  ministers, 
and  great  disputes  arose ;  but  in  the  end  the 
following  terms  were  agreed  upon  :  1.  That 
the  emperor  should  grant  peace  to  pope 
Alexander,  and  acknowledge  him  for  law- 
ful pope,  as  well  as  his  successors  lawfully 
elected.  2.  That  he  should  restore  to  him 
the  prefecture  of  the  city,  and  the  territories 
of  the  countess  Mathilda  to  the  Roman 
church.  3.  That  he  should  make  full  resti- 
tution of  all  the  lands  and  demesnes  of  the 
Roman  church  that  he  had  seized,  and 
cause,  so  far  as  in  him  lay,  those  to  be  re- 
stored that  had  been  seized  by  others.  Last- 
ly, that  the  allied  cities  of  Lombardy,  the 
king  of  Sicily,  and  all  who  had  adhered  to 
the  pope,  should  be  included  in  this  treaty  ; 
that  a  congress  should  be  held  to  settle  all 
other  points  in  dispute,  and  a  safe  conduct 
be  granted  to  the  ministers  of  the  different 
powers  resorting  to  it. 

These  articles  being  agreed  and  sworn  to 
by  the  envoys  of  Frederic,  the  pope  resolved 
to  assist  in  person  at  the  congress,  and  leav- 
ing, with  that  view,  Anagni,  he  repaired 
first  to  Monte  Gargano,  and  being  met  at  a 
small  distance  from  that  place  by  the  king 
of  Sicily,  he  was  supplied  by  him  with  a 
squadron  of  thirteen  galleys  to  convey  him 
to  Venice.  He  arrived  in  that  city  on  the 
23d  of  March  1 177,  and  being  there  received 
with  all  possible  marks  of  respect  and  es- 
teem, he  appointed  the  deputies  of  the  Lom- 
bard cities  to  meet  him  at  Ferrara  on  Pas- 
sion-Sunday, which,  in  1177,  fell  on  the 
10th  of  April.  They  met  him  accordingly  at 
the  time  and  place  appointed,  and  the  city 
of  Venice  was  by  all  pitched  upon  for  the 
place  of  the  congress,  but  upon  condition 
that  the  doge  and  the  people  should  swear 
that  they  would  not  suflTer  the  emperor  to 
come  into  the  city  without  the  pope's  leave, 
till  the  peace  was  firmly  established.  As 
the  chief  articles  had  been  agreed  upon  at 
Anagni,  every  thing  was  soon  settled  to  the 
entire  satisfaction  of  the  contending  parties. 
Some  disputes  only  arose  between  the  min- 
isters of  the  emperor  and  the  Lombard  de- 
puties concerning  the  lands  they  held  of  the 
empire.  But  the  points  in  dispute  were 
left,  for  the  present,  undetermined,  and  a  six 
years'  truce  was  granted  to  the  Lombards, 
that  they  might,  during  that  time,  inquire 
into  the  grounds  of  the  emperor's  claims. 
At  the  same  time,  a  fifteen  years'  peace  was 
concluded  between  the  emperor  and  the  king 
of  Sicily. 

To  these  articles  the  emperor's  ministers 


520 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Alexander  HI. 


The  pope  and  the  emperor  meet.  The  pope  holds  a  co\incil  at  Venice.  The  pope's  treading  on  the  emperor's 
neck  a  mere  ("able  ;  and  his  granting  the  dominion  of  the  Adriatic  sea  to  the  Venetians.  Messenger  sent  to 
the  pope  by  presbyter  John,  king  of  India. 


swore  by  his  order,  in  his  name;  and  Fre- 
deric being  thereupon  invited  to  Venice,  he 
landed  there  on  the  24th  of  July,  and  on  the 
same  day  the  pope  sent  some  cardinals  to 
receive  his  abjuration  of  the  schism,  and  ab- 
solve him  from  all  the  anathemas  that  had 
been  thundered  out  against  him.  Being 
thus  absolved  he  repaired  the  same  day  to 
the  church  of  St.  Mark,  where  the  pope 
waited  for  him,  attended  by  all  the  clergy 
and  all  the  nobility,  at  the  church  door.  As 
he  approached  the  pope  he  quitted  the  im- 
perial mantle,  and  prostrating  himself  upon 
the  ground  kissed  his  holiness'  foot.  The 
pope  raised  him,  gave  him  the  kiss  of  peace, 
and  the  emperor  holding  the  pope's  right 
hand,  they  both  walked  into  the  church 
quite  up  to  the  high  altar,  where  the  pope 
gave  him  his  benediction  a  second  time. 
Andreas  Dandulus,  doge  of  Venice,  tells 
us,  that  the  pope  walked  up  to  the  high  al- 
tar between  the  emperor  and  the  duke  or 
doge.'  The  next  day  the  pope  celebrated 
mass  with  great  solemnity,  being  the  2.5th 
of  July,  the  festival  of  St.  James  the  apostle, 
and  the  emperor  received,  as  some  authors 
tell  us,  the  sacrament  at  the  pope's  hand. 
When  divine  service  was  over  the  emperor 
attended  his  holiness  to, his  horse,  and  held 
the  stirrup  while  he  mounted. 

The  pope,  before  he  left  Venice,  held  a 
council,  at  which  were  present  many  Ger- 
man and  great  numbers  of  Italian  bishops. 
The  pope  presided  in  person,  the  emperor 
sitting  by  him ;  and  by  this  assembly  the  ar- 
ticles of  the  late  agreement  were  all  con- 
firmed, the  sentence  of  excommunication 
was  solemnly  pronounced  against  such  as 
did  not  acknowledge  Alexander,  and  on  the 
27th  of  September  the  treaty  was  signed 
and  sealed  by  the  pope,  the  emperor,  the 
cardinals,  and  all  the  German  princes  who 
were  present.  A  few  days  after  the  em- 
peror, taking  leave  of  the  pope,  retired  to 
Ravenna,  and  from  thence  to  Cesena,  but 
left  the  archbishop  of  Mentz  at  the  pope's 
court  to  settle  some  points  in  dispute  relative 
to  the  territories  of  the  countess  Mathilda, 
and  to  cause  full  restitution  to  be  made  to 
the.  Roman  church  of  all  the  lands,  rights, 
and  privileges  she  had  enjoyed  before  the 
schism.  The  pope  left  Venice  about  the 
middle  of  October,  and  being  attended  by 
the  galleys  of  the  republic  to  Siponlo,  in 
Apulia,  he  pursued  his  journey  from  thence, 
by  land,  to  Anagni,  and  arrived  there  on  the 
14th  of  December  of  the  present  year. 

We  are  told  by  Fortunatus  Ulmus,  and 
some  other  writers,  who  flourished  long 
after  these  times,  that  upon  the  emperor's 
prostrating  himself  before  the  pope,  his  holi- 
ness set  his  foot  upon  his  neck,  repeating 
the  words  of  the  ninety-first  Psalm,  "  Thou 
shah  tread  upon  the  lion  and  the  adder ;  the 

» In  Chron.  ad  ann.  1177.' 


lion  and  the  dragon  shalt  thou  trample  un- 
der thy  feet ;"  and  that  the  emperor  an- 
swering, "Not  to  you,  but  to  Peter,"  the 
pope  replied,  "  To  me  and  to  Peter."  But 
as  no  notice  is  taken  of  so  very  remarkable  a 
circumstance,  either  by  the  author  of  the 
"Acts  of  Alexander,"  or  by  Romuald, 
archbisho[)  ol  Salerno,  who  were  both  pre- 
sent, and  have  given  us  a  minute  account 
of  every  thing  that  passed  on  this  occasion, 
that  story,  though  for  some  ages  credited,  is 
now  universally  exploded  as  entirely  fabu- 
lous. What  we  read  in  some  Venetian 
writers  is  no  less  romantic,  namely,  that  on 
this  occasion  Alexander  granted  to  that  re- 
public the  dominion  of  the  Adriatic  sea. 
For  it  does  not  appear  that  any  pope  has,  to 
this  day,  ever  claimed  the  dominion  of  that 
or  any  other  sea  whatever,  or  the  power  of 
disposing  of  any  sea.  The  famous  father, 
Paul,  in  his  treatise  of  the  dominion  of  the 
Adriatic  sea,  endeavors  to  prove  that  the 
Venetians  are  lords  of  that  gulf,  not  by  the 
grant  of  any  pope  or  emperor,  but  because 
they  seized  on  it  when  abandoned  by  the 
emperors  of  the  West,  and  all  other  Chris- 
tian powers.  But  nothing  is  more  certain 
in  history  than  that  the  Norman  princes, 
masters  of  the  present  kingdom  of  Naples 
and  Sicily,  kept  constantly  fleets  in  the  poiis 
of  the  Adriatic,  as  lords  of  that  sea,  quite 
undisturbed  by  the  Venetians,  and  that  it 
was  not  till  the  times  of  the  kings  of  the  Arra- 
gon  family,  that  the  Venetians,  being  become 
more  powerful  at  sea  than  those  princes, 
began  to  claim  the  dominion  of  the  gulf,  and 
not  to  suffer  any  armed  vessels  to  enter  it, 
nor  any  commerce  to  be  carried  on  in  that 
sea  without  their  permission.' 

While  Alexander  was  still  at  Venice,  ar- 
rived in  that  city  one  Philip,  a  physician, 
who  had  travelled  into  the  East,  and  in- 
formed the  pope  that  in  those  parts  reigned 
a  powerful  prince,  who  was  a  priest  or  a 
presbyter,  but  a  Nestorian ;  that  he  pos- 
sessed very  extensive  dominions  ;  and  being 
desirous  that  he  and  his  subjects  should  hold 
and  profess  no  other  doctrine  but  that  which 
was  held  and  professed  by  the  apostolic  see, 
he  had  commissioned  him  to  beg  of  his  holi- 
ness a  church  in  Rome,  with  an  habitation 
for  such  of  his  subjects  as  he  should  send, 
from  time  to  time,  to  reside  there,  in  order  to 
learn,  upon  the  spot,  the  doctrines  as  well 
as  the  practices  of  the  Roman  church,  and 
instruct  their  countrymen  on  their  return 
home.  Alexander  immediately  sent  Philip 
back  with  a  letter  to  the  king,  dated  at  Ri- 
alto  the  27th  of  October,  wherein  he  tells 
him  that  Philip,  whom  he  sends  with  the 
character  of  his  legate,  will  instruct  him  in 
the  more  material  points,  and  that  he  has 
already  allotted  a  church  and  a  proper  habi- 
tation for  the  reception  of  those  whom  he 


>  Giannoni  Hist.  Civil,  di  Napoli.  1.  13.  c.  1.  sect.  1. 


Alexander  III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


531 


Presbyter  John's  kingdom;  where  situated.     Alexander  returns  to  Rome  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1178,]     The  anti 
pope  Calixtus  III.  submits  to  Alexander.     Landus,  the  fourth  anti-pope,  is  taken  and  confined  for  life. 


shall  be  pleased  to  send  to  Rome.  Tlie  di- 
rection of  the  letter  was,  "  Pope  Alexander 
to  his  beloved  son,  Presbyter  John,  the  illus- 
trious and  magnificent  king  of  the  Indians." 

Baronius  supposes  Presbyter  John,  or  as 
we  call  him,  Prester  John,  to  have  reigned 
in  Abyssinia  or  Ethiopia.  But  as  these 
are  provinces  of  Africa,  the  pope  would  not 
have  styled  him  king  of  the  Indians  or  of 
India,  which  is  part  of  Asia,  had  he  reigned 
in  Africa.  The  more  judicious  among  our 
modern  travellers  will  have  Prester  John  to 
have  been  king  of  the  present  kingdom  of 
Tanchut,  called  by  the  Tartars  "  Barantola," 
by  the  Turks  "Boratai,"  and  by  the  inha- 
bitanisf  "  Lassa."  The  names  of  "  Pre- 
tejanne,  Pretejannus,  and  Prester  John," 
are  corruptions  of  the  two  Latin  words 
"  Presbyter  Joannes."  William  of  Tripoli 
informs  us  that,  in  1098,  one  Choires  was 
"chain"  or  sovereign  of  the  most  eastern 
parts  of  Asia,  and  that  upon  his  death  a 
presbyter,  named  John,  invaded  his  king- 
dom, and  subdued  it.  The  presbyter,  adds 
JXangius,  had  a  son  named  David,  who  suc- 
ceeded him ;  but  the  Tartars,  provoked  at 
his  laying  heavier  burdens  upon  them  than 
they  could  bear,  revolted  and  murdered  him 
with  all  his  family,  except  one  daughter. 
The  daughter  was  afterwards  married  to 
Cyngis,  cham  or  king  of  the  country  which 
her  father  and  grandfather  had  held  ;  and 
from  her  were  descended  the  chams,  who 
were  lords  of  that  country  in  1270,  when 
Paulus  Marcus  Venetus  visited  those  parts. 
For  speaking  of  the  kingdom  of  Tartary, 
"  there  reigned,"  says  he,  "that  great  "king 
famous  all  over  the  world,  and  commonly 
known  by  the  name  of  Presbyter  John.  But, 
at  present,  that  province  pays  tribute  to  the 
grand  cham  of  Tartary,  and  is  governed  by  a 
king  descended  from  the  presbyter,'"  namely, 
by  his  granddaughter,  the  rest  of  his  family 
having  been  all  cut  ofl'  by  the  Tartars. 

Alexander  returned,  as  has  been  said,  from 
Venice  to  Anagni  on  the  14th  of  December 

1 177,  and  the  Romans  of  the  imperial  party 
being  now  abandoned  by  the  emperor,  and 
no  longer  in  a  condition  to  oppose  him,  he 
returned  to  Rome,  and  entered  that  city,  in 
a  kind  of  triumph,  on  the  12th  of  March 

1 178,  being  attended  by  the  clergy  in  a  body, 
by  the  senate,  by  all  the  nobility,  and  vast 
crowds  of  people  flocking  from  all  parts,  to 
congratulate  him  upon  his  return,  and  the 
peace  he  had  happily  concluded  between  the 
church  and  the  empire.  On  the  19th  of  the 
same  month,  that  fell  on  a  Sunday,  the 
fourth  Sunday  in  Lent,  he  assisted  at  a  so- 
lemn procession,  and  was  on  Easter-day 
crowned  a  second  time  with  great  solemni- 
ty.^ For  in  those  days  it  was  customary  for 
the  popes  to  be  crowned  not  only  upon  their 


'  Paul.  Venet.  I.  i.  c.  64.    Guill.  Trip,  ad  ann.  1098. 
Nancius  ad  ann.  l.SOO. 
«  .\cta  Alex.et  Ceccan.  in  Chron. 

Vol.  II.— 66 


consecration,  but  upon  many  other  occa- 
sions, and  on  all  the  great  festivals.'  Petrus 
Mallius,  canon  of  St.  Peter's,  mentions  fif- 
teen festivals  (and  some  he  has  omitted)  on 
which  the  popes  used  to  be  crowned  in  dif- 
ferent churches.^ 

The  abbot  of  Struma,  whom  the  imperial 
party  had  elected  under  the  name  of  Calix- 
tus 111.,  no  sooner  heard  of  the  peace  con- 
cluded between  Frederic  and  Alexander, 
than  leaving  Viterbo,  where  he  had  hitherto 
resided,  he  retired  to  Mont  Albano,  a  strong- 
hold belonging  to  a  nobleman,  his  friend  and 
protector.  But  the  emperor  insisting  upon 
his  submitting  to  Alexander,  and  upon  that 
nobleman's  withdrawing  his  protection  from 
him  if  he  did  not  submit,  he  resolved  to 
throw  himself  upon  the  pope's  mercy ;  and. 
accordingly  repairing  with  the  heads  of  his- 
party  to  Tusculum,  he  there  prostrated  him- 
self, in  the  presence  of  all  the  cardinals,  be- 
fore Alexander,  kissed  his  foot,  and  acknow- 
ledging him  for  the  lawful  successor  of  St. 
Peter,  owned  himself  guilty  of  the  greatest 
impiety  in  usurping  a  dignity  to  which  he 
had  no  kind  of  right,  and  raising  by  that 
means  such  disturbances  in  the  church. 
The  pope,  far  from  reproaching  him  with 
what  he  had  done,  received  him  with  the 
greatest  marks  of  kindness,  absolved  him 
from  the  censures  he  had  incurred,  and  hav- 
ing kept  him  for  some  time  at  his  court,  and 
even  admitted  him  to  his  table,  he  appointed 
him  governor  of  the  city  of  Benevento.''  He 
is  placed  by  some  writers  among  the  arch- 
bishops of  Benevento,  and  said  to  have  been 
preferred  by  Alexander  to  that  see,  but  to 
have  died  the  same  year,  1178. 

The  abdication  of  Calixtus  did  not  put  an 
end  to  the  schism.  For  the  schismatics, 
headed  by  the  brother  of  the  late  anti-pope, 
Victor  IV.,  a  nobleman  of  great  power  and 
authority  in  Rome,  chose  one  Landus,  of 
the  family  of  the  Frangipani,  under  the 
name  of  Innocent  III.  The  new  anti-pope 
retired  from  Rome  to  a  strong-hold  in  the 
neighborhood  of  that  city,  belonging  to  the 
brother  of  the  anti-pope  Victor,  to  whom  he 
owed  his  election,  and  Avas  there  supported 
some  time  by  his  followers  against  all  the 
eflorts  of  Alexander.  But  the  pope  having 
purchased  the  strong-hold  with  a  large  sum 
of  money,  and  by  that  means  engaged  the 
owner  to  withdraw  his  protection  from  the 
usurper,  the  place  was  closely  besieged,  and 
forceil  in  the  end  to  submit.  Landus  at- 
tempted to  make  his  escape,  but  was  taken 
and  brought  to  Alexander,  who  confined 
him  for  life  to  the  monastery  of  Cava,  and 
the  heads  of  his  party  to  other  monasteries.*- 
Thus  ended  at  last  the  longest  schism  that 
had  ever  yet  rent  the  church,  having  been 


•  Mabill.  Museum  Ital.  1.  2.  p. 
»  Idem  ibid,  p.  158. 

'Rotnuald.  Salernitan.  et  Ceccan  in  Chron. 

*  Ceccan.  in  Cbron.   Auctnr.  Aquicinct.  an  ann.  1179. 

2  T  2 


523 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Alexander  HI. 


Council  of  Lateral!  and  its  canons; — [Year  of  Christ,  1179.]     Lawrence,  archbishop  of  Dublin,  appointed 
legate  for  Ireland.     The  doctrine  of  Peter  Lombard  condeoined  by  the  pope. 


carried  on  by  four  anti-popes,  succeeding 
each  other,  for  the  space  of  twenty-one 
years. 

As  many  abuses  had  crept  into  the  church 
during  so  long  a  schism,  Alexander,  now 
universally  acknowledged  for  lawful  pope, 
resolved  to  spend  the  remainder  of  his  life  in 
reforming  them.  With  that  view  he  ap- 
pointed a  general  council  to  meet  at  the  La- 
teran,  on  the  first  Sunday  in  Lent  1 179,  and 
sent  circulatory  letters,  inviting  to  it  all  the 
bishops  in  Christendom.  In  compliance 
with  that  invitation,  three  hundred  bishops 
met  at  the  place  appointed,  but  the  council 
did  not  sit  till  Monday  after  the  third  Sunday 
in  Lent,  that  is,  till  the  fifth  of  March  of  the 
present  year.  At  this  council  the  pope  pre- 
sided in  person,  attended  by  all  the  cardi- 
nals, and  by  the  prefect,  the  consuls,  and 
the  senators  of  Rome,  in  a  body.  There 
■were  in  all  but  three  sessions;  the  first  on 
the  fifth  of  March,  as  has  been  said,  the  se- 
cond on  the  seventh  according  to  some,  on 
the  seventeenth  according  to  others,  and  the 
third  on  the  nineteenth  of  the  same  month.' 
In  these  three  sessions  twenty-seven  canons 
were  issued,  whereof  the  following  are  the 
most  worthy  of  notice.  I.  That  for  the  fu- 
ture, to  prevent  schisms  and  divisions  in  the 
church,  he  alone  should  be  deemed  lawfully 
elected  to  the  pontificaF  dignity,  in  whose 
election  concurred  two  parts  in  three  of  the 
electors;  and  that  if  any,  having  but  one 
third  or  less  than  two,  should  assume  the 
title  of  pontiff",  he  and  all  who  adhered  to 
him  should  forfeit  all  their  benefices,  should 
be  excommunicated,  and  excluded  from  the 
eucharist  except  at  the  point  of  death.  The 
fathers  declared,  that  this  canon  no  ways  af- 
fected those  thai  had  been  wisely  enacted 
concerning  the  election  of  other  bishops, 
namely,  that  he  should  be  held  as  canoni- 
cally  elected,  who  had  any  majority  what- 
ever on  his  side.  For  the  disputes,  say  they, 
that  may  arise  in  other  churches  concerning 
elections,  may  be  decided  by  their  superiors  : 
but  the  Roman  church  has  no  superior. 
II.  All  the  ordinations  made  by  the  anti- 
popes  were  declared  null;  and  those,  upon 
whom  they  had  bestowed  benefices  or  digni- 
ties, were  required,  on  pain  of  excommuni- 
cation, forthwith  to  resign  them.  III.  The 
bishops,  who  had  adhered  to  any  of  the  an- 
ti-popes, were  ordered  by  the  pope  and  the 
council  to  abjure  the  schism  in  the  follow- 
ing words,  before  they  were  absolved  from 
the  censures  they  had  incurred.  "  I  re- 
nounce and  anathematize  all  heresies  against 
the  holy  Roman  and  catholic  church,  espe- 
cially the  schism  of  Octavian,  Guido,  and 
John.  I  acknowledge  their  ordinations  to 
be  null.  I  swear  and  promise  obedience  to 
the  holy  Roman  church,  to  pope  Alexander, 


and  his  successors  lawfully  elected.  I  shall 
serve  him  without  guile  or  deceit  against 
all  men,  as  is  required  by  my  order.  I  shall 
reveal  to  no  man  the  counsels  he  shall  com- 
municate to  me  in  writing  or  otherwise,  but 
keep  them  inviolably  secret  even  at  the  ex- 
pense of  my  life  and  limbs.  I  shall  honor ' 
the  legates  of  the  Roman  church,  shall  at- 
tend them  in  coming  and  returning,  and 
contribute  to  defray  their  expenses.  So  help 
me  God  and  these  his  holy  Gospels.  IV. 
A  thundering  decree  was  issued  against  the 
heretics,  called  Cathari,  Patareni,  and  Pub- 
licani,  who  no  longer  concealed,  but  openly 
taught  their  damnable  errors  in  the  territo- 
ries of  Ally  and  Toulouse,  that  is,  the  Albi- 
genses,  the  name  which  they  are  now  com- 
monly known  by.  They  were  solemnly 
anathematized  by  the  council,  and  all  were  | 
forbidden,  on  pain  of  excommunication,  to  1 
receive  them  into  their  houses,  to  suff'er  them 
in  their  territories,  to  buy  any  thing  of  them, 
or  sell  any  thing  to  them.  And  it  was  or- 
dained, that  they  who  should,  under  any 
pretence  whatever,  transgress  this  decree, 
should  have  no  offerings  made  for  them 
after  their  death,  nor  should  they  be  buried 
among  Christians.  Thus  were  those  un- 
happy men  banished  all  human  society,  and 
driven  into  the  deserts  to  perish  there  of 
hunger  among  the  wild  beasts.' 

At  this  council  Lawrence,  archbishop  of 
Dublin,  was  appointed  by  the  pope  his  le- 
gate a  Latere  for  Ireland,  and  vested  with 
full  power  over  all  the  bishops  and  churches 
of  that  kingdom.  He  is  said  to  have  dis- 
charged that  oflice  to  the  entire  satisfaction 
of  the  apostolic  see,  and  to  have  made  it  his 
chief  business  to  check  and  restrain  the  in- 
continence of  the  clergy.  He  had,  as  arch- 
bishop and  apostolic  legate,  full  power  to 
absolve  the  guilty  from  that  and  every  other 
crime.  But  not  choosing  to  make  use  of 
that  power  with  respect  to  the  incontinent 
clergy,  he  sent  them  all  to  Rome  to  be  ab- 
solved there  by  the  pope,  not  doubting  but 
shame,  as  well  as  the  trouble  and  expense 
of  so  long  a  journey,  would  oblige  them  to 
contain.  Thus  the  author  of  his  life,  who 
adds,  that  at  one  time  he  sent  no  fewer  than 
one  hundred  and  forty  priests  to  Rome,  all 
convicted  of  incontinence.^  Were  inconti- 
nence a  case  now  reserved  to  the  pope,  and 
all  incontinent  priests  obliged  to  repair  to 
Rome  for  absolution,  very  few,  perhaps,  if 
any,  would  be  left  at  home. 

The  pope  was  for  condemning  in  the 
Lateran  council  the  doctrine  of  the  famous 
Peter  Lombard,  formerly  bishop  of  Paris, 
concerning  Christ.  For  he  had  m-aintained 
that  Christ  was  not  man,  but  only  God;  and 
in  his  writings  was  found  this  proposition, 
"  Christ  as  man  is  nothing,"  which  the  pope 


»  Concil.  torn.  19.  p.  1607.    Anonym.  Cassin.  Dacher. 
Spicileg.  torn.  12.  p.  638.    Guillelm.  Tyr.  1.  2.  c.  16. 


»  Concil.  torn.  10.  p.  1603.  et  seq. 

>  Auctor.  Vjt.  apud  Suriuiu,  ad  diem  H  Novem.  c.  24. 


Alexander  III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


523 


Alexander  bestows  the  title  of  king  upon  Alphoiisus  of  Portugal.  Applies  to  the  Christian  princes  for  new 
supplies  against  the  Saracens  ;— [Year  of  Clirist,  llbO.]  His  death; — [Year  of  Christ,  llsl.]  His  character. 
Reserves  the  canonization  of  saints  to  tlie  apostolic  see. 


would  have  condemned  in  the  council,  had 
not  some  cardinals  remonstrated  against  his 
branding  the  memory  of  so  great  a  man  in 
so  public  a  manner.  The  pope  acquiesced, 
but  upon  the  breaking  up  of  the  council  he 
declared  Christ  to  be  true  God  and  true  man, 
condemned  the  above  proposition  as  he- 
retical, without  mentioning  its  author,  and 
wrote  to  William  archbishop  of  Reims  and 
his  legate  in  France,  ordering  him  to  as- 
semble all  the  professors  in  the  cities  of 
Paris,  of  Reims,  and  other  places,  and  for- 
bid tiiem  in  his  name,  on  pain  of  excommu- 
nication, to  teach  for  the  future  that  "  Christ 
as  man  is  nothing,"  the  contrary  doctrine 
being  held  and  taught  by  the  catholic  church, 
namely,  that  "as  Christ  is  true  God,  so  is 
he  true  man,  consisting  of  human  flesh  and 
a  rational  soul.' 

As  the  popes  had  taken  upon  them,  ever 
since  the  time  of  Gregory  VII.  to  dispose  of 
royal  titles,  and  to  make  kings  as  well  as 
unmake  them,  Alexander  acknowledged  this 
year  Alphonsus,  the  first  of  that  name,  for 
king  of  Portugal,  in  consideration  of  the 
many  signal  victories  he  had  gained  over 
the  Moors  or  Saracens.  He  was  only  styled 
duke  of  Portugal  till  the  year  1139,  when 
upon  his  giving  a  total  overthrow  to  a  very 
numerous  army  of  Saracens  he  was  saluted 
by  his  own  soldiers  with  the  title  of  king, 
and  from  that  time  honored  with  that  title 
by  all  the  other  princes.  However,  Alex- 
ander continued  to  style  him  duke  of  Portu- 
gal till  the  present  year,  when,  by  a  particular 
bull,  he  bestowed  upon  him  the  title  of  king. 
Of  this  grant  mention  is  made  by  pope  In- 
nocent 111.,  raised  to  the  see  in  1198.  For 
that  pope,  in  a  letter  to  Sanctius  I.  the  son 
and  successor  of  Alphonsus,  tells  him  that 
till  the  time  of  Alexander,  his  predecessor 
in  the  apostolic  see,  his  father  Alphonsus 
had  been  only  styled  duke,  but  deserved  to 
obtain  of  the  same  holy  pope  the  title  of  king 
for  himself  and  his  heirs.  Alphonsus  was 
honored  with  the  royal  title,  as  I  have  ob- 
served, by  all  the  other  princes  many  years 
before  the  pope  conferred  it  upon  him;  so 
that  it  was  not  to  his  holiness  he  owed  it, 
nor  did  other  princes  wait  for  the  pope's 
bull  or  approbation  to  bestow  it  upon  him.- 

Tbc  following  year,  1 180,  was  wholly  em- 
ployed by  the  pope  in  procuring  supplies  in 
men  and  money  for  the  Christians  in  tlie 
Holy  Land  against  Saladin,  prince  of  the 
Saracens,  who  had  gained  great  advantages 
over  them,  and  even  threatened  Jerusalem 
with  a  siege.  He  wrote  very  pressing  let- 
ters to  Henry  II.  king  of  England,  and  Philip 
king  of  France,  who  had  this  year  succeeded 
his  father  Lewis  VII.  in  that  kingdom,  re- 
presenting to  them  the  danger  the  holy 
city  was  in  unless  speedily  relieved.  But 
of  these  princes  he  could  obtain  nothing  be- 


'  Uudacus.  j>.  431. 


'  Innocent.  Ep.  99. 


sides  fair  promises,  and  in  the  mean  time 
the  Saracens  carried  all  before  them,  which 
gave  the  pope  such  concern  as  was  thought 
to  have  hastened  his  death.' 

As  Geoffry,  the  natural  son  of  Plenry  II. 
had  been  elected  bishop  of  Lincoln,  and  had 
for  eight  years  enjoyed  the  revenues  of  that 
see,  without  entering  into  orders,  the  pope 
wrote  this  year  to  Richard,  archbishop 
oi'  Canterbury,  commanding  him  to  oblige 
Geoffry  to  take  holy  orders  without  delay, 
or  give  up  his  election.  He  chose  the  lat- 
ter, and  was  thereupon  preferred  by  the  king 
his  father  to  the  office  of  chancellor.^  This 
is  the  last  thing  we  read  of  Alexander;  for 
he  died  on  the  festival  of  St.  Felix  and  St. 
Adauctus,  as  appears  from  his  epitaph  ;  that 
is,  on  the  oOlh  of  August  of  the  present  year 
1181,^  having  held  the  see  twenty-one  years, 
eleven  montiis,  and  twenty-three  days,  reck- 
oning from  the  day  of  his  election.  For  he 
was  elected  on  the  7th  of  September  1159, 
but  v/as  not  consecrated  till  the  20th  of  that 
month.  He  died  at  Civita  Castellana  in  St. 
Peter's  patrimony;  but  his  body  was  con- 
veyed from  thence  to  Rome,  and  buried  in 
the  Lateran  church.  Most  of  the  contem- 
porary writers  speak  of  him  as  a  man  of 
great  prudence  and  discretion,  loth  to  pro- 
ceed to  extremities,  and  in  all  disputes  ever 
ready  to  hearken  to  any  reasonable  terms  of 
agreement.  Indeed  his  conduct,  especially 
in  the  affair  of  Becket,  answered  that  charac- 
ter. He  is  said  to  have  been  the  most 
learned  of  all  the  popes  that  for  the  space 
of  an  hundred  years  had  presided  in  that 
see,  and  better  acquainted  than  any  of  them 
with  the  canons,  laws,  and  decrees  of  the 
Roman  church."*  His  decretals  were  by  his 
order  collected  into  one  volume  under  the 
title  of  Consulta  Alexandri,  but  that  volume 
has  not  yet  been  found.  Till  the  time  of 
Alexander  every  metropolitan  had  the  power 
of  canonizing,  and  we  read  of  many  saints 
canonized  by  them  without  the  approbation 
or  even  the  knowledge  of  the  pope.  Thus,  in 
1153,  Hugh  archbishop  of  Rouen,  solemnly 
canonized  an  abbot  named  Gualterius,  or- 
dered his  relics  to  be  worshipped  by  the 
faithful,  and  granted  indulgences  to  all  who 
should  implore  his  protection.  "We  have 
been,"  says  the  archbishop  in  his  letter  to 
the  faithful,  "in  a  manner  forced,  by  the 
many  miracles  daily  wrought  by  the  holy 
abbot  Gualterius,  to  rank  him  among  the 
saints  with  the  app'robalion  and  consent  of 
the  archbishop  of  Reims,  and  the  other  Gal- 
lican  bishops."'  But  Alexander  declared 
the  canonizing  of  saints  to  be  the  peculiar 
privilege  of  the  apostohc  see,  and  forbad  any 
to  be  honored  as  saints,  should  the  miracles 
they  wrought  be  ever  so   many  and  stu- 


»  Hoveden  in  Annal.    a  Idem  ibid.    Gervas  in  Chron. 
»  Chron.  Belg.  *  Robert,  de  Monte. 

>  Mabill.  in  Prsfat.  sue.  5.  Benedict. 


524 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Lucius  HI. 


Lucius  III.  chosen.    Decides  the  controversy  between  the  two  pretenders  to  the  see  of  St.  Andrews  in  Scot- 
land ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1182.] 


pendous,  till  their  sanctity  was  approved  by 
him  or  his  successors.  Hence  from  the 
time  of  Alexander  Ave  read  of  no  saints 
canonized  by  any  but  the  popes,  and  in  1231 
the  archbishop  of  Vienne  applying  vi^ith  his 


suffragans  to  Gregory  IX.  for  the  cononiza- 
tion  of  the  bishop  of  Die,  tells  that  pope, 
that  they  alone  are  to  be  honored  as  saints 
whose  sanctity  the  apostolic  see  had  declared 
and  approved.' 


LUCIUS  III.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  SIXTY-NINTH  BISHOP 

OE  ROME. 

[Alexius  Comnenus,  Andronicus  Comnenus,  Emperors  of  the  East, — Frederic  iENOBAR- 

Bus,  Emperor  of  the  West.'] 


[Year  of  Christ,  1181.]  Alexander  dying 
on  the  30th  of  August,  that  in  1181  fell  on 
the  last  Sunday  of  that  month,  Hubald  or 
Ubald  was  chosen  on  the  followingTuesday, 
the  first  of  September,  to  succeed  him,  and 
consecrated  on  the  Glh  of  the  same  month  at 
Velitroe,  now  Veletri,  under  the  name  of 
Lucius  III.  He  was  a  native  of  Lucca,  had 
been  employed  in  different  legations  by  Inno- 
cent II.,  by  Eugene  III.,  and  by  his  imme- 
diate predecessor  Alexander  III.,  was  bishop 
of  Oslia  and  Veletri  at  the  time  of  his  elec- 
tion, the  see  of  Veletri  having  been  annexed 
to  that  of  Ostia  by  Eugene  III.,  was  dean 
of  the  sacred  college,  and,  though  a  man  of 
no*  great  learning,  universally  esteemed  for 
his  prudence,  of  which  he  had  given  many 
specimens,  as  well  as  for  the  innocence  of 
his  life.'  It  was  customary  for  the  new 
pope  to  be  consecrated  by  the  bishops  of 
Ostia,  Porto,  and  Albano;  but  when  the 
bishop  of  Ostia  happened  to  be  elected,  the 
archpriest  of  that  church  was  to  assist  at  his 
consecration ;  and  hence  Lucius  is  said  to 
have  been  consecrated  by  these  two  bishops 
and  his  own  archpriest.^  In  the  election  of 
this  pope  was  first  put  in  execution  the 
above  mentioned  decree  of  the  Lateran 
council,  declaring  him  alone  to  be  lawfully 
elected,  in  whose  election  concurred  two 
parts  in  three  of  the  electors  ;  a  regulation 
that  obtains  to  this  day."  Lucius  was  like- 
Avise  the  first  pope  elected  by  the  cardinals 
alone,  the  people  and  the  clergy,  Avho  had 
hitherto  had  a  share  in  the  election  of  the 
new  pope,  being  excluded  from  all  share  in 
his ;  and  he  Avas,  probably,  on  that  account, 
consecrated  at  Veletri,  and  not  at  Rome. 

The  first  thing  that  occurs  worthy  of 
notice  in  the  pontificate  of  Lucius  is  his 
absolving  William,  king  of  Scotland,  from 
the  excommunication  that  his  predecessor 
Alexander  had  denounced  against  him,  and 
his  taking  off  the  interdict  that  the  same 
pope  had  laid  on  the  Avhole  kingdom  upon 
the  following  occasion.  The  see  of  St. 
Andrews  being  vacant,  the  clergy  of  that 


»  Prior.  Vosiens.  Chron.  p.  327. 
'  Card.  Cajetan.  in  Ord.  Roman, 
a  Onuph.  ad  Flatin. 


church  chose  one  John,  surnamed  Scotus, 
in  the  room  of  the  deceased  bishop.  But 
the  king,  paying  no  regard  to  their  election, 
nor  to  the  appeal  of  the  elect  to  the  pope, 
put  Hugh,  one  of  his  chaplains,  in  posses- 
sion of  the  see.  Hereupon  Alexander,  ap- 
pointing Roger,  archbishop  of  York,  his 
legate  for  Scotland,  ordered  him  in  conjunc- 
tion wiih  the  bishop  of  Durham,  to  excom- 
municate the  king  and  interdict  the  AvhoIe 
kingdom,  if  John  was  not  suffered  to  enjoy 
the  see  undisturbed,  to  which  he  alone  had 
a  just  right.  This  commission  the  two  bi- 
shops notified  to  the  king,  which  so  incensed 
him,  that  he  drove  John  not  only  from  his 
see,  but  out  of  the  kingdom  Avith  all  his  rela- 
tions, infants  at  the  breast  not  excepted. 
The  sentence  of  excommunication  Avas  there- 
fore thundered  out  against  him  by  the  legate, 
and  the  kingdom  Avas  laid  under  a  general 
interdict.  This  happened  in  11 80,  and  mat- 
ters thus  continued  to  the  deathof  Alexander. 
But  William  no  sooner  heard  of  the  election 
of  Lucius  than  he  sent  embassadors  to  con- 
gratulate him  upon  his  promotion,  and  treat 
of  an  accommodation  with  the  apostolic  see. 
At  their  request  the  pope  absolved  the  king 
from  the  excommunication,  took  off  the 
interdict,  and  sent  Roland,  bishop  elect  of 
Dole,  into  Scotland,  with  the  character  of 
his  legate,  to  determine  the  dispute  between 
the  two  pretenders  to  the  see  of  St.  Andrews. 
It  Avas,  after  several  conferences  between  the 
king  and  the  legate,  agreed,  that  the  preten- 
ders should  both  give  up  all  claim  to  that 
see  ;  that  John  should  be  translated  to  Dnn- 
keld,  and  have  forty  marks  yearly  paid  him 
out  of  the  revenues  of  the  see  of  St.  Andrews. 
To  this  agreement  John  readily  consented, 
but  Hugh  appealed  against  it  to  the  pope, 
and  summoned  his  rival  to  plead  his  cause 
at  the  tribunal  of  the  apostolic  see.  They 
both  repaired  to  Veletri,  where  the  pope 
then  resided,  and  being  heard  in  a  full  con- 
sistory, they  were  both  ordered  to  resign  the 
bishopric  of  St.  AndreAVS  into  his  holiness's 
hands,  which  they  did  accordingly.  But  a 
few  days  after  the  pope  granted  the  see  of 

«  Apud  Papebroc.  de  Canoniz.  Sanctorum. 


Lucius  III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


525 


Lucius  is  forced   to  leave  Koine.     He  returns  to  Rome; — [Year  ol"  Christ,  1183.]     Is  driven   out  a  second 
lime.    Holds  a  council  at  Verona  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  11S4.]     The  transactions  of  that  council. 


St.  Andrews  to    Hugh,  and   confirmed  to 
John  tliat  of  Dunkeld.' 

From  Velelri,  where  Lucius  had  resided 
ever  since  his  election,  he  repaired,  in  the  lat- 
ter end  of  the  present  year  1 182,  to  Rome,  but 
was  soon  obliged  to  leave  that  city  on  account 
of  a  quarrel  between  him  and  the  Romans. 
We  are  told,  that  he  refused  to  comply  with 
some  customs  that  had  been  religiously  ob- 
served by  all  his  predecessors.  What  these 
customs  were  history  does  not  inform  us. 
But  the  Romans,  highly  provoked  at  his 
obstinacy,  drove  him  out  of  the  city,  and 
pursuing  him  from  one  strong  hold  to  an- 
other, I'orced  him  to  return  to  Veletri. 
From  thence  he  wrote  to  the  emperor  to  ac- 
quaint him  with  the  rebellion  of  the  Romans, 
and  implore  his  protection;  and  Frederic, 
espousing  his  cause  with  great  zeal,  ordered 
Christian,  archbishop  of  Mentz,  to  march 
without  delay,  at  the  head  of  a  powerful 
army,  to  his  assistance.  Christian  soon  re- 
duced all  the  strong  holds  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  Rome,  and  encamping  at  Tusculura, 
so  harassed  the  Romans  with  the  parties  he 
daily  sent  out,  that  they  were  ready  to  sub- 
mit and  receive  the  pope  upon  his  own 
terms.  But  in  the  mean  time  Christian  died 
at  Tusculum,  and  his  army  dispersing  upon 
his  death,  the  Romans  continued  more  ob- 
stinate than  ever  in  their  rebellion.  Hove- 
den  tells  us,  that  the  archbishop  and  great 
part  of  his  army  died  of  poison,  the  Romans 
having  found  means  to  poison  a  spring  in 
the  neighborhood  of  their  camp  that  sup- 
plied them  with  water.-  But  of  that  circum- 
stance no  notice  is  taken  by  any  other  his- 
torian, and  Christian,  the  second  archbishop 
of  Mentz  of  that  name,  who  flourished  in 
1250,  speaking  of  the  death  of  his  predeces- 
sor, says  no  more  than  that  he  died  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Rome;  that  in  his  illness 
he  was  visited  by  the  pope ;  that  he  made 
his  confession  to  him,  received  absolution, 
and  expired  soon  after  he  received  ii.^  Cec- 
canus,  who  wrote  at  this  very  time,  only 
says,  the  chancellor, meaning  Christian,  who 
was  chancellor  of  the  empire,  being  taken  ill 
at  Tusculum,  died  and  was  buried  there  in 
the  month  of  August.*  Had  he  and  great 
part  of  the  army  died  of  poison,  others 
would  have  known  and  mentioned  it  besides 
Iloveden. 

Lucius,  unable  to  resist  the  Romans  with 
the  forces  he  had,  and  wanting  money  to 
raise  more,  sent  nuncios  to  all  the  Christian 
princes  as  well  as  to  the  bisiiops  to  gather 
contributions  for  the  defence  of  St.  Peter 
against  the  Romans.  Upon  their  arrival  in 
England,  the  king,  Henry  II.,-  acquainted 
the  bishops  with  the  pope's  request,  and 
they  advised  him  to  comply  with  it,  but  had 
the  precaution  to  beg  that  he  would  grant 

•  Iloveden  in  Annal.  ad  ann.  1183.         "  Idem  ibid. 
»  Hist.  Mogunt.  1.  5.  p.  626.       «  Ceccan.  in  Chron. 


(as  a  free  gift)  in  their  name  and  his  own, 
what  he  thought  proper  for  them  to  give, 
and  they  would  reimburse  him;  being  appre- 
hensive that  if  the  pope's  nimcios  were  once 
allowed  to  levy  money  upon  them,  it  might  be 
alleged,  on  many  other  occasions,  as  a  pre- 
cedent, to  the  great  prejudice  of  the  kingdom.' 
This  precaution  in  the  bishops  plainly  shows 
how  much  they  were,  and  had  occasion  to  be 
upon  their  guard  against  the  encroachments 
of  Rome.  With  the  money  the  nuncios  re- 
ceived in  England  and  in  other  kingdoms 
the  pope  gained  over  some  of  the  leading 
men  among  the  Romans,  and  under  their 
protection  he  returned  to  Rome. 

He  had  not  been  long  at  Rome  when  the 
Romans  revolted  a  second  time,  and  laying 
every  where  waste  the  lands  of  the  church, 
treated  all  who  they  thought  favored  the 
pope  with  the  greatest  barbarity.  Having 
one  day  met,  without  the  city,  some  clerks 
of  his  retinue,  they  put  out  the  eyes  of  all 
but  one,  and  placing  mitres  on  their  heads 
by  way  of  derision,  made  the  one  whom 
they  had  spared  swear  that  he  would  con- 
duct the  rest  in  that  condition  to  the  pope. 
Lucius,  struck  with  horror  at  such  a  sight, 
anathematized  all  who  had  been  any  ways 
concerned  in,  or  accessory  to,  so  cruel  an  ac- 
tion, and  leaving  Rome  in  great  haste  retired 
to  Anagni.  From  thence  he  went  into  Lom- 
bardy  to  confer  with  the  emperor,  who  was 
then  on  his  march  into  Italy,  and  implore  his 
protection.  As  the  emperor  had  appointed  the 
Lombard  lords  to  meet  him  at  Verona,  the 
pope  repaired  to  that  city  about  the  middle 
of  July,  and  the  emperor  arrived  there  the 
last  day  of  that  month,  1184.  The  next  day, 
the  1st  of  August,  a  council  was  held,  at 
which  were  present  the  pope  and  the  em- 
peror, and  all  the  bishops,  as  well  as  princes 
who  attended  them.  In  this  council,  con- 
ference, or  diet,  the  pope's  claim  to  the  ter- 
ritories of  the  countess  Mathilda  was  exa- 
mined, and  likewise  the  emperor's,  but  no- 
thing was  determined;  such  proofs  being 
alleged  on  both  sides  as  perplexed  the  best 
civilians  among  them.  The  pope  complained 
to  the  emperor  and  the  council  of  the  Ro- 
mans, painted  in  the  strongest  colors  the 
cruelties  they  had  committed,  and  they  were 
declared  by  the  whole  assembly  enemies  to 
the  church.  The  Albigenses  were  again 
condemned  and  anathematized  under  dif- 
ferent names,  and  all  who  admitted  them 
into  their  houses,  suffered  them  in  their  ter- 
ritories, or  afforded  them  any  sort  of  relief. 
The  same  sentence  was  pronounced  against 
all  who  held  or  taught  different  doctrines 
from  those  that  were  held  and  taught  by  the 
holy  Roman  church.  Many  bishops  and 
other  ecclesiastics  who  had  adiiprcd  to  the 
anti-popes  in  the  late  schism,  and  bad  been, 
on  that  account,  suspended  from  their  bene- 

«  Hoveden  ubi  supra. 


526 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Lucius  HI. 


Lucius  writes  and  sends  legates  to  Saladin  and  liis  brother.    His  death. 


fices  and  the  functions  of  their  respective  of- 
fices, appeared  at  this  council,  and  express- 
ing great  sorrow  for  what  they  had  done, 
earnestly  entreated  the  pope  and  the  council 
to  forgive  them  and  reinstate  them  in  their 
former  condition.  The  emperor  espoused 
their  cause  with  great  warmth,  and  the  pope 
promised  at  first  to  comply  with  his  and 
their  request.  But  repenting  soon  after,  and 
alledging  that  the  ecclesiastics  for  whom 
Frederic  interceded  had  been  deposed  in  a 
general  council,  the  council  of  Venice,  and 
ought  therefore  to  be  restored  in  a  general 
council,  he  promised  to  assemble  one  for 
that  purpose  at  Lions.  This  satisfied  the 
emperor,  Avho,  nevertheless,  was  not  a  little 
provoked  at  the  pope's  refusing  to  crown 
his  son  Henry,  and  bestowing  upon  him  the 
title  of  emperor,  a  point  which  he  had  very 
much  at  heart.  But  Lucius  could  by  no 
means  be  brought  to  consent  to  the  crowning 
of  the  son  unless  the  father  resigned  the 
crown;  it  being,  as  he  pretended,  as  absurd 
that  two  emperors  should  sit  on  the  same 
throne,  as  that  two  popes  should  sit  in  the 
same  chair.  Another  dispute  arose  in  the 
council  between  the  pope  and  the  emperor 
concerning  the  election  of  the  archbishop  of 
Treves.  The  electors  being  divided  among 
themselves,  two  were  elected.  Fulmar  and 
Rudolph.  But  though  the  former  had  the 
majority  on  his  side,  the  emperor  put  the 
latter  in  possession  of  the  see.  Fulmar  there- 
upon appealed  to  the  pope,  who  readily  es- 
poused his  cause,  and  the  aff'air  was  warmly 
disputed  in  the  council.  But  the  pope  being 
unwilling  to  disoblige  the  emperor  at  so  cri- 
tical a  juncture,  they  came  to  no  decision.' 
As  Saladin  had  reduced  the  Christians  in 
Palestine  to  great  straits,  the  pope  wrote 
and  sent  a  legate  both  to  him  and  his  brother 
Saphadin,  to  treat  of  a  peace  between  him 
and  the  Christian  princes.  The  pope's  letter 
has  not  reached  our  times,  but  Saladin's  an- 
swer to  it  has,  as  well  as  his  brother's,  and  the 
direction  runs  thus,  "King  Saladin,  the 
most  powerful  of  all  the  kings  of  the  East, 
to  the  lord  the  pope."  He  then  goes  on 
thus  : — "  A  paper  has  been  delivered  to  us 
from  your  holiness,  whom  we  believe  to 
hold  the  greatest  office  upon  earth,  and 
know  that  you  have  received  of  God  such 
grace  as  entitles  you  to  that  grandeur.  We 
likewise  know  that  all  Christians  fear  and 
obey  you.  Your  paper  was  presented  to  us 
by  Oliverus  Vitalis,  whom  we  have  honored 
for  your  sake,  and  caused  to  be  introduced 
to  us  in  a  private  room.  What  your  legate 
has  said,  and  what  you  say  in  your  paper 
concerning  a  peace  with  all  Christians,  and 

»  Arnold.  Lubecens.  in  Chron.  I.  3.  c.  10.^ 


the  exchange  of  prisoners,  has  given  us 
great  pleasure,  and  we  readily  agree  to  it. 
Let  the  Christians,  therefore,  dismiss  all 
their  prisoners,  and  we  shall  dismiss  all 
ours.  But  I  must  observe  to  your  gran- 
deur, that  the  Christians  in  captivity  among 
us  are  men  of  rank  and  distinction ;  where- 
as they  whom  your  people  have  taken  are 
but  rustics  and  wretches  of  the  meanest  con- 
dition. Let  the  captives,  therefore,  on  both 
sides  be  valued  and  compensation  be  made 
for  their  different  conditions.'"  To  Saphadin 
the  pope  sent  Janus  Dandulus  with  the  cha- 
racter of  his  legate,  and  he  was  received  by 
that  prince  with  all  possible  marks  of  honor. 
The  direction  of  his  answer  to  the  pope's 
letter  was,  "  Saphadin,  King  of  Justice  and 
lord  of  the  whole  multitude  of  Saracens,  to 
Lucius,  by  the  grace  of  God,  universal  pope, 
lord  of  Christendom,  and  his  best  friend 
among  the  Christians."  He  tells  the  pope 
in  his  letter,  that  he  is  wilHng  to  conclude  a 
peace  with  the  Christians  of  Jerusalem  and 
Tyre  upon  just  and  equitable  conditions  ; 
that  he  shall  strictly  observe  the  terms  of 
their  agreement  if  they  should  agree,  and 
set  at  liberty  all  the  Christians  detained  in 
his  prisons  upon  their  setting  at  liberty  all 
the  Saracens  whom  they  have  made  prison- 
ers in  the  course  of  the  war.  He  closes  his 
letter  with  the  following  words  :  "  God  will 
reward  every  man  according  to  his  works. 
This  paper  was  written  on  the  last  day  of 
March,  in  the  year  of  Mahomet  .578.  Thanks 
to  God  alone  and  the  great  prophet  Maho- 
met."2  The  year  578  of  Mahomet,  or  of  the 
Hegira,  began  on  the  6th  of  May  1182,  and 
ended  on  the  26ih  of  April  1183.  This  let- 
ter was  therefore  written  on  the  last  day  of 
March  1183.  But  this  treaty  between  the 
pope  and  the  two  Saracen  princes  had  not, 
it  seems,  the  wished  for  success.  For  we 
find  the  pope  pressing  with  great  earnest- 
ness the  Christian  princes,  in  1184,  to  send 
powerful  succors  to  the  assistance  of  their 
friends  and  brethren  in  the  Holy  Land, 
overrun  by  the  victorious  armies  of  Saladin 
and  Saphadin, 

But  while  Lucius  was  promoting,  to  the 
utmost  of  his  power,  a  new  crusade,  he  died 
at  Verona  on  the  29th  of  November  1184, 
after  a  pontificate  of  four  years,  two  months 
and  eighteen  days,  reckoning  from  the  6th 
of  November  1182,  the  day  on  which  he 
was  consecrated.  On  his  tomb  vs^as  engraved 
the  following  epitaph : 

"Luca  dedit  Lucem  tibi,  Luci,  pontiflcatum 
Ostia,  rapatiim  Roma,  Verona  mori 

Immb  Verona  dedit  veruni  tibi  vivere,  Roma 
Exilium,  Curas  Ostia,  Luca  mori. 

«  Radulph.  de  Dicet.  in  Imag.  Hist,  p  621. 
3  Idem  ibid. 


Urban  III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


527 


Election  of  Urban  111. 


Quarrel  between  him  and   the    emperor ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1185.] 
bishops  interpose  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  llsO  ] 


The  German 


URBAN  III.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  SEVENTIETH  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[Andronicus  Comnencs,  IsAACius  CoMNENOS,  Emperors  nf  the  East. — Frederic  iENOBARBUs, 

Eiiiptrur  of  the  IVtsi-l 


[Year  of  Christ,  1184.]  The  very  next 
day  after  the  death  of  Lucius,  Humbert  or 
Ubert  Crivellus,  then  archbishop  of  Milan, 
and  cardinal  presbyter  of  St.  Laurence  in 
Damaso,  was  unanimously  elected  by  the 
cardinals,  and  the  following  Sunday,  the  1st 
of  December,  was  solemnly  crowned  under 
the  name  of  Urban  III.' 

The  quarrel,  that  broke  out  between  Lu- 
cius and  the  emperor,  was  carried  to  a  much 
greater  height  in  the  pontificate  of  Urban. 
For  that  pope  absolutely  insisted  upon  his 
being  put  in  possession  of  the  territories  of 
the  countess  Mathilda,  bequeathed  by  her, 
as  he  pretended,  to  the  apostolic  see.  He,  be- 
sides, complained  of  the  emperor  for  seizing 
on  the  spoils  of  the  deceased  bishops,  which, 
he  said,  belonged  of  right  to  their  successors; 
and  his  having  dissolved  several  nunneries, 
and  confiscated  their  estates  and  efiects, 
under  pretence  that  the  nuns  led  irregular 
lives.  But  what  most  of  all  provoked  Fre- 
deric was  the  pope's  peremptorily  refusing 
to  crown  his  son  Henry  unless  he  himself 
resigned  the  crown,  and  his  consecrating 
Fulmar  archbishop  of  Mentz  in  opposition 
to  Rudolph,  whose  cause  he  had  espodsed. 
Some  writers  add,  that  Urban,  not  satisfied 
with  consecrating  Fulmar,  created  him  car- 
dinal, and  even  vested  him  with  the  charac- 
ter of  his  legate  a  Latere  over  great  part  of 
Germany;  which  so  incensed  the  emperor, 
that  he  caused  his  son  Henry  to  be  crovirned 
without  the  pope's  consent.  The  ceremony 
was  performed  by  the  archbishop  of  Aqui- 
leia,  and  at  the  same  time  was  crowned  by  a 
German  bishop  Constantia,  whom  the  king 
had  married  that  very  day.  Constantia  was 
the  posthumous  daughter  of  Roger,  king  of 
Sicily,  and  aunt  to  William  the  present  king. 
As  William  had  no  issue,  the  pope,  appre- 
hending that  the  kingdom  of  Sicily  might  by 
that  marriage  fall  to  the  emperor's  son,  had 
always  opposed  it,  and  suspended,  as  soon 
as  he  heard  of  it,  all  the  bishops  who  had 
assisted  either  at  the  coronation  or  the  mar- 
riage.2  Such  a  conduct  in  the  pope  pro- 
voked the  young  prince  to  such  a  de- 
gree, that  he  resolved  to  keep  no  measures 
with  him.  Having  therefore  met  one  day 
by  chance  a  bishop  while  he  was  yet  in 
Lombardy,  he  asked  him  at  whose  hands 
he  had  received  his  investiture,  and  the  bi- 
shop answering,  at  the  pope's,  the  prince 
repeated   three    times   the   same    question. 


•  Gervas  in  Chron.  ad  ann.  1165. 
3  Chron.  Aquicinct. 


Dicet.  p.  629. 


and  the  bishop  the  same  answer,  adding  at 
last  that  he  held  nothing  of  the  emperor, 
and  was  therefore  indebted  to  the  pope  alone 
for  his  bishopric.  This  answer  so  provoked 
the  prince,  that  he  ordered  his  attendants  to 
beat  the  bishop  most  unmercifully,  and  when 
he  could  no  longer  stand  lo  roll  him  in  the 
dirt.  Having  on  another  occasion  met  one 
of  the  pope's  servants  charged  with  a  con- 
siderable sum  of  money,  he  look  the  money 
from  him,  caused  his  nose  to  be  cut  oflf,  and 
bid  him  show  himself  in  that  condition  to 
his  holiness.' 

In  the  mean  time  the  emperor,  foreseeing 
that  an  open  rupture  would  soon  ensue  be- 
tween him  and  the  pope,  ordered,  upon  his 
return  to  Germany,  all  the  passages  from 
Italy  lo  be  strictly  guarded,  and  all  to  be  ar- 
rested who  brought  any  letters  from  the  pope. 
He  then  applied  to  Philip,  archbishop  of 
Cologne,  and  the  pope's  legate  in  Germany, 
to  take  upon  him  the  cognizance  of  all  ec- 
clesiastical causes,  to  judge  and  decide  them 
independently  of  the  pope,  as  he  had  or- 
dered all  intercourse  to  be  cut  off  between 
Rome  ^nd  Germany.  That  province  the 
archbishop  declined,  alleging  that  to  act  in- 
dependently of  the  pope  would  be  betraying 
the  trust  his  holiness  had  reposed  in  him. 
The  emperor  therefore,  assemblinff  a  diet  at 
Gelenbusem  of  all  the  bishops  and  princes 
of  the  empire,  complained  to  them,  in  very 
sharp  terms,  of  the  conduct  of  the  pope  in 
refusing  to  crown  his  son,  in  suspending  the 
bishops  who  had  assisted  at  his  coronation, 
and  his  consecrating,  with  his  own  hands. 
Fulmar  archbishop  of  Treves,  though  nei- 
ther he  nor  his  son  had  ever  approved  his 
election.  He  mentioned  many  other  in- 
stances of  the  pope's  encroachments  upon 
his  royal  prerogative  and  the  just  rights  of 
his  crown,  and  begged  they  would  join  him, 
for  their  own  sake,  in  supporting  the  impe- 
rial dignity  against  the  ambitious  views  and 
pretensions  of  Rome.  The  bishops  promised 
to  interpose  their  good  offices  and  divert  the 
pope,  if  by  any  means  they  could,  from  pro- 
ceeding to  extremities.  For  he  had  already 
threatened  the  emperor  with  excommunica- 
tion, if  he  did  not,  within  a  limited  time, 
suffer  Fulmar  to  take  possession  of  his  see. 
The  bishops  wrote  accordingly  to  the  pope, 
entreating  his  holiness  rather  to  dissemble 
for  the  present,  than  to  renew  by  too  much 
rigor  the  war  between  the  church  and  the 


>  Oldoinusio  Hist.  Cardinalium,  et  Chron.  Belgic. 


528 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Gregory  VHI. 


Urban's  indulgence  to  the  king  of  England.     His  death; — [Year  of  Christ,  1187.]     Gregory  VIII.  elected. 

Promotes  a  crusade. 


empire.  In  that  letter,  to  which  they  all  set 
their  hands  and  their  seals,  they  complained 
of  the  exorbitant  contributions  that  were  ex- 
acted, in  money  as  well  as  provisions,  of 
the  churches  in  Germany  by  the  legates  and 
other  ministers  of  the  apostolic  see,  which, 
they  said,  had  reduced  many  monasteries  to 
beggary.  They  closed  their  letter  with  be- 
seeching his  holiness  to  reform  such  abuses, 
and  suspend  for  a  while  all  further  proceed- 
ings against  their  lord  the  emperor.  The 
pope,  paying  no  regard  to  the  entreaties  and 
remonstrances  of  the  German  bishops,  too 
partial,  as  he  apprehended,  to  the  emperor, 
persisted  in  his  former  resolution  of  excom- 
municating Frederic.  But  the  people  of  Ve- 
rona, where  he  resided,  declaring,  all  to  a 
man,  that  they  would  suffer  no  such  sentence 
to  be  pronounced  in  their  city  or  in  their  pre- 
sence, he  was  forced  to  delay  it,  and  died 
before  he  had  an  opportunity  of  carrying  his 
design  into  execution.' 

The  pope  was  more  indulgent  to  Henry 
II.  of  England  than  he  was  to  the  emperor. 
For  to  that  prince  he  granted  many  favors, 
which  his  predecessor  Lucius  had  refused, 
and  among  the  rest  permission  to  cause 
which  of  his  sons  he  pleased  to  be  crowned 
king  of  Ireland.  That  permission  he  con- 
firmed by  a  bull,  sent  a  grown  of  peacock's 
feathers,  interwoven  with  gold,  for  the  new 
king  as  a  token  of  his  approbation,  and 
appointed  Octavian,  cardinal  deacon,  and 
Hugh  de  Nunant,  bishop  of  Durham,  to 
perform  the  ceremony  of  the  coronation 
with  the  character  of  his  legates  for  Ireland. 
But  the  king  put  off  the  coronation,  and 
took  the  legates  with  him  to  Normandy,  to 
assist  there  at  a  congress  between  him  and 
Philip  king  of  France.^ 


As  the  Christians  in  the  East  were  no 
longer  able  to  oppose,  with  the  forces  they 
had,  the  brave  and  victorious  Saladin,  the 
pope,  leaving  Verona,  set  out  for  Venice 
with  a  design  to  persuade  the  Venetians  to 
send  a  fleet  to  their  relief.  But  being  in- 
formed, on  his  arrival  at  Ferrara,  that  Sala- 
din had  gained  a  complete  victory  over  the 
Christians,  had  cut  their  whole  army  in 
pieces,  had  taken  the  king  himself  prisoner, 
had  made  himself  master  of  Jerusalem,  and 
got  possession  of  the  holy  cross  itself,  he 
was  so  affected  with  that  melancholy  ac- 
count, that  he  died  soon  after  of  grief.'  His 
death  happened  on  the  19th  of  October  1 187, 
after  he  had  governed  the  church  one  year, 
ten  months  and  twenty-five  days,  reckoning 
from  the  day  of  his  election.  That  he  died 
of  grief  on  the  occasion  I  have  mentioned  is 
attested  by  all  the  historians  except  Neubri- 
gensis,  who  supposes  him  to  have  been  pre- 
vented by  death  from  hearing  of  that  re- 
markable defeat.^  Some  letters  of  this  pope, 
relating  to  ecclesiastical  matters,  have  reach- 
ed our  times,  and  a  paraphrase  upon  the 
psalm,  "Miserere  mei  deus,"  Sec.  He  is 
supposed  to  have  been  the  first  that  reck- 
oned the  order  of  subdeacons  among  the  su- 
perior orders  of  the  church,  which  till  his 
time  had  been  only  three,  namely,  of  bi- 
shops, presbyters,  and  deacons.  The  order 
of  subdeacons  is  still  kept  up  in  the  church 
of  Rome,  as  well  as  the  other  inferior  orders 
of  acolythists,  exorcists,  lectors,  and  door- 
keepers; and  all  have  distinct  ordinations. 
By  a  constitution  of  Gregory  the  Great  in 
591,  the  subdeacons  were  ordered  to  vow 
celibacy  at  the  time  of  their  ordination,  and 
they  still  make  that  vow.  But  no  vow  is 
annexed  to  the  other  inferior  orders. 


GREGORY  VIIL,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  SEVENTY-FIRST 
BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[IsAAcius  Angelus,  EmperoT  of  the  East, — Frederic  ^Enobarbus,  Emperor  of  the  West."] 


[Year  of  Christ,  1187.]  In  the  room  of 
Urban  was  elected,  the  day  after  his  death, 
the  20th  of  October,  cardinal  Albert,  a  native 
of  Benevento,  and  at  the  time  of  his  election 
chancellor  of  the  Holy  Roman  Church.  He 
was  consecrated  on  the  25th  of  that  month, 
which  in  1187  fell  on  a  Sunday,  and  took 
on  that  occasion  the  name  of  Gregory  VIII. 
Being  greatly  affected  with  the  loss  of  Jeru- 
salem, and  the  great  advantages  that  the  Sara- 
cens had  lately  gained  over  the  Christians 
in  the  East,  he  was  no  sooner  consecrated 
than  he  wrote  a  long  and  pathetic  letter  to 


1  Arnold.  Lubec.  c.  17,  18. 

a  Hoveden.  Annal.  part  2.  p.  631.  634. 


all  the  Christians  in  the  West,  giving  them 
an  account  of  the  taking  of  Jerusalem,  re- 
presenting the  danger  the  Holy  Land  was  in 
of  falling  again  into  the  hands  of  the  avowed 
enemies  of  the  Christian  name,  and  exhort- 
ing them  to  contribute  all  in  their  power  to 
the  relief  of  their  distressed  brethren  and  the 
recovery  of  the  holy  city,  of  the  holy  sepul- 
chre, and  the  cross  upon  which  Christ  died 
for  our  salvation.  To  this  he  added  another 
letter,  likewise  addressed  to  all  Christians, 
enjoining  a  five  years'  fast,  to  appease  the 
anger  of  the  Almighty,  who,  provoked  at 


•  Gervas  in  Chron.  p.  1510. 
3  Neubrig.  1.  3.  c.  20. 


Onuph.  in  Chron. 


Clement  III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


589 


Gregory  goes  for  that  purpose  to  Pisa,  where  he  dies.    Election  of  Clement  III.    Concludes  a  peace  with 
the  Romans;— [Year  of  Christ,  1188.] 


their  sins,  seemed  in  a  manner  to  side  with 
their  enemies.  The  fast  was  to  be  observed 
thus  :  on  all  Fridays  they  were  to  fast  as  in 
Lent,  and  on  Wednesdays  and  Saturdays 
abstain  from  meat.  The  pope  added  absti- 
nence from  meat  on  all  Mondays  for  him- 
self, for  the  cardinals,  and  for  all  who  be- 
loni^ed  to  them.  They  who  did  not  comply 
with  this  injunction  were  to  incur  the  same 
censures  as  those  who  break,  without  any 
lawful  excuse,  the  Lent  fast.'  Both  these 
letters  are  dated  at  Ferrara  on  the  29th  of 
October,  the  fourth  day  after  Gregory's 
consecration.  At  the  same  time  the  cardi- 
nals engaged  to  take  the  cross  the  first;  to 
go  the  first  to  the  Holy  Land  in  the  habit  of 
mendicant  pilgrims,  to  receive  no  presents 
from  such  as  had  any  business  to  transact  at 
the  pope's  court,  and  never  to  mount  on 
horseback,  but  travel  on  foot  so  long  as  the 
ground  which  our  Savior  had  trod  was 
under  the  feet  of  the  infidels.^ 


As  the  two  republics  of  Genoa  and  Pisa 
were  at  this  time  very  powerful  at  sea,  but 
at  war  with  one  another,  the  pope,  leaving 
Ferrara,  repaired  to  Pisa,  to  mediate  a  peace 
between  the  two  states,  and  persuade  them 
to  join  against  the  common  enemy.  He  ar- 
rived at  Pisa  on  the  9th  of  December,  was 
received  there  with  extraordinary  marks  of 
honor,  ana  having  prevailed  on  the  Genoese 
to  send  deputies  to  treat  of  a  reconciliation, 
the  two  states  were  upon  the  point  of  coming 
to  an  agreement,  when  Gregory  Avas  sud- 
denly taken  ill,  and  died  in  a  few  days.  His 
death  happened  on  the  17th  of  December, 
after  a  pontificate  of  one  month  and  twenty- 
seven  days.'  He  is  greatly  commended  by 
all  the  writers  who  speak  of  him,  for  his 
learning,  his  eloquence,  his  humane  disposi- 
tion, and  above  all,  for  the  purity  of  his 
manners.  Some  of  his  letters,  besides  the 
two  I  have  mentioned,  are  to  be  met  with  ia 
the  volume  of  the  Councils. 


CLEMENT  III.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  SEVENTY-SECOND 
BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[IsAACius  Angelus,  Empcror  of  the  East. — Frederic  .^Enobarbus,  Emperor  of  the  JVest.} 


[Year  of  Christ,  1187.]  Gregory  was 
succeeded  by  Paul,  cardinal  bishop  of  Pales- 
trina,  and  a  native  of  Rome.  He  was 
elected  at  Pisa  on  the  19th  of  Decetflber, 
and  crowned  the  next  day,  under  the  name 
of  Clement  III.  As  Clement  was  by  birth 
a  Roman,  he  sent,  immediately  after  his 
consecration,  deputies  to  Rome,  to  treat  of 
an  accommodation  between  him  and  the 
Roman  people.  The  Senate  claimed  the 
civil  government  of  the  city,  leaving  only 
the  ecclesiastic  to  the  pope,  and  the  pope, 
on  the  other  hand,  pretended  to  be  temporal 
as  well  as  spiritual  lord  of  Rome.  This 
contest  had  lasted  fifty  years,  during  which 
time  several  popes  had  been  obliged  to  quit 
the  city  and  reside  elsewhere.  Besides,  the 
city  of  Tusculum,  that  belonged  to  the  pope, 
gave  great  umbrage  to  the  Romans.  For 
upon  every  disagreement  between  them  and 
the  pope,  the  Tusculans,  breaking  into  the 
Roman  territories,  committed  every  where 
dreadful  ravages.  The  Romans,  therefore, 
insisted  upon  the  pope's  causing  the  walls 
of  that  strong  hold  to  be  demolished,  which 
they  had  often  besieged,  but  had  never  been 
able  to  reduce.  Clement  wanted  to  settle 
his  see  in  peace  at  Rome,  and  the  Romans, 
tired  with  the  disturbances  that  were  daily 
raised  in  the  city,  some  insisting  upon  the 
pope's  return,  and  others  opposing  it,  heark- 


«  Hoveden  in  Annal.  et  Neubrig.  1.  3.  c.  10. 
9  Hoveden  ibid.  p.  636. 

Vol.  II.— 67 


ened  very  readily  to  proposals  of  an  agree- 
ment :  and  an  agreement  was  accordingly 
concluded,  after  a  few  conferences,  upon  the 
following  terms  :  I.  That  the  sovereignty  of 
Rome  should  be  lodged  in  the  pope.  II. 
That  the  office  of  patrician  should  be  abo- 
lished, and  a  prefect,  with  a  more  limited 
power,  be  appointed  in  his  room.  III.  That 
senators  should  be  created  yearly,  with  the 
approbation  and  by  the  authority  of  the 
pope,  who  should  take  an  oath  of  allegiance 
to  his  holiness,  and  promise  to  assist  him 
when  required.  IV.  That  St.  Peter's  church, 
and  its  revenues,  should  be  restored  to  the 
apostolic  see.  V.  That  the  tolls  and  all  other 
public  revenues  should  be  at  the  pope's  dis- 
posal, upon  condition  that  he  expended  one 
third  of  them  for  the  use  of  the  Roman 
people.  VI.  That  the  senate  and  the  Roman 
people  should  reverence  the  majesty  and 
maintain  the  honor  and  dignity  of  the  high 
pontiff.  VII.  That  the  Roman  pontiff  should 
bestow  the  usual  gifts  and  largesses  upon 
the  senators,  judges,  advocates,  and  other 
officers  of  the  senate.  VIII.  That  he  should 
pay  yearly  a  certain  sum  for  the  reparation 
of  the  walls  of  the  city.  And  lastly,  that  he 
should  allow  the  walls  of  Tusculum  to  be 
razed  and  laid  level  with  the  ground,  and 
should  assist  the  Romans  in  tiiat  underta- 
king.    This  was  the  only  article  the  pope 

'  Chron.  Pisan.    Nangius  in  Cbron    ad  ann.  1187. 
Neubrig,  iic. 

2U 


530 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Clement  HI. 


Clement  engages  all  the  Christian  princes  in  the  holy  war.  Composes  the  difference  between  William,  king 
of  Scotland,  and  the  apostolic  see;— [Year  of  Christ,  1189.]  The  church  of  Scotland  exempted  from  all 
subjection  to  the  English  church.    The  schism  in  the  church  of  Treves  terminated. 


objected  to,  but  was  in  the  end  forced  to 
yield,  and  suffer  the  unhappy  Tusculans  to 
pay  dear  for  their  steady  attachment  to  the 
apostoUc  see.'  The  place,  however,  was 
not  destroyed  till  the  pontificate  of  Celestine 
III.  Thus  was  the  papal  dominion  or  sove- 
reignty established  over  Rome.  The  articles 
being  agreed  to,  Clement,  leaving  Pisa,  set 
out  without  delay  for  Rome,  and  was  there 
received  by  the  senate,  the  nobility,  and  the 
people,  with  the  greatest  marks  of  respect 
and  esteem. 

Clement,  treading  in  the  footsteps  of  his 
predecessor,  left  nothing  unattempted  to  en- 
gage all  the  Christian  princes  in  a  new  cru- 
sade. Before  he  left  Pisa  he  prevailed  upon 
greatnumbers  of  theinhabitants.of  allranks, 
to  take  the  cross,  gave  the  standard  of  St. 
Peter  to  Ubald,  their  archbishop,  and  ap- 
pointed him  his  legate  to  conduct  and  attend 
them  into  the  East.  The  people  of  Pisa, 
animated  by  the  warm  exhortations,  but 
more  by  the  example  of  their  bishop,  con- 
cluded a  truce  with  the  Genoese,  and  having 
equipped  a  fleet  of  fifty  ships  of  war,  sent 
it,  before  the  end  of  September  of  the  present 
year,  to  the  relief  of  their  distressed  brethren 
in  the  Holy  Land.^  Clement,  on  his  return 
to  Rome,  dispatched  cardinal  Henry,  bishop 
of  Albano,  into  France,  tb  promote  the  cru- 
sade in  that  kingdom,  which  he  did  with 
great  success.  From  France  he  repaired  to 
Germany;  and  at  his  hands  tlie  emperor 
himself  took  the  cross,  being  at  that  juncture 
disengaged  from  all  other  wars.  His  exam- 
ple was  followed  by  his  son  Frederic,  duke 
of  Swabia,  and  by  most  of  the  princes  of  the 
empire;  and  he  set  out  the  following  year 
for  the  Holy  Land,  at  the  head  of  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  thousand  fighting  men.  Philip, 
king  of  France,  and  Henry  XL  king  of  Eng- 
land, then  at  variance,  were  prevailed  upon 
by  John  of  Anagni,  cardinal  legate,  to  forbear 
all  hostilities  for  the  present,  and  join  against 
the  common  enemy.  Both  princes  took  the 
cross,  and  heavy  taxes  were  laid  on  both 
kingdoms  to  defray  the  expenses  of  the  in- 
tended expedition.  In  England  a  tenth  was 
exacted  of  all  revenues,  of  all  moveables  and 
chattels.  This  tax  was  levied,  with  the  ut- 
most rigor,  upon  the  clergy  as  well  as  the 
laity,  those  only  excepted  who  went  in  per- 
son to  the  Holy  Land.  Thus  an  immense 
sum  of  money  was  raised  for  carrying  on  the 
war  in  the  East;  and  it  was  accordingly 
carried  on,  but  with  very  little  success,  not 
by  Henry,  who  died  in  1189,  but  by  Richard, 
his  son  and  successor,  a  bold  and  daring 
prince,  who  had  taken  the  cross  in  his 
father's  lifetime.^ 

Clement's  next  care  was  to  compose  the 
difference  that  had  long  subsisted  between 


>  Cenc.  Camerar.  apud  Onuph.  ad  Vit.  Clement.  III. 

»  Chron.  Pisan. 

*  Hoveden. .  Matth.  Paris.    Annal.  Mail. 


the  apostolic  see  and  William,  king  of  Scot- 
land, concerning  the  election  of  the  bishop 
of  St.  Andrews.  The  clergy  had  elected 
John,  but  the  king,  paying  no  regard  to  their 
election,  had  named  Hugh,  his  chaplain,  to 
that  see.  The  pope,  upon  the  clergy's  ap- 
pealing to  the  apostolic  see  against  Hu-gh, 
as  an  intruder,  summoned  him  to  Rome, 
and  as  he  did  not  appear  within  the  limited 
time,  deposed  and  excommunicated  him, 
and  declared  his  competitor  lawfully  elected. 
On  this  occasion  the  pope  wrote  to  all  the 
Scotch  bishops,  commanding  them  to  lay 
the  whole  kingdom  under  an  interdict,  if  the 
king  did  not  stand  to  the  judgment  of  the 
apostolic  see,  and  allow  John  to  take  pos- 
session, without  further  molestation,  of  the 
see,  to  which  he  had  been  canonically  elect- 
ed. The  king,  unwilling  to  quarrel  with 
the  pope,  and  dreading  the  consequences  of 
an  interdict,  thought  it  advisable  to  submit. 
But  John,  to  gratify  the  king,  and  regain  his 
favor,  declaring  himself  satisfied  with  the 
bishopric  of  Dunkeld,  to  which  he  had  been 
translated  by  pope  Lucius,  gave  up  all 
claim  to  the  see  of  St.  Andrews.  The  pope 
was  so  well  pleased  with  the  submission  of 
the  king,  that  he  no  sooner  heard  of  it,  than 
writing  to  him  in  the  most  kind  and  obliging 
terms,  he  declared  and  decreed  that  thence- 
forth the  church  of  Scotland  should  be  im- 
mediately subject  to  the  apostoUc  see,  and 
the  apostolic  see  alone ;  that  it  should  be 
lawful  for  none  but  the  Roman  pontiff  him- 
self, or  his  legates  a  Latere,  to  publish  the 
sentence  of  interdict  or  excommunication 
against  the  kingdom  of  Scotland,  and  that 
no  one  who  was  not  a  native  of  the  country, 
nor  chosen  out  of  the  body  of  the  Roman 
church,  should  exercise  the  oflSce  of  legate 
in  that  kingdom.'  Thus  was  the  church  of 
Scotland  exempted  from  all  subjection  to 
that  of  England,  and  the  legatine  power  of 
the  archbishop  of  York  over  Scotland  an- 
nulled. This  letter  is  dated  at  the  Lateraa 
the  13th  of  March  of  the  present  year. 

Clement  was  no  less  successful  in  putting 
an  end  to  the  schism  that  for  the  space  of 
seven  years  had  divided  the  church  of 
Treves,  some  adhering  to  Fulmar,  chosen 
by  a  majority,  and  some  to  Rudolph,  nomi- 
nated by  the  emperor.  To  terminate  that 
dispute  the  pope  sent  cardinal  Sigifred  with 
the  character  of  his  legate  a  Latere,  and  it 
was  agreed  between  him  and  the  emperor, 
that  the  pretenders  should  both  resign;  that 
all  whom  Fulmar  had  excommunicated 
should  be  absolved  and  restored  to  the  bene- 
fices they  enjoyed  before,  and  that  the  clergy 
should  be  at  liberty  to  elect  a  third  person 
out  of  the  members  of  their  own  church.* 
Fulmar,  thus  deposed,  but  not  degraded,  re- 
paired to  England.  For  he  is  mentioned 
among  the  bishops  who  assisted  at  the  coro- 

«  Hoveden  Annal.  p.  646,    ^  Chron.  Belgicum,  p.  200. 


Celestine  in.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


531 


Death  of  Ihe  emperor  Frederic  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1190.]     Death  of  Clement ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1191.]     Ce- 
lestine elected,  ordained,  and  consecrated.     Crowtis  Henry  emperor. 


nation  of  king  Richard  on  the  3d  of  Sep- 
tember, 1 189.'  He  died  soon  after  at  Nortii- 
ampton,  and  was  buried  there. 

The  following  year  the  pope  had  the  satis- 
faction to  hear  of  the  departure  of  Philip 
Augustus,  king  of  France,  and  Richard, 
king  of  England,  for  the  Holy  Land  at  the 
head  of  two  numerous  armies.  But  the 
unexpected  news  lie  received  soon  after  of 
the  death  of  the  emperor  Frederic,  so  affect- 
ed him,  that  for  some  days  he  forbore  ap- 
pearing in  public,  admitting  none  to  his 
presence  but  his  domestics  and  most  inti- 
mate friends.  Frederic  had  adjusted  all  his 
differences  with  the  apostolic  see,  had  taken 
the  cross,  and  marching  with  a  very  numer- 
ous army  to  the  relief  of  the  Holy  Land,  had 
gained  many  signal  advantages  over  the  in- 
fidels; but  on  the  10th  of  June  of  the  pre- 
sent year  he  was  unhappily  drowned  in  the 
river  Caleph,  supposed  to  be  the  Cidnus  of 
the  ancients.  Some  say,  that  in  crossing 
the  river  he  fell  from  his  horse ;  and  others. 


that  bathing  in  the  river  he  went  out  of  his 
depth,  and  perished,  being  stricken  in  years, 
before  his  attendants  could  afford  him  any 
assistance.  Be  that  as  it  will,  his  death 
was  a  great  loss  to  the  Christians  in  Pales- 
tine, as  he  had  already  recovered  many 
places  taken  by  Saladin,  and  struck  such 
terror  into  the  Saracens,  that  they  fled  every 
where  before  him,  and  abandoned  their 
strong-holds  at  his  approach.  For  he  put 
all,  without  distinction,  to  the  sword,  who 
had  the  misfortune  to  fall  into  his  hands.' 

The  following  year  Clement  died,  on  the 
27th  of  March,  and  was  buried,  being  greatly 
beloved  by  the  Romans,  with  extraordinary 
pomp  in  the  Lateran  church.  Before  his 
death  he  canonized  Otto,  bishop  of  Bamberg, 
the  first  who  preached  the  gospel  to  the 
Pomeranians,  and  Stephen  de  Mureto, 
founder  of  ihe  order  of  the  Grandimontenses. 
We  know  of  no  letters  written  by  this  pope 
besides  those  that  have  been  taken  notice  of 
in  his  life. 


CELESTINE  IIL,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  SEVENTY-THIRD 
BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[IsAACius  Angelus,  Emperor  of  the  East. — Henry  V:,  Emperor  of  the  West."] 


[Year  of  Christ,  1191.]  Clement  died, 
as  has  been  said,  on  the  27th  of  March^  and 
being  buried  the  next  day,  the  cardinals  met 
upon  the  30th  of  that  month,  and  with  one 
consent  preferred  to  the  chair  Hyacinth, 
cardinal  deacon  of  St.  Mary  in  Cosmedin. 
He  was  a  native  of  Rome,  had  been  sixty- 
five  years  cardinal  deacon,  and  was  at  the 
time  of  his  election  in  the  eighty-fifth  year 
of  his  age.  He  was  ordained  priest  on 
Easter-eve,  on  the  13th  of  April,  and  on 
Easter-day  consecrated  under  the  name  of 
Celestine  III.^  He  is  said  to  have  so  long 
delayed  his  consecration,  namely,  from  the 
30th  of  March  to  the  14th  of  April,  to 
mortify  Henry,  the  son  and  successor  of 
Frederic  in  the  empire,  who,  entering  Italy 
upon  the  news  of  his  father's  death,  had 
encamped,  with  a  mighty  army,  under  the 
walls  of  Rome,  and  commanded  rather  than 
desired  the  late  pope  to  crown  him  emperor. 
Celestine  durst  not  refuse  him  the  imperial 
crown,  but  to  delay  his  consecration,  says 
the  historian,  he  delayed  his  own.'  As 
great  disorders  were  daily  committed  by 
Henry's  troops  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Rome,  the  Romans,  to  get  l-id  of  such 
troublesome  guests,  prevailed  on  the  pope 
to  delay  no  longer  his  own  consecration  nor 


>  De  Diceto,  p.  043,  644. 

*  Chron.  Reich,  ad  ann.  1191.    Petrus  Blesens.  Ep. 
133.  >  Arnold.  Lubec.  I.  4.  c.  4. 


that  of  the  emperor.  He  therefore  con- 
sented, in  compliance  with  their  request,  to 
be  consecrated  on  Easter-Sunday,  and  the 
very  next  day  he  crowned  Henry  and  his 
wife  Constantia  with  great  solemnity  in  the 
church  of  St.  Peter.  He  received  the  king 
at  the  door  of  the  church,  and  upon  his 
swearing  that  he  would  inviolably  maintain 
all  the  rights  of  the  church,  that  he  would 
give  up  the  lands  and  territories  that  belonged 
to  St.  Peter,  and  restore  Tusculum,  which, 
it  seems,  he  had  seized,  to  the  apostolic  see, 
the  pope  walked  before  him  into  the  church, 
and  anointed  both  him  and  Constantia  at 
the  tomb  of  St.  Peter.  He  then  placed 
himself  in  the  pontifical  throne,  and  amidst 
the  loud  acclamations  of  the  people  put  the 
imperial  crown,  which  he  held  between  his 
feet,  upon  the  emperor's  head  while  he 
kneeled  at  the  foot  of  the  throne.  The  his- 
torian adds,  that  he  had  no  sooner  placed 
the  crown  on  the  emperor's  head  than  he 
struck  it  off  with  his  foot,  to  show,  that  as 
he  had  given  him  the  crown,  he  had  the 
power  of  taking  it  from  him,  if  he  found  him 
unworthy  to  wear  it.  Thus  Hoveden,  who 
lived  at  this  time.^  Butwhether  his  authority 
be  of  weight  enough  to  overbalance  the 
silence  of  all  other  writers  (for  by  none  of 
them  is  the  least  notice  taken  of  so  very  re- 

■  In  Appendice  ad  Radevic.  apud  Baron,  ad  ann.  1190. 
3  Hoveden  Annal.  p.  690. 


532 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Celestine  III, 


Tusculuin  demolished.  Disturbances  in  England.  The  pope  orders  the  disturbers  of  the  public  peace  to  be 
excommunicated.  The  king  shipwrecked  on  his  return  from  the  Holy  Land,  and  imprisoned  by  the  duke  of 
Austria  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1192.]  The  Norman  bishops  apply  to  the  pope  for  the  king's  release  ;  and  the 
queen  dowager; — [Year  of  Christ,  1193.] 


markable  a  circumstance)  let  the  reader 
judge.  Henry,  the  sixth  king  of  Germany, 
and  the  fifth  emperor  of  that  name,  restored 
Tusculum  to  the  pope  before  he  left  Rome ; 
and  by  the  pope  it  was  immediately  delivered 
to  the  Romans,  who,  not  satisfied  with  de- 
molishing the  walls,  left  not  a  single  house 
standing  in  the  place.' 

Richard,  king  of  England,  upon  his  de- 
parture for  the  Holy  Land,  had  appointed 
William,  bishop  of  Ely,  then  high  chancel- 
lor, to  govern  the  kingdom  in  his  absence, 
and  to  render  that  prelate  more  respectable, 
had  procured  for  him  the  legatine  power  of 
pope  Clement,  the  predecessor  of  Celestine. 
To  prevent  the  disturbances  that  the  king 
apprehended  his  two  brothers,  Geoffry,  arch- 
bishop of  York,  and  John,  earl  of  Moreton, 
might  raise  in  his  absence,  he  took  them 
both  with  him  to  Normandy,  and  there 
obliged  them  to  promise,  upon  oath,  that 
they  would  not  return  to  England  without 
his  permission.  But  the  king  was  scarce 
gone  when,  unmindful  of  their  oath,  they 
returned,  and  having  formed  a  strong  party 
against  the  chancellor,  obliged  him  to  quit 
the  kingdom.  To  justify  their  conduct  they 
publicly  charged  him  with  many  heinous 
crimes  and  an  enormous  abuse  of  his  power. 
But  the  bishop  retiring  to  Normandy  sent 
deputies  from  thence  to  Rome  to  clear  him- 
self from  the  crimes  laid  to  his  charge,  and 
at  the  same  time  to  complain  of  the  unwor- 
thy treatment  a  legate  of  the  apostolic  see 
had  met  with  from  the  earl  and  those  of  his 
party,  who,  said  the  deputies,  had  nothing 
less  in  their  view  than  to  seize  on  the  crown, 
and  divide  among  themselves  the  spoils  of 
the  nation.  The  pope  hearkened  to  their 
complaints,  and  paying  no  regard  to  the 
complaints  and  remonstrances  of  the  oppo- 
site party,  wrote  to  the  English  bishops, 
strictly  commanding  them  to  excommuni- 
cate, with  the  burning  of  candles  and  the 
ringing  of  bells,  the  earl  of  Moreton  and  all 
his  accomplices  and  abetters  without  excep- 
tion, and  cause  them  to  be  avoided  by  all, 
till  they  allowed  the  bishop  of  Ely  to  return 
and  resume,  undisturbed,  the  government 
of  the  kingdom.  The  bishops  were  not, 
even  in  that  case,  to  absolve  the  earl  or  any 
of  his  party,  but  to  send  them  all  for  abso- 
lution to  Rome.2 

In  the  mean  time  the  king,  who  had  distin- 
guished himself  in  a  very  eminent  manner 
by  his  bravery  during  his  stay  in  the  Holy 
Land,  but  now  despaired  of  any  further  suc- 
cess on  account  of  the  divisions  that  pre- 
vailed among  the  Christian  princes,  con- 
cluded a  three  years'  truce  with  Saladin, 
and  on  the  8th  of  October  1192,  embarked 
on  his  return  to  England.  But  being  ship- 
wrecked  in   the  Adriatic,  between  Venice 


Hoveden  Annal.  p.  690. 


a  Idem,  p.  718. 


and  Aquileia,  he  was  obhged  to  pass  through 
the  territories  of  Leopold,  duke  of  Austria. 
As  he  had  quarrelled  with  the  duke  in  the 
Holy  Land,  he  travelled  night  and  day, 
while  in  his  dominions,  in  the  disguise  of  a 
pilgrim.  But  being,  nevertheless,  discover- 
ed, he  was  arrested  by  that  prince's  order; 
and,  when  he  had  been  kept  some  time 
closely  confined,  delivered  up ;  or,  to  use 
the  king's  own  expression,  "  sold  as  an  ox 
or  an  ass,"  to  the  emperor.  What  gave  occa- 
sion to  the  enmity  those  princes  bore  him  is 
related  at  length  by  all  our  historians,  espe- 
cially by  Matthew  Paris,  to  whom  I  refer 
the  reader,  as  it  is  foreign  to  my  subject. 
The  imprisonment  of  the  king  was  no  sooner 
publicly  known,  than  the  archbishop  of 
Rouen  and  all  his  sufTragans  wrote  to  the 
pope  to  acquaint  him  with  it,  representing 
the  injury  done  to  the  king  as  done  to  his 
holiness  himself,  under  Avhose  immediate 
protection  all  were,  and  more  especially 
princes,  who  went  to  the  Holy  Land  to  make 
war  on  the  infidels,  and  rescue  the  holy  city 
and  the  holy  sepulchre  out  of  their  hands. 
They  put  him  in  mind  of  the  unreserved  re- 
gard and  attachment  the  king  had  always 
shown  to  the  apostolic  see,  of  his  gallant  be- 
havior in  Palestine,  of  the  fatigues,  hard- 
ships, and  dangers  he  had  undergone  to  obey 
his  holiness'  commands,  and  earnestly  press- 
ed him  to  interpose  his  authority,  to  draw 
the  sword  of  St.  Peter,  and  revenge  the  un- 
worthy treatment  that  so  great  a  prince,  and 
so  deserving  of  the  apostolic  see,  had  met 
with  in  defiance  of  all  laws,  ancient  and 
modern.'  But  this  letter  did  not  awake  the 
zeal  of  Celestine,  nor  did  the  several  letters 
of  the  queen  mother,  filled  with  the  most 
pressing  instances,  prayers,  entreaties,  and 
even  reproaches.  '*  You  send,"  said  the 
queen  in  one  of  her  letters,  "  your  cardinals 
for  trifling  matters  to  the  most  barbarous  na- 
tions, and  in  so  great,  so  lamentable,  so  pub- 
lic a  cause,  you  have  not  so  much  as  sent 
one  sub-deacon,  or  acolythist.  It  is  not  for 
the  honor  of  God,  or  his  church,  the  peace 
of  kingdoms,  or  the  good  of  mankind,  that 
legates  are  now  sent,  but  to  enrich  them- 
selves at  the  expense  of  the  nations  to  which 
they  are  sent."^  In  another  letter  she  ad- 
dresses the  pope  thus  : — "  Where  is  your 
zeal?  where  the  authority  of  St.  Peter?  you 
have  it  in  your  power  to  deliver  my  son  ;  no 
prince  is  exempt  from  your  jurisdiction. 
What  excuse  then  can  you  alledge  for  not 
exerting  your  authority  on  so  important  an 
occasion,  when  your  honor  and  the  honor 
of  your  see  are  both  at  stake  ?  Now  I  see 
how  little  the  promises  of  your  cardinals  are 
to  be  relied  upon.  They  promise  much,  but 
their  promises  are  only  empty  words  ;  nay, 
they  countenance  the  tyranny  which  they 


1  Petrus  Bles.  Eu.  64. 


» Idem,  Ep.  144. 


Celestine  III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


533 


Richard  purchases  his  liberty  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  1194.]  Legates  sent  into  France  on  occasion  of  the  king's 
divorcing  his  wife  Ingelburga;— [Year  of  Christ,  1195.]  The  pope  reverses  the  sentence  of  the  legates  and 
the  Gallican  bishops. 


are  in  duty  bound  to  punish.  My  son,  a 
prince  so  deserving  of  the  apostolic  see,  is 
kept  confined  and  treated  by  an  open  breach 
of  the  law  of  nations  and  all  the  laws  of  hu- 
manity, as  a  criminal;  the  high  pontiff 
knows  it,  and  dissembles!  Have  the  keys 
of  St.  Peter  lost  all  their  power,  or  is  he 
who  has  been  trusted  with  them  afraid  to 
exert  it,  &.c?"'  This  letter  was  written  in 
,1193;  and  in  the  same  year  she  wrote  a 
third,  filled  with  more  bitter  reproaches  than 
the  other  two  :  *'  It  is  now,"  says  the  queen, 
"  the  third  time  you  have  promised  to  send 
legates  to  procure  the  release  of  my  son.  If 
he  were  in  prosperity,  we  should  see  legates 
flying  upon  his  first  call,  in  hopes  of  being 
"well  rewarded  by  so  generous  a  prince.  Do 
you  thus  observe  the  promise  you  made  us 
with  the  strongest  protestations  of  friendship 
and  affection  ?  Do  you  thus  deceive  the 
simple,  who  put  their  trust  in  you  1  The 
most  enormous  crimes  in  the  great  and  the 
powerful  are  connived  at,  and  the  rigor  of 
the  canons  is  only  exerted  against  the  poor. 
One  tyrant  keeps  my  son  in  captivity,  while 
another  invades  and  lays  waste  his  domi- 
nions," meaning  the  king  of  France;  "  the 
one  holds,  to  use  the  vulgar  expression, 
while  the  other  flays.  This  the  high  pon- 
tiff sees,  and  yet  keeps  the  sword  of  St.  Pe- 
ter in  the  sheath  !  Have  we  not  too  much 
reason  to  construe  his  silence  into  a  tacit 
approbation  and  consent?  Stc."^ 

To  these  pressing  instances  and  repeated 
reproaches  of  the  queen  not  the  least  regard 
was  paid  by  the  pope ;  no  legates  were 'sent, 
nor  does  it  appear  that  a  single  letter  was 
written  either  to  the  emperor,  or  to  the  duke 
of  Austria,  in  behalf  of  the  king,  during  the 
whole  time  of  his  captivity.  Celestine  pro- 
bably gave  him  up  for  lost,  and  was  unwil- 
ling to  disoblige  either  of  these  princes  for 
the  sake  of  one,  whom  he  looked  upon  as 
no  longer  able  to  make  him  a  suitable  return. 
The  unhappy  prince  was  therefore  obliged, 
in  the  end,  to  purchase  his  liberty  with  the 
exorbitant  sum  of  150,000  marks  of  silver; 
nor  was  he  released  from  his  captivity  till 
two-thirds  of  that  sum  were  paid,  and  host- 
ages were  left  for  the  payment  of  the  re- 
mainder. Thus  he  at  last  recovered  his 
liberty  in  the  beginning  of  February,  1194, 
when  he  had  been  kept  in  captivity  ever 
since  the  20lh  of  December,  1192. 

The  pope,  who  had  been  hitherto  so  very 
backward  in  employing  his  good  offices  in 
behalf  of  the  king,  no  sooner  heard  of  his 
being  set  at  liberty,  than  he  espoused  his 
cause  with  great  zeal,  thundering  out  the 
sentence  of  excommunication  against  the 
duke  of  Austria,  and  threatening  the  impe- 
rial dominions  with  an  anathema,  if  the 
ransom  money  was  not  immediately  restored. 


>  Petrus  Bles.  Ep.  145.  a  Idem,  p.  146. 


and  the  hostages  dismissed.  He  wrote  like- 
wise to  the  king  of  France,  who,  at  the  in- 
stigation of  John,  the  king's  brother,  had 
invaded  his  Norman  dominions,  requiring 
him  to  forbear  all  hostilities  against  the  king 
of  England,  upon  pain  of  incurring  the  in- 
dignation of  St.  Peter.  The  duke  chose 
rather  to  incur  all  the  censures  of  Rome 
than  to  part  either  with  the  money  or  the 
hostages  :  and  he  was  accordingly  solemnly 
excommunicated  by  the  bishop  of  Verona, 
pursuant  to  the  pope's  mandate,  dated  at  St. 
Peter's  the  6ih  of  June  of  the  present  year. 
But  the  duke  having  not  long  after  received, 
by  a  fall  from  his  horse,  a  hurt  in  his  leg 
that  proved  mortal,  ordered,  at  the  point  of 
death,  the  money  to  be  returned  and  the 
hostages  to  be  dismissed ;  and  he  was  there- 
upon absolved  from  the  excommunication.' 
The  following  year,  1195,  an  affair  that 
happened  in  France  gave  the  pope  more 
trouble  and  concern  than  the  captivity  of 
Richard.  The  French  king,  Philip  Augus- 
tus, upon  the  death  of  his  first  wife,  Eliza- 
beth, daughter  to  Baldwin  earl  of  Hanau, 
had  married  Ingelburga,  the  daughter  of 
Canutus  IV.  king  of  Denmark,  but  had 
divorced  her  soon  after  the  marriage  was 
consummated,  under  pretence  that  she  was 
related  to  him  within  the  forbidden  degrees 
of  consanguinity  ;  a  pretence  common  to  all 
who  wanted  to  get  rid  of  their  wives.  This 
divorce  was  declared  lawful  by  the  Gallicaa 
bishops.  But  the  king  of  Denmark  com- 
plaining to  the  pope  of  the  affront  offered  to 
his  daughter,  and  maintaining  that  if  Philip 
was  at  all  related  to  her,  it  was  not  within 
the  degrees  forbidden  by  the  church,  his 
holiness  sent  two  legates  into  France,  Melior 
cardinal  presbyter,  and  Cencius  subdeacon, 
to  assemble  a  council  at  Paris  of  all  the 
archbishops,  bishops,  and  abbots  of  the  king- 
dom, and  inquire  jointly  with  them  whether 
Philip's  plea  was  well  or  ill  grounded.  By 
that  great  assembly  sentence  was  pronounced 
in  favour  of  the  king,  and  confirmed  by  the 
legates,  either  afraid,  says  the  historian,  to 
disoblige  that  prince,  or  gained  by  his  pre- 
sents. But  in  the  mean  time  a  public  in- 
strument concerning  the  genealogy  of  the 
princess  being  sent  to  the  pope  by  the  arch- 
bishop of  London  and  his  suffragans,  and 
the  king's  plea  appearing  from  thence  to  be 
entirely  groundless,  his  holiness  declared  in 
a  letter  to  the  archbishop  of  Sens  the  sen- 
tence of  the  counci-1  of  Paris  to  be  null,  re- 
voked it  as  such,  and  strictly  enjoined  that 
prelate  to  exhort  the  king  to  take  again  to  his 
bed  Ingelburga,  his  lawful  wife,  and  restrain 
him  by  apostolic  authority  from  marrying  any 
other  woman  in  her  lifetime.  In  that  letter 
he  reprimands  the  archbishop  and  the  other 


»  Dicelo,  p.  668.     Hoveden  ubi  supra.     Matth.  Paris 
ad  ann.  1195.    Neubrig.  1.  5.  c.  6. 

2u2 


534 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Celestine  ni. 


Celibacy  restored  in  Poland;  opposed  in  Bohemia;— [Y 
crowned  king  of  Sicily.     Celestine' 


ear  of  Christ,  1197.]     Death  of  the  emperor. 
sdeath;  —  [Yeajr  of  Christ,  1198.] 


His  son 


Galilean  bishops  very  severely  for  presuming 
to  determine  a  cause  of  such  importance 
without  consulting  the  apostolic  see,  to 
which  all  greater  causes  have  been  reserved 
by  the  repeated  decrees  of  the  fathers.  The 
power  of  judging  and  determining  all  greater 
causes  was  by  several  councils  vested  in  the 
pope.  But  as  the  councils  did  not  determine 
which  were  and  which  were  not  greater 
causes,  the  popes  took  upon  ihem  to  deter- 
mine every  cause  of  any  importance  as  one 
of  those  causes.  The  pope's  letter  is  dated 
at  the  Lateran  in  the  month  of  March  in  the 
5th  year  of  his  pontificate.'  Philip,  paying 
no  regard  to  the  prohibition  of  the  pope,  or 
the  remonstrances  of  the  archbishop  of  Sens, 
married  Mary,  or,  as  others  call  her,  Agnes, 
the  daughter  of  the  duke  of  Bohemia,  soon 
after  the  archbishop  received  the  pope's 
letter.  Ingelburga,  hearing  of  that  marriage, 
wrote  a  most  affecting  letter  to  Celestine,  to 
acquaint  him  with  the  king's  marriage,  with 
the  undeserved  treatment  she  had  met  with, 
being  kept  closely  confined  in  a  castle,  and 
to  implore  his  holiness's  protection.^  But 
Celestine,  it  seems,  gave  himself  no  further 
trouble  about  that  affair,  and  the  king  lived 
with  the  princess  Mary  as  his  wife  till  the 
year  1201,  when  Innocent  III.  undertook 
with  great  zeal  the  cause  of  the  injured 
Ingelburga. 

Celestine  being  informed  that  in  Poland 
and  Bohemia  most  of  the  clergy  were  either 
married  or  publicly  kept  concubines,  sent 
the  following  year,  1 197,  Peter,  cardinal  dea- 
con of  St.  Mary  in  Via  Lata,  to  reform  those 
abuses,  and  cause  the  laws  of  celibacy,  as 
enjoined  by  several  councils,  to  be  strictly 
observed  by  the  clergy  of  both  nations.  In 
Poland  the  clergy  tamely  suffered  those  laws 
to  be  revived,  dismissed  their  wives  and  con- 
cubines, and  promised  to  follow  in  that  par- 
ticular the  example  of  the  Roman  clergy. 
But  the  very  name  of  celibacy  so  offended 
the  clergy  of  Bohemia,  that  they  would 
have  even  laid  violent  hands  upon  the  cardi- 
nal legate,  had  not  the  bishop  of  Prague  in- 
terposed.' 

The  emperor  dying  this  year  at  Messina 
on  the  28th  of  September,  the  pope  would 
not  permit  his  body  to  be  interred  without 
the  consent  of  the  king  of  England,  till  the 


«  Dicet.  in  Imag.  Hist.  p.  682.    Hoveden.    Rigordus. 
Chron.  Aquicinct.  &c. 
'Rigordus  ad  ann.  1196.  Baluz.  Miscell.  torn.  l.p.  422. 
'  Joannes  Longin. 


money  which  he  had  unjustly  extorted  from 
that  prince  was  returned.  But  the  emperor 
had,  by  his  last  will,  ordered  Frederic,  his 
son  and  successor,  to  return  the  whole  sum, 
and  begged  the  pope  to  exert  his  authority, 
and  force  him  to  it,  if  he  declined  it.'  Fre- 
deric was  the  emperor's  son  by  Constantia, 
who  alone  had  a  right  to  the  crown  of  Sicily, 
as  has  been  observed  above.^  However  as 
a  report  prevailed  that  Frederic  was  not  the 
son  of  Constantia  by  the  emperor,  whom 
she  never  loved,  the  archbishop  of  Messina 
thought  it  advisable  to  apply  to  the  pope  for 
leave  to  crown  him,  which  was  granted, 
but  upon  condition  that  Constantia  made/ 
oath  that  Frederic  was  her  son  by  the  late 
emperor,  and  that  the  new  king  paid  one 
thousand  marks  of  silver  to  the  pope  him- 
self, and  the  same  sum  to  the  cardinals; 
which  he  had  no  better  right  to  than  the  duke 
of  Austria  or  the  emperor  had  to  the  money 
they  extorted  from  the  king  of  England. 

In  the  mean  time  the  pope  being  taken 
dangerously  ill,  and  sensible  that  his  end 
approached,  as  he  was  now  in  the  ninety 
second  year  of  his  age,  assembled  the  cardi- 
nals, and  earnestly  recommended  to  them 
John,  cardinal  presbyter  of  St.  Prisca  for  his 
successor;  nay,  he  even  offered  to  resign, 
provided  they  agreed  to  choose  him.  But 
this  proposition  was  rejected  by  all  the  car- 
dinals to  a  man,  as  quite  unprecedented; 
and,  besides,  most  of  them  aspired  them- 
selves at  the  pontificate,  and  had  already 
formed  their  parties.  This  happened  a  little 
before  Christmas  ;  and  the  pope  died  on  the 
8th  of  the  following  January,  after  a  ponti- 
ficate of  six  years,  nine  months,  and  nine 
days."  Celestine  canonized  during  his  pon- 
tificate four  saints,  Ubald  bishop  of  Eugubio, 
Malachy  archbishop  of  Armagh,  John  Gual- 
bert  abbot,  and  Bernard  bishop  of  Hildes- 
heim.  Till  this  pope's  time  the  children 
who  had  been  by  their  parents  offered  up  to 
monasteries  while  yet  infants,  were  bound, 
when  they  attained  to  the  years  of  discre- 
tion, to  confirm  the  vows  their  parents  had 
made  for  them,  and  embrace  a  monastic 
life,  though  not  their  own  choice.  But 
Celestine  absolved  by  a  particular  bull  all 
children  from  that  obligation,  and  declared 
them  free  to  return  to  the  world,  if  they 
chose  it;  and  his  bull  was  confirmed  by  the 
council  of  Trent. 


'  Epist.  Innocent.  20. 
3  Hoveden,  p.  777. 


2  See  p.  520. 


Innocent  HI.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


535 


Innocent  III.  elected.     He  subjects  the  city  of  Rome  to  his  see.     Recovers  several  cities  as  the  pattiraony  of 
St.  Peter.     Revokes  some  privileges  granted  to  the  king  of  Sicily. 


INNOCENT  III.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  SEVENTY-FOURTH 
BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[IsAACius  Angelus,  Alexius  Angelus,  Alexius  Ducas,  Theodorus  Lascaris,  Emperors 
of  the  East. — Philip,  Otto  IV.,  Emperors  of  the  West.'] 


[Year  of  Christ,  1 198.]  Celestine  died  on 
tlie  8th  of  January,  and  the  cardinals,  having 
first  performed  the  exequies  of  the  deceased 
pope,  met  at  a  place  called  Septa  Solis,  and 
on  the  same  day,  the  8th  of  January,  chose 
cardinal  Lotharius  to  succeed  him.  As  Lo- 
tharius  had  not  yet  completed  his  37th  year, 
some  of  the  cardinals  objected  to  his  age, 
especially  those  among  them  who  were  ad- 
vanced in  years,  as  they  could  entertain  no 
hopes  of  surviving  him,  or  ever  attaining  to 
the  pontifical  dignity  ;  and  three  others  were 
nominated.-  But  he  was  in  the  end  elected 
by  a  great  majority  on  account  of  his  irre- 
proachable character,  his  learning,  and  his 
excellent  parts.'  He  was  a  native  of  Anagni, 
and  the  son  of  Trasimund,  sprung  from  the 
illustrious  family  of  the  counts  of  Segni.  In 
his  youth  he  studied  at  Rome,  then  at  Paris, 
and  lastly  at  Bologna,  and  he  every  where 
distinguished  himself  above  all  his  fellow- 
students,  both  in  philosophy  and  divinity. 
He  was  ordained  subdeacon  by  Gregory 
VIII.,  and  preferred  to  the  dignity  of  cardi- 
nal-deacon by  Clement  III.  He  took,  as 
soon  as  he  was  elected,  the  name  of  Inno- 
cent III.  As  he  was  but  a  deacon,  and  or- 
ders were  only  conferred  in  the  Ember- 
weeks,  he  was  not  ordained  priest  till  Satur- 
day of  the  Ember-week  in  Lent,  the  21st  of 
February  ;  and  the  following  Sunday  he 
was  consecrated  high  pontiff,  with  the  usual 
ceremonies,  in  the  presence  of  four  archbi- 
shops, twenty-eight  bishops,  six  presbyter 
and  nine  deacon  cardinals,  and  ten  abbots. 
With  these  he  went  in  procession  from  St. 
Peter's  to  the  Lateran,  being  attended  by  the 
prefect  of  the  city,  by  the  magistrates,  and 
all  the  Roman  nobility ;  and  after  his  coro- 
nation he  entertained  them  all  with  great 
magnificence  in  the  Lateran  Palace.^  He 
issued  several  bulls  before  his  consecration, 
but  sealed  them  only  with  one  half  of  the 
pontifical  seal.  However,  by  circulatory 
letters  to  all  the  bishops  he  declared  them  to 
have  the  same  force  and  authority  as  if  the 
whole  seal  were  annexed  to  them.  This 
letter  is  dated  at  the  Lateran,  the  3d  of  April.'' 

Innocent  was  perfectly  well  qualified  to 
raise  the  papal  power  and  authority  to  the 
highest  pitch,  and  we  shall  see  him  im- 
proving, with  great  address,  every  opportu- 
nity that  offered  to  compass  that  end.     He 

•  Acta  Vit.  apiid  Bosquet.        a  Acta  ibid. 
3  Epist.  Innocent,  1.  1.  £p.  83. 


began  with  entirely  subjecting  the  city  of 
Rome  to  his  see.  The  prefect  of  the  city, 
as  well  as  the  other  magistrates,  had  hitherto 
taken  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  emperor 
only.  But  Innocent,  the  very  next  day  after 
his  consecration,  insisted  upon  their  taking 
that  oath  to  him ;  and  to  him  they  all  took  it, 
accordingly,  as  their  lawful  sovereign,  quite 
independent  of  the  emperor.  He  invested 
the  prefect  in  his  office,  delivering  to  him 
the  mantle,  which  he  had  hitherto  received 
at  the  hands  of  the  emperor  or  his  ministers, 
notwithstanding  the  agreement  which  the 
Romans  had  made  with  Clement  III.'  As 
the  "  March  of  Ancona"  was  held  by  Mar- 
cuvaldus,  seneschal  of  the  empire,  duke 
of  Ravenna,  and  marquis  of  Ancona,  the 
pope  sent  two  cardinals,  with  the  character 
of  legates,  to  recover  that  country,  as  be- 
longing to  the  apostolic  see.  The  legates 
were  every  where  received  by  the  people 
with  great  demonstrations  of  joy ;  and  the 
cities  of  Ancona,  Fermo,  Osirao,  Camerino, 
Sinigalia,  and  Fano,  withdrawing  them- 
selves from  all  subjection  to  Marcuvaldus, 
submitted  to  Innocent  as  their  lawful  lord. 
Their  example  was  followed  by  the  people 
of  the  dukedom  of  Spoleti,  of  the  county  of 
Assisi  and  Monte  Bello,  and  of  many  cities 
in  Tuscany,  who,  finding  themselves  sup- 
ported by  the  pope,  drove  out  the  usurper, 
received  the  legates,  and  in  their  presence 
swore  allegiance  to  the  apostolic  see.  At 
the  same  time  Innocent  took  into  his  pro- 
tection several  cities  in  Tuscany,  and  the 
confederate  states  of  Lombardy,  having  first 
obliged  them  to  swear  that  they  would  ac- 
knowledge no  emperor  till  he  was  acknow- 
ledged by  his  holiness.2 

Constantina,  the  widow  of  the  late  empe- 
ror Henry  V.,  no  sooner  heard  of  the  elec- 
tion of  Innocent,  than  she  applied  to  him  to 
be  invested,  together  with  her  son  Frederic, 
in  the  kingdom  of  Sicily,  the  dukedom  of 
Apulia,  and  the  principality  of  Capua,  with 
all  their  appurtenances.  The  pope  did  not 
question  her  right  or  her  son's  to  those  coun- 
tries, but  taking  advantage  of  the  govern- 
ment of  a  woman,  and  the  minority  of  the 
young  king,  he  insisted  upon  their  giving 
up  the  articles  of  agreement  between  his  pre- 
decessor Hadrian  IV.  and  William,  king  of 
Sicily,^  pretending  that  Hadrian's  consent 


>  See  p.  521. 

>  See  p.  494. 


sActaibid,  etEp.  405. 1.  1. 


536 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Innocent  III. 


Innocent  sends  legates  into  Germany.  The  archbishop  of  Salerno  released  from  his  captivity.  A  civil  war 
kindled  in  the  empire.  The  king  of  Galicia  excommunicated  by  Innocent,  who  causes  the  ransom  money 
to  be  restored  to  king  Richard  of  England. 


to  them  had  been  extorted  by  force,  as  being 
extremely  derogatory  to  the  dignity  of  the 
apostolic  see.  These  articles  were,  I.  That 
no  appeals  should  be  made  to  Rome,  except 
in  such  matters  as  could  not  be  settled  or 
determined  by  the  ecclesiastics  of  the  king- 
dom. II.  That  the  deputies  of  the  Roman 
church  should  perform  no  consecrations,  vi- 
sitations, or  other  functions  whatever  in  the 
places  where  the  king,  or  his  heirs,  should 
happen  to  be  at  the  time,  without  their  con- 
sent. III.  That  no  legates  should  be  sent 
into  Sicily  but  at  the  request  of  the  king,  or 
his  heirs.  IV.  That  the  bishops  should  be 
electsd  by  the  clergy,  but  should  not  be  in- 
ducted, nor  should  the  song  of  thanksgiving 
be  sung  till  the  election  was  notified  to,  and 
confirmed  by,  the  king,  or  his  heirs.  The 
pope  peremptorily  insisted  upon  the  queen's 
renouncing  the  first  three  articles,  without 
any  restriction  or  limitation  whatever ;  and 
upon  her  consenting  to  have  the  following 
words  added  to  the  fourth,  "  nor  shall  the 
elect  presume  to  intermeddle  with  the  ad- 
ministration till  he  is  confirmed  by  the 
pope."  The  queen  spared  no  pains  nor 
presents  to  gain  friends  in  the  conclave.  But 
the  pope  was  inflexible,  and  could,  upon  no 
other  terms,  be  prevailed  upon  to  grant  the 
investiture  either  to  her  or  her  son,  but  their 
giving  up  the  privileges  granted  by  Hadrian 
to  the  kings  of  Sicily.  And  in  the  end  she 
thought  it  advisable  to  yield,  as  the  only 
means  to  prevent  the  disturbances  that  the 
pope  might  otherwise  raise  in  the  kingdom 
during  the  minority  of  her  son.' 

The  affair  of  Sicily  being  settled  to  the 
satisfaction  of  the  pope,  he  despatched  two 
legates  into  Germany,  the  bishop  of  Sutri, 
by  birth  a  German,  and  the  abbot  of  St. 
Anastasius,  a  Cistercian  monk,  to  procure 
the  liberty  of  the  archbishop  of  Salerno, 
whom  the  late  emperor  had  taken  prisoner 
upon  his  declaring  for  Tancred,  raised  by  a 
strong  party  to  the  crown  of  Sicily,  in  oppo- 
sition to  him.  The  emperor  dying  soon 
after,  left  the  archbishop  with  his  brother 
Philip,  duke  of  Suevia,  who  kept  him  close- 
ly confined  as  a  traitor.  Innocent  thinking 
it  inconsistent  with  the  dignity  and  the  au- 
thority of  high  pontiff  tamely  to  suffer  an 
archbishop  to  be  thus  treated,  ordered  the 
legates  to  excommunicate  those  who  de- 
tained him;  nay,  and  to  lay  all  Germany 
under  an  interdict,  if  he  was  not  set  at  liber- 
ty in  a  limited  time.  The  legates,  upon 
their  arrival  in  Germany,  applied,  in  the 
first  place,  to  the  duke  of  Suevia,  who 
agreed  at  once  to  dimiss  not  only  the  arch- 
bishop, but  all  the  ecclesiastics  who  had 
been  taken  with  him,  upon  condition  they 
absolved  him  from  the  excommunication  that 
pope   Celestine   had,  it  seems,  denounced 

«  Acta  ibid,  et  Inn.  Ep.  410. 1.  1. 


against  him,  for  seizing  upon  some  territo- 
ries in  Tuscany,  which  the  pope  claimed 
as  the  patrimony  of  St.  Peter.  With  that 
proposal  the  legates  readily  closed  ;  and  thus 
was  the  archbishop  restored  to  his  liberty, 
after  a  four  years'  painful  confinement.' 

The  legates  had  not  yet  left  Germany, 
when  Phihp  of  Suevia,  having  gained  some 
of  the  German  princes,  caused  himself  to  be 
proclaimed  king  of  the  Romans ;  and  he 
was  anointed  as  suchatMentz,  by  the  arch- 
bishop of  Taranto,  the  German  bishops  all 
declining  to  perform  that  ceremony.  Of  all 
the  bishops  who  were  present  at  that  cere- 
mony, the  pope's  legate  alone,  the  bishop 
of  Sutri,  appeared  in  his  pontifical  orna- 
ments, which  so  provoked  the  pope,  as  the 
affair  had  not  been  communicated  to  him, 
that  he  deposed  the  bishop  upon  his  return 
to  Rome.  In  the  mean  time  the  archbishops 
of  Cologne  and  Treves,  and  the  far  greater 
part  of  the  princes  of  the  empire,  chose  first 
Bertolph,  or  Barthold,  duke  of  Zaringia, 
and  upon  his  resigning  soon  after  his  elec- 
tion, they  sent  for  Otho,  the  son  of  Henry, 
late  duke  of  Saxony,  who  was  then  in  Nor- 
mandy, with  Richard,  king  of  England,  his 
uncle.  Upon  his  arrival  he  was  unanimous- 
ly elected  at  Cologne,  and  solemnly  crowned 
by  the  archbishop  of  that  city,  at  Aix-la 
Chapelle.  Innocent  declared  warmly  for 
Otho ;  and  thus  was  a  civil  war  kindled  in 
the  bowels  of  the  empire. 

Innocent  in  the  very  beginning  of  his  pon- 
tificate excommunicated  AlphonsusX.  king 
of  Galicia  and  Leon,  for  refusing  to  dismiss 
Tarsia,  the  daughter  of  Sanctius  king  of 
Portugal,  whom  he  had  married  within  the 
forbidden  degrees.  He  likewise  threatened 
Sanctius  with  excommunication  if  he  did 
not  remit  to  Rome  without  delay  the  sum 
which  his  father  Alphonsus,  upon  his  re- 
ceiving the  title  of  king,  had  bound  himself 
and  his  heirs  to  pay  yearly  to  the  successor 
of  St.  Peter.^  At  the  same  time  he  wrote, 
at  the  request  of  king  Richard,  to  the  arch- 
bishop of  Magdeburg,  commanding  him  to 
let  the  duke  of  Suevia  know,  that  he  was 
bound,  as  brother  and  heir  to  the  late  em- 
peror, to  restore  the  money  that  had  been  so 
unjustly  extorted  from  the  king  of  England  ; 
and  that  if  he  did  not  comply  with  that  obli- 
gation, he  should  soon  proceed  against  him 
and  his  territories,  being  determined  not  to 
let  pass  such  a  crying  piece  of  injustice 
without  the  deserved  punishment.''  This 
letter  is  dated  the  31st  of  May  ;  and  the  pope 
had  writ  the  day  before  to  the  son  of  the 
duke  of  Austria,  and  told  him  that  as  his 
father,  when  upon  his  death-bed,  had  made 
him  promise  upon  oath  to  restore  the  money 
which  he  had,  with  the  utmost  injustice. 


«  Epist.  24,  25,  26. 

■>  Epist.  91,  92.  1.  1 ;  et  Epist.  75.  1. 2.    =  Epist.  236. 


Innocent  III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


537 


Embassy  from  the  Greek  emperor  to  Innocent.     Innocent  made  guardian  to  the  young  king  of  Sicily.     Dis- 
turbances in  Sicily  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1199.]     Quieted  by  Innocent.    Three  pretenders  to  the  crown  of 
Innocent  declares  for  Otho,  or  Olio  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1200  ' 


Germany. 


200.] 


I'orced  ilie  king  of  England  to  pay  by  way 
of  ransom,  he  thought  it  hi.s  duty  to  remind 
him  of  that  obligation,  and  had  writ  to  the 
archbishop  of  Sallzburg,  ordering  that  pre- 
late to  proceed  to  the  sentence  of  excommu- 
nication against  him,  and  to  lay  all  his  terri- 
tories under  an  interdict,  if  he  did  not  fulfil, 
without  delay,  his  father's  last  will.'  As 
neither  of  those  princes  was  excommuni- 
cated, we  may  suppose  them  to  have  com- 
plied with  the  pope's  injunction.  For  In- 
nocent was  not  a  man  to  content  himself 
with  menaces  only  when  his  orders  were 
not  obeyed.  Besides,  as  he  was  an  avowed 
enemy  to  the  duke  of  Suevia,  and  had  es- 
poused the  cause  of  his  rival,  he  would  not, 
in  all  likelihood,  have  spared  him,  had  he 
not  satisfied  both  him  and  the  king. 

Ale.xander  Angehis,  emperor  of  Constan- 
tinople, hearing  of  the  promotion  of  Inno- 
cent, dispatched  a  solemn  embassy  to  Rome, 
with  very  rich  presents  for  his  holiness,  beg- 
ging he  would  send  legates  into  the  East  to 
treat  of  a  union  between  the  two  churches. 
Innocent  received  the  presents,  and  in  com- 
pliance with  the  emperor's  request  sent  Al- 
bert, subdeacon,  and  a  notary  of  the  same 
name,  charged  with  letters  for  the  emperor, 
and  likewise  for  the  patriarch.  He  exhorted 
the  emperor  to  assist  the  Latins  to  the  ut- 
most of  his  power  in  recovering  the  holy 
city,  and  promote,  so  far  as  in  him  lay,  the 
union  of  the  two  churches,  and  the  subjec- 
tion of  the  Greek  to  the  Latin.  Several  let- 
ters passed  on  this  occasion  between  the 
pope  and  the  patriarch  of  Constantinople 
concerning  the  primacy  of  St.  Peter  and  the 
Roman  see.  It  was  in  the  end  concluded, 
tiiat  a  general  council  should  meet,  and  the 
points  in  dispute  be  there  determined  by  the 
whole  church.  The  emperor  promised  to 
oblige  the  patriarch  and  all  the  other  bishops 
in  his  dominions  to  attend  the  council.  But 
the  patriarch  and  the  other  bishops  observing 
to  the  emperor,  that  the  pope  in  one  of  his 
letters  had  threatened  both  him  and  them 
with  excommunication,  if  they  did  not  sub- 
mit to  his  church,  he  repented  the  promise 
he  had  made,  and  wrote  to  the  pope,  that 
he  had  promised  to  send  his  bishops  to  the 
council,  but  tliat  it  was  only  upon  condition 
they  met  in  the  East,  where  the  four  first 
councils  had  been  held.  To  this  the  pope 
would  not  agree,  as  the  emperor  well  knew 
before-hand  ;  and  thus  the  design  was  dropt.^ 

In  the  latter  end  of  the  present  year,  1198, 
died  in  Sicily  the  empress  Conslantia,  and 
bv  her  last  will  appointed  the  pope  guardian 
to  her  son  Frederic,  yet  a  minor,  ordering 
thirty  thousand  turini  to  be  paid  yearly  to 
his  holiness,  and  more  if  thought  necessary, 
to  defray  the  expenses  of  the  government, 
and  defend  the  king  and  the  kingdom.    Con- 


i  Epist.  242. 

Vol  II.— 68 


>Acta.  p.  60;  et  Epist.  211. 


stantia  was  the  daughter  of  king  Roger,  and 
the  last  of  the  lawful  race  of  the  Normans. 
She  married,  as  has  been  said,  the  emperor 
Henry,  and  had  by  him  Frederic,  who,  by 
right  of  his  mother,  became,  upon  his  fa- 
ther's death,  king  of  Sicily.  The  pope  rea- 
dily accepted  of  the  trust,  and  wrote  imme- 
diately to  the  archbishops  of  Palermo,  Mon- 
reale,  and  Reggio,  to  acquaint  them  that  he 
had  accepted  of  the  guardianship  "  not  only 
in  word  but  in  deed."  At  the  same  time 
he  sent  Gregory,  cardinal  of  St.  Mary  in 
Porticu,  into  Sicily,  with  the  character  of 
his  legate,  to  lake  the  government  of  the 
island  upon  him  in  his  name.  The  cardinal 
upon  his  arrival  in  Sicily  obliged  all  the  bi- 
shops and  the  barons  to  swear  allegiance  to 
Innocent  as  regent  of  the  kingdom,  and  then 
returned  to  Rome.'  Such  were  the  exploits 
of  the  first  year  of  Innocent's  pontificate. 

Marcuvaldus,  a  powerful  German  lord, 
upon  whom  the  emperor  Henry  had  be- 
stowed several  baronies  in  Apulia  and  in 
Sicily,  no  sooner  heard  of  the  death  of  Con- 
stantia,  than  assembling  all  his  friends  and 
countrymen,  he  attacked  and  reduced  many 
of  the  strongholds  in  Apulia,  with  a  design 
of  making  himself  master  of  the  kingdom. 
But  Innocent,  not  satisfied  with  solemnly 
excommunicating  Marcuvaldus  and  all  his 
adherents,  ordered  them  to  be  cursed  with 
bell,  book,  and  candle,  on  every  Sunday 
and  holyday  till  they  left  the  kingdom,  or 
laid  down  their  arms.  As  very  little  re- 
gard was  had  by  Marcuvaldus  and  his  Ger- 
mans to  these  anathemas.  Innocent  resolved 
to  back  his  spiritual  with  his  temporal  arms. 
Having,  therefore,  raised  a  considerable 
army,  he  sent  it  over  to  Sicily,  under  the 
command  of  John,  his  cousin  and  marshal, 
reputed  one  of  the  most  experienced  war- 
riors of  his  time.  The  marshal,  upon  his 
arrival  in  Sicily,  found  Marcuvaldus  besieg- 
ing the  city  of  Palermo  with  his  Germans 
and  all  the  Saracens  of  the  island,  whom  he 
had  gained  over  to  his  party.  He  attacked 
them  nevertheless,  and  after  a  most  obsti- 
nate resistance  put  them  to  flight,  and  pur- 
sued them  with  such  slaughter,  that  Marcu- 
valdus was  obliged  to  abandon  thekingdom.^ 

In  Germany  the  princes,  as  well  as  the 
people,  were  divided  into  three  opposite  ^ 
parties,  Philip  of  Suevia,  the  late  emperor's  '^ 
brother,  having  been  by  one  party  chosen*^*^ 
king  of  Germany,  and  Otho  of  Saxony  h^^^, 
another,  while  many  maintained  that  t'^  °^ 
imperial  crown  belonged,  of  right,  to  yor  ^^P^ 
Frederic,  the  son  of  the  late  emperor,."*'"  ^ 
that,  as  they  had  sworn  allegiance  to  '*^'^?  °' 
while  he  was  yet  in  the  cradle,  they  at  prince 
acknowledge  no  other.  Innocent,  to ''^  will  be 
the  evil  consequences  of  such  a  r'V^'"^'*;  but 
declared  Otho  lawfully  elected,  ar ■ 


>  Epist.  563. 


»  Epist.  280.    Act.  In 


Arnold.    Lubec. 


538 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Innocent  III. 


The  kingdom  of  France  put  under  an  interdict ; — [Year  of  Christ,  1201.]  The  king  obliged  to  recall  his  lawful 
wife.  Embassy  to  Innocent  from  the  king  of  Armenia ; — [Year  of  Christ,  1202.]  The  kingdom  of  Bulgaria 
reunited  to  the  apostolic  see. 


beginning  of  the  following  year,  1200,  sent 
the  two  cardinals,  Octavian,  bishop  of 
Oslia,  and  Guido,  bishop  of  Palestrina,  to 
notify  this,  his  declaration,  to  the  German 
princes,  and  command  them,  in  his  name, 
to  abandon  Philip  and  acknowledge  Otho. 
But,  notwithstanding  the  pope's  declaration, 
many  continued  to  adhere  to  Philip,  which 
occasioned  a  most  destructive  war  till  the 
year  1207,  when  Philip  and  Otho  came  to 
an  agreement,  as  we  shall  see  in  the  sequel. 
In  this  dispute  Preraislaus,  duke  of  Bohe- 
mia, sided  first  with  Philip,  but  afterwards 
quitted  his  party  and  became  one  of  Otho's 
most  zealous  partisans,  which  so  pleased 
the  pope  that  he  bestowed  upon  him  the  title 
of  king,  which  none  of  his  predecessors  had 
granted  to  any  of  the  dukes  of  Bohemia, 
though  Wratislaus,  the  twentieth  duke,  had 
been  created  king  by  the  emperor  Henry 
III.,  in  1086.' 

As  Philip  Augustus,  king  of  France,  had 
not  yet  recalled  Ingelburga,  his  lawful  wife, 
but  keeping  her  confined,  continued  to  live 
with  Mary,  the  daughter  of  the  duke  of  Bo- 
hemia, Innocent  dispatched  into  France, 
Peter,  cardinal  deacon  of  St.  Mary,  in  Via 
Lata,  with  positive  orders  to  lay  all  the 
king's  dominions  under  an  interdict,  if  he 
did  not  dismiss  Mary,  aild  own  Ingelburga 
for  his  lawful  wife.  The  legate,  upon  his 
arrival  in  France,  held  two  councils,  the  one 
at  Dijon,  the  other  at  Vienne ;  and  in  the 
latter  he  pronounced  the  sentence  of  inter- 
dict, forbidding  ecclesiastics  of  all  ranks, 
upon  pain  of  suspension,  to  perform  any 
sacred  function  Avhatever,  within  the  king's 
dominions,  except  the  christening  of  infants, 
and  absolving  penitents  at  the  point  of  death. 
The  king  appealed  to  the  pope;  but  Inno- 
cent, instead  of  revoking  or  suspending  the 
sentence  of  the  legate,  confirmed  it ;  inso- 
much that  Philip  was  in  the  end  obliged  to 
submit,  and  apply  to  the  pope  for  a  legate  to 
take  off  the  interdict,  the  people  beingevery- 
where  ready  to  revolt.  Innocent  sent  car- 
dinal Octavian,  bishop  of  Ostia,  who,  in  a 
council  held  at  St.  Leodegarius,  in  Nivele, 
on  the  7th  of  September,  absolved  the  king- 
dom from  the  interdict,  but  upon  condition, 
thafin  the  space  of  six  months,  six  weeks,  six 
days,  and  six  hours,  the  king  should  recall 
Ingelburga;  and  that  if  he  did  not  within 
that  period,  a  council  should  meet  at  Sois- 
sons,  and  the  interdict  be  renewed.  The 
council  met  at  the  time  appointed,  and  the 
king,  as  well  as  Ingelburga,  presented  them- 
selves at  it  to  the  legate.  But  the  king, 
finding  the  legate  as  well  as  the  bishops  dis- 
posed to  declare  his  first  marriage  valid,  and 
quite  tired  with  the  altercations  of  the  ci- 
vilians, that  had  lasted  several  days,  left  the 
place  abruptly,  and  took  Ingelburga  with 


>  Act.  Inn.  et  Epist.  14,  15,  &c.  I.  3. 


him,  which  put  an  end  to  the  council.' — 
The  king  dismissed  Mary,  but  yet  was  not 
reconciled  to  Ingelburga  till  the  year  1213, 
when  Innocent  at  last  prevailed  upon  him, 
to  the  inexpressible  joy  of  all  France,  to  '■. 
take  her  to  his  bed  again.  I 

The  following  year  a  solemn  embassy  was 
sent  to  Innocent  by  Leo  or  Lievo,  king  of 
Armenia,  and  the  patriarch  Gregory,  to  as- 
sure his  holiness  that  in  all  material  points 
they  entirely  agree  with  the  Roman  church, 
and  to  implore  his  protection  against  the 
count  of  Tripoli,  the  people  of  Antioch,  and 
the  knights  templars,  treating  them,  though 
as  good  Christians  as  themselves,  no  better 
than  they  did  the  Saracens.  The  king 
begged,  besides,  that  his  holiness  would  re- 
serve to  himself  the  power  of  excommuni- 
cating him  or  any  of  his  subjects,  or  laying 
his  dominions  under  an  interdict.  The  pope 
complied  so  far  with  the  request  of  the  -king 
as  to  confine  to  himself,  to  his  legates  a 
Latere,  or  to  such  as  acted  by  his  particular 
mandate,  the  power  of  pronouncing  any 
sentence  against  him,  his  subjects,  or  his 
kingdom ;  and  sent  at  the  same  time,  at  the 
desire  of  the  king,  the  pall,  the  ring,  and  the 
mitre  to  Gregory,  lately  preferred  to  the 
patriarchal  dignity.^ 

The  same  year  Innocent  had  the  satisfac- 
tion of  reuniting  the  kingdom  of  Bulgaria 
and  Walachia  to  his  see.  The  Greeks  had 
been  long  masters  of  that  country,  and  had 
subjected  those  churches  to  the  see  of  Con- 
stantinople. But  Johannitius,  or  Calo-Jo- 
hannes,  descended  from  the  ancient  kings  of 
Bulgaria,  having  driven  out  the  Greeks,  and 
by  his  valour  made  himself  master  of  the 
whole  country,  wrote  a  very  submissive 
letter  to  the  pope  to  acquaint  him  therewith, 
and  beg  his  holiness  to  send  him  a  crown, 
such  a  crown  as  the  preceding  popes  used 
to  send  to  the  kings  of  Bulgaria  his  prede- 
cessors, as  he  was  no  less  zealously  attached 
to  the  apostolic  see  than  any  of  them.  Ba- 
silius,  archbishop  of  Bulgaria,  wrote  much 
to  the  same  purpose,  promising  in  the  king's 
name  and  his  own,  an  entire  submission  to 
the  apostolic  see.  Upon  the  receipt  of  these 
letters  the  pope  immediately  despatched  one 
of  his  chaplains  into  Bulgaria,  with  letters 
in  answer  to  those  he  had  received  from  the 
king  and  the  archbishop  ;  and  being  inform- 
ed by  the  chaplain  of  the  state  of  afl'airs  in 
that  kingdom,  he  sent  a  legate  a  Liutere,  with 
the  pall,  the  ring,  and  the  mitre  for  the 
archbishop,  but  delayed  sending  the  crown 
till  the  kingdom  was  reconciled,  with  the 
usual  ceremonies,  to  the  church.  This  was 
done  in  the  latter  end  of  the  present  year, 
the  king  swearing  perpetual  obedience  to 
Innocent  and  his  successors  lawfully  elected ; 


«  Act.  Inn.    Hoveden  ad  ann.  1200. 
>  Act.  Inn.  et  Epist.  43—48. 


Innocent  III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


539 


A  legate  sent  into  Bulgaria.  The  king  of  Arragon  at  Rome  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  1204.]  Crowned  by  the  pope. 
Oath  taken  by  the  king  at  his  coronation.  Philip  elected  anew  king  of  Germany.  The  archbishop  of  Co- 
logne excommunicated. 


and  in  the  following  January  Leo,  cardinal 
presbyter  of  the  holy  cross,  was  sent  into 
Bulgaria  with  the  crown  and  all  the  other 
ensigns  of  royalty.  But  as  he  passed  through 
the  territories  of  Andrew,  king  of  Hungary, 
he  was  stopped  by  that  prince,  on  account 
of  some  differences  subsisting,  at  that  time, 
between  him  and  the  king  of  Bulgaria. 
This  the  pope  looked  upon  as  a  gross  af- 
front offered  to  the  apostolic  see,  and  repre- 
senting it  as  such  in  the  letter  he  wrote,  on 
that  occasion,  to  the  king,  he  threatened 
him  with  excommunication,  if  he  did  not 
forthwith  dismiss  the  legale,  and  suffer  him 
to  proceed  on  his  journey.  The  king,  dread- 
ing the  consequences  of  an  excommunica- 
tion, which  he  knew  the  kin^  of  Bulgaria 
would  not  fail  to  improve  to  his  advantage, 
dismissed  the  legate,  who,  arriving  in  Bul- 
garia, crowned  the  king  with  extraordinary 
pomp  and  solemnity.  It  is  observable  that 
on  this  occasion  the  legate  granted  to  the 
king,  in  the  pope's  name,  the  privilege  ot 
coining  money,  which  every  prince  had 
hitherto  looked  upon  as  inherent  in  his 
crown,  and  quite  independent  of  the  pope. 
The  king,  to  convince  the  pope  of  his  sin- 
cerity, sent  with  the  legate,  on  his  return  to 
Rome,  one  of  his  own  sons  to  be  educated 
there.' 

Innocent  was  no  less  pleased  with  the 
submission  of  Peter  II.,  king  of  Arragon, 
than  with  that  of  Calo-Johannes,  king  of 
Bulgaria.  For  the  king  of  Arragon  would 
be  crowned  by  the  pope  himself,  and  came 
for  that  purpose,  in  the  month  of  September 
of  the  present  year,  with  a  grand  and  nu- 
merous retinue  to  Rome.  The  pope  sent 
the  prefect  of  the  city  and  the  nobility 
in  a  body  to  meet  him ;  and  by  them  he 
was  attended  to  St.  Peter's, where  Innocent 
received  him  with  the  greatest  marks  of  es- 
teem and  affection,  and  allotted  him  the 
house  of  the  canons  of  that  church  for  his 
habitation,  ordering  him  to  be  treated  with 
all  the  magnificence  suitable  to  his  rank. 
On  the  thiid  day  after  his  arrival,  the  festi- 
val of  St.  Martin,  or  the  Ilth  of  November, 
the  pope,  attended  by  the  whole  college  of 
cardinals,  by  the  heads  of  the  clergy,  by  all 
the  magistrates  and  ihe  nobility,  went  to  the 
monastery  of  St.  Pancratius,  and  having 
caused  the  king  to  be  anointed  there,  in  his 
presence,  by  the  bishop  of  Porto,  he  placed 
the  crown  upon  his  head  with  his  own 
hand,  upon  his  taking  tlie  following  oath  : 
"I,  Peter,  king  of  the  Arragonians  profess 
and  promise  to  be  ever  faithlul  and  obedient 
to  my  lord  pope  Innocent,  to  his  catholic 
successors,  and  the  Roman  church,  and 
faithfully  to  preserve  my  kingdom  in  his 
obedience,  defending  the  catholic  faith,  and 
persecuting  heretical  pravity.  I  shall  main- 
tain the  liberty  and  immunity  of  the  churches, 
«  Act.  Inn.  et  I.  7.  Epist. 


and  defend  their  rights.  1  shall  strive  to 
promote  peace  and  justice  throughout  my 
dominions.  So  help  me  God  and  these  his 
holy  gospels."  The  king,  thus  crowned, 
returned  with  the  pope  to  the  church  of  St. 
Peter,  and  there  laying  his  crown  and  his 
scepter  upon  the  altar  of  that  saint,  he  re- 
ceived a  sword  from  his  holiness,  and  in  re- 
turn made  his  kingdom  tributary  to  the 
apostolic  see,  binding  himself,  his  heirs  and 
successors  for  ever  to  pay  yearly  to  Inno- 
cent and  his  successors  two  hundred  and 
fifty  pieces  of  gold  called  Massenutina?. 
This  grant  was  signed  by  the  king,  and  is 
dated,  as  we  read  it  in  the  acts  of  Innocent, 
at  St.  Peter's,  the  Uth  of  November,  the 
8th  year  of  king  Peter's  reign,  and  of  our 
Lord  I204.> 

Innocent  had  declared,  as  we  have  seen, 
in  favor  of  Otho,  duke  of  Saxony,  elected 
by  one  parly  king  of  Germany,  against 
Philip  of  Suevia,  chosen  by  another.  He 
objected  to  the  election  of  Philip,  its  not 
being  made  in  the  manner  prescribed  by  the 
laws  of  the  empire;  nor  indeed  was  it,  and 
of  this  Philip  himself  was  aware.  His  rival 
therefore  being  taken  dangerously  ill,  and 
his  recovery  despaired  of,  he  appointed  a 
diet  to  meet  at  Aix-la-Ghapelle,  and  there 
resigning  the  crown,  to  which,  he  said,  some 
questioned  his  right,  he  applied  to  them  to 
elect  him  anew,  if  they  judged  him  worthy 
of  the  empire.  The  diet  was  numerous, 
and  as  they  all  concurred  with  their  sufiVages 
in  replacing  him  on  the  throne,  he  was  an- 
ointed and  crowned  with  the  usual  ceremo- 
nies by  Adolphus  archbishop  of  Cologne, 
who  had  been  one  of  Otho's  most  zealous 
partizans.  The  pope,  highly  provoked  at 
the  conduct  of  the  archbishop  in  presuming 
to  crown  Philip,  while  Oiho,  whom  the 
apostolic  see  had  acknowledged,  was  still 
living,  ordered  SufTridus,  archbishop  of 
Mentz,  to  repair  with  the  bishop  of  Cam- 
bray  to  Cologne,  and  there  publicly  to  pro- 
nounce, in  his  name,  the  sentence  of  excom- 
munication against  Adolpinis,  to  summon 
him  to  Rome,  and  if  he  refused  to  comply 
with  the  summons  to  remove  him  from  his 
office,  and  appoint  Bruno  of  Bon  in  his 
room.  Suffridus  executed  his  holiness's  or- 
ders. But  Adolphus,  paving  no  regard  to 
the  excommunication,  continued  to  exercise 
all  the  functions  of  his  ofiice  as  if  no  such 
sentence  had  ever  passed,  and  Bruno,  when 
he  came  to  take  'possession  of  the  see  of 
Cologne,  was  arrested  by  Philip,  and  kept 
closely  confined  till  the  year  12117,  when  he 
was  set  at  liberty  by  one  of  the  articles  of 
the  agreement  concluded  between  that  prince 
and  the  pope,  of  which  mention  will  be 
made  in  the  sequel.^    Otho  recovered ;  but 


«  Act.  Inn.  Num.  120. 

'  Kranzius,  I.  7.  c.  24.    Trithem.  et  Arnold.     Lubec. 
in  Chron. 


540 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Innocent  III. 


The  city  of  Constantinople  taken  by  tlie   Latins.     Uuldvvin,  earl  of  Flanders,  chosen  emperor.    The  Latin 
patriarch  confirmed  by  the  pope ; — [Year  of  Christ,  1205.]     Miraculous  image  of  the  Virgin  Mary. 


the  far  greater  part  of  the  princes  of  Ger- 
many coniinued,  in  defiance  of  the  pope's 
anathemas,  to  adhere  to  Philip. 

Innocent  had  the  satisfaction  of  receiving 
this  year  at  Rome  the  submission  of  the  pa- 
triarch of  Conslantinople,  the  Latin  patri- 
arch, the  Latins  having  made  themselves 
masters  of  that  city  on  the  following  occa- 
sion :  Isaacius  Angelus,  emperor  of  the  East, 
being,  in  the  year  1195,  deposed,  deprived 
of  his  sight,  and  confined  to  a  dungeon  by 
his  brother  Alexius  Angelus,  Alexius,  the 
son  of  the  deposed  emperor,  a  youth  then 
but  fifteen  years  of  age,  having  luckily  made 
his  escape,  repaired  to  Philip,  king  of  Ger- 
many, who  had  married  his  sister.  Philip 
received  him  with  great  humanity,  treated 
him  in  a  manner  suitable  to  his  rank,  and 
prevailed  upon  the  Croises  to  espouse  his 
cause,  upori  his  promising  to  assist  them  to 
the  utmost  of  his  power;  and  to  re-unite  the 
two  churches,  if  he  were  by  their  means 
placed  upon  the  throne  of  his  ancestors. 
The  powerful  supphes,  therefore,  consisting 
chiefly  of  French  and  Venetians,  destined 
for  the  relief  of  the  Christians  in  Palestine, 
sailing  from  Zara,  where  they  had  wintered, 
to  Constantinople,  attacked  that  city  by  sea 
and  land,  and  at  the  end  of  eight  days  obliged 
the  inhabitants  to  submit,  and  acknowledge 
young  Alexius  and  his  fattfer  Isaacius,  whom 
they  set  at  liberty,  for  lawful  emperors. 
Alexius  was  crowned  in  the  church  of  St. 
Sophia,  by  the  patriarch;  and  on  that  occa- 
sion the  father  ratified  all  the  promises  his 
son  had  made.  As  for  the  usurper,  he  found 
means  to  make  his  escape  before  the  Latins 
entered  the  city,  and  Alexius  was  crowned 
on  the  first  of  August  1203.  But  the  two 
emperors  being  obliged  to  lay  heavy  taxes 
upon  the  people,  to  make  good  the  promises 
they  had  made  to  the  Latins,  they  openly 
revolted,  and  proclaimed  Alexius  Ducas  em- 
peror, who  having  seized  young  Alexius, 
put  him  to  death  with  his  own  hand;  and 
his  father  Isaacius  dying  soon  after,  Ducas, 
now  master  of  the  empire  without  a  com- 
petitor, marched  out  against  the  French  and 
Venetians,  encamped  in  the  neighborhood, 
and  attacked  them  with  great  fury.  But 
they,  though  in  a  manner  surprised,  not 
only  stood  their  ground,  but  drove  the  enemy 
back  with  great  slaughter  into  the  city,  which 
they  immediately  besieged.  Ducas  defended 
the  walls  some  time  with  great  bravery;  but 
not  finding  himself  in  a  condition  to  with- 
stand the  repeated  efforts  of  the  victorious 
army,  and  apprehending  that,  should  he  fall 
into  their  hands,  they  would  revenge  upon 
him  the  murder  of  Alexius,  he  withdrew  in 
the  night  from  the  city,  and  left  the  citizens 
to  shift  for  themselves.  Upon  his  flight 
they  proclaimed  Theodorus  Lascaris,  his 
son-in-law,  emperor.  But  the  Latins  hav- 
ing, in  the  mean  time,  made  a  breach  in 
the  wall,  he  too  thought  it  advisable  to  con- 


sult his  own  safety  ;  and  the  citizens  retiring, 
upon  his  flight,  from  the  walls,  the  Latins 
entered  the  city  without  further  opposition, 
and  gave  it  up  to  be  plundered  by  the 
soldiery.  Thus  was  the  city  of  Constanti- 
nople taken  by  the  French  and  the  Venetians 
on  the  12th  of  April  1204,  and  Baldwin,  earl 
of  Flanders,  chosen  emperor,  and  crowned 
with  great  solenmity  on  the  16th  of  May  of 
the  same  year. 

As  by  an  agreement  between  the  French 
and  the  Venetians,  the  emperor  was  to  be 
ciiosen  out  of  the  former  nation,  and  the  patri- 
arch out  of  the  latter,  Thomas  Maurocenus, 
a  nobleman  of  Venice,  was  preferred  to  the 
patriarchal  dignity,  in  the  room  of  John 
Comaterus,  who  had  fled,  with  many  others 
of  the  clergy  as  well  as  the  laity.  The  con- 
duct of  the  Croises  was  at  first  highly  disap- 
proved and  severely  censured  by  the  pope, 
as  it  was  to  make  war  on  the  infidels,  and 
not  on  the  Christians,  that  they  had  taken 
the  cross.  However,  he  afterwards  ap- 
proved of  it,  upon  their  representing  to  him 
the  treacherous  behavior  of  the  late  em- 
peror, and  the  irreconcilable  hatred  he  bore 
to  the  Latins.  The  new  patriarch  came,  as 
soon  as  elected,  to  Rome,  to  have  his  elec- 
tion confirmed  by  the  pope,  and  thus  ac- 
knowledge his  dependance  upon  the  apos- 
tolic see.  But  Innocent,  instead  of  con- 
firming his  election,  declared  it  null,  as 
having  been  made  by  the  clergy,  who  had 
no  such  authority,  and  by  laymen,  who 
were  not  to  intermeddle  in  elections.  He 
was  nevertheless  prevailed  upon  by  the  em- 
peror Baldwin  to  confer  that  dignity  upon 
him  by  his  own  authority,  as  he  was  a  man 
of  an  irreproachable  character,  was  well 
known  to  Innocent,  and  by  all  judged 
worthy  of  the  high  station  to  which  they 
had  raised  him.  As  he  was  at  this  time  only 
subdeacon,  the  pope  ordained  him  first  dea- 
con, then  priest,  and  lastly  bishop,  and  gave 
him  the  pall,  reminding  him,  on  that  occa- 
sion, of  the  obedience  he  owed,  though  pa- 
triarch of  the  imperial  city,  to  the  successors 
of  the  prince  of  the  apostles  in  the  see  of 
Rome.' 

Alexias  Ducas,  upon  his  sallying  out  of  the 
city  of  Constantinople  to  attack  the  French 
and  the  Venetians,  caused  a  famous,  and  as 
was  believed,  a  miraculous  image  of  the 
Virgin  Mary,  to  be  carried  at  the  head  of  his 
army.  Of  this  image  frequent  mention  is 
made  by  all  the  Greek  historians,  and  the 
victories  the  emperors  gained  ever  since  the 
year  973,  are  all  ascribed  by  them  to  that 
image,  as  it  was  constantly  carried  before 
their  armies.  But  far  from  defending  them 
at  this  juncture,  it  was  not  able  to  defend 
itself,  and  was  taken  with  the  imperial  stan- 
dard. This  image  was  supposed  to  have 
been  painted  by  St.  Luke;  and  the  Venetians 


«  Acta  Inn.  Num.  92.  98.    Pagi  ad  ann.  1204,  1205. 


Innocent  III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


541 


The  new  patriarch's  conduct  censured  by  the  pope  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1206.]  The  pope  is  reconciled  to  Philip, 
king  of  Germany.  Quarrels  with  John,  king  of  England.  Occasion  of  this  quarrel.  The  king's  letter  to 
the  pope,  and  the  pope's  answer. 


pretend  the  image  that  is  to  be  seen  in  the 
church  of  St.  Mark,  at  Venice,  to  be  the 
identical  image  that  was  taken  by  them  on 
the  prtsent  occasion  from  the  Greeks.  But 
from  one  of  Innocent's  letters  it  appears  that 
the  image  supposed  to  have  been  painted  by 
St.  Luke  was  taken  by  the  Venetians  out  of 
the  church  of  St.  Sophia,  that  the  patriarch 
excommunicated  them  on  that  account,  and 
that  the  pope  confirmed  this  sentence,  and 
thus  obliged  them  to  restore  it." 

The  Venetians,  not  satisfied  with  having 
a  patriarch  of  their  own  nation,  obliged 
him  to  swear  that  he  Avould  prefer  none 
but  natives  of  Venice.  That  oath  Innocent 
declared  to  be  null,  and  we  have  several 
letters  written  by  him  to  the  patriarch  as 
well  as  to  the  duke  and  the  senate  of  Venice, 
wherein  he  insists  upon  the  patriarch's  pre- 
ferring men  of  merit,  without  any  regard  to 
their  country,  and  threatens  to  absolve  the 
clerks  of  other  nations  from  their  obedience 
to  him,  if  he  confined  ecclesiastical  dignities, 
the  rewards  of  virtue,  to  those  of  his  own.^ 

The  following  year  peace  was  at  last  re- 
stored to  Germany,  and  the  pope,  who  had 
hitherto  zealously  adhered  to  Otho,  was  re- 
conciled to  Philip,  whom  he  had  deposed 
and  excommunicated  as  unlawfully  elected. 
For  that  prince  having  gained  a  complete 
victory  over  Olho,  and  even  obliged  him  to 
quit  Germany,  and  fly  for  refuge  to  John, 
king  of  England,  his  uncle,  the  German  bi- 
shops sent  Walfger,  patriarch  of  Aquileia, 
and  Gebeliard,  burgrave  of  Magdeburg,  to 
acquaint  the  pope  therewith,  and  beg  his 
holiness  would  absolve  him  from  the  ex- 
communication, and  acknowledge  him  for 
lawful  king,  lest,  by  continuing  to  counte- 
nance his  rival,  he  should  rekindle  the  war. 
Innocent,  finding  Philip  was  now  almost 
universally  acknowledged  by  the  princes  of 
the  empire,  thought  it  advisable  to  abandon 
his  rival  and  adhere  to  him  ;  and  he  sent, 
accordingly,  two  cardinal  legates  into  Ger- 
many to  absolve  him  from  the  excommuni- 
cation, upon  his  promising,  upon  oath,  to 
stand  to  the  judgment  of  the  apostolic  see 
with  respect  to  the  points  that  had  occa- 
sioned the  quarrel  between  him  and  the 
pope,  and  had  drawn  upon  him  the  sen- 
tence of  excommunication.  When  he  had 
taken  this  oath  the  legates  absolved  him,  and 
owned  him,  in  the  name  of  the  pope,  for 
lawful  king  of  the  Romans.  The  legates, 
in  the  next  place,  undertook,  in  conjunction 
Avith  the  German  princes,  to  bring  about 
an  agreement  between  the  two  competitors, 
Philip  and  Otho,  and  thus  prevent  any  new 
disturbances  in  the  empire.  The  terms  they 
proposed  were,  that  Philip  should  give  his 
daughter  in  marriage  to  Oiho,  with  a  dis- 
pensation  from  the  pope,  as  they  were  re- 


lated within  the  fourth  degree  of  consan- 
guinity, and  that  Otho  should  succeed  his 
father-in-law  if  he  happened  to  survive  him. 
To  these  terms  both  princes  agreed,  and  the 
pope  approving  and  confirming  them,  hos- 
tilities ceased  on  both  sides,  and  Piiilip  was 
every  where  received  for  lawful  king.' 

The  differences  that  arose  at  this  time  be- 
tween Innocent  and  John,  king  of  England, 
on  occasion  of  the  election  of  a  new  arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  were  not  so  easily  com- 
posed. For  archbishop  Hubert  dying,  the 
monks  of  Canterbury  chose  privately,  before 
he  was  buried,  Reginald,  their  sub  prior,  for 
his  successor,  and  sent  him  to  Rome  to  be 
confirmed  by  the  pope.  This  election  they 
concealed  from  the  king;  nay,  and  to  avoid 
incurring  his  indignation,  they  afterwards 
chose,  upon  his  recommendation,  John 
Gray,  bishop  of  Norwich,  and  him  the  king 
put  immediately  in  possession  of  the  tempo- 
ralities of  the  see  of  Canterbury,  and  sent 
some  of  the  monks  to  Rome,  to  have  his 
election  confirmed  by  the  pope.  Upon  the 
arrival  of  the  sub  prior  and  of  these  monks 
at  Rome,  the  pope,  after  a  superficial  inqui- 
ry into  the  merits  of  both  elections,  declared 
them  both  null,  and  ordered  the  monks  of 
Canterbury,  then  at  Rome,  to  proceed  to  a 
new  election,  when  Stephen  Langton  was 
chosen,  or  rather  imposed  upon  them  by 
Innocent,  whose  creature  he  was.  Stephen 
thus  elected,  was  consecrated  by  the  pope 
himself  on  the  7th  of  June  of  the  present 
year.  He  was  a  man  of  great  probity  and 
learning,  was  a  native  of  England,  and  had 
been  preferred  this  very  year  by  Innocent 
from  the  post  of  chancellor  of  the  university 
of  Paris  to  the  dignity  of  presbyter  cardinal 
of  St.  Chrysoganus.2 

The  king  was  no  sooner  informed  of 
what  had  passed  at  Rome,  than  provoked 
beyond  measure  at  the  deceitful  as  well  as 
undutiful  conduct  of  the  monks,  he  sent 
two  knights  with  a  sufficient  force  to  drive 
them  all  from  Canterbury,  confiscated  all 
their  lands  and  eflfects,  and  forbad  Stephen 
Langton  to  set  foot  in  England,  upon  pain 
of  being  treated  as  a  traitor.  At  the  same 
time  he  wrote  a  very  sharp  and  spirited  let- 
ter to  the  pope,  telling  him.  that  he  was 
quite  astonished  at  his  conduct  in  vacating 
the  election  of  the  bishop  of  Norwich,  a  per- 
son in  whom  he  could  confide,  and  putting 
upon  him  one  who  liad  spent  great  part  of 
his  life  with  his  enemies  in  France,  and  was 
utterly  unknown  both  to  him  and  the  chapter, 
and  that  without  his  knowledge  or  consent, 
bv  an  open  invasion  of  the  undoubted  rights 
of  his  crown,  which  he  was  unalterably  de- 
termined to  maintain  to  the  last  drop  of  his 
blood.     He  added,  that  his  kingdom  afforded 


>  Inn.  Epist.  211. 


sRegist.  1.  9.  Num.  91. 


'  Innocent  Epist.  142—150. 
2  Matth.  Paris.    Acta  Inn.  Num.  131. 
2  V 


542 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Innocent  III. 


England  laid  under  a  general  interdict; — [Year  of  Christ,  1208.]     Philip  murdered,  and  Otho  chosen  in  his 
room.   Oath  taken  by  Otho  before  his  consecration.   Is  crowned  at  Rome  by  the  pope  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  1209.] 


greater  advantages  to  the  apostolic  see,  than 
all  the  kingdoms  together  on  this  side  the 
Alps,  which  entitled  him  to  some  regard 
from  that  see;  that  he  was  determined  to 
maintain,  at  all  events,  the  election  of  the 
bishop  of  Norwich  ;  that  he  should  have  jus- 
tice done  him  at  home,  if  refused  at  Rome; 
that  he  would  suffer  no  appeals  to  be  made 
to  Rome,  and  thus  prevent  his  subjects  from 
carrying  thither  the  wealth  of  the  kingdom. 
Innocent  was  well  acquainted  with  the  cha- 
racter of  the  king,  knew  him  to  be  a  man 
of  no  steadiness,  of  no  resolution,  and  ra- 
ther hated  than  beloved  by  his  subjects  ;  and 
therefore  making  no  account  of  his  menaces, 
he  answered  him  in  his  own  style,  telling 
him  that  the  friendship  of  the  apostolic  see 
was  as  necessary  to  him  as  his  friendship 
was  to  the  apostolic  see;  that  if  he  did  not 
submit  he  would  plunge  himself  into  inex- 
tricable difficulties  ;  that  he  resisted  in  vain 
the  vicar  of  Him  at  whose  name  every  knee 
must  bend;  that  the  customs  which  he  was 
attempting  to  revive  had  been  given  up  by 
his  father  and  brother,  &c.' 

Innocent,  finding  he  could  by  no  letters, 
no  admonitions  prevail  upon  the  king  to  re- 
ceive the  new  archbishop,  and  restore  to  the 
monksof  Canterbury  their  confiscated  lands 
and  effects,  wrote  to  the  bishops  of  London, 
Ely,  and  Worcester,  commanding  them  to 
admonish  him  anew  in  his  name,  and,  if  he 
continued  obstinate  in  his  former  resolution, 
to  lay  the  whole  kingdom  under  an  inter- 
dict. This  order  the  three  prelates  notified 
to  the  king,  earnestly  exhorting  him  to  avert 
the  impending  calamities,  by  a  speedy  com- 
pliance with  his  holiness's  injunctions.  But 
the  king,  suffering  his  passion  to  get  the 
better  of  his  reason,  drove  them  from  his 
presence  with  the  most  opprobrious  lan- 
guage, and  most  dreadful  menaces,  not  only 
against  them,  but  against  the  whole  body  of 
the  clergy  as  well  as  the  monks,  if  they  pre- 
sumed to  execute  that  or  any  other  order 
from  Rome,  against  his  will,  or  without  his 
permission.  But  the  bishops  choosing,  in 
spite  of  these  menaces,  to  obey  the  pope  ra- 
ther than  their  sovereign,  published  a  gene- 
ral interdict  on  the  23d  of  March  of  the  pre- 
sent year  1208,  and  ordered  it  to  be  strictly 
observed,  throughout  the  kingdom,  by  ec- 
clesiastics of  all  ranks  on  pain  of  excommu- 
nication and  the  loss  of  all  their  benefices. 
Thus  was  an  entire  stop  put  everywhere  to 
all  religious  functions,  except  the  baptizing 
of  children,  and  absolving  of  such  as  were  at 
the  point  of  death.  All  the  churches,  ora 
tories,  and  places  of  public  worship  were 
shut  up.  The  dead  were  no  longer  buried 
in  consecrated  ground,  but  in  the  fields  with- 
out any  funeral  pomp,  or  prayers,  or  the 
attendance  of  the  clergy.^     We  shall  leave 


England  for  a  while  in  that  condition,  and 
return  to  the  affairs  of  Germany. 

Philip  enjoyed  but  a  very  short  time  the 
peace  he  had  concluded  with  Otho.  For 
Otho,  palatine  of  Witelspach,  provoked  at 
his  disposing  of  his  daughter  to  another 
when  he  had  promised  her  in  marriage  to 
him,  treacherously  murdered  him  at  Bam- 
berg on  the  22d  of  June  of  the  present  year. 
Upon  the  news  of  his  death.  Innocent  wrote 
to  all  the  princes  of  the  empire,  recommend- 
ing to  them  the  observance  of  the  late  agree- 
ment between  Philip  and  Otho,  and  forbid- 
ding the  bishops  upon  pain  of  excommuni- 
cation, to  elect,  crown,  or  anoint,  any  other 
than  Otho ;  and  he  was  accordingly  unani- 
mously elected  anew,  at  Francfort,  on  the 
11th  of  November  of  this  year.  Heieupoa 
Innocent  dispatched  immediately  legates  into 
Germany  to  congratulate  him  upon  his  elec- 
tion, and  invite  him  to  Rome  to  receive 
there  the  imperial  crown.  The  legates  were 
charged  with  the  form  of  the  oath  that  Otho 
was  to  take  before  he  set  out  in  his  journey 
to  Rome.  It  was  drawn  up  in  the  following 
terms  :  "I  promise  to  honor  and  obey  Pope 
Innocent  as  my  predecessors  have  honored 
and  obeyed  his.  The  elections  of  bishops 
shall  be  free,  and  the  vacant  sees  shall  be 
filled  by  such  as  have  been  elected  by  the 
whole  chapter,  or  by  a  majority.  Appeals 
to  Rome  shall  be  made  freely,  and  freely 
pursued.  I  promise  to  suppress  and  abolish 
the  abuse  that  has  obtained  of  seizing  the 
effects  of  deceased  bishops  and  the  revenues 
of  vacant  sees.  I  promise  to  extirpate  all 
heresies;  to  restore  to  the  Roman  church  all 
her  possessions,  whether  granted  to  her  by 
my  predecessors  or  by  others,  particularly 
the  March  of  Ancona,  the  dukedom  of  Spo- 
leti,  and  the  territories  of  the  countess  Ma- 
thilda, and  inviolately  to  maintain  all  the 
rights  and  privileges  enjoyed  by  the  apos- 
tolic see  in  the  kingdom  of  Sicily."  This 
oath  was  taken  by  Otho  at  Spire  on  the  22d 
of  March  1208,  and  sent  to  the  pope  by 
Walfger,  patriarch  of  Aquileia.' 

This  oath  Innocent  caused  to  be  lodged  in 
the  archives  of  the  Roman  church,  as  a  pat- 
tern of  the  oath  that  all  other  emperors  were 
to  take;  and  commending  Otho,  in  the  letter 
he  wrote  to  him  on  that  occasion,  for  his 
filial  submission  and  obedience,  invited  him 
anew  to  Rome,  to  receive  the  imperial  crown 
at  his  hands.  In  compliance  with  that  invi- 
tation, Otho  set  out  from  Germany  at  the 
head  of  a  very  numerous  army,  being  at- 
tended by  most  of  the  ecclesiastic  as  well  as 
secular  princes  of  the  empire.  On  his  arri- 
val at  Milan  he  was  crowned  there  king  of 
Italy  by  Hubert,  archbishop  of  that  city, 
with  an  iron  crown,  according  to  custom. 
From  Milan  he  pursued  his  march  to  Rome, 


>  Matth.  Paris.    Acta  Inn.  num.  135.       a  idem  ibid. 


«  Acta  Inn.  et  Epist.  189. 


Innocent  III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


543 


Olho  excomiiiunicated  and  deposed  by  the  pope  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1210.]  Frederic,  knit;  of  Sicily,  chosen 
emperor.  Legates  sent  into  England.  The  king  excommunicated  and  deposed.  A  crusade  set  on  foot 
against  him. 


and  finding  the  pope  at  Viterbo,  he  was 
there  received  by  him  with  all  possible  marks 
of  friendship  and  esteem.  Innocent,  after 
some  private  conferences  with  the  king,  re- 
turned to  Rome,  whither  he  was  soon  fol- 
lowed by  Olho,  who  arriving  at  that  city  on 
the  15th  of  September  was,  on  the  following 
Sunday,  the  I7th  of  that  month,  crowned  by 
the  pope  in  St.  Peter's  with  the  usual  cere- 
monies.' 

The  harmony  between  the  pope  and  the 
new  emperor  was  but  short-lived.  For  Otho, 
alleging  that  the  oath  which  his  holiness 
had  required  of  him  to  take,  was  inconsist- 
ent with  his  prior  oath  to  maintain  the  just 
rights  of  the  empire,  not  only  refused  to  re- 
store the  demesnes  of  the  countess  Mathilda, 
but  made  himself  master  of  the  whole  pro- 
vince of  Flaminia,  then  possessed  by  the 
pope,  as  originally  belonging  to  the  empire, 
and  unalienable.  At  the  same  time  he 
broke  into  Apulia,  seized,  he  said,  by  usurp- 
ers, meaning  the  Normans,  during  the  dis- 
turbances that  prevailed  in  Germany,  and 
obliged  the  emperor  to  connive  at  their  usur- 
pations. Innocent,  highly  provoked  at  Otho's 
ingratitude,  as  he  called  it,  and  finding  he 
paid  no  regard  either  to  his  menaces  or  his 
repeated  monitories,  excommunicated  him 
at  last  as  solemnly  as  he  had  crowned  him 
the  year  before;  declared  him  an  enemy  to 
the  church ;  and  not  only  absolved  all  his 
subjects  from  their  oath  of  allegiance,  but 
involved  in  the  same  sentence  all  who  should 
thenceforth  own  him  for  emperor,  or  obey 
him  as  such.  This  sentence  was  published 
in  Germany  by  Suffrid,  archbishop  of 
Mentz,  and  such  disturbances  thereupon 
ensued  as  obliged  Otho  to  quit  Apulia,  where 
his  arms  were  attended  with  great  success, 
and  return  with  all  haste  to  his  German 
dominions.  For  several  princes,  and  among 
the  rest  the  king  of  Bohemia,  the  dukes  of 
Austria  and  Bavaria,  and  the  archbishop  of 
Treves,  in  a  meeting  they  had,  chose  Fre- 
deric king  of  Sicily  for  emperor  in  the  room 
of  Otho,  who,  they  said,  had  forfeited  all 
right  to  the  imperial  crown  by  his  disobe- 
dience to  hi«  lord  the  pope.  Frederic  was 
the  son  of  the  late  emperor  Henry  V.,  and 
at  this  time  in  the  seventeenth  year  of  his 
age,  had  been  proclaimed  and  acknowledged 
king  of  the  Romans  in  his  father's  lifetime, 
while  yet  an  infant  in  the  cradle,  as  has 
been  said,  and  had  therefore  a  better  right  to 
the  imperial  crown  than  either  Philip  or 
Otho.  This  election  the  above-mentioned 
princes  immediately  notified  to  the  pope,  and 
upon  his  confirming  it,  which  he  did  very 
readily,  they  sent  a  solemn  deputation  to  in- 
vite Frederic  into  Germanv.^ 

In   England,  the   interdict,  laid   on   the 


•  Corius  Hist.  Mediolan.  Part.  III.    Chron.  Fosste 
NovR.     Chron.  Haver.  1.  7.  c.  10.  Usperg,  Sec. 

*  Usperg.    Godefriid.    Mattb.  Paris,  tec. 


kingdom  in  1208,  was  still  observed  almost 
universally;  which  drew  a  cruel,  and  not 
wholly  undeserved,  persecution  upon  the 
monks  and  the  clergy.  The  monks  were 
driven  from  their  monasteries,  and  the  clergy 
from  their  churches,  and  their  effects,  lands, 
and  possessions  generally  confiscated.  They 
took  care  to  acquaint  the  pope  with  the  un- 
happy situation  to  which  they  were  reduced 
for  obeying  his  commands,  earnestly  entreat- 
ing him  to  interpose  his  authority  in  their 
behalf.  Innocent,  hearkening  to  their  com- 
plaints, sent  Pandulph,  subdeacon  of  the 
Roman  church,  and  Durand,  knight-tem- 
plar, to  try  whether  they  could  prevail  upon 
the  king  to  suffer  the  archbishop  to  take 
possession  of  his  see,  a  point  which  his  ho- 
liness was  determined  never  to  give  up,  and 
to  receive  the  clergy,  who  had  complied 
with  the  interdict,  into  favor.  The  legates 
met  with  a  more  kind  reception  from  the 
king  than  they  expected.  He  even  agreed, 
in  the  several  conferences  he  had  with  them, 
to  receive  the  archbishop,  to  recall  all  the 
banished  monks  and  clergy,  and  reinstate 
them  in  their  benefices  and  possessions.  But 
the  legates  insisting  upon  his  repairing  the 
losses  they  had  sustained,  the  king  dismiss- 
ed them  and  would  see  them  no  more.  They 
retired  to  France,  and  from  thence  trans- 
mitted to  the  pope  an  account  of  the  success 
of  their  negotiations  in  England.  That  ac- 
count the  pope  caused  to  be  read  in  a  con- 
sistory of  all  the  cardinals,  when  all  were 
of  opinion  that  the  king  ought  not  only  to 
be  excommunicated,  but  deposed  :  and  that 
sentence  was  accordingly  pronounced,  with 
the  greatest  solemnity,  by  the  pope  himself. 
The  king's  subjects  were  not  only  all  ab- 
solved from  their  oath  of  allegiance,  but 
strictly  forbidden  to  acknowledge  him,  in 
any  respect  whatever,  for  their  sovereign,  to 
obey  him,  or  even  to  speak  to  him.  Inno- 
cent did  not  stop  here,  but  charging  Philip 
Augustus,  king  of  France,  with  the  execu- 
tion of  his  sentence,  he  granted  to  him  the 
kingdom  of  England,  to  be  held  for  ever  by 
him  and  his  successors,  provided  he  drove 
John,  who  had  forfeited  all  right  to  it,  from 
the  throne.  At  the  same  time  he  exhorted, 
by  his  letters  and  his  nuncios  sent  over  all 
Europe,  all  Christian  princes,  and  all  good 
Christians,  to  take  the  cross,  and  attend  the 
king  of  France  in  the  holy  war  against  the 
king  of  England,  as  a  cruel  persecutor  of 
the  English  church,  and  a  disturber  of  the 
church  universal.  They  who  engaged  in 
this  war,  or  any  ways  contributed  to  the  car- 
rying it  on,  were  to  wear  the  cross,  and  en- 
joy the  same  privileges  as  those  who  went 
to  Palestine  to  serve  against  the  infidels. 

Philip  of  France,  tempted  with  the  pro- 
mise of  so  great  a  reward  as  the  kingdom  of 
England,  if  he  drove  John  from  the  throne, 
assembled  a  powerful  army  and  numerous 


544 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Innocent  III. 


The  king  is  forced  to  submit ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1213.]     Yields  up  his  kingdom  to  the  pope,  and  becomes  hi3 
vassal.    Crusade  against  the  Albigenses  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1-214.]    The  count  of  Toulouse  e.xconiniunicated. 


Heet  for  that  purpose.  On  the  other  hand 
John,  hearing  of  these  vast  preparations, 
was  not  idle,  but  drew  together  an  army  of 
sixty  thousand  men,  and  caused  a  great 
number  of  ships  to  be  fitted  out  and  manned 
to  dispute  the  passage  of  the  French.  He 
marclied  at  the  head  of  his  army  to  Dover, 
where  the  fleet  assembled.  But  while  he 
was  watching  there  the  motions  of  the 
French,  arrived  Pandulph,  the  pope's  nun- 
cio, with  a  letter  from  Innocent  to  the  king, 
telling  him,  that  blessing  and  cursing  were 
set  before  him;  that  it  was  yet  in  his  power 
to  choose;  and  that  if  he  did  not  submit  to 
the  terms  he  had  prescribed  and  sent  to  his 
nuncio,  he  would  deliver  the  church  of 
England,  as  God  did  that  of  Israel,  with  a 
strong  hand.  At  the  same  time  the  crafty 
nuncio  magnified  the  strength  of  Philip's 
fleet  and  army  ;  assured  the  king  that  he  had 
no  less  to  fear  from  his  subjects  than  from 
the  French,  and  that  many  of  the  barons 
had  promised  to  join  Philip  as  soon  as  he 
landed  in  England.  A  false  prophet  was 
likewise  set  up,  one  Peter  an  hermit,  who 
publicly  prophesied,  and  was  believed  by 
many,  that  the  king  would  certainly  be  de- 
prived of  his  kingdom  before  the  approach- 
ing feast  of  the  Ascension,  which  in  the 
present  year,  1213,  fell  on  the  10th  of  May. 
These  circumstances  w^e  all  dexterously 
improved  by  the  nuncio  to  heighten  the 
fears  of  the  king,  and  with  the  wished-for 
success.  For  that  unhappy  prince  distrust- 
ing, and  not  without  reason,  his  own  sub- 
jects, and  apprehending  himself  to  be  in  no 
less  danger  from  them  than  from  the  French 
themselves,  chose  rather  to  submit  to  the 
very  hard  terms  imposed  upon  him  by  the 
pope  than  to  run  the  risk  of  losing  his  king- 
dom. He  therefore  in  the  first  place  pro- 
mised upon  oath  to  stand  to  the  judgment 
of  the  church;  and  at  the  same  time  sixteen 
of  the  barons  swore,  that  if  the  king  did  not 
freely  perform  the  promise  he  had  made, 
they  would  oblige  him  by  force  to  observe 
it.  On  the  following  Monday,  the  13th  of 
May,  the  king  delivered  a  writing  to  the 
nuncio,  wherein  he  promised  to  allow  the 
archbishop  to  take  undisturbed  possession  of 
his  see,  to  recall  all  the  banished  bishops, 
clerks,  monks  and  laymen,  to  receive  them 
into  favor,  and  make  full  satisfaction  for  the 
losses  they  had  sustained.  Two  days  after, 
that  is,  on  the  15th  of  May,  the  eve  of  the 
Ascension,  the  nuncio,  pursuant  to  his  in- 
structions, obliged  the  king,  now  entirely  at 
their  mercy,  to  yield  up  to  him,  as  the  re- 
presentative of  the  pope,  the  kingdoms  of 
England  and  Ireland,  to  be  thenceforth  held 
for  ever  by  him  and  his  successors  as  feuda- 
tories of  the  apostolic  see,  paying  yearly 
seven  hundred  marks  for  the  former,  and 
three  hundred  for  the  latter,  besides  the 
Peter-pence  for  both  kingdoms.  Having 
thus  surrendered  his  two  kingdoms  to  the 


pope,  he  took  the  crown  from  off'  his  head 
and  delivered  it  to  Pandulph,  who  returned 
it  five  days  after  upon  the  king's  consigning 
to  him  an  instrument,  whereby  he  owned 
himself  a  vassal  of  the  apostolic  see,  and  his 
paying  the  stipulated  sum  as  a  token  of  his 
vassalage.  He  was  not  however  absolved 
from  the  excommunication,  till  all  the  exiles 
were  returned  and  reinstated  in  their  bene- 
fices and  possessions,  that  is,  till  the  IGth  of 
July  of  the  present  year,  when  the  arch- 
bishop Langton  and  the  other  bishops  ab- 
solved him  with  great  solemnity  upon  his 
renewing  all  the  promises  he  had  made.' 

Raymund,  count  of  Toulouse,  met  with 
no  better  treatment  from  the  pope  than  John 
king  of  England.  Innocent  had  sent  several 
missionaries  to  convert  the  Albigenses,  who 
were  very  numerous  and  increased  daily  in 
the  territories  of  the  count.  But  the  mis- 
sionaries made  very  little  progress,  and  one 
of  them,  Peter  de  Chateauneuf,  was  mur- 
dered, as  was  commonly  believed,  by  the 
count's  order.  Hereupon  Innocent,  not  sa- 
tisfied with  excommunicating  the  count 
without  any  further  inquiry,  set  on  foot  a 
crusade  against  the  Albigenses  in  general, 
ordering  them  to  be  pursued  with  fire  and 
sword,  and  to  be  treated  with  more  severity 
than  the  Saracens  themselves.  An  army 
was  soon  raised,  some  say  of  five  hundred 
thousand  men,  which  so  alarmed  count  Ray- 
mund, as  the  pope  had  absolved  his  subjects 
from  their  oath  of  allegiance,  and  granted 
his  dominions  to  any  who  should  seize  them, 
that  thinking  it  advisable  to  submit  for  the 
present,  he  dispatched  deputies  to  Rome  to 
beg  his  holiness  would  recal  the  monks  who 
had  exasperated  his  subjects  with  their  too 
great  severity,  and  send  a  legale  in  their 
room,  to  whose  judgment  he  said  he  was 
ready  to  stand,  and  to  give  his  holiness  the 
satisfaction  that  his  legate  should  require. 
The  pope,  in  compliance  with  his  request, 
sent  Milo,  one  of  his  chaplains,  and  Thedi- 
sius,  canon  of  Genoa,  with  the  character  of 
his  legates  a  Latere,  to  receive  his  submis- 
sion, and  absolve  him  if  he  agreed  to  the 
terms  which  they  were  enjoined  to  offer. 
The  legates  on  their  arrival  in  Provence, 
summoned  the  count  to  meet  them  at  Va- 
lence, whither  he  immediately  repaired,  flat- 
tering himself  that  in  consideration  of  his 
ready  compliance  with  their  summons  they 
would  stop  the  Croises,  ready  to  fall  upon 
his  dominions.  The  legates  received  him 
with  great  haughtiness,  and  let  him  know 
that  to  obtain  absolution  he  must  promise 
upon  oath  to  obey  them  in  all  things,  and 
deliver  up  to  them  five  of  his  strong  holds 
to  be  held  by  the  Roman  church,  if  he  did 
not  perform  what  he  had  promised.  With 
these  terms,  hard  as  they  were,  the  count 


'  M.  Paris  ad  ann.  1209,  1212,  1213.  Innocent  Epist. 
1.  10.  Epist.  159,  et  Epist.  1.  15.  Epist.  233.  Polydor. 
I.  15. 


Innocent  III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


545 


The  count  of  Toulouse  subiniis  to  the  penance  imposed  upon  him.     Cruelties  committed  by  the  Croises. 


was  obliged  to  comply.  The  castles  were 
yielded  up  to  Tliedisius,  who  immediately 
garrisoned  them  with  detachments  from  the 
army  of  the  Croises.  Kaymund  was  then 
ordered  to  repair  to  St.  GiUes  to  receive  ab- 
solution there  from  the  hands  of  Milo  the 
other  legate,  who,  before  he  granted  it,  made 
him  swear  upon  the  corpus  Domini,  or  the 
body  of  our  Lord,  and  upon  the  relics  of  the 
saints,  that  he  would  obey  the  pope  and  the 
holy  Roman  church  so  long  as  he  lived, 
that  he  would  pursue  with  tire  and  sword 
the  Albigenses  till  they  were  totally  extir- 
pated or  converted,  and  would  even  take  the 
cross  and  serve  in  the  holy  war  against 
them.  Having  taken  this  oath  at  the  door 
of  the  church  of  St.  Gilles  or  iEgidius,  he 
was  ordered  by  the  legate  to  strip  himself 
naked,  and  liumbly  submit  to  the  penance 
which  he  and  the  prelates  there  present 
thought  he  ought  to  undergo  for  the  murder 
of  the  holy  monk  sent  by  the  pope  to  re- 
claim his  subjects  from  their  detestable  er- 
rors. The  count  protested  against  this  ex- 
traordinary penance,  declaring  that  he  had 
not  murdered  the  monk,  nor  ordered  him  to 
be  murdered.  The  legate  answered,  that  as 
the  murder  was  committed  in  his  domi- 
nions, and  the  murderer  had  not  been  brought 
to  justice,  nor  had  any  search  been  made 
after  him,  the  crime  was  justly  imputed  to 
him,  and  he  must  publicly  atone  for  it.  The 
count  therefore  having  stript  himself  quite 
naked  from  head  to  foot,  with  only  a  linen 
cloth  round  his  waist  for  decency's  sake,  the 
legate  threw  a  priest's  stole  round  his  neck, 
and  leading  him  by  it  into  the  church  and 
nine  limes  round  the  pretended  martyr's 
grave,  he  now  and  then  made  use  of  the 
bundle  of  rods  which  he  held  in  his  hand. 
The  legate  granted  him  at  last  the  dear- 
purchased  absolution,  after  obliging  him  to 
renew  all  the  oaths  he  had  taken,  and  to  add 
one  more  to  them,  that  of  inviolably  main- 
taining all  the  rights,  privileges,  immuni- 
ties, and  liberties  of  the  church  and  the 
clergy.' 

The  count  of  Toulouse  having  thus  saved 
himself  and  his  dominions  from  utter  ruin, 
the  Croises  turned  their  arms  against  the 
count  of  Beziers,  who  was  himself  a  good 
catholic,  but  as  the  greater  part  of  his  sub- 
jects had  embraced  and  professed  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Albigenses,  they  were  to  be  ex- 
tirpated. Siege  was  accordingly  laid  to  the 
city  of  Beziers,  which  held  out  for  some 
time,  but  being  in  the  end  forced  to  surren- 
der, the  inhabitants  were  all  most  cruelly 
massacred  by  the  holy  warriors  without  dis- 
tinction of  sex  or  age,  of  catholic  or  heretic, 
in  spite  of  the  remonstrances  of  the  count 
and  the  bishop  of  the  place,  assuring  them 
tliat  the  town  was  inhabited  by  as  many 
catholics,  at  least,  as  heretics.     To  be  sure 


«  Petrus    Vallus-Surnensis,  Catellus  Hist.   Comit. 
Tolus.  I.  2. 

Vol.  II.— 69 


that  they  spared  no  heretic,  they  spared 
none  at  all,  but  put  all  to  the  sword  indis- 
criminately, and  then  setting  fire  to  the  city, 
reduced  it  to  ashes.  From  Beziers  the 
Croises  marched  to  Carcassonne,  belonging 
to  the  count  of  Beziers,  besieged  it,  and 
though  defended  with  great  bravery  by  the 
count  in  person,  made  themselves  masters 
of  the  place.  Petrus  Vallus-Sernensis,  a 
monk  who  lived  at  this  time,  writes,  that 
when  the  inhabitants  desired  to  capitulate, 
the  terms  offered  them  by  the  legates  were, 
that  they  should  surrender  at  discretion, 
and,  marching  out  of  the  town  naked  as 
they  came  into  the  world,  throw  themselves 
upon  the  mercy  of  the  conquerors.  With 
these  terms  they  refused  to  comply,  and 
were  therefore  treated  by  the  Croises  with 
the  same  barbarity  as  the  inhabitants  of 
Beziers.  Upon  the  taking  of  Carcassonne, 
they  chose  Simon  count  of  Montfort  for 
their  general,  a  man  of  a  most  cruel  dispo- 
sition, and  therefore  perfectly  well  qualified 
to  be  placed  at  the  head  of  such  au  army. 
Under  his  conduct  they  fell  upon  the  do- 
minions of  the  counts  of  Foix,  of  Com- 
minges,  of  Beam,  destroying  all  before  them 
with  fire  and  sword.  The  counts  were  all 
three  catholics,  but  met  with  no  better  quar- 
ter than  the  heretics,  because  they  refused 
to  join  in  the  cruel  persecution  against  ihem 
and  massacre  their  own  subjects.  In  this 
war  threescore  thousand  persons  are  said  to 
have  been  sacrificed  to  the  fury  of  these  holy 
warriors.  The  king  of  Arragon,  shocked  at 
the  unheard-of  barbarities  committed  by 
the  Croises  in  the  territories  of  catholic 
princes,  appealed  in  their  behalf  to  the  pope, 
but  finding  that  they  were  countenanced 
therein  by  his  holiness,  he  raised  an  army 
of  an  hundred  thousand  men,  and  being 
joined  by  the  count  of  Toulouse  and  the 
other  counts  mentioned  above,  he  besieged 
the  count  of  Montfort  in  the  castle  of  Muret 
at  a  small  distance  from  Toulouse.  But  he 
was  unhappily  killed  in  a  sally  made  by  the 
besieged  with  their  general  at  their  head. 
Upon  his  death  the  army  dispersed,  and  the 
count  of  Toulouse  being  excommunicated 
anew  for  joining  him,  his  dominions  were 
overrun  by  the  Croises,  and  granted  by  the 
pope  to  the  count  of  Montfort,  to  be  held  by 
him  till  the  meeting  of  the  general  council, 
which  he  intended  to  assemble  in  the  Late- 
ran.  The  reader  will  find  in  Perrin's  His- 
tory of  the  Albigenses  a  most  shocking  ac- 
count of  the  barbarities  practiced  upon  that 
innocent  people,  when  no  longer  able  to  de- 
fend themselves. 

In  Germany  the  emperor  Otho,  whom 
Innocent  had  excommunicated  and  deposed, 
being  abandoned  by  most  of  the  German 
princes,  Frederic,  king  of  Sicily,  whom  they 
had  chosen  in  his  room,  leaving  Sicily,  set 
out,  at  their  invitation,  for  Germany,  and 
taking  Rome  in  his  way,  he  was  received 
2  V  2 


546 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Innocent  III. 


Donation  of  the  county  of  Fondi  to  the  pope.     The  fourth  Lateran  council.     Number  of  bishops,  &c. 
canons  of  this  council.    Transubstantiation  established.     Canons  against  heretics. 


there  by  innocent  with  all  possible  marks  of 
distinction.  Frederic  in  return  confirmed 
the  donation  the  count  of  Fondi  had  lately 
made  of  that  city  and  all  its  territories  to  the 
Roman  church.  The  diploma  confirming  it 
begins  thus  :  "  To  our  most  holy  father  and 
lord  Innocent,  high  pontiff,  Frederic,  by  the 
grace  of  God  and"  his,  king  of  Sicily,  of  the 
dukedom  of  Apulia,  and  the  principality  of 
Capua,  emperor  of  the  Romans  elect,  and 
ever  august.  Whereas  R.,  (that  is,  Richard,) 
late  count  of  Fondi,  has,  by  his  last  will, 
bequeathed  to  the  holy  Roman  church  the 
county  of  Fondi  and  all  his  territories  on  the 
river  Garigliano,  we  allow  you  to  hold  or 
vend  the  said  county  with  all  its  appurte- 
nances, or  otherwise  dispose  of  it  as  you 
shall  think  fit.'" 

The  following  year,  1213,  was  held  the 
fourth  general  Lateran  council.  To  this 
council  Innocent  had  invited  all  the  bishops 
of  Christendom  by  his  circulatory  letters 
dated  the  20th  of  April,  1213,  and  had  ap- 
pointed them  to  meet  in  the  Lateran  church 
on  the  1st  of  November,  1215,  and  there  to 
deliberate  jointly  with  him  upon  the  means 
of  recovering  the  holy  land,  of  extirpating 
heresies,  and  redressing  the  abuses  that  had 
crept  into  the  church.  The  patriarchs, 
archbishops  and  bishops  were  all  strictly  en- 
joined to  attend  the  council,  except  one,  or 
at  most,  two,  who  were  to  remain  in  each 
province  to  perform  there  the  episcopal 
functions,  and  such  as  for  their  age  or  in- 
firmities were  not  in  a  condition  to  undergo 
the  fatigues  of  a  journey ;  but  they  as  well 
as  all  chapters,  were  to  send  their  deputies 
to  attend  in  their  room.  The  abbots  and 
priors  were  particularly  summoned,  and  all 
Christian  princes  exhorted  to  send  embassa- 
dors to  represent  them  at  the  council.^ 

The  council  met  at  the  place  and  time 
appointed,  and  consisted  of  four  hundred 
and  twelve  bishops,  among  whom  were  the 
two  Latin  patriarchs  of  Constantinople  and 
Jerusalem,  and  seventy -seven  archbishops. 
The  patriarchs  of  Antioch  and  Alexandria 
sent  their  deputies,  the  former  being  indis- 
posed, and  the  latter  subject  to  the  Saracens. 
Embassadors  assisted  from  all  the  Christian 
princes,  namely,  from  Frederic,  king  of  Si- 
cily and  emperor  elect;  from  Henry,  empe- 
ror of  Constantinople,  and  from  the  kings 
of  France,  England,  Hungary,  Jerusalem, 
Cyprus,  Arragon,  &c. ;  and  so  great  was 
the  crowd,  that  one  of  the  bishops  was  sti- 
fled in  it  the  first  day ;  which  the  pope  be- 
ing informed  of,  he  swore  by  St.  Peter,  that 
the  deceased  bishop's  Mausoleum  should  be 
distinguished  with  a  marble  tomb  stone.3 
The  pope  opened  the  council  with  a  speech, 
exhorting  all,  but  particularly  the  ecclesias- 
tics, to  contribute  all  in  their  power  to  the 
relief  of  the  Holy  Land,  and  to  the  extirpa- 


1  Raynald.  Census  Eccles.  Roman.  Num.  2. 

a  Epist.  Innocent,  ordine  3.  '  Chron  Mailros. 


ting  of  the  many  abuses  that  prevailed  al- 
most universally  and  greatly  disfigured  the 
face  of  the  church.  Those  abuses  he  ascribed 
chiefly  to  the  ecclesiastics,  whose  example, 
he  said,  the  laity  were  apt  to  follow,  and, 
therefore  warmly  exhorted  the  bishops  to 
begin  the  reformation  with  reforming  their 
clergy. 

In  the  next  place  seventy  canons,  all 
drawn  up  before  hand  by  the  pope,  were, 
by  his  order,  read  to  the  council  for  their 
approbation.  Some  did,  says  Matthew  Pa- 
ris, who  wrote  in  1240,  and  some  did  not 
approve  of  these  canons.  However,  as  none 
openly  opposed  them,  they  passed  for  the 
decrees  or  canons  of  the  council.  The  first 
canon  contained  a  confession  of  faith,  and 
all  who  did  not  hold  that  confession  were 
declared  heretics.  One  of  the  articles,  that 
all  were  to  hold  on  pain  of  being  deemed 
heretics,  was  this,  that  "  the  body  and  blood 
of  Christ  in  the  sacrament  are  verily  con- 
tained under  the  appearance  of  bread  and 
wine ;  the  bread  being,  by  Divine  power, 
transubstantiated  into  the  body  and  the  wine 
into  the  blood  of  our  Lord  ;  that  to  complete 
the  mystery  of  a  perfect  union,  we  might 
receive  of  him  what  he  took  of  us."  Thus 
was  transubstantiation  first  heard  of  and  de- 
clared an  article  of  faith.  By  the  second 
canon  the  book  of  Joachim,  abbot  of  Flore, 
treating  Peter  Lombard,  the  Master  of  Sen- 
tences, as  a  heretic,  was  condemned.  But 
the  abbot  himself  was  spared,  as  he  had 
submitted  his  doctrine  to  the  judgment  of 
the  apostolic  see.  Joachim  pretended  that 
Lombard  had  held  a  quarternity  in  God. 
But  the  council,  or  rather  the  pope,  declared 
his  manner  of  explaining  the  Trinity  entire- 
ly orthodox,  and  Joachim's  erroneous.  The 
third  canon  was  calculated  to  extirpate  he- 
resies and  heretics,  and  contains  many  san- 
guinary laws  against  them.  Heretics,  when 
convicted,  were,  by  that  canon,  to  be  de- 
livered up  to  the  secular  power,  in  order  to 
be  punished  as  they  deserved,  but  the  clerks 
were  to  be  first  degraded.  The  efi'ects  of 
laymen  were  confiscated,  and  those  of  the 
clergy  to  be  applied  to  the  church.  And  it 
was  ordained,  that  all  princes  should  swear 
to  extirpate  the  heretics  in  their  dominions ; 
that  they  should  be  excommunicated  by  the 
metropolitan  and  the  bishops  of  the  province, 
if  they  refused  to  take  that  oath ;  and  if  they 
gave  not  satisfaction  within  the  space  of  a 
year,  they  should  acquaint  the  pope  there- 
with, that  he  might  absolve  their  subjects 
from  their  allegiance,  and  bestow  their  do- 
minions upon  catholics,  who  should  hold 
them  upon  their  extirpating  heretics  and 
maintaining  the  purity  of  the  faith,  saving 
the  right  of  the  lord  paramount,  provided  he 
did  not  oppose  the  execution  of  this  ordi- 
nance. For  if  he  opposed  it,  he  was  to 
forfeit  his  right.  By  the  same  canon  the 
privileges    enjoyed    by    those   who  serve 


Innocent  III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


547 


Canons  concerning  the  rank  of  the  patriarchs  and  their  power.  The  manner  of  proceeding  a[;ainst  ecclesias- 
tics. Confession  and  communion  enjoined  once  a  year.  Laws  concerning  elections.  Count  of  Toulouse 
deprived  of  his  dominions  by  the  pope  and  the  council.  ^^ 


against  tlie  Saracens  in  Spain  or  in  Pales- 
tine, are  all  granted  to  such  as  shall  serve 
against  the  heretics,  or  any  ways  contribute 
to  their  deslruclion  ;  all  persons  are  enjoined 
to  avoid,  on  pain  of  excommunication,  the 
company  and  all  intercourse  with  heretics  ; 
and  such  as  incur,  on  that  account,  the  ex- 
communication, are  excluded  from  the  sa- 
craments, and  to  be  denied  Christian  burial, 
if  they  give  not  satisfaction  before  their  death. 
Lastly,  all  bishops  are  commanded,  upon 
pain  of  excommunication  and  deposition,  to 
clear  their  respective  dioceses  of  all  heretics, 
employing  for  that  purpose  the  secular  pow- 
er, and  obliging  the  princes  with  the  cen- 
sures of  the  church  to  concur  with  them  in 
so  pious  an  undertaking.  So  great  was  the 
antipathy  the  Greeks  bore  to  the  Latins, 
that  they  would  not  celebrate  upon  the  same 
altars  till  they  had  washed  them,  and  re- 
baptized  those  who  had  been  baptized  by 
the  Latins.  These  practices  are  condemned 
by  the  fourth  canon,  and  the  Greeks  are  ex- 
horted to  adopt  the  ceremonies  and  prac- 
tices of  the  Roman  church.  The  fifth  canon 
settles  the  rank  of  the  patriarchal  see,  and 
the  see  of  Constantinople  is  declared  the 
first  after  that  of  Rome,  placed  by  our  Lord 
himself  above  all  other  sees  ;  the  see  of  Alex- 
andria the  second  ;  that  of  Antioch  the  third ; 
and  the  see  of  Jerusalem  the  fourth.  To 
these  patriarchs  power  is  granted  to  bestow 
the  pall  upon  the  archbishops  under  their 
jurisdiction  ;  but  they  must  themselves  have 
iirst  received  it  of  the  apostolic  see,  and 
must  exact  of  those  to  whom  they  give  that 
mark  of  the  plenitude  of  power,  a  profes- 
sion of  canonical  obedience  to  the  Roman 
church,  and  to  him  who  presides  in  it. 
When  they  have  received  the  pall,  they 
are  allowed  to  have  the  cross  carried  before 
them,  except  in  the  city  of  Rome,  and  in 
the  places  where  the  pope's  legate  may  re- 
side. By  the  same  canon  they  are  empow- 
ered to  receive  and  determine  appeals,  un- 
less they  are  made  to  the  apostolic  see ;  for 
to  such  appeals  all  must  pay  humble  defer- 
ence. The  eighth  canon  regulates  the  man- 
ner of  proceeding  againstecclesiastics.  They 
were  not  to  be  accused  slightly  ;  they  were 
to  be  present  when  an  information  was 
lodged  against  them  ;  they  were  to  have  a 
copy  of  the  accusations  brought  against 
them  ;  were  to  be  told  who  were  their  ac- 
cusers, and  their  exceptions  to  the  witnes- 
ses as  well  as  to  the  accusers  were  to  be 
heard.  The  twenty-first  canon  commands 
all  who  have  attained  to  the  years  of  discre- 
tion, to  confess  their  sins  at  least  once  a 
year  to  their  proper  priest,  to  fulfil  the  pen- 
ance he  shall  impose,  and  to  receive  the  eu- 
charist  at  least  at  Easter.  This  is  still  one 
of  the  commandments  of  the  church,  except 
that  every  one  may  now  confess  to  any  li- 
censed priest  whatever.    They  who  did  not 


comply  with  this  injunction  were  excluded 
from  the  church  during  their  life,  and  from 
Christian  burial  after  their  death.  The 
twenty-fourth  canon  prescribes  the  laws  to 
be  observed  in  all  elections,  namely,  that 
three  persons  be  chosen  out  of  those  who 
have  a  right  to  vote  to  gather  the  sufrages, 
and  set  them  down  in  writing  ;  that  the  votes 
shall  be  publicly  read  as  soon  as  they  have 
all  voted,  and  the  person  who  has  a  ma- 
jority shall  be  declared  canonicaliy  elected. 
The  chapter,  however,  is  allowed  to  ap- 
point some  of  their  own  body  to  elect  in  the 
name  of  them  all.  Elections  made  other- 
wise are  all  declared  null,  unless  the  electors 
should  all  concur  at  once,  as  it  were  by  in- 
spiration, on  electing  one  and  the  same  per- 
son. They  who  consent  to  elections  made 
by  the  secular  power  are  deprived  of  the  be- 
nefices to  which  they  were  elected,  and  pro- 
nounced incapable  of  holding  any  other ;  and 
all  who  shall  approve  of  such  elections  are 
suspended  from  their  respective  offices  and 
benefices  during  the  space  of  three  years, 
and  excluded  for  ever  from  voting  in  elec- 
tions. The  twenty-ninth  canon  forbids  the 
same  person  to  have  two  benefices,  to  which 
the  cure  ofsouls  is  annexed.  The  forty-fourth 
canon  forbids  ecclesiastics  to  observe  the 
constitutions  of  princes  that  are  any  ways 
prejudicial  to  the  rights  of  their  churches. 
Many  other  decrees  were  issued  by  this 
council  to  reform  the  manners  of  the  clergy, 
particularly  against  drunkenness  and  incon- 
linency;  against  the  debauchery  and  negli- 
gence of  the  bishops ;  the  manner  of  pro- 
ceeding in  excommunications  was  regula- 
ted ;  the  prohibition  of  marriages  was  re- 
strained to  the  fourth  degree ;  clandestine 
marriages  were  forbidden,  and  the  children 
of  persons  married  within  the  forbidden  de- 
grees were  declared  illegitimate. 

Before  the  council  broke  up,  Raymund, 
count  of  Toulouse,  came  to  Rome,  to  de- 
mand of  the  pope  the  restitution  of  his  domi- 
nions, from  which  he  had  been  driven  by 
Simon,  count  of  Montfort,  as  an  abetter  of 
the  Albigenses.  He  promised  to  give  what 
satisfaction  his  holiness  and  the  council 
should  require,  and  even  to  join  the  Croises 
against  his  own  subjects.  But  all  in  vain, 
his  dominions  were  adjudged  to  the  count  of 
Montfort,  as  a  reward  for  the  zeal  he  had 
exerted  in  the  destruction  of  the  innocent 
Albigenses.  However,  the  territories  pos- 
sessed by  the  count  in  Provence  were  left  to 
his  son ;  and  a  pension  of  four  hundred 
marks  of  silver  a  year  was  ordered  to  be 
paid  him  out  of  his  father's  other  dominions, 
provided  he  joined  in  extirpating  the  here- 
tics. From  this  time  the  count  of  Montfort 
assumed  the  title  of  count  of  Toulouse,  re- 
ceived the  investiture  of  that  county  at  the 
hands  of  the  French  king,  and  continued  to 
prosecute  the  poor  Albigenses  with  fire  and 


548 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Innocent  III. 


The  archbishop  of  Canterbury  suspended.    The  barons  excommunicated.    Other  matters  determined  in  the 
council.    The  decrees  made  by  Innocent,  and  not  by  the  council. 


sword,  but  could  never  entirely  suppress 
them.'  Thus  did  the  pope  and  the  council, 
not  only  with  the  consent,  but  with  the  con- 
currence of  princes,  usurp  an  absolute  power 
in  temporals  as  well  as  in  spirituals. 

In  this  council  the  sentence  that  had  been 
pronounced  some  time  before,  suspending 
Stephen  Langton,  archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, was  confirmed.  The  archbishop  had 
been  charged  by  king  John's  embassadors  at 
Rome  with  favoring  the  barons,  who  had 
taken  up  arms  against  him,  and  the  pope 
had  writ  to  the  archbishop,  commanding 
him  to  oblige  the  barons,  by  ecclesiastical 
censures,  to  submit  to  the  king.  To  that 
command  the  archbishop  paid  no  kind  of 
regard  ;  and  being  on  that  account  suspended 
by  the  pope's  order,  the  affair  was  brought 
before  the  council,  when  the  pope,  swearing 
by  St.  Peter  that  he  would  not  suffer  such 
temerity  and  disobedience  to  pass  unpun- 
ished, confirmed  the  sentence.^  By  the 
same  council,  or  rather  by  the  pope  in  the 
council,  the  barons  were  excommunicated, 
as  appears  from  a  letter  he  wrote  on  that 
occasion  to  the  archdeacon  of  Poitiers,  and 
to  one  Robert,  of  the  church  of  Norwich. 
"  We  will  have  you  to  know,"  says  Inno- 
cent, in  that  letter,  "  that  in  the  general 
council  we  have  excommn.nicated  and  ana- 
thematized, in  the  name  of  the  Father,  of 
the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  in  the  name 
of  the  holy  apostles,  Peter  and  Paul,  and  our 
own,  the  barons  of  England,  with  their  par- 
tisans and  abetters,  for  persecuting  John,  the 
illustrious  king  of  England,  who  has  taken 
the  cross,  and  is  a  vassal  of  the  Roman 
church,  and  striving  to  deprive  him  of  a 
kingdom  that  is  known  to  belong  to  the  Ro- 
man church. "3  But  the  barons,  bidding 
defiance  to  the  pope's  anathemas,  pursued 
their  point,  and  settled  the  English  govern- 
ment upon  the  bottom  on  which  it  remains 
at  this  day. 

Several  other  matters  were  settled  in  this 
council.  The  embassadors  from  the  two 
pretenders  to  the  empire,  Otho  and  Frederic, 
were  heard  for  several  days  together ;  but  as 
in  the  end  the  contest  between  the  two  op- 
posite parties  grew  very  warm,  the  pope, 
rising,  from  his  chair,  and  commanding  si- 
lence, confirmed  the  election  of  Frederic. 
The  two  orders  of  "Dominic"  and  "Francis 
of  Assisi,"  or  of  "  Dominicans"  and  "  Fran- 
ciscans," are  said  to  have  been  approved  by 
the  pope  in  this  council,  though  no  bull  was 
issued  to  confirm  them.  On  the  last  day 
of  the  council,  the  pope  caused  the  decree, 
■which  he  had  drawn  up  for  the  immediate 
relief  of  the  Christians  in  the  Holy  Land,  to 
be  published.  By  that  decree  greater  privi- 
leges were  granted  to  all  who  should  take 
the  cross,  than  had  yet  been  granted  to  any 


«  Petrus  Vallus-Sernens.  Hist.  Albigens.  c.  83. 
a  Mat.  Paris,  p.  189.  a  ibjd,  p.  192. 


Other.  A  plenary  indulgence,  or  a  full  re- 
mission of  all  sins,  was  promised  to  all  who 
should  either  take  the  cross,  or  supply  with 
money,  arms,  or  provisions,  such  as  took  it. 
The  beneficed  clergy  were  all  ordered  to 
contribute  the  twentieth  part  of  their  reve- 
nues, for  the  space  of  three  years,  and  the 
cardinals  the  tenth,  and  that  obligation  the 
pope  laid  upon  himself.  All  Christian 
princes  who  were  at  war  were  commanded 
to  make  peace,  or  at  least  to  agree  to  a  four 
years'  truce,  upon  pain  of  being  excommu- 
nicated in  their  persons,  and  having  their 
dominions  laid  under  an  interdict,  &c. 

As  to  the  decrees  and  definitions  of  the 
council,  they  were,  as  has  been  observed 
above,  drawn  up  by  Innocent,  and  only  read 
to  the  council,  when  they  were  liked  by 
some,  says  Matthew  Paris,  but  thought  bur- 
thensome  by  others :  so  that  they  were  not 
even  approved,  at  least  all  of  them,  by  the 
council,  and  cannot,  therefore,  be  looked 
upon  as  the  decrees  of  the  council,  but  of  In- 
nocent. Nay,  Gregory  IX.,  who  was  ne- 
phew, and  next  successor  but  one  to  Inno- 
cent, published  these  decrees  as  his  uncle's 
own,  calling  them  constantly  "  the  decrees 
of  Innocent."  Besides,  to  this  council  there 
are  no  subscriptions,  and  authors  are  not 
agreed  about  the  number  of  its  canons  or 
decrees.  For  some  mention  only  sixty,  but 
in  the  council,  as  we  now  have  it,  are 
seventy,  and  in  Innocent's  works  seventy- 
two.  However,  as  transubstantiation,  aricu- 
lar  confession,  the  deposing  power,  the  en- 
tire subjection  of  the  see  of  Constantinople, 
as  well  as  of  all  other  sees,  to  that  of  Rome, 
and  the  supremacy  of  the  pope  in  temporals 
as  well  as  in  spirituals,  are  supposed  to  have 
been  defined  by  this  council,  no  man  dares 
question  its  authority  in  the  countries  where 
the  inquisition  prevails,  or  ascribe  its  de- 
crees and  definitions  to  Innocent  alone.  But 
the  learned  Du  Pin  has  made  it  appear  that 
no  canons  were  made  by  the  council;  that 
several  decrees  were  indeed  drawn  up  by 
the  pope,  some  of  which,  when  read  in 
council,  seemed  burthensome  to  many.' 
And  who  knows  but  the  decrees  con- 
cerning transubstantiation,  the  deposing  doc- 
trine, and  auricular  confession,  were  in  the 
number  of  those  decrees  that  seemed  bur- 
thensome? 

The  only  thing  we  read  of  Innocent,  after 
the  celebration  of  the  council,  is  his  carrying, 
in  a  solemn  procession,  the  famous  image, 
called  Veronica,  from  the  church  of  St. 
Peter  to  the  Hospital  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
and  irom  that  hospital  back  to  St.  Peter's. 
Of  this  image  mention  is  made  by  some 
writers  long  before  Innocent's  time,  and  by 
them  we  are  told,  that  as  our  Savior  was 
carrying  his  cross  to  Mount  Calvary,  and 
"  sweat  ran   from   his  face   like   drops  of 

«  Du  Pin  Dissert,  p.  573. 


Innocent  III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


549 


Death  of  Innocent ; — [Year  of  Christ,  1216.]     His  character. 


blood,"  a  pious  woman,  named  by  some 
Berenice,  and  by  others  Veronica,  wiped  it 
with  her  handkerchief;  upon  which  our  Sa- 
vior, to  reward  her  piety,  left  imprinted  the 
true  image  of  his  countenance.  Innocent 
composed  a  prayer  in  honor  of  this  image, 
and  granted  a  ten  days'  indulgence  to  all 
who  should  visit  it.'  John  XXII.,  more 
generous  than  Innocent,  vouchsafed  no  less 
than  ten  thousand  days  indulgence  to  every 
repetition  of  the  prayer:  "  Hail,  holy  face 
of  our  Redeemer,  printed  upon  a  cloth  as 
white  as  snow;  purge  us  from  all  spot  of 
vice,  and  join  us  to  the  company  of  the  bless- 
ed. Bring  us  to  our  country,  O  happy  figure  ! 
there  to  see  the  pure  face  of  Christ."  This 
prayer  is  publicly  said  to  this  day  ;  and  I 
need  not  tell  the  reader  what  kind  of  wor- 
ship is  thereby  paid  to  that  image.  Some 
will  have  the  word  Veronica  to  be  an  abbre- 
viation of  the  two  words  "vera  icon,"  or 
true  image,  and  consequently  the  name  of 
the  image,  and  not  of  the  woman.  This 
famous  handkerchief  is  still  to  be  seen  in  St. 
Peter's,  at  Rome,  and  likewise  at  Turin,  as 
is  St.  John  Baptist's  right  arm  to  be  seen  at 
Genoa  and  at  Malta,  and  we  read  of  many 
other  relics  that  are  thus  to  be  met  with  in 
many  different  places. 

As  the  Pisans  and  the  Genoese  were  at 
war,  Innocent  undertook  a  journey  the  fol- 
lowing year  to  Pisa,  with  a  design  to  recon- 
cile those  two  powerful  republics,  and  per- 
suade them  to  join  the  other  Christian 
princes  against  the  common  enemy.  But, 
being  arrived  at  Perugia,  he  was  seized 
therewith  a  violent  fever,  that  in  a  fewjdays 
put  an  end  to  his  life.  His  death  happened 
on  the  16th  of  July,  1216,  after  a  pontificate 
of  eighteen  years,  six  months,  and  nine 
days,  reckoning  from  the  day  of  his  election, 
that  is,  from  the  8th  of  January,  1198.  The 
contemporary  authors  are  not  agreed  about 
his  character.  He  is  charged  with  extreme 
avarice  by  M.  Paris,  who  tells  us  that  he 
obliged  the  bishops,  who  came  to  the  coun- 
cil, to  pay  large  sums  for  leave  to  return  to 
their  respective  sees,  which  sums  they  were 
obliged  to  borrow  of  the  Roman  merchants, 
at  an  exorbitant  interest ;  that  he  extorted  an 
hundred  marks  of  the  abbot  of  St.  Albans, 
and  ten  thousand  of  the  new  archbishop  of 
York.2    But  in  his  "Acts,"  he  is  greatly 


•  Art.  Inn.     Mabill.  Museum  Ital.  t.  1.  p.  88. 

*  M.  Paris,  ad  ann.  1215;  et  Vit.  Abbat.  Alban.  p.  117 


commended  for  his  generosity  to  the  poor, 
and  it  is  certain  that  he  founded  and  richly 
endowed  the  Hospital  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
famous  to  this  day  in  Rome,  and  expended 
a  considerable  part  of  his  yearly  income  in 
promoting  the  holy  war.  As  for  his  parts 
and  his  learning,  all  who  speak  of  him  allow 
him  to  have  been  superior  in  abilities  and 
knowledge  to  most  of  his  predecessors,  and 
inferior  To  none.  He  is  said  to  have  been 
the  best  civilian,  as  well  as  the  best  divine 
of  his  time  ;  and  it  is  observed  of  him  by  the 
author  of  his  life,  that  in  all  disputes  he  so 
faithfully  recapitulated  the  reasons  on  both 
sides,  and  urged  them  with  such  force,  that 
nobody  could  tell  what  side  he  inclined  to 
till  he  gave  sentence,  and  that  his  sentence 
was  ever  agreeable  to  the  strictest  laws  of 
justice  and  equity.  His  ambition  knew  no 
bounds.  He  claimed,  as  absolute  monarch 
of  the  universe,  the  power  of  pulling  down 
and  setting  up  kings,  and  disposing  of  their 
kingdoms  at  his  pleasure,  and  was  attended, 
as  we  have  seen,  with  better  success  in  the 
exercise  of  that  chimerical  power,  than  his 
predecessor,  Gregory  VII.,  in  whose  ponti- 
ficate it  first  was  heard  of.  We  are  told  by 
Thomas  of  Cantinpre,  who  wrote  the  life  of 
St.  Lutgard,  a  Cistercian  nun,  and  died  in 
1262,  that  Innocent,  appearing  to  that  saint 
after  his  death,  surrounded  with  flames,  told 
her  that  he  had  been  condemned,  for  three 
offences,  to  the  pains  of  purgatory  till  the 
day  of  judgment ;  and  that  he  Avould  have 
been  condemned  for  the  same  to  the  tor- 
ments of  hell,  had  not  the  Virgin  Mary,  to 
whose  honor  he  had  built  a  monastery,  ob- 
tained grace  for  him  to  repent  at  the  point  of 
his  death.  That  writer  adds,  that  the  saint 
imparled  to  him  the  three  offences,  but  that 
he  chose  to  keep  them  secret  out  of  respect 
to  the  memory  of  so  great  a  pontiff.*  No 
pope  deserved  better  of  the  Roman  church 
and  the  holy  see  than  Innocent;  no,  not 
Gregory  VII.  himself.  But  this  pretended 
revelation  or  vision  is  thought  to  have  pre- 
vented his  canonization. 

As  for  the  Avritings  of  Innocent,  about  five 
hundred  of  his  letters  have  reached  our  lime, 
which  afford  great  light  to  the  history  of 
those  days.  He  wrote  several  treatises  be- 
fore and  several  after  his  promotion  to  the 
apostolic  see,  which  have  been  all  printed  in 
two  volumes  at  Cologne  in  1552  and  1575. 


Vit.  Lutgard.  apud  Surium  16  Junii. 


550 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[HONORIUS   HI. 


Honorius  chosen.  Crowns  the  emperor  of  the  East ; — [Year  of  Christ,  1217.]  Protects  the  two  dowager 
queens  of  England.  The  king  of  the  Isle  of  Man  makes  himself  a  vassal  of  the  Roman  church;— rYear°of 
Christ,  1219.] 


HONORIUS  III.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  SEVENTY-FIETH 
BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[TiiEODORUS  Lascaris,  Johannes  Ducas,  Emperors  of  the  East. — Frederic  H.,  Emperor  of 

the  West.'] 


[Year  of  Christ,  1216.]  Innocent  died, 
as  has  been  said,  on  the  16th  of  July  1216, 
was  buried  the  next  day,  and  on  the  third, 
or  the  18th  of  the  same  month,  Centius, 
cardinal  presbyter  of  St.  Paul  and  St.  John, 
was  unanimously  elected  by  the  cardinals 
who  were  then  at  Perugia.'  He  was  a  na- 
tive of  Rome,  of  the  ancient  and  illustrious 
family  of  the  Sabelh  or  Savelli ;  had  dis- 
charged several  employments  with  great  re- 
putation, and  was  universally  esteemed  both 
for  his  learning  and  his  probity.^  Upon  his 
election  he  took  the  name  of  Honorius,  and 
was  the  third  pope  of  that  name.  He  was 
consecrated  the  Sunday  after  his  election, 
that  is,  on  the  24th  of  July,  and  in  all  his 
letters  he  reckons  the  years  of  his  pontificate 
from  that  day.  He  wrote  as  soon  as  elect- 
ed to  all  the  Christian  princes,  to  acquaint 
them  with  his  promotion ^  and  exhort  them 
at  the  same  time  to  send  without  delay  such 
succors  as  might  enable  their  brethren  in  the 
East  to  complete  the  conquest  of  the  Holy 
Land.*  Honorius  continued  at  Perugia  till 
the  latter  end  of  August,  when  he  set  out  for 
Rome  ;  and  he  entered  that  city  on  the  last 
day  of  that  month,  amidst  the  loud  acclama- 
tions of  the  Roman  people.* 

Henry,  emperor  of  Constantinople,  dying 
without  issue  on  the  11th  of  June  of  the 
present  year,  the  princes  of  the  crusade 
chose  Peter,  count  of  Auxerre,  his  brother- 
in-law,  to  succeed  him,  who  no  sooner  heard 
of  his  election,  than  leaving  France  he  set 
out  with  his  wife  Jolanta  for  Rome,  to  be 
crowned  there  by  the  pope.  Honorius  re- 
ceived them  with  all  possible  marks  of  dis- 
tinction, and  they  were  both  crowned,  with 
great  solemnity,  by  his  holiness  in  the  church 
of  St.  Laurence,  without  the  walls  of  Rome, 
the  pope  not  choosing  to  perform  that  cere- 
mony within  the  city,  lest  the  emperors  of 
the  East  should  take  occasion  from  thence 
to  claim  any  power  or  jurisdiction  over  the 
empire  of  the  West.*  We  have  a  letter 
from  Honorius  to  the  patriarch  of  Constan- 
tinople, dated  from  the  Lateran  the  12th  of 
April  of  the  following  year,  wherein  he 
owns,  that  the  crowning  of  the  new  Empe- 
ror belonged  of  right  to  him  as  patriarch  of 
the  imperial  city,  but  that  as  the  emperor  had 
desired  to  receive  the  crown  from  the  apos- 

2  Naucler.  Generat.  41. 


'  Honor.  Ep.  1.  Register. 

3  Regist.  1.  1.  Num.  18. 

*  Auctor  Chron.  Fosse  Nova. 


9  Idem  ibid. 


tolic  see,  and  had  come  for  that  purpose  to 
Rome,  his  departing  from  thence  without 
attaining  his  request  might  be  interpreted  to 
his  disadvantage;  and,  upon  that  considera- 
tion, he  begs  the  patriarch  to  excuse  what 
he  has  done." 

As  Henry  III.  of  England  attempted  to 
deprive  Berengaria,  the  widow  of  king 
Richard,  of  her  dower,  though  confirmed  to 
her  by  his  father  king  John,  and  likewise  by 
the  apostolic  see,  Honorius  wrote  to  him, 
exhorting  him  not  to  disturb  that  princess  in 
the  possession  of  what  she  had  so  good  a 
right  to,  and  at  the  same  time  ordered  Gua- 
lo,  bishop  of  Winchester  and  legate  of  the 
apostolic  see,  to  restrain  the  king  with  the 
censures  of  the  church  from  giving  her  any 
further  trouble.  As  Berengaria,  as  well  as 
Isabella,  the  widow  of  king  John,  appre- 
hended, and  not  without  reason,  that  some 
of  the  court  bishops  might  be  prevailed  upon 
by  the  king  to  excommunicate  them,  the 
pope,  taking  them  into  his  protection,  re- 
served by  a  special  bull  that  power  to  him- 
self, and  granted  to  both  princesses  the  pri- 
vilege of  assisting  at  Divine  service  even  in 
the  time  of  a  general  interdict,  provided  they 
had  given  no  occasion  to  it.^ 

The  Isle  of  Man  was  at  this  time  an  inde- 
pendent kingdom.  But  the  king,  Reginald, 
apprehending  that  it  might  be  invaded  and 
subdued  by  the  kings  of  England,  resolved 
to  make  himself  a  vassal  of  the  apostolic  see, 
and  by  that  means  engage  the  protection  of 
the  sovereign  pontiffs,  at  this  time  the  most 
powerful  princes  upon  earth.  He  therefore 
made  a  free  donation  of  the  whole  island  to 
Honorius  and  his  lawful  successors,  to  be 
held  for  ever  by  them  as  a  fief  of  the  Roman 
church;  and  on  the  22d  of  October  1219, 
delivered  the  instrument  of  the  donation  into 
the  hands  of  Pandulph,  the  pope's  legate, 
who  immediately  restored  the  island  to  him 
as  a  gift  of  the  apostolic  see,  and  granted 
him  the  investiture  in  the  pope's  name,  upon 
his  binding  himself  and  his  heirs  for  ever  to 
pay  yearly  twelve  marks  sterling  to  the  Ro- 
man church,  on  the  day  of  the  purification 
of  the  Virgin  Mary,  as  an  acknowledgement 
of  his  vassalage.-' 

Frederic,  king  of  Sicily,  had  been  elected 
emperor,  as  has  been  related,  in  the  pontifi- 
cate of  Innocent,  and  having  prevailed  over 


»  Apud  Raynald.  ad  ann.  1217. 
'  Regist.  Honor.  1.  4.  Ep.  629. 


^  Idem  ibid. 


HONORIUS  III.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


551 


Frederic  II.  crowned  emperor  by  Honorius  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  1220.]  First  seeds  of  the  disagreement  be- 
tween Honorius  and  Frederic.  Conference  between  the  pope  and  the  emperor  at  Veroli.  Another  at  Fe- 
rentino  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1223.] 


his  rival  Otho,  and  pui  an  end  to  the  dis- 
turbances in  Germany,  he  set  out  from  hence 
in  the  beginning  of  September  1220,  for 
Rome,  to  receive  there  the  imperial  crown 
at  the  hands  of  the  pope.  He  repaired  first 
to  Milan  to  be  crowned  there,  according  to 
custom,  with  the  iron  crown.  But  the  Mi- 
lanese, zealous  partisans  of  the  deceased 
Otho,  and  sworn  enemies  to  the  house  of 
Suevia,  refusing  to  admit  him  into  their  city, 
he  dissembled  the  affront  for  the  present  and 
pursued  his  march  to  Rome.  At  St.  Leo,  a 
village  but  a  few  miles  distant  from  that  city, 
he  was  met  by  the  pope's  legate,  and  by  him 
required  in  his  holiness's  name  to  confirm 
the  donation  of  the  county  of  Fundi,  lately 
made  to  the  apostolic  see;  to  annul  all  the 
laws  prejudicial  to  the  liberties  of  the  church; 
to  resign  the  kingdom  of  Sicily  to  his  son 
Henry,  at  that  time  but  eleven  years  old,  as 
a  fief  of  the  apostolic  see  and  not  of  the  em- 
pire ;  and  lastly,  to  swear  that  he  would, 
within  a  limited  time,  restore  to  the  Roman 
church  the  lands  of  the  countess  Mathilda, 
and  all  the  cities  of  Tuscany  belonging  to 
St.  Peter's  patrimony.  Frederic,  unwilling 
to  quarrel  with  the  pope  at  this  critical  junc- 
ture, comphed  with  all  his  demands,  and 
being  then  allowed  to  enter  Rome,  he  was 
received  by  Honorius  with  all  possible  marks 
of  distinction,  and  crowned  with  the  em- 
press Constantia,  in  the  church  of  St.  Peter, 
on  the  22d  of  November  of  the  present  year. 
On  the  same  day,  to  gratify  Honorius,  he 
published  several  very  severe  laws  against 
heretics,  some  of  which  were  afterwards  in- 
serted into  the  Justinian  code.  On  this  oc- 
casion the  emperor,  at  the  request  of  the 
pope,  made  a  solemn  vow  to  go  in  person 
to  the  relief  of  the  Holy  Land,  and  received 
the  cross  at  the  hands  of  cardinal  Hugolin, 
bishop  of  Ostia.' 

Frederic,  leaving  Rome  as  soon  as  he  had 
received  the  imperial  crown,  repaired  to 
Sicily  to  settle  the  affairs  of  that  kingdom 
before  he  returned  to  Germany.  During  his 
stay  there  he  drove  several  disaffected  bi- 
shops from  their  sees,  and  placing  others  in 
their  room,  invested  them  by  his  own  au- 
thority with  the  ring  and  crosier.  This 
greatly  provoked  Honorius,  and  some  very 
smart  letters  passed  between  him  and  the 
emperor,  maintaining  that  he  had,  as  well 
as  all  other  princes,  an  undoubted  right  to 
drive  not  only  from  their  sees,  but  out  of  his 
dominions,  such  prelates  as  he  had  just  rea- 
son to  suspect  or  could  not  trust,  and  that  it 
was  the  ancient  prerogative  of  the  kings  of 
Sicily,  which  he  was  determined  never  to 
part  with,  to  grant  investitures.  During  this 
contest  the  pope  received  the  disagreeable 
news,  that  the  Christians  had  surrendered 
Damiata,  anciently  called  Pelusium,  one  of 


'  Richard  de  St.  German,  et  Raynald.  ad  ann.  1220, 
Num.  M.  [ 


the  most  important  places  in  all  Egypt,  and 
had  shamefully  restored  it  to  Saladin,  when 
it  had  cost  them  an  infinite  deal  of  trouble 
and  a  great  many  lives  to  reduce  it.  Ho- 
norius was  so  affected  with  that  news,  that 
leaving  Rome  he  retired  to  Anagni,  and 
from  thence  wrote  to  Frederic,  who  was 
still  in  Sicily,  charging  that  loss  upon  him, 
as  he  had  not  gone  in  person,  agreeably  to 
his  vow,  nor  sent  the  promised  succors  to 
the  relief  of  the  Christians  in  Egypt,  and 
earnestly  exhorting  him,  not  without  me- 
naces, to  accomplish  his  vow  without  any 
further  delay.  The  emperor  in  his  answer 
to  the  pope's  letter  begged  he  would  excuse 
his  not  going  at  present  in  person,  on  ac- 
count of  the  unsettled  state  of  affairs  both  in 
the  empire  and  in  Sicily;  assured  him  that 
he  would  pass  into  the  East  at  the  head  of  a 
powerful  army  as  soon  as  his  affairs  would 
allow  hiin,  and  had  already  made  all  the 
necessary  preparations  for  the  intended  ex- 
pedition. At  the  same  time,  to  soften  his 
holiness,  he  ordered  all  the  territories  of  the 
countess  Mathilda  to  be  restored  to  the  apos- 
tolic see,  and  by  imperial  diploma,  still  to  be 
seen  in  the  Vatican  library,  he  confirmed,  for 
ever,  the  possession  of  those  territories  to 
Honorius  and  his  lawful  successors.' 

Honorius  hearing,  during  his  stay  at 
Anagni,  that  the  emperor  was  come  from 
Sicily  to  Apulia,  sent  to  invite  him  to  a 
conference,  appointing  Veroli  for  the  place 
of  their  meeting.  With  that  invitation  the 
emperor  readily  complied,  and  after  seve- 
ral conferences  concerning  the  most  ef- 
fectual means  of  repairing  the  loss  the 
Christians  had  lately  sustained  in  the  East, 
it  was  agreed  that  a  general  assembly  of  all 
the  Christian  princes  should  be  held  at  Ve- 
rona, and  all  should  be  invited  to  assist  at 
it.  The  pope  wrote  accordingly  circulatory 
letters  to  the  kings  of  France,  of  England, 
and  to  all  other  ecclesiastic  as  well  as  secu- 
lar princes,  exhorting  them  to  repair  to  Ve- 
rona against  the  festival  of  St.  Martin  of  the 
following  year,  1223,  in  order  to  concert  with 
him  and  the  emperor  the  proper  measures 
for  renewing  the  war  and  carrying  it  on 
with  success  against  the  infidels.^  Of  this 
assembly  or  conference  no  mention  is  made 
by  any  contemporary  historian.  But  they 
all  speak  of  one  held  the  following  year, 
1223,  at  Ferentino  in  Campania,  at  which 
were  present  the  pope,  the  emperor,  John 
king  of  Jerusalem,  the  patriarch  of  that  city, 
and  the  grand  masters  of  the  knights  hospi- 
tallers and  templars,  besides  a  great  many 
other  persons  of  great  distinction.  At  this 
conference  the  emperor  promised  upon  oath 
to  go  in  person  with  a  powerful  army  to  the 
relief  of  the  Holy  Land  within  the  space  of 
two  years,  reckoning  from  the  approaching 


«  Richard  de  St>  German,  el  Kaynald.  ad  ann.  1222. 
a  Idem  ibid. 


552 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Gregory  IX. 


Honorius  dies.     His  writings.    Gregory  IX.  elected.     Presses  the  emperor  to  repair  to  the  Holy  Land. 


festival  of  St.  John  Baptist.  As  ttie  em- 
press Constantia  died  about  this  time,  and 
the  emperor  was  but  twenty-five  years  of 
age,  the  pope,  to  engage  him  in  the  conquest 
of  the  Holy  Land  for  his  own  interest,  pro- 
posed, at  this  conference,  a  match  between 
him  and  Jolanta,  the  daughter  of  John  king 
of  Jerusalem,  and  presumptive  heiress  of 
that  kingdom.  This  marriage  was  suggested 
to  the  pope  by  Hermannus  Suiza,  grand 
master  of  the  Teutonic  order,  and  by  the 
pope  proposed  to  the  emperor,  who  not  only 
agreed  to  it,  but  by  a  solemn  oath  bound 
himself,  as  we  read  in  the  pope's  letter  to 
the  king  of  France,  to  marry  Jolanta  and  no 
other."  He  married  her  accordingly  in  1225, 
and  upon  that  marriage  styled  himself,  in 
all  his  diplomas,  king  of  Sicily  and  Jerusa- 
lem, as  have  done  all  his  successors  in  the 
kingdom  of  Sicily  to  this  day.  Some  writers 
tell  us,  that  the  marriage  ceremony  was  per- 
formed by  the  pope  himself.  Be  that  as  it 
will,  it  is  very  certain  that  the  new  empress 
was  crowned  with  great  solemnity  by  the 
pope,  soon  after  their  marriage. 

As  the  time  when  the  emperor  had  pro- 
mised to  go  in  person  to  the  Holy  Land 
drew  near,  he  sent  the  king  of  Jerusalem, 


his  father-in-law,  to  obtain  of  his  hoUness  a 
further  delay,  which  so  provoked  Honorius, 
that  he  dispatched  two  cardinals,  with  orders 
to  let  him  know,  that  if  he  did  not  accom- 
plish his  vow  within  the  time  that  he  him- 
self had  fixed,  the  apostolic  see  would  no 
longer  connive  at  his  disobedience,  and  the 
breach  of  so  solemn  a  promise.  However 
the  pope,  not  caring  to  come  to  an  open 
rupture  with  so  powerful  a  prince,  granted 
him  the  delay  he  required  of  two  years  more. 
But  before  the  two  years  expired,  Honorius 
died.  His  death  happened  on  the  18th  of 
March,  1227,  after  a  pontificate  of  twenty 
years  and  eight  months.  By  this  pope  the 
two  religious  orders  of  Dominic  and  Francis 
of  Assisi  were  confirmed,  and  several  saints 
were  canonized,  among  whom  were  Lau- 
rence archbishop  of  Dublin,  and  William 
archbishop  of  York.  We  have  several  ser- 
mons of  his,  some  written  before  and  some 
after  his  promotion;  a  defence  of  the  book 
of  the  abbot  Joachim  against  Peter  Lombard 
the  master  of  sentences;  the  ceremonial  of 
the  Roman  church,  and  some  decretals. 
He  was  interred  in  the  church  of  St.  Mary 
the  Greater. 


GREGORY  IX.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  SEVENTY-SIXTH 
BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[Johannes  Ducas,  Emperor  of  the  East. — Frederic  II;,  Emperor  of  the  West.'] 


[Year  of  Christ,  1227.]  Honorius  dying 
on  the  18th  of  March,  the  cardinals  met  the 
very  next  day,  and  unanimously  chose  car- 
dinal Ugolin,  bishop  of  Ostia,  a  native  of 
Anagni,  descended  from  the  counts  of  Segni, 
and  nearly  related  to  his  predecessor  Inno- 
cent III.  On  the  same  day  he  was  en- 
throned in  the  Lateran  church,  on  which 
occasion  he  took  the  name  of  Gregory  IX., 
and  on  the  following  Sunday,  which  fell  on 
the  21st  of  March,  he  was  consecrated  in 
the  church  of  St.  Peter.  For  on  Sundays 
only,  and  in  St.  Peter's,  the  popes  were  or- 
dained, if  they  were  not  bishops  before,  and 
consecrated  if  they  were.  From  St.  Peter's 
the  pope  returned  to  the  Lateran,  being  at- 
tended by  the  magistrates  of  the  city  in  their 
gorgeous  attire,  by  the  nobility,  and  the 
whole  clergy  clad  in  scarlet.^ 

Gregory  immediately  notified  his  election 
by  circulatory  letters,  dated  the  22d  of  March, 
to  all  the  western  bishops,  commanding  them 
at  the  same  time  to  exert  all  their  authori- 
ty, and  oblige  such  as  had  taken  the  cross, 
to  repair,  without  delay,  to  the  Holy  Land. 
Gregory  wrote  at  the  same  time  to  the  em- 


»  Lib.  7.  Ep.  146. 


8  Auctor  Vit.  Greg. 


peror,  exhorting  him  to  fulfil  at  last  the  vow 
which  he  had  so  solemnly  made  at  the  time 
of  his  coronation,  and  so  often  renewed. 
To  his  exhortations  he  added  menaces,  tell- 
ing the  emperor  that  he  would  admit  of  no 
excuses  whatever,  but  look  upon  them  as 
mere  pretences,  and  proceed  against  him  as 
guilty  of  a  breach  of  his  vow.  Soon  after 
he  sent  Gualo,  a  Dominican  friar,  Aviih  the 
character  of  legate,  to  acquaint  Frederic,  that 
if  he  did  not  forthwith  raise  the  necessary 
forces,  agreeably  to  the  engagement  he  had 
entered  into  with  his  predecessor  Honorius, 
and  putting  himself  at  the  head  of  them, 
march  to  the  relief  of  the  afflicted  Christians  in 
the  East,  he  would  no  longer  dissemble,  but 
exert  the  power  that  heaven  had  put  into 
his  hands.'  In  answer  to  the  pope's  letter 
and  the  pressing  instances  of  the  legate,  the 
emperor  represented  the  unsettled  state  of 
his  affairs  in  Lombardy,  but  at  the  same 
time  assured  them  that  in  August  next,  at 
the  latest,  he  should  embark  with  a  very 
numerous  army,  and  flattered  himself  that 
he  should  be  able  to  give  his  holiness  aa 
account  of  the  recovery  of  the  kingdom  of 


>  Epist.  Greg.  1. 1.  Ep.  2. 


Gregory  IX.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


553 


Frederic  embarks  for  the  Holy  Land,  but  returns.     Is  excommunicated  by  the  pope. 
Home.    The  emperor  embarks  for  the  Holy  Land. 


The  pope  driven  out  of 


Jerusalem;  which  he  had  so  much  at  heart. 
He  accordingly  wrote  to  his  son  Henry, 
wliom  he  had  caused  to  be  crowned  king  of 
Germany,  requiring  him  to  convene  a  diet 
at  Aix-la-Chapelle,  and  acquaint  the  Ger- 
man lords  with  his  intention  of  embarking 
for  the  Holy  Land  on  the  15th  of  August 
next,  that  they,  who  were  willing  to  attend 
him  in  that  expedition,  might  by  that  time 
be  ready  to  embark  at  Brundusium,  now 
Brindisi,  the  place  of  the  general  rendez- 
vous. The  diet  met  at  the  place  appointed, 
and  great  numbers  of  the  German  princes 
as  well  as  prelates  took  the  cross  on  that 
occasion,  and  settling  their  domestic  affairs 
in  the  best  manner  they  could  upon  so  short 
a  warning,  repaired  to  Brundusium.  At  the 
time  appointed  the  emperor  came,  attended 
by  most  of  the  lords  of  his  Italian  dominions, 
and  the  troops  being  all  embarked,  he  went 
to  Otranto  to  take  leave  of  the  empress,  but 
returning  the  next  day,  the  15th  of  August, 
he  embarked  with  the  rest,  though  he  was 
at  that  time,  or  pretended  to  be,  greatly  in- 
disposed. Some  authors  speak  of  his  indis- 
position as  real,  while  others  will  have  it  to 
have  been  only  pretended.  Be  that  as  it 
may,  he  returned  the  third  day  after  his  de- 
parture, alleging  that  he  could  not  bear  the 
sea. 

Gregory  no  sooner  heard  of  the  emperor's 
return,  than  taking  it  for  granted  that  his 
illness  was  a  mere  pretence,  he  assembled 
all  the  cardinals  and  bishops  who  had  at- 
tended him  to  Anagni,  where  he  then  was, 
and  with  their  consent  and  approbation  de- 
clared the  emperor  sruilty  of  a  breach  of  his 
vow,  as  he  had  declined,  without  any  just 
cause,  to  fulfil  it,  adding  that  he  had  thereby 
incurred  the  sentence  of  excommunication, 
denounced  against  him  by  Honorius,  if  he 
did  not  repair  in  person  to  the  Holy  Land 
within  a  limited  time  long  since  expired. 
This  sentence  was  pronounced  at  Anagni, 
on  the  29th  of  September  of  the  present 
year,  1227.  In  the  mean  time  the  emperor 
having,  upon  his  landing,  repaired  to  the 
baths  of  Pozzuolo  for  the  recovery  of  his 
health,  despatched  from  thence,  as  soon  as- 
he  was  informed  of  the  sentence  pronounced 
a<Tainst  him,  Raynald,  duke  of  Spoleti,  and 
Henry  of  Malta,  to  assure  the  pope  that  his 
return  was  entirely  owing  to  the  bad  state  of 
his  health,  and  to  beg  he  would  revoke  the 
sentence,  or,  at  least,  suspend  it,  as  he  was 
resolved  to  put  to  sea  again  as  soon  as  his 
health  would  allow  him.  But  Gregory 
would  hearken  to  nothing  in  his  vindica- 
cation  ;  nay,  on  his  return  to  Rome  he  as- 
sembled all  the  cardinals  and  bishops  in  that 
city  and  neighborhood,  and  in  their  presence 
excommunicated  the  emperor  anew,  ordered 
all  the  faithful  to  avoid  his  company,  and 
forbad  Divine  service  to  be  any  where  per- 
formed where  he  was  present.  Of  this 
Vol.  II.— 70  - 


sentence,  pronounced  with  great  solemnity 
on  Maunday  Thursday,  that  in  the  present 
year,  1228,  fell  on  the  23d  of  March,  the 
pope  sent  copies  to  all  the  Christian  princes, 
with  letters  filled  with  most  furious  invec- 
tives against  the  emperor.  On  the  other 
hand  the  emperor  wrote  to  the  king  of 
France,  and  to  most  other  princes,  as  well 
as  to  the  cardinals,  to  the  senators  of  Rome 
and  the  Roman  people  ;  and  in  those  letters 
he  no  more  spared  the  pope  than  the  pope 
had  spared  him.  At  the  same  time  he  or- 
dered all  the  ecclesiastics  in  his  dominions 
to  perform  divine  service  as  usual,  without 
any  regard  to  the  interdict.' 

Gregory,  provoked  beyond  measure  by 
the  letters  of  the  emperor,  charging  him 
with  pride,  ambition,  tyranny,  &.C.,  resolv- 
ed to  excommunicate  him  a  third  time 
with  still  more  solemnity.  Having,  there- 
fore, invited  all  the  cardinals  and  other  pre- 
lates then  in  Rome,  and  with  them  the  Ro- 
man magistrates  and  nobility,  to  attend  him 
to  St.  Peter's  on  Easter  Monday,  he  there 
celebrated  high  mass  with  a  design  to  renew 
the  excommunication  as  soon  as  that  service 
was  over.  But  the  emperor  had,  by  this 
lime,  gained  over  several  of  the  Roman  no- 
bility ;  and  among  the  rest,  the  powerful  fa- 
mily of  theFrangipani,  and  the  populace  of 
their  party  falling  unexpectedly  upon  the 
pope  and  the  cardinals  before  the  mass  was 
ended,  drove  them  out  of  the  church  with 
such  imprecations  and  menaces  as  obliged 
Gregory  to  quit  the  city  and  retire  to  Viter- 
bo.  From  Viterbo  he  repaired  to  Perugia, 
leaving  the  emperor's  friends  masters  of  the 
city.2 

In  the  mean  time  Frederic,  to  leave  the 
pope  no  just  cause  of  complaint,  resolved  to 
accomplish  his  vow ;  and  he  accordingly 
embarked  for  Palestine  on  the  11th  of  Au- 
gust of  the  present  year,  being  attended  by 
twenty  galleys  and  a  great  number  of  trans- 
ports crowded  with  troops,  the  flower  of  his 
army.  As  he  had  been  twice  excommuni- 
cated by  the  pope,  and  had  not  sued  for  ab- 
solution before  his  departure,  thinking  the 
sentence  unjust  and  null,  Gregory,  highly 
provoked  at  that  contempt,  as  he  called  it, 
of  his  authority,  wrote  to  the  patriarch  of 
Jerusalem,  as  well  as  to  the  knights  tem- 
plars, and  hospitallers,  not  to  assist  but  to 
oppose  him  in  all  his  undertakings,  as  an 
excommunicated  person,  and  one  who  paid 
no  regard  to  the  cJiurch  or  her  censures. 
His  holiness  did  not  stop  here,  but  ordered 
John,  king  of  Jerusalem,  with  whom  the 
emperor  had  quarrelled,  to  stir  up  the  rebels 
in  Lombardy,  and  jointly  with  them  reduce 
the  cities  there  that  continued  faithful  to  that 
enerav  of  God  and  his  church.    Thus  was 


«  Raynald.  ad  ann.  1227,  1228. 

^  Auclor  Vit.  Greg.     Richard  de  Sancto  Germano. 
Usperg.    Mattb.  Paris  ad  ann.  132ti. 

2W 


554 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Gregory  IX. 


Guelfs  and  Gibelliiies  in  Italy.     War  between  the  pope  and  the  emperor ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1229.]     The  em- 
peror concludes  a  truce  with  the  sultan.     The  kingdom  of  Jerusalem  recovered  by  treaty. 


I 


a  civil  war  kindled  in  Lombardy,  which 
soon  spread  all  over  Italy,  some  siding  with 
the  emperor  under  the  name  of  Gibellines, 
and  some  with  the  pope  under  that  of  Guelfs 
or  Guelphs.  These  two  famous  factions 
did  not  arise  at  this  time,  but  are  of  a  more 
ancient  dale.  They  first  began  in  Germany, 
and  were  occasioned  by  the  dissensions  be- 
tween the  families  of  Bavaria  and  Suevia. 
The  Guelfs  took  their  name  from  Welf  or 
Guelf,  Duke  of  Bavaria,  who  at  the  instiga- 
tion of  Innocent  II.  and  Roger  I.,  king  of 
Sicily,  made  war  upon  the  emperor  Conrade 
III.  of  the  Suevian  family.  The  Gibellines 
were  so  called  from  Gibel,  the  place  where 
Conrade  was  born  or  educated.  These  party 
names,  almost  forgotten,  were  now  revived, 
and  attended  in  Italy  with  such  effusion  of 
blood  as  reduced  that  unhappy  country  to  a 
most  deplorable  condition. 

Some  writers  tell  us,  that  in  this  war  the 
Gibellines  or  imperialists  were  the  aggres- 
sors, that  Rainald,  duke  of  Spoleti,  whom 
the  eiTiperor  had  appointed  governor  or  vice- 
roy of  the  kingdom  of  Sicily  during  his  ab- 
sence, entered  unexpectedly  the  March  of 
Ancona  in  a  hostile  manner,  and,  having 
reduced  several  cities  there,  obliged  the  in- 
habitants to  swear  allegiance  to  the  emperor; 
that  thereupon  the  pope  excommunicated 
him  and  all  his  followers ;  but  finding  that 
he  paid  no  regard  to  the  excommunication, 
he  resolved  to  repel  force  by  force;  and 
raising  an  army  with  that  view  entered  into 
a  defensive  and  offensive  alliance  with  the 
disaffected  cities  of  Lombardy.  Be  that  as 
it  may,  a  numerous  army  was  soon  set  on 
foot  by  the  rebels  of  Lombardy,  styling  them- 
selves the  militia  of  Christ,  and  the  com- 
mand of  it  given  to  cardinal  Colonna  and 
■  John  king  of  Jerusalem,  the  emperor's  fa- 
ther-in-law, but  his  most  bitter  enemy,  on 
account  of  his  having  obliged  him  to  resign 
that  kingdom  in  his  life-time,  though  he  had 
no  right  to  it  till  after  his  death.  The  Lom- 
bards soon  obliged  the  duke  of  Spoleti  to 
quit  the  territories  of  the  church,  and  even 
pursued  him  into  the  province  of  Abruzzo, 
where  they  made  themselves  masters  of 
several  strong  holds.'  At  the  same  time 
the  .pope's  legate,  Pandulphus  of  Alagna, 
and  the  counts  of  Fundi  and  Celano,  both 
rebels  to  the  emperor,  entering  Apulia  at 
the  head  of  a  numerous  army  raised  by  the 
pope,  overran  the  whole  country,  took  and 
destroyed  many  castles  and  strong  holds, 
treating  every  where,  with  the  utmost  se- 
verity, all  who  refused  to  submit  to  the 
"  army  of  the  church."  For  thus  they  styled 
themselves,  and  wore  on  their  garments  the 
keys,  the  symbol  of  the  power  of  the  church, 
as  they  who  went  to  the  holy  war,  wore  the 
cross.  Their  success  was,  in  great  mea- 
sure, owing  to  a  false  report  of  the  empe- 


>  Rich.  S.  Germano. 


ror's  death,  industriously  spread  by  the 
monks  and  friars,  which  encouraged  many, 
cities  not  only  to  revolt,  but  to  murder  all 
the  Germans  that  were  left  to  garrison  them. 
Of  this  the  duke  of  Spoleti  was  no  sooner 
informed,  than  he  banished  all  the  friars  and 
monks  out  of  the  king's  dominions,  those  of 
Monte  Cassino  not  excepted,  and  confiscated 
their  estates ;  which  drew  upon  him  a  new 
excommunication.' 

In  the  mean  time  the  emperor  landing 
with  his  forces  at  St.  John  d'Acre,  called 
formerly  Ptolemais,  marched  from  thence  to 
Joppa,  where  he  joined  the  Christian  army. 
That  place  he  fortified,  and  proceeding  to  a 
castle  called  Cordana,  as  if  he  designed  to 
attack  the  sultan  of  Egypt  encamped  in  that 
neighborhood,  he  sent  from  thence  Balianus, 
lord  of  Tyre,  and  the  count  of  Lucerna,  with 
the  character  of  his  embassadors,  to  treat  of 
a  peace  with  the  sultan,  and  let  him  know, 
that  he  was  not  come  to  Palestine  to'  rob 
him  of  any  of  his  dominions,  but  only  to 
recover  the  kingdom  of  Jerusalem  with 
Christ's  sepulchre,  which  had  been  already 
possessed  by  the  Christians,  and  now,  by 
right  of  his  wife,  belonged  to  him.  The 
sultan  had  heard  a  great  deal  of  the  exploits 
and  valor  of  Frederic,  and  being  therefore 
desirous  to  conclude  a  peace  with  him,  he 
told  the  embassadors  that  he  was  ready  to 
hearken  to  just  and  reasonable  terms.  At 
this  very  juncture  arrived  two  friars,  with, 
the  pope's  letters  to  the  patriarch,  acquaint- 
ing him  with  the  excommunication  of  Fre- 
deric, and  at  the  same  time  forbidding  him 
as  well  as  the  knights  templars  and  hospi- 
talers to  lend  him  any  assistance  whatever. 
Hereupon  the  emperor,  thinking  it  advisable 
to  strike  up  a  peace  upon  the  best  terms  he 
could  get,  before  the  confusion  that  the 
pope's  orders  would  occasion  in  the  army 
was  known  to  the  enemy,  dispatched,  with- 
out delay,  new  embassadors  to  the  sultan; 
and  by  them  a  ten  years'  truce  was  con- 
cluded upon  the  following  terms:  I.  That 
the  city  of  Jerusalem  with  its  territories 
should  be  delivered  up  to  the  emperor,  but 
that  the  holy  sepulchre  should  be  kept  by 
the  Saracens,  as  they  had  been  long  ac- 
customed to  pray  there,  and  the  Christians 
be  allowed  free  access  to  it  at  all  times.  II. 
That  the  cities  of  Bethlehem  and  Nazareth, 
and  all  the  towns  on  the  road  to  Jerusalem, 
with  the  cities  of  Tyre  and  Sidon,  and  all 
the  strong  holds  that  had  ever  belonged  to 
the  knights  templars,  should  be  restored  to 
the  Christians,  and  possessed,  without  mo- 
lestation, by  the  emperor.  III.  That  th.e  em- 
peror should  be  allowed  to  fortify  Jerusalem 
with  walls  and  towers  as  he  should  think 
tit,  and  likewise  Joppa,  Cesarea,  and  the 
other  places  that  were  to  be  delivered  up  to 
him.     IV.  That  all  prisoners  on  both  sides 


>  Rich.  S.  Germano. 


Gregory  IX.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


555 


The  emperor  returns  to  Italy.    Is  excommunicated  anew.    Submits  to  the  pope  and  is  absolved; — [Year  of 

Christ,  1230.] 


should  be  set  at  liberty  without  ransom. 
And  lastly,  that  Frederic  should  be  suffered 
quietly  to  enjoy  the  kingdom  of  Jerusalem 
in  the  same  condition  that  it  was  in  under 
Baldwin  IV.' 

These  articles  being  agreed  to,  and  all  the 
places,  that  by  the  treaty  were  to  be  deli- 
vered up,  being  evacuated  by  the  Saracens, 
Frederic  garrisoned  them  with  his  own 
troops,  and  then  marching  to  Jerusalem,  to 
take  possession  of  the  holy  city,  he  sent  to 
invite  the  patriarch  to  attend  him  thither, 
being  desirous  to  be  crowned  king  of  Jeru- 
salem before  he  returned  to  Italy,  and  to 
have  the  ceremony  performed  by  him.  The 
patriarch  returned  answer,  that  as  the  em- 
peror had  been  excommunicated  by  the 
pope,  he  could  neither  perform  the  cere- 
mony, nor  be  present  at  it.  Frederic,  how- 
ever, pursuing  his  march,  made  his  public 
entry  into  Jerusalem  on  the  17lh  of  March, 
1229,  but  found,  to  his  great  surprise,  that 
the  patriarch  had  laid  the  holy  city,  and  even 
the  church  of  the  sepulchre,  under  an  inter- 
dict; so  that  he  could  not  have  the  satis- 
faction of  assisting  any  where  at  divine  ser- 
vice during  his  stay  there.  He  was  attended 
by  several  German  bishops,  but  not  one  even 
of  them  could  be  prevailed  upon  to  perform 
any  religious  function  whatever  in  his  pre- 
sence, or  to  appear  in  the  church  on  the  day 
of  his  coronation  ;  so  that  he  was  obliged  to 
take  the  crown  from  off  the  altar,  and  crown 
himself.  He  intended  to  have  staid  at  Jeru- 
salem till  the  walls,  which  the  Saracens  had 
levelled  with  the  ground,  were  rebuilt,  and 
the  city  was  completely  fortified.  Eut'upon 
the  account  sent  him  by  the  duke  of  Spoleti, 
of  the  war  carried  on  in  Italy  against  him  by 
the  pope,  and  of  the  dreadful  ravages  com- 
mitted by  his  holiness's  army  in  Apulia,  he 
gave  proper  orders  for  carrying  on  the  works 
he  had  begun,  and  marching  Avilh  his  army 
to  Ptolemais,  he  embarked  there  for  Italy, 
and  landed  safe  at  Brundusium  in  the  latter 
end  of  May.2 

The  emperor  sent,  as  soon  as  he  landed, 
embassadors  to  the  pope,  to  let  his  holiness 
know  that  he  had  recovered  the  kingdom  of 
Jerusalem  from  the  infidels,  and  beg  he 
would  absolve  him  from  the  excommuni- 
cation, as  he  had  fulfilled  his  vow,  and  re- 
call the  troops  that  had  committed  such  ra- 
vages in  his  dominions,  while  he  was,  at  his 
holiness's  earnest  request  and  desire,  em- 
ployed in  making  war  upon  the  infidels. 
But  Gregory  had  already  received  letters 
from  the  patriarch  of  Jerusalem,  strangely 
misrepresenting  the  conduct  of  the  emperor 
in  the  Holy  Land,  as  well  as  the  treaty 
which  he  had  concluded  with  the  sultan. 
The  patriarch  chiefly  complained  of  his 
having  left  the  holy  sepulchre  in  the  hands 
of  the  Saracens,  when  it  was  chiefly  to  res- 


«  Rich.  S.  Germano. 


>  Idem  ibid. 


cue  it  out  of  their  possession  that  the  Chris- 
tians had  engaged  in  this  war.  Frederic 
had  only  allowed  the  Saracens,  as  has  been 
said,  to  pray,  as  well  as  the  Christians,  at  the 
sepulchre;  but  the  whole  city,  and  conse- 
quently the  sepulchre,  was  in  the  possession 
of  the  Christians.  However,  the  pope,  pro- 
voked at  the  emperor's  concluding  a  peace 
with  the  infidels  upon  any  terms,  excom- 
municated him  anew,  absolved  his  subjects 
from  their  allegiance,  and  forbad  all,  on  pain 
of  excommunication,  to  acknowledge  or  obey 
him  as  emperor.  Frederic,  being  upon  the 
return  of  his  embassadors,  informed  of  the 
reception  they  had  met  with  from  the  pope, 
and  of  his  holiness's  intention  of  pursuing 
the  war,  ordered  all  his  forces  to  assemble  in 
Apulia,  and  his  army  being  reinforced  by  a 
strong  body  of  Germans,  sent  by  his  son 
Henry,  king  of  Germany,  he  soon  recovered 
all  the  places  that  had  submitted  to  the  pope, 
put  several  of  the  Apulian  lords,  who  had 
revolted  from  him,  to  death,  and,  entering 
the  territories  of  the  church,  destroyed  all 
before  him  with  fire  and  sword. 

However,  being  desirous  to  put  an  end  to 
so  ruinous  a  war,  he  sent  embassadors  anew 
to  Rome,  to  propose  an  accommodation. 
To  these  the  pope  hearkened,  his  affairs 
being  now  in  a  very  unpromising  condition; 
and  it  was  agreed  that  a  congress  should  be 
held  at  St.  Germano,  a  city  on  the  borders 
of  Campania.  At  this  congress,  held  in  the 
beginning  of  July  1230,  assisted,  in  the 
pope's  name,  John,  bishop  of  Sabina,  and 
Thomas,  presbyter  of  St.  Sabina,  both  car- 
dinals ;  and,  on  the  part  of  the  emperor,  the 
patriarch  ofAquileia,  the  archbishop  of  Saltz- 
burg,  and  the  bishop  of  Ratisbon.  The  con- 
gress lasted  from  the  beginning  of  July  to 
the  latter  end  of  August,  when  the  emperor 
was  obliged  to  submit  to  the  following  terms, 
in  order  to  be  absolved  from  the  excommu- 
nication. I.  That  he  should  promise  to 
stand  to  the  judgment  of  the  church  con- 
cerning the  points  for  which  he  had  beea 
excommunicated.  II.  That  he  should, 
within  a  limited  time,  restore  whatever  had 
been  taken  by  him,  by  his  ministers  or  of- 
ficers, from  those  who  had  adhered  to  the 
pope.  III.  That  he  should  recall  all  the 
banished  bishops,  should  reinstate  them  in 
their  sees,  and  should  ever  maintain  invio- 
late all  the  rights  and  privileges  of  the  Ro- 
man church,  as  well  as  of  the  churches  ia 
Sicily.  IV.  That  he  should  pay  to  the  pope 
an  hundred  thousand  ounces  of  gold,  to  re- 
pair the  damages  that  the  apostolic  see  had 
suffered  in  the  present  war.  And  lastly, 
that  the  emperor  should  repair,  as  a  suppli- 
cant, to  Anagni,  where  the  pope  then  was, 
and  confirm,  in  his  presence,  the  articles 
which  he  had  agreed  to.  All  this  Frederic 
promised,  upon  oath,  to  perform,  and  he 
was  thereupon  absolved,  with  all  his  follow- 
ers, by  the  bishop  of  Sabina,  the  legate,  ia 


556 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Gregory  IX. 


Ihe  pope  retires  to  Rieti  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1231.]  Receives  the  patriarch  of  the  Jacobites  to  his  communion; 
—  [Year  of  Christ,  1237.]  The  emperor  maizes  war  on  the  rebels  of  Lombardy ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1238;] 
and  gains  a  complete  victory  over  them.    Gregory  interposes  in  their  favor. 


the  church  of  St.  Justa,  at  Ceperatio,  on  the 
28th  of  August,  1230.  From  Ceperano  the 
emperor  repaired,  on  the  1st  of  September, 
to  Anagni,  and  was  received  there  with  all 
possible  marks  of  distinction  by  the  pope, 
upon  his  throwing  himself  at  his  feet,  and 
promising  punctually  to  observe  the  articles 
of  the  agreement  concluded  with  his  legates. 
The  pope  entertained  him,  and  the  princes 
who  attended  him,  at  his  table;  had  a  long 
conference  with  him  the  next  day,  to  which 
Hermannus  Salza,  grand  master  of  tlie  Teu- 
tonic order,  was  alone  admitted,  and  upon 
his  departure  gave  him  his  benediction,  and 
wished  him  success  in  all  his  undertakings 
so  long  as  he  continued  faithful  to  his  mo- 
ther, the  Holy  Roman  Church.^ 

From  Anagni  Gregory  returned  lo  Rome 
in  the  beginning  of  November  of  the  present 
year.  But  a  most  dreadful  earthquake,  that 
is  said  to  have  lasted  a  whole  month,  and  to 
have  overturned  most  of  the  buildings  in  the 
town  and  its  neighborhood,  obliged  him  to 
retire  from  thence,  and  he  chose  the  city  of 
Reate,  now  Rieti,  for  the  place  of  his  abode, 
during  the  summer  season,  the  heat  being 
less  intense  there,  on  account  of  the  neiglv 
boring  mountains,  than  in  most  other  cities 
within  the  territories  of  the  church.  He 
left  Rome  on  the  1st  of  Jtine,  1231,  and  did 
not  return  till  the  year  1237.  Nothing  oc- 
curs in  the  history  of  Gregory  worthy  of 
notice  during  that  lime,  except  his  admitting 
the  patriarch  of  the  Jacobites  to  his  commu- 
nion. They  were  a  numerous  sect  in  the 
East,  had  their  patriarch,  their  archbishops 
and  bishops.  They  were  called  Jacobites 
from  one  Jacob  a  Syrian,  the  founder  of 
their  sect,  and  taught  the  following  doc- 
trines :  that  circumcision  and  baptism  were 
alike  necessary;  that  the  confession  of  sins 
was  to  be  made  to  God  alone  ;  that  in  Christ 
there  was  but  one  nature  and  one  person  ; 
and  they  used  to  imprint  the  sign  of  the 
cross  with  a  burning  iron  upon  the  forehead, 
the  cheeks,  or  the  temples  of  their  children, 
thinking  that  the  original  sin  was  thus  ex- 
piated.2  The.se  tenets  the  patriarch  publicly 
abjured  on  occasion  of  his  visiting  the  holy 
sepulchre  at  Jerusalem,  and  at  the  same 
time  promised  perpetual  obedience  to  the 
Roman  church.  The  pope's  letter,  con- 
gratulating him  upon  his  conversion,  and 
admitting  him  into  his  communion,  is  dated 
at  Viterbo,  the  28th  of  August,  in  the  eleventh 
year  of  his  pontificate,  that  is,  in  1237. 

Frederic,  now  at  peace  with  the  pope, 
and  disengaged  from  all  other  wars,  resolved 
to  turn  his  arms  against  the  rebels  in  Lom- 
bardy, who  had  not  only  sided  with  the 
pope  in  the  late  war,  but  had  joined  his  son 
Henry  upon  his  rebelling  against  him  in 


'  Rich.  S.  Germano.  et  Auctor  Gest.  Greg 
"  De  Viiriac.  Hist.  Orient,  c.  76;  et  Matth.  Paris  ad 
ann.  1237. 


1234.  For  that  prince,  encouraged  by  some 
German  lords,  and  among  the  rest  by  Leo- 
pold, duke  of  Austria,  whose  daughter  he 
had  married,  set  up  the  standard  of  rebellion 
against  his  father,  and  was  thereupon  im- 
mediately proclaimed  king  of  Italy  in  all  the 
confederate  cities  of  Lombardy.  The  Milan- 
ese were  at  the  head  of  that  confederacy ; 
and  they  no  sooner  heard  of  the  rebellion  of 
the  young  prince  than  they  invited  him  by 
a  splendid  embassy  to  their  city,  in  order  to 
be  crowned  there,  according  to  custom,  with 
the  iron  crown.  Some  writers  vi'iU  have  the 
young  prince  to  have  rebelled  at  the  instiga- 
tion of  the  pope,  while  others  clear  him 
from  being  any-ways  concerned  in  that  re- 
volt. It  is  however  certain,  that  all  the 
cities  that  had  sided  with  the  pope  against 
the  emperor,  joined  the  son  against  the 
father.  Be  that  as  it  will,  the  rebellion  was 
soon  suppressed  in  Germany.  Henry  Was 
abandoned  by  most  of  the  German  lords  at 
the  approach  of  the  emperor's  army,  and 
obliged  to  throw  himself  upon  his  father's 
mercy,  who  ordered  him  to  be  kept  closely 
confined.'  Frederic  having  now  settled  his 
affairs  in  Germany,  marched  at  the  head  of 
a  powerful  army  into  Lombardy,  and  hav- 
ing forced  the  passes,  though  defended  with 
great  bi'avery  by  the  Milanese,  he  reduced 
several  cities,  and  among  the  rest  Brescia 
and  Vicenza,  which  he  levelled  with  the 
ground,  and  put  most  of  the  inhabitants  to 
the  sword.  In  the  mean  time  the  confede- 
rates, having  drawn  together  an  army  equal 
in  number  to  the  emperor's,  resolved  lo  put 
an  end  to  the  war  by  a  decisive  battle. 
They  took  the  field  accordingly,  and  meet- 
ing the  emperor  at  a  place  called  Corlenuova, 
a  bloody  battle  ensued,  which  ended,  after 
many  hours  and  great  slaughter  on  both 
sides,  in  a  total  defeat  of  the  confederates. 
Most  of  them  were  killed  in  the  battle,  and 
such  numbers  in  the  flight,  that  very  few 
are  said  to  have  escaped  the  slaughter  of 
that  day.  Peter  Trepoli,  brother  to  the  duke 
or  doge  of  Venice,  one  of  the  ringleaders  of 
the  rebellion  at  Milan,  and  chief  magistrate 
of  that  city,  having  fallen  into  the  emperor's 
hands,  he  was  by  his  order  first  tied  to  a  post 
in  the  sight  of  the  whole  army  with  a  rope 
about  his  neck,  and  afterwards  hanged.^ 

Gregory  alarmed  at  the  success  that  at- 
tended the  emperor's  arms  against  the  cities 
that  were  in  alliance  with  the  apostolic  see, 
and  apprehending  that  if  Frederic  pursued 
the  war  they  would  soon  be  put  out  of  a 
condition  of  lending  any  assistance  to  the 
church  in  case  of  a  rupture  with  the  empire, 
wrote  to  the  emperor,  exhorting  him  to  put 
an  end  to  so  destructive  a  war,  and  offering 
his  mediation.  The  emperor  returned  an- 
swer, that  as  these  cities  had  so  often  revolt- 


3  Richard,  ad  ann  1234. 

>  Richard,  ibid.    Sigon.  de  Reg.  Ital.  1.  18. 


Gregory  IX.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


557 


The  pope  and  the  emperor  quarrel  anew.  The  emperor  excominunicateii ; — [Vtrar  of  Christ,  l-ilil'.]  War 
between  the  pope  and  the  emperor.  Frederic  marches  against  Uome,  but  uot  able  to  reduce  it ;— [Year  of 
Christ,  1240.] 


ed,  and  had  even  invaded  his  dominions 
while  he  was  engaged  in  the  holy  war,  he 
wondered  that  his  holiness  should  interpose 
in  their  favor,  and  that  he  was  determined 
not  to  lav  down  his  arms  till  they  had  sub- 
mitted to  such  terms  as  he  should  think  fit 
to  prescribe.  The  pope,  provoked  at  this 
answer,  wanted  only  a  pretence  to  break 
anew  with  the  emperor.  And  a  pretence 
soon  offered — the  emperor  sent  Entius,  his 
natural  son,  to  recover  the  island  of  Sardi- 
nia, which  he  maintained  had  formerly  be- 
longed to  the  empire.  But  the  pope,  on  the 
other  hand,  pretending  that  the  greater  part 
of  that  island  belonged  to  the  church,  wrote 
to  Frederic  to  recall  Entius,  threatening 
both  with  excommunication  if  they  gave  any 
farther  trouble  to  the  vassals  of  the  apostolic 
see.  The  emperor  answered,  that  he  had 
bound  himself  at  his  coronation  by  a  solemn 
oath,  to  maintain  all  the  rights  of  the  empire; 
that  the  empire  had  an  undoubted  right  to 
the  whole  island  of  Sardinia,  and  that  he 
was,  therefore,  determined  to  re-unite  it  to 
the  other  imperial  dominions,  which  he 
hoped  his  holiness  would  not  resent,  it  be- 
ing lawful  for  every  man  to  recover  his  own. 
Many  letters  passed  on  this  occasion  be- 
tween Gregory  and  Frederic.  But  as  the 
emperor  could  not  be  prevailed  upon  by  ex- 
hortations nor  menaces  to  yield,  but  on  the 
contrary,  created  his  son  Entius  king  of  Sar- 
dinia, as  a  fief  of  the  empire,  the  pope  re- 
solved to  proceed  against  him  as  an  avowed 
enemy  of  the  church,  and  an  usurper  of  the 
inheritance  of  St.  Peter.  He  accordmgly 
tliundered  out,  with  great  solemnity,  the 
sentence  of  excommunication  against  him, 
on  Palm  Sunday,  the  20th  of  March,  on 
Maunday  Thursday;  and  on  Easter  day, 
absolved  all  his  subjects  from  their  allegi- 
ance, and  ordered  them  to  obey  him  no 
longer  as  their  lord  and  sovereign,  since  he 
had  by  his  disobedience  to  God  and  his 
church,  forfeited  all  right  to  that  title.' 

The  emperor  was  celebrating  the  festival 
of  Easter  with  great  solemnity  at  Padua 
when  he  received,  on  the  second  day  of 
that  festival,  an  account  of  the  sentence 
pronounced  against  him  at  Rome.  It  gave 
him  no  small  concern  to  find  himself  involv- 
ed in  new  troubles  and  in  a  new  war  with 
the  church  ;  but  dissembling  his  resentment, 
he  assembled  the  chief  citizens  of  the  place, 
with  all  the  German  lords  who  attended 
him,  and  declaring  the  sentence  to  be  null, 
as  repugnant  to  all  the  laws  of  justice  and 
equity,  and  dictated  only  by  a  spirit  of  re- 
venge, he  exhorted  them  to  stand  by  him  in 
defence  of  the  undoubted  rights  of  his  crown 
agreeably  to  their  oath  of  allegiance,  from 
whi(:h  no  power  upon  earth  could  absolve 
them.     When  Frederic  had  done,  the  fa- 

'  Mat.  Paris,  Richard,  de  S.  German.    Albert.  Stad. 


mous  Petrus  de  Vineis,  his  favorite  secreta- 
ry, made  an  elegant  oration  in  his  praise, 
commending  liim  not  only  for  his  exploits 
in  war,  but  for  his  piety,  his  religion,  and 
even  his  submission  to  the  apostolic  see  in 
all  things  consistent  with  the  rights  of  the 
empire,  which  he  was  determined  to  main- 
tain, agreeably  to  his  oath,  against  all,  his 
holiness  himself  not  excepted,  who  should 
presume  to  invade  them.  Here  he  enlarged 
upon  the  injustice  of  the  sentence  pro- 
nounced with  so  much  solemnity  against 
him  at  Rome ;  represented  in  strong  terms 
the  ambitious  and  unchristian  temper  of  the 
pope  setting  himself  above  the  first  Chris- 
tian prince  in  the  whole  world,  and  treating 
him  as  his  vassal  or  slave.  The  pope,  on  the 
other  hand,  wrote  to  all  the  Christian  princes, 
painting  the  emperor  as  a  persecutor  of  the 
church,  and  imploring  their  assistance 
against  him  as  an  avowed  enemy  of  God 
and  St.  Peter.  By  means  of  his  emissaries 
he  engaged  the  Genoese,  the  Venetians,  and 
the  disaffected  cities  in  Lombard y,  to  enter 
into  an  alliance  with  the  apostolic  see,  and 
drive  the  emperor  quite  out  of  Italy.  A  con- 
siderable army  was  accordingly,  with  incre- 
dible expedition,  set  on  foot  by  the  allies, 
and  the  command  of  it  given  to  Gregory  de 
Alontelongo,  the  pope's  legate,  who  fell 
upon  the  cities  of  Lombardy  that  continued 
faithful  to  Frederic,  while  the  Venetians 
made  a  descent  in  Apulia,  and  there  reduced 
many  strong  holds,  destroying  all  before 
them  with  fire  and  sword.  The  emperor 
not  thinking  it  advisable  to  venture  an  en- 
gagement in  Lombardy,  the  army  of  the 
allies  being  vastly  superior  in  numbers  to 
his,  put  strong  garrisons  into  those  cities, 
and  with  the  rest  of  his  forces  marched 
straight  to  Rome;  which  so  terrified  the 
pope  that  he  ordered  a  grand  procession 
from  the  Lateran  church  to  St.  Peter's,  in 
which  he  himself  walked,  carrying  the  heads 
of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul.  On  this  occasion 
he  made  a  warm  exhortation  to  the  Roman 
people,  encouraging  them  to  take  the  cross, 
and  promising  plenary  indulgence  and  for- 
giveness of  all  their  sins  to  such  as  should 
enlist  themselves  in  this  holy  war,  and  die 
in  defence  of  the  rights  of  St.  Peter  and  his 
see.  Great  numbers  of  the  Romans  took 
the  cross,  and  not  satisfied  with  defending 
the  walls,  marched  out  in  good  order  against 
the  emperor  as  he  approached  Rome.  A 
battle  thereupon  ensued,  in  which  many 
fell  on  both  sides,  but  the  Romans  were,  in 
the  end,  driven  back  into  the  city.  Frederic 
was  so  provoked  at  their  taking  the  cross 
against  him  as  an  infidel,  that  he  caused  all 
who  fell  into  his  hands  to  be  branded  with  a 
cross  on  the  forehead,  and  then  put  to  death, 
which  has  furnished  the  Guelf  writers  of 
those  days  with  ample  matter  for  their  in- 
vectives. The  emperor  finding  he  had  not 
2  w  2 


558 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Gregort  IX. 


The  city  of  Benevento,  and  other  cities  belonging  to  the  church,  taken  by  the  emperor  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  12  Jl.] 
The  pope  appoints  a  general  council  to  meet.  Most  of  the  bishops  repairing  to  it  talien  and  ill  used  by  the 
emperor's  order. 


a  sufficient  force  with  him  to  make  himself 
master  of  Rome,  reduced  and  razed  all  the 
forts  and  strong  holds  in  that  neighborhood, 
and,  having  laid  waste  the  whole  country, 
marched  into  Apulia,  to  oppose  the  Vene- 
tians, Avho  had  been  joined  by  some  of  his 
barons,  gained  over  by  the  pope.  At  his 
approach  the  Venetians,  abandoning  the 
places  they  had  taken,  repaired  in  great 
haste  on  board  their  fleet,  carrying  an  im- 
mense booty  with  them.  Some  of  them, 
however,  had  the  misfoitune  to  fall  into  the 
emperor's  hands,  and  among  the  rest,  Peter 
Tiepoli,  the  doge's  son,  who  had  sunk  a 
vessel  returning  from  Palestine  with  Ger- 
man soldiers  on  board,  and  was,  therefore, 
hanged  by  the  emperor's  order  on  a  tower 
near  the  shore,  in  sight  of  the  fleet.' 

Italy  was  now  all  divided  into  the  two  op- 
posite factions,  Guelfs  and  Gibellines,  and  the 
clergy  as  well  as  the  monks  and  friars  being, 
generally  speaking,  of  the  former  party,  the 
emperor  ordered  such  of  them  as  were  not 
natives  of  his  dominions  to  quit  them  forth- 
with, drove  several  bishops  from  their  sees, 
and  seizing  on  the  immense  treasure  of  the 
monastery  of  Monte  Cassino,  he  obliged  the 
monks  who  had  distinguished  themselves 
by  their  att^hment  to  the  pope,  to  depart 
his  dominions,  on  pain  of  death  or  perpetual 
imprisonment.  Having  thus  cleared  his 
Italian  dominions  from  all  suspected  per- 
sons, he  resolved  to  invade  the  territories  of 
the  church,  and  thus  oblige  the  pope  to 
hearken  to  reasonable  terms ;  for  he  ever  ex- 
pressed a  great  desire  of  re-establishing  the 
ancient  harmony  between  the  church  and 
the  empire.  In  the  beginning  therefore  of 
the  year  1241,  he  laid  siege  to  Benevento, 
made  himself  master  of  that  important  place, 
notwithstanding  the  vigorous  resistance  he 
met  with  from  the  inhabitants,  and  levelled 
the  towers  and  walls  with  the  ground.  He 
treated  in  like  manner  several  other  cities 
belonging  to  the  church  in  Campania;  while 
cardinal  Colonna,  the  pope's  legate,  revolt- 
ing from  his  holiness  upon  some  disgust, 
delivered  up  to  the  emperor  the  cities  of 
Tivoli  and  Albano  with  other  forts  in  their 
neighborhood;  and  thus  was  Rome,  in  a 
manner,  blocked  up  on  all  sides.2 

Gregory  had  appointed  a  general  council 
to  meet  at  Rome  on  Easter-day  of  the  pre- 
sent year,  1241,  and  had  sent  legates  with 
letters  to  all  the  Christian  princes,  to  ac- 
quaint them  therewith,  and  entreat  them  to 
oblige  the  prelates  of  their  respective  king- 
doms to  repair  to  the  council,  in  order  to 
consult  jointly  with  him  about  the  most  ef- 
fectual means  of  repairing  the  losses  they 
had  suflered  in  Palestine,  and  restoring  the 
wished-for  tranquillity  to  the  church.  He 
not  only  wrote  to  all  the  Christian  princes, 

>  Vit.  Gregor.  Richard,  de  St.  Germano. 
a  Richard,  ad  ann.  1241. 


but  sent  nuncios  into  the  different  kingdoms 
with  letters  addressed  to  all  the  patriarchs, 
archbishops,  bishops,  and  abbots,  command- 
ing them  to  assist  in  person  at  the  intended 
council,  if  their  age  and  infirmities  allowed 
them;  and  if  unable  to  undergo  the  fatigue 
of  the  journey,  to  send  their  deputies.  Gre- 
gory's chief  view  in  assembling  this  council 
was,  no  doubt,  to  get  the  sentence  he  had 
pronounced  against  Frederic  confirmed  by 
the  church  universal,  and  arm  the  whole 
Christian  world  against  him.  Of  this  Fre- 
deric was  well  apprised,  and  therefore  caused 
new  proposals  of  peace  to  be  made  in  his 
name  by  his  brother-in-law  Richard,  earl  of 
Cornwall,  declaring  that,  notwithstanding 
all  the  advantages  he  had  gained,  his  ears 
were  open  to  any  terms  that  the  dignity  of 
the  empire  would  suffer  him  to  agree  to. 

Frederic  had  consented  to  the  assembling 
of  a  general  council,  and  promised  to  allow 
the  bishops  to  repair  to  it  unmolested;  but 
finding  that  the  pope  was  averse  to  an  ac- 
commodation, and  bent  upon  his  ruin,  nay, 
that  he  had  even  offered  the  imperial  crown 
to  others,  as  if  it  were  at  his  disposal,  he 
revoked  the  promise  he  had  made,  not  to 
hinder  the  bishops  from  repairing  to  the 
council,  alleging,  that  he  could  not  suffer  a 
council  to  be  held  at  which  a  public  enemy 
of  the  empire  was  to  preside;  and  at  the 
same  time  declaring,  that  he  would  look 
upon  all  as  enemies  of  the  empire  Avho 
should  assist  either  in  person  or  by  their  de- 
puties at  such  an  assembly.  This  declara- 
tion he  caused  to  be  published  throughout 
the  empire,  and  copies  of  it  to  be  sent  into 
France,  England,  Scotland,  and  most  other 
kingdoms.  But  the  bishops  choosing  to 
obey  the  pope  rather  than  the  emperor,  re- 
paired in  great  numbers  from  the  above- 
mentioned  kingdoms  to  Genoa ;  the  Genoese, 
who  were  in  alliance  with  the  pope,  en- 
gaging to  convey  them  to  Rome  by  sea. 
But  while  the  bishops  were  assembling  in 
that  city,  the  emperor  took  care  to  acquaint 
his  son  Entius,  king  of  Sardinia,  with  their 
design,  ordering  him  at  the  same  time  to 
join  his  small  fleet  to  that  of  the  Pisans,  as 
zealous  Gibellines  as  the  Genoese  were 
Guelfs,  to  attack  jointly  the  Genoese  fleet, 
and  if  they  prevailed,  to  send  all  the  bishops 
who  should  fall  into  his  hands  in  chains  to 
Naples.  Entius,  in  compliance  with  the 
emperor's  orders,  manned  his  galleys  with 
great  expedition,  and  being  joined  by  the 
Pisans,  put  to  sea,  met  the  Genoese  fleet  on 
the  third  of  May  near  the  small  island  of 
Meloria,  and  gained  a  complete  victory  over 
them.  Three  of  the  enemy's  galleys  were 
sunk,  and  twenty-two  taken,  on  board  of 
which  were  two  cardinals,  and  a  great  many 
French,  English,  Scotch,  and  Italian  bi- 
shops, with  the  embassadors  of  several 
princes,  all  going  to  the  council.    Such  of 


Celestine  IV.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


559 


Gregory  dies.     His  writings. 


the  bishops  as  in  the  different  countries  had 
distinguished  themselves  by  their  attachment 
to  the  pope,  were  thrown  into  the  sea  and 
drowned.  The  rest  were  all  sent  to  Naples, 
and  confined  in  different  prisons,  where  most 
of  them  died  of  grief  and  hunger.  The  em- 
bassadors were  better  treated  than  the  bi- 
shops, and  afterwards  dismissed  at  the  re- 
quest of  their  respective  sovereigns.  With 
this  victory  Frederic  immediately  acquainted 
all  the  Christian  princes,  boasting  of  it  in 
his  letter  as  a  manifest  proof  of  his  having 
justice  on  his  side.' 

Gregory  was  so  affected  with  the  news  of 
this  disaster,  and  at  the  same  time  so  terri- 
fied with  the  approach  of  the  emperor  at  the 
head  of  his  victorious  army,  that  he  was 
taken  dangerously  ill,  and  died  of  grief  in  a 
few  days.  His  death  happened  on  the  21st 
of  August  of  the  present  year,  1241,  when 
be  had  governed  the  church  fourteen  years, 
five  months,  and  two  days.  Tiie  emperor, 
who  was  then  encamped  at  Grotta  Ferrata, 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Rome,  no  sooner 
heard  of  his  death  than  he  transmitted  an 
account  of  it  to  the  king  of  England  and  to 
all  the  other  Christian  princes,  complaining 
in  his  letters  of  the  undeserved  treatment  he 
had  met  with  from  the  deceased  pope,  and 
expressing  a  sincere  desire  of  putting  an  end 
to  so  long  and  so  destructive  a  war.'^  We 
have  a  great  many  letters  of  this  pope,  all 
written  with  more  spirit,  and  in  a  much 
better  stvle  than  those  of  any  of  his  prede- 
cessors  Iq   the    three    foregoing   centuries. 


though  he  was  at  the  time  he  wrote  thenx 
near  a  hundred  years  old.  Many  of  his  de- 
cretal letters  are  to  be  met  with  in  the  five 
books  of  decretals  collected  under  his  in- 
spection tiy  Raimund  de  Pcnnal'ort,  a  Domi- 
nican friar,  and  ordered  by  Gregory  to  be 
alone  taught  in  the  schools,  and  quoted  in 
trials.  Gregory  canonized  several  saints, 
namely,  St.  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Andrew, 
king  of  Hungary,  and  the  wife  of  Lewis 
Landgrave  of  Thuringia,  St.  Francis  and 
St.  Dominic,  the  founders  of  the  Franciscan 
and  Dominican  orders,  and  the  very  famous 
St.  Antony  of  Padua,  so  called,  because  he 
died  in  that  city,  though  a  native  of  Lisbon. 
The  bulls  of  these  canonizations  are  to  be 
met  with  in  the  Great  Bullarium.  By  this 
pope  was  confirmed  the  religious  order  of 
St.  Mary  de  Mercede,  as  it  is  called,  an 
order  instituted  to  make  gatherings  all  over 
the  Christian  world  for  the  redemption  of 
Christians  taken  and  kept  in  slavery  by  the 
infidels.  This  order  was  instituted  by  James, 
king  of  Arragon,  about  the  year  1223,  and 
was  confirmed  by  Gregory  on  the  17th  of 
January,  1230.  The  general  of  this  order 
resides  constantly  at  Barcelona,  where  it 
was  instituted  by  the  king  of  Arragon,  under 
the  direction  of  Raiinund  de  Pennalbrt,  then 
canon  of  that  city,  and  afterwards  general 
of  the  Dominican  order.'  The  antiphone 
salve  Regina,  Sec,  composed  by  Hermanns 
Contractus  in  1059,  was  by  this  pope  or- 
dered to  be  sung  in  all  churches  in  Satur- 
day's service.^ 


CELESTINE  IV.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  SEVENTY-SEVENTH 
BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[Johannes  Ducas,  Emperor  of  the  East. — Frederic  II.,  Emperor  of  the  TVest.l 


[Year  of  Christ,  1241.]  As  there  were 
but  few  cardinals  at  Rome  when  Gregory 
died,  they  sent  a  solemn  embassy  to  the  em- 
peror, encamped  at  a  small  distance  from  the 
city,  to  acquaint  him  with  the  decease  of  the 
pope,  and  at  the  same  lime  to  beg  he  would 
set  at  liberty  the  two  cardinals  his  prisoners, 
upon  what  conditions  soever  he  should  think 
fit  to  prescribe.  Frederic,  in  compliance 
with  their  request,  ordered  the  two  cardinals 
to  be  brought  immediately  from  Naples, 
where  they  were  kept  closely  confined,  to 
his  camp,  and  granted  thenx  leave  to  assist 
at  the  election  of  the  new  pope,  after  making 
them  swear,  that  if  neither  of  them  was 
elected  pope,  they  should  both  return  to  the 
place  of  their  captivity.   The  cardinals,  only 

'  Mtit.  Paris  ad  ann.  1241.  Sigon.  1. 18.  Fetrus  de 
Vineis,  Ep.  107. 

a  Richard,  ad  ann.  1211.  Epist.  Fred,  apud  Rainald. 
Num.  63. 


ten  in  number,  were  at  first  divided ;  but 
being  shut  up  by  the  senate  in  a  narrow 
place,  called  Septemsolium,  where  most  of 
them  were  taken  ill,  and  one  of  them  died, 
namely,  Robert,  cardinal  deacon  of  St.  Chry- 
sogonus,  an  Englishman,  they,  at  last,  all 
agreed,  on  the  22d  or  23d  of  October,  in  the 
election  of  cardinal  Godfrey,  called  by  some 
Jufrid,  and  by  others  Jumfrid.  He  was  of 
the  illustrious  family  of  the  Castiglioni,  one 
of  the  first  fiimilicsin  Milan,  the  son  of  John 
Castiglioni  by  Cass'andra  Crivelli,  the  sister 
of  pope  Urban  III.  He  had  been  canon  and 
chancellor  of  the  church  of  Milan  ;  but,  re- 
tiring from  the  world,  led  a  religious  life 
among  the  Cistercians,  till  his  predecessor 
Gregory  IX.  created  him  cardinal  presbyter 
of  St.  Mark  and  bishop  of  Sabina.    At  the 


»  Oldoin  in  Notis  ad  Ciacon.  Bullarium.  in  Greg.  IX. 
Constit.  9.  »  Auctor  Vit.  Greg. 


560 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Innocent  IV. 


Long  vacancy.     Innocent  IV.  chosen  ;— [Year  of  Christ.  1243.]     Acquaints  all  the  faithful  with  his  election. 
A  splendid  embassy  from  the  emperor.     Ruptui*e  between  the  emperor  and  the  pope. 

Matthew  Paris  writes,  that  he  was  said  to 
have  been  poisoned.  But  the  same  author 
inibrms  us,  that  he  was  much  advanced  ia 
years  and  infirm.  He  was  buried  in  the 
Vatican.  The  contemporary  writers  all 
speak  of  him  as  a  man  of  a  pacific  disposi- 
tion, and  one  who  would  have  made  it  his 
study  to  put  an  end  to  the  disturbances  in 
Italy ,  and  suppress  the  two  factions  by  which 
it  was  so  cruelly  harassed.' 


time  of  his  election  he  took  the  name  of  Ce- 
lestine  IV.  He  was  no  sooner  elected  than 
he  sent  legates  to  acquaint  the  emperor  with 
it,  and  at  the  same  time  to  assure  him,  that 
he  had  nothing  so  much  at  heart  as  to  es- 
tablish a  lasting  peace  between  the  church 
and  the  empire.  But  he  died  before  he  re- 
ceived the  emperor's  answer.  His  death 
happened  on  the  eighteenth  day  of  his  pon- 
tificate, when  he  had  not  yet  been  crowned. 


INNOCENT  IV.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  SEVENTY-EIGHTH 
BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[Johannes  Ducas,  Emperor  of  the  East. — Frederic  II.,  Conr.\d  IV.,  Emperors  of  the  West.l 


[Year  of  Christ,  1243.]  Celestine  died, 
as  has  been  said,  in  November  1241,  and  the 
see  remained  vacant  from  that  time  till  the 
24th  of  June  1243.  Most  authors  agree  as 
to  the  length  of  the  vacancy,  but  disagree 
with  respect  to  the  cause.  Some  ascribe 
it  to  the  discord  that  reigned  in  the  conclave 
between  the  Guelf  and  the  Gibelline  car- 
dinals :  cardinal  Colonna  ^and  sonae  others 
siding  with  the  emperor,  and  opposing  the 
election  of  any  who  they  apprehended 
would  tread  in  the  footsteps  of  Gregory. 
Platina  will  have  so  long  a  vacation  to  have 
been  owing  to  an  agreement  among  the 
cardinals  not  to  proceed  to  the  election  till 
their  brethren,  whom  the  emperor  had  taken 
and  kept  confined,  were  set  at  liberty. 
Others  tell  us,  that  the  captive  cardinals 
protested  against  any  election  that  should 
be  made  in  their  absence.  However  that 
be,  the  emperor  was  in  the  end  prevailed 
upon  by  Baldwin,  the  Latin  emperor  of 
Constantinople,  representing  to  him  the  de- 
plorable state  of  their  affairs  in  the  East, 
chiefly  owing  to  so  long  a  vacancy,  not  only 
to  dismiss  the  cardinals  his  prisoners,  but  to 
grant  leave  to  all  the  other  cardinals  to  re- 
pair from  the  different  places  whither  they 
had  fled,  to  Rome.  The  cardinals  therefore 
being  all  assembled  at  Rome,  adjourned 
from  thence  to  Anagni,  to  avoid  the  disturb- 
ances that  might  be  raised  by  the  emperor's 
friends  in  the  city,  and  there,  with  one  con- 
sent, chose  Anibald,  cardinal  presbyter  of 
St.  Lawrence.  He  was  elected  on  the  24th 
of  June,  the  festival  of  St.  John  Baptist,  and 
consecrated  the  following  Sunday,  the  28th 
of  that  month,  taking  on  that  occasion  the 
name  of  Innocent  IV.  He  was  a  native  of 
Genoa,  of  the  noble  family  of  the  Fieschi, 
was  first  canon  of  Parma,  afterwards  chan- 
cellor of  that  church,  and  created  cardinal  by 
Gregory  IX.  He  is  said  to  have  been  the 
best  civiliaa  of  the  age  he  lived  in,  and  as 


such  he  is  frequently  quoted  by  the  famous 
Bartoli.2 

Innocent,  three  days  after  his  consecra- 
tion, that  is,  on  the  2d  of  July,  wrote  circu- 
latory letters,  addressed  to  all  the  faithful,  to 
acquaint  them  with  his  promotion,  and  iseg 
the  assistance  of  their  prayers  in  the  dis- 
charge of  so  important  an  office.  As  he  had 
been  a  particular  and  intimate  friend  of  the 
emperor,  the  news  of  his  election  was  re- 
ceived with  great  joy  by  that  prince  j  and  he 
not  only  ordered  thanks  to  be  returned  to 
God  throughout  his  dominions,  but  being 
then  at  Melfi,  he  sent  a  most  splendid 
embassy  to  Anagni,  to  congratulate  hiin 
upon  his  election,  and  express  the  joy  it 
had  given  him  to  hear  that  his  old  friend 
was  become  his  father.  The  embassadors 
were  ordered  to  assure  his  holiness  that  no- 
thing should  be  wanting,  on  his  side,  that 
could  any  ways  contribute  to  the  re-estab- 
lishing of  the  ancient  harmony  between  the 
church  and  the  empire,  and  that  he  was 
willing  to  grant  to  the  clergy  all  the  privi- 
leges, immunities,  and  exemptions  that  were 
consistent  with  the  honor  of  the  empire  and 
his  other  kingdoms.  Thus  Richard  us  de 
Sancio  Germano,  who  flourished  at  this 
time.^  But  other  writers,  who  lived  after 
him,  tell  us  that  Frederic  received  the  con- 
gratulations of  his  friends  on  that  occasion 
very  coldly,  saying  they  had  rather  reason 
to  condole  with  him  than  to  wish  him  joy. 
For  he  who  had  been  his  best  friend  while 
a  cardinal,  would,  in  all  likelihood,  prove 
his  worst  enemy  now  he  was  pope. 

Innocent,  on  his  side,  dispatched  Peter 
archbishop  of  Rouen,  William  bishop  of 
Modena,  and  WiUiam  abbot  of  St.  Fscun- 
dus,  to  propose  terms  of  agreement:  And 
these  were,  that  the  emperor  should  imme- 


>  Auctor  Compil.  Chronologic, 
a  Nichol.  de  Curbio  in  Vit  Richard,  de  S.  German. 
Matt.  Paris.  '  Richard,  ad  ann.  1243. 


Innocent  IV.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


561 


A  new  treaty  begun,  but  unsuccessful ;— [Year  of  Christ,  J244.]     The  pope  repairs  to  France, 
council  appointed  to  meet  at  Lions.     The  council  meets  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  1245.] 


A  general 


dialely  set  at  liberty  all  the  cardinals  and 
other  ecclesiastics  whom  he  had  taken  pri- 
soners by  sea  or  by  land ;  that  he  should 
clear  himself  from  the  crimes  for  which  he 
had  been  excommunicated  by  his  prede- 
cessor; and  that,  if  he  thought  he  had  been 
wronged  by  the  apostolic  see,  a  general 
council  should  be  assembled,  and  the  whole 
submitted  to  the  judgment  of  the  princes 
and  the  prelates  who  should  compose  it.  But 
Frederic  insisted  upon  his  being  first  of  all 
absolved  from  the  excommunication,  which 
he  maintained  to  be  unjust,  and  would 
hearken  to  no  terms  till  that  sentence  was 
revoked.  On  the  other  hand,  Innocent  urged 
the  release  of  the  cardinals  before  he  would 
enter  upon  any  negotiation.  Thus  was  the 
treaty  broken  off  as  soon  as  begun;  and  the 
emperor,  to  prevent  the  pope  from  prejudi- 
cing the  other  Christian  princes  against  him, 
ordered  all  the  ports  and  roads  to  be  strictly 
guarded,  and  such  as  should  be  found  car- 
rying letters  from  the  pope  to  any  of  the 
transalpine  princes  to  be  put  to  death  upon 
the  spot.  Pursuant  to  this  order,  several 
Franciscans  employed  by  the  pope  to  con- 
Tey  his  letters  into  France  and  Germany, 
were  all  apprehended  and  hanged. 

In  the  mean  time  Frederic,  entering  the 
patrimony  of  St.  Peter  at  the  head  of  his 
army,  burnt  and  destroyed  all  before  him, 
directing  his  march  again  to  Rome,  where  he 
had  gained  many  friends.  But  being  met  by 
embasadors  from  several  places  interposing 
their  good  offices  in  behalf  of  the  pope,  he 
was  persuaded  by  them  to  forbear  hostilities 
and  renew  the  negotiation.  He  sent,  accord- 
ingly, Piaimund,  count  of  Toulouse,  who 
had  been  reconciled  to  the  church  in  the 
pontificate  of  Gregory  IX.,  and  with  him 
Petrus  de  Vineis,  his  secretary,  and  Thadeus 
of  Suessa,  to  swear,  in  his  name,  that  in  all 
things  he  would  acquiesce  in  the  judgment 
of  his  holiness,  would  restore  the  cities 
and  territories  that  belonged  to  the  church, 
and  set  the  cardinals,  as  well  as  the  other 
ecclesiastics,  at  liberty,  upon  condition  he 
was  absolved  from  the  excommunication. 
This  oath  the  three  embassadors  took  on 
Maunday  Thursday,  which,  in  1244,  fell  on 
the  last  day  of  March.  But  the  pope,  still 
refusing  to  take  off  the  excommunication 
till  the  emperor  had  executed  all  the  articles, 
and  given  him  full  satisfaction,  the  negotia- 
tion was  again  broken  off.'  The  pope, 
leaving  Rome,  had  repaired  to  Civita  Cas- 
tellana,  in  order  to  be  nearer  to  the  emperor, 
•who  was  then  encamped  at  Interamna,  now 
Terni.  But  being  informed,  when  the  treaty 
•was  broken  off,  that  the  emperor  designed 
to  seize  him,  he  left  Civita  Castellana  in  the 
dead  of  the  night,  and  travelling  only  by 
night,  he  reached,  the  third  day,  Civita 
Vecchia,  where  the  Genoese  fleet,  consisting 


•  Mat.  Paris.    EpiBt.  Innocent,  645. 

Vol.  II.-71 


of  twenty-two  well  armed  galleys,  by  his 
appointment  waited  for  him.  By  that  fleet, 
under  the  command  of  his  two  nephews, 
James  and  Hugh  Fieschi,  he  was  conveyed 
to  Genoa,  and  received  there,  being  a  native 
of  that  city,  with  all  possible  marks  of  dis- 
tinction. His  original  design  was  to  pass 
immediately  from  Genoa,  where  he  did  not 
think  himself  safe,  into  France.  But  he 
was  obliged,  being  taken  dangerously  ill,  to 
continue  there  three  whole  months,  to  travel 
slow  when  he  left  that  city,  and  to  rest  so 
often,  that  though  he  set  out  from  Genoa 
about  the  beginning  of  September,  he  did 
not  reach  Lions  till  the  2d  of  December. 
The  reader  will  find  a  very  minute  account 
of  his  journey  in  the  History  of  his  Life,  by 
Nicholas  de  Curbio,  who  attended  him  from 
Civita  Castellana  to  Lions.' 

Innocent,  now  out  of  the  reach  of  the 
emperor,  resolved  to  be  revenged  upon  him 
for  the  hardships  he  had  made  him  undergo, 
and  with  this  view,  on  the  feast  of  St.  John 
the  Evangelist,  the  27th  of  December,  he 
appointed  a  general  council  to  meet  at  Lions 
on  the  24th  of  the  following  June,  the  festi- 
val of  St.  John  Bapiist.  To  that  council  he 
invited  all  the  bishops  and  princes  of  Chris- 
tendom, and  the  reasons  he  alleged  lor  sum- 
moning it  w^ere,  to  reform  the  many  abuses 
that  had  crept  into  the  church;  to  procure 
some  immediate  relief  for  the  Christians  in 
the  East,  reduced  to  the  most  deplorable 
condition;  and  to  settle  the  differences  be- 
tween the  church  and  the  empire,  to  which 
all  their  misfortunes  were  owing.  The  em- 
peror saw  very  plainly  that  it  ■^vas  chiefly  to 
depose  him  with  greater  solemnity  that  the 
council  was  appointed  to  meet,  and  therefore 
wrote  a  long  letter  to  all  the  Christian 
princes,  laying  open  to  them  the  pope's  real 
design,  and  charging  upon  him  all  the  ca- 
lamities the  Christians  suffered  in  the  East, 
as  his  holiness  had  diverted  him  from  lend- 
ing them  any  assistance,  by  stirring  up  the 
cities  in  Italy  to  revolt,  and  openly  support- 
ing them  in  their  rebellion.  He  added,  that 
if  his  holiness  would  but  absolve  him  from 
the  excommunication,  and  oblige  the  rebels 
in  Lombardy  to  lay  down  their  arms,  he 
would  send  a  powerful  army  to  the  relief  of 
the  Holy  Land. 

In  the  mean  time  the  bishops  assembled 
from  all  parts  at  Lions,  and  on  the  eve  of 
the  festival  of  St.  Peter,  on  the  2Sth  of  June 
1245,  was  held  the  first  session,  at  which 
were  present,  besides  all  the  cardinals,  the 
three  patriarchs  of  Constantinople,  Antioch, 
and  Aquileia,  one  hundred  and  forty  arch- 
bishops and  bishops,  from  France,  Spain, 
Italy,  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland,  but 
very  few  from  Germany.  Baldwin,  empe- 
ror of  Constantinople,  came  to  solicit  relief 
for   the   Holy  Land.     Raimund,  count  of 

«  Nich.  de  Curbio.  Vit.  Innocent,  c.  15. 


562 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Innocent  IV. 


First  seasion  of  the  council  at  Lions.    Second  session.    Third  session. 


Toulouse,  Raimunil,  count  of  Provence, 
and  some  other  princes,  assisted  in  person, 
and  all  the  other  Christian  princes,  sent  their 
embassadors;  among  whom  were  Thadeus 
of  Suessa,  and  Petrus  de  Vineis,  appointed 
by  the  emperor  to  represent  him  and  main- 
tain his  cause  against  the  pope  and  the  rest 
of  his  enemies.  The  pope  opened  the  coun- 
cil with  a  speech,  laying  before  them  the 
motives  that  had  induced  him  to  call  them 
together,  namely,  the  disorderly  lives  of  the 
clergy,  the  insolence  of  the  Saracens,  the 
schism  of  the  Greeks,  the  cruelty  of  the 
Tartars,  who  had  broken  into  Hungary,  and 
the  persecution  of  Frederic.  He  enlarged 
upon  these  five  motives,  or,  as  he  called 
them,  his  five  sorrows,  but  especially  upon 
the  last;  painting  the  emperor  as  a  tyrant, 
as  a  persecutor  of  the  church,  and  charging 
him  with  heresy,  with  sacrilege,  with  court- 
ing the  friendship  of  the  sultan  of  Babylon, 
with  keeping  Saracen  women,  and  peopling 
a  new-built  city  with  Saracens.  These  ac- 
cusations were  all  answered  by  Thadeus 
of  Suessa,  reproaching  the  pope  with  pride 
and  haughtiness  quite  unbecoming  "the 
servant  of  the  servants  of  the  Lord,"  and 
charging  him  with  the  want  of  sincerity  and 
the  breach  of  the  most  solemn  promises. 
As  for  the  charge  of  heresy,  Thadeus  as- 
sured the  fathers  of  the  aouncil  that  it  was 
entirely  groundless  ;  that  his  master  was  as 
true  a  Christian  as  any  of  them  ;  that  Avere 
he  present  he  would  confute  so  barefaced  a 
calumny  with  making  a  public  confession 
of  his  faith ;  and  that  his  suffering  no  usurers 
in  his  dominions  was  a  proof  of  his  being  a 
sincere  Christian ;  which  was  reflecting, 
says  Matthew  Paris,  on  the  court  of  Rome, 
where  that  vice  was  known  to  prevail.  He 
owned,  that  the  emperor  suffered  the  Sara- 
cens, who  had  settled  in  his  dominions  be- 
fore his  time,  to  continue  there  unmolested, 
that  he  might  employ  them  in  his  wars,  and 
thus  spare  the  blood  of  his  Christian  sub- 
jects. He  absolutely  denied  the  charge  of 
the  emperor's  keeping  any  Saracen  women, 
or  his  having  any  criminal  commerce  with 
such  of  them  as  were  about  the  court.* 

In  the  second  session,  held  eight  days  af- 
ter the  first,  that  is,  on  the  5th  of  July,  the 
bishop  of  Carinola,  in  Apuha,  who  had  been 
banished  by  the  emperor,  vented  his  rage 
against  him  in  a  most  furious  and  abusive 
harangue,  pretending  that  he  believed  nei- 
ther in  God  nor  the  saints;  that  he  had  seve- 
ral wives  at  the  same  time ;  that  he  was  a 
great  friend  and  favorer  of  the  Saracens ; 
that  he  corresponded  with  the  sultan  of 
Babylon ;  that  he  had  been  heard  to  repeat 
the  blasphemous  saying  of  Averroes,  name- 
ly, that  three  impostors  had  deceived  the 
world,  Moses  the  Jews,  Christ  the  Chris- 
tians, and  Mahomet  the  Arabs ;  that  he  had 

>  Concil.  torn.  11.  p,  636.    M.  Paris.    Acta  Vaticana. 


imprisoned,  and  even  put  to  death,  several 
ecclesiastics,  and  had  nothing  less  in  view 
than  to  reduce  the  bishops  of  the  church  to 
the  poor  and  uncomfortable  condition  of  the 
primitive  times.  The  bishop  of  Carinola 
was  seconded  by  several  Spanish  bishops, 
charging  the  emperor  with  heresy,  sacrilege, 
perjury,  and  many  other  crimes.  But  Tiia- 
deus  of  Suessa  rising  up,  confuted,  in  a  long 
and  elegant  speech,  all  the  accusations 
brought  by  those  bishops  against  his  master, 
as  proceeding  from  malice  or  a  spirit  of  re- 
venge, quite  unbecoming  men  of  their  cha- 
racters. He  charged  the  bishop  of  Carinola 
in  particular,  with  many  crimes,  for  which, 
he  said,  a  less  merciful  prince  would  have 
condemned  him  to  perpetual  imprisonment 
or  to  death,  instead  of  obliging  him  only  to 
quit  his  dominions,  where  he  could  not  him- 
self live,  nor  would  suffer  others  to  live  in 
peace.  He  ended  his  speech  with  entreating 
his  holiness  to  put  off  the  third  session  till 
the  arrival  of  the  emperor,  who,  he  said, 
was  come  to  Turin,  in  his  way  to  the  coun- 
cil. The  pope  replied,  that  if  the  emperor 
came  he  Avould  retire,  as  he  was  not  dis- 
posed to  suffer  martyrdom,  or  to  be  confined 
for  life  to  a  jail.  However,  he  was  prevailed 
upon  by  the  embassadors  of  the  kings  of 
France  and  England  to  grant  the  desired 
delay ;  and  the  second  session  having  been 
held  on  the  5th  of  July,  the  third  was  put 
off  till  the  I7th  of  that  month.  But  the  em- 
peror, finding  that  the  pope  was  determined, 
at  all  events,  to  condemn  him,  thought  it 
advisable  not  to  appear  before  so  partial  a 
judge,  and  this  resolution  he  communicated 
to  his  embassadors  at  the  council. 

The  third  session  was  thereupon  held  on 
the  I7th  of  July,  when  the  pope,  after  pub- 
lishing some  constitutions  for  the  relief  of 
the  Holy  Land,  caused  all  the  privileges, 
immunities,  and  exemptions,  granted  by  the 
emperors  and  other  princes  to  the  apostolic 
see,  to  be  publicly  read,  and  confirmed  by  all 
the  prelates  who  were  present.  In  the  next 
place  were  heard  the  English  embassadors, 
complaining  of  the  insupportable  exactions 
of  the  court  of  Rome,  and  the  illegal  pro- 
ceedings of  one  Martin,  who  called  himself 
legate  of  the  apostolic  see,  and  as  such  took 
upon  him  to  dispose  of  the  vacant  benefices, 
to  the  prejudice  of  the  patrons,  and  confer 
them  chiefly  upon  foreigners.  The  pope 
put  off  inquiring  into  those  matters  to  a 
more  proper  season,  as  it  belonged  not  to  the 
council,  but  to  the  apostolic  see,  to  redress 
the  grievances  the  embassadors  complained 
of.  He  then  entered  upon  the  quarrel  and 
the  causes  of  the  quarrel  between  him  and 
the  emperor,  when  Thadeus,  concluding 
from  the  first  words  of  his  speech  that  he. 
was  determined  to  condemn  the  emperor, 
appealed,  in  his  name,  to  a  more  general 
council.  Innocent  answered,  that  the  pre- 
sent council  was  a  general  one  j  that  all  the 


Innocent  IV.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


563 


The  emperor  excommunicated  and  deposed.  He  writes  to  all  the  Christian  princes.  Interview  between  the 
pope  and  the  king  of  France  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1246.]  Henry,  landgrave  of  Thuringia,  chosen  king  of 
Germany.  ______^ 


bishops  had  been  invited  to  it,  and  that  those 
who  had  not  attended  had  been  diverted 
iioiu  it  by  the  emperor.  Tlie  pope  then, 
addressing  hiinseifto  the  fathers  of  tlie  coun- 
cil, gave  them  an  account  of  all  that  had 
passed  between  the  emperor,  his  predecessor, 
Gregory,  and  himself;  enlarged  on  his  inde- 
fatigable endeavors,  and  the  great  pains  he 
had  taken  to  establish  a  lasting  peace  be- 
tween the  church  and  the  empire,  com- 
plained of  the  emperor's  obstinacy  in  reject- 
ing all  terms,  and  expressing  great  concern 
at  his  being  obliged  to  proceed  against  one 
as  an  enemy,  with  whom  he  had  once 
lived  in  the  greatest  friendship,  he  pro- 
nounced the  sentence  of  excommunication 
against  him,  deprived  him  of  the  empire,  of 
all  his  other  kingdoms,  dignities,  and  domi- 
nions ;  absolved  his  subjects  from  their  alle- 
giance, forbidding  them,  on  pain  of  excom- 
munication, thenceforth  to  obey,  or  lend  him 
any  assistance  whatever.  At  the  same  time 
the  electors  were  ordered  to  proceed  forth- 
with to  the  election  of  a  new  emperor.'  This 
sentence  was  delivered,  in  writing,  to  all  the 
bishops,  was  publicly  read,  and  by  them  all 
approved  and  confirmed.^ 

The  emperor  no  sooner  heard  of  this  sen- 
tence than  he  acquainted  all  the  Christian 
princes  with  it,  showing,  in  the  letters  he 
wrote  to  them  on  that  occasion,  that  the 
power  claimed  by  the   pope  over  the  tem- 
poral dominions  of  princes  was  a  manifest 
usurpation  ;  that  though  he  consecrated  and 
crowned  the  emperors,  he  had   no   belter 
right  to  depose  them  than  every  other  bishop 
had  to  depose  the  king  whom  he  had  crown- 
ed or  consecrated ;   that  though   it  should 
even  be  allowed  that  he  was  really  vested 
with  such  an  extraordinary  power,  yet  the 
sentence  lately  pronounced  would  be  null, 
by  what  number  of  bishops  soever  approved 
and  confirmed,   as    being   contrary   to   the 
known  laws  or  canons  of  the  church ;  that 
he  had  not  been  lawfully  summoned;  that 
the  crimes  laid  to  his  charge  had  not  been 
lawfully  proved  ;  that  very  few  bishops  had 
deposed  against  them,  namely — one  of  Apu- 
lia,  whose    brothers   and    nephew   he   had 
caused  to  be  hanged  for  crimes  of  high  trea- 
son, and  two  Spanish  bishops,  who  were  at 
too  great  a  distance  to  be  rightly  informed 
of  what  passed   in   Italy.     He   added,  that 
were  the  crimes  even  fully  proved,  the  pope 
could    only    inflict   spiritual    piinishnienls ; 
and  closed  his  letter  witli  exhorting  all  prin- 
ces to  join  him  in  a  cause  common  to  them 
all.      Frederic  wrote   in    particular   to    the 
king    of    France,    Lewis    IX.,    afterwards 
sainted,  referring  to  him  the  points  in  dis- 
pute, and  promising  to  stand  lo  his  judg- 
ment and  that  of  his  peers.     The  king  inter- 
posed accordingly  ;  but  the  pope  wouJd  hear- 

>  CoTicil.  torn.  11.  et  Bullarium. 
'  Vit.  Innocent,  c.  14. 


ken  to  no  terms,  however  reasonable,  saying, 
that  the  emperor  had  deceived  him  so  often, 
that  neither  his  promises  nor  his  oaths  were 
to  be  relied  on.  The  king  replied,  that  it 
was  the  duty  of  every  Christian  to  forgive 
seventy-seven  times  ;  that  it  was  in  vain  to 
think  of  the  recovery  of  the  Holy  Land,  which 
his  holiness  had  so  much  at  heart,  without 
the  assistance  of  the  emperor,  and  that  they 
could  not  expect  he  should  lend  them  any 
so  long  as  the  quarrel  between  his  holiness 
and  him  obliged  him  to  keep  his  troops  at 
home  to  defend  his  own  dominions.  The 
pope  persisted  obstinate  in  his  Ibrmer  reso- 
lution to  agree  to  no  terms,  as  the  emperor, 
he  said,  had  sufficiently  shown  that  he  would 
stand  to  none.  The  king  finding  that  the 
obstinacy  of  the  pope  was  proof  against  all 
he  could  urge  in  behalf  of  the  emperor  with- 
drew greatly  offended,  says  Matthew  Paris, 
at  his  not  finding  in  the  servant  of  the  ser- 
vants of  God  the  humility  answering  that 
title.'  This  passed  at  an  interview  between 
the  pope  and  the  king  in  the  monastery  of 
Cluni,  whither  Lewis  had  repaired  to  meet 
the  pope  and  offer  his  mediation. 

Frederic  being  thus  deposed,  the  pope 
wrote  to  the  German  princes,  requiring 
them  to  choose  a  new  king  of  Germany,  to 
be  afterwards  crowned  by  him  emperor,  and 
recommending  to  their  choice  Henry,  land- 
grave of  Thuringia  and  Hesse.  The  pope's 
letter  is  dated  at  Lions,  the  21st  of  April,  in 
the  third  year  of  his  pontificate,  and  conse- 
quently in  1246.  Most  of  the  German  prin- 
ces highly  resented  the  proceedings  of  the 
pope,  whose  only  business,  they  said,  it  was 
to  crown  the  emperor;  and,  instead  of  with- 
drawing themselves  from  his  obedience,  re- 
newed their  allegiance,  and  entering  into  an 
association,  declared  they  would  stand  by 
him  to  the  last,  and  maintain,  even  at  the 
expense  of  their  lives,  the  just  rights  of  the 
empire.  However,  some  of  the  electors, 
especially  the  ecclesiastical  princes,  and 
among  them  the  archbishops  of  Cologne  and 
Mentz,  meeting  at  Wirtzburg,  chose  the 
landgrave  king  of  Germany,  on  the  fes- 
tivalof  the  ascension,  which,  in  the  present 
year,  fell  on  the  17th  of  May.^  The  pope 
expressed  the  greatest  satisfaction  upon  re- 
ceiving the  news  of  that  election,  communi- 
cated to  him  by  the  archbishop  of  Mentz, 
and  in  his  answer  to  that  prelate  returned 
him  the  thanks  of  the  apostolic  see  for  the 
share  he  had  in  so  happy  a  revolution,  ex- 
horted him  to  gain  over  as  many  as  he  pos- 
sibly could  to  the  party  of  the  new  king, 
and  promising  to  back  his  pious  endeavors 
with  all  the  authority  of  the  holy  see,  he 
empowered  him  to  pursue  such  measures 
in  his  name,  as  should  seem  to  him  the  best 
calculated  to  defeat  the  wicked  designs  of 


»  Mat.  Paris  ad  hnnc  ann. 

>  Krantzius  Saxonia,  I.  8.  c.  13. 


564 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Innocent  IV. 


Several  edicts  published  by  the  emperor  against  the  monks  and  the  clergy.  The  new  king  of  Germany 
killed ;— [  Year  of  Christ,  1247.]  William,  earl  of  Holland,  chosen  in  his  room.  War  carried  on  in  Germany 
and  Italy;— [Years  of  Christ,  1248,  1249.]     Death  of  the  emperor  Frederic  ;—[\'ear  of  Christ,  1250.] 


such  as  Still  adhered  to  Frederic,  heretofore 
emperor.  This  letter  is  dated  at  Lions,  the 
9th  of  June.'  At  the  same  time  the  pope 
wrote  to  all  the  German  princes,  declaring 
such  of  them  as  continued  to  favor  Frederic 
cut  off  from  the  communion  of  the  apostolic 
see  and  the  catholic  church,  as  the  friends 
of  an  avowed  enemy  to  both.^ 

In  the  mean  time  Frederic,  still  acknow- 
ledged by  most  of  the  German  princes,  is- 
sued several  edicts  in  Germany  as  well  as 
in  Sicily,  against  all,  without  distinction, 
who  should  pay  any  regard  either  to  the 
sentence  or  the  menaces  of  the  pope,  order- 
ed the  magistrates  throughout  the  kingdom 
of  Sicily  to  punish,  as  rebels,  all  who  should 
observe  the  interdict,  and  refuse  to  perform 
divine  service,  or  to  administer  the  sacra- 
ments, banished  most  of  the  monks,  and 
obliged  the  clergy  to  pay  the  third  pari  of 
their  income,  and,  besides,  all  the  taxes  im- 
posed on  the  laity.  To  prevent  any  of  the 
monks,  whom  the  emperor  looked  upon  as 
so  many  spies  of  the  pope,  from  going  to 
Rome,  he  forbad  them,  upon  the  severest 
penalties,  to  travel  from  one  place  to  another 
without  a  pass  signed  by  some  of  his  offi- 
cers. Frederic,  having  settled  his  affairs  in 
Lombardy  in  the  best  manner  he  could,  and 
left  there  his  natural  sdh  Entius  with  a 
competent  force  to  watch  the  motions  of  the 
disaffected  Lombards,  marched  himself  into 
Apulia  to  suppress  the  disturbances  raised 
there  by  some  of  his  barons,  gained  over  by 
the  pope,  which  he  easily  compassed.  But 
a  most  bloody  war  was,  in  the  mean  time, 
carried  on  in  Germany  between  the  land- 
grave of  Thuringia  and  Conrad,  the  empe- 
ror's son,  with  various  success.  But  Conrad 
having  engaged  the  enemy  with  a  force 
vastly  inferior  to  theirs,  he  was  defeated  and 
driven  quite  out  of  the  field.  The  land- 
grave, elated  with  his  victory,  laid  siege 
to  Ulm ;  but  was  killed  soon  after  he  had 
invested  the  place.  The  pope  no  sooner 
heard  of  his  death,  than  he  despatched  car- 
dinal Caponius  into  Germany  with  the  cha- 
racter of  his  legate  a  Latere  to  the  German 
princes  who  had  adhered  to  the  late  land- 
grave. The  cardinal,  upon  his  arrival  in 
Gerniany,  applied  to  the  archbishop  of 
Mentz,  one  of  Frederic's  most  bitter  ene- 
mies ;  and  by  his  means  a  diet  was  assem- 
bled at  a  place  called  Nussia,  and  William 
earl  of  Holland  was  there  unanimously 
elected  king  of  Germany  by  the  few  bishops 
and  princes  who  attended  that  assembly. 
This  happened,  according  to  some,  on 
Michaelmas-day  1247 ,3  according  to  others 
a  few  days  after  that  festival,  and  the  pope, 
upon  the  news  of  William's  election,  wrote 
anew  to  the  archbishop  of  Mentz,  thanking 


him  in  the  name  of  the  whole  catholic 
church  for  the  zeal  he  had  exerted  in  so  im- 
portant an  occasion,  when  the  welfare  of 
tlie  church  as  well  as  the  apostolic  see  was 
at  stake.  His  letter  is  dated  at  Lions  the 
19th  of  November.' 

The  two  following  years  a  most  destruc- 
tive war  was  carried  on  in  Germany  be- 
tween Conrad  and  the  new  king  of  Germany, 
and  in  Italy  between  Entius  and  the  rebel- 
lious states  of  Lombardy,  supported  by  the 
pope.  The  Bolognese  had  till  the  year  1248 
sided  with  the  emperor  j  but  being  that  year 
gained  over  by  the  pope,  they  joined  the 
rebels,  and  engaging  Entius  gained  a  com- 
plete victory  over  him,  cut  most  of  his  army 
in  pieces,  and  even  took  Entius  himself 
prisoner,  and  carried  him  in  triumph  to 
Bologna,  where  he  remained  to  the  hour  of 
his  death;  the  Bolognese  having  made  a  de- 
cree, that  he  should  never  be  set  at  liberty, 
and  they  therefore  refused  vast  sums  of 
money  offered  them  by  the  emperor  for  his 
ransom.  He  is  said  to  have  lived  twenty- 
two  years  in  that  city,  entertained  like  a 
king  at  the  public  expense,  and  to  have  been 
buried  with  the  greatest  pomp  in  the  church 
of  the  Dominicans. 

The  emperor,  having  quieted  the  disturb- 
ances in  Apulia,  and  by  the  death  or  banish- 
ment of  such  of  the  barons  as  had  revolted, 
restored  that  kingdom  to  its  former  tranquil- 
lity, was  preparing  to  march  with  a  power- 
ful army  into  Lombardy,  to  set  his  son  at 
liberty  and  stop  the  progress  of  the  Lom- 
bards, who  had  reduced  several  important 
places,  and  the  city  of  Modena  among  the 
rest,  a  city  that  had  distinguished  itself  from 
the  beginning  by  a  steady  adherence  to  the 
imperial  cause.  But  while  the  military 
preparations  were  carrying  on  throughout 
the  kingdom,  Frederic  was  taken  ill  in  the 
castle  of  Fiorentino,  not  far  from  Lucera, 
and  died  there  in  a  few  days.  Some  wri- 
ters suppose  him  to  have  been  poisoned  by 
"Manfred,  prince  of  Taranto,  his  natural  son, 
who  aspired  to  the  kingdom.  His  death 
happened  on  the  13th  of  December,  1250, 
in  the  fifty-seventh  year  of  his  age,  when 
he  had  reigned  as  emperor  thirty-seven 
years,  as  king  of  Sicily  fifty,  and  twenty - 
eight  as  king  of  Jerusalem.  Some  writers 
tell  us,  that  on  his  death-bed  he  expressed 
great  contrition  for  his  disobedience  to  the 
pope,  and  the  little  regard  he  had  shown  for 
the  clergy,  making  no  distinction  between 
them  and  the  laity  when  guilty  of  the  same 
crimes.^  But  other  writers  take  no  notice 
of  his  repentance  with  respect  to  his  quarrel 
with  the  pope ;  but  only  say  that  he  repent- 
ed of  all  his  sins,  begged  pardon  of  God, 
made  his  confession  to  Bernard,  archbishop 


»  Rainald.  ad  hunc  ann.  Num.  5.         2  idem  ibid. 
"  Joan,  a  Leidis  in  Hist.  Comitum  Holland. 


•  Apud  Rainald.  Num.  5. 

>  Laurent,  de  Podio.    Anonym,  in  Vit.  Frederic. 


Innocent  IV.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


565 


Character  of  Frederic.  Frederic  succeeded  by  his  son  Conrad.  Several  cities  in  Apulia  revolt,  but  are 
reduced  by  Conrad  ;—[\'ear  of  Christ,  1251.]  Innocent  offers  the  kingdom  of  Sicily  to  several  princes; 
[Years  of  Christ,  1252,  1253.]  


of  Palermo,  was  absolved  by  him,  and  re- 
ceived the  eucharisi  at  his  hands. 

As  to  his  character,  the  Guelf  writers 
paint  him  as  a  monster  of  wickedness,  as 
one  destitute  of  every  moral  and  Christian 
virtue,  as  a  lawless  tyrant,  without  faith  or 
religion.  Salimbene,  a  Franciscan  friar,  who 
lived  in  those  times,  tells  us  in  his  chronicle, 
that  Avhen  Frederic  first  saw  the  promised 
land,  he  could  not  forbear  laughing,  and 
turning  to  those  about  him,  "  If  the  God  of 
the  Israelites,"  he  said,  "  had  seen  the  king- 
dom of  Naples,  he  would  not  have  set  such 
a  value  upon  his  promised  land."  But 
Frederic  was  no  friend  to  the  monks  and 
friars,  his  avowed  enemies,  and  he  had 
banished  great  numbers  of  them,  and  even 
caused  some  of  them  to  be  hanged.  No 
wonder,  therefore,  that  they  should  have 
charged  him  with  many  crimes,  of  which 
no  mention  is  made  by  other  less  partial 
writers.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Gibelline 
■writers  paint  him  as  a  prince  endowed  with 
every  princely  virtue,  bestowing  upon  him 
the  highest  commendations  for  his  firmness 
and  constancy  in  maintaining  the  undoubted 
rights  of  the  imperial  crown  against  three 
successive  popes,  Honorius,  Gregory,  and 
Innocent.  No  prince  ever  paid  greater  re- 
gard to  the  ecclesiastics  than  Frederic  did 
while  he  lived  in  friendship  with  the  popes. 
In  the  beginning  of  his  reign  he  so  warmly 
espoused  the  cause  and  promoted  the  in- 
terests of  the  church  and  the  apostolic  see, 
that  he  was  styled  by  Otho,  his  rival  in  the 
empire,  "  the  king  of  priests."  Many  6f  the 
constitutions  he  published  in  favor  of  the 
ecclesiastics  and  the  ecclesiastic  jurisdiction, 
are  still  extant  and  observed  to  this  day. 
But  upon  the  rupture  that  ensued  between 
him  and  the  apostolic  see,  he  changed  his 
conduct,  and  treated  all  who  adhered  to  the 
pope  with  the  utmost  severity.  As  for  the 
imputation  of  heresy  or  infidelity,  no  prince 
less  deserved  it,  as  appears  from  his  famous 
constitution,  Inconsutilem,  Stc,  ordering 
such  as  held  or  taught  doctrines  declared  by 
the  church  heretical,  to  abjure  them,  or,  if 
they  declined  it,  to  be  burnt  alive.  However, 
Aligerius  Dante,  the  father  of  the  Italian 
poetry,  who  flourished  in  the  beginning  of 
the  following  century,  misled  by  the  monk- 
ish writers,  has  placed  Frederic  in  that  part 
of  hell  where  the  sin  of  heresy  is  punished. 
It  is  observable,  that  Frederic  by  his  last  will 
ordered  all  the  rights  and  privileges  of  his 
*'  holy  motherthe  Fioman  church"  to  be  invi- 
olably preserved,  provided  she  in  like  manner 
preserved  the  rights  of  the  empire.  He  was 
a  great  encourager  of  learning,  leaving  none 
unrewarded  who  distinguished  themselves 
in  any  branch  of  literature  whatever.  Hence 
more  learned  men  flourished  under  him  than 
under  all  the  princes  of  his  family  together. 


as  appears  from  the  catalogue  Alacci  has 
given  us  of  them.' 

Frederic  was  succeeded  by  his  eldest  son 
Conrad.  But  as  that  prince  had  been  ex- 
communicated. Innocent  pretended  that  he 
had  thereby  forfeited  all  right  to  the  king- 
doms of  Sicily  and  Apulia;  and  that  as  fiefs 
of  the  apostolic  see  they  devolved  to  the 
church.  He  therefore  left  Lions  upon  the 
news  of  Frederic's  death,  and  arriving  at 
Genoa  he  repaired  after  a  short  stay  there  to 
Milan,  where  he  received  the  deputies  of  the 
confederate  or  Guelf  cities  of  Lombardy,  re- 
newed his  alliance  with  them,  and  then 
leaving  Lombardy  went  to  reside  at  Perugia, 
as  he  did  not  think  it  yet  safe  to  return  to 
Rome,  where  the  new  emperor  had  many 
friends,  and  among  the  rest  the  two  senators 
whom  the  Roman  people  had  chosen  to 
govern  them,  and  had  vested  them  with  an 
absolute  power.  The  pope,  during  his  stay 
at  Perugia,  prevailed  by  his  emissaries  upon 
several  cities  in  Apulia,  and  among  the  rest 
upon  the  cities  of  Naples  and  Capua,  to  re- 
volt from  Conrad  and  set  up  the  standard  of 
the  church.  But  Conrad  arrived  in  the 
mean  time  from  Germany,  at  the  head  of  a 
numerous  and  well  appointed  army  of  Ger- 
mans, and  being  joined  by  a  considerable 
body  of  Saracens,  who  had  been  allowed  by 
the  late  emperor  to  settle  in  Sicily,  he  soon 
obliged  the  rebellious  cities  to  submit.  The 
city  of  Naples  alone  would  hearken  to  no 
terms.  But  their  obstinacy  cost  them  dear; 
for  the  town  was  taken  by  storm,  after  a 
most  obstinate  resistance,  and  given  up  to 
be  plundered. 

Innocent,  finding  he  could  not  withstand 
Conrad  with  his  own  forces  alone,  resolved 
to  engage  some  other  prince  in  that  under- 
taking, by  offering  him  the  kingdom  of 
Sicily,  upon  condition  he  drove  out  Conrad, 
and  with  him  the  whole  race  of  Frederic. 
With  that  view  he  dispatched  Albert  of 
Parma  as  his  nuncio  into  England,  to  offer 
the  kingdom  of  Sicily  to  Richard  earl  of 
Cornwall,  and  brother  to  Henry  III.,  a 
prince  of  an  unbounded  ambition,  and  pos- 
sessed of  great  wealth.  Richard  did  not 
reject  the  offer,  but  insisted  upon  terms 
which  the  pope  would  not  agree  to ;  and 
thus  the  negotiation  broke  off.  In  the  mean 
time  Charles,  earl  of  Anjou  and  Provence, 
and  brother  to  Lewis  IX.  of  France,  who 
was  afterwards  canonized,  hearing  of  the 
offer  Innocent  had  made  to  Richard,  and  at 
the  same  time  of  his  refusal,  dispatched  em- 
bassadors to  Perugia,  where  his  holiness  still 
resided,  to  beg  he  would  grant  to  him  the 
kingdom  that  Richard  had  refused,  upon 
what  terms  he  should  think  fit  to  prescribe. 
As  Charles  had  distinguished  himself  no 

>  Alacci  Neapolis  illustrata. 

2  X 


566 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[innocent  IV. 


Conrad  dies,  and  Manfred,  his  natural  brother,  guardian  of  his  son  Conradin  during  his  minority ;— [Year  of 
Christ,  1254.]     The  pope  acknowledged  by  most  of  the  barons.    His  army  defeated  by  Manfred. 


less  by  his  wisdom  and  prudence  in  peace 
than  by  his  valor  in  war,  the  pope  wrote, 
without  loss  of  time,  to  Albert,  who  was 
then  in  France,  ordering  him  to  close  with 
the  earl,  and,  if  he  agreed  to  the  terms  that 
had  been  offered  to  Richard,  to  grant  the  in- 
vestiture in  the  name  of  the  holy  Roman 
church,  of  Avhich  the  kingdom  of  Sicily  was 
a  fief.  However  this  treaty  too,  for  the  pre- 
sent, came  to  nothing,  Charles  being  di- 
verted, says  a  contemporary  writer,  from 
engaging  in  so  perilous  an  undertaking  by 
his  friends  and  relations,  all  to  a  man  op- 
posing it.'  This  second  disappoinmentgave 
the  pope  the  greatest  uneasiness,  and  he  now 
despaired  of  being  ever  able  to  compass  his 
end.  But  while  he  was  quite  at  a  loss  what 
other  prince  to  apply  to,  he  received,  to  his  in- 
expressible satisfaction,  a  letter  from  Henry, 
king  of  England,  begging  he  would  grant, 
upon  what  conditions  soever  he  pleased,  the 
kingdom  of  Sicily  to  Edmund  his  son,  as 
the  whole  offspring  of  Frederic  had  forfeited 
all  right  to  it  by  their  disobedience  to  the 
apostolic  see.  Upon  the  receipt  of  this  let- 
ter Innocent  Avrote  immediately  to  his  nuncio 
Albert,  then  in  France,  ordering  him  to  re- 
pair, Avithout  delay,  to  England,  and  ac- 
quaint the  king  that  the  apostolic  see  com- 
plied with  his  request,  and  would  grant  the 
investiture  to  the  young  prince,  upon  his 
promising  to  stand  to  the  conditions  that 
should  afterwards  be  prescribed  by  his  holi- 
ness, by  cardinal  Ottoboni  the  pope's  ne- 
phew, by  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  the 
bishop  of  Hereford,  the  bishop  elect  of  Lions, 
and  the  earl  of  Savoy  .2 

During  these  transactions  Conrad  died,  in 
the  flower  of  his  age,  being  but  twenty-five 
years  old  ;  and  his  death  is,  by  most  of  the 
contemporary  writers,  ascribed  to  poison 
administered  to  him  by  his  natural  brother, 
Manfred,  prince  of  Taranto.  He  left  behind 
him  but  one  son,  named  likewise  Conrad, 
and  called  by  the  Italians,  after  their  mode  of 
speech,  Conradino,  or  little  Conrad,  being 
scarce  three  years  old  at  the  time  of  his  fa- 
ther's death.  If  Conrad  was  poisoned  by 
Manfred,  he  did  not  know  it,  nor  did  he  in 
the  least  suspect  him ;  for  on  his  death-bed 
he  appointed  him  guardian  of  the  young 
prince,  and  regent  of  the  kingdom  of  Sicily 
during  his  minority.  Conrad,  in  his  last 
will,  ordered  Manfred  to  procure,  if  he  pos- 
sibly could,  by  any  means  consistent  Avith 
the  dignity  and  independence  of  the  crown, 
the  friendship  of  the  pope,  and  engage  him 
in  the  protection  of  his  pupil.  Manfred,  in 
compliance  with  that  order,  dispatched,  as 
soon  as  he  had  performed  the  exequies  of 
the  deceased  king,  a  solemn  embassy  to  In- 
nocent, to  acquaint  him  therewith,  and  ear- 
nestly entreat 'his  holiness  to  forbear  all  hos- 


tilities, and  take,  as  the  common  father  of 
all  orphans,  the  young  king  into  his  protec- 
tion. But  the  pope,  looking  upon  this  em- 
bassy rather  as  a  sign  of  the  weakness  of  the 
royal  party  than  an  act  of  respect,  and  re- 
solved not  to  let  pass,  unimproved,  the  fa- 
vorable opportunity  that  the  death  of  Con- 
rad, and  the  minority  of  his  son,  offered  him 
to  get  possession  of  the  kingdom,  received 
the  embassadors  with  great  haughtiness, 
and  returned  them  the  following  answer: 
That  the  kingdom  of  Sicily  had  devolved  to 
the  apostolic  see,  and  he  was  therefore  de- 
termined to  possess  himself  of  it ;  but  would, 
nevertheless,  when  the  young  prince  was  of 
age,  examine  his  pretensions,  and  he  should 
meet  with  favor,  if  found  to  deserve  any.' 

From  the  pope's  answer  Manfred  con- 
cluded that  a  war  was  unavoidable,  and 
having  thereupon  caused  the  frontier  places 
to  be  all  fortified,  he  raised  what  forces  he 
could,  to  repel  force  by  force.  In  the  mean 
time  the  pope,  removing  from  Assisi,  whi- 
ther he  had  gone  to  pass  the  summer,  to 
Anagni,  to  be  near  at  hand,  and  give  proper 
directions  for  the  reduction  of  the  kingdom, 
summoned  from  thence  Manfred,  and  like- 
wise Barthold,  marquis  of  Hohemburg, 
commander  of  the  German  troops,  as  well 
as  the  rest  of  the  barons,  to  appear  before 
him  and  resign  the  kingdom  to  the  church. 
With  this  summons  the  greater  part  of  the 
barons  readily  complied,  choosing  rather  to 
submit  to  the  pope  than  see  a  war  kindled  in 
the  bowels  of  the  kingdom.  Manfred  him- 
self, finding  his  army  vastly  inferior  to  that 
of  the  pope,  commanded  by  William,  cardi- 
nal of  St.  Euslachius,  the  pope's  legate, 
thought  it  advisable  to  yield  to  the  times.  He 
therefore  repaired  with  the  rest  to  Anagni ; 
and  there  resigning  the  power  and  authority 
with  which  he  was  vested  into  the  pope's 
hands,  acknowledged  his  right  to  the  king- 
dom, which  Innocent  was  so  well  pleased 
with,  that  he  not  only  absolved  him  from 
the  censures  he  had  incurred,  but  reinstated 
him  in  all  the  honors  and  titles  that  he  had 
enjoyed  in  his  father's  life-time.  In  the 
mean  while  the  pope's  army  advanced  into 
the  very  heart  of  the  kingdom,  and  as  they 
met  with  no  opposition,  nor  expected  any,  the 
cardinal  legate,  by  the  advice  of  Manfred,  in 
whom  he  placed  an  entire  confidence,  sent 
large  detachments  from  his  army  into  the 
different  provinces  to  receive  the  submission 
of  the  people.  The  legate's  army  being  thus 
considerably  weakened,  Manfred  unexpect- 
edly left  it,  and  hastening  to  Nocera,  a  city 
chiefly  inhabited  by  Saracens,  put  himself  at 
the  head  of  those  infidels,  and  falling  upon 
the  legale  when  he  least  expected  it,  gained 
a  complete  victory  over  him. 

This  signal  victory  was  obtained  by  Man- 
fred on  the  second  of  December  of  the  pre- 


•  Nicol.  de  Curbio,  in  Vit.  Innocent,  c.  32. 
3  Idem  ibid,  et  Raimund.  ad  ann.  1253. 


>  Anonym,  de  reb.  Fred. 


Alexander  IV.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


567 


Death  of  Innocent.     The  cardinals  confined  till  they  elected  a  new  pope.    Ale.YandeT  IV.  unanimously  elected. 


sent  year  ;  and  Innocent,  who  had  advanced 
as  far  as  Naples,  and  thought  that  he  had  no 
enemy  to  contend  with,  was  so  aflected  with 
it  that  he  died  on  the  seventh  of  the  same 
month,  when  he  had  governed  the  church 
eleven  years,  five  months,  and  thirteen  days.' 
He  was  buried  in  the  cathedral  of  Na- 
ples, as  we  read  in  Nicholas  de  Curbio,  who 
was  present  at  his  funeral,  and  not  in  the 
church  of  the  Minorites,  as  is  supposed  by 
Platina,  Panvinius,  and  most  of  the  more 
modern  writers.  He  strictly  adhered,  and, 
during  his  whole  pontificate,  acted  up  to 
the  principles  of  Gregory  VII.,  which  divi- 
ded Italy  into  two  opposite  factions,  and  in- 
volved that  unhappy  country  in  endless  ca- 
lamities. Innocent  was  certainly  a  man  of 
great  learning,  was  perfectly  well  acquainted 
with  the  divinity  of  those  times,  and  the  best 
civilian  of  his  time.  In  the  midst  of  the 
cares  of  his  very  troublesome  pontificate  he 
wrote  the  "  Apparatus"  on  the  five  books 
of  the  decretals,  a  work  still  in  such  request 
among  the  canonists,  that  he  is  styled  by 
them  "  the  father  of  the  canon  law."  He 
wrote  several  other  pieces,  and  among  the 
rest  one  entitled  "  Apologeticus,"  calcula- 
ted to  maintain  the  jurisdiction  of  the  apos- 
tolic see  over  the  empire,  in  answer  to  the 


famous  Petrus  de  Vineis,  secretary  to  Fre- 
deric II.,  ascertaining  the  independency  of 
the  empire  upon  the  apostolic  see,  and  the 
dependency  of  the  apostolic  see  upon  the 
empire.  Innocent  was  a  great  encourager 
of  learning  and  learned  men,  and  it  was  at 
his  request  that  Alexander  Hales,  a  native 
of  England,  wrote  his  "  Commentary  upon 
the  Four  Books  of  Sentences,"  and  several 
other  theological  works,  which  procured 
him  the  title  of  "  Doctor  Irrefragabilis." 
Innocent  was  the  first  that  distinguished 
the  cardinals  with  the  "  red  hat,"  and  that 
mark  of  distinction  he  granted  them  in  the 
council  of  Lions  ;  but  they  first  used  it,  as 
de  Curbio  informs  us,  the  year  after  the 
council,  that  is  in  1246,  on  occasion  of  an 
interview  between  the  pope  and  Lewis  IX. 
of  France.  That  the  cardinals  were  alloAved 
to  wear  red  shoes  and  red  garments  in  the 
time  of  Innocent  III.,  raised  to  the  see  in 
1198,  appears  from  several  writers  who 
flourished  at  that  time;  but  by  what  pope 
that  privilege  was  granted  them  is  uncertain. 
We  have  a  great  number  of  letters  written 
by  this  pope  on  difierent  occasions,  and  a 
decree  allowing  the  Sclavonians  to  perform 
Divine  service  in  their  mother  tongue,  con- 
trary to  a  decree  of  Gregory  VII. 


ALEXANDER  IV.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  SEVENTY-EIGHTH 
BISHOP  OF  ROME. 

[Johannes  Lascaris,  Michael  PalvEologus,  Emperors  of  the  East. — Richard,  Earl  of 
Cornwall,  Alphonsus,  King  of  Castile,  Kings  of  the  Romans.  ] 


[Year  of  Christ,  1254.]  The  victory 
gained  by  Manfred,  and  the  rapid  progress 
he  made  in  the  reduction  of  such  places  as 
had  revolted  to  the  pope,  so  terrified  the 
cardinals,  that  they  were  preparing  to  quit 
Naples  as  soon  as  they  had  performed  the 
exequies  of  the  deceased  pontiif,  and  re- 
turning into  the  territories  of  the  church. 
But  Bartoline  of  Parma,  whom  Innocent 
had  appointed  governor  of  Naples,  having 
in  vain  endeavored  to  divert  them  from  that 
resolution  by  apprising  them  of  the  evil  con- 
sequences that  would  attend  it,  thought  him- 
self sufliiciently  warranted,  the  welfare  of 
the  church  being  at  stake,  to  employ  force. 
He  accordingly  shut  them  up  under  a  strong 
guard  in  the  house  where  Innocent  died,  de- 
claring that  not  one  of  them  should  stir 
from  thence  till  they  had  agreed  in  the  elec- 
tion of  his  successor.  The  cardinals  were 
thus  put  under  confinement  three  days  after 
the  death  of  the  late  pope,  that  is,  on  the 
10th  of  December,  and  on  the  12th  of  the 
same  month,  llaynald,  bishop  of  Oslia,  was 

'  De  Curbio  in  Vit.  Innoc.  c.  42.  Rainald.  Num.  C9. 


unanimously  elected,  after  a  vacancy  of  five 
days.'  Blondus  writes,  that  Bartoline,  not 
satisfied  with  confining  the  cardinals,  order- 
ed the  portion  of  victuals  allowed  them  to 
be  every  day  lessened,  that  hunger  might 
oblige  them,  if  nothing  else  could,  to  hasten 
the  election.^  Antoninus,  Trithemius,  Vil- 
lani,  and  several  other  writers,  suppose  the 
see,  upon  the  death  of  Innocent  to  have  re- 
mained vacant  near  two  whole  years.  But 
tiiese  writers  must  never  have  read  either 
Nicholas  de  Curbio,  who  had  been  Inno- 
cent's chaplain  and  confessor  from  the  time 
he  was  created  cardinal  to  the  hour  of  his 
death,  was  at  Naples  when  his  successor 
was  elected,  and  gives  us  the  above  account 
of  his  election  ;  nor  Sallas  Malaspina,  who 
lived  at  this  time,  and  tells  us  that  the  car- 
dinals met  upon  the  death  of  Innocent,  and 
contrary  to  their  custom,  chose,  without  de- 
lay, Raynald  bishop  of  Ostia.^ 

Raynald  was  a  native  of  Jenne,  a  small 


«  De  Curbio  Vit.  Innoc.  cap.  nit.    Blond,  lib.  2.  De- 
cad.  7.  a  Idem  ibid. 
3  Apud  Baluzium,  torn.  6.  Miscell. 


568 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Alexander  IV. 


Alexander  writes  to  all  the  bishops.  All  Calabria  and  Apulia  reduced  by  Manfred.  Agreement  between  him 
and  the  pope's  legate  ;  — [Year  of  Christ,  1255]  Alexander  espouses  the  cause  of  the  Dominicans  against 
the  university  of  Paris  ; — [Year  of  Christ,  1256.] 


village  in  the  diocese  of  Anagni,  and  is 
therefore  called  Anagninus,  was  descended 
from  the  illustrious  family  of  the  counts  of 
Segni,  and  by  his  father,  nephew  to  pope 
Gregory  IX.,  who  first  created  him  cardinal 
deacon  of  St.  Eustachius,  and  afterwards 
preferred  him  to  the  see  of  Ostia.  At  his 
consecration  he  took  the  name  of  Alexander 
IV.,  and  a  few  days  after  wrote  a  circulatory 
letter  to  all  the  bishops,  recommending 
himself,  with  great  humility,  to  their  prayers ; 
that  by  their  intercession  he  might  be  ena- 
bled to  govern  the  church  as  a  worthy  suc- 
cessor of  St.  Peter.  He  wrote  at  the  same 
time  to  all  the  leading  men  of  the  Guelf  fac- 
tion in  Lombardy,  encouraging  them  to  con- 
tinue steady  in  the  attachment  they  had  hi- 
therto shown  to  the  apostolic  see,  and  op- 
pose, with  all  their  might,  the  tyrant  Eccelin, 
who,  putting  himself  at  the  head  of  the  Gi- 
belines,  committed  most  dreadful  ravages  in 
the  Marchia  Trevisiana,  imprisoning,  ban- 
ishing, and  even  putting  to  death  such  as 
continued  in  that  province  to  adhere  to  the 
pope.  He  spared  not  even  his  own  brother 
Alberic,  governor  of  the  city  of  Trevigi;  but, 
upon  his  refusing  to  join  him  against  the 
pope,  drove  him  from  his  government,  and 
declaring  him  a  rebel,  confiscated  his  estate. 
To  him,  therefore,  the  pope  wrote  a  most 
friendly  letter,  to  comfort  him  in  his  distress, 
and  appoint  him  commander-in-chief  of  the 
army  which  he  intended  to  send,  without 
delay,  to  therelief  of  that  unhappy  province. 
These  letters  are  all  dated  the  22d  of  De- 
cember.' 

In  the  mean  time  Manfred  carried  all  be- 
fore him:  most  of  the  cities  of  Apulia  and 
Calabria  submitted  to  him,  as  soon  as  he 
appeared  with  his  victorious  army  before 
them;  and  such  as  did  not  submit  of  their 
own  accord,  he  reduced  by  force.  Alexander, 
therefore,  and  the  cardinals,  apprehending 
themselves  in  imminent  danger  of  being 
shut  up  in  the  city  of  Naples,  and  falling  at 
last  into  his  hands,  resolved  to  propose  terms 
of  agreement  between  him  and  the  apostolic 
see.  Deputies  were  accordingly  sent  to 
treat  of  an  accommodation.  But  Manfred, 
insisting  upon  the  pope's  acknowledging 
Conradin  for  lawful  heir  to  the  crown  of 
Sicily,  and  himself  not  only  for  regent,  but 
next  heir,  should  the  young  prince  die  with- 
out issue,  the  treaty  was  soon  broken  off, 
and  Manfred  set  out  that  moment  on  his 
march  to  Naples.  But  being,  in  the  mean 
time,  informed  that  the  inhabitants  of  Brun- 
dusium  had  revolted  from  him  and  murdered 
their  governor,  he  very  unadvisedly  directed 
his  march  to  that  city,  and  while  he  was 
employed  in  the  reduction  of  the  place,  the 
marquis  of  Hohemburg,  whom  the  pope 
had  created  great  seneschal  of  the  kingdom, 

>  Jlaynald.  ad  ann.  1254i 


got  together,  with  incredible  expedition,  a 
sufficient  number  of  troops  to  oppose  any 
attempt  of  Manfred  upon  the  city  of  Naples. 
At  the  same  time  Octavianus,  cardinal  dea- 
con of  St.  Mary,  in  Via  Lata,  putting  him- 
self at  the  head  of  a  numerous  body  of 
troops  raised  in  the  territories  of  the  church, 
took  the  field,  and  advancing  against  Man- 
fred, offered  him  battle.  But  the  regent 
wisely  declined  it,  contenting  himself  with 
ravaging  the  neighboring  country,  and  inter- 
cepting with  his  parties  all  the  enemy's  con- 
voys. Thus  was  the  legate's  army  reduced, 
in  a  short  time,  to  the  utmost  distress,  and 
he  obliged  to  propose  new  terms  of  agree- 
ment. Hostilities  were  therefore  suspended 
on  both  sides,  and  after  several  conferences 
between  their  respective  deputies,  it  was 
agreed  that  Manfred  should  be  left  in  the 
quiet  possession  of  all  the  cities  and  pro- 
vinces in  Italy  that  belonged  to  the  crown 
of  Sicily,  except  Terra  Laboris,  (in  which 
province  stood  the  city  of  Naples)  that  was 
to  be  ceded  to  the  pope.' 

Alexander  being  now  at  leisure  to  attend 
to  the  duties  of  his  office,  undertook,  with 
great  warmth,  the  cause  of  the  "  preaching 
friars,"  or  Dominicans,  against  the  univer- 
sity of  Paris.  These  friars  had  opened  two 
schools  of  divinity  in  the  university,  but 
would  not  take  the  oaths  that  were  required 
of  and  taken  by  all  the  other  professors. 
The  university  therefore,  by  a  solemn  de- 
cree, published  in  all  the  colleges,  cut  them 
off  from  their  body,  declaring  them,  at  the 
same  time,  excluded  i'rom  all  the  privileges, 
exemptions,  and  immunities,  enjoyed  by  the 
other  members.  The  Dominicans,  on  the 
other  hand,  appealing  to  the  pope,  declared 
the  decree  to  be  null  till  it  was  approved 
and  confirmed  by  his  holiness.  The  affair 
being  thus  carried  to  Rome,  a  bull  was  im- 
mediately issued  by  Alexander,  annulling 
the  decree  of  the  university,  and  reinstating 
the  Dominicans  in  all  the  privileges  enjoyed 
by  the  other  professors.  The  pope  wrote  at 
the  same  time  to  the  bishops  of  Orleans  and 
Auxerre,  engaging  them  to  declare  all  who 
should  oppose  the  execution  of  his  bull  sus- 
pended, till  they  complied  with  it,  both  from 
their  offices  and  all  their  benefices.  As 
these  two  prelates,  unwilling  to  proceed  to 
extremities,  endeavored  to  reconcile  by  more 
gentle  means  the  contending  parties,  the 
pope,  by  a  bull,  dated  the  18th  of  June, 
1256,  excommunicated,  by  name,  the  four 
chief  authors  of  this  rebellion,  as  he  called 
it,  divested  them  by  his  apostolic  authority 
of  all  their  dignities  and  offices,  forbad  all 
on  pain  of  excommunication  to  frequent 
their  schools,  and  ordered  them  to  be  banish- 
ed the  kingdom  of  France.    The  archbishop 


<  Raynald.  ad  ann.  1255,  Num.  2;  et  Anonym,  apud 
Rayn.  Hum.  3,etseq. 


Alexander  IV.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 


^69 


The  book  of  William  de  Sancto  Amore  condemned  at  Roitie  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1257.]  William,  earl  of  Hol- 
land, and  king  of  the  Romans,  murdered.  Two  elected  in  his  room;— [Year  of  Christ,  1257.]  Crusade 
against  Eccelin. 


of  Paris  was  charged  with  the  execution  of 
this  bull.  But  in  the  mean  time  several 
persons  of  great  distinction,  and  the  king 
himself,  Lewis  IX.  interposing,  the  mem- 
bers of  the  university  were  prevailed  upon 
to  re-admit  the  Dominicans  into  their  body  ; 
but  it  was  upon  condition  that  in  all  public 
assemblies  they  should  sit  in  the  last  place, 
even  after  those  of  all  other  religious  orders.' 
The  most  strenuous  opposer  of  the  Domi- 
nicans in  this  controversy  was  William  de 
Sancto  Amore,  so  called  from  the  village  of 
Saint  Amour  in  the  Franche-conipte,  the 
place  of  his  nativity.  To  be  revenged  on 
the  Dominicans  for  the  trouble  they  had 
given  to  the  university,  of  which  he  was  a 
chief  member,  he  published  a  book  against 
them,  and  the  mendicant  friars  in  general, 
entitled,  De  Periculis  A'hvissimorum  Tem- 
porum,  "of  the  danger  of  the  latter  times." 
The  main  drift  of  that  piece  was  to  prove, 
that  all  who  are  able  to  earn  a  livelihood  by 
their  labour  are  bound  to  do  so;  and  that 
they  are  in  a  state  of  perdition  who  live  in 
idleness  at  the  charge  of  others.  The  men- 
dicants, instead  of  answering  the  many  ar- 
guments alleged  by  the  author  against  the 
lazy  indolent  life  led  by  the  friars,  com- 
plained to  the  pope  of  William's  insolence 
in  condemning  institutions  approved  and 
confirmed  by  the  apostolic  see,  and  sent  a 
copy  of  the  book  to  Rome  to  be  examined 
by  his  holiness.  Alexander  appointed  four 
cardinals  to  examine  it;  and  upon  their  re- 
port it  was  condemned  as  "  wicked,  damna- 
ble, execrable,  containing  false  and  abomi- 
nable doctrines,  derogatory  to  the  power  and 
authority  of  the  apostolic  see,  and  calculated 
to  bring  the  religious  orders,  founded  by  holy 
men,  into  contempt;  all  were  forbidden  to 
read  it,  and  they  that  had  it  were  ordered, 
on  pain  of  excommunication,  to  burn  it  in 
eight  days'  time.^  This  bull  is  dated  at 
Anagni  the  1 3th  of  October,  1256,  and  we 
have  no  fewer  than  forty  bulls  of  the  same 
pope  relative  to  this  controversy. 

Innocent  had  prevailed  upon  the  German 
princes  to  elect  William,  count  of  Holland, 
king  of  the  Romans,  in  opposition  to  the 
emperor  Frederic,  whom  he  had  deposed, 
as  has  been  related  in  the  life  of  that  pope. 
But  as  William  had  not  yet  received  the 
imperial  crown,  Alexander  invited  him  this 
year  to  Rome  to  be  crowned  there  with  the 
usual  solemnity.  With  that  invitation  the 
prince  readily  complied  ;  but  he  was  unex- 
pectedly attacked  by  the  Prisons  as  he 
passed  through  their  country,  and  barba- 
ously  murdered.  Upon  his  death  several  of 
tlwj  electors  were  for  choosing  Conradin,  the 
son  of  Conrad,  and  grandson  of  the  emperor 
Frederic,  to  succeed  him,  which  the  pope 


no  soon-er  heard,  than,  prompted  by  the  ir- 
reconcilable aversion  he  bore  to  the  whole 
race  of  Frederic,  he  wrote  to  the  archbishop 
of  Mentz  as  the  first  of  the  electors,  com- 
manding him  to  oppose  the  election  of  Con- 
radin to  the  utmost  of  his  power,  and  let  the 
other  electors  know,  that  all  who  should 
concur  with  their  suffrages  in  electing  him 
should  be,  ipso  facto,  excommunicated,  and 
the  election  be  declared  null.  This  letter  is 
dated  at  Anagni  on  the  28th  of  July  in  th^ 
second  year  of  Alexander's  pontificate,  or  in 
1256.'  Conradin,  who  was  yet  a  child, 
being  thus  excluded,  the  electors,  not  agree- 
ing in  the  election  of  a  German,  resolved  to 
choose  one  of  some  other  nation.  But  here 
they  were  again  divided.  For  by  the  arch- 
bishops of  Mentz  and  Cologne,  and  Lewis, 
count  Palatine  of  the  Rhine  was  elected,  on 
the  13th  of  January  1257,  Richard,  earl  of 
Cornwall,  and  brother  to  Henry  111.,  of 
England.  But  the  archbishop  of  Treves, 
the  king  of  Bohemia,  the  duke  of  Saxony, 
the  marquis  of  Brandeburg,  and  with  them 
many  other  German  princes,  not  agreeing 
to  the  election  of  Richard,  chose,  about  the 
middle  of  Lent  the  same  year,  Alphonsus, 
king  of  Castile.  Both  sent  embassadors  to 
Rome,  begging  his  holiness  to  confirm  their 
election.  But  Alexander,  alleging  that  the 
affair  required  the  most  mature  deliberation, 
wisely  declined  declaring  for  either  till  he 
saw  which  of  the  two  was  most  likely  to 
prevail.2 

In  the  mean  time  Eccelin  continuing  his 
ravages  with  unheard  of  barbarity  in  the 
Marchia  Trevisiana,  in  iEmilia,  and  in 
Lombard y,  the  pope  ordered  the  monks,  the 
friars,  and  all  the  ecclesiastics  to  preach  a 
crusade  against  him,  as  a  more  dangerous 
enemy  than  the  Saracens  themselves.  Thus 
was  a  numerous  army  raised,  and  the  com- 
mand of  it  given  to  Philip,  archbishop  elect 
of  Ravenna.  Under  him  served  a  Minorite 
friar  named  Curellus,  who,  having  obtained 
of  the  archbishop  the  command  of  a  large 
detachment,  marched  with  it  to  Padua,  the 
place  of  his  nativity,  then  held  by  Eccelin, 
and  advancing  to  the  walls  with  the  banner 
of  the  cross  displayed,  so  encouraged  his 
men,  that  in  a  very  short  time  they  made 
themselves  masters  of  that  important  city, 
though  defended  by  a  numerous  garrison 
under  the  command  of  Ansidisius,  Eccelin's 
nephew.  The  friar  and  his  men  were  re- 
ceived by  the  inhabitants  with  the  greatest 
demonstrations  of  joy;  which  so  provoked 
Eccelin,  that  he  caused  all  the  Paduans  who 
were  in  his  army  or  in  the  cities  under  his 
jurisdiction  to  be  murdered.  We  are  told 
that  no  fewer  than  twelve  thousand  were 
massacred   on   that  occasion.     The   tvrant 


'  Nangius  in  Gestis  I.udovici  IX.    Wadineus  ad  ann. 
1255.  a  Wadingus  ad  ann.  1256. 

Vol.  II.— 72 


»  Apud  Raynald.  Num.  .^. 
^Munacli.  Paduan.  ad  unn.  1257. 

2x2 


570 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Alexander  IV. 


Disturbances  in  Rome.  Alexander  retires  to  Viterbo.  Manfred  master  of  all  Apulia  and  Sicily.  Crowned 
king  of  Sicily  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1258.]  Manfred  excommunicated,  and  witli  him  several  prelates.  The 
pope's  legate  defeated  by  Eccelin,  and  taken  prisoner. 


did  not  even  spare  his  own  nephew,  but 
charging  him  with  cowardice,  ordered  him 
to  be  racked  to  death.' 

At  this  time  great  disturbances  reigned  in 
Rome.  Brancaleone,  a  native  of  Bologna, 
whom  the  Romans  had  chosen  for  their 
senator,  and  vested  with  an  absolute  power 
over  them,  declaring  for  Manfred,  and  pay- 
ing no  regard  either  to  the  commands  or  ex- 
communications of  the  pope,  either  im- 
prisoned or  put  to  death  all  who  opposed 
him,  banished  from  Rome  some  of  the  first 
nobility  with  their  families,  and  even  caused 
two  of  the  pope's  relations  to  be  publicly 
hanged.  Alexander  therefore  finding  his 
authority  both  spiritual  and  temporal  en- 
tirely disregarded,  thought  it  advisable  to 
leave  Rome  and  retire  to  Viterbo.  In  his 
absence  Brancaleone,  assisted  under-hand 
by  Manfred,  demolished  and  levelled  with 
the  ground  all  the  castles  that  belonged  to 
the  nobility  of  the  opposite  party  to  the 
number  of  one  hundred  and  fifty.^ 

A  treaty  had  been  concluded,  as  has  been 
related  above,  between  Manfred  and  cardi- 
nal Octavian  the  pope's  legate,  by  virtue  of 
which  the  province  of  Terra  Laboris  with 
the  city  of  Naples  was  to  be  yielded  to  the 
pope,  and  Manfred  was  to  hold  undisturbed 
all  the  other  provinces  Belonging  to  the 
crown  of  Sicily.  But  Alexander,  withdraw- 
ing from  Naples,  refused  to  confirm  the 
treaty,  declaring  it  unjust,  iniquitous,  and 
highly  prejudicial  to  the  interest  and  dignity 
of  the  apostolic  see.  Manfred  therefore  re- 
commencing hostilities,  drove  the  pope's 
troops  every  where  before  him,  made  him- 
self master  of  the  Terra  Laboris,  or  Terra 
di  Lavoro,  as  it  is  now  called,  and  the  city 
of  Naples  opening  its  gales  to  him,  he  now 
found  himself  in  the  quiet  possession  of  the 
whole  country.  From  Naples  he  crossed 
over  to  Sicily,  drove  from  thence  the  pope's 
legate  with  all  his  adherents,  and  upon  a 
false  report  of  the  death  of  Conradin,  who 
was  then  in  Germany,  caused  himself,  as 
the  next  heir  to  the  crown,  to  be  crowned 
in  Palermo  king  of  Sicily.  The  writers  of 
the  Guelf  faction  will  have  this  report  to 
have  been  spread  by  Manfred  himself,  who, 
they  say,  had  aspired  to  the  kingdom  ever 
since  the  death  of  his  father  Frederic ;  had 
poisoned  his  brother  Conrad,  and  attempted 
to  dispatch  in  the  same  manner  his  nephew 
Conradin.  However  that  be,  Manfred  was, 
upon  that  false  report,  acknowledged  by  all 
the  barons  and  prelates  of  the  kingdom,  and 
on  the  11th  of  August,  1258,  crowned  with 
great  solemnity  in  the  cathedral  of  Palermo .^ 

Alexander,  finding  he  was  not  able  to  op- 
pose Manfred  with  his  temporal  arras,  re- 
solved to  have  recourse  to  the  spiritual,  and 


»  Monach.  Paduan.  ad  ann.  1257,  et  Blondua.  Decad.  2. 
"  Nangius  in  Vit.  Sanct.  Ludovic. 
»  Raynald.  et  Anonym,  ad  ann.  1258. 


summoned  him  accordingly  to  appear,  in  a 
limited  time,  before  him,  and  answer  for  his 
usurping  a  kingdom  devolved  to  the  apos- 
tolic see,  and  causing  himself  to  be  crowned 
king  Avithout  his  knowledge  or  consent.  To 
that  summons  Manfred  paid  no  regard.  On 
the  contrary,  he  ordered  Ruffinus,  a  "  Mi- 
norite," the  pope's  confessor  and  legate  in 
Sicily,  to  be  closely  confined,  and  the  arch- 
bishop of  Brundusium,  concerned  in  the 
revolt  of  that  city,  to  be  loaded  with  chains, 
and  shut  up  in  a  dark  dungeon.  Alexander, 
provoked  beyond  measure  at  so  open  a  con- 
tempt of  his  authority,  declared  Manfred  a 
rebel  and  enemy  to  the  church,  a  sacrilegious 
usurper  of  the  rights  of  the  church,  deprived 
him  of  all  the  fiefs,  honors,  titles,  and  pre- 
rogatives that  he  ever  .had  enjoyed,  and  pro- 
nouncing, with  great  solemnity,  the  sen- 
tence of  excommunication  against  him,  an- 
nulled his  coronation,  unction,  and  all  tfie 
other  ceremonies,  used  on  that  occasion,  as 
impious  and  detestable.  At  the  same  time 
he  interdicted  all  the  cities,  castles,  villages, 
and  other  places,  that  should  receive  Man- 
fred, or  acknowledge  him  for  their  king, 
forbad  all  archbishops,  bishops,  abbots,  and 
other  ecclesiastical  persons,  to  perform  di- 
vine service  in  his  presence,  or  to  receive 
any  benefices  at  his  hands.  AH  the  prelates 
who  had  assisted  at  his  coronation  were 
summoned  to  Rome,  and,  upon  their  not 
complying  with  the  summons,  excommuni- 
cated and  deposed,  namely,  the  archbishops 
of  Salerno,  Taranto,  and  Monreale,  who  had 
placed  the  crown  upon  his  head ;  the  bishop 
of  Agrigento,  who  anointed  him,  and  cele- 
brated mass  on  that  occasion ;  and  the  abbot 
of  Monte  Cassino  for  being  present  at  the 
ceremony.'  I  do  not  find  that  any  the  least 
regard  was  paid,  either  by  Manfred  or  by 
any  of  these  prelates,  to  the  pope's  excom- 
munications and  anathemas. 

At  the  same  time  Alexander  received  the 
disagreeable  news  of  the  defeat  of  his  legate 
in  Lombardy.  Philip,  archbishop  elect  of 
Ravenna,  had  been  sent,  as  has  been  related 
above,  with  a  powerful  army,  to  oppose 
Eccelin,  and  recover  the  places  that  had 
been  obliged  to  submit  to  him,  and  renounce 
their  alliance  with  the  apostolic  see.  In  this 
expedition  the  legate  was,  at  first,  attended 
with  all  the  success  he  could  have  wished, 
made  himself  master  of  Padua,  Brescia,  and 
several  other  cities,  and  drove  Eccelin  out 
of  the  whole  province  of  Emilia.  But  be- 
ing pressed  by  his  men,  elate  with  their  suc- 
cess, to  offer  the  enemy  battle,  his  army  was 
almost  entirely  cut  off,  and  he  himself  made 
prisoner,  with  the  bishops  of  Brescia  and 
Verona,  and  many  other  persons  of  great 
distinction,  of  whom  some  were  put  to 
death,  and  others  confined  to  dark  dungeons. 


>  Anonym,  ad  ann.  125S. 


Urban  IV.] 


OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME, 


571 


Manfred  attempts  in  vain  a  reconciliation  with  the  pope; — [Year  of  Christ,  1259.]  Alexander  appoints  a 
council  to  meet  at  Viterbo  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1260.]  Alexander  dies;— [Year  of  Christ,  1261.]  Urban  IV. 
chosen.     His  birth,  education,  &c. 


The  legale  was  kept  in  prison,  in  defiance  of 
the  pope's  repeated  anathemas,  till  the  death 
of  Eccelin,who,  havingnovvnoeneray  to  op- 
pose hitn,  forced  all  the  Guelf  cities  in  Lom- 
bardy  to  renounce  their  alliance  with  the  apos- 
tolic see,  and  declare  for  him  and  Manfred.' 

Manfred,  desirous  of  being  acknowledged 
by  the  pope  king  of  Sicily,  sent  one  Cape- 
tius,  a  person  in  whom  he  placed  great  con- 
fidence, to  treat  with  his  holiness,  oflfering 
to  hold  the  kingdom  as  a  fief  of  the  apostolic 
see,  and  pay  yearly  double  the  tribute  thai 
had  been  paid  by  other  kings.  But  Alex- 
ander, insisting  upon  Manfred's  restoring  ail 
the  exiles  to  their  honors  and  estates,  which 
they  had  forfeited  by  their  adherence  to  the 
apostolic  see,  and  likewise  upon  his  dismiss- 
ing all  the  Saracens  who  served  under  him, 
and  were  indeed  the  flower  of  his  army,  the 
treaty  soon  broke  ofT,  Manfred  consenting 
to  recall  the  exiles,  but  refusing  to  discharge 
the  troops  that  had  served  him  so  faithfully 
in  all  his  wars.^ 

Asa  cruel  war  broke  out  at  this  time  be- 
tween the  Venetians  and  Genoese,  the  pope 
was  chiefly  employed  the  following  year  in 
composing  their  differences,  and  uniting  them 
against  the  common  enemy.  With  that 
view  he  appointed  a  council  to  meet  at  Vi- 
terbo, on  the  octave  of  the  apostles  St.  Peter 
and  St.  Paul,  that  is,  on  the  6th  of  July  ;  and 
leaving  Anagni,  where  he  then  was,  in  the 
beginning  of  the  year  1261,  he  repaired  to 
Viterboj   to   preside  at  the  council.     But, 


oveicome  with  grief  at  the  success  of  Man- 
fred, and  tlie  dissensions  of  the  Christian 
princes  among  themselves,  that  proved  so 
prejudicial  to  the  affairs  of  the  Christians  in 
the  East,  he  died  on  the  25ih  of  May  of  the 
present  year,  12G1,  having  governed  the 
church  six  years,  five  months,  and  thirteen 
days,  reckoning  from  the  time  of  his  elec- 
tion.' He  trod  in  the  footsteps  of  his  prede- 
cessor, pursued,  as  we  have  seen,  the  same 
plan  to  exclude  the  whole  race  of  Frederic 
irorn  the  imperial  crown,  as  well  as  from 
the  crown  of  Sicily.  In  other  respects  he  is 
commended  by  most  of  the  contemporary 
writers,  even  by  Matthew  Paris,  though  no 
friend  to  the  popes,  for  his  charity  to  the 
poor,  for  his  virtue  and  learning.  It  is  ob- 
servable of  this  pope,  that  he  created  not  a 
single  cardinal  during  the  whole  term  of  his 
pontificate,  lest,  by  increasing  their  number, 
says  the  monk  of  Padua,  who  wrote  at  this 
time,  he  should  increase  the  dissensions  that 
reigned  among  them.2  We  have  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty-four  letters  written  by  this 
pope,  in  favor  of  the  friars  "  Minorites," 
and  six  to  Saint  Lewis,  king  of  France,  for- 
bidding the  royal  chapels,  and  his  domi- 
nions, or  any  part  of  his  dominions,  to  be 
put  under  an  interdict,  without  an  express 
order  of  the  apostolic  see,  allowing  the  king 
to  imprison  clerks  when  guilty  of  any  enor- 
mous crime,  and  depriving  all  among  them 
who  merchandised  or  followed  any  trade,  of 
all  the  privileges  of  their  order.^ 


URBAN  IV.,  THE  HUNDRED  AND  SEVENTY-NINTH  BISHOP 

OF  ROME. 

[Michael  Pal.«:ologus,  Emperor  of  the  East. — Richard,  Earl  of  Cornwall,  Alphonsus, 
King  of  Castile,  Kings  of  the  Romans.'] 


[Year  of  Christ,  1261.]  At  the  death 
of  Alexander  the  college  of  cardinals  con- 
sisted of  eight  only.  Yet  they  could  not 
agree  in  electing  one  of  their  own  body; 
but  after  warm  disputes  from  the  26lh  of 
May  to  the  29ih  of  August,  were  obliged 
to  choose  John,  patriarch  of  Jerusalem, 
come  to  Viierbo  about  some  affairs  of  his 
church  ;  and  him  they  chose  with  one  con- 
sent, on  the  29th  of  August  of  the  present 
year.  He  was  a  native  of  Troyes  in  Cham- 
pagtie,  the  son  of  a  cobler  named  Pantaleon  ; 
which  he  was  not  at  all  ashamed  of;  but, 
when  reproached  with  the  meanness  of  his 
birth,  used  to  answer,  that  no  man  was 
born  noble,  but  was  nobilitated  only  by  his 
virtue.     He  studied  at  Paris,  and  being  ho- 

'  Monachus  Paduan.  lib.  2. 

'  Summoniius  in  Hist.  Neapolitan.  lib.  2. 


nored  by  that  university  with  the  degree  of 
doctor  of  canon  law,  he  was  created  arch- 
deacon of  Liege,  and  sent  by  innocent  IV. 
with  ihe  character  of  his  legate  into  Poland. 
On  his  return  from  thence  he  was  preferred 
to  the  see  of  Verdun,  and  in  the  first  year  of 
the  pontificate  of  Alexander  made  patriarch 
of  Jerusalem,  and  legate  of  the  apostolic  see 
to  the  Christian  army  in  the  East.  At  his 
consecration  he  took  the  name  of  Urban, 
because  his  predecessor  died  on  the  festival 
of  the  martyr  St.  Urban.*  He  was  conse- 
crated and  crowned  the  first  Sunday  after 
his  election,  that  is,  on  the  4th  of  September. 


•  Storo   in  Anna).   Nangius,   Ptolenia;us    Lucensis, 
Martinns,  Polenus,  &c. 

^  Moiiach  Puduan  Chron.  1.  5. 
'  Dachtr.  Spicileg.  torn.  6. 

*  Rainald.  adann.  1261.    Panvinius,  Polonus.  Longi- 
nus  in  Hist.  Polonite,  Massonus  in  Vitis  Pontitic. 


673 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES, 


[Urban  IV. 


Urban  creates  several  cardinals.  A  crusade  against  Manfred.  Urban  obliged  to  retire  from  Rome.  Forbids 
the  electors  to  choose  Conradin  king  of  the  Romans  ;— [Year  of  Christ,  1262.]  Excommunicates  Manfred  ;— 
[Year  of  Christ,  1263.]  Manfred's  daughter  married  to  the  king  of  Arragon's  eldest  son.  Negotition  be- 
tween Manfred  and  the  pope  begun,  and  broken  off. 


Urban  wrote  the  day  after  his  coronation, 
that  is,  on  the  5th  of  September,  to  all  the 
Christian  princes  as  well  as  bishops,  to  ac- 
quaint them  with  his  promotion;  and  in 
that  he  wrote  to  Lewis,  king  of  France,  he 
granted  both  to  him  and  his  son  Philip  an 
indulgence  of  a  year  and  forty  days  as  often 
as  they  should  assist  at  the  dedication  of  any 
church  or  chapel.'  By  the  same  letter  he 
granted  indulgences  to  all  who  should  pray 
lor  the  king  and  kingdom  of  France.  As  the 
cardinals  were  reduced  to  a  very  small  num- 
ber, being  in  all  but  eight,  Urban,  in  the 
month  of  December  of  the  present  year, 
created  seven  new  ones,  and,  in  the  month 
of  Mav  of  the  following  year,  1262,  seven 
more;  so  that  the  sacred  college  now  con- 
sisted of  twenty-two  cardinals,  all  chosen 
men,  as  the  contemporary  writers  tell  us, 
men  who  had  distinguished  themselves  by 
iheir  prudence,  learning,  and  exemplary 
lives. 

Urban's  next  care  was  to  drive  out  Man- 
fred, and  subject  the  kingdom  of  Sicily  to 
the  apostolic  see.  With  that  view  he  sum- 
moned him  to  Rome,  and  upon  his  refusing 
to  obey  the  summons,  he  first  excommuni- 
cated him,  as  an  usurper  and  an  enemy  to 
the  church,  and  then  caused  a  crusade  to  be 
preached  every  where  against  him.  A  very 
numerous  army  being  thus  raised,  Man- 
fred's army  was  obliged  to  withdraw  from 
the  duchy  of  Spoleti  which  they  had  seized, 
and  likewise  to  abandon  all  Campania,  Man- 
fred not  choosing  to  come  to  an  engagement 
with  an  army  so  vastly  superior  to  his.  But 
in  the  mean  time  new  disturbances  being 
raised  by  his  friends  in  Rome,  Urban  thought 
it  advisable  to  recall  his  army  to  his  own 
defence,  and  the  defence  of  the  city.  But 
the  neighboring  country  being  every  where 
laid  waste  by  the  rebellious  Romans,  the 
pope's  army,  for  want  of  subsistence,  by 
degrees  mouldered  away;  insomuch  that  the 
pope,  thinking  himself  no  longer  safe  in 
Rome,  left  that  city,  and  retired  to  Orvieto, 
about  fifty  miles  distant,  where  he  resided 
with  the  cardinals  almost  the  whole  time  of 
his  pontificate.'^ 

As  Germany  was  at  this  time  involved  in 
a  most  bloody  war,  some  supporting  the 
king  of  Castile  and  others  the  earl  of  Corn- 
wall, several  of  the  German  princes,  to  re- 
deem their  country  from  the  calamities 
which  it  groaned  under,  were  for  excluding 
both  competitors,  and  choosing  Conradin, 
who,  they  thought,  had  a  better  right  than 
either.  Of  this  Urban  was  no  sooner  inform- 
ed, than,  renewing  the  prohibition  of  his 
predecessor,  he  wrote  to  all  the  electors,  for- 
bidding them,  on  pain  of  excommunication, 
to  elect  or  suffer,  at  any  time,  one  to  be 

'  Dacher.  torn.  5.  p.  418. 

»  Summontius  in  Hist.  Neopolitana,  I.  2. 


elected,  who  they  had  reason  to  believe  would 
tread  in  the  footsteps  of  his  father  and  grand- 
father, and  prove  as  bitter  an  enemy  to  the 
church  as  either.' 

Urban  thinking  himself  safe  at  Orvieto, 
sent  from  thence  a  summons  to  Manfred, 
ordering  him,  on  pain  of  excommunication, 
to  appear  before  him  in  a  limited  time,  and 
purge  himself  from  the  many  enormous 
crimes  which  he  was  charged  with.  The 
crimes  laid  in  that  summons  to  his  charge 
were,  that  though  he  had  acknowledged 
pope  Innocent  for  the  lawful  lord  of  the  king- 
dom of  Sicily,  and  even  taken  the  usual  oath 
of  allegiance  to  him  and  his  successors,  he 
afterwards  revolted  from  him,  and  with  the 
assistance  of  the  Saracens  seized  on  the 
kingdom  for  himself;  that  he  had  imprison- 
ed and  cruelly  murdered,  or  caused  to  be 
murdered,  several  barons,  for  no  other  crirhe 
but  their  steady  adherence  to  the  apostolic 
see ;  that  having  spread,  or  caused  to  be 
spread,  a  false  report  of  Conradin's  death, 
he  had,  to  the  disgrace  of  the  royal  dignity, 
assumed  the  title  of  king ;  that  he  had  driven 
from  their  churches,  had  imprisoned  and 
sent  into  exile,  many  prelates,  and  appropri- 
ated the  revenues  of  their  churches  to  him- 
self; that,  paying  no  regard  to  the  authority 
of  the  apostolic  see,  he  caused  Divine  ser- 
vice to  be  performed  in  his  presence  and  in 
places  under  an  interdict.  Sec. 

As  Manfred  took  no  notice  of  that  sum- 
mons, but,  on  the  contrary  proceeded  with 
more  rigor  than  ever  against  all,  without 
distinction,  who  favored,  or  were  suspected 
to  favor  the  pope,  Urban,  with  great  solem- 
nity, excommunicated  him  as  a  tyrant,  a 
heretic,  and  an  enemy  to  the  church.^  This 
sentence,  however,  did  not  divert  James, 
king  of  Arragon,  from  hearkening  to  a  pro- 
posal of  marriage  between  his  eldest  son  and 
Constantia,  the  daughter  of  Manfred  by 
Beatrix,  daughter  of  Amadeus  III.,  earl  of 
Savoy.  Urban  did  all  in  his  power  to  dis- 
suade the  king  from  such  an  alliance ;  but 
the  nuptials  were  nevertheless  celebrated 
with  great  solemnity,  the  king  flattering 
himself,  that  as  Manfred  had  no  male  issue, 
the  kingdom  of  Sicily  might  by  such  a  mar- 
riage devolve  one  day  to  the  crown  of  Ar- 
ragon. 

The  king,  desirous  of  bringing  about  a  re- 
conciliation between  the  pope  and  Manfred, 
sent  Raymund  Pennafort,  a  man  held  in 
great  esteem  for  the  sanctity  of  his  life  and 
his  learning,  to  know  upon  what  terms  his 
holiness  would  receive  Manfred  into  favor. 
As  the  pope  insisted  upon  Manfred's  ap- 
pearing before  him,  and  clearing  himself 
from  the  crimes  specified  in  his  summons, 
the  king  prevailed,  in  the  end,  upon  Man- 
fred to  send  embassadors  to  acquaint  his  ho- 

»  Rainald.  Num.  45.      ^  Summontius  ibid.  Anonym. 


Urban  IV.] OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME. 573 

Urban  endeavors  to  put  an  end  to  the  war  in  Germany.  He  resolves  to  bestow  the  kiiiRdom  of  Sicily  upon 
some  other  prince.  The  kingdom  of  Sicily  offered  by  the  pope  to  Charles  of  Anjou,  who  accepts  the  offer ; 
[Year  of  Christ,  1264.]  


liness  that  he  was  ready  to  comply  with  his 
summons,  provided  he  was  allowed  to  come 
attended  with  such  a  force  as  might  secure 
him  against  any  attempts  of  his  enemies. — 
The  pope  would  not  consent  to  his  entering 
the  territories  of  the  church  with  more  than 
eight  hundred  men,  and  even  of  them  one 
hundred  only  were  to  be  armed.  This  Man- 
fred would  not  agree  to,  and  thus  was  the 
negotiation  broken  off  almost  as  soon  as  be- 
gun.' 

As  the  war  between  the  two  competitors 
for  the  empire  was  carried  on  with  a  great 
deal  of  bloodshed  on  both  sides,  to  the  utter 
ruin  of  that  unhappy  country.  Urban  wrote 
to  both  princes,  exhorting  them  to  submit 
their  pretensions  to  the  judgment  of  the 
apostolic  see;  which,  he  says,  they  had 
formerly  declined,  but  now  seemed  disposed 
to  acquiesce  in.  He  therefore  summoned 
them  to  appear,  by  their  deputies,  at  his  tri- 
bunal, on  the  2d  of  May  of  the  following 
year,  1264,  and  have  their  cause  there  final- 
ly determined.  In  that  letter,  dated  at  Or- 
vieto,  the  last  day  of  September  1263,  the 
pope  bestows  upon  both  princes  the  title  of 
"  king  of  the  Romans  elect;"  and  orders  it 
to  be  by  all-  given  to  both  till  the  apostolic 
see  had  determined  which  of  the  two  had  the 
better  right  to  it.^  At  the  appointed  lime 
Alphonsus  sent  his  deputies  to  plead  his 
cause  for  him.  But  Richard  begging  that 
the  trial  might  be  put  off  to  a  further  term, 
on  account  of  the  troubles  that  then  prevail- 
ed in  England,  the  pope  put  it  off  according- 
ly to  the  second  of  May  of  the  following 
year,  but  died  before  that  time. 

Innocent  IV.  had  granted  the  kingdom  of 
Sicily  to  Edmund,  the  second  son  of  Henry 
III.,  king  of  England,  as  has  been  related 
above.  That  grant  Alexander  IV.,  the  suc- 
cessor of  Innocent,  confirmed,  and  on  the 
6th  of  November,  1259,  the  young  prince 
received  the  investiture,  by  a  ring,  at  the 
hands  of  the  pope's  legate,  sent  for  that  pur- 
pose to  England.  But  the  king  not  being 
able  to  raise  the  necessary  money  for  such 
an  undertaking,  and  disturbances  ensuing, 
occasioned  chiefly  by  his  monstrous  extor- 
tions for  the  relief,  as  he  pretended,  of  the 
Holy  Land,  the  pope  resolved  to  apply  to 
some  other  prince.  Having  therefore  as- 
sembled the  cardinals,  he  put  them  in  mind 
of  the  many  injuries  done  to  the  church  by 
Frederic,  and  his  sons  Conrad  and  Manfred  ; 
represented  it  as  absolutely  necessary  for  the 
welfare  of  the  church,  as  well  as  the  safety 
of  their  own  persons,  to  extirpate  that  im- 
pious and  accursed  race,  and  pathetically 
exhorting  them  to  deliver  the  church  from 
the  tyranny  it  had  groaned  under  for  the 
space  of  fifty  years  and  upwards;  told  them 
that  they  could  by  no  other  means  attain  so 
Viappy  an  end  than  by  bestowing  the  king- 


<  Rainuld.  ad  ann.  1203. 


'>  Idem  ibid. 


dom  of  Sicily,  devolved  to  the  apostolic  see, 
upon  some  brave  and  powerful  prince,  who 
should,  at  his  own  expense,  drive  out  the 
perfidious  tyrant,  and  restore  the  oppressed 
people  to  their  ancient  liberty.  He  added, 
that  if  the  cruel  tyrant  pursued  his  wicked 
undertakings  against  the  church  and  them 
with  the  same  success  as  had  hitherto  at- 
tended him,  they  would  all,  ere  it  was  long, 
be  put  in  chains  and  confined  in  dungeons.' 

The  kingdom  had  been  offered  to  Charles 
of  Anjou  by  Innocent,  in  1253,  but  he  had 
been  persuaded  by  his  friends  to  reject  the 
offer,  as  has  been  said  in  the  life  of  that 
pope.  However,  as  he  had  distinguished 
himself  in  the  war  with  the  infidels  in  the 
East  under  the  banners  of  his  brother  king 
Lewis  IX.,  and  was  possessed  of  great 
wealth,  being  by  right  of  his  wife  lord  of  all 
Provence,  Languedoc,  and  great  part  of 
Piedmont,  the  pope  and  cardinals  resolved 
to  make  him  a  new  tender  of  the  kingdom. 
They  therefore  despatched,  without  delay, 
Bartholomew  Pignatelli,  archbishop  of  Co- 
senza,  into  France,  to  acquaint  Charles 
with  the  resolution  of  the  pope  and  the 
whole  college  of  cardinals,  ready  to  assist 
him  to  the  utmost  of  their  power,  though  he 
would  scarce  stand  in  need  of  their  assist- 
ance, the  people  being  every  where  disposed 
to  shake  off  the  yoke  they  groaned  under, 
and  join  the  first  that  should  undertake  to 
redeem  them  from  their  present  bondage. 
At  the  same  time  another  legate  was  sent 
into  England ;  and  his  commission  was  to 
get  the  king  and  his  son  Edmund  to  re- 
nounce the  right  they  might  claim  to  the 
crown,  of  Sicily,  by  virtue  of  the  investiture 
granted  to  the  young  prince  by  Alexander. 
This  the  legate  easily  obtained,  the  king 
having  too  much  business  upon  his  hands 
at  home  to  think  of  any  foreign  conquests. 
As  for  Charles,  he  considered  the  difficulty 
of  the  undertaking;  and  as  he  knew  that 
Manfred,  whom  he  was  to  drive  out,  had 
distinguished  himself  on  many  occasions  by 
his  courage  and  military  knowledge,  he  was 
for  some  time  at  a  loss  whether  he  should 
accept  or  reject  the  offer;  the  rather,  as  the 
king  his  brother  had  always  been  averse  to 
his  engaging  in  so  chargeable  an  undertak- 
ing, when  the  issue  was  so  very  uncertain, 
and  he  might,  instead  of  acquiring  new  do- 
minions, lose  or  ruin  his  own.  However 
he  was,  in  the  end,  prevailed  upon  to  accept 
the  offer,  in  a  great  measure,  as  we  are  told, 
by  his  wife  Beatrix,  who,  not  able  to  brook 
her  being  only  a  countess  while  her  three 
sisters  were  queens,  the  one  of  France,  the 
other  of  England,  and  the  third  of  Germany, 
joined  the  legate,  and  jointly  with  him  got 
even  the  king  to  consent  to  his  brother's  ac- 
cepting the  invitation.^ 

While  the  legate  was  returning  to  Italy  to 


'  Anonym,  ad  ann.  1263. 


>  Idem,  1264. 


574 


HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES,  OR  BISHOPS  OF  ROME.     [Urban  IV. 


Urban  dies.    The  festival  of  Corpus  Christi  instituted  by  bim. 


acquaint  the  pope  with  the  success  of  his 
negotiations^  he  received  on  the  road  the 
news  of  his  death,  which  happened  on  the 
2d  of  Octoher  of  the  present  year  1264,  when 
he  had  governed  the  church  three  years  one 
month  and  four  days.  He  died  at  Perugia, 
to  which  city  he  had  but  a  little  before  re- 
moved from  Orvieto,  and  was  buried  there 
in  the  cathedral.  The  Guelf  writers  all 
speak  of  Urban  as  a  saint,  and  he  was  in 
some  places  honored,  soon  after  his  death, 
as  a  saint.  But  the  inveterate  hatred  he 
bore  not  only  to  Manfred,  but  to  Conradin, 
who  had  never  given  him  the  least  provoca- 
tion, is,  one  would  think,  no  proof  of  an  ex- 
traordinary sanctity.  He  instituted  the  fes- 
tival of  Corpus  Christi  on  the  following 
occasion,  as  we  read  in  St.  Antoninus,  arch- 
bishop of  Florence.  A  priest  having  spilt 
at  mass  some  of  the  consecrated  wine,  it 
appeared  upon  the  corporale  (that  is,  upon 
the  piece  of  linen  on  which  the  chalice  and 
host  are  placed  by  the  officiating  priest)  like 
so  many  drops  of  blood.'    But  Diestemius, 


prior  of  the  Benedictines  at  Liege,  tells  us, 
that  the  priest  being  staggered  in  his  belief 
of  the  real  presence,  blood  flowed  from  the 
host  into  the  chalice  and  upon  the  corpo- 
rale.i  The  corporale  being  brought  bloody, 
as  it  was,  from  Bolsena,  where  the  miracle 
was  supposed  to  have  happened,  to  Orvieto, 
the  pope,  after  examining  the  priest  and  all 
who  were  present,  was  convinced  of  the 
miracle,  and  thereupon  appointed  the  so- 
lemnity of  Corpus  Christi  to  be  annually 
celebrated.  The  people  of  Orvieto,  to  pre- 
serve the  memory  of  so  stupendous  a  mira- 
cle, built  afterwards  a  most  magnificent 
church,  of  which  the  first  stone  was  laid  by 
pope  Nicholas  IV.  in  1290.  Urban  built 
and  richly  endowed  a  church  at  Troyes,  his 
native  city,  in  honor  of  St.  Urban,  the  first 
pope  of  that  name,  repaired  many  others, 
paid  some  of  the  debts  contracted  by  his 
predecessors,  and  is  said  to  have  been  very 
generous  to  the  poor.  We  have  several 
letters  of  this  pope,  but  none  very  inte- 
resting. 


» Antonin.  part.  3. 1. 39.  c.  23. 


<  Diest.  Commen.  ad  ann.  1496. 


END  OF  VOLUME  IL 


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